The best E-commerce platforms
Every option ranked — open-source, self-hostable, and commercial — by our transparent Sovereignty Score, with honest trade-offs so you choose what fits you, not us.
The software behind an online shop. Hosted platforms take a monthly fee plus a slice of every sale; the open engines take neither.
L5Applications — layer 5 of the AI stack- 1
Medusa
Top pickOpen sourceA headless commerce engine in TypeScript, MIT, no revenue share.
Free and open source. You pay for hosting and the developers who build the storefront. · in our Shopify comparison →
What is Medusa? →93sovereignty - 2
Saleor
Open sourceGraphQL-native commerce built for complex, multi-region catalogues.
Free and open source. Saleor Cloud is an optional paid hosted tier. · in our Shopify comparison →
What is Saleor? →91sovereignty - 3
Vendure
Open sourceTypeScript commerce with an admin UI you do not have to build.
Free and open source core. Vendure Cloud and certain plugins are paid. · in our Shopify comparison →
What is Vendure? →89sovereignty - 4
WooCommerce
Open sourceThe most-installed shop software on the internet, and it runs on WordPress.
Free and open source. Many useful extensions are paid, per year. · in our Shopify comparison →
What is WooCommerce? →88sovereignty - 5
BigCommerce
CommercialShopify's closest hosted rival, with no platform transaction fee.
Plans from roughly $39/month with no additional platform transaction fee on your chosen gateway. Annual revenue thresholds move you up tiers. · in our Shopify comparison →
What is BigCommerce? →32sovereignty
Is it free?
The free tier, its real limits and where you start paying — read from each vendor's own pricing page and dated.
Replacing a specific tool?
Head-to-head comparisons for each popular e-commerce platforms product.
Straight head-to-heads
Two e-commerce platforms tools, side by side — verified facts and a plain verdict.