The Unexpected Strength in Adobe and Magento Coexistence

For years, I've viewed Adobe's acquisition of Magento through a skeptical lens. Like many in the community, I questioned Adobe's commitment to the open-source ethos that made Magento special. I criticized their engagement approach, their strategic decisions, and what seemed like a gradual distancing from the community that built Magento's success.

Then something changed. During backstage conversations with Adobe employees and partners, I heard a perspective that made me step back and reconsider my view on things. They weren't describing Adobe Commerce as a standalone platform competing with other commerce solutions. They were explaining how it functions as a component in a larger ecosystem of integrated Adobe products.

It was one of those moments when scattered puzzle pieces suddenly form a clear picture. The Venn diagram showing "Two ecosystems, one community" that I'd dismissed as corporate jargon actually represented something profoundly important—these platforms don't need to be in opposition. They can serve different purposes while sharing core strengths and values.

This realization doesn't absolve Adobe of its community responsibilities. But it does explain strategic decisions that previously seemed misguided or even hostile to the community. It reveals a potential future where both ecosystems thrive by serving different needs within a connected market.

Let me explain why this matters and how it might reshape our understanding of where both Adobe Commerce Magento Open Source, and Mage-OS are headed.

Understanding the Full Strategic Picture

When Adobe acquired Magento in May 2018 for $1.68 billion, the community held its collective breath. Would this corporate giant nurture or suffocate the open-source platform we'd built our careers around?

I was encouraged, Adobe brought a bunch of us to the Adobe Summit and gave us access to the AEM team and some of the folks that helped with the open source part of that. The future seemed bright (I thought about wearing shades)

Over the next few years, my verdict changed along with the community: Adobe was gradually distancing itself from the community-driven model that made Magento successful. The rebranding to Adobe Commerce, changes to the partner program, and shifts in development priorities all pointed to a future where Magento's open source roots would wither while Adobe focused exclusively on enterprise clients.

I wasn't alone in this assessment. Community forums, Twitter threads, and conference hallway conversations echoed the same concerns. The "Magento is dead" narrative gained momentum with each perceived slight from Adobe.

My Turning Point

What changed my mind wasn't a marketing campaign or public announcement. It was witnessing Adobe's strategy through unguarded conversations with those implementing it.?

Adobe wasn't trying to kill Magento—they were repositioning it within a broader ecosystem where:

• Adobe Commerce serves as the commerce engine within the Experience Cloud
• Magento Open Source continues serving the community and smaller merchants
• Both codebases benefit from shared core development
• Mage-OS could be the future after Magento is sunsetted by Adobe.

A Framework That Explains Everything

This framework explains decisions that previously seemed illogical or hostile:

• The separation of branding allows each platform to serve its target audience
• The technical divergence enables enterprise features without bloating the open source core
• The community-corporate tension reflects real differences in priorities, not a failure to communicate

Most importantly, it reveals how Magento Open Source, Mage-OS, and Adobe Commerce can all thrive by serving different segments of a connected market rather than directly competing for the same customers.

Practical Implications of This Coexistence Model

Rethinking Strategy

This insight changes how I approach Adobe Commerce. It's not a standalone product competing against other commerce platforms—it's a component in Adobe's greater experience ecosystem. While this doesn't absolve Adobe of its responsibility to the Magento community, it does mean we need to evaluate their decisions through a different lens.

The strategic value of Adobe Commerce isn't just in its feature set but in how it integrates with Experience Manager, Analytics, Target, and the rest of the Adobe stack. For businesses already invested in these tools, the value proposition is entirely different than for merchants evaluating standalone commerce platforms.

The Headless Future

Adobe Commerce will inevitably evolve into a headless platform, directly competing with commercetools and other enterprise solutions. The critical difference? These competitors lack Magento's thriving developer community and ecosystem of extensions and integrations.

I believe the next chapter for Magento will focus less on traditional extensions and more on true apps that connect to both Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source—creating a bridge between ecosystems. This transition from extensions to apps represents a fundamental shift in how customizations are created, distributed, and maintained.

