What is Magento Commerce Cloud?

Key takeaways
- Magento Commerce Cloud is now commonly called Adobe Commerce on cloud infrastructure.
- It combines Adobe Commerce features with a managed cloud environment.
- Built-in tools can include Fastly CDN, New Relic, deployment workflows, and backups.
- It’s usually best for larger stores with complex catalogs, B2B needs, or multi-store operations.
Since Magento was acquired by Adobe in 2018, Magento Commerce Cloud has been gaining popularity as a robust cloud-based enterprise hosting solution. Combining the power of Adobe Commerce with the high performance and reliability of cloud hosting, Magento Commerce Cloud is a perfect solution for large mission-critical ecommerce websites.
In this comprehensive guide to Magento Commerce Cloud, you will learn how Adobe turned Magento into a full-fledged ecommerce platform as a service (PaaS) solution and why cloud hosting architecture might be the best choice for your online business.
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What is Magento Commerce Cloud?
Magento Commerce Cloud is the older name for Adobe Commerce on cloud infrastructure. It combines Adobe Commerce features with managed cloud infrastructure, deployment tools, performance monitoring, and scalability features.
Magento Commerce Cloud is a PaaS ecommerce solution that combines the ecommerce capabilities of Magento with the reliability of cloud hosting.
Magento Open Source is the free, self-hosted version of Magento. Adobe Commerce is the paid enterprise ecommerce platform, and Adobe Commerce on cloud infrastructure refers to Adobe Commerce running in Adobe’s managed cloud environment.
What is Magento Commerce?
Magento Commerce was the paid enterprise version of Magento. Today, it’s known as Adobe Commerce. It includes more advanced ecommerce features than Magento Open Source, including B2B capabilities, customer segmentation, content staging, Page Builder, and enterprise support options.
Magento Commerce Cloud combined those enterprise commerce features with a cloud hosting and deployment environment. That made it a different option from running Magento Open Source on a self-managed or third-party hosting setup.
Magento Commerce Cloud vs Magento Open Source
Magento Open Source gives merchants more control over hosting and infrastructure, but the merchant or hosting provider manages more of the environment.
Magento Commerce Cloud includes enterprise Adobe Commerce features and cloud infrastructure support. It can be a better fit for businesses that need enterprise tools, support, B2B features, and a cloud-based deployment workflow.
Magento Commerce Cloud vs managed Magento hosting
Magento Commerce Cloud is Adobe’s enterprise cloud option, while managed Magento hosting is a third-party hosting approach for Magento or Adobe Commerce stores. The right choice depends on how much control, support, cost flexibility, and platform-specific workflow your business needs.
| Comparison point | Magento Commerce Cloud | Managed Magento hosting |
| What it is | Adobe’s enterprise cloud platform for Magento / Adobe Commerce stores | Third-party hosting built to support Magento / Adobe Commerce stores |
| Best for | Enterprise teams that want Adobe’s cloud platform and have development resources | Stores that want more hosting flexibility, Magento-specific support, and server control |
| Hosting control | More tied to Adobe’s cloud environment | More flexibility in hosting provider, server setup, and infrastructure choices |
| Support | Adobe platform support, plus any internal or agency development support | Hosting provider support, often with Magento-specific server and performance expertise |
| Cost structure | Typically enterprise-level pricing and platform costs | Varies by provider and hosting plan, with more flexibility in cost structure |
| Infrastructure responsibility | Adobe’s cloud platform reduces some infrastructure management | Hosting provider helps manage the hosting environment, depending on plan |
| Development work | Teams still manage development, releases, updates, integrations, and storefront performance | Teams still manage the Magento application, but may get more hosting-level support |
| Performance management | Requires ongoing optimization across code, releases, integrations, and storefront setup | Can include Magento-focused server optimization, caching, monitoring, and performance support |
| Flexibility | Strong platform capabilities, but less hosting-provider flexibility | More flexibility to choose hosting setup, resources, and support model |
| Best choice when | You want Adobe’s enterprise cloud platform and have the team to manage development workflows | You want Magento-specific hosting support, more server control, and more cost flexibility |
How Magento Commerce Cloud works
Magento Commerce Cloud works like a managed cloud platform for Adobe Commerce projects. Instead of only installing Magento on a server, teams work within a cloud development, staging, and production workflow that supports deployment, monitoring, scaling, and infrastructure management.
