Mage-OS 3: what it is and what exactly it ships
Mage-OS 3 is a community-run distribution of Magento Open Source: RMA, an admin activity log, an installer and a minimal edition. What it contains and who it suits.
The name Mage-OS has been circulating on LinkedIn for two years, usually without explanation, and most often inside the sentence “Magento is still alive, because Mage-OS exists”. This article answers two specific questions: what Mage-OS actually is and what version 3 contains.
It does not answer the question of whether to stay on Magento. That is a conversation about direction and we have it separately, in the episode Co dalej z Magento? Mage-OS i Hyvä w 2026 roku (in Polish).
Every figure and date below was checked on 2 September 2026. This release line moves every few weeks, so the date matters here.
A distribution, not a second platform
The most important sentence about Mage-OS is this: it is not a competing platform, it is a distribution of Magento Open Source. The project calls itself an “upstream-compatible distribution”: it takes the Magento Open Source code, adds modules and tooling, and ships the result as one thing.
The word “fork” is used too, including in the description of the GitHub repository, and technically it is accurate: the code does live as a branch off magento2. For anyone making a business decision, though, the other side of that same fact matters more, and that is the compatibility promise. Extensions, themes, the database and the API stay the same, and the project states outright that you can move from Mage-OS back to stock Magento Open Source. That is the difference between a distribution and a parting of ways, and it decides how much risk you take on.
The licences are the same as in Magento Open Source: OSL 3.0 and AFL 3.0. The distribution itself costs nothing.
Behind the project stands an association, and here is a detail worth knowing. Mage-OS is formally a Polish association based in Poznań: founded in September 2022, entered in the Polish court register in March 2023 under number 0001024863, as “Stowarzyszenie Mage-OS”. It operates globally, brings together a community from more than thirty countries, and elects its leadership at a general assembly of members.
Why the question is becoming urgent now
Because August 2026 ended support for the version a very large part of the market runs on. Magento Open Source 2.4.6 has had no patches since 11 August 2026.
One thing is worth remembering here, and most writing on the topic gets it wrong: Adobe’s extended support covers Adobe Commerce only. A store on Adobe Commerce 2.4.6 has it until 2027, a store on Magento Open Source 2.4.6 has nothing. We set this out with a version table and dates on the page about Magento support and upgrades.
Mage-OS is one answer to that situation. Not the only one and, as you will see below, not an unconditional one.
What Mage-OS 3 contains
Version 3.0 was released on 18 May 2026 and is built on Magento Open Source 2.4.9. The number three is not cosmetic: this is the first release in which the distribution stops being mainly a copy with additions.
| What | Detail |
|---|---|
| Interactive installer | A wizard under bin/magento install: detects services, resumes an interrupted install, lets you pick a theme, Hyvä included |
| Minimal edition | mage-os/product-minimal-edition, roughly 98 core packages instead of the full set. Modules, themes and language packs are added through Composer |
| RMA | mage-os/module-rma: return requests on the customer side and approval handling on the merchant side, in the standard build |
| Admin activity log | mage-os/module-admin-activity-log, based on the KiwiCommerce extension. An audit trail: who changed what and when |
| Developer tooling bundled | n98-magerun2, Ignition error pages in developer mode, the Varnish Extended module |
| Admin details | Custom logo and icon, an available-update indicator in the footer |
| PHP | 8.3, 8.4 and 8.5, with 8.4 recommended. Lazy object loading from PHP 8.4 improves the performance of compiled code |
Two rows deserve a sentence of their own, because they change daily work the most.
RMA and the activity log are features you normally pay extra for in stock Magento Open Source, or add with a third-party extension. Returns handling and an audit trail are not ornaments: the first is an operational process in every clothing or electronics store, the second is often a requirement in an audit and in team work inside the admin.
The minimal edition is a change of installation philosophy. Stock Magento installs everything and lets you switch things off; product-minimal-edition installs little and lets you add. For a store that does not use half the core modules, that means less code to maintain, less attack surface and faster compilation.
