Magento's requirements are less about hardware than about versions: Adobe publishes a matrix of the exact PHP, database, search and cache releases each Magento release supports and says plainly that only those combinations are supported. This guide reads the 2.4.9 table, checked on 1 November 2026, explains why a Magento store needs more than a PHP server, and prices the standalone and cluster packages on MassiveGRID PaaS, built on Virtuozzo Application Platform (formerly Jelastic).
The 2.4.9 requirements matrix
For Adobe Commerce 2.4.9 on-premises, which Magento Open Source shares, the system requirements page lists PHP 8.5, MariaDB 12.3 or MySQL 8.4 (with AWS Aurora MySQL 8.0 as an alternative), OpenSearch 3 as the search engine, Valkey 9 for caching and sessions where Redis used to be listed, RabbitMQ 4.3 for the message queue, Composer 2.10, and nginx 1.30 or Varnish 8 in front. The page's note on memory is specific to one operation: upgrading applications and extensions "can require up to 2 GB of RAM", and a system with less should create a swap file or the upgrade may fail. It gives no fixed minimum for serving the store and tells you to tune PHP's memory_limit.
The point of the matrix is that a Magento host is a stack, not a server. The search engine is mandatory for the catalogue, the cache layer is what makes category pages fast, and the queue consumer is what processes orders and indexing in the background. A host that provides a PHP node and a database and nothing else is below Magento's requirements.
Magento Standalone on MassiveGRID PaaS: one-click install, about $78.72 a month for the Starter configuration (PHP application server, 2 GiB; MySQL-compatible database, 1 GiB; Search engine, 1 GiB) at $0.003372 per cloudlet-hour, before volume discounts, in New York, London, Frankfurt or Singapore. 14-day free trial, no credit card. See the sizing table.
Why Magento wants more memory than other PHP applications
A Magento request loads a large framework, a dependency-injection container compiled for the deployment, and whatever the installed extensions add; PHP's per-request memory is measured in hundreds of megabytes rather than tens, and the indexers that rebuild category and price data are the heaviest jobs on the server. OpenSearch is a JVM and wants a gigabyte before it indexes a product. Valkey holds the full-page cache and sessions in memory. Add them up and a working store starts around 4 GiB across its nodes, which is why the marketplace's standalone package deploys the search engine as its own node and the cluster package adds a load balancer, a MariaDB cluster, Redis and shared storage.
Standalone and cluster configurations on PaaS, and their cost
Cloudlets are 128 MiB RAM plus 400 MHz CPU, billed at $0.003372 per cloudlet-hour, $2.46 per cloudlet-month; Magento Open Source carries no licence fee.
| Package and configuration | Topology | Cloudlets | Per month (730 h) | Fits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standalone Starter | PHP 2 GiB, database 1 GiB, search 1 GiB | 32 | $78.72 | Development and small catalogues |
| Standalone Standard | PHP 3 GiB, database 2 GiB, search 1 GiB, Redis 512 MiB | 52 | $127.92 | A live store in daily use |
| Standalone Production | Load balancer, 2 × PHP 3 GiB, database 3 GiB, search 2 GiB, Redis 1 GiB | 100 | $246.00 | Campaign traffic |
| Cluster Starter | 2 load balancers, 2 × PHP 2 GiB, 2 MariaDB nodes, Redis, search, storage | 100 | $246.00 | Zero-downtime deploys |
| Cluster Production | 4 × PHP 4 GiB, 3 MariaDB nodes, Redis, search 4 GiB, storage | 288 | $708.48 | Peaks and large catalogues |
The figures are ceilings for always-on environments before volume discounts; a store that is quiet at night is billed for what it used at night. The PaaS pricing calculator prices other layouts, and the staging-to-production post explains why a team develops on the standalone package and goes live on the cluster.
Keeping to the matrix on a container platform
Adobe supports only the listed combinations, which on a traditional server means operating-system packages that may not exist yet. On the platform each component is its own container with a version tag: PHP 8.5, MariaDB 12.3, OpenSearch 3 and Valkey are selected per node, and moving a node to a newer tag is a redeploy that keeps the data volume. Rehearse the move on a clone first, because a Magento upgrade is the one that the 2 GB-of-RAM note was written about: give the PHP node a higher cloudlet limit for the upgrade hour and lower it afterwards, which is a slider rather than a resize.
Composer 2.10 and the Magento CLI live on the PHP node with SSH access; setup:upgrade, setup:di:compile and setup:static-content:deploy run there as on any server, and the indexers are best left on the schedule with the cron job on one node only.
A sale day, and what it costs
Flash sales are where Magento hosting is judged. On the standalone Production row, the two PHP nodes behind the load balancer absorb the traffic and the platform adds cloudlets to each as the request rate climbs; on the cluster, a horizontal trigger adds a third and fourth PHP node for the hours of the sale and removes them afterwards, so the invoice shows a day at Production size and a month at Standard size. The flash sale post has the graphs from a real one, and the buyer's comparison puts the cluster beside Adobe Commerce Cloud.
Frequently Asked Questions
What PHP and database versions does Magento 2.4.9 require?
Adobe's system requirements page, checked on 1 November 2026, lists PHP 8.5, MariaDB 12.3 or MySQL 8.4, OpenSearch 3, Valkey 9, RabbitMQ 4.3 and Composer 2.10 for Adobe Commerce 2.4.9 on-premises, which Magento Open Source shares, and says only the listed combinations are supported.
How much RAM does Magento need?
Adobe gives no serving minimum, only that upgrades can need up to 2 GB of RAM. In practice a working store wants about 4 GiB across its PHP, database and search nodes, which is the standalone Starter configuration on MassiveGRID PaaS at about $78.72 a month; a live store sits on the Standard row at $127.92.
Standalone or cluster?
Standalone for development and for stores with predictable traffic that can take a short maintenance window; the cluster, from about $246 a month, when a deploy or a node failure must never take the store offline. Moving a live store between the two is a project, so decide before launch.
Magento on the versions Adobe supports
The Magento package on MassiveGRID PaaS installs the PHP server, database and search engine in one click, from about $78.72 a month, and the Magento cluster adds the load balancer, database cluster, Redis and shared storage for stores that cannot go down. 14-day free trial, no credit card.
Magento on PaaS