It provides cloud infrastructure and developer tools, but it doesn’t remove the need for ecommerce development, application management, testing, and release planning.
Core features of Magento Commerce Cloud
Managed cloud architecture
Magento Commerce Cloud runs on cloud infrastructure and can support scaling, backups, environment management, and disaster recovery.
This can help larger ecommerce stores manage traffic, product catalogs, checkout activity, and operational growth without building every part of the hosting environment from scratch.
Built-in performance tools
Magento Commerce Cloud can include tools like Fastly CDN, caching, and performance monitoring through New Relic.
These tools can help teams monitor performance, identify bottlenecks, and support faster storefront experiences.
Developer workflows
Magento Commerce Cloud includes developer and deployment workflows, including Git-based deployment, Magento Cloud CLI, and separate environments for development, staging, and production.
These workflows can help teams manage releases, test changes, and coordinate development work across environments.
B2B and B2C ecommerce capabilities
Adobe Commerce can support both B2C and B2B ecommerce. For B2B, it can support custom pricing, company accounts, account hierarchies, buyer roles, corporate purchasing, quote workflows, and customer-specific catalogs.
These capabilities make Magento Commerce Cloud a stronger fit for businesses with complex buying workflows, multiple customer segments, or enterprise selling needs.
Security, backups, and disaster recovery
Security still depends on more than the platform. Businesses also need strong access control, safe code practices, extension review, integration security, and customer data protection.
Cloud infrastructure can also support backups, recovery workflows, and environment controls that help teams respond when something goes wrong.
Who is Magento Commerce Cloud for?
Magento Commerce Cloud is usually best for medium to large ecommerce businesses, enterprise brands, B2B sellers, international stores, multi-brand businesses, and companies with complex catalogs or high-volume operations.
It may be a strong fit for businesses that need enterprise ecommerce features, cloud deployment workflows, scalable infrastructure, and access to Adobe Commerce capabilities. However, it may be more platform than some smaller stores need.
Stores with simple catalogs, limited traffic, basic checkout needs, smaller budgets, or limited technical resources may be better served by Magento Open Source on managed Magento hosting or another ecommerce platform. A cloud platform can help, but it doesn’t replace the need for the right development, support, and maintenance plan.
Magento Commerce Cloud pricing and total cost
Magento Commerce Cloud pricing can depend on business size, contract terms, order volume, gross merchandise value, required features, implementation needs, and support expectations.
Total cost can also include Adobe licensing, implementation, development, extensions, integrations, frontend work, QA, performance optimization, and internal team time.
Compare the full operating cost, not only the platform price.
Magento Commerce Cloud performance considerations
Magento Commerce Cloud includes cloud infrastructure and performance-focused tools, but performance still depends on implementation quality.
Themes, extensions, images, frontend code, third-party scripts, caching, database health, integrations, and development decisions can still affect speed.
Cloud infrastructure helps, but it doesn’t automatically fix every performance problem.
Migration to Magento Commerce Cloud
Businesses may move to Magento Commerce Cloud from Magento Open Source, an older Magento environment, another ecommerce platform, or self-managed hosting.
Migration requires planning for product data, customers, orders, URLs, redirects, integrations, theme or frontend work, extensions, checkout, testing, and launch timing.
A successful move should account for both the cloud environment and the ecommerce application running inside it.
Magento Commerce Cloud FAQs
Getting started with Magento Commerce Cloud
Magento Commerce Cloud, now commonly referred to as Adobe Commerce on cloud infrastructure, is an enterprise ecommerce option for businesses that need Adobe Commerce features with cloud-based infrastructure and deployment support.
Start by reviewing your store’s catalog size, traffic, B2B requirements, integration needs, development resources, budget, and support expectations before choosing Magento Commerce Cloud.
Magento Commerce Cloud is one path for enterprise ecommerce, but it isn’t the only way to run a high-performance Magento store. Liquid Web Magento hosting gives ecommerce teams performance, support, and reliability for stores that need Magento expertise and flexible hosting options. Explore Liquid Web Magento hosting to find the right fit.
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