How to Choose a Magento Development Company (Adobe Commerce) in 2026

To choose a Magento development company, confirm that it has delivered Magento 2 or Adobe Commerce stores similar in size and complexity to yours, keeps clients on supported 2.4.x releases, uses certified developers, tests extensions before installing them, and has a clear plan for performance, security patches and upgrades. Magento is powerful but demanding, so the wrong partner can leave you with a slow, hard-to-upgrade store. This guide covers what to check, what to ask and how to compare proposals.

Magento Open Source or Adobe Commerce: know what you are buying

"Magento" now covers two related products. Magento Open Source is the free edition you host yourself. Adobe Commerce is the licensed edition, available on Adobe's cloud infrastructure or on-premise, with extra B2B and merchandising features. Many agencies work with both, but experience with one does not automatically mean depth in the other.

• If you run Magento Open Source, you need a company that is strong on hosting, server tuning and choosing extensions, because there is no vendor support behind you.
• If you run Adobe Commerce, look for experience with Adobe's cloud tooling, B2B modules and working alongside Adobe support.
• If you are moving from Magento 1, another platform or a heavily customised older Magento 2 store, you need migration experience specifically.

Check version support and the upgrade plan

Staying on a supported release matters for security and for payment compliance. Adobe's software lifecycle policy for Adobe Commerce gives each version a three-year standard support window from its general availability date. The current table looks like this:

If your store is on 2.4.6 or older, ask every company you speak to how it would plan the upgrade, how long it expects testing to take and how it handles third-party extensions that are not yet compatible. If you run Magento Open Source, ask the company to confirm your version's status against Adobe's current release information.

Look for certified, hands-on Magento developers

Adobe runs a Commerce certification program with Professional and Expert levels for business practitioners, developers and front-end developers, plus a Master level for architects. Certifications do not guarantee good work, but they show that developers have studied the platform in depth.

Ask for the names and certifications of the people who will actually work on your store, not the company total. Then go further:

• Ask for two or three live stores they built or maintain, ideally with a similar catalogue size and traffic level.
• Ask what they changed in each store and what the results were in measurable terms, such as page speed or checkout errors.
• Ask whether they have built custom modules, and whether they follow Magento's coding standards and dependency injection patterns rather than editing core files.
• Ask which front-end approach they recommend for your store and why.

The Magento company checklist

• Code in version control with a staging environment that mirrors production.
• Extension policy: each extension reviewed for code quality, compatibility and vendor support before installation.
• Performance plan: full-page caching, search engine configuration, image optimisation and a stated speed target.
• Security patching: a process for applying Adobe security patches promptly, with testing on staging first.
• Payment compliance awareness: experience setting up payment methods so card data is handled in line with PCI DSS, which applies to all entities that store, process or transmit cardholder data.
• Integrations: experience with the ERP, PIM, CRM, tax and shipping systems you use.
• Monitoring and support: uptime and error monitoring, with agreed response times for checkout problems.

Questions to ask in the discovery call

1. Which Magento stores have you built or maintained that are closest to ours in catalogue size and traffic?
2. Who will be on our team, what are their certifications, and how many hours a week will each work on our project?
3. How would you upgrade us to a supported 2.4.x release, and what risks do you see?
4. How do you decide whether to use an extension or write custom code?
5. What hosting setup do you recommend, and why? Who manages it?
6. How do you apply security patches, and how quickly after release?
7. How will you test checkout, payments, tax and shipping before each release?
8. What does your support retainer cover, and what are the response times for a checkout outage?
9. Will you audit our current store before giving a fixed quote?

Red flags

• Editing core files. Changes to Magento core make upgrades painful. Customisations should live in modules.
• Extension sprawl. Installing an extension for every small need, with no review of code quality.
• No staging environment. Changes tested directly on the live store.
• A fixed upgrade quote without an audit. Upgrade effort depends on your extensions and custom code. A credible quote needs a look at both.
• Hosting and admin access kept from you. You should hold admin, hosting, repository and licence credentials.
• Generic e-commerce talk. If a company cannot discuss indexers, caching layers or Magento's module structure, it may be a general web agency rather than a Magento specialist.

What a well-run Magento project looks like

Knowing the normal shape of a Magento engagement makes it easier to spot proposals that skip important steps. Most solid projects follow a sequence close to this one:

1. Audit or discovery. The agency reviews your current store, extensions, custom modules, hosting, analytics and integrations, and writes down what it found. For a new build, discovery covers catalogue structure, pricing rules, customer groups and the systems Magento must talk to.
2. Solution design. Decisions on the Magento edition and version, front-end approach, extensions versus custom modules, search, hosting and the data migration plan, all agreed in writing.
3. Design and front-end build. Templates for the home page, category pages, product pages, cart and checkout, with mobile layouts reviewed first because that is where most shoppers browse.
4. Back-end development and integrations. Custom modules, ERP or PIM connections, tax and shipping rules, payment methods and email templates.
5. Data migration and testing. Several trial migrations of products, customers and orders, then functional, performance and payment testing on a staging site that mirrors production.
6. Launch and hypercare. A launch checklist covering redirects, caching, indexers, cron jobs and monitoring, followed by a period of closer support while real orders flow through.

If a proposal jumps straight from "kick-off" to "launch" with no audit, no staging and no trial migrations, ask how the agency will manage those risks. Also check who on your side needs to be available at each stage. Magento projects often slow down because product data, payment accounts or ERP access arrive late from the merchant, not because of the developers.

Finally, ask how the agency handles change requests during the build. On a platform as flexible as Magento, new ideas appear mid-project. A clear process for estimating, approving and scheduling changes protects both your budget and your launch date.

Comparing Magento proposals

Magento proposals vary widely in what they include. Normalise them in one table before comparing totals.

Fill the table from each proposal. Gaps are a prompt for follow-up questions, not automatically a reason to reject a company. When you call references, ask past clients how the agency handled problems after launch, whether estimates held, and whether they would hire the same team again for an upgrade.

Rates and locations on Trusted IT Firms

There are currently 64 companies listed under Magento development on Trusted IT Firms. Of these, 29 list an hourly rate of $25 to $75, 18 list $1 to $25 and 9 list $75 to $250. By country, 30 are Magento companies in India and 26 are Magento companies in the United States. Because Magento projects often include design and other platforms, you may also want to browse eCommerce development companies more broadly.

Start your shortlist

Write a brief that covers your edition, version, catalogue size, integrations and goals. Ask three to five Magento companies the questions above, insist on an audit for any upgrade or rescue work, and compare proposals line by line. Browse all companies on Trusted IT Firms to get started, or, if you run a Magento agency, list your company for free.

Frequently asked questions

Is Magento still a good choice in 2026?

It can be for stores with large catalogues, complex pricing, B2B needs or many integrations. It needs more development and hosting effort than hosted platforms, so budget for ongoing support.

How long is an Adobe Commerce version supported?

Adobe's lifecycle policy gives each Adobe Commerce release a three-year standard support window from general availability. For example, 2.4.9 is supported until May 31, 2029.

Do Magento developers need Adobe certification?

It is not required, but Adobe's Professional, Expert and Master certifications show platform knowledge. Check the certifications of the people who will work on your store.

Should an agency audit my store before quoting an upgrade?

Yes. Upgrade effort depends on your extensions, custom modules and data. A quote without an audit is a guess.

Sources

• Software lifecycle policy, Adobe Commerce (Experience League)
• Commerce Certification Overview (Adobe Experience League)
• PCI Data Security Standard (PCI SSC)