The Demise of Magento OS Has Been Greatly Exaggerated
Adobe’s shift toward SaaS-based ecommerce solutions has raised some serious questions over the last year.
The most critical being: Is Magento Open Source still a viable option?
To answer that, we spoke to Mathias Schreiber, Executive Director of the Magento Association, who—like many in the Magento community—would say the rumors of its death are a bit premature.
History and Current State of Magento OS
Time and again, industry pundits have declared technologies “dead” – think of how often SEO or email marketing gets pronounced obsolete – only to be proven wrong.
Magento has faced similar premature eulogies.
Since its launch in 2008, Magento’s open-source platform has grown rapidly, becoming the ecommerce workhorse for tens of thousands of merchants. Eventually, it caught the attention of Adobe, which acquired the platform in 2018.
Adobe’s acquisition brought a new name to their paid enterprise version—now Adobe Commerce—while Magento Open Source stayed exactly what it’s always been: free, community-driven, and actively maintained.
And much like those “dead” marketing channels that refuse to die, Magento Open Source continues to adapt. As of 2025, there are still more than 100,000 live Magento sites in operation, with ongoing development to match.
According to Schreiber, this resilience comes straight from the community. Every time Magento’s obituary gets written, the ecosystem (and more specifically the people developing it) finds another way to evolve—and prove the critics wrong.
History and Current State of Magento OS
Rather than viewing Adobe’s SaaS commerce push as a threat, Schreiber sees Magento and Adobe’s offerings as complementary parts of a spectrum.
In fact, Adobe’s newly launched Adobe Commerce-as-a-Cloud Service (ACCS) is “a SaaS evolution built on the Magento foundation,” according to Adobe’s own product team. This means Magento Open Source literally powers Adobe’s cloud commerce behind the scenes.
Rather than killing Magento, Adobe has elevated it into a cloud service.
“Adobe now offers all levels on the spectrum… it fits really well together,” Schreiber says, noting that Adobe’s ecommerce portfolio ranges from the open-source Magento (for full control and customization) to fully managed SaaS solutions (for ease and reduced maintenance).
Why Magento Still Matters
If SaaS is the future of Adobe Commerce, why does Magento Open Source still matter?
The short answer: because no single ecommerce model works for every business.
SaaS platforms and open-source platforms solve different problems. Depending on the complexity of the business, one may be a far better fit than the other. And even if one option were to disappear tomorrow, that wouldn’t mean every merchant who relied on it would suddenly—and happily—migrate to the alternative.
In the end, this isn’t a SaaS versus open-source debate.
It’s a question of how much control you need, how much flexibility your business demands, and how much long-term ownership actually matters.
The Ownership Tradeoff
Schreiber warns that relying solely on SaaS can be risky: “SaaS puts you at the mercy of a platform that could follow a different goal than your business.”
When you rent an ecommerce platform as a service, you’re trusting someone else’s roadmap.
- APIs can be deprecated.
- Integrations can be phased out.
- Pricing can change.
And acquisitions can quickly shift a platform’s priorities in ways that don’t align with your own. If you don’t own the channel, you’re effectively renting space—and operating on terms you don’t control.
Magento OS reduces that risk by putting the code and the decision-making back in the merchant’s hands. You choose when to upgrade, which integrations to maintain or replace, and how your data is stored and accessed.
That level of ownership isn’t theoretical. It directly supports businesses with strict compliance requirements, complex integrations, or long-term customization plans that can’t afford to be reshaped by someone else’s roadmap.
Weighing the Upfront and Long-Term Costs
Beyond ownership, there are also cost considerations.
While a SaaS platform might start cheaper and easier (no hosting or DevOps to worry about initially), the expenses can pile up as you grow. Subscription fees, transaction fees, and paid apps/services mean you’re effectively leasing your storefront.
Those subscription costs are also ballooning, quickly moving away from predictable per-account or seat models to consumption-based pricing that requires more and more tradeoffs. Either shell out for enterprise-level accounts or gamble on lesser, more limited features.
Magento OS, by contrast, has no license fee.
You invest in development and hosting, but as your business scales, you benefit from economies of scale rather than escalating fees. Need to see it to believe it?