Serving the Entire Market Spectrum

What makes the Adobe-Magento relationship truly unique in the e-commerce landscape is its ability to serve virtually every market segment with appropriate solutions.

Small businesses and startups can leverage Magento Open Source or the community-driven Mage-OS fork, benefiting from enterprise-grade architecture without enterprise-level costs. Mid-market companies can choose between Magento Open Source with commercial support or Adobe Commerce Cloud based on their specific needs and growth trajectories.

For enterprise clients already using Adobe Experience Manager, adding Adobe Commerce SaaS to their tech stack requires minimal integration effort—primarily frontend work. Those wanting code control with managed infrastructure can deploy Adobe Commerce Cloud, maintaining customization capabilities while offloading infrastructure management. And enterprises requiring complete control can implement self-hosted Adobe Commerce, controlling every aspect of their implementation.

This spectrum of options creates virtually unmatched market coverage compared to competitors focusing on just one or two segments. It's not about Magento versus Adobe Commerce—it's about having a solution for every type of business within a connected technology ecosystem.

Adobe's 2025 Roadmap Confirms This Vision

Adobe's recently announced roadmap confirms this strategic direction. Coming in June 2025, Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service will deliver a fully SaaS commerce solution that can be provisioned in minutes, always remains up-to-date, and substantially reduces the total cost of ownership. Its high-performance storefronts powered by Edge Delivery Services, GenAI-powered content creation, native digital asset management, and highly scalable catalog service supporting 250M SKUs demonstrate Adobe's commitment to enterprise-grade commerce.

Simultaneously, Adobe Commerce Optimizer will provide an experience layer working with third-party ecommerce systems, delivering modern storefront experiences without disrupting existing backend systems. This approach allows businesses to modernize incrementally rather than requiring complete replatforming.

Most importantly, Adobe has explicitly committed to "supporting existing products, both on cloud (PaaS) and on-premises, with releases and patches for the foreseeable future." This isn't abandonment—it's expansion of options.

Developer and Agency Evolution

For developers and agencies, this strategic clarity brings opportunities rather than threats. Skills remain transferable across both ecosystems, while career paths actually diversify rather than narrow. The community can continue innovation alongside enterprise-grade stability.

The evolution toward apps over extensions opens new development opportunities that span both open source and enterprise environments. Rather than forcing developers to choose between worlds, this approach allows them to create solutions that bridge ecosystems, potentially reaching more customers with the same core development investment.

This doesn't just benefit individual developers—it strengthens the entire ecosystem by creating clearer specialization paths while maintaining a shared technological foundation.

The App Ecosystem Question

This strategic shift raises questions about how extensions and apps will function in the new Adobe Commerce SaaS environment. The traditional Magento approach to extensions—with direct code modifications and complex interdependencies—simply won't work in a true SaaS model where merchants lack direct code access.

Adobe will need to develop a robust app marketplace and API framework that allows for customization without compromising the core SaaS benefits of reliability, automatic updates, and consistent performance. This represents both a challenge and an opportunity for the developer community.

Will Adobe create a Shopify-like app store with standardized installation processes and controlled integration points? Or might they develop something more sophisticated that maintains Magento's historical flexibility while enforcing the boundaries necessary in a SaaS environment?

Perhaps most importantly, how will developers monetize their work in this new ecosystem? The traditional Magento extension market allowed for one-time purchases with optional support subscriptions. A SaaS-oriented app ecosystem might shift toward recurring revenue models, potentially changing the economics for both developers and merchants.

The answers to these questions will significantly impact how successful Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service becomes. If Adobe creates an app ecosystem that balances merchant needs for customization with developer opportunities for innovation and profit, they could establish a unique position in the enterprise commerce space.

How do you think Adobe should approach the app ecosystem for their new SaaS offering? What lessons should they learn from other platforms' successes and failures in this area?

Addressing the Elephant in the Room: Community Concerns

While my perspective has evolved, I can't ignore the legitimate criticisms of Adobe's approach to the Magento community. Understanding their strategy doesn't erase the very real issues that have damaged trust and hindered collaboration.

