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APIs · head to head

Formance vs Saleor

Formance logo

Formance

APIs

Open source double-entry ledger and payment orchestration for money-moving software

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Saleor logo

Saleor

E-Commerce

Open-source, headless e-commerce platform with a GraphQL API

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Formance formance holds no money and provides no regulatory cover, so it must be paired with a payments provider or bank, and buyers occasionally mistake a ledger for a treasury system and discover the gap late.; Saleor saleor requires development resources to build a storefront, since it ships as an API-only backend without a front-end store out of the box.
  • They diverge on capability: Formance covers Double-entry ledger, Saleor covers GraphQL API.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Formance and Saleor actually diverge.

Attributes where Formance and Saleor differ
AttributeFormanceSaleor
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feeopen-source
PlatformsLinux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, APIweb, api
CategoryAPIsE-Commerce
FoundedUnknown2019

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Formance

  • Double-entry ledger
  • Numscript transaction DSL
  • Multi-currency
  • Payments connectivity
  • Reconciliation
  • Self-hosted deployment
  • Cloud offering
  • API and SDKs

Only in Saleor

  • GraphQL API
  • Admin dashboard
  • Webhooks and apps
  • Omnichannel order processing
  • Configurator CLI
  • OpenTelemetry tracing
  • OpenID Connect support

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Formance

  • A marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditablenot Saleor
  • A fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an auditnot Saleor
  • A payments team that wants one normalised model across several PSPs so reconciliation is not written separately for eachnot Saleor
  • A company that wants its ledger under a licence it can keep running even if the vendor disappearsnot Saleor

Saleor

  • Custom headless storefrontsnot Formance
  • Composable commerce architecturesnot Formance
  • Omnichannel retail and B2B commercenot Formance
  • Developer-built e-commerce requiring deep API accessnot Formance

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Formance

  • Formance holds no money and provides no regulatory cover, so it must be paired with a payments provider or bank, and buyers occasionally mistake a ledger for a treasury system and discover the gap late.
  • Numscript is a domain-specific language your team must learn, and while it makes complex splits expressible it also means transaction logic sits outside the languages your engineers already debug well.
  • Self-hosting a ledger that must never lose or duplicate a transaction is a serious operational commitment covering backups, upgrades and Postgres tuning, which is real cost the zero licence fee hides.
  • Enterprise pricing is not published, so the difference between the free path and the supported path cannot be evaluated without a sales conversation.
  • The company is much smaller than the incumbent alternatives, and while the MIT licence protects the code it does not protect the roadmap, so features on the hosted side may arrive slowly or change direction.

Saleor

  • Saleor requires development resources to build a storefront, since it ships as an API-only backend without a front-end store out of the box.
  • Self-hosting requires managing infrastructure, scaling, and updates, which adds operational overhead compared to fully managed platforms.
  • Saleor Cloud's paid tiers start at $1,599/month, making the managed offering costly for small merchants compared to typical SaaS store builders.
  • The GraphQL-first, code-driven approach has a steeper learning curve for non-technical users than drag-and-drop e-commerce builders.

Pricing, plan by plan

Formance

Free
  • Open SourceFree
    • MIT licensed core ledger
    • Numscript transaction DSL
    • Multi-currency tracking
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Managed or private deployment
    • Payments connectivity and reconciliation
    • Support with response commitments

Saleor

Free
  • Sandboxes (Cloud)Free
    • Free forever tier for prototyping and development
  • Select (Cloud)$1599/month
    • Up to $200,000 GMV monthly
    • 0.8% fee on orders exceeding GMV limit
    • Dedicated Slack channel
  • Volume (Cloud)$3999/month
    • Up to $1,000,000 GMV monthly
    • 0.4% fee on orders exceeding GMV limit
    • Dedicated Slack channel
  • Enterprise (Cloud)$undefined/mo
    • Custom GMV limits
    • Fees negotiable as low as 0.2%
    • Project delivery lead

Which should you pick?

Choose Formance if

  • You need double-entry ledger.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, API.
  • You also want numscript transaction dsl.
Formance review

Choose Saleor if

  • You need graphql api.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on web, api.
  • You also want admin dashboard.
Saleor review

Questions people ask

Is Formance or Saleor better?
Neither clearly leads. Formance starts at Free and Saleor at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Formance or Saleor?
Formance starts at Free and Saleor at Free.
Does Formance or Saleor run on more platforms?
Formance runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, API. Saleor runs on web, api.
Can I use Formance for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Formance best used for?
Formance is most often used for a marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditable, a fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an audit, a payments team that wants one normalised model across several psps so reconciliation is not written separately for each, a company that wants its ledger under a licence it can keep running even if the vendor disappears. Of those, a marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditable and a fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an audit are not what Saleor is typically brought in for.
What can Formance do that Saleor cannot?
Formance covers Double-entry ledger, Numscript transaction DSL, Multi-currency, Payments connectivity. Saleor covers GraphQL API, Admin dashboard, Webhooks and apps, Omnichannel order processing.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Formance: Is Formance really open source?

Yes. The core ledger is MIT licensed with full source access and no deployment restrictions.

Saleor: Is Saleor free to use?

Yes. Saleor is open source under the BSD-3-Clause license and can be self-hosted for free. Saleor Cloud also offers a free Sandboxes tier for prototyping and development.

Source
Formance: Does Formance move money?

No. It records and orchestrates movements; the actual payments happen at a PSP or bank you connect.

Saleor: How much does Saleor Cloud cost?

Saleor Cloud paid plans start at $1,599/month for the Select plan (up to $200,000 monthly GMV), with Volume at $3,999/month and custom Enterprise pricing for larger merchants.

Source
Formance: What does the enterprise version cost?

Not published. It is an annual subscription quoted per customer.

Saleor: Does Saleor provide a storefront out of the box?

No. Saleor is an API-only, headless commerce backend built on GraphQL; storefronts must be built separately using the API and are not bundled with the platform.

Source
Formance: Do I have to use Numscript?

Yes for anything beyond the simplest transfers. It is how multi-party transactions are expressed atomically.

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