Vendure vs Adobe Commerce
Adobe Commerce packages two decades of B2B into a PHP monolith. This comparison is about what that stack costs to run and change.
The short answer
Choose Vendure when
- You want one language and a small runtime to operate
- You want a published price, not a negotiated licence
- You need B2B on a free, self-hostable core
- Your team writes TypeScript and React, not PHP
- A storefront rebuild is already on the roadmap
Choose Adobe Commerce when
- You need the widest packaged B2B module available
- You are already an Adobe shop
- You want the largest agency and extension ecosystem
- Magento Open Source already fits your requirements
How they compare
Six dimensions, the same six on every Vendure comparison page. Every claim about Adobe Commerce is sourced at the foot of this page.
| Dimension | Vendure | Adobe Commerce |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture and extensibility | VendureTypeScript end to end on NestJS, with GraphQL Shop and Admin APIs. Plugins sit beside the core. No forks, no extension cap. | Adobe CommerceA modular PHP monolith on PHP 8.5, extended through modules, plugins and DI preferences. Also requires OpenSearch, Valkey and RabbitMQ. |
| Licensing and cost model | VendureFree open-source core under GPLv3. Four flat, cumulative plans from €199 a month on a 12-month term, with Enterprise from €60,000 a year. No GMV, per-order or per-user fees. | Adobe CommerceMagento Open Source is free under OSL 3.0. Adobe Commerce is a negotiated licence with no published rate card, quoted by sales. |
| B2B depth | VendureCompany accounts and quotes from Starter. Organization hierarchy at Growth. Contract pricing, single-level order approvals, the audit log and the Next.js B2B storefront at Scale. PunchOut (cXML), Configurator and multi-level approvals with timeouts and delegation at Enterprise. | Adobe CommerceA deep packaged module: company accounts, shared catalogs, requisition lists, negotiable quotes, purchase orders with approval rules, company credit. Requires the commercial licence. |
| Hosting and operations | VendureSelf-host on any cloud or on-premises, in any region. Managed Vendure Cloud is planned for Q1 2027, with a base set of Cloud resources in each paid plan. | Adobe CommerceReal choice: on-premises, Adobe's cloud PaaS on AWS with Azure for Pro, or Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service. Magento Open Source self-hosts anywhere. |
| Ecosystem and talent | VendureMainstream TypeScript, Node and GraphQL. No proprietary skill silo. | Adobe CommerceOne of the largest agency ecosystems in ecommerce. Skills are PHP plus Magento-specific conventions. |
| Migration effort | VendureCatalogue, customer and order history export cleanly from MySQL. PHP modules and Luma or Hyvä themes are rewritten rather than ported. | Adobe CommerceNot applicable. |
Vendure pricing: a free open-source core, then four flat tiers
Vendure Core is free under GPLv3. Starter, Growth, Scale and Enterprise add B2B capabilities cumulatively, on a flat fee with no GMV, per-order or per-user charges.
Where each platform wins
Where Vendure wins
One language, and far less to operate
Adobe Commerce documents a required stack of PHP, a web server, MariaDB or MySQL, OpenSearch, Valkey, and RabbitMQ or ActiveMQ before you take an order, and each of those is a service your team patches and monitors. Vendure is a TypeScript application on Node with a SQL database, and plugins that live beside the core rather than patching it.
A published price instead of a negotiated licence
Adobe publishes no rate card for Adobe Commerce, so the cost of the platform is settled in a sales conversation. Vendure Core is free under GPLv3 and the plans are published: Starter €199, Growth €599 and Scale €2,499 a month on a 12-month term, with Enterprise from €60,000 a year. You can budget the platform before you speak to anyone.
B2B does not require leaving open source behind
Adobe's B2B module requires the commercial Adobe Commerce licence; Magento Open Source does not include it. On Vendure the core stays open source under GPLv3 whatever you buy, the plugin-licence exception keeps your customisations proprietary, and your data sits in your own SQL database.
Where Adobe Commerce is strong
The packaged B2B module is genuinely deep
Company accounts with roles, shared catalogs, requisition lists, negotiable quotes, purchase orders with approval rules, and company credit. This is one of the widest B2B feature sets on any platform and it would be dishonest to call it thin.
Magento Open Source is free and self-hostable
A free OSL-3.0 core you can run on your own infrastructure, sharing the same codebase as the commercial edition. That is a real open-source offer, and for merchants whose needs fit inside it the licence cost is zero.
The largest agency and extension ecosystem
Decades of accumulated extensions, integrations and specialists in almost every market. If your constraint is finding a delivery partner locally, Adobe Commerce is hard to beat on availability.
