Meet MarsDevs at Gitex AI Asia 2026 · Marina Bay Sands, Singapore · 9 to 10 April 2026 · Booth HC-Q035
Meet MarsDevs at Gitex AI Asia 2026 · Marina Bay Sands, Singapore · 9 to 10 April 2026 · Booth HC-Q035
You are about to pick an ecommerce platform, and the landscape shifted dramatically in the past twelve months. Shopify launched agentic storefronts that let customers buy directly through ChatGPT and Google Gemini. Adobe rebranded Magento and doubled down on AI-powered personalization with Sensei. BigCommerce shipped Catalyst, a composable Next.js framework that makes headless commerce accessible to mid-market brands for the first time.
Here is the thing: the wrong platform choice costs you 12 to 18 months of migration pain and six figures in lost revenue. We have seen it happen with clients who outgrew their setup within a year.
We have built custom ecommerce solutions on all three platforms for clients across 12 countries. This is our honest, data-backed assessment of where each platform stands today and who should use which.
MarsDevs is a product engineering company that builds custom web applications, ecommerce stores, and AI-powered solutions for startup founders and growing businesses. Founded in 2019, MarsDevs has shipped 80+ products across 12 countries for startups and scale-ups, and ecommerce builds make up a significant share of that portfolio.
Shopify is a fully hosted SaaS ecommerce platform powering over 5.6 million live stores worldwide. It commands roughly 29% of the US ecommerce software market, making it the dominant player in North America. Shopify merchants collectively generated over $1.4 trillion in gross merchandise volume through 2025.
Five pricing tiers: Starter ($5/month), Basic ($39/month), Grow ($105/month), Advanced ($399/month), and Plus (from $2,300/month). Every plan includes hosting, SSL, and a CDN. The app ecosystem runs over 13,000 third-party integrations.
Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento) is an open-source ecommerce platform now owned by Adobe. It powers roughly 2.3% of all ecommerce stores globally and handles over $100 billion in gross merchandise value per year. Two versions exist: the free Magento Open Source edition and the paid Adobe Commerce edition.
Pricing is quote-based. Estimates start around $40,000 per year for stores under $1 million in GMV, scaling to $200,000+ per year for large enterprises. That does not include hosting, development, or ongoing maintenance, which often double or triple the final number.
BigCommerce is a SaaS ecommerce platform that sits between Shopify's simplicity and Magento's flexibility. It operates across 150+ countries and differentiates on three fronts: zero platform transaction fees on every plan, strong native B2B features, and an API-first architecture built for composable commerce.
Four pricing tiers: Standard ($39/month), Plus ($105/month), Pro ($399/month), and Enterprise (custom, starting around $1,000/month). Annual billing drops those prices by roughly 25%.
| Feature | Shopify | Adobe Commerce (Magento) | BigCommerce |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing (entry) | $39/month | Free (Open Source) / ~$40K/year (Commerce) | $39/month |
| Pricing (enterprise) | $2,300+/month (Plus) | $200K+/year | $1,000+/month (Enterprise) |
| Transaction fees | 0% with Shopify Payments; 0.6%-2% with third-party | None | None |
| Hosting | Included (fully managed) | Self-hosted or Adobe Cloud | Included (fully managed) |
| Ease of setup | Minutes (no-code) | Weeks to months (developer required) | Hours (low-code) |
| App ecosystem | 13,000+ apps | 3,800+ extensions | 1,300+ apps |
| Native B2B | Limited (Plus only) | Full native B2B suite | Strong native B2B on all plans |
| Headless commerce | Hydrogen + Oxygen | PWA Studio + GraphQL | Catalyst (Next.js) + GraphQL |
| AI features | Sidekick, Magic, Agentic Storefronts | Adobe Sensei, Live Search AI | Limited native AI |
| Multi-store | Expansion stores (Plus) | Native multi-store | Multi-storefront on all plans |
| Payment gateways | 100+ (Shopify Payments preferred) | 350+ | 65+ (zero fees on all) |
| Customization depth | Moderate (Liquid templates) | Full (open-source PHP) | Moderate (Stencil/Catalyst) |
| Scalability ceiling | Very high (Shopify Plus) | Unlimited (with infrastructure) | High (enterprise tier) |
Sticker price tells you almost nothing. The real cost of running an ecommerce store includes subscription fees, transaction fees, app costs, development, hosting, and ongoing maintenance. Here is what each platform actually costs over 3 years for a mid-size store doing $1 million to $5 million in annual revenue.
But there is a catch. The hidden cost with Shopify is app dependency. Features that BigCommerce includes natively often require paid third-party apps on Shopify. A typical mid-size store runs 15 to 25 apps, and those monthly fees add up fast.
Adobe Commerce is the most expensive option by a wide margin. Even the "free" Open Source edition demands significant hosting and development investment. This platform only makes financial sense for businesses doing $5 million+ in annual revenue with the complexity to justify it.
