The Adobe Commerce backend runs on the LAMP stack. But Magento is not just PHP — it’s a stack of patterns and philosophies on top of PHP that takes time to internalize.
The stack
- L — Linux operating system.
- A — Apache web server (in modern deployments, more likely Nginx).
- M — MySQL database (or MariaDB or Percona — drop-in compatible variants).
- P — PHP, which is interpreted, not compiled.
Beyond LAMP
A great Magento developer is also aware of DevOps and can tune the caching layer: Varnish for full-page caching, Redis for object and session caching. Without these tuned correctly, even a well-built Commerce site will be slow.
Magento is not PHP
Hyperbolically: Magento is not PHP, it’s based on the Zend 2 framework. A senior PHP developer who has never worked with Magento will still need weeks to be productive. They need to learn:
- The Magento module structure and registration system.
- Dependency injection (DI) and the way Magento composes objects.
- The plugin / interceptor pattern Magento uses for extension.
- EAV (Entity-Attribute-Value) data modeling for products and customers.
- Magento’s caching layers and how they interact.
Coding standards
Magento follows PSR-1 and PSR-2 coding standards. Any modern PHP developer is familiar with these — but Adobe Commerce code reviews will catch violations, so use a linter from day one.
Reference
Current Adobe Commerce system requirements →
Adapted from the Adobe Commerce Primer, slide 38. Last reviewed May 2026.