If you're running an online store that's outgrown Shopify's templates or WooCommerce's plugin sprawl, you've probably had someone tell you to “just move to Magento.” It's decent advice, but it comes with a catch nobody mentions upfront: Magento isn't something you set up over a weekend. It's built for stores that need real flexibility — custom catalogues, multiple currencies, complex pricing rules, big product ranges — and that flexibility is exactly why it needs developers who actually know the platform, not just general web developers figuring it out as they go.
Techtaru Digital, a web and software development company based in Jaipur working since 2012, builds and customises Magento stores as part of its ecommerce development services. This page covers what Magento development actually involves, the difference between Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce, when a Magento 2 migration or upgrade makes sense, and what to look for if you're hiring dedicated Magento developers.
This trips people up more often than it should, so it's worth clearing up early.
The original platform, out of official support for a while now — if your store is still running on it, that's a security and compatibility problem waiting to happen, not just an outdated-tech issue.
The current version, rebuilt with a more modern architecture, better performance, and a checkout flow that's genuinely faster than Magento 1's. Most “Magento development” work today means Magento 2, whether that's building fresh or migrating an old store over.
What Magento became after Adobe acquired the platform — the paid, enterprise-tier version of Magento 2, with extra features around B2B functionality, page building, and advanced merchandising that the free, open-source version doesn't include.
Still the free, self-hosted version, and what a large share of mid-sized stores run on.
Which one you need depends mostly on scale and budget. A growing store with moderate complexity is usually fine on Magento Open Source. A large catalogue, multiple storefronts, B2B requirements, or enterprise-level traffic is where Adobe Commerce starts to justify its cost.
“Magento development” isn't one single service — it's a handful of related things that come up at different points in a store's life.
Setting up a store from scratch — catalogue structure, checkout flow, payment and shipping integrations, and a theme that actually reflects the brand rather than looking like every other Magento default install.
Magento's default themes are functional but generic. Custom theme work covers the actual look and feel of the storefront — layout, navigation, product page design — built to match a brand rather than bolted onto a stock template.
Magento's ecosystem runs heavily on extensions (modules) for anything beyond core functionality — custom pricing logic, unique checkout steps, specific integrations. Sometimes an existing extension does the job; sometimes it needs to be built custom because the store's requirements are specific enough that nothing off-the-shelf fits.
Moving from Magento 1 to Magento 2, or from a different platform entirely (Shopify, WooCommerce) onto Magento, without losing product data, customer accounts, or existing SEO rankings in the process.
Even within Magento 2, version upgrades happen regularly for security patches and new features. Staying current matters more with ecommerce than most other website types, since a store handles payment data and customer information directly.
Connecting a Magento store to ERP systems, CRMs, payment gateways, shipping providers, and inventory management tools — this is often where a lot of the real development effort goes, since a store rarely operates in isolation from a business's other systems.
Magento's REST and GraphQL APIs are what allow a store to talk to external systems, mobile apps, or a custom front-end (in cases where a business wants a headless setup rather than Magento's default storefront).
Security patches, performance monitoring, and general upkeep — this is the part that's easy to underestimate until a store starts running slow during a sale, or a security patch gets missed.
Not every store needs to move to Magento, and not every Magento store needs an immediate upgrade. A few signals worth paying attention to:
If none of these apply, staying put and optimising what you have is usually the more sensible move than migrating for the sake of it.
Fixed-scope Magento projects work well for a defined piece of work — a new store build, a migration, a specific integration — with a clear beginning and end.
Hiring dedicated Magento developers makes more sense for stores with ongoing needs: regular feature additions, continuous catalogue changes, or a business that's simply too dependent on its store to treat development as a one-off event. A dedicated developer or small team working consistently on your store tends to understand its quirks better over time than a rotating cast of freelancers brought in project by project.
Offshore Magento development, working with a team in India while based elsewhere, is common for both models, mainly for cost efficiency and access to developers who've worked across a range of Magento setups. The real variable to think through isn't skill — it's communication: overlap in working hours, how updates get shared, and whether there's one clear point of contact rather than requests disappearing into a shared inbox.
Magento's architecture has its own conventions that take real time to get comfortable with.
Can they explain when to use an existing extension versus building custom, rather than defaulting to custom for everything (which gets expensive fast).
Payment gateways, ERPs, shipping providers relevant to your market.
Especially for anything touching checkout or payment.
Magento stores aren't “set and forget,” and a partner who doesn't mention this upfront is leaving out something that matters.
Techtaru Digital has been building websites and ecommerce stores since 2012, working from its base in Jaipur across businesses in India and beyond. Magento sits alongside WooCommerce, Shopify, and OpenCart in Techtaru's ecommerce development work, along with custom development using PHP frameworks like Laravel where a store needs something beyond what any single platform offers out of the box.
A few things worth knowing:
Because the same team handles both the storefront design and the underlying Magento build, there's less friction between how a store is designed and how it actually gets built — which matters more with Magento than with simpler platforms, since theme customisation and backend configuration are closely tied together.
Techtaru's ecommerce portfolio includes stores built for fashion and jewellery brands, which means the team has worked through the kind of catalogue and presentation challenges — product variants, imagery-heavy listings, brand-specific checkout experiences — that come up repeatedly in Magento builds for similar businesses.
Since Techtaru also works in software development, custom API integrations, and digital marketing, a Magento store can be built with the rest of a business's systems and growth plans in mind, rather than delivered as an isolated storefront with no connection to anything else.
If you're evaluating Magento development companies in India for a new build, a migration off Magento 1, or ongoing support for an existing store, that's a reasonable starting point for a conversation. Talk to our ecommerce development team about your store, or get a quote based on your actual scope — whether that's a fresh Magento 2 build, a migration, or a dedicated developer arrangement for ongoing work.
Magento Open Source is the free, self-hosted version most mid-sized stores run on. Adobe Commerce is the paid, enterprise-tier version with additional features around B2B functionality, advanced merchandising, and page building — generally worth the cost only once a store reaches a certain scale or needs those specific capabilities.
Magento rewards businesses that actually need its flexibility — and can be more platform than necessary for those that don't. If your store has outgrown simpler platforms, or you're still running an unsupported Magento 1 install, it's worth having a proper conversation about what a Magento 2 or Adobe Commerce setup would actually look like for your specific catalogue and business needs. Techtaru Digital's ecommerce development team in Jaipur works across Magento alongside other ecommerce platforms, and can help figure out whether a migration, a fresh build, or ongoing dedicated development support is the right fit.
+91-72298 33335info@techtaru.comBased in Jaipur, working with clients across India