5 Commercetools Alternatives to Consider in 2024: An Expert Review

Though Commercetool's market share is not that big (around 0.02%, according to 6sense), the solution is widely spread all around the world and used by market leaders. Commercetools, with its headquarters in Munich, Germany, it spreads in Europe, North America, the Asia-Pacific region, and China.

This is a cloud-based headless commerce platform tailored to support the development of custom ecommerce solutions. Mostly used by small to medium businesses, the solution is often considered implemented in B2B projects. So, this is why it's essential to learn more.

Commercetools has a unique architecture: as it belongs to the MACH (microservices, API, cloud, headless) alliance, it supports most customer needs. Let’s take a closer look at each aspect:

• Headless means that the solution has separate frontends and backends, which allows for building any type of user interface without affecting the backend at all.
• API-first means the capability of the solution to connect with third-party systems and platforms, which makes many processes easier by integrating with other CMS and front-end systems.
• Cloud-based means that the solution can work in the cloud, offering SaaS capabilities and more affordable features while keeping data safe.
• As for the microservices, Commercetools supports a composable approach, which means companies can combine different services and features without serious reprogramming.

Various industries all over the world use Commercetools. From retail to manufacturing, many businesses work with the platform as it is more affordable compared to competitors. Good examples of their customers are Spanish Leroy Merlin, German Apollo, and Alamy all over the world.

Though the solution is well-known on all continents, Germany is the leading user of the platform (48%), running over the USA (second place, 24%). People move to the platform mostly from the rigid and heavy SAP Commerce Cloud, Magento, Demandware, and Salesforce. As a modern solution, Commercetools B2B seriously wins over these platforms both in price and efficiency.

Commercetools offers a broad range of integrations and connectors to enhance and expand the functionality of commerce platforms. Among the most popular integrations are:

• Algolia for advanced search and navigation through products.
• PayPal, Adyen, Stripe for payment processing.
• Salesforce for customer relationship management and marketing.
• SAP for integration with corporate resources and business process management.

These and many other integrations like Amplience, Convictional and more are available through the Commercetools marketplace. All this became possible with the modern API-first approach used by the best of modern platforms.

While most of the users are happy with the platform, there are still great capabilities and poor sides balancing, just like any platform has. Here, we have collected key features that continuously attract new users and some review-based opinions on the solution.

As all modern B2B ecommerce platforms do, Commercetools offers the following often-used features:

1. API connections that allow the integration of the solution with other systems. Mostly used to connect to other websites and software for particular tasks, for example, payment tools and so on.
2. Content management helps users manage product listings across various models, always track what the website offers, and easily work with it.
3. Custom catalogs allow companies to offer individual pricing and contracts. This is possible thanks to the headless architecture.
4. Inventory management is tailored to centralize the inventory of physical stores and webstores.

Besides standard features, Commercetools offers implementation of many other options useful for B2C companies and medium to big B2B businesses. Although it is not the perfect solution for huge enterprises, other types of businesses can get its benefits from it easily.

Let’s talk about the benefits the solution offers. Just like any other headless, cloud-native, API-first solution, Commercetools is a good solution for B2B businesses:

1. Easy integration with commercetools

Thanks to its API-based architecture, Commercetools integrates efficiently with other systems and applications. This facilitates the incorporation of third-party technologies, such as content management systems, analytics, payment solutions and more.

2. Omnichannel experience

The platform facilitates the creation of consistent shopping experiences across multiple channels, including websites, mobile apps, physical stores and other customer touch points.

3. Efficient content and catalog management with commercetools

Commercetools includes content and catalog management tools that make it easy to manage products and content online, saving companies time and effort.

4. Advanced customization

The platform enables advanced personalization of the shopping experience, which translates into the ability to adapt to individual user preferences and provide more accurate recommendations.

5. Simplified upgrades and maintenance

The headless architecture facilitates platform upgrades and maintenance, allowing companies to keep up with the latest features and technologies.

Besides offering some benefits, Commercetools also has its own drawbacks. We have collected them from various online reviews and competitors wish to discuss some of them here:

1. Excessive complexity compared to PaaS solutions of the similar kind

Commercetools is a very flexible and customizable solution compared to old monolith software like SAP or Salesforce. Though, it quickly becomes too complex during customization. As the platform grows with adding new and new external modules with additional features, it may lead to less transparency and more control needed. For this reason, commercetools become too challenging to develop, and the cost of innovation grows exponentially.

2. Lack of qualified developers

Commercetools is a complex solution that requires a team of technical-skilled developers to deploy and maintain the system. However, the solution is relatively new compared to other popular ones like Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, and more. This is why there might be a lack of developers.

3. Too many customization options available

Commercetools offers many customization options in its interface, which sometimes causes inexperienced users to be lost. Instead of offering the system, customization capabilities can be chaotic.

4. High costs

Compared to most of them, the solution is quite expensive, and the pricing model is a little bit not transparent. Let’s look at it in detail.

As we discussed, the Commercetools price is quite high and depends on your business’s total revenue, along with the development cost and the cost of integrating third-party plugins or apps. For example, if your business has a maximum annual revenue of around 100,000,000 USD, you would have to pay approximately 120,000 USD as an annual licensing fee for using Commercetools.

Though it is not a low rate offer, the annual fee is one of the major benefits and distinctive features of the platform. The fee is proportional to the revenue rate and includes various third-party services on a pay-as-you-use basis.

The composable architecture allows the platform to decrease the overall TCO (total cost of Commercetools) of the solution by lowering prices as you pay for what you use only.

The solution is not free; however, it offers a 60-day trial upon sharing your data. This happens as the solution doesn't offer open code like Virto Commerce does (the architecture that allows anyone to check out common features).

Though Commercetools is targeted at different kinds of companies, it is still a good choice for B2B businesses as it helps to customize and extend functionalities to support specific B2B requirements, create B2C-like experiences and future-proof your business.

To analyze key competitors of the platform in detail and answer your questions, let’s focus on the main aspects such as functionality, flexibility, performance, advantages, limitations and other important criteria of choosing between Commercetools and its competitors. For this, we have selected several alternatives you can choose instead of Commercetools:

• Commercetools vs. Oracle Cloud / Oracle Commerce Cloud
• Commercetools vs. Adobe Commerce (Magento)
• Commercetools vs. Salesforce Commerce Cloud
• Commercetools vs. Spryker
• Commercetools vs. BigCommerce
• Commercetools vs. Shopify
• Commercetools vs. SAP Hybris
• Commercetools vs. VirtoCommerce

Let’s create a general comparison table for Commercetools and several key competitors according to the suggested selection criteria. To make it easier, we have chosen Adobe Commerce (Magento), Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Shopify, and SAP Hybris. Detailed data about prices and some specifics may change, so we recommend checking the up-to-date information on each platform's official website.