Home Virto Commerce blog Best Spryker Alternatives 2024: Expert Reviews & Comparisons

Best Spryker Alternatives 2024: Expert Reviews & Comparisons

Apr 30, 2024 • 9 min

Today, the ecommerce tool market provides a variety of solutions. Spryker Cloud Commerce OS is one of them. Since the platform continues to maintain a stable position in the market and does not lose relevance, it would be interesting to compare it with alternative tools.

For everyone who considers the integration of the tool and wants to become Spryker partner, the Virto Commerce expert team has prepared this review article, where we will speak about Spryker, disclose the functionality of its product, and compare the solution to its competitors. Deeply experienced in ecommerce platforms, our experts have already shared insights on … Now, it's Spryker's turn.

What is Spryker

Spryker Systems GmbH is a company focused on developing a platform to streamline e-commerce operations. Spryker offers tools for B2B, B2C, Unified Commerce, and Enterprise Marketplaces. Founded in 2014 in Berlin, Germany, for 10 years of service the company has shown systematic year-over-year growth and has established itself at the global level. Today Spryker operates globally with headquarters in multiple locations including Berlin, New York, London, and Amsterdam.

Started as a privately held technology company, and right now Spryker has a strong investor network backing it. In 2020, the company secured a series C funding round of $130M. In total Spryker had 4 funding rounds and has raised $152M.

Spryker specializes in the field of e-commerce, offering comprehensive tools that cater to various B2B and B2C needs. The solutions are known for being headless (separating the front end from the back end) and API-first (emphasizing application programming interfaces for integration). The core product, Spryker Cloud Commerce OS, is a cloud-based composable ecommerce platform designed to be flexible and adaptable, allowing businesses to tailor it to their specific needs. In addition to the platform itself, Spryker also offers a number of additional services such as frontend enablement services, software development kits (SDKs), and Platform as a Service (PaaS) solutions to help businesses get the most out of their investment.

Since 2021 for three years in a row, Gartner®, a leading IT research and advisory firm, recognized Spryker in the Magic Quadrant™️ for Digital Commerce as a Visionary. Also, International Data Corporation (IDC) acknowledged the achievements of the company and published a report about upcoming changes in B2B commerce based on the examples of case studies of Spryker customers.

Spryker Commerce Cloud Overview

Spryker gained its recognition due to its modern approach to commerce and its core product — Spryker Cloud Commerce OS. The solution is a cloud-native platform acknowledged for its ease of use, flexibility, and speed. The platform provides businesses with the tools they need to build and manage their online stores. Here's a list of the key features of the tool:

Open Source

It means that you can build literally whatever is needed.

Composable Architecture

Spryker Cloud Commerce OS is known for its composable architecture. The platform is built from independent modules that can be mixed and matched to meet specific business needs. The platform gives an opportunity to integrate technology partners with a single click. Businesses can choose the functionalities they require and integrate them seamlessly, offering greater flexibility and customization compared to monolithic platforms.

Modularity

The architecture of the platform consists of microservices that are easy to deploy. All services are adjustable and can be used right away.

API-first Approach

Spryker prioritizes the use of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) to connect their platform with other business applications. This ensures smooth integration of Spryker with existing systems like CRM, ERP, and marketing automation tools, fostering a unified data flow across the business. Spyker can connect with over 300 endpoints via APIs.

Headless eCommerce Platform

The platform embraces the best headless ecommerce, separating the front-end (user interface) from the back end (commerce engine). This allows businesses to design a unique and tailored user experience for their online store using their preferred front-end technologies, while leveraging Spryker's powerful back-end functionalities for managing products, orders, and customer data.

Cloud Native Platform

The solution is delivered as a cloud-based Platform-as-a-Service+ (PaaS+) offering. This eliminates the burden of managing infrastructure for businesses, allowing them to focus on core operations and scaling their online store efficiently.

