commercetools alternatives: where to go and how to get your data out
Eight destinations, one per reason for leaving, and an eight-step exit plan.
The short answer: Shopify Plus if your team is too small to run a composable stack, Elastic Path to stay API-first with a published price, BigCommerce for a hosted engine with readable caps, Medusa or Vendure to own the code, Commerce Layer to start free with order-based billing, Saleor for a Python team, and Shopware for a European platform priced in euros. Before you choose, know one thing: commercetools has no dedicated export API. Plan the data exit before you sign anywhere.
The ranking is editorial: a sponsored placement is always labeled on its card, and no affiliate link changes a score.
Why teams start looking past commercetools
commercetools is still the reference for API-first commerce: almost every composable architecture shortlist starts with it, and it scores 3.8 out of 5 in our headless commerce ranking. The engine itself is rarely the problem. What pushes teams out is everything around it: the bill, the people you need to run it, and a product line that keeps moving. Six reasons, checked against commercetools' own pages and against what its customers write in reviews.
You can't compare a price you can't see
commercetools publishes no amounts. The pricing page asks you to get in touch, then lists what changes the quote: capability packages you mix and match, a Premium tier (performance testing, HIPAA), and add-ons such as Premium Support, Audit Log Premium, Advanced B2B APIs, extra regions and connectors, and Checkout. You can also buy it through Google Cloud Marketplace or AWS Marketplace. Each line is negotiated, so two companies of the same size rarely pay the same thing.
The license is only part of the bill
An API-first engine ships no storefront, no search and no CMS. You assemble them, host them and pay for them separately, then keep a team on hand to maintain the glue. Business owners who review the platform describe the overall cost as high; the developers who work with it call the API approach a blessing and a curse at once, because you need engineers to get the best out of it.
Everything goes through developers
Reviewers keep coming back to a steep learning curve. A merchandiser can't add a page type, a checkout step or a new promotion logic without a ticket. If your developers are busy with the storefront, the backlog grows on the commerce side too. For a team of three engineers, that queue becomes the real limit on how fast you sell.
Some settings sit too deep to change
Several customers point to configuration that is anchored so deep in the system that adapting it is close to impossible, with promotions singled out as hard to set up the way marketing wants. That's the trade-off of a strict, generic data model: very clean at scale, rigid when your business does something unusual.
Support doesn't always match the price tag
Not every review is negative here, but the complaints are pointed. One team lead calls customer support a complete disappointment; a developer at a large classifieds company says support doesn't always meet expectations. Premium Support is sold as an add-on, which tells you where the faster answers live.
The product line is being rebuilt
In 2026 commercetools started selling Core Commerce (cart, orders, checkout, customers) and Product Catalog as separate modules, on new foundations, available right away to new customers. Its Modular Catalog went generally available in September, while Product Search for that catalog was still in public beta. Good news for new projects. For an existing integration, it raises a fair question: stay on the current model, migrate inside commercetools, or use the moment to compare the market.
You're leaving because… go to…
Find the line that matches what's pushing you off commercetools. Each card jumps to the full write-up below.
Hosted engine, app ecosystem, headless with Hydrogen when you need it.
You want to stay composable, with a price on the pageElastic PathEntry at $49,500 a year all-in, up to 15,000 orders.
You need a SaaS engine with caps you can readBigCommerceFour plans with published GMV ceilings.
You want to own the code, in TypeScriptMedusa or VendureOpen source, with managed cloud plans if you'd rather not host.
You want order-based billing and a free startCommerce LayerFree Developer plan with no time limit.
You sell in Europe and want a European vendor in eurosShopwareFree Community Edition, Rise from €600 a month.
commercetools alternatives, tool by tool
For each tool: why move to it, who it fits, its catch, how to bring a commercetools project over, and what it costs. Every amount comes from the vendor's own pricing page in 2026, in the currency it publishes: US dollars for Shopify Plus, Elastic Path, BigCommerce, Medusa and Saleor, euros for Vendure and Shopware. VTEX, Adobe Commerce and Salesforce Commerce Cloud also come up in this market, but none of them shows a price, so we left them out of the list.
Shopify Plus: when you'd rather sell than run an engine
Our default pickWhy move to Shopify Plus. Most teams that leave commercetools aren't running out of API. They're running out of people. Shopify Plus flips the model: the engine, checkout and hosting are run for you, and thousands of apps cover what you would otherwise build. If you still want a custom front end, Hydrogen is Shopify's own headless framework, and Oxygen hosting comes with paid plans at no extra cost. It's the top pick of our headless commerce ranking at 4.1 out of 5.
