Platform architecture: what you are actually choosing between
Shopify and Magento are fundamentally different types of software. Understanding that difference is more useful than any feature-by-feature list.
Shopify is a managed SaaS platform. You pay a monthly subscription and Shopify handles hosting, CDN delivery, security patching, PCI compliance, automatic scaling and uptime. You never touch a server. You never apply a patch. For most brands, this removes a significant operational burden and is the right trade-off. The cost is architectural constraint: Shopify determines the data model, the URL structure, the checkout flow, the variant limits and what third-party code can do within the platform.
Magento is an open-source PHP framework that you host yourself. The database schema, checkout logic, URL structure, integration architecture and pricing engine are entirely under your control. You can query the database directly, build custom modules, modify core behaviour and integrate with any system on any terms. That flexibility comes with full responsibility: deployments, server infrastructure, security patches and ongoing maintenance are yours to manage.
For the vast majority of ecommerce businesses, Shopify's constraints are invisible. They never hit the variant limit, they never need to restructure the checkout codebase, and the managed infrastructure is a genuine relief. For a meaningful minority, those constraints become expensive blockers. Getting this assessment right at the start of a project matters far more than any individual feature comparison.
Performance in 2026: the comparison most articles get wrong
Most Magento vs Shopify comparisons cite performance as a Shopify advantage. In 2026, that is outdated. The performance argument applies to Luma, Magento's default frontend theme, which ships RequireJS, KnockoutJS and hundreds of kilobytes of legacy JavaScript to every visitor before a single product loads. Lighthouse scores of 20 to 40 on mobile are typical for Luma-based stores. Core Web Vitals fail consistently. This is the Magento that most comparison articles still evaluate.
Hyvä replaces the entire Magento frontend. Tailwind CSS replaces the legacy stylesheet. Alpine.js replaces KnockoutJS and RequireJS. The JavaScript payload drops by around 80%. Our Hyvä builds consistently score 90 or above on mobile Lighthouse and pass Core Web Vitals across all key templates, not just the homepage. Standard Shopify stores typically score in the 65 to 80 range on mobile Lighthouse. With Hyvä, the performance gap has reversed.
If you are on an agency call and they are using Magento's performance as an argument for Shopify, ask them specifically about Hyvä. If they do not have a clear answer, you have learned something important about their Magento capability.
Head to head: the things that actually matter
 Shopify |  Magento + Hyvä | |
|---|---|---|
| Platform fee | £39–£2,300+/month | £0 (open source) |
| Hosting | Managed, included | Self-hosted (£2k–£8k/yr) |
| Transaction fees | 0% with Shopify Payments; 0.6–2% with third-party gateways | None. Use any gateway. |
| Product variants | 2,048 per product (hard limit) | Unlimited |
| URL structure | Fixed /products/ /collections/ prefixes | Full control |
| Checkout | Extensible via Shopify Functions (Plus only) | Full codebase ownership |
| B2B module | Native (Plus only) | Native (all plans) |
| App/extension library | 13,000+ apps | ~3,700 extensions |
| Developer required | Optional | Required |
| Setup to launch | Weeks | Months |
| Mobile Lighthouse | 65–80 (typical) | 90+ (with Hyvä) |
| Open source | No | Yes |
| Multi-store | Separate installs; Shopify Markets for localisation | Single install, multiple storefronts |
| PCI compliance | Managed by Shopify | Merchant responsibility |
Shopify pricing shown in approximate GBP. Magento figures reflect Magento Open Source. Adobe Commerce licence costs are additional.
The real cost picture for UK businesses
Most cost comparisons use US figures and understate where the break-even point lies. "Magento is free" and "Shopify is cheap" are both misleading framings. Here is a more useful picture based on what we quote and what we see in the market.
For new build costs, a bespoke Shopify store starts from around £15,000 + VAT. Shopify Plus builds start from £25,000 + VAT. A bespoke Magento 2 build with Hyvä starts from £40,000 + VAT, reflecting the additional infrastructure complexity and the frontend build involved.
For ongoing annual costs, the picture shifts based on business scale:
| Business scale | Shopify (annual all-in) | Magento (annual all-in) |
|---|---|---|
| SMB (under £500k GMV) | £8k–£25k/yr | £25k–£60k/yr |
| Mid-market (£500k–£5m GMV) | £25k–£60k/yr | £50k–£120k/yr |
| Enterprise (£5m+ GMV) | £60k–£150k+/yr | £80k–£250k+/yr |
Figures include platform fees, hosting, development retainer and maintenance. Actual costs vary by scope and complexity.
Shopify is almost always cheaper at low and mid GMV. Its managed infrastructure and faster development cycles outweigh the subscription cost when catalogue and integration requirements are straightforward. The crossover happens when GMV grows, transaction fees compound and development velocity starts to matter less than platform control.
One cost that regularly gets missed: if your payment requirements prevent you from using Shopify Payments and you use a third-party gateway instead (Stripe directly, Worldpay, Opayo or a custom acquirer), Shopify charges an additional 0.6% to 2% on every transaction depending on your plan. On £5 million annual GMV on Shopify Advanced, that is up to £100,000 per year in additional platform fees, before any development costs.
Where Shopify stops being the right answer
Shopify suits the vast majority of ecommerce businesses. But there are genuine scenarios where its constraints become real blockers, not theoretical ones. These are the situations we see in practice.
Complex catalogue architecture
Shopify has a hard limit of 2,048 variants per product listing. For stores with highly configurable products, that ceiling is real. Large trade catalogues with multi-level product configurations, custom attribute sets per category or complex variant hierarchies do not map cleanly onto Shopify's product model. Magento's catalogue architecture handles this natively.