BigCommerce offers the lowest total cost of ownership for mid-market brands. Zero transaction fees and more built-in features mean less spending on third-party apps and payment processing overhead.
The biggest shift in ecommerce platforms this year is AI integration and headless architecture support. Both are changing how stores operate and how customers find products.
Shopify's Winter 2026 "RenAIssance" edition shipped over 150 updates centered on AI. Sidekick, Shopify's AI assistant, now executes multi-step tasks across your entire store: creating discount codes, drafting email campaigns, editing themes through natural language, and managing inventory. Shopify Magic generates product descriptions, email copy, and image backgrounds across all plans at no extra cost.
The biggest move is Agentic Storefronts. Your customers can now browse and purchase products directly inside ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot without ever visiting your website. That is not a future prediction. It is live now.
For headless commerce, Shopify offers Hydrogen (a React-based framework) and Oxygen (global edge hosting). The new Utopia visual editor lets marketing teams drag and drop components on headless storefronts without writing code. That solves the single biggest complaint about headless: marketing teams losing autonomy.
Adobe Commerce integrates Adobe Sensei for AI-powered product recommendations, live search, automated customer segmentation, and dynamic pricing. The AI capabilities run deep but require the paid Commerce edition and often custom implementation to unlock.
For headless architecture, Adobe offers PWA Studio with pre-built React components that cut development time by 30% to 40%. GraphQL APIs power the decoupled frontend. Mature third-party frameworks like Hyvae and ScandiPWA give you additional headless options with active communities.
The composable commerce approach lets enterprises assemble their stack from best-of-breed components for search, payments, CMS, and personalization. Nobody else matches this level of architectural flexibility. The tradeoff: you need a skilled development team to build and maintain it.
BigCommerce launched Catalyst, a composable reference architecture built on Next.js with React Server Components and GraphQL. Catalyst gives developers a production-ready headless starter with pre-built commerce components, cutting initial development time significantly.
BigCommerce's API-first design makes it the most naturally composable SaaS platform. You can connect any frontend framework, CMS, or microservice without fighting the platform. Native AI features are limited compared to Shopify, but the open architecture makes plugging in third-party AI tools straightforward.
Shopify handles scale automatically. Shopify Plus merchants have processed over 200,000 orders per minute during peak sales events like Black Friday. Infrastructure, caching, CDN, and load balancing are fully managed. You never think about servers.
Scalability on Adobe Commerce is theoretically unlimited because you control the infrastructure. In practice, scaling requires serious DevOps expertise. Database optimization, caching layers (Varnish, Redis), and server configuration all fall on your team. Commerce Cloud simplifies this, but at a premium price.
BigCommerce handles infrastructure scaling automatically, similar to Shopify. The platform maintains 99.99% uptime and manages traffic spikes without intervention. For most mid-market stores, BigCommerce scaling is more than enough.
B2B ecommerce is where these three platforms diverge most sharply.
Adobe Commerce leads with native B2B features: custom catalogs per company, tiered pricing, quote management, requisition lists, company account hierarchies, purchase order workflows, and multi-store B2B/B2C setups. If you run a complex B2B operation with hundreds of accounts needing different pricing, Magento is built for exactly that.
BigCommerce offers strong B2B capabilities within a SaaS model: price lists, customer groups, quote management, purchase orders, and B2B-specific payment methods. The B2B Edition adds company accounts, buyer roles, and invoice management. It is the strongest SaaS option for B2B ecommerce.
Shopify has limited native B2B support. Shopify Plus added wholesale channels, company profiles, and custom pricing, but the B2B feature set lags behind both competitors. Most Shopify B2B stores rely on third-party apps to fill gaps, which adds cost and complexity.
We build custom ecommerce solutions for clients on a regular basis. Here is what a custom build typically costs on each platform for a mid-size store with 500 to 5,000 SKUs, custom design, and integrations with ERP, CRM, and payment systems.
| Build Component | Shopify/Plus | Adobe Commerce | BigCommerce |
|---|---|---|---|
| Custom theme development | $10,000 to $30,000 | $25,000 to $75,000 | $10,000 to $30,000 |
| Custom integrations (ERP, CRM) | $5,000 to $20,000 | $15,000 to $50,000 | $5,000 to $20,000 |
| Custom functionality | $5,000 to $25,000 | $20,000 to $80,000 | $5,000 to $25,000 |
| Data migration | $2,000 to $8,000 | $5,000 to $15,000 | $2,000 to $8,000 |
| QA and launch | $2,000 to $5,000 | $5,000 to $15,000 | $2,000 to $5,000 |
| Total custom build | $24,000 to $88,000 | $70,000 to $235,000 | $24,000 to $88,000 |
| Timeline | 6 to 12 weeks | 12 to 24 weeks | 6 to 12 weeks |
Adobe Commerce builds take 2x to 3x longer and cost 3x to 5x more than the SaaS alternatives. That investment pays off only for stores with enough complexity and revenue to justify it.