A real exit, on the record. Shopify's case study on Daniel Wellington describes a brand that ran commercetools alongside Contentful, then grouped 59 storefronts into 12 Shopify stores in five months. The brand says its license costs fell by more than half, for an annual saving of about half a million euros. It's Shopify's own story, so read it as a best case, but it shows the scale of the shift.
Who it's for. D2C brands and retailers whose catalog and checkout look like most of the market, and who want marketing to ship without a developer.
Who it's not for. A business whose pricing, ordering or B2B logic is truly unusual. You can extend Shopify, but inside its rules, not around them.
The catch. Plus starts at $2,300 a month on a 1- or 3-year term, and you can only cancel when the term ends. If you take payments through another provider than Shopify Payments, Shopify adds a 0.2% third-party transaction fee.
How to migrate. Export products, customers and orders from the Merchant Center as CSV, reshape them into Shopify's import format, and rebuild promotions as Shopify discounts or Functions. Plan the redirects early: Shopify imposes its own URL patterns for products and collections.
- Price
- from $2,300 a month
- Term
- 1 or 3 years
- Best for
- lean teams, D2C
- Catch
- 0.2% fee outside Shopify Payments
Elastic Path: the closest architecture, with a price tag
Closest matchWhy move to Elastic Path. If your problem is commercetools the vendor, not composable commerce the idea, Elastic Path is the shortest jump. Same family of API-first engine, same freedom on the front end. The difference: it publishes an entry price, which almost nobody does at this level.
Who it's for. Mid-market brands that want to keep a composable stack and need a number to put in a budget before the first sales call.
Who it's not for. Teams leaving commercetools because they lack developers. You'll still need them here.
The catch. Entry costs $49,500 a year all-in, with an annual minimum. You choose between an order model (up to 15,000 orders a year) and a GMV model (up to $5M a year). At the order cap, that's $3.30 per order; at 5,000 orders it's $9.90, so it pays off only with volume. SKUs, catalogs, storefronts and brands are unlimited and there's no per-seat fee. Search, a visual builder and front-end hosting are included, along with 40 hours of services in the first year. Professional is on quote, Enterprise starts around 150,000 orders or $50M of GMV, and the subscriptions add-on costs 0.5% per transaction.
How to migrate. The concepts map closely (products, catalogs, price books, carts), so most of the work is rewriting the integration layer, not rethinking the model. Use the 40 included hours on the data mapping, which is where projects slip.
- Entry
- $49,500 a year, all-in
- Cap
- 15,000 orders or $5M GMV
- Best for
- staying composable
- Catch
- annual minimum
BigCommerce: a hosted engine with ceilings you can read
Published capsWhy move to BigCommerce. It sits between Shopify and commercetools: a hosted SaaS you don't operate, with APIs open enough to go headless. Its main draw for a buyer coming from a quote-only vendor is that every plan has a published ceiling, so you know in advance when the price changes.
Who it's for. Growing brands, and B2B sellers on the Performance tier, that want a SaaS engine without the per-app logic of Shopify.
Who it's not for. A business already above $2M of GMV hoping to stay on the cheap plans: past that point over twelve months, BigCommerce moves you to Performance automatically.
The catch. Core is $29 a month billed yearly ($39 monthly) up to $30K of GMV over twelve months, Growth $79 ($105) up to $100K, and Scale $299 ($399) up to $33,333 of GMV a month, with 0.9% on sales above that cap. Performance starts at $1,499 a month, billed yearly. A brand doing $50,000 a month on Scale pays about $150 extra each month in fees on top of the plan.
How to migrate. Map commercetools product types to BigCommerce product options and custom fields, test variant limits on your biggest product first, then import by CSV or API.
- Entry
- $29 a month, billed yearly
- Scale cap
- $33,333 GMV a month
- Best for
- SaaS with clear limits
- Catch
- 0.9% above the cap
Medusa: own the engine, in TypeScript
Open sourceWhy move to Medusa. If the license is what hurts, the most radical fix is to stop paying one. Medusa is an open-source engine in TypeScript, MIT-licensed outside its Enterprise Edition. Your team keeps the API-first model it knows, but owns the code and the roadmap.
Who it's for. A team of JavaScript developers that already maintains a custom storefront and is comfortable running its own services, or that prefers Medusa Cloud to host them.
Who it's not for. Companies leaving commercetools because they have too few developers. Open source moves the cost from the license to your payroll.
