E-Commerce · head to head
Magento vs Vendure
Magento
E-Commerce
Open core commerce platform, free as Magento Open Source and licensed by revenue as Adobe Commerce
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
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.; Vendure pricing is custom-quoted per project with no published tiers or starting price
- They diverge on capability: Magento covers Two editions, Vendure covers GraphQL API.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Magento and Vendure actually diverge.
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 Vendure
- GraphQL API
- TypeScript native
- Plugin architecture
- Admin UI
- Multi-channel
- Asset management
- Order workflow
- Faceted search
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 Vendure
- A multi-brand or multi-region group needing separate websites, currencies and tax treatment from one back officenot Vendure
- A B2B seller needing company accounts, negotiated pricing and quoting inside the storefrontnot Vendure
- An enterprise with an in-house or retained development team that treats commerce as owned softwarenot Vendure
Vendure
- B2B complex commerce workflowsnot Magento
- Multi-brand and multi-currency operationsnot Magento
- Custom pricing and contract managementnot 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.
Vendure
- Pricing is custom-quoted per project with no published tiers or starting price
- Requires implementation partner or in-house development; no low-code or no-code option
- GPLv3 free tier (Vendure Core) has different licensing than commercial product
Pricing, plan by plan
Magento
Free- Magento Open SourceFree
- Unlimited products
- Multiple storefronts
- Advanced marketing
- Adobe Commerce$20000/year
- All Open Source features
- 24/7 enterprise support
- Managed cloud hosting
Vendure
On request- Platform (Self-hosted)$null/annual
- Flat annual subscription
- No GMV, order, user, or capability-based charges
- Complete Platform feature set
- Vendure Cloud$null/annual
- Managed platform option
- Same Platform feature set as self-hosted
- Pricing not specified on website
Which should you pick?
Choose Magento if
- You need two editions.
- You want to start without paying.
- You also want complex catalogue handling.
Choose Vendure if
- You need graphql api.
- You work on Self-hosted, Vendure Cloud.
- You also want typescript native.
Questions people ask
- Is Magento or Vendure better?
- Neither clearly leads. Magento starts at Free and Vendure at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Magento or Vendure?
- Magento has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Magento and On request for Vendure.
- Does Magento or Vendure run on more platforms?
- Magento runs on Web. Vendure runs on Self-hosted, Vendure Cloud.
- Can I use Magento for free?
- Yes. Magento has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Vendure 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 Vendure is typically brought in for.
- What can Magento do that Vendure cannot?
- Magento covers Two editions, Complex catalogue handling, Multi-store and multi-website, Native B2B in the paid edition. Vendure covers GraphQL API, TypeScript native, Plugin architecture, Admin UI.
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.
Vendure: How is Vendure priced?
Vendure uses flat annual pricing with no charges based on GMV, order volume, user count, or specific capabilities. Pricing is quoted individually per project based on business requirements.
SourceMagento: 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.
Vendure: Does Vendure charge for the runtime?
No additional fee is required for the Vendure runtime. Organizations can deploy it on their own infrastructure at no extra cost beyond the platform subscription.
SourceMagento: 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.
Vendure: What is included in Vendure's subscription?
The annual platform subscription includes B2B storefront capabilities, pricing engines, catalogs, search, integrations, operations, brands/markets management, platform support, security updates, quarterly roadmap calls, and commercial licensing with IP indemnification.
SourceMagento: 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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