Is Saleor or Shopify better?

Neither clearly leads. Saleor starts at Free and Shopify at $29/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Saleor or Shopify?

Saleor has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Saleor and $29/month for Shopify.

Does Saleor or Shopify run on more platforms?

Saleor runs on web, api. Shopify runs on Web.

Can I use Saleor for free?

Yes. Saleor has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Shopify starts at $29/month.

What is Saleor best used for?

Saleor is most often used for custom headless storefronts, composable commerce architectures, omnichannel retail and b2b commerce, developer-built e-commerce requiring deep api access. Of those, custom headless storefronts and composable commerce architectures are not what Shopify is typically brought in for.

What can Saleor do that Shopify cannot?

Saleor covers GraphQL API, Admin dashboard, Webhooks and apps, Omnichannel order processing. Shopify covers Hosted ecommerce platform, Payment processing, Inventory management, Order tracking.

E-commerce · head to head

Saleor vs Shopify

Saleor

E-commerce

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

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Shopify

Print & Publishing

The most trusted ecommerce platform to start, grow, and scale your business

From: $29/month
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Only Saleor has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
Each has a real cost: 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.; Shopify using any payment provider other than Shopify Payments adds a transaction fee on top of the card rate, at 2% on Basic falling to 0.2% on Plus
They diverge on capability: Saleor covers GraphQL API, Shopify covers Hosted ecommerce platform.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Saleor and Shopify actually diverge.

Attributes where Saleor and Shopify differ
Attribute	Saleor	Shopify
Starting price	Free	$29/month
Pricing model	open-source	subscription
Free tier	Yes	No
Platforms	web, api	Web
Category	E-commerce	Print & Publishing
Founded	2019	2006

Identical on both: 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 Saleor

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

Only in Shopify

Hosted ecommerce platform
Payment processing
Inventory management
Order tracking
Marketing automation
Apps and integrations
Multi-channel selling
SSL certificate

What people use each for

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

Saleor

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

Shopify

Running a hosted ecommerce store with payments and fulfilmentnot Saleor
Selling across online, in person and social channels from one cataloguenot Saleor

Where each one falls short

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

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.

Shopify

Using any payment provider other than Shopify Payments adds a transaction fee on top of the card rate, at 2% on Basic falling to 0.2% on Plus
That fee makes the cheapest plan the most expensive place to use an outside processor, which is the opposite of how plans usually work
Card rates also improve with the plan, from 2.9% on Basic to 2.7% on Advanced
Amex is charged at a higher rate than other cards on every plan below Plus
Plus starts at $2,300 a month
The advertised lower monthly prices require paying a year up front

Pricing, plan by plan

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

Shopify

$29/month

Starter$5/month
- Buy Button & Sales Channel
- Abandoned checkout recovery
- Basic reporting
Basic$29/month
- Online store
- Up to 2 staff accounts
- Basic reports
Standard$79/month
- Professional reports
- Gift cards
- Up to 15 staff accounts

Which should you pick?

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

Choose Shopify if

You need hosted ecommerce platform.
You also want payment processing.

Shopify review

Questions people ask

Is Saleor or Shopify better?: Neither clearly leads. Saleor starts at Free and Shopify at $29/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Saleor or Shopify?: Saleor has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Saleor and $29/month for Shopify.
Does Saleor or Shopify run on more platforms?: Saleor runs on web, api. Shopify runs on Web.
Can I use Saleor for free?: Yes. Saleor has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Shopify starts at $29/month.
What is Saleor best used for?: Saleor is most often used for custom headless storefronts, composable commerce architectures, omnichannel retail and b2b commerce, developer-built e-commerce requiring deep api access. Of those, custom headless storefronts and composable commerce architectures are not what Shopify is typically brought in for.
What can Saleor do that Shopify cannot?: Saleor covers GraphQL API, Admin dashboard, Webhooks and apps, Omnichannel order processing. Shopify covers Hosted ecommerce platform, Payment processing, Inventory management, Order tracking.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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

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

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

Saleor vs Shopify

Saleor

Shopify

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Saleor

Only in Shopify

What people use each for

Saleor

Shopify

Where each one falls short

Saleor

Shopify

Pricing, plan by plan

Saleor

Shopify

Which should you pick?

Choose Saleor if

Choose Shopify if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Saleor

More on Shopify

Keep looking

Other head to heads