ERP-driven pricing
Customer-specific pricing dynamically generated from an external ERP, tiered rules based on account type or volume, or complex trade pricing that changes per-order based on external data cannot be reliably replicated through Shopify's native price list model. Magento lets you hook directly into the pricing engine. Shopify requires middleware layers that add cost and complexity.
Deep ERP or OMS integration
Where the integration requires real-time two-way sync and Shopify's data model does not map cleanly to your backend systems, you will spend significant budget building and maintaining middleware. Magento's open database schema and module architecture give developers direct control over how data flows in and out, which typically makes these integrations cleaner and cheaper to build.
Multi-store with shared inventory
Shopify Markets handles localisation (language, currency, regional pricing) reasonably well. Complex multi-brand or multi-storefront setups with shared inventory, separate checkout experiences and distinct B2B and DTC stores on one platform still work better on a single Magento installation.
Checkout ownership
Shopify's Checkout Extensibility (Plus only) gives meaningful flexibility, but you operate within Shopify's checkout framework. You cannot replace the checkout codebase. On Magento, every line of the checkout belongs to you. For businesses with bespoke checkout flows, custom payment logic or non-standard order flows, this matters.
Payment gateway requirements at scale
If your business requires a specific acquirer that is not Shopify Payments, the additional transaction fee applies on every order. At meaningful GMV, this erodes the platform's cost advantage significantly.
When Magento costs more than it gives
We have seen brands attempt Magento builds that would have been materially better served by Shopify. The most common scenario: a straightforward DTC brand with a clean catalogue and no B2B complexity, drawn to Magento by the promise of control, who ends up spending disproportionate budget on infrastructure and maintenance for a store that never needed it.
The ongoing cost of a Magento codebase is real and often underestimated. Security patches arrive regularly and must be applied. Extensions require developer attention after every Magento upgrade. Hosting needs management, scaling and monitoring. A developer or agency retainer is not optional. It is the cost of running the platform. For stores that do not need what Magento provides, that budget would deliver better commercial returns elsewhere.
For brands already on Magento: if your store is slow and the catalogue and integrations are simple, a Hyvä rebuild is usually a better investment than a platform migration. If the platform complexity genuinely exceeds what the business needs, we will tell you that too.
B2B ecommerce: where the gap actually is
Shopify's native B2B functionality (available on Plus) has expanded significantly since its 2022 launch. Company accounts with multiple buyer locations, customer-specific price lists, volume pricing and quantity rules, net payment terms, vaulted credit cards and draft order quote workflows are all now available. For many wholesale and trade businesses, particularly those moving from spreadsheets or a manual ordering process, this is more than enough.
The gap appears in more complex operations. Magento's native B2B module includes Shared Catalogs (distinct product and pricing visibility per account), Requisition Lists (buyer-side saved lists for repeat ordering), Quote Negotiation (reps and buyers negotiate pricing within the platform) and configurable Company Account hierarchies with per-buyer role permissions. These features exist natively. Building their equivalent on Shopify requires custom development, third-party apps or a combination of both.
Magento also has a structural advantage for businesses serving both B2B and DTC channels. A single installation can run separate storefronts with entirely distinct catalogue visibility, pricing, checkout flows and account rules. Running equivalent functionality on Shopify requires separate Plus instances and more complex integration.
For complex B2B operations with ERP-driven pricing, hierarchical trade account structures, multi-level purchase order approval chains, or deep integration with systems like Khaos Control or SAP Business One, Magento remains the more capable platform. For businesses where Shopify B2B covers the actual requirements and the speed and simplicity of the platform outweighs Magento's deeper feature set, there is no reason to add the overhead.
SEO: the real differences between platforms
Both platforms can perform well in search. The differences are real but often overstated. Here is an honest summary.
Shopify imposes fixed URL prefixes: /products/ and /collections/ are permanent on all product and category pages. You cannot change them. For most stores this makes no meaningful difference to rankings. For stores migrating from another platform with established URL equity, it requires careful redirect planning to avoid losing it.
Faceted navigation is the more substantive SEO issue on Shopify. Filtered collection pages can generate duplicate content and crawl budget waste that requires careful canonical tag management. Shopify gives you limited direct control over how filtered URLs are handled. Magento gives full control over canonical logic and robots.txt configuration, which matters significantly for large catalogues with complex filtering.
International SEO is handled reasonably well by Shopify Markets, which automates hreflang tags for localised storefronts. Magento requires more manual configuration but gives you full control, including for complex multi-store international setups.
The most significant SEO advantage for Magento in 2026 is performance. A well-built Hyvä store consistently achieves 90+ on mobile Lighthouse and passes Core Web Vitals, which is a confirmed Google ranking factor. Standard Shopify stores score in the 65 to 80 range on mobile. The performance argument for Magento is also, increasingly, an SEO argument.
How we actually recommend a platform
Before recommending either platform, we ask the same questions on every project. Catalogue complexity and structure. Pricing model and whether it maps to what Shopify supports. Integration depth with ERP, PIM and OMS systems. B2B requirements and whether the trade account structure needs Magento's capability or Shopify's is sufficient. What development resource is available post-launch and whether the team can manage a Magento codebase long-term.
The answer is not always the bigger, more complex platform. We have recommended Shopify to clients who came to us expecting Magento, and Magento to clients who came expecting Shopify. Getting the platform right matters more than the size of the build. We will tell you honestly which fits your business, and why.
