Drupal Commerce vs Adobe Commerce (Magento):

Which platform is the Best for Your Online Business?

Insight for: Developers

June 27th, 2023

Adobe Commerce (Magento)
Key feature differences between Magento Opensource & Commerce Editions
When should an organization use Adobe Commerce (Magento)?
Sites built with Adobe Commerce (Magento)
Drupal + Drupal Commerce
Commerce Core Features
Additional features provided by most popular Drupal Commerce free contributed modules.
Sites built with Drupal Commerce
When should an organization use Drupal Commerce?
Conclusion

Adobe Commerce (Magento)

Adobe Commerce (Magento): is an enterprise eCommerce software that was specifically developed for building e-commerce websites and offers both free (open source) Magento Open Source and proprietary licensing models Adobe Commerce. Magento Inc., and its enterprise platform, Magento Commerce, were recently acquired by Adobe, but Magento Open Source remains free to install on an open-source license.

CMS	Magento Open Source	Adobe Commerce
Licensing cost?	Free (open source)	Pricing based on annual Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) and Average Order Value (AOV)
Hosting included?	No	Yes
Content management functionality	Limited	Yes

Magento Open Source delivers all the basic ecommerce capabilities and allows you to build a unique online store from the ground up. However, if you’re ready for a fully featured ecommerce solution, it is better to choose Adobe Commerce software.

Key feature differences between Magento Opensource & Commerce Editions

Features	Magento Open Source	Adobe Commerce
Responsive Ecomm website (Global capability)	✔	✔
Promotions Engine / Product & Catalog Mgt	✔	✔
Checkout, Payment, Shipping & Order Mgt	✔	✔
Site management (admin)	✔	✔
ElasticSearch	✕	✔
Bluefoot CMS in 2.2	✕	✔
Magento Order Management	✕	✔
Content Staging & Preview	✕	✔
Magento Shipping	✕	✔
B2B Functionality (in v2.2)	✕	✔

Cloud-based Adobe Commerce software also includes optimized cloud architecture and hosting as well as AI-powered merchandising and analytics.

Adobe Commerce supports very advanced eCommerce functionality that would otherwise be costly and difficult to implement. Extensions offered through the Magento Marketplace—Magento’s extension store—provide custom functionality to fit almost every need, such as syncing order and customer data to Quickbooks for accounting, or implementing a rule-based product promotion system.

When should an organization use Adobe Commerce (Magento)?

If you’re focused on having a powerful ecommerce platform and are less worried about publishing media content
If your core business model requires end-to-end control and configuration of your eCommerce workflow
Magento plays best with large inventories and systems. If you’re running a smaller shop, Magento may be overkill.

Sites built with Adobe Commerce (Magento)

https://www.shoebacca.com/ - shoe retailer

https://www.foodservicedirect.com/ - U.S.-based food service distributor offering B2C and B2B buyers an ever-expanding digital storefront for bulk purchases

https://www.liebherr.com/ - a global B2B e-commerce solution for machinery spare parts

http://www.grouperossignol.com/en/ - e-commerce solution for the iconic winter sports brand Rossignol

Drupal + Drupal Commerce

Drupal is an open-source CMS, and is free to use. It’s maintained by a community of volunteers and sponsored contributors and comes out of the box with numerous modules and integrations.

On its own, Drupal isn’t set up for eCommerce. However, it’s a powerful platform for storytelling, content management, and site governance.

Drupal Commerce is Drupal’s native eCommerce system, which means that it’s a suite of Drupal modules that developers can easily install on top of a Drupal platform.

There are two Drupal Commerce versions:

Drupal commerce 1x for Drupal 7
Drupal commerce 2x for Drupal 8/9/10

Drupal Commerce doesn’t focus as much on what comes out of the box, but on what you can build with it.