The Communication Gap

Adobe's engagement with the Magento community has been inconsistent at best and non-existent at worst. The company dismantled the Magento advocacy program without a clear replacement, leaving a vacuum where community leaders once had direct channels to provide feedback and share insights.

This communication breakdown isn't just a perception problem—it has tangible consequences. Developers feel disconnected from product roadmap decisions, uncertain about which features will receive ongoing support. Community contributions face unclear paths to acceptance, discouraging the very innovation that made Magento successful. Merchants struggle to plan their technology roadmaps without transparency about long-term platform direction.

Adobe's silence often speaks louder than their occasional announcements. When they do communicate, it's frequently through carefully controlled marketing messages rather than the authentic engagement the community craves.

The Trust Deficit

The "embrace, extend, extinguish" concerns aren't unfounded. Adobe has a history of acquiring products and gradually shifting priorities away from original user bases toward enterprise clients. Community members have witnessed this pattern with other acquisitions and naturally fear Magento Open Source will follow the same path.

Many in the community worry that Magento Open Source will eventually receive the same treatment as other acquired products—maintained just enough to avoid backlash while resources flow primarily to the SaaS offerings. Each time an open source feature lags behind its Adobe \counterpart, these fears gain credibility.

The emergence of Mage-OS as a community-driven fork reflects this erosion of trust. When a significant portion of the community feels the need to create an insurance policy against Adobe's potential neglect, it signals a relationship in serious need of repair.

The Cultural Mismatch

Perhaps the most fundamental issue is the clash between Adobe's corporate culture and Magento's open-source ethos. Where Magento thrived on community-driven innovation and transparent decision-making, Adobe operates with the controlled messaging and strategic secrecy typical of large enterprises.

This cultural disconnect manifests in everything from developer documentation to event planning to partner communications. Adobe approaches community as an extension of marketing rather than a core part of product development. The organic, sometimes messy collaborative spirit that drove Magento's early success feels increasingly marginalized in favor of polished corporate messaging.

Even well-intentioned Adobe employees find themselves constrained by corporate policies and approval processes that prevent the kind of authentic engagement the community values.

Why This Matters Despite My New Perspective

These criticisms remain valid even as I recognize the strategic logic behind Adobe's approach. In fact, addressing these concerns would strengthen Adobe's position in the market.

Better community engagement would accelerate innovation in both ecosystems. The developer community represents an invaluable resource that competitors like commercetools and Salesforce struggle to replicate. Their passion, creativity, and willingness to experiment drive improvements that benefit all platform users.

Transparent communication would build trust in Adobe's long-term commitment. When stakeholders understand the roadmap and reasoning behind decisions, they can align their own business strategies accordingly, even if they don't always agree with every choice.

Cultural bridge-building would help retain the developer talent that gives Adobe Commerce its competitive edge. By finding ways to honor Magento's collaborative heritage while meeting enterprise needs for stability and predictability, Adobe could create a uniquely powerful ecosystem.

My evolved perspective doesn't mean giving Adobe a pass on these responsibilities. Rather, it means understanding that these engagement issues exist within a more complex strategic context than I previously recognized. Adobe can pursue its enterprise strategy while still fostering the community that gives their commerce platform its distinctive strength.

Broader Implications

My evolution in thinking about Adobe and Magento isn't just a personal journey—it reflects broader industry dynamics that affect merchants, developers, and the entire commerce ecosystem.

The Enterprise Integration Advantage

What truly sets Adobe Commerce apart isn't just its features—it's how it integrates with the entire Adobe ecosystem. While competitors offer strong commerce capabilities, none can match the seamless connection to Experience Manager for content, Marketo and Campaign for marketing automation, Analytics and Target for personalization, and robust digital asset management.

For enterprise clients, this integration eliminates countless friction points and data silos that plague multi-vendor solutions. I previously evaluated Adobe Commerce as if it were competing directly with Shopify or BigCommerce on feature parity, missing this fundamental advantage. The value proposition isn't about commerce in isolation—it's about unified customer experiences across all touchpoints.

