Magento is an e-commerce platform that enables the development of professional online shop solutions. The open-source system was released in 2008 and was acquired by eBay three years later. In 2015, the conglomerate sold the ownership rights to the British private equity firm Permira. Since 2018, Magento has been part of Adobe, which has continued its development under the names ‘Magento Open Source’ and ‘Adobe Commerce’.

Key Takeaways

  • Magento is an open-source e-commerce platform that has been part of Adobe since 2018 and is developed as ‘Magento Open Source’ and ‘Adobe Commerce’.
  • Unlike a CMS with shop add-ons, it was built for e-commerce from the start: SEO, marketing, catalogue management, one-page checkout, multiple currencies and mobile commerce are included as standard.
  • This power comes with complexity: beginners need time to get started, and the hardware requirements are higher than for many other shop systems.
  • Templates change only the design of your store, while extensions add functions such as payment methods. Both are available, for example, in the Magento Marketplace.
  • Magento Open Source is free but needs your own hosting and technical expertise. Adobe Commerce is the licensed enterprise edition with B2B features, AI-powered personalisation and cloud options.
  • Costs and effort are high, so Magento pays off mainly if you have the budget and the technical know-how (or a specialised agency) to run it.

Magento Inc. no longer operates as an independent development company. Today, all technical development and product maintenance are fully managed by the Adobe Commerce Engineering Team. Since large portions of the Magento codebase are licensed under the Open Software License (OSL 3.0) and the Academic Free License (AFL 3.0), they remain freely accessible—enabling a vibrant ecosystem of community-developed extensions and Magento templates.

Modern Magento versions have significantly higher system requirements than older releases. They are no longer based on the previously dominant Zend Framework, but instead use the Laminas Framework as well as numerous Symfony components.

What makes Magento different? Key features explained

Magento is not a traditional content management system with added shop functionality. Instead, it was designed from the ground up as a dedicated e-commerce solution—and this focus is clearly reflected in its feature set.

While Magento shares some core characteristics with a CMS, such as a modular architecture and straightforward extensibility, its primary purpose is not the management of general website content. Rather, the platform is firmly centred on building and operating online stores. As a result, many functions related to marketing, product and customer management, or payment methods—which often need to be added later in comparable shop systems—are included as standard. It is therefore no coincidence that Magento itself is described by the manufacturer as an out-of-the-box solution for online stores.

These are the most important features of the Magento e-commerce platform:

  • Search engine optimisation: SEO is an important topic for online stores, which is why Magento includes numerous Magento features to help your store achieve an excellent search engine ranking. For example, the system automatically generates search engine-friendly URLs and sitemaps (a hierarchically structured overview of all pages in your store) as well as statistics on the most common search terms that brought customers to your store. You can also easily define meta information for all product, category, and content pages. Via Google’s Merchant API (the successor to the Content API for Shopping), your online store’s products can be listed in Google Shopping search results. In recent versions, performance optimisation and improved indexing capabilities have also become a stronger focus.
  • Marketing and customer retention: Marketing a Magento online store is straightforward thanks to a wide range of built-in tools. For example, you can create and export flexible coupons and coupon codes for different types of campaigns, such as newsletters or print promotions. Magento also lets you tag related products and display recently viewed items to encourage additional purchases. In addition, customers can recommend products or share wish lists with friends and family. A built-in cross-device shopping basket helps increase conversion rates by allowing shoppers to seamlessly continue their purchase journey across multiple devices.
  • Catalogue and product management: One of the standout features of the Magento e-commerce platform is the wide range of options for structuring and managing your catalogue, including individual products. For example, you can configure product categories individually or add filters by price or price range. Magento also includes a search function with autocomplete, as well as tagging and commenting features. Products in your catalogue can be enriched with multiple images, stock level information, or tiered pricing. Additional functions such as image zoom and social sharing options, for example via Facebook, make product pages more interactive and engaging for customers.
  • Checkout and payment methods: Magento also gives you the option to offer a one-page checkout, allowing the entire payment process to be completed on a single page. You can choose whether customers are required to register or can check out as guests. To secure the ordering process, Magento supports SSL certificates for both the frontend and backend. Customers can save their shopping baskets and view shipping costs and taxes in advance. Standard payment options include bank transfer, direct debit authorisation, credit cards, and PayPal. Additional payment methods can be added at any time through extensions.
  • Internationalisation: Thanks to support for international currencies and tax rates, as well as multilingual content and right-to-left scripts, Magento makes it easy to sell products worldwide. Product and category descriptions can be created and displayed in multiple languages to reach customers in different markets. If, for logistical or legal reasons, you want to limit sales to specific countries or regions, Magento lets you define target markets by restricting allowed billing addresses or controlling who can create an account in your store—unless guest checkout is enabled.
  • Mobile commerce: Selling via smartphone also works through Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) and not only through native apps for iOS/Android. The official ‘PWA Studio’ from Magento or Adobe Commerce is still being actively developed and optimised for mobile devices. This way, customers can shop in your store while on the go.