The goal of Spryker is to help businesses to succeed in their e-commerce projects providing up-to-date solutions. The company targets businesses in multiple sectors including manufacturing, wholesale, retail, food and beverage, and even medical technology. It boasts a client base of over 150 companies worldwide, including well-known brands like Bosch, Siemens, and Aldi. Each Spryker partner gets their support and timely upgrades.

Spyker Commerce Cloud OS: Key Features, Pros & Cons

Spryker is popular for its extensive features

  • Omnichannel Capability: Spryker easily integrates physical store sales with online commerce.
  • B2B and B2C Support: Spryker supports both B2B and B2C marketplaces, including features tailored to business customers.
  • Extensive Backend Operations: It provides robust backend operations capabilities, including complex pricing and inventory management.
  • eCommerce personalization and Contextualization tools: personalized search and recommendations, customer segmentation.
  • Enterprise Spryker Marketplace Capability: Spryker supports enterprise marketplace models for businesses.

Key benefits

Businesses all over the world choose Spryker because of the capabilities they gain from implementing the platform. The company empowers businesses to build future-proof online stores that can grow and adapt alongside their ambitions. It caters to complex business models, integrating seamlessly with the Internet of Things (IoT) and allowing for features like subscriptions. This is the list of key benefits of using Spryker.

Flexibility and Scalability

Due to the functionality of the platform entrepreneurs can easily adapt their store to meet changing business needs and customer demands.

Faster Time to Market

The pre-built components can be easily added, removed, or modified which helps businesses launch their online store quicker.

Reduced Development Costs

Potentially lower development costs compared to building a custom e-commerce platform from scratch.

Future-Proof Platform

The composable ecommerce solution allows businesses to integrate new technologies and features as needed.

Omnichannel Commerce

Spryker facilitates a seamless customer experience across all touchpoints, including online stores, mobile apps, physical stores, and even IoT devices. This helps create a unified brand experience for customers, regardless of how they choose to interact with the business.

Seamless Third-Party Integrations

The system offers a curated Spryker marketplace of pre-built integrations with various third-party solutions like payment gateways, CRM systems, and marketing automation tools that can significantly grow ROI of the company using Spryker. This simplifies the integration process and ensures compatibility.

Drawbacks

While Spryker offers a powerful and flexible solution for enterprises, it does come with some drawbacks to consider.

Complexity

The composable architecture, while powerful, can also be complex to manage, requiring a high level of technical expertise for implementation and customization.

Limited Community

Compared to more mainstream platforms, Spryker has a smaller community of users and developers. This can make it more challenging to find support and resources.

Steep Learning Curve

Spryker's unique architecture and functionality can be challenging for teams unfamiliar with the platform. This can lead to a longer onboarding process and requires training for developers and administrators.

Limited Out-of-the-Box Functionality

While Spryker offers a wide range of features, some functionalities may require additional development to achieve your specific needs. This can add to the cost and development time.

Pricing Model

As for the Spryker Pricing Model and TCO (Total Cost of Ownership), the platform operates on a licensing model mostly. The cost might be significant depending on the needs of a particular company. Nevertheless, it offers immense value for the companies.

Spryker Alternatives & Competitors

Since the e-commerce solutions market thrives, it can be difficult to choose the best option. To answer your questions, we will compare Spryker with its key competitors focusing on the main aspects of any best B2B ecommerce platform, such as functionality, flexibility, scalability, integrations, complexity of implementation and other crucial points. Let’s see which companies can be considered a Spryker alternative.

Spryker Key Competitors

  1. Commercetools
  2. Adobe Commerce (the evergreen competition Spryker vs. Magento)
  3. Shopify
  4. Mirakl
  5. Salesforce Commerce Cloud
  6. BigCommerce
  7. Optimizely
  8. Virto Commerce

Main Selection Criteria

Functionality and Flexibility

Spryker is known for its high degree of customization. Thanks to its modular architecture, pre-built microservices can be assembled according to business needs and requirements. Adobe Commerce and Salesforce Commerce Cloud, in turn, have a monolithic architecture, making it less flexible for complex needs.