The catch. Medusa Cloud starts at $29 a month on Develop, $99 on Launch and $299 on Scale, with Enterprise on request. Every plan carries a 0% GMV platform fee and no limit on orders, products, sales channels, regions or admin users. Extra developer seats cost $30 a month beyond those included. Developers who compared it with other open-source engines note that some parts, like the OpenAPI spec, aren't the friendliest yet.
How to migrate. Write a one-off script that reads commercetools through its HTTP API and writes to Medusa's admin API. Start with regions and currencies, then products, then customers.
- License
- MIT (outside Enterprise Edition)
- Cloud
- from $29 a month
- GMV fee
- 0%
- Catch
- you run or pay for hosting
Commerce Layer: API-first, billed on orders, free to start
Free startWhy move to Commerce Layer. It keeps two things commercetools customers like (a headless API, billing by orders rather than by revenue) and removes the barrier to entry. The Developer plan is free with no time limit: there's no trial period at all.
Who it's for. Brands that sell in several markets and want to add commerce to an existing site or CMS, without rebuilding everything around the engine.
Who it's not for. Teams that need a full back office for merchandisers out of the box. Commerce Layer is a transactional layer; catalog content usually lives in your CMS.
The catch. The free plan is a sandbox for building: 1 organization, 2 users, 2 markets, 1,000 SKUs and 100 live orders a month, with community support. Production at scale means Enterprise, on quote. Billing follows orders placed, and payment gateway fees come on top.
How to migrate. Build the whole flow on the free plan with a slice of your catalog before you talk to sales. You'll arrive at the quote with real order numbers and a working proof of concept.
- Free plan
- 1,000 SKUs, 100 live orders a month
- Paid
- Enterprise on quote
- Best for
- multi-market add-on
- Catch
- gateway fees extra
Vendure: open source with a commercial license if you need one
European, in eurosWhy move to Vendure. Vendure is an open-source engine with native GraphQL support and a plugin system. Its framework is GPLv3 with a plugin exception, so your own plugins and custom code stay yours. If your legal team frowns on the GPL, the paid plans include a commercial license.
Who it's for. TypeScript teams in Europe that want a framework they can extend cleanly and prefer a price list in euros.
Who it's not for. Anyone who needs a polished storefront and admin from day one. Developers comparing open-source engines say the storefronts are thin and the default admin is not very good.
The catch. Starter costs €199 a month, Growth €599 and Scale €2,499, excluding VAT, on a 12-month term billed monthly. Enterprise starts at €60,000 a year. There's a 30-day trial on paid plans.
How to migrate. Map commercetools product types to Vendure product options and custom fields. Write any business rule you used to configure in commercetools as a plugin, and version it like the rest of your code.
- Framework
- GPLv3, plugin exception
- Paid
- from €199 a month excl. VAT
- Enterprise
- from €60,000 a year
- Catch
- 12-month term
Saleor: GraphQL engine for a Python team
PythonWhy move to Saleor. Saleor is an open-source engine written in Python with a GraphQL API, under the permissive BSD-3 license. It suits a team that wants the composable approach without the TypeScript stack of Medusa and Vendure.
Who it's for. Python teams that can run several services in production, or that will pay for Saleor Cloud to avoid it.
Who it's not for. A small store. One developer comparing open-source engines calls it too complicated, with too many moving parts for entry-level shops.
The catch. The free Sandboxes plan is for non-commercial use only. Select costs $1,599 a month up to $200,000 of monthly GMV, then 0.8% on orders above. Volume costs $3,999 a month up to $1M, then 0.6%. Enterprise is negotiated. At $300,000 a month, Select works out at $2,399 ($1,599 plus 0.8% of $100,000), still well under Volume.
How to migrate. Both APIs think in channels, products and variants, so the mapping is direct. Move one channel first and keep commercetools serving the others until it's stable.
- License
- BSD-3
- Cloud
- Select $1,599 a month
- Over cap
- 0.8% on Select, 0.6% on Volume
- Catch
- free plan non-commercial
Shopware: a European platform with a free edition
Free editionWhy move to Shopware. Shopware gives you a full platform (storefront, admin, B2B options on higher plans) rather than an engine to assemble. Prices are in euros, and the Community Edition is free.
Who it's for. European retailers and manufacturers that want less integration work than commercetools, with the option to self-host.
Who it's not for. Large companies hoping to stay on the free edition: past €1M of GMV over the previous 365 days, you need a paid plan to keep access to your Shopware account and the Store. The Community software itself keeps running.