The Global Commerce Ecosystem Impact

Adobe's evolution of Magento reshapes the entire e-commerce platform landscape. As open source commerce options become increasingly rare amid platform consolidation, the Magento Association's role becomes more vital than ever. Regional commerce ecosystems, especially in Europe and Asia, heavily depend on Magento Open Source for their digital economy infrastructure.

This global perspective matters because Adobe's decisions affect not just direct users but entire regional economies and technology ecosystems. I now recognize that the "two ecosystems, one community" approach isn't just about product strategy—it's about preserving the open source foundation that supports thousands of businesses while advancing enterprise capabilities.

The Technical Architecture Evolution

The technical direction itself explains many of Adobe's decisions that previously seemed arbitrary. The shift toward headless architecture fundamentally changes how developers work with the platform. API-first development opens new possibilities for integrations beyond the Adobe ecosystem.

Understanding these technical shifts helps explain why Adobe's approach isn't simply about branding or licensing—it reflects fundamental changes in how commerce platforms are architected for the next decade. My previous resistance to some of these changes came from evaluating them through the lens of traditional Magento development rather than seeing the broader architectural evolution.

The Long-term Developer Ecosystem Health

Perhaps most importantly, the long-term health of the developer ecosystem depends on clear career paths that span both open source and enterprise environments. Adobe's success with Commerce ultimately depends on maintaining this developer ecosystem—something competitors like commercetools struggle to build from scratch.

My new perspective doesn't just change how I evaluate Adobe's strategy—it changes how I advise businesses and developers to plan their future. For developers, the path forward isn't about choosing between Adobe Commerce or Magento Open Source but about developing skills that bridge these environments. For businesses, it's about selecting the right implementation model from a spectrum of options rather than viewing it as a binary choice.

This isn't about absolving Adobe of responsibility to the community. It's about recognizing that the relationship between Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source is more symbiotic than competitive. Each strengthens the other in ways I previously overlooked.

Creating a Shared Future

The real question isn't whether Adobe should engage more with the Magento community—though they absolutely should—but how we collectively create value while respecting the different needs each ecosystem serves.

Adobe Commerce's true competitive advantage against other enterprise platforms isn't just its feature set or integration capabilities. It's something far more difficult to replicate: the vibrant Magento community that surrounds it. The collective expertise, innovation, and passion of thousands of developers, merchants, and partners represent an asset that commercetools, Salesforce, or any other competitor simply cannot buy or build.

Recognizing this symbiotic relationship isn't just nice sentiment—it's essential business strategy. Adobe needs the Magento community's innovation, talent pool, and market reach. The community benefits from Adobe's enterprise relationships, technical resources, and product development. This interconnection creates a foundation for mutual growth that transcends the typical corporate-community tension.

The "two ecosystems, one community" vision isn't merely possible—it's potentially the most powerful differentiator in the commerce platform market. No other solution can offer the full spectrum from open-source flexibility to enterprise integration, all supported by a global community of developers and partners who understand both worlds.

My journey from criticism to understanding doesn't end with this realization. It begins a new chapter of engagement where I can advocate for community needs while appreciating the strategic context of Adobe's decisions. This balanced perspective seems increasingly valuable in a commerce landscape where nuance often gets lost in tribal positioning.

I believe we stand at an inflection point. The choices Adobe makes about community engagement in the coming months—particularly around the launch of their new SaaS offerings—will determine whether this potential for mutual success is realized or squandered. Likewise, how the community responds to these new offerings will shape Adobe's willingness to invest in the relationship.

I'm curious about your experience with this dynamic. Have you felt the tension between Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source? Has your perspective on their coexistence evolved over time? What would you like to see from both Adobe and the community to strengthen this relationship?

[Connect with me to continue this conversation as we navigate the future of these intertwined ecosystems. I'll be at Adobe Summit this week seeking more insights into this evolving story.]