Saleor vs Vendure

Saleor and Vendure are both open-source headless commerce platforms with paid commercial tiers, but they differ in maturity of their cloud offering and…

Best for Saleor: Saleor fits enterprise merchants needing a production-ready, compliance-certified managed cloud today, particularly those with high order volume who can absorb the $1,599/month-plus Select tier cost and its GMV overage fees.
Best for Vendure: Vendure fits B2B-focused commerce teams that want deep quote-to-cash workflows, contract pricing, and governance tooling (SSO, audit trails, row-level permissions) and are comfortable self-hosting the free GPLv3 Core while Vendure Cloud remains in its design-partner phase.

At a Glance

 SaleorVendure
Primary categoryEcommerceEcommerce
RatingNot documentedNot documented
Pricing modelOpen-core: free open-source self-hosted core, plus paid managed Saleor Cloud subscription tiersfreemium
Starting price$159/month (Saleor Cloud Select plan)Free open-source core; paid Platform tier is custom annual pricing
Free planYesYes
Free trialNot documentedNot documented
PlatformsNot documentedNot documented
Team collaborationNot documentedNot documented
AI featuresNot documentedNot documented
Public APIYesYes

Key Differences

License Type

Saleor: Saleor's core is licensed under BSD-3-Clause.

Vendure: Vendure Core is licensed under GPLv3.

GPLv3 imposes copyleft obligations that BSD does not, which can affect how a company can modify and redistribute the code in commercial products.

Cloud Availability

Saleor: Saleor Cloud is generally available now, with published pricing tiers (Select at $1,599/month, Volume at $3,999/month, custom Enterprise).

Vendure: Vendure Cloud is available only to design partners, with general availability targeted for Q4 2026; pricing is not disclosed.

Teams needing a managed hosting option immediately cannot yet fully rely on Vendure Cloud, since it isn't generally available.

B2B Feature Depth

Saleor: Saleor's documented features focus on omnichannel processing, dynamic product modeling, and a GraphQL-native API rather than named B2B workflows.

Vendure: Vendure documents explicit B2B workflows: quote-to-cash flows, bulk SKU entry, saved requisition lists, repeat-order flows, and customer-specific/contract pricing.

Buyers building B2B wholesale or account-based commerce get more purpose-built tooling out of Vendure's documented feature set.

Governance and Compliance

Saleor: Saleor documents formal SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, and PCI-DSS compliance.

Vendure: Vendure documents governance tools like SSO, audit trails, row-level permissions, and content versioning, but does not list formal third-party compliance certifications.

Formal compliance certifications (Saleor) versus built-in governance controls (Vendure) serve different procurement checklists.

Pricing Transparency

Saleor: Saleor publishes specific tier pricing: Select at $1,599/month and Volume at $3,999/month, with GMV overage fees clearly listed.

Vendure: Vendure's Platform tier is priced as "Custom (contact sales)" with no published figures, and Cloud pricing is undisclosed pending GA.

Published tier pricing lets buyers budget without a sales call, which Vendure's current pricing structure does not support.

Feature-by-Feature

Licensing & Availability

FeatureSaleorVendure
Open-source licenseAvailableAvailable
Free tier / coreAvailableAvailable
Managed cloud generally availableAvailableUnavailable

Commerce & B2B

FeatureSaleorVendure
GraphQL APIAvailableAvailable
B2B quote-to-cash workflowsNot documentedAvailable
Contract / customer-specific pricingNot documentedAvailable
Enterprise storefront includedNot documentedAvailable

Compliance & Governance

FeatureSaleorVendure
SOC 2 Type II / PCI-DSS / GDPR certificationAvailableNot documented
SSO and audit trailsNot documentedAvailable
Published cloud pricing tiersAvailableUnavailable

Pricing Compared

Starting price reflects the lowest paid tier, not the full cost for every team size or usage level.