For packaged B2B breadth with an agency on every continent, Adobe Commerce fits. Where a team uses part of that breadth but still runs the whole stack, Vendure is the lighter option.
When teams move from Adobe Commerce to Vendure
The pattern is usually a funded rebuild that reopens the platform question, or an operational cost that has outgrown the requirement.
A funded storefront rebuild
where a Luma replacement or a Hyvä or headless project is already budgeted
A major version upgrade window
where extensions need rework and the platform question is legitimately open
The operational surface
where OpenSearch, Valkey and RabbitMQ are more infrastructure than the business needs
Licence renewal
where a negotiated Adobe Commerce contract is being repriced and the B2B module is the reason it exists
Team composition
where the engineers you can hire write TypeScript and React rather than PHP
Migration runs in three phases: catalogue and customer import, storefront rebuild, then integration cutover. The data itself is straightforward because it is already relational, but PHP modules and themes are rewritten rather than ported. We scope the effort against what is actually in production rather than quoting a band.
Moving off Adobe Commerce or Magento?
The data is relational and exports cleanly. PHP modules and themes become TypeScript plugins and a storefront of your choosing. The migration guide is a project account by Pinelab, who moved a configurable-product print shop off Magento 2: what imported, what had to be rebuilt, and where the hours went.
Vendure and Adobe Commerce, answered
Yes, when the operational stack is heavier than the business needs, when a storefront rebuild is already funded, when you want a published price rather than a negotiated licence, or when the engineers you can hire write TypeScript rather than PHP. If your B2B requirements are already met and you have an agency you trust, staying is a reasonable call.
Company accounts, quotes, lists, quick order and store credit from Starter. Organization hierarchy, managed lists, packaging, gift cards and global search at Growth. Contract pricing, order approvals, the audit log, single sign-on, search analytics and the Next.js B2B storefront at Scale. Negotiation, access policy, advanced approvals, audit governance, Configurator and PunchOut at Enterprise. They are licensed capabilities rather than services you commission.
Vendure Core is free under GPLv3. Four cumulative paid plans sit on top: Starter at €199, Growth at €599 and Scale at €2,499 a month on a 12-month term, with Enterprise from €60,000 a year. Each plan inherits the one below, and there is no GMV charge, per-order surcharge or per-user fee, so growing revenue does not reprice the platform.
Yes. Vendure Core is a complete open-source commerce framework under GPLv3, written in TypeScript on Node.js with GraphQL Shop and Admin APIs. It is free to run and self-host, and the licence cannot be revoked or discontinued for you. The commercial B2B capabilities are separately licensed plugins layered on top of that core. Every paid plan also includes a commercial licence for Vendure Core for your project, as an alternative to GPLv3.
Yes, on any cloud or on-premises, in any region, with your data in your own SQL database. That is what makes EU-mandated and otherwise regulated deployments possible today. Vendure Cloud, our managed hosting, opens as a closed beta for paid plans, with general availability planned for Q1 2027. Each paid plan will include a base set of Cloud resources, and usage above that is billed on top.
Yes. Catalogue, customer and order history are relational and export cleanly from MySQL or MariaDB, so the data is the straightforward part. PHP modules and Luma or Hyvä themes do not port: the storefront is rebuilt against the GraphQL API or started from the Next.js B2B storefront included from Scale, and extension logic is rewritten as TypeScript plugins.
Vendure Core needs a Node.js runtime and a SQL database: PostgreSQL, MySQL or MariaDB. There is no separate search cluster, cache or message broker to stand up before you take your first order, which is usually the largest operational difference teams notice when they arrive from a PHP monolith. The paid plans need PostgreSQL, and from Growth you can add Typesense as a dedicated search engine.
Sources (6) · claims last checked 2026
- Adobe Commerce system requirements: PHP 8.5, nginx, MariaDB and MySQL, OpenSearch 3, Valkey 9, and RabbitMQ and ActiveMQ Artemis for 2.4.9 · experienceleague.adobe.com
- Adobe Commerce B2B documentation: company accounts, shared catalogs, requisition lists, negotiable quotes, purchase orders and approval rules, company credit and quick order · experienceleague.adobe.com
- Adobe Commerce architecture guide: the module system, extensibility model and application layers · developer.adobe.com/commerce
- Adobe Commerce on cloud infrastructure: the PaaS model, AWS and Azure, regions and availability zones · experienceleague.adobe.com
- Adobe Commerce product information: editions, Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service, and sales-quoted licensing with no published rate card · business.adobe.com
- Vendure pricing and plans · vendure.io/pricing
