Comparing WordPress vs. Magento (Adobe Commerce) for eCommerce

A dedicated eCommerce Content Management System (CMS) can be useful for running your online store, but it can also be quite expensive. Thankfully, there are a variety of robust open-source options available for free, so any seller can benefit from using a CMS to manage their store, customers, and orders.

Adobe Commerce, (formerly Magento which Adobe purchased in 2018) is an eCommerce-specific composable platform designed to launch stores quickly and lower the cost of eCommerce site ownership and associated integrations. 

WordPress is a more open-ended CMS that can be built for a myriad of needs. Using plugins, WordPress can quickly and easily transform a site into a full-scale eCommerce solution. 

Both options can serve your needs as an online store, but the right choice for you depends on your primary goals.

In this article, you’ll learn about the major differences between Adobe Commerce and WordPress, their unique strengths and weaknesses, and how some stores combine the solutions to create an exceptional eCommerce experience.

WordPress vs Adobe Commerce: Major differences 

While Adobe Commerce and WordPress are both powerful open-source platforms, they are also very different. 

The major differences fall into a few main categories: ease-of-use and customizability, development, cost of ownership, SEO and marketing, and security.

WordPress vs Adobe Commerce: ease-of-use and customization 

The main difference between these two CMSs is that Adobe Commerce is built to quickly spin up online stores, while WordPress does not support eCommerce out of the box. However, the latter can be easily extended to become a robust online store with the help of plugins like WooCommerce.

WooCommerce is highly customizable with numerous themes and extensions, making it easy for users to tailor their online store to specific needs.

Both Adobe Commerce and WordPress can support blog posts, regular site pages, products, shopping carts, customer accounts, and order history. That said, in the same way WordPress needs a plugin to support eCommerce, Adobe Commerce needs a plugin to support additional functionality like blogging.

While it requires more technical expertise (which we’ll cover in the next section), Adobe Commerce offers advanced features like multi-store management, advanced inventory management, and customer segmentation out of the box, making setup for large eCommerce stores a bit easier.

WordPress vs Adobe Commerce: eCommerce development 

From a development perspective, Adobe Commerce is generally more complex than WordPress. It’s not built to be extensible and developer-friendly but an enterprise-level eCommerce platform, making it more difficult for those without extensive development experience to get started.

For example, While templating is available and not overly difficult, it’s done in a much more programmatic way which can take some getting used to for a WordPress developer attempting to create a theme. 

WordPress is much more flexible for those learning to hack together new ideas, and it’s easy to begin contributing and creating, even for newcomers. While many developers and store owners love WordPress’s flexibility and extensibility, it will take a little more upfront effort to transform it into the eCommerce solution you need.

That said, WordPress also has a larger community of developers, which means more support, tutorials, and pre-built solutions are available to help if you get stuck.

For those concerned about extensibility beyond the code, both Adobe Commerce and WordPress feature built-in REST APIs. These let you build third-party applications with the full power of these platforms behind you, whichever you choose.

WordPress and Adobe Commerce: Cost of ownership 

Both WordPress and Adobe Commerce have free options, making the initial startup costs for both options very low. 

While the open-source version of Adobe Commerce is free, there is also a paid version of Adobe Commerce that comes with advanced features. Adobe Commerce has both a Starter and a Pro hosting level, or you can choose the self-hosting route. 

Store owners can expect higher hosting costs due to the resource-intensive nature of Adobe Commerce sites. Because it’s a less popular solution than WordPress, it may be more difficult (and therefore more expensive) to hire an experienced developer to fix issues should they arise.

The cost of your WordPress hosting will depend on the host you choose, but smaller stores can expect lower overall costs. Premium plugins and extensions can also add to the total cost of ownership for WordPress eCommerce sites, so you can build your site to best suit your budget and needs.

WordPress vs Adobe Commerce: SEO and marketing 

WordPress’ architecture is considered better suited to content marketing than Adobe Commerce. 

With built-in blogging capabilities and numerous SEO plugins to choose from, like Yoast SEO and All in One SEO Pack, you can easily configure a site using comprehensive SEO tools that can implement, track, and optimize your marketing strategy.

While Adobe Commerce has some built-in SEO features tailored for eCommerce, including customizable URL structures, meta tags, and sitemaps, additional marketing and analytics features may be more difficult to find and implement. 

Users who like a more customized marketing strategy may find this more difficult to achieve on Adobe Commerce than on WordPress.

WordPress vs. Adobe Commerce: Security 

Due to its popularity, WordPress gets a high share of malicious internet attacks. However, the core code for WordPress is highly secure, and as long as you choose a great hosting provider and use plugins and themes that are regularly maintained, security should not be an issue for most eCommerce sites.

Adobe Commerce, on the other hand, is built with security top of mind, so your site should maintain a high level of security right out of the box without the need for too many add-ons or plugins.

Combining WordPress and Adobe Commerce

Adobe Commerce and WordPress can also be used in tandem. With Adobe Commerce and WordPress working together, the frontend of WordPress will be left behind, but you can still use the backend to manage your site content and blogging efforts.

For large established stores using Adobe Commerce that need to turn their focus to strategies such as content marketing, integrating WordPress can be a good choice. In fact, WP Engine hosts numerous sites that use Magento to power eCommerce stores alongside their WordPress sites.

Choose the right eCommerce solution for you 

Whether Adobe Commerce or WordPress is right for you comes down to your business goals. 

If your primary focus is building your business and online sales, Adobe Commerce could be a good choice. If your goals revolve around a more full-service store that uses content marketing and digital publishing in addition to standard eCommerce functionality, WordPress is likely a stronger solution.

Choosing between Adobe Commerce and WordPress may be a tough call, but one of the most vital decisions for eCommerce sites is choosing reliable hosting. WP Engine has comprehensive WordPress hosting plans to keep your sites running smoothly, no matter the size or amount of web traffic.