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E-Commerce · head to head

Authorize.net vs Magento

Authorize.net logo

Authorize.net

E-Commerce

We help make it easy to get paid

From
$25/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Magento logo

Magento

E-Commerce

Open core commerce platform, free as Magento Open Source and licensed by revenue as Adobe Commerce

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Magento has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Authorize.net all-in-One plan charges 2.9% + 30¢ per card transaction, higher than Gateway-only rate of 10¢ + batch fee; Magento it is open core rather than open source, so B2B, customer segmentation, content staging and the Adobe analytics and recommendation services sit behind the Adobe Commerce licence, and discovering that mid-project converts a free platform into a revenue-banded contract.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Authorize.net and Magento actually diverge.

Attributes where Authorize.net and Magento differ
AttributeAuthorize.netMagento
Starting price$25/monthFree
Pricing modelsubscriptionopen-source
Free tierNoYes
FoundedUnknown2008

Identical on both: platforms (Web), user rating (Not yet rated), category (E-Commerce).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Authorize.net

Nothing recorded that Magento does not also cover.

Only in Magento

  • Two editions
  • Complex catalogue handling
  • Multi-store and multi-website
  • Native B2B in the paid edition
  • Multi-currency and multi-region
  • Composer module system
  • GraphQL and REST APIs
  • Hyva and Mage-OS ecosystem

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Authorize.net

  • E-commerce payment processingnot Magento
  • Recurring billing and subscription managementnot Magento
  • Multi-channel payment acceptancenot Magento

Magento

  • A retailer with tens of thousands of SKUs and attribute-heavy catalogue logic that SaaS platforms restrictnot Authorize.net
  • A multi-brand or multi-region group needing separate websites, currencies and tax treatment from one back officenot Authorize.net
  • A B2B seller needing company accounts, negotiated pricing and quoting inside the storefrontnot Authorize.net
  • An enterprise with an in-house or retained development team that treats commerce as owned softwarenot Authorize.net

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Authorize.net

  • All-in-One plan charges 2.9% + 30¢ per card transaction, higher than Gateway-only rate of 10¢ + batch fee
  • Gateway + eCheck plan limited to U.S.-based businesses only
  • eCheck processing includes $10 minimum monthly fee on Gateway + eCheck plan
  • Chargeback fees apply: $0 for standard processing but $25 for eCheck chargebacks

Magento

  • It is open core rather than open source, so B2B, customer segmentation, content staging and the Adobe analytics and recommendation services sit behind the Adobe Commerce licence, and discovering that mid-project converts a free platform into a revenue-banded contract.
  • The Adobe Commerce licence is priced on bands of gross merchandise value, so the platform bill increases as the store succeeds and is largely unrelated to the infrastructure or support you consume.
  • A production installation needs a search engine, a cache, a reverse proxy, a message queue and a database tuned together, so hosting is a DevOps engagement rather than a plan, and the first serious traffic event is where under-sizing becomes visible.
  • Minor version upgrades regularly break third party modules, so staying current means a regression testing and remediation project several times a year, and merchants who skip upgrades to avoid that end up running software with unpatched vulnerabilities.
  • The specialist developer market is small and expensive relative to other platforms, so an agency retainer becomes a permanent operating cost and losing that agency is a genuine business continuity problem rather than a procurement inconvenience.

Pricing, plan by plan

Authorize.net

$25/month
  • All-in-One$25/month
    • Merchant account and payment gateway
    • Transaction rate 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction
    • Multiple payment types (cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay)
  • Gateway Only$25/month
    • Payment gateway only
    • For existing merchant account holders
    • Transaction rate 10¢ per transaction + 10¢ daily batch fee
  • Gateway + eCheck$25/month
    • Payment gateway with eCheck support
    • eCheck rate 0.75% per transaction
    • Credit card rate 10¢ per transaction + 10¢ daily batch fee

Magento

Free
  • Magento Open SourceFree
    • Unlimited products
    • Multiple storefronts
    • Advanced marketing
  • Adobe Commerce$20000/year
    • All Open Source features
    • 24/7 enterprise support
    • Managed cloud hosting

Which should you pick?

Choose Authorize.net if

Nothing in the data separates Authorize.net from Magento on the points above - pick on price and on how each one feels to use.

Authorize.net review

Choose Magento if

  • You need two editions.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want complex catalogue handling.
Magento review

Questions people ask

Is Authorize.net or Magento better?
Neither clearly leads. Authorize.net starts at $25/month and Magento at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Authorize.net or Magento?
Magento has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $25/month for Authorize.net and Free for Magento.
Does Authorize.net or Magento run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
Can I use Magento for free?
Yes. Magento has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Authorize.net starts at $25/month.
What is Authorize.net best used for?
Authorize.net is most often used for e-commerce payment processing, recurring billing and subscription management, multi-channel payment acceptance. Of those, e-commerce payment processing and recurring billing and subscription management are not what Magento is typically brought in for.
What can Authorize.net do that Magento cannot?
Magento covers Two editions, Complex catalogue handling, Multi-store and multi-website, Native B2B in the paid edition.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Authorize.net: How much does Authorize.net cost?

Authorize.net charges a $25/month gateway fee across all plans. Transaction rates vary: All-in-One plan charges 2.9% + 30¢ per card transaction, Gateway-only plan charges 10¢ per transaction + 10¢ daily batch fee, and Gateway + eCheck charges 0.75% for eCheck or 10¢ + 10¢ batch for credit cards.

Source
Magento: Is Magento free?

Magento Open Source is. Adobe Commerce is not, and it holds back B2B, segmentation, content staging and the Adobe analytics and recommendation layer. Establish which edition a requirement needs before you commit.

Authorize.net: Are there any setup or termination fees?

No setup fee or early termination fee applies to any Authorize.net plan. You can cancel your account without penalty once service usage stops.

Source
Magento: How is Adobe Commerce priced?

On bands of gross merchandise value, so the licence grows with revenue rather than with usage. Model it against your three year forecast, not this year's turnover.

Authorize.net: What are the additional fees beyond the monthly gateway charge?

Beyond the $25/month fee, additional charges include Account Updater service at $0.25 per update, standard chargeback fees at $0 (but $25 for eCheck chargebacks), and returned item fee of $3 for eCheck payments. eCheck processing includes a $10 minimum monthly fee.

Source
Magento: What does it really cost to run?

Licence if applicable, plus tuned infrastructure, plus a specialist agency or in-house team. For most deployments the people and hosting exceed the licence.

Authorize.net: What payment types does Authorize.net accept?

Authorize.net accepts credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and eCheck payments (Gateway + eCheck plan and higher). All plans include automated recurring billing, customer information manager, digital invoicing, and advanced fraud detection.

Source
Magento: Why do agencies keep mentioning Hyva?

The stock front end stack is slow to develop against, so Hyva, a commercially licensed replacement front end, has become a common default. It is another licence to budget for.

Magento: What happened with Magento 1?

It reached end of life and left merchants on unsupported, unpatched software facing a full replatform. It is the reference point for how long to assume support for any edition you adopt.

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