About commercetools
commercetools is a commercial headless commerce platform for enterprises that want to build storefronts and apps on any front end. Its architecture is API-first and cloud-native, so catalog, cart, checkout and order functions are exposed as services that development teams assemble into their own experiences.
The vendor describes its platform, Sphere, as infrastructure for commerce across online stores, in-store point of sale, conversational channels such as social and messaging, and AI agent channels. Commerce capabilities include product catalog management and cart and order management, while an offering called AgentSphere targets building and managing AI agents. A Connect offering supplies ready-made integrations.
commercetools is delivered as a hosted service and sold to enterprise buyers, with security certifications such as HIPAA and SOC 2 listed on the vendor's site. Its website includes comparison pages against Adobe Commerce, Oracle, Salesforce, SAP and Shopify.
Key features
- API-first headless commerce architecture
- Product catalog modeling and publishing
- Cart and order management
- In-store point of sale on shared catalog
- Conversational and agentic commerce channels
- Prebuilt integrations through Connect
Good fit for
- →Enterprise retailers building custom storefronts
- →Unifying online and in-store commerce
- →Selling through social and messaging channels
- Tags
- headless-commerce
- api-first
- enterprise
- ecommerce
- composable-commerce
- cloud-native
- saas
commercetools: questions and answers
- What is commercetools used for?
- commercetools is an API-first, cloud-native headless commerce platform for enterprise retailers, covering online, in-store, conversational and AI-agent channels. It is a good fit for enterprise retailers building custom storefronts, unifying online and in-store commerce, and selling through social and messaging channels.
- How much does commercetools cost?
- commercetools doesn't publish fixed prices; pricing is quoted on request. A free trial is available. Prices are not published; commercetools uses order-based pricing quoted through sales. A 60-day free trial is available for hands-on evaluation.
- Is commercetools open source?
- No. commercetools is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. Open-source alternatives to commercetools include Saleor, Shopware and Reaction Commerce.
- What are some alternatives to commercetools?
- commercetools competes with Salesforce Commerce Cloud, VTEX and BigCommerce. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source commercetools alternatives.
Open-source alternatives to commercetools
See all
Saleor
E-commerce
Saleor Core: the high performance, composable, headless commerce API.
BSD-3-Clausevs commercetools★ 23k
Shopware
E-commerce
Shopware 6 is an open commerce platform based on Symfony Framework and Vue and supported b
MITvs BigCommerce★ 3.4k
Reaction Commerce
E-commerce
Project has been discontinued ////// Mailchimp Open Commerce is an API-first, headless com
GPL-3.0vs commercetools★ 12k
Medusa
E-commerce
The world's most flexible commerce platform for agents and developers
OSSvs BigCommerce★ 37k
Spree Commerce
E-commerce
Open Source Platform for DTC, B2B Commerce, Marketplaces & Omnichannel. REST APIs, TypeScr
BSD-3-Clausevs BigCommerce★ 16k
Vendure
E-commerce
Open-source headless commerce platform built with TypeScript, NestJS, React, and GraphQL
OSSvs commercetools★ 8.5k
SaaS alternatives to commercetools
See all
Salesforce Commerce Cloud
E-commerce
Enterprise B2C and B2B commerce platform from Salesforce
SaaS
VTEX
E-commerce
Enterprise commerce platform with marketplace features, popular in Latin America
SaaS
BigCommerce
E-commerce
Hosted ecommerce platform with built-in B2B features and headless options
SaaS
Swell
E-commerce
Headless commerce platform for subscriptions, physical and digital products
SaaS
Elastic Path
E-commerce
Composable commerce platform with APIs for catalogs, carts and orders
SaaS
Commerce Layer
E-commerce
Headless commerce API for carts, orders, pricing and inventory across markets
SaaS

