Saleor vs Vendure
Both are alternatives to Shopify. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
Also searched as Vendure vs Saleor — same comparison, one verdict.
Saleor and Vendure are closely matched on ownership (91 vs 89) — this one comes down to pricing and to which trade-offs below you can live with.
Saleor
GraphQL-native commerce built for complex, multi-region catalogues.
Saleor is a mature Python and GraphQL commerce platform aimed at the harder end of the market: multi-channel, multi-warehouse, multi-currency, complex tax and permission models. Where Medusa is the lightweight modular option, Saleor is the one that handles genuine enterprise complexity without an enterprise licence. BSD-3-Clause, around 23k stars. The GraphQL-first API is excellent and it is a real commitment — the whole team ends up working that way.
Vendure
TypeScript commerce with an admin UI you do not have to build.
Vendure sits between Medusa and Saleor: a headless commerce framework in TypeScript and GraphQL that ships with a genuinely usable admin interface, so you are not building order management from nothing. MIT-licensed core with a plugin architecture for extending it. Smaller community than the others here, which is the honest caveat — but the developer experience is well regarded and the admin UI removes a chunk of work that Medusa leaves to you.
Side by side
6 points of comparison, every one read from a verified field. Green marks the side that wins a row outright. A dash means we do not hold that fact — never that it is zero.
| Saleor | Vendure | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty ScoreOur transparent 0–100 composite for data ownership and exit cost. | 91 | 89 |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Local-first data | Yes | Yes |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT (core; some enterprise plugins are commercial) |
| Pricing | Free and open source. Saleor Cloud is an optional paid hosted tier. | Free and open source core. Vendure Cloud and certain plugins are paid. |
Saleor edges it on the Sovereignty Score, but the right pick depends on the trade-offs below.
Weighing both against staying on Shopify? Is Shopify free? What it actually costs →
Saleor
Strengths
- +BSD-3-Clause — the most permissive licence in this comparison
- +Handles multi-channel and multi-warehouse properly, not as an add-on
- +GraphQL API is comprehensive and well documented
- +Proven at large catalogue sizes
Trade-offs
- −Heavier to run than Medusa — Python, Postgres, Celery, Redis
- −GraphQL-first is a commitment for the whole team
- −Smaller plugin ecosystem than Shopify by orders of magnitude
- −Overkill for a straightforward single-region shop
Vendure
Strengths
- +Ships with a real admin UI — significant work you do not repeat
- +TypeScript and GraphQL, cleanly architected
- +Plugin system makes extension straightforward
- +MIT core with no revenue share
Trade-offs
- −Smallest community of the four open options here
- −Some enterprise plugins are commercial
- −Still headless — the storefront is yours to build
- −Fewer worked examples when you get stuck
Which one fits you
The trade-offs above, turned into a decision. Find the line that describes your team.
Choose Saleor
if a lower exit cost matters more to you than any single feature, and bSD-3-Clause — the most permissive licence in this comparison.
Choose Vendure
if ships with a real admin UI — significant work you do not repeat.
Neither, yet
if both carry a real cost you should weigh first — heavier to run than Medusa — Python, Postgres, Celery, Redis, and smallest community of the four open options here. If either of those is a dealbreaker for your team, the shortlist is wrong rather than the choice.
Saleor vs Vendure — common questions
Is Saleor a better fit than Vendure for e-commerce platforms?
It depends on what you are optimising for, and the honest split is this: Saleor scores 91 to Vendure's 89 on data ownership and exit cost, so it is the safer choice if you care about being able to leave. Vendure earns its place on a different axis — ships with a real admin UI — significant work you do not repeat. Neither is a wrong answer for every team; the table above is the actual comparison.
What happens if we want to switch later?
Saleor keeps its data local or in open formats, so leaving is an export rather than a negotiation. Vendure is still self-hostable, so the files stay on your server either way — but it is not local-first by design, so check what its export produces before you rely on it.
Can I self-host Saleor or Vendure?
Both can be self-hosted. The difference is what it costs you in time rather than whether it is possible — see the setup and maintenance rows above.
Are Saleor and Vendure both alternatives to Shopify?
Yes — both appear in our Shopify comparison, which is why they are worth putting side by side. People usually arrive here already having decided to move off Shopify and now choosing between the two replacements, which is a narrower and much easier question.
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Facts verified 2026-08-07. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.