The catch. Rise starts at €600 a month excluding VAT, with the first 30 days free. Evolve starts at €2,400 a month, and Beyond is on quote. Shopware prices its plans on your GMV and other factors, so the figures on the page are floors.
How to migrate. Shopware's data model is close to a classic platform: rebuild properties and variants first, then import products and customers. Plan the storefront as a theme project, not a headless one, unless you have a reason to keep a custom front.
- Free
- Community Edition
- Rise
- from €600 a month excl. VAT
- Evolve
- from €2,400 a month
- Catch
- paid plan above €1M GMV
The 8 alternatives side by side
Our default: Shopify Plus if your team is small, Elastic Path if you want to stay composable, Medusa or Vendure if you'd rather own the code. One row per tool: the free option on the left, the entry price and the catch on the right. Note how many publish a price at all: it's the first thing commercetools won't give you.
| Free plan or trial | Entry price and catch | |
|---|---|---|
| commercetoolsWhere you're leaving | 60-day trial, no card; InStore, Frontend and agentic features excluded | Quote only, billed on orders; add-ons extra |
| Shopify PlusDefault pick | No free plan | From $2,300 a month, 1- or 3-year term; 0.2% outside Shopify Payments |
| Elastic PathClosest match | No free plan | Entry $49,500 a year all-in, up to 15,000 orders or $5M GMV |
| BigCommercePublished caps | No free plan | Core $29 a month yearly; Scale 0.9% above $33,333 GMV a month |
| MedusaOpen source | Self-hosted, MIT | Cloud from $29 a month, 0% GMV fee |
| Commerce LayerFree start | Developer: 1,000 SKUs, 100 live orders a month | Enterprise on quote, billed on orders |
| VendureIn euros | Self-hosted, GPLv3 with plugin exception | Starter €199 a month excl. VAT, 12-month term |
| SaleorPython | Sandboxes, non-commercial only | Select $1,599 a month up to $200,000 GMV, 0.8% above |
| ShopwareFree edition | Community Edition | Rise from €600 a month excl. VAT, 30 days free |
Leaving commercetools in eight steps
A commercetools exit is a replatforming project, not an export button. The order below protects your contract dates, your data, your search traffic and your revenue.
Read your contract before your code
Day 1Find the renewal date, the notice period and any minimum commitment in your commercetools agreement. The migration plan follows that date, not the other way around. If the term ends in four months, you either move fast or renegotiate a short extension now, while you still have leverage.
Do the same for every add-on you pay for: Premium Support, Audit Log Premium, extra regions or connectors. Each one is a feature you'll need to replace or drop.
- Who
- procurement and the CTO
- Output
- a hard deadline
Map everything that talks to the engine
Week 1commercetools sits in the middle of your stack, so leaving it touches everything: the storefront, the CMS, search, the PIM, payments, the ERP, the OMS, email. List every integration, which way the data flows, and who owns it. Add custom objects, extensions and subscriptions: they hold business logic nobody remembers until it's gone.
- Format
- one row per integration
- Risk if rushed
- a forgotten ERP sync
Plan the export: there's no export API
Week 2commercetools says it plainly in its docs: it doesn't provide a dedicated export API. You have two routes. Business users can export resources as CSV or JSON from the Merchant Center. For everything else, a developer queries the HTTP API and pages through each resource.
In practice, use the Merchant Center for a quick look and a sanity check, and a script for the real export, so you can run it again on the day you switch.
- Merchant Center
- CSV or JSON
- Full export
- HTTP API, scripted
Translate the data model
Weeks 2 to 4Product types, attributes, variants, categories, price selection by channel or customer group, tax categories, shipping zones, customer groups: none of these map one to one. Write a mapping sheet, attribute by attribute, and flag what has no equivalent in the destination. That list is your scope of custom work.
Start with your most complex product, not your simplest. If it fits, the rest will.
- Output
- a field-by-field mapping
- Tip
- start with the hardest product
Run a pilot on one market or brand
Month 2Pick one storefront, one country or one brand, and move it alone. You'll find the gaps in the mapping, the missing integration and the slow page while the stakes are small. The Daniel Wellington move described by Shopify went storefront by storefront; that's the pattern to copy, whatever the destination.
- Scope
- one market or brand
- Exit criterion
- a full week of clean orders
Move customers and order history
Month 2Export customers and past orders with the same script as the catalog. Ask your destination how it handles passwords: if it can't import them, plan a reset email and a smooth login screen for returning buyers. Bring order history over, even read-only, so support can still answer "where is my order?" after the switch.