Commerce Core Features

Create product types with custom attributes
Dynamic product pages with one or many variationsOrder workflows. Not all orders are handled the same way. Orders in Drupal Commerce meet your order management needs. Whether digital, physical, or mixed, each order can go through its own experience and workflow.
Promotions with multiple offer types, conditions, and couponsRobust payment API, integrating 100+ payment gateways (Authorize.net, Braintree, PayPal, Stripe, and many others)
Address book and order managementTax calculation / VAT support. Out-of-the-box support for EU VAT, Swiss VAT, Canadian GST, US Sales Tax, or other custom tax rules.
Currencies. You can set up multiple currencies. Coupled with Drupal's multilingual and internationalization tools, Drupal Commerce provides localized e-commerce. Multiple stores. It helps to realize the following use case: One business that has one or more stores in different locations with different currencies and taxes and we have a single person or company that is taking payments online for all products in all shops.

In comparison to Magento, Drupal Commerce Core offers fewer advanced commerce management features. However, its code base is as extensible as Drupal itself, and organizations can install any free Drupal modules they want on their Drupal Commerce
site.

Additional features provided by most popular Drupal Commerce free contributed modules.

Commerce Shipping. Provide integration with following services UPS, FedEx, USPS, Canada Post, ConnectShip, Commerce Kiala and others.
Commerce Stock: stock management for Drupal Commerce stores.
Commerce File. Provides the ability to sell access to files.
Commerce License. Provides a framework for selling access to local or remote resources.
Commerce Marketplace. Implements multiple stores/store owners model where you have many sellers/shops who are taking payment for unique products.
Commerce Recurring: recurring billing for Drupal Commerce
Commerce Wishlist. Provides a Wishlist to use with Drupal Commerce. Wishlist lets shoppers save a collection of items in a user account that they can come back to later and purchase.
Commerce Invoice: invoicing capabilities to the Drupal Commerce ecosystem.
Commerce Email. This module lets you react to various Drupal Commerce events to send emails to customers, administrators, or other interested parties.
Commerce Dashboard, Commerce Reporting. Modules provide a dashboard with relevant Drupal Commerce key data: total sales today, yesterday, and of the current week; sales chart; list of top-selling products; live view of active carts and their total amounts and others.

Sites built with Drupal Commerce

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/ - information and learning portal with E-shop for Home and Professional Bakers

https://www.freesat.co.uk/ - delivering the very best in TV and on-demand content to over two million UK homes via set-top TV boxes.

https://shop.leica-geosystems.com/ - The official global eCommerce website for Leica Geosystems, a leading manufacturer of precision laser technology used for measurements in architecture, construction, historic preservation, and DIY home remodeling projects.

https://jysk.co.uk/ - E-commerce platform for JYSK, a global retail chain that sells everything for the home.

When should an organization use Drupal Commerce?

Drupal Commerce is an excellent choice for organizations that want to have a highly integrated CMS and eCommerce platform.

Business cases for using Drupal commerce.

Site of an offline magazine or newspaper where visitors buy a subscription to access the full version of the issue and/or download the pdf version of the issue.
Sports club website with an integrated E-shop where you can buy club symbols and merchandise.
Paid classifieds site.
Local area marketplaces of small businesses and creative entrepreneurs, vintage and hand-made goods.
If your organization already has a product catalog site built with Drupal and you want to add the ability to buy products directly on the site.
If your organization already has a Drupal site, then the same team can develop and maintain a new eCommerce site.

Conclusion

So, which platform is right for your business? To sum up, if you’re focused on having an eCommerce platform and less worried about publishing media content, then Magento is a better choice. But, if you are looking for a platform that can provide a strong CMS and eCommerce functionality, then Drupal Commerce is the right fit.

To make the right decision, weigh the pros and cons of both platforms carefully. Talk to our experts at Attico, and we’ll help you decide which platform is the best fit for your eCommerce business. Contact us today!

Article Authors

Yaroslav Lushnikov Backend developer, Team Lead

Senior developer, Drupal expert and big fan of technology. Helps Junior developers and contributes to the Drupal community in his spare time.