Magento combines advanced features with user convenience

The features outlined above highlight why Magento is such a popular e-commerce platform. At the same time, they also make clear just how complex the open-source software can be. For this reason, it may be worth considering alternatives to Magento.

Complexity and requirements

While experienced CMS users will feel at home working with Magento, newcomers may initially encounter a steeper learning curve—a common characteristic of open-source software, where functionality takes priority and usability plays a secondary role. Magento can therefore be considered an out-of-the-box solution for online stores, provided you have sufficient experience with comparable systems and the time needed to become familiar with the platform. Only then can you fully leverage its extensive feature set and reliably maintain your Magento online store over the long term.

Modernisation and performance

With Magento 2, complexity has increased further due to the introduction of modern architectural components. In return, the platform delivers higher performance and improved security features. This added complexity also impacts hardware requirements, which is why Magento is considered one of the more costly options among e-commerce platforms.

Benefits for user convenience

In return, the popular Magento software also offers numerous advantages, especially when it comes to user convenience. Through a central admin panel, you can manage multiple stores and assign individual user roles and permissions.

Full control over orders and reports

Magento also gives you full visibility into customer activity at all times. For example, the platform provides detailed reports on revenue, product reviews, most viewed or best-selling products, coupon code usage, and more. In addition, the open-source system supports efficient order processing by allowing you to review and edit incoming orders, generate and print invoices, and set up automated email notifications for order updates.

Magento templates and extensions

Extensibility is one of Magento’s greatest strengths. Thanks to its open-source codebase and modular architecture, thousands of extensions have been developed since the platform was released. A key distinction is made between Magento templates—commonly referred to as ‘Magento themes’—and Magento extensions. Magento extensions provide classic platform enhancements, such as additional payment methods or age verification features. Magento templates, by contrast, are independent of core functionality and affect only the store’s design. They give you far greater flexibility when it comes to shaping the structure and visual appearance of your online store.

Useful extensions and themes for the current Magento version are available, for example, in the official Magento Marketplace. New extensions are often offered via the Marketplace and GitHub (for open source).

Magento Open Source or Adobe Commerce?

On the manufacturer’s website, Magento is offered in two different versions:

  • Magento Open Source (formerly Community Edition) is a free, open-source version that provides core features for small to mid-sized online retailers. It offers a high level of flexibility and customisation through direct access to the source code. However, it requires your own hosting as well as technical expertise to handle maintenance, security updates, and performance optimisation. Magento Open Source is best suited for businesses with in-house development resources or those working with specialised agencies.
  • Adobe Commerce (formerly Enterprise Edition) is the licensed, enterprise-level version built on Magento Open Source and includes a wide range of additional features. These include native B2B functionality, advanced marketing and analytics tools, business intelligence capabilities, enhanced scalability and security, and professional support from Adobe. The platform also integrates seamlessly with other Adobe solutions such as Adobe Experience Manager and Adobe Sensei, enabling AI-powered personalisation and optimised customer experiences. For businesses that prefer not to manage their own infrastructure, Adobe Commerce is also available through various cloud-based hosting options.

In summary, the editions are suitable depending on company size and complexity requirements:

  • Magento Open Source for small to mid-sized retailers looking for flexibility and cost efficiency, but who have the necessary technical know-how.
  • Adobe Commerce for companies with higher demands for scalability, features, and support.

Because the Magento core does not automatically cover all legal and regulatory requirements in the Republic of Ireland, the community and third-party providers have developed a range of solutions to help merchants meet key Irish and EU compliance obligations. These typically address areas such as VAT calculation and reporting under Irish tax rules, consumer protection requirements in line with Irish and EU consumer law, privacy and cookie compliance under the GDPR and the EU ePrivacy Directive (as implemented in Ireland), as well as integration with PCI DSS–compliant payment service providers.

For current Magento 2 installations, merchants in Ireland commonly rely on extensions and integrations for VAT automation, consent and cookie management, and data protection compliance. In addition, trust-building features such as security seals, customer reviews, and ratings modules are frequently used to improve transparency and credibility. While these add-ons help support compliance with applicable Irish and EU regulations, they do not replace the need for professional legal advice tailored to the specific business model.

Magento as a long-term e-commerce solution

A Magento online store can be a strong option for both newcomers to e-commerce and experienced store operators. Supported by a highly active community and comprehensive solutions from the vendor for businesses of all sizes, the open-source platform makes full use of its modular software architecture. With a wide range of extensions and modern, AI-driven features such as product recommendations and personalisation, Magento is well suited to today’s e-commerce demands.

That said, this flexibility comes with added complexity. Both the cost and the effort required to build and maintain a Magento store tend to be higher than average. If you have the necessary budget and can accommodate a longer learning curve, Magento is a powerful and future-ready choice for your online business.

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