Scalability

Spryker and Commercetools can handle large product catalogs, high order volumes, and increasing traffic due to their cloud-nature architecture. So, the competition Spryker vs. Commercetools is not harsh in terms of scalability. At the same time, in the comparison Spryker vs. SAP or Spryker vs. Mirakl, Spryker wins the game due to greater readiness to growth and innovation.

Integrations

Due to its modular design, Spryker is considered easier to integrate with external systems compared to Adobe Commerce.

Performance

Cloud-native system and API-first approach set Spryker and Commercetools apart from the competitors and provide a high-performance level that allows large businesses with growth prospects to leverage the platforms. Other solutions like SF Commerce Cloud, BigCommerce or Oprimizely can show comparatively low performance at bigger loads. However, Virto Commerce for large enterprises and Shopify for smaller B2Cs also show a great performance that can easily win over Spryker.

Complexity of Implementation

Spryker Offers a high degree of customization and scalability, but this flexibility comes at the cost of complexity. The platform requires more technical expertise to set up and maintain. On the other hand, in the competition Spryker vs. Shopify, the latest is known for its user-friendly interface and intuitive setup, making it easy to implement even with limited technical experience. Other solutions like Salesforce Commerce Cloud (well-known and strong enough competitor) or BigCommerce can be more complex to implement at the first step and require bigger implementation spends.

Availability of specialists

Finding Spryker specialists might be more challenging compared to some other ecommerce platforms like Optimizely or Salesforce Commerce Cloud due to its niche nature and focus on enterprise-level businesses. It takes significant time to learn how to reconfigure the system and work with its code. Moreover, Spryker onboarding for developers has proved to be extremely long and hard: juniors have to spend up to one year, middles — up to 6 months and more, seniors have to onboard around 3-6 months.

How to choose ecommerce platform for b2b project?

Comparing competitors vs. Spryker

To make the comparison more vivid, let us create a table disclosing selection criteria for Spryker and its key competitors, such as Commercetools, Adobe Commerce (Magento), Shopify and Virto Commerce. Detailed data about Spryker prices, B2B ecommerce TCO and some specifics may change, so we recommend checking the up-to-date information on each platform's official website.

Spryker vs. Virto Commerce

Sprykers plays on the same field as Virto Commerce and both solutions have similarities, such as cloud-native system, API-first approach, and modular architecture. And even though Spryker has been actively increasing its growth rate and customer base over the past 2 years, the platform is losing to Virto Commerce in some important aspects.

Virto Commerce has a noticeably short learning curve. Developers can start work with the platform after one or two sprints maximum and a new technical team can be trained from scratch in a short period of time. While the learning curve of Spryker requires from 3 to 12 months.

Spryker offers high flexibility but due to that the system is complex and hard to develop and maintain. Entrepreneurs will have to make tremendous efforts to find competent specialists. On the other hand, Virto Commerce is built on 100% standard Microsoft practices for enterprises, so hiring developers will not be a problem.

The Virto system is transparent, so clients rarely have questions, and many situations can be resolved independently. But in case of any difficulties, partners and customers have direct access to the experts of the platform. Due to Spryker’s sophisticated structure, sometimes it takes time and effort to make changes, and issues can only be resolved through the support team.

And lastly, Spryker primarily positions itself as a platform for the development of the B2B marketplace solution and provides corresponding services. Virto Commerce, in turn, offers a wider range of services for B2B marketing, including solutions for marketplaces.

Need a B2B Marketplaces Guide? Peep in here!

Conclusion

For most of the simple businesses, from small to middle-sized, Spryker still works as a great start in big ecommerce. While choosing the first platform with the extensibility and growth in mind, this might be a perfect solution. However, in case you are planning to play big, it makes sense to consider other platforms like Virto Commerce as well and you might find a perfect Spryker alternative. In case you are still unsure and need help, reach out to Virto experts for full-scale analytics info on similar platforms.

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