Every so often a store owner asks us the same question: Shopify or Magento? We answer honestly, because we build on both. But before we get to the answer, let’s look at what you pay for on Shopify once the store starts to grow.
An easy start, then the bill
At first Shopify looks cheap. In Poland, Basic costs 79 zł a month billed yearly, Grow 239 zł and Advanced 1,220 zł1. The store is up in a few days, and you don’t have to think about servers or updates.
Costs grow with sales. If a provider other than Shopify Payments handles your payments, Shopify adds 2% to every transaction on Basic, 1% on Grow and 0.6% on Advanced. That’s on top of the payment provider’s own fee1. For a store selling a few million złoty a year, it adds up to a serious sum.
When you need more, there’s Shopify Plus. It starts at €2,100 a month on a 3-year term or €2,250 on a yearly one, and at higher volumes the fee depends on revenue2. Then there are paid apps, because many things a mature platform gives you out of the box have to be bought separately on Shopify.
The vendor can change its prices. Shopify’s terms only promise 30 days’ notice3.
Whose store is it, really?
It’s worth asking yourself this before choosing a platform for a large store. On Shopify you don’t own a server, the store’s code, or any say in how the platform works. You’re renting space in someone else’s system.
The terms say so plainly:
We may suspend or terminate your Account or the Terms of Service for any reason, without notice and at any time. Shopify Terms of Service, section 14.3
Shopify probably doesn’t close stores on a whim. Even so, your whole business depends on the decisions of one company you have no influence over3.
When you want to change something in the checkout
The checkout shows this dependence best. Over the past two years Shopify changed the rules several times, and stores had to adapt at its pace:
- 13 August 2024The old way of customising the information, shipping and payment steps stops working. Stores that hadn't moved over get the standard checkout without their changes4.
- 28 August 2025Additional scripts on the thank-you page become read-only4.
- 15 April 2026Stores can no longer edit Shopify Scripts, which many used to calculate discounts and shipping costs5.
- 30 June 2026All Shopify Scripts stop running5.
Customising the information, shipping and payment steps is only available on Plus6. If you want to add, say, a field for a company purchase-order number or your own way of choosing delivery, and you’re not paying for Plus, you simply can’t.
A growing business, growing limits
Once a store connects to an ERP, a warehouse and wholesalers, what matters is how much data you can push through it. Shopify caps that with limits:
With a large catalogue and frequent stock and price changes, the standard limit quickly becomes a bottleneck7. Selling to businesses has its limits too. B2B is available from Basic up, but lower plans get at most 3 B2B catalogs, and deposits, partial payments and catalogs assigned directly to companies are Plus-only8.
Then there’s the Polish market. Since 1 April 2026 almost every company has to issue invoices through KSeF, the national e-invoicing system9, and Polish customers prefer BLIK, used by 72% of online shoppers10. On your own platform you build the ERP, KSeF and courier integrations the way your business needs. On Shopify you depend on whether the vendor or a third-party app supports them.
When Shopify is the right choice
I don’t want to be one-sided, because Shopify has its place. More than 17,000 stores in Poland run on it11, and worldwide it powers 5.3% of all websites12. For many businesses it’s a sensible choice.
Shopify works well when:
- you’re launching a new brand and want to find out in a few weeks whether the product sells;
- you have a small catalogue and a simple checkout, with no unusual discounts or delivery options;
- you have no budget for developers and would rather pay a monthly subscription than for a build and ongoing care;
- you sell mainly to consumers and don’t need deep ERP integration.
In that situation Shopify lets you start quickly and cheaply. The trouble comes later, when the store outgrows those assumptions and the whole business is already built around someone else’s platform.
What your own mature platform gives you
Magento Open Source has an open OSL-3.0 licence13. The store’s code is yours: you can change it, move it to another server or hand it to another company. No one takes a percentage of your sales, and no platform vendor can shut your store down overnight.
Adobe Commerce comes with built-in B2B features: company accounts with roles, separate catalogs and prices per company, negotiated quotes and orders with approval rules14. You change the checkout, discounts, delivery and ERP integrations the way you need, without waiting for a vendor’s decision.
Your own platform costs money too. You pay for hosting, the build and developers, and someone on your side has to look after updates and security. Magento versions have a set support period, so every few years you’ll move to a newer one15. The difference is that you control these costs, and the work stays in your store.
How to choose for your store
These are the questions we start every platform conversation with:
- How much do you sell today, and how much in 3 years? The bigger the sales, the more fees and revenue-based charges hurt.
- Do you sell to businesses? Individual prices, credit limits and order approval are where Magento shines.
- How many systems does the store have to talk to? ERP, warehouse, PIM and KSeF are easier to connect on a platform you control.
- How unusual is your checkout? Custom discounts, delivery options and checkout fields on Shopify often need the Plus plan.
- Do you have someone to look after the store technically? Without developers and ongoing care, Shopify is the safer option.
How we help you choose
We build on both Shopify and Magento, so we can advise without being tied to either. First we talk about how you sell and where you’re heading. Then we tell you straight which system makes sense and what it will cost, not just at launch but a few years in.
If your store already runs on Shopify and it’s starting to hold you back, we’ll also help you move. You can read more about how we build Magento stores on the Magento 2 page.
If you remember one thing from this post, let it be this: choose a platform for the store you want to be in a few years’ time.