Saleor

Self-Hosted (Open Source) — Free n/a
Saleor Cloud Select — $159/month monthly
Saleor Cloud Volume — $399/month monthly

Vendure

Core — Free N/A
Platform — Custom annual
Cloud — Design-partner pricing N/A

Pros & Cons

Saleor

Pros

  • Fully open-source core with a permissive BSD license and no self-hosting licensing fees
  • GraphQL-first API gives developers precise, flexible access to commerce data
  • Backed by venture funding from known investors including Zalando and Target Global
  • Actively maintained with a large GitHub community and real-world adoption by known brands
  • Avoids vendor lock-in since the code can be self-hosted and modified

Cons

  • Headless architecture requires development resources to build a custom storefront rather than an out-of-the-box theme
  • Not ideal for non-technical merchants wanting a quick, no-code setup
  • Saleor Cloud managed pricing scales with GMV, adding cost as a store grows
  • Self-hosting requires ongoing infrastructure management and Django/Python expertise
  • Smaller ecosystem of themes and plugins compared to mainstream platforms like Shopify

Vendure

Pros

  • Free, source-available core with no gross-merchandise-value-based fees
  • Deep customization through TypeScript plugins built on NestJS
  • Strong GraphQL API works with any frontend framework
  • Active open-source community with Discord and GitHub support
  • Enterprise Platform tier adds dedicated support without requiring a rebuild

Cons

  • Requires Node.js and TypeScript development skills, not suited to no-code users
  • Self-hosting Core means teams manage their own infrastructure
  • Smaller ecosystem and plugin marketplace than Shopify or WooCommerce
  • Vendure Cloud is still in a design-partner phase, not yet generally available

Use Cases

Choose Saleor: Saleor fits enterprise merchants needing a production-ready, compliance-certified managed cloud today, particularly those with high order volume who can absorb the $1,599/month-plus Select tier cost and its GMV overage fees.
Choose Vendure: Vendure fits B2B-focused commerce teams that want deep quote-to-cash workflows, contract pricing, and governance tooling (SSO, audit trails, row-level permissions) and are comfortable self-hosting the free GPLv3 Core while Vendure Cloud remains in its design-partner phase.
Need both: There's no practical combined use case — both are alternative headless commerce backends, so the decision comes down to whether a team needs Saleor's compliance-certified managed cloud now versus Vendure's deeper native B2B tooling while self-hosting.

Saleor

  • Custom storefront development — Development agencies and in-house engineering teams build fully custom, high-performance storefronts on top of Saleor's GraphQL API.
  • Composable commerce migration — Mid-market and enterprise retailers move off monolithic platforms to a MACH-compliant, API-first commerce backend.
  • Multi-channel and multi-brand retail — Merchants selling across multiple channels, brands, or currencies use Saleor's channel model to manage them from one backend.

Vendure

  • Custom B2B ecommerce portals — Model complex pricing, catalogs, and ordering workflows for wholesale or B2B buyers.
  • Composable storefronts for D2C brands — Build a fully custom, headless storefront experience decoupled from the commerce backend.
  • Marketplace platforms — Extend Vendure's plugin system to support multi-vendor marketplace logic.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which platform has a generally available managed cloud today?

Saleor Cloud is generally available now with published pricing (Select at $1,599/month, Volume at $3,999/month). Vendure Cloud is currently in a design-partner stage, with general availability targeted for Q4 2026.

What license does each platform use?

Saleor's core is BSD-3-Clause licensed. Vendure Core is GPLv3 licensed, which carries copyleft obligations that BSD does not.

Which platform is better suited to B2B commerce?

Vendure documents deeper native B2B tooling, including quote-to-cash flows, bulk SKU entry, saved requisition lists, and contract pricing. Saleor's documented features emphasize omnichannel and dynamic product modeling rather than named B2B workflows.

Is Saleor or Vendure free to self-host?

Both have free, open-source cores that can be self-hosted: Saleor's BSD-licensed core and Vendure's GPLv3-licensed Core, which Vendure describes as free forever.

Which platform has formal compliance certifications?

Saleor documents SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, and PCI-DSS compliance. Vendure's data does not list formal third-party compliance certifications, though it documents governance features like SSO and audit trails.

Does Vendure's paid tier include a storefront?

Yes, Vendure Platform includes a production-ready Next.js storefront with company accounts and multi-step checkout, along with 20+ enterprise plugins and AI tooling, on top of Core.

Read the full Saleor review · Read the full Vendure review