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E-Commerce · head to head

Magento vs Retail Pro

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
Retail Pro logo

Retail Pro

E-Commerce

Comprehensive retail management software

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Magento has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: 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.; Retail Pro pricing details not disclosed; requires sales consultation
  • They diverge on capability: Magento covers Two editions, Retail Pro covers Point of sale.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Magento and Retail Pro actually diverge.

Attributes where Magento and Retail Pro differ
AttributeMagentoRetail Pro
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelopen-sourceUnknown
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWebiOS, Android, Windows
Founded20081988

Identical on both: 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 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

Only in Retail Pro

  • Point of sale
  • Inventory management
  • Customer database
  • Employee management
  • Sales analytics
  • Promotion management
  • Multi-store support
  • Reporting tools

What people use each for

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

Magento

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

Retail Pro

  • Multi-location retail POS operations (1 to 250+ stores)not Magento
  • Inventory management with serialized product trackingnot Magento
  • Customer loyalty programs via AppCard integrationnot Magento

Where each one falls short

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

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.

Retail Pro

  • Pricing details not disclosed; requires sales consultation
  • No published technical requirements or system specifications
  • International deployment requires fiscal/tax compliance consultation per region

Pricing, plan by plan

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

Retail Pro

On request

No published plan breakdown. See the Retail Pro review.

Which should you pick?

Choose Magento if

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

Choose Retail Pro if

  • You need point of sale.
  • You work on iOS, Android, Windows.
  • You also want inventory management.
Retail Pro review

Questions people ask

Is Magento or Retail Pro better?
Neither clearly leads. Magento starts at Free and Retail Pro at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Magento or Retail Pro?
Magento has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Magento and On request for Retail Pro.
Does Magento or Retail Pro run on more platforms?
Magento runs on Web. Retail Pro runs on iOS, Android, Windows.
Can I use Magento for free?
Yes. Magento has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Retail Pro starts at On request.
What is Magento best used for?
Magento is most often used for a retailer with tens of thousands of skus and attribute-heavy catalogue logic that saas platforms restrict, a multi-brand or multi-region group needing separate websites, currencies and tax treatment from one back office, a b2b seller needing company accounts, negotiated pricing and quoting inside the storefront, an enterprise with an in-house or retained development team that treats commerce as owned software. Of those, a retailer with tens of thousands of skus and attribute-heavy catalogue logic that saas platforms restrict and a multi-brand or multi-region group needing separate websites, currencies and tax treatment from one back office are not what Retail Pro is typically brought in for.
What can Magento do that Retail Pro cannot?
Magento covers Two editions, Complex catalogue handling, Multi-store and multi-website, Native B2B in the paid edition. Retail Pro covers Point of sale, Inventory management, Customer database, Employee management.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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.

Retail Pro: How much does Retail Pro cost?

Retail Pro does not publish specific pricing on its website. The company describes a 'Pay As You Grow' model but directs interested retailers to request a consultation or brochure to obtain actual pricing quotes customized to their business needs.

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.

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.

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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