MarsDevs provides custom web application development for ecommerce brands across all three platforms. We scope projects to ship in weeks, not months. You own 100% of the code from day one.
Shopify is the best ecommerce platform for small businesses in 2026. It offers the fastest setup (minutes, not days), the largest app ecosystem (13,000+ integrations), built-in AI tools at no extra cost, and plans starting at $39/month. Small businesses get hosting, SSL, payment processing, and marketing tools in one package without needing any developer support.
Adobe Commerce is worth it for enterprises with complex B2B needs, multi-store setups, and annual revenue above $5 million. The platform offers unmatched customization and native B2B features. It is not worth it for small to mid-size businesses. The total cost of ownership starts at $40,000/year for licensing alone, and the developer dependency makes it prohibitively expensive for smaller operations.
BigCommerce charges zero platform transaction fees on every plan, regardless of which payment gateway you use. This is a major advantage over Shopify, which charges 0.6% to 2% transaction fees when merchants use third-party payment gateways instead of Shopify Payments. For high-volume stores processing $500K+ in annual transactions, this difference saves thousands of dollars per year.
All three support headless commerce, but the approach differs. Shopify offers Hydrogen and Oxygen with the Utopia visual editor for the most polished headless experience. BigCommerce offers Catalyst (Next.js-based) with the most API-first, composable architecture. Adobe Commerce offers PWA Studio and full GraphQL support with the deepest customization. For most teams, BigCommerce Catalyst offers the best balance of flexibility and development speed for headless builds.
Yes. Platform migration is common, and both Shopify and BigCommerce offer migration tools and partner support. A typical migration from Magento to either SaaS platform takes 8 to 16 weeks and costs $15,000 to $60,000 depending on store complexity, SKU count, custom functionality, and integration requirements. Plan for 2 to 4 weeks of data migration alone.
Shopify leads AI features by a wide margin. Sidekick handles multi-step store management tasks through natural language. Magic generates product descriptions, email copy, and image backgrounds on all plans for free. Agentic Storefronts let customers purchase through ChatGPT and Google Gemini directly. Adobe Commerce offers strong AI through Adobe Sensei for recommendations and search personalization. BigCommerce has limited native AI but its open architecture makes third-party AI integration straightforward.
Adobe Commerce is the strongest B2B platform with native support for company accounts, custom catalogs, tiered pricing, quote management, and purchase order workflows. BigCommerce offers solid B2B capabilities in a SaaS model through its B2B Edition. Shopify Plus added B2B features but still relies on third-party apps for complex B2B workflows. Choose Magento for complex B2B, BigCommerce for mid-market B2B, and Shopify for primarily B2C with light B2B needs.
For a mid-size store doing $1 million to $5 million in annual revenue, 3-year total cost of ownership estimates are: Shopify ($15,000 to $120,000), BigCommerce ($10,000 to $80,000), and Adobe Commerce ($120,000 to $750,000). These figures include subscription fees, transaction fees, apps and extensions, hosting, development, and ongoing maintenance. BigCommerce typically offers the lowest TCO for mid-market brands because of zero transaction fees and more built-in features.
Shopify Plus is worth it for brands doing $1 million+ in annual online revenue that need advanced automation (Shopify Flow), customizable checkout, expansion stores for international selling, and dedicated support. The platform handles flash sales with 200,000+ orders per minute. If your monthly revenue exceeds $80,000 to $100,000 and you are hitting limits on the Advanced plan, Plus typically pays for itself through better conversion tools and lower processing rates.
Shopify is the only platform where a non-technical founder can build and manage a professional store without a developer, thanks to its drag-and-drop theme editor and AI-powered Sidekick assistant. BigCommerce offers a visual editor but deeper customization requires some technical skill. Adobe Commerce requires developer involvement for virtually every customization beyond basic content changes. If you have zero technical resources, Shopify is your only realistic option among these three.
The wrong ecommerce platform is a mistake that costs 12 to 18 months and tens of thousands of dollars to fix. The right one depends on your revenue, catalog complexity, B2B needs, technical team, and where you plan to be in three years.
We have built ecommerce stores on all three platforms for brands doing $100K to $50M+ in annual revenue. Whether you need a custom web application on Shopify, a complex B2B setup on Magento, or a headless BigCommerce build, our senior engineers scope and ship fast.
Need help deciding or ready to build? Talk to our engineering team. We take on 4 new projects per month and can have your project scoped within 48 hours.
Co-Founder, MarsDevs
Vishvajit started MarsDevs in 2019 to help founders turn ideas into production-grade software. With deep expertise in AI, cloud architecture, and product engineering, he has led the delivery of 80+ software products for clients in 12+ countries.
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