Adobe Commerce now spans three deployment models: ACCS (SaaS), Adobe Commerce on Cloud (PaaS), and on-premise. Choosing wrong costs years of rework — this comparison reflects Adobe's official feature matrix.
Store management — SaaS replacements: Media Gallery (PaaS) becomes Product Visuals with AEM Assets (SaaS). Page Builder CMS becomes Storefront Builder. Visual Merchandiser becomes Catalog Service. Traditional payment config becomes Payment Services.
B2B: Core B2B features (company management, quoting) ship out-of-the-box on SaaS. Industry-specific customisations may still need App Builder implementation — plan RFP scope accordingly.
Platform updates: PaaS requires manual upgrades — typically six patch and one minor release per year. SaaS is versionless: Adobe applies updates automatically with no merchant downtime for core version jumps.
Extensibility: PaaS allows in-process PHP extensions. SaaS requires out-of-process extensibility via App Builder, API Mesh, and REST/GraphQL APIs — customisations must be re-architected, not copied.
Hosting: PaaS merchants configure infrastructure within Adobe's hosted environment. SaaS is fully Adobe-managed — merchants focus on configuration and extensibility, not servers.
Decision framework: Choose SaaS (ACCS) for greenfield enterprise programs prioritising speed, Experience Cloud integration, and reduced ops. Stay on PaaS when heavy in-process custom extensions cannot yet move to App Builder. Use Commerce Optimizer as a phased bridge from PaaS toward SaaS.
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