- Watch
- logins on day one
- Keep
- order history for support
Redirect every URL that ranks
Switch weekExport the URLs that bring traffic from your analytics and search console, map each one to its new address, and load the 301s before going live. Product and category pages carry most of your organic revenue, and every platform uses its own URL pattern.
- Format
- old URL, new URL
- Check
- crawl after launch
Run in parallel, then switch off last
LastKeep commercetools live until the new platform has handled real orders in every market, then run the export script one final time for anything created in between. Only then let the contract lapse. A last full export, stored somewhere you control, saves you the day an auditor or a customer asks for an old order.
- Final step
- last full export
- Then
- end the contract
Is your tool missing from this page? Email us: hello@hackceleration.com
What makes a commercetools migration go wrong
Teams that leave a composable engine rarely fail on the new platform. They fail on what the old one was quietly doing for them.
Comparing a license to a license
Put the full cost of your current stack next to each option: commercetools license and add-ons, front-end hosting, search, CMS, and the developer time to keep them wired. Then compare that total, not the engine price alone. A hosted platform can look expensive next to a license and cheap next to the whole bill.
Forgetting the logic hidden in extensions
API extensions, subscriptions and custom objects often hold pricing rules, validation steps or ERP calls. They don't show up in any product export. Read the code behind each one before the mapping, or you'll discover them through angry customers.
Exporting once
Since there's no dedicated export API, teams sometimes run a big manual export at the start of the project and stop there. Weeks later the catalog has changed. Script the export so you can rerun it, and run it again on the switch day.
Signing before the term check
A new platform with a 12-month or 3-year term, started while commercetools still bills you, means paying twice. Line up both contracts on one calendar before you sign anything.
Going headless again by reflex
If you're leaving because the team is too small, rebuilding a custom front on the new engine brings the same problem back. Start on the destination's own storefront and go headless only where it pays.
Moving to a model that's changing
The same applies if you stay. commercetools' modular catalog is new, and parts of it were still in beta in 2026. If you plan an internal migration instead of leaving, check which features your storefront relies on before you commit.
commercetools alternatives: frequently asked questions
What is the best alternative to commercetools?
For most teams, Shopify Plus: it removes the hosting and integration work that makes commercetools expensive, from $2,300 a month. If you want to stay API-first, Elastic Path is the closest architecture and publishes an Entry price of $49,500 a year. Our headless commerce ranking scores the whole field.
How much does commercetools cost?
commercetools publishes no price: you get a quote. It bills on orders rather than on GMV, and adds options such as Premium Support, Advanced B2B APIs, extra regions and Checkout on top. You can also buy it through Google Cloud or AWS Marketplace, which can count toward an existing cloud commitment.
Is there a free alternative to commercetools?
Yes, if you can host it. Medusa (MIT), Saleor (BSD-3), Vendure (GPLv3 with a plugin exception) and the Shopware Community Edition are free to run yourself. Hosted and free, Commerce Layer's Developer plan gives you 1,000 SKUs and 100 live orders a month with no time limit.
Can I export all my data from commercetools?
Yes, but not in one click. The Merchant Center exports resources as CSV or JSON for business users. For a full export, a developer queries the HTTP API, since commercetools has no dedicated export API. Script it so you can run it again on the day you switch.
Does commercetools have a free trial?
Yes, 60 days, with no credit card. It gives full access to the APIs and tools, but InStore, Frontend and the agentic features are not included, and the trial doesn't turn into a production project on its own. Useful to test a new modular setup before deciding to stay or go.
commercetools vs Shopify Plus: which one fits?
commercetools if your business logic is unusual and you have a strong engineering team to build around a pure API. Shopify Plus if you'd rather spend that team on the storefront and marketing, and accept working within Shopify's rules. Our enterprise ecommerce platform ranking compares them for large retailers.
Which commercetools alternative works for B2B?
BigCommerce on its Performance tier, Shopware on its higher plans, and Elastic Path all serve B2B sellers. Check quotes, company accounts and price lists per customer before you choose. Our B2B ecommerce platform ranking goes deeper on that use case.
How long does it take to migrate off commercetools?
It depends on how much logic sits in extensions and integrations, not on the product count. Shopify's Daniel Wellington case grouped 59 storefronts into 12 stores in five months. Plan a pilot on one market first, and keep commercetools running until every market has switched.
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