Best Self Hosted Alternatives to Adobe Commerce (Magento Commerce)

Saleor is an open source, headless ecommerce platform centered around a high-performance GraphQL API. It provides core commerce capabilities—catalog, checkout, payments, and order management—designed for composable architectures and custom storefronts.

Key Features

• GraphQL-native, API-only commerce backend
• Product catalog, variants, attributes, pricing, and inventory/warehouse management
• Checkout and order management with flexible order flows and returns support
• Promotion engine (discounts, vouchers, gift cards) and extensible payment integrations
• Multichannel support for currencies, pricing, and availability per channel
• Extensibility via webhooks, apps, metadata, and synchronous/asynchronous events

Use Cases

• Building a custom headless storefront (web or mobile) on top of a GraphQL commerce API
• Running multiregion/multicurrency stores with centralized catalog and operations
• Integrating ecommerce with external services (ERP, PIM, payment gateways) using webhooks

Saleor is a strong fit for teams that want a modern, API-first commerce core without being locked into a monolithic storefront or plugin system. Its GraphQL-first approach and extension model make it well-suited for composable commerce implementations.

Spree Commerce is an open-source eCommerce platform designed for teams that need deep customization and control over their online commerce stack. It is modular and API-first, making it suitable for both traditional storefronts and headless implementations.

Key Features

• Modular architecture with extensible components and a large ecosystem of extensions
• API-first approach with storefront/admin APIs and webhook support for integrations
• Core commerce capabilities: products, variants, promotions/discounts, cart, and checkout
• Order lifecycle tools: payments, refunds, shipments, returns, and post-purchase management
• Global commerce features such as multi-currency and multi-language support
• Multi-store capability to run multiple brands/catalogs from a single instance

Use Cases

• Headless commerce backend powering a custom web or mobile storefront
• Building B2B or wholesale ordering flows with customized checkout logic
• Running multiple storefronts/brands from a single commerce deployment

Spree Commerce is a solid choice for organizations that want a Rails-based commerce engine with strong customization options and integration-friendly APIs. Its modular approach helps teams tailor commerce functionality to fit a wide range of business models and architectures.

Magento Open Source is the community edition of Magento (Magento 2), an open-source PHP ecommerce platform for building customizable storefronts, catalogs, and commerce workflows. It provides an API-first, modular architecture designed for extensibility, integrations, and high-traffic storefronts. (business.adobe.com)

Key Features

• Modular PHP-based architecture with Composer-managed packages and extension points for themes and modules. (github.com)
• API-first platform (REST and GraphQL) enabling headless or PWA frontends and composable architectures. (business.adobe.com)
• Catalog, cart, checkout, promotions, pricing, taxes, and multi-store/multi-site support for B2C and B2B scenarios. (business.adobe.com)
• Search and indexing using Elasticsearch or OpenSearch, with support for Redis cache and Varnish full-page cache for performance. (courses.sebweo.com)
• Message queue support (RabbitMQ or DB-backed queues) and background workers for async tasks and bulk operations. (magefine.com)

Use Cases

• Multi-store ecommerce sites needing flexible catalogs, pricing, and extensive product data management.
• Headless or PWA storefronts where frontend teams use Magento as a backend commerce API.
• B2B portals requiring company accounts, custom catalogs, quotes, and buyer roles.

Limitations and Considerations

• Resource and operational demands: production deployments typically require tuning (PHP versions, dedicated search engine, caching layers, and queue brokers) and can be complex to operate at scale. (courses.sebweo.com)
• Platform upgrades and extension compatibility require Composer and dependency management expertise; some features (search, queues) mandate additional services (Elasticsearch/OpenSearch, RabbitMQ) in modern releases. (courses.sebweo.com)

Magento Open Source is a mature, extensible commerce platform well suited to developers and teams that need full control over storefront behavior and integrations. It scales from small stores to large multi-site deployments but requires infrastructure and platform maintenance expertise for production use. (business.adobe.com)

PrestaShop is a universal open-source software platform to build e-commerce solutions. It provides a feature-rich shopping cart experience with localization and payment integrations, and is freely available for download on GitHub.

Key Features

• Open-source e-commerce web application written in PHP
• Supports major payment services and multilingual localization
• Downloadable source with an accompanying developer and user docs ecosystem

Use Cases

• Deploy a self-hosted online storefront for a small to mid-sized business
• Extend functionality and store presentation with modules and themes from the ecosystem
• Localize the storefront for multiple languages and currencies to reach global customers

Conclusion

PrestaShop is a long-standing open-source e-commerce platform that enables merchants to launch and customize online stores with a broad community and documentation backing.

Vendure is an open-source, headless commerce platform that provides an API-first foundation for building complex e-commerce systems. It combines a customizable server framework with a modern admin dashboard and developer tooling to support B2B, multi-vendor, and D2C scenarios. (vendure.io)

Key Features

• Plugin-based extensible architecture for custom business logic and reusable modules.
• API-first design with GraphQL APIs for Shop and Admin, enabling any frontend or storefront integration.
• Built with TypeScript and NestJS for a developer-friendly, code-first configuration model.
• Customizable React admin dashboard styled with Tailwind CSS and developer CLI/Automation SDK for CI/CD workflows.
• Supports multiple relational databases (Postgres, MySQL/MariaDB, SQLite) via TypeORM and offers built-in sample/demo data for evaluation.

(vendure.io)

Use Cases

• Multi-vendor marketplaces or B2B platforms that require per-vendor control, custom pricing, and complex workflows.
• Brand D2C storefronts needing bespoke checkout, subscription, or product-configurator logic beyond SaaS constraints.
• Teams that want a self-hosted, extensible commerce backend with a ready-made admin UI and GraphQL API for custom frontends.

(vendure.io)

Limitations and Considerations

• Vendure is released under GPLv3 by default; commercial licensing (VCL) is offered for projects that require a permissive/commercial license model. This licensing model may affect redistribution and commercial use choices. (github.com)

Vendure is focused on providing a flexible, developer-centric commerce framework rather than an out-of-the-box hosted storefront; teams should plan for development investment to implement custom storefronts and integrations.

Vendure has an active community and an official public demo and documentation to help evaluate the platform. (vendure.io)

Vendure combines a modern backend stack, a configurable admin UI, and multi-database support to deliver a production-ready foundation for complex commerce projects.

Pimcore is an open core data and experience management platform that unifies product/master data, digital assets, and web content with a flexible framework. It is commonly used to build tailored PIM/MDM, DAM, CMS/DXP, CDP, and commerce solutions on top of a single data model.

Key Features

• Structured data modeling for PIM/MDM-style product and master data management
• Digital Asset Management for organizing files and enriching them with metadata and versions
• CMS/DXP capabilities for managing websites and content using template-based rendering
• Extensible architecture built on Symfony, with reusable bundles and integrations
• APIs for managing and delivering structured data and content to multiple channels
• User and permission management suitable for editorial and data governance workflows

Use Cases

• Centralize product data, categories, and enrichment workflows for omnichannel syndication
• Manage and transform digital assets (images, documents, media) for web and commerce outputs
• Build content-driven websites that combine structured data with editorial pages

Limitations and Considerations

• Community support for a minor version ends when the next minor version is released; longer-term support is tied to paid editions

Pimcore fits teams that want a single platform to consolidate content, assets, and structured business data while retaining high flexibility for custom implementations. It is especially suited for organizations that need strