Ecommerce platforms in 2026: what two years of Google search data say

“Magento searches are down. Should we move to Shopify?”

It is a fair question. A shop needs a platform with a future, people who can maintain it and a sensible cost of ownership. Nobody enjoys buying into tomorrow's expensive rescue project.

We analysed two years of Google Ads Keyword Planner data to put some numbers behind that conversation. Several established platform names lost search volume. Shopify was roughly steady, and Mage-OS grew from a much smaller base. That is useful evidence about search interest. It is not a migration instruction.

What we measured

Our export was collected on 2 November 2026, with worldwide location coverage and an English keyword list. It contains monthly values from October 2024 to September 2026. We compared average monthly searches in October 2025 to September 2026 with October 2024 to September 2025.

The percentage is (new 12-month average / previous 12-month average - 1) × 100. These are calculations from the monthly columns, not the export's separate “YoY change” field, which is a different comparison. Table averages are rounded to the nearest whole search; changes are rounded to one decimal place.

Keyword Planner provides approximate search volumes and can group close variants. Google's historical metrics documentation¹ explains those characteristics. This is an analysis of exported estimates, not an audit of every Google search or every live ecommerce store.

You can download the selected platform keywords and all 24 monthly values. We excluded advertising bids and unrelated keyword lists. The original research covers a wider set of module and platform terms; this article compares the named terms below rather than treating that hand-picked list as the whole market.

The platform names moved differently

The broad pattern is a decline in several established platform-name searches, with Shopify close to flat at a much larger volume. Mage-OS goes against that pattern, but its 445 monthly average should keep an 18.4% rise in perspective. Percentage growth and absolute audience size answer different questions.

The research also flags a one-off September 2025 spike in the Magento data. That month is inside the earlier comparison window, so the annual result is sensitive to it. The downloadable monthly values let you inspect the pattern instead of relying on a single headline.

Some comparison searches fell too. “Magento vs Shopify” averaged 625 a month in the latest period, against about 1,258 previously. “Magento to Shopify migration” moved from about 679 to 443. That does not support a simple story in which every lost Magento brand search turned into a migration search.

Search interest is not market share

Brand searches mix intentions: support, jobs, training, logins, development problems and buying decisions. More searches could mean more interest, more users needing help or several things at once. A support-heavy keyword can rise because people are struggling. That would be an unusual thing to celebrate in a board meeting.

Nor is Keyword Planner the same measure as the public Google Trends interface. Google explains that Trends uses sampled, normalised data scaled from 0 to 100². Do not splice that index into the volumes above as if they were one dataset.

Market share needs a defined population: detected live stores, revenue, orders or another denominator. We have not measured those here. A 32.2% fall in the “magento” keyword therefore does not establish that 32.2% of Magento shops closed or moved.

Names matter too. For Magento-family research, consider Adobe Commerce and Mage-OS alongside Magento, while avoiding double-counting overlapping variants. Our extension compatibility comparison explains the practical differences. One brand term cannot represent every part of that ecosystem.

What a shop owner can do with this

Use search interest to inform questions about partners, recruitment and long-term support. Then cost the requirements of your actual shop. A chart cannot tell you whether a target platform handles your customer pricing, catalogue or warehouse integration.

Compare staying and improving with migrating. Include implementation, ongoing services, apps or extensions, staff training and operational disruption. For trade businesses, map the B2B buying process before comparing feature names.

Preserve a baseline of your own search performance before any move. AI SEO Advisor helps organise that history in Magento. Data Feed Manager can make product-feed dependencies visible. Neither replaces URL mapping, redirect testing or a migration plan.

Customer support belongs on the list too. Arasta supports Magento and Shopify; its Magento connector is separate from the paid service. Check what happens to customer context and reporting, not merely whether a chat bubble can be installed.

Keep the comparison reproducible

When refreshing this analysis, retain the same keyword definitions, coverage and comparable full-month windows. Keep the monthly export and calculation, label any method change and inspect unusual spikes. Add commercial-intent terms separately rather than hiding them inside one large total.

The data gives us a reason to watch how the ecosystem is changing. Your own orders, costs, staff and integration needs supply the rest of the decision. A falling search line is a prompt to investigate, not a substitute for that work.

Sources

1. historical metrics documentation, checked 2 November 2026. ↩
2. Trends uses sampled, normalised data scaled from 0 to 100, checked 2 November 2026. ↩