Magento is one of the most well-known eCommerce platforms. It’s known for giving full control over store design, feature management, and product scaling. But that control comes with added work—and often, hidden challenges.
Before you pick Magento for your store, it’s important to understand what it demands from your time, team, and budget. In this blog, we’ll walk you through key drawbacks that people usually find out too late.
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What Is Magento, and Why Are People Switching Away from It?
Magento once held a strong position in the eCommerce space, especially among large businesses that wanted a platform they could fully customize.
It gave developers full control, offered support for large product catalogs, and had flexibility for both B2B and B2C models.
However, many store owners are now moving away from Magento. Here’s why:
It’s not easy to use without experienced developers
Running costs keep increasing over time
Updates, patches, and extension conflicts cause frequent disruptions
Faster, simpler alternatives have emerged
What used to be seen as Magento’s strengths—its complexity and customization potential—have now become reasons why people are switching to platforms that are easier to maintain, quicker to set up, and more budget-friendly.
Magento isn’t always the best starting point, especially for small to mid-sized stores or new eCommerce businesses. Here’s why:
1. High Development Costs
Magento requires technical skills even for basic changes. Custom development, theme updates, or backend tweaks can’t usually be handled without an experienced developer.
You may need to hire certified professionals or a team for setup, which pushes your cost far above platforms like Shopify or WooCommerce.A fully working Magento store with custom features can cost between $15,000 and $30,000, depending on how complex the site is.
2. Slow Loading Speeds (If Not Properly Handled)
Magento’s core system is large. If it’s not hosted on a powerful server or configured with proper caching, the store may feel slow, especially as your product list grows.
Page load speed directly affects bounce rate and user experience. So, even though Magento gives more freedom, that freedom can backfire without the right hosting and speed setup.
3. Hosting Isn’t Included
Magento doesn’t come with its hosting. This means you’ll need to:
Purchase a server
Configure it yourself or hire someone
Maintain uptime and security patches
Cloud hosting (like AWS or Google Cloud) works well for Magento, but you’ll still need technical knowledge or help from an agency to keep things smooth.
4. Difficult to Learn
Magento’s admin panel can be overwhelming for first-time users. Managing product attributes, categories, user roles, or discounts requires time and training.
If you’re switching from platforms like Shopify or Wix, Magento’s backend may feel confusing at first. Many store owners even consult a Shopify developer before deciding whether to stick with Magento or move to a simpler system. And that can slow down your launch.
5. Requires Paid Extensions for Extra Features
The free Magento Open Source version only gives you basic features. For anything advanced—like customer segmentation, email marketing tools, or extra shipping rules—you’ll need to install extensions.
Many of these extensions are paid. And some only work well with the paid version, Magento Commerce, which starts at $22,000+ per year.
6. Extension Conflicts Are Common
Magento has a wide extension library, but combining multiple plugins often leads to issues. You may face:
Design conflicts
Checkout bugs
Cart errors
Every time you add or update an extension, you may need testing and fixes. This slows down your store updates and adds to your maintenance costs.
7. Frequent Maintenance Work
Running a Magento store is not a one-time task. You’ll need regular attention for:
Version upgrades
Security patches
Extension updates
Bug fixing
Skipping these can leave your site open to attacks or cause it to break unexpectedly.
Unlike SaaS platforms, Magento doesn’t manage updates for you. It’s all on you—or your developer.
8. SEO Isn’t Beginner-Friendly
Magento supports SEO well, but using its features needs technical knowledge. You need to manually set:
Meta titles and descriptions
Canonical URLs
Sitemaps
301 redirects
Some of these can be handled with SEO extensions, but again, they come at a price and may require setup by someone with experience.
9. Not Suitable for Small Stores
If you’re running a store with only 10–30 products, Magento may feel heavy and unnecessary. Setting up and maintaining Magento is too much effort for a small product list.
For such stores, lighter platforms like Shopify or BigCommerce make more sense. You get faster time-to-launch and easier day-to-day use.
10. Custom Design Is Complex
Magento allows custom themes, but designing and building one takes a long time. Prebuilt templates are available, but even customizing them can require coding knowledge.
A well-coded custom theme might take 4–8 weeks to build from scratch, depending on design complexity.
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Real Business Struggles with Magento
Let’s look at what actual store owners have experienced with Magento:
🛠️ Case 1: A mid-sized fashion brand spent over $40,000 on a Magento site only to move to Shopify within a year because of speed issues and expensive upkeep.
🛠️ Case 2: A small electronics seller found it hard to update their store without a developer. Even minor tasks like updating banners or tweaking layouts required agency support.
🛠️ Case 3: An international store saw great results with Magento but needed a full-time team for security, support, and product updates—something most new businesses can’t afford.
These are not edge cases. Many brands feel the same once they grow past setup and move into everyday use, often prompting them to work with a Shopify development partner for a more manageable setup.
Is Magento Still the Right Fit?
Magento is great when:
You have a large catalog (hundreds or thousands of products)
You need advanced control over design and logic
You already have an in-house development team
You plan to scale across multiple countries and currencies
However, it’s not a great pick if:
You have a small team or no developers
Your budget is limited
You want a fast setup with minimal hands-on management
✅ Shopify migration without missing data ✅ Custom theme support ✅ SEO-friendly URL mapping ✅ Post-launch support and guidance
Ready to Migrate from Magento to Shopify?
Magento is strong, but strength alone doesn’t make it right for every store. Its features come with effort, time, and a higher price tag. Before you choose Magento, ask yourself: Do I have the team, budget, and technical skills to keep it running smoothly?
If the answer is no, it might be smarter to choose a platform that gives you flexibility without extra weight.
📞 Contact us now to schedule a free discovery call and discuss your best move forward.
As the CTO at Shiv Technolabs & CartCoders, I am liable for instigating, planning, integrating, and implementing the organization's strategic orientation.
I gather the most significant tech news in addition to sharing the information I gained while serving as the CTO of Shiv Technolabs, a renowned web and mobile app development company. I am pleased to answer questions as a most valuable expert for Shiv Technolabs Private Limited and to share my experience. I offer a keen insider's perspective on technical advancements.
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