Adobe Commerce and SaaS: A Developer’s Perspective on Evolution, Trade-offs, and What Merchants Should Actually Do

Adobe Commerce is what most people used to know as Magento. It's been on the market for over a decade. Before that, there was Magento 1, which means this software has more than 20 years of history behind it.

When Adobe acquired Magento, they didn't just buy the name. They started to push the platform in a new direction. More reliability. Better architecture. Fewer dependencies between components. And a strong focus on test coverage and upgrade stability.

That already made life easier for both developers and merchants. But Adobe didn't stop there.

Now Adobe is going even further with a SaaS model. From a developer's perspective, it makes total sense. It's the next logical step toward faster upgrades, stronger security, and cleaner codebases.

In this model, you no longer touch the core code. You manage your store through the admin panel, like you would on Instagram or any other closed platform. You can still upload products, manage orders, and configure business logic, but you're not writing custom code directly into the system.

If you want to customise anything, you build standalone apps that talk to Adobe Commerce using APIs.

There are two main approaches to customisation:

1. Using Adobe App Builder

   Adobe provides a toolkit that helps you build standalone apps. These apps run independently and communicate with the platform via APIs.

2. Building Your Own Services

   You can skip Adobe's tools and build your own services from scratch, then connect them to Adobe Commerce using the same API-driven approach.

In both cases, you're not changing the platform directly. You build around it.

From a technical point of view, the benefits are clear:

• Upgrades become simple

  Since nothing touches the core, updates are fast and safe. Security patches apply cleanly, with minimal disruption.

• Security improves

  When upgrades happen quickly, vulnerabilities get patched immediately. That's a big win for everyone.

• Custom features are isolated

  By building externally, you reduce the risk of breaking anything inside the platform. Your new features live in their own space, which means fewer surprises and easier maintenance.

• Scalability improves

  The architecture is more flexible, more predictable, and easier to grow over time.

All of this sounds fantastic if you're a developer. But what about the merchant who's paying for it?

There are a few important trade-offs:

• Customisation takes more time

  Building features externally with APIs is slower than just installing an extension inside a monolith.

• It costs more

  More time means more budget. This approach requires planning, proper architecture, and experienced development teams.

• Data flow is more complex

  Since you're relying heavily on APIs, it takes more thought to plan how information moves between services.

If you already have a working store, and none of these issues are problems for you, the extra complexity might not be worth it.

It depends entirely on where you are as a business.

If your store is running smoothly, your dev team is delivering, and you're not facing major problems with upgrades or scalability, there's no reason to rush into SaaS. Adobe has publicly confirmed that the traditional Magento architecture will continue to be supported for a long time.

I even asked Igor Minialo, Adobe Commerce's principal architect, directly on LinkedIn. His answer was clear: Adobe is not looking to shut down the traditional approach anytime soon. Many clients still rely on it, and they're not being pushed out.

But if you're starting from scratch, or you're building a high-volume, multi-service, enterprise-grade operation, then SaaS becomes much more appealing.

This approach is already standard across many large-scale enterprise platforms. Adobe is simply catching up and bringing that level of structure into its ecosystem.

You should consider Adobe Commerce SaaS when:

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  You're starting a new build

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  You need maximum fault tolerance

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  Your business processes are complex and service-heavy

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  You have (or plan to hire) a high-level dev team

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  You care more about long-term stability than short-term speed

If that sounds like you, then SaaS plus App Builder is a smart choice. It's modern, scalable, and future-proof.

If not, stay where you are. Keep things clean, updated, and functional. That's all you need.

This shift to SaaS is good news for the Adobe Commerce ecosystem. It encourages better code, cleaner architecture, and stronger development practices.

But it's not for everyone. It requires more planning, more budget, and more time.

If what you have is working, keep going. But if you're building something new and long-term stability matters, the SaaS route is worth your attention.

And yes, I'll moan a bit about having to learn new tools every year. That's just the nature of working in tech. The tools change, the expectations rise, and we all have to adapt.

Thinking about Adobe Commerce SaaS but not sure if it's the right fit? We can walk through the options with you, clarify the trade-offs, and help you make the right call based on your project, not just the latest trend. Let's talk.