A conceptual cost comparison by Magento (so take it with a grain of salt) shows that while SaaS ecommerce (green) may start with lower upfront costs, over five years, it can become more expensive than an open-source solution like Magento (orange).
In other words, the “low cost” allure of SaaS can flip as you grow, whereas Magento lets you build equity in your own platform.
Lasting Support
Schreiber also highlights the risk of third-party app dependency in SaaS models.
If a crucial plugin or app is abandoned by its developer, SaaS merchants might have no workaround. But Magento’s open code means you can always hire a developer to fix or extend it. To be fair, it’s not always an immediate solution, and the monetary and time investment required fully depends on the application and who you hire to do the work.
The point is, support and feature evolution are not out of the box or automated in this case. But you can always bank on your preferences and needs being served thanks to the flexibility of the platform.
Plus, if you find custom developers you trust, it’s far easier to make reliable, timely, and consistent changes—even with an open-source platform.
A Strong Ecosystem
Expert Directory
Finding qualified development talent has long been a friction point for merchants. To address that, the Magento Association maintains an Expert Directory that helps businesses connect with vetted developers and solution partners.
The goal is simple: reduce guesswork and make it easier for merchants to get reliable help when they need it.
Community Council
Magento’s future isn’t shaped in a vacuum. A Community Council brings together contributors, agencies, and merchants to provide structured feedback and ensure real-world use cases influence decisions.
As Schreiber sees it, “the aim is to give the community a formal seat at the table rather than relying on informal feedback loops.”
Merchant Membership
Magento has historically been driven by developers, but merchants now play a more direct role. A dedicated merchant membership program gives store owners a voice in discussions about priorities, pain points, and platform direction.
That input helps ensure Magento evolves in ways that reflect how it’s actually used in production, not just how it’s built.
Hosting Taskforce
Infrastructure complexity has always been one of Magento’s biggest challenges. A dedicated hosting task force is working to improve best practices, performance guidance, and deployment approaches to reduce cost and operational overhead.
The focus is practical: make Magento easier to run, easier to scale, and less intimidating from a DevOps perspective.
Who Magento OS is and Isn’t For
With a strong community, active stewardship, and continued investment, you may be switching from asking “Is Magento OS dead?” to “Why wouldn’t I choose Magento OS?”
But as we’ve already touched on, no ecommerce platform is universally right for every business.
Magento Open Source isn’t a quick-start solution or a one-size-fits-all fix. It’s more like a well-stocked toolbox—ideal for complex jobs that demand precision and flexibility, but often unnecessary for simpler setups that just need a handful of off-the-shelf features.
Some businesses want speed and guardrails. Others need something engineered to exact specifications.
Magento is built for the latter.
As Schreiber puts it, “Magento solves complex tasks.” That’s where it shines:
- Supporting large product catalogs with intricate variants
- Managing multi-language storefronts
- Integrating with virtually any ERP and PIM system
- Supporting advanced B2B workflows.
Where Magento becomes especially valuable is for businesses planning to scale.
Replatforming mid-growth can derail momentum, drain resources, and force compromises. As Schreiber warns, “If your business grows faster than you planned, the last thing you want on your table is to re-platform.” Magento’s flexibility and extensibility allow it to grow with you—whether you’re a startup preparing for scale or an established retailer expanding globally.
Deciding Between Adobe Commerce SaaS and Magento OS
Choosing between Adobe Commerce SaaS and Magento Open Source ultimately comes down to how you want to run your business. Adobe’s SaaS offering is built for teams that value speed, convenience, and a managed environment.
Magento Open Source is better suited for merchants who want flexibility, control, and the freedom to build exactly what their business requires—even if that means more hands-on ownership.
As Schreiber points out, this isn’t a zero-sum choice.
Both platforms serve different needs while sharing the same core foundation. Adobe’s cloud solutions benefit from Magento’s proven engine, and Magento Open Source continues to evolve alongside it—giving merchants real options rather than forcing a single path forward.
The right answer depends on your goals, your growth plans, and how much control you want over your platform.
If you’re weighing Adobe Commerce SaaS vs. Magento Open Source, our development team can help you evaluate both and map the best fit for your business. Reach out to start the conversation and explore which approach makes the most sense for where you’re headed.
