Beyond MACH Architecture: What Goes Inside a Truly Flexible, Future-Proof Platform?

Although MACH technology principles were originally created to break free from the limitations of monolithic platforms, it’s important to emphasize that MACH acts as an architectural concept, not a strict market standard or dogma. In this article, we’ll argue that the true value of an ecommerce architecture lies in how these four technical properties—microservices, API-first, cloud-native, and headless—are implemented, not merely in claiming adherence to the acronym. 

We at Virto Commerce believe that a platform’s adaptability isn’t necessarily determined by markers such as modularity, headless, microservices, composable, cloud-based, or API-first. Instead, true platform adaptability lies in how these technological properties are implemented within a flexible architecture. Platform longevity is also characterized by the availability of clear guidance that empowers businesses to implement changes independently from a platform vendor. 

Virto’s Commerce Innovation Platform, for instance, is designed to solve real business challenges while giving developers the flexibility they need. In this article, we’ll also thoroughly discuss Virto’s stance on MACH. 

First, let’s talk in detail about each of the principles, their advantages and limitations. 

There are many definitions of microservices, but ultimately, this term refers to individual pieces of business functionality that are independently developed, deployed, and managed. In practice, such systems can be referred to as modular.   

Good examples of microservices within an ecommerce context are customer account services for managing user profiles and authentication, Product Information Management (PIM) services for handling catalog data, inventory services for real-time stock updates, and more. Each operates independently, yet as part of a bigger ecosystem. 

As the definition suggests, business users cannot see for themselves whether a system is built with the microservices principle or not. The platform’s modularity or ability to support microservices matters only to technical specialists and developers, although the impact of such architecture on the business can be significant.  

When certain additional conditions are met, microservices-based MACH architecture allows for much faster and more efficient code changes, better resource management, and more effective replacement of native functionality with external applications, among other benefits. Although microservices can provide a high level of flexibility compared to monolithic solutions, they make the architecture of ecommerce platforms more complex. The growing complexity requires more control, development, and maintenance forces to fully realize the benefits of a modular setup. 

While microservices offer significant flexibility from a technical standpoint, that flexibility often doesn’t extend to businesses using SaaS ecommerce platforms. In this case, when you don’t have direct access to the platform’s backend (or a system integrator that does), the underlying architecture becomes largely invisible and inapplicable. You can’t modify what you can’t access, making the presence or absence of microservices in the code irrelevant to your experience as a platform user. With a PaaS solution, on the other hand, microservices or modular architecture bears more power, as a client can access and modify the backend of the solution and fully take advantage of its modularity. 

To put it simply, microservices may benefit the SaaS vendor by simplifying internal development and deployment, but they won’t inherently improve the ability to customize or adapt the platform to your business needs.

The API-first principle in ecommerce means that each piece of business data and every business function in the system (including microservices) is available via API and communicates with each other via API. This way, the system can be easily integrated with other software, and external applications can edit data within the system or trigger internal functions.  

Why does the API-first MACH approach win over a legacy monolith? The market moves fast, and your business might need to adapt, change processes, or integrate new systems at any moment. A traditional monolithic solution often stands in the way, making those changes difficult or even impossible. 

However, it’s important to note that the API-first principle doesn’t fully describe the integration capabilities of an ecommerce system nor guarantee seamless integration in every scenario. For instance, for certain functions, it’s not just about accessing data—it’s also about the system’s ability to provide real-time data quickly and reliably.

The cloud-native principle refers to the idea that a system is designed with modern cloud technologies at the basis, allowing for horizontal and vertical scaling, containerization, and more. From a business perspective, this means the ability to easily address performance challenges, efficient hosting in the cloud, and management of infrastructure costs.  

Notably, the cloud-native principle doesn’t necessarily imply (though it doesn’t exclude either) that the MACH software should be delivered as a service (SaaS). For example, a cloud-native Virto’s Commerce Innovation Platform provides a default Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) deployment option. At the same time, Virto’s platform can also be deployed by the client company in a private cloud, if necessary—an essential condition for companies under very strict regulatory requirements. 

Moreover, a SaaS solution doesn’t necessarily imply “cloud-native,” although this is today’s market standard. If you’re using a SaaS ecommerce platform and not bearing the costs associated with hosting and maintenance, you shouldn’t prioritize whether the software is cloud-native or not—that’s a provider’s prerogative—as you’re essentially renting the software, not hosting, managing, or running it yourself.

Headless means that the frontend is completely decoupled from the backend logic, providing a true omnichannel experience with complete design freedom in creating the user interface and connecting to other channels and devices. Typically, this means the frontend communicates with the backend via an API, and multiple frontends can be easily added to the platform, all connected through the same API.   

On the one hand, this approach is undoubtedly more efficient than the rigid interdependency of the backend and frontend in a monolithic solution. On the other hand, merely adhering to the formal definition of “headless” doesn’t guarantee high speed and efficiency in creating and modifying frontend channels. It’s worth noting that even heavyweight, costly solutions like SAP Commerce Cloud have long claimed to be headless.  

The efficiency of developing and modifying new channels depends on the nuances of how the headless concept is implemented. For example, it’s crucial to consider where and how the code that defines business logic on the frontend (i.e., system behavior in user scenarios) is managed. Many ecommerce platforms shift this responsibility to the frontend application, forcing their customers to build complex and heavyweight frontend applications, depriving them of a significant portion of the benefits promised by the headless approach.  

