Page Builder Now Available for Magento Open Source

For five years, Page Builder was reserved for Adobe Commerce Cloud merchants—a premium feature that justified the higher tier's cost. That changed in August 2021 when Adobe made Page Builder available to Magento Open Source merchants. It was a significant moment for the ecosystem: thousands of self-hosted stores would suddenly have access to the same drag-and-drop content creation tool that had driven engagement for enterprise users.

A Brief History: From Bluefoot to Page Builder

In 2016, Magento acquired Bluefoot, a visual page-building platform. Rather than leaving it as a standalone product, Magento integrated Bluefoot's technology into Adobe Commerce Cloud as a flagship feature. Page Builder became a key selling point for merchants seeking an easier way to create landing pages, campaign pages and dynamic product content without writing HTML or code.

The decision to withhold Page Builder from Open Source was business-rational—it incentivised upgrades to the managed Cloud offering. But it also created friction: teams managing Open Source on their own infrastructure had no equivalent tool. Third-party solutions emerged, but none matched the integration depth and polish of Bluefoot-powered Page Builder.

What Page Builder Does

Visual drag-and-drop editing: Non-technical content teams can build richly formatted pages by dragging rows, columns, images, buttons and text blocks onto a canvas. The output is responsive HTML, rendering correctly on mobile and desktop without additional work.

Pre-built content types: Page Builder ships with templates for hero banners, product carousels, testimonials, video players and forms. Customisation is CSS-configurable, allowing designers to adapt the style without touching the editor.

CMS Page and Block support: Content can live anywhere—CMS pages, category descriptions, product pages and static blocks. A merchant might use Page Builder to create a gorgeous seasonal campaign page in minutes, then reuse the same tooling to design a product carousel block.

Undo and version control: The editor maintains undo history so experimental changes don't require complex rollback procedures.

The Significance for Open Source Merchants

This release levelled the playing field. Open Source merchants who had felt disadvantaged relative to Cloud users could now:

• Reduce dependency on web developers for simple content changes.
• Speed up campaign launches and seasonal promotions.
• Train content editors to manage pages without technical training.
• Lower operational costs by reducing custom HTML and CSS overhead.

For many growing mid-market retailers, this closed a meaningful gap. Page Builder's availability in Open Source removes a justification for expensive Cloud migrations, allowing teams to scale commerce operations on their existing infrastructure while still gaining modern content creation capabilities.

Implementation Considerations

Page Builder is a UI layer on top of Magento's existing content management system. Deployment is straightforward for most merchants:

• Extension installation: Available via Composer; no major code or database changes required.
• Performance: Page Builder itself is lightweight; the performance impact depends on the complexity of content created (large images, heavy animations, extensive custom code).
• Compatibility: Existing custom themes require some attention. Page Builder renders its own CSS, and conflicts with overly specific theme styles are possible. Testing with your current theme is essential.
• Editor experience: Because Page Builder is a browser-based WYSIWYG editor, rendering fidelity depends on the browser and plugins. Complex custom CSS or JavaScript-heavy layouts may not preview accurately in the editor, requiring front-end QA.

Why This Matters

This move illustrates Adobe's commitment to supporting the Open Source community while maintaining a tiered product strategy. Rather than seeing Open Source and Cloud as zero-sum, Adobe is allowing technology to permeate downmarket, knowing that a thriving ecosystem and positive developer sentiment drives long-term commercial success.

For merchants, Page Builder in Open Source means less friction around content creation and faster iteration on marketing initiatives. For the ecosystem, it ensures that innovation isn't gatekept by pricing tier—a healthy signal for long-term adoption and loyalty.