What about the new admin panel?
There is an opinion going around that Mage-OS brings a new admin panel. That is half true, and the halves are worth separating, because they concern two different things.
A new admin look does exist and it is called M137. It is the mage-os/theme-adminhtml-m137 theme: typography set in Inter, a palette built in the HCT colour space, its own icon set and reworked screens, from the dashboard through sales and catalogue to settings. It came out of Mage-OS Lab, the experimental part of the project, and Artem Kozynets wrote it in his own time as a community contribution. First release in April 2025, most recent 1.3.4 in February 2026, compatible with Magento from 2.4.7 to 2.4.9.
Two caveats decide how to treat it. It is a restyle, not a rewrite: the admin JavaScript layer stays exactly as it was. And it is not part of the distribution by default: you install it separately with composer require mage-os/theme-adminhtml-m137, together with a switcher that lets you flip between the old and the new theme from inside the admin. For testing, and for easing a team into a new look, that is precisely the feature you want.
Removing Knockout.js and reducing RequireJS is separate work and it concerns the storefront, not the admin. The project runs it under the name UI Kit. It is easy to glue those two threads into a single sentence about “a new panel on new JavaScript”, and such a sentence would be untrue in both directions: the panel got a new skin, and the storefront is getting the new JavaScript.
What falls away on upgrade
Version 3 carries breaking changes and it is better to know them before, not after:
- PHP 8.2 is out. Composer will refuse to install on anything below 8.3.
- Symfony moves from 6.4 to 7.4 LTS. Extensions touching the Symfony layer need a review.
- Adobe analytics modules must be removed before the upgrade, or the process will fail.
Magento_Backuphas been removed along with the old backup command.ext-ftpis no longer required by default.
The 3.x line and the catch you need to know
After 3.0 came further releases: 3.1 in June, 3.2 in July, and 3.3 and 3.4 in August 2026, the last three being security releases. The rhythm follows Adobe: patches land on the second Tuesday of the month, and Mage-OS publishes its counterparts within days.
And here is the condition that does not appear in marketing material, and that belongs in the maintenance budget. Mage-OS patches the latest release branch only. There is no equivalent of the multi-year support window you know from numbered Magento versions: if you sit on 3.0 while 3.4 is current, you get no security fixes.
The practical conclusion is that Mage-OS does not remove maintenance work, it redistributes it. Instead of a large upgrade every two years you get small ones every few weeks. For a team with automated deployment and tests that is the better arrangement. For a store that upgrades once a year and says a prayer while doing it, it is worse than what they have now, and it is fairer to say so plainly.
What Mage-OS does not change
It does not bring a B2B module. Neither Magento Open Source nor Mage-OS has per-customer price lists, credit limits or quick order. That is exactly the gap we fill with Maco B2B, a module pack for stock Magento 2.
It does not invalidate your extensions or your theme. Compatibility is a stated goal of the project, so Hyvä and typical market extensions work the same.
It does not close the way back. The database and the API stay compatible, so moving to Mage-OS is not an irreversible decision. Alongside the code itself, that is this distribution’s strongest argument.
Who it suits
Mage-OS is a good choice if the store runs on Magento Open Source, has a team or a partner with automated deployment, and needs RMA or an audit log without buying extensions. You get community support, fast patches and several features in the standard build, for free.
It is a poor choice if you upgrade rarely and by hand. The “latest branch only” model will then turn into the very thing it was meant to prevent: a store without security fixes, only sooner.
In both cases the first step is the same, and it is not picking a distribution. It is establishing what you run today and what is happening to it. Get in touch if you want to walk through that for your store.
Co-founder and CEO of Macopedia, Tomasz is an expert in e-commerce, PIM, WMS, and ERP solutions. For over 15 years, he has been shaping the e-commerce market, driving digital transformation for numerous companies and implementing innovative technological solutions. His articles provide strategic and practical insights for businesses aiming to optimize processes and achieve growth in the digital world.
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