With Virto’s Commerce Innovation Platform, the challenge of increasing the speed and efficiency of development is solved by moving all the business logic to a separate experience or business logic layer. This allows developers to quickly and efficiently expand and modify user scenarios and add new channels.

As you can see, when we talk about MACH principles, we are only referring to certain parameters of the MACH software that may or may not have a tangible impact on business outcomes for companies using software built with these principles.  

MACH architecture on its own doesn’t address key challenges faced by enterprises that own MACH commerce solutions, such as scalability and, more broadly, the adaptability of the ecommerce solution. It’s this gap that creates inflated expectations, followed by disappointment and unavoidable, expensive replatforming—something the Virto team often hears from companies that decide to switch from their MACH solution to Virto Commerce. 

While MACH architecture principles are undeniably more progressive compared to monolithic architecture, they shouldn’t be followed blindly. MACH is a flexible framework, and every platform implementation is unique and must be tailored to the real needs of the business.

As we discussed earlier, MACH architecture and its principles describe how a platform is built. SaaS is a model that tells us how it’s delivered. You can have MACH without SaaS—and SaaS without MACH. 

Interestingly, the MACH Alliance mentioned earlier in the article, founded by Commercetools among other members, has a strict requirement for its members to be multi-tenant SaaS. This approach isn’t inherently part of the MACH definition, and the context certainly matters in this case, considering that Commercetools is a multi-tenant SaaS platform.  

Unfortunately, this means that the MACH Alliance ignores platforms that can offer more efficient ways of applying MACH principles to bring their clients more value and tangible business results. 

Let’s consider a few key scenarios in which MACH principles could have brought more value to businesses if not for a strictly SaaS delivery model.

Take pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries and government agencies that need to build an ecommerce solution. Due to very strict data privacy laws worldwide, pharma companies and government agencies can require software strictly deployed by the client company on-premises or in a private cloud to give them full control over sensitive information and allow them to determine who and when has access to data.  

In other words, a multi-tenant SaaS approach, with software’s supporting infrastructure serving multiple customers at the same time, is an absolute no-no for these organizations. They would need a vendor who can provide individual single-tenant environments for each customer hosted in the datacentres of the customer’s choice.

Even the most advanced microservices-driven platforms have this limitation in common due to their SaaS nature—clients cannot modify their backend. The SaaS model is built to deliver a ready-to-use solution for faster time-to-market. However, that also means that SaaS users don’t have access to in-depth customizations and innovations, which is especially relevant in the world of B2B ecommerce, where complex data workflows, role-based access control, contract-based catalogs and pricing rules can make or break a business. All of these features usually require deep backend logic.

The SaaS model is definitely more scalable compared to traditional monolithic systems and can be a viable option for simplicity, but it isn’t ideal when enterprises want to fine-tune performance or cost efficiency at scale. SaaS platforms typically bundle services behind flat-tiered pricing or usage limits. This lack of granular control can lead to overpaying for unused capacity or hitting performance ceilings during peak demand, with little ability to optimize for cost or behavior.

There are likely many ways to apply MACH architecture principles more effectively than with a strictly multi-tenant SaaS model. Additionally, the four core MACH principles are just a few elements that could be structured in different ways to create a truly powerful ecommerce architecture. Just like carbon, these principles can be arranged into diamond or graphite structures, defining what solution you ultimately get.

To illustrate a more advanced approach that goes beyond the basic MACH principles, we’ll discuss how Virto’s Commerce Innovation Platform works.

Virto’s Commerce Innovation Platform (CIP) leverages the power of the PaaS model to offer unmatched flexibility and customization potential beyond the limits of traditional SaaS. Virto’s CIP is an API-first, cloud-native, headless platform. The API-first nature of Virto’s platform enables the implementation of any ecommerce integration scenario. Moreover, the customizable experience API, or business API, empowers customers to fully leverage the benefits of a headless approach.   

CIP is powered by a proprietary modular Atomic Architecture™ with over 80 pre-configured, ready-to-use ecommerce modules and six Packaged Business Capabilities (PBCs) to kickstart an ecommerce project. 

Although Virto’s CIP technically adheres to MACH principles, it goes beyond this concept, offering businesses greater adaptability at predictable costs. Here is how Virto’s CIP goes beyond MACH with unique, business-oriented capabilities:

With its PaaS delivery model, Virto’s CIP offers a unique extensibility framework that enables developers to create custom modules with new features or extend native functionality and then upload them directly to the vendor-managed PaaS instance.

By using modern containerization, Virto Commerce eliminates the need for multi-tenant instances, as it can easily provide individual single-tenant environments for each customer, hosted in the datacentres of the customer’s choice.

Since our customers and their system integrators work directly with Virto’s modules, they enjoy all the advantages of modularity—easily add new features, replace components, extend functionality, and more. Additionally, receiving regular centralized updates from the vendor remains possible even after customizations.

The Virto team has developed the holistic Atomic Architecture™ with continuous ecommerce innovation and long-term TCO optimization in mind.

Most importantly, a custom ecommerce solution built with Virto’s CIP is a true MACH commerce solution, where the business, not just the platform vendor, benefits from all MACH principles. Virto Commerce customers don’t have to build a custom framework around the platform. Instead, any customization done in the recommended way is already aligned with MACH architecture by design. This means the customer’s team naturally gains the flexibility, adaptability, and efficiency MACH promises on paper but often doesn’t deliver, all without extra effort or complexity.