Magento 2 B2B Without Adobe Commerce: The Complete Playbook
Magento B2B without Adobe Commerce: the complete playbook
Ask the internet how to do B2B on Magento and the answer arrives fast: "buy Adobe Commerce." It comes with a B2B feature set bolted to a licence that starts around £22,000 a year and climbs to €40,000–€60,000 for a mid-sized operation. For a lot of merchants, that's paying enterprise rent for a workflow that Magento Open Source plus a handful of focused modules covers perfectly well. Here's the honest playbook for doing serious B2B without the enterprise bill.
It's worth remembering why this matters: on Magento, B2B stores run an average order value about 2.5× their B2C equivalents. The B2B workflow isn't a nice-to-have — it's where the money is.
What B2B selling actually needs
Strip "B2B" down to the jobs that matter and it's a short list:
- Quote-to-order — let buyers request a quote, negotiate, and convert it to an order.
- Hidden prices / gated catalogue — show prices only to logged-in trade customers, or hide "add to cart" behind an enquiry.
- Customer groups & tiered pricing — different prices for different accounts.
- Net-30 invoicing — sell on payment terms, then reconcile to your accounts.
- Fast reordering — trade buyers repeat-purchase; make it one click.
What Magento Open Source already gives you for free
More than people assume. The free core handles customer groups, group and tier pricing, and catalog price rules natively — the backbone of account-based B2B pricing, at no licence cost. The gaps are the workflow pieces: quoting, price-gating and terms-based invoicing.
The gaps, and the modules that fill them
Three focused additions close the loop:
- Quoting & hide-price: our B2B Suite adds request-for-quote, an admin quote builder that converts to a real order, and hide-price / quote-only modes. The mechanics are in quote-to-order on Magento Open Source and hide prices and gate your catalogue.
- Net-30 & accounting: sell on terms and push every order straight to Xero as an invoice with Xero Connect — see Net-30 invoicing & Xero sync.
- Segmentation: customer groups plus visibility rules give you per-account catalogues and pricing without enterprise machinery.
The honest comparison
| Adobe Commerce B2B | Open Source + modules | |
|---|---|---|
| Year one | £22k–£60k+ licence | Module cost only |
| Quote-to-order | Yes | Yes |
| Hide price / gating | Yes | Yes |
| Tiered / group pricing | Yes | Yes (native) |
| Net-30 + accounting | Add-on | Yes (Xero) |
| You own it | No (rent) | Yes |
When you genuinely DO need Adobe Commerce
Be fair: if you need deep shared-catalogue / requisition-list / company-hierarchy features at large enterprise scale, with Adobe's SLA, Adobe Commerce earns its price. That's a minority of merchants. For the rest — most agencies' clients, most niche distributors and trade suppliers — the open-source route delivers the same day-to-day workflow at a fraction of the cost. The full money picture is in the real cost of a Magento store.
Run B2B properly, without the enterprise rent. The AgenticEcom Suite bundles the B2B Suite, Xero Connect and the rest — 40+ modules on a fast headless storefront, owned not rented, from £4,995 a year. See the Suite →
Frequently asked questions
Can I do B2B on Magento Open Source without Adobe Commerce?
Yes. The free core handles customer groups and tiered pricing natively; focused modules add quote-to-order, hide-price and Net-30 invoicing — covering the B2B workflow most merchants need without the Adobe Commerce licence.
What does Adobe Commerce B2B cost?
Adobe Commerce licences start around £22,000/year and rise to €40,000–€60,000 for mid-market merchants, with B2B features included in that enterprise edition.
When is Adobe Commerce B2B actually worth it?
For large enterprises needing deep shared-catalogue, requisition-list and company-hierarchy features with Adobe's SLA. For most distributors and trade suppliers, Open Source plus modules delivers the same everyday workflow for far less.