The verdict in three sentences
If your Magento 2 store costs more than EUR 30,000 a year in maintenance, security patches and hosting, a migration pays back in 2 to 3 years. Shopify Plus suits standard B2B catalogues with customer-specific pricing and quick ordering, for EUR 25,000 to 70,000 excl. VAT; headless Medusa wins when B2B logic is complex (quotes, multi-warehouse, ERP at the core), for EUR 40,000 to 100,000. The main risk is not technical: it is losing SEO traffic and badly migrated customer accounts.
The real cost of staying on Magento
| Annual item | Magento 2 Open Source | Adobe Commerce |
|---|---|---|
| Maintenance and security patches | EUR 24,000 to 48,000 | EUR 30,000 to 60,000 |
| Optimised hosting | EUR 3,600 to 12,000 | Partly included in Adobe cloud |
| Licence | EUR 0 | EUR 40,000 and up depending on revenue |
| Version upgrades (2.4.x) | EUR 8,000 to 20,000 | EUR 8,000 to 20,000 |
| Paid extensions | EUR 2,000 to 6,000 | EUR 2,000 to 6,000 |
| Annual total (estimate) | EUR 37,600 to 86,000 | EUR 80,000 to 146,000 |
The scarcity of Magento developers in 2026 pushes day rates to EUR 600 to 800, which explains steadily rising maintenance bills.
Shopify Plus or Medusa: figures side by side
| Criterion | Shopify Plus (native B2B) | Headless Medusa |
|---|---|---|
| Migration cost excl. VAT | EUR 25,000 to 70,000 | EUR 40,000 to 100,000 |
| Platform subscription | From about USD 2,300 a month | EUR 0 (open source) |
| Hosting | Included | EUR 300 to 1,500 a month |
| Transaction fees | 0.15 to 0.6% depending on payment | Payment provider fees only |
| Customer pricing and B2B catalogues | Native (catalogues, payment terms) | Built or via B2B modules |
| Quotes, multi-buyer approval | Limited, third-party apps | Custom, flexible |
| ERP integration (Sage, SAP, Odoo) | Market connectors | Owned API, real time |
| Migration timeline | 3 to 5 months | 4 to 7 months |
Rule of thumb: if more than 30% of your orders go through a quote or negotiation, or if the ERP must drive stock and prices in real time, Medusa fits better. Otherwise Shopify Plus sharply cuts running costs.
Migration risks and how to cover them
| Risk | Possible impact | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| SEO loss | 20 to 40% less organic traffic over 3 months | Exhaustive 301 redirect plan, crawl before and after |
| Customer accounts | Passwords cannot be transferred | Reactivation invite, secure link, reminder at day 7 |
| Negotiated prices | Per-customer price lists lost | Import price lists and test on 20 pilot accounts |
| Order history | Buyers cannot reorder | Migrate 24 to 36 months of history |
| ERP integration | Broken flows on launch day | 2-week parallel run |
| Product data | Attributes and variants mismapped | Mapping validated on 100% of families |
Mini case study
Nicolas, ecommerce manager at an industrial supplies distributor near Lille, runs EUR 6 million of online revenue on Magento 2. He pays EUR 3,200 a month for maintenance, EUR 800 for hosting and EUR 12,000 a year in upgrades, EUR 60,000 a year. A Shopify Plus migration at EUR 55,000, with a subscription of about EUR 27,000 a year and EUR 8,000 of app fees, brings annual cost down to EUR 35,000. Savings: EUR 25,000 a year, payback in 2.2 years. With a plan of 4,200 redirects and 36 months of history migrated, the traffic dip is limited to 6% in the first month and recovered by the third.
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FAQ
How long does a B2B Magento migration take?
Plan 3 to 5 months to Shopify Plus and 4 to 7 months to Medusa, including 3 to 4 weeks of acceptance testing with pilot customers.
Can customer passwords be kept?
No, Magento hashes are not compatible. You send a reactivation invite; in B2B, 70 to 85% of active accounts reactivate within 30 days with one reminder.
Does Shopify Plus handle 30 or 60-day payment terms?
Yes, native B2B features support payment terms per company, catalogues and customer-specific discounts.
Is Medusa mature enough for B2B?
Medusa v2 ships company, quote and customer-group pricing modules. It needs a tech team or agency for maintenance, roughly EUR 1,500 to 3,000 a month.
Should we migrate before France's e-invoicing reform?
It is a good moment: the new platform can be connected to an accredited e-invoicing platform from day one, avoiding paying twice for the adaptation.
Let's scope your project. Send us your order volume, Magento extensions and ERP, and we will compare Shopify Plus and Medusa with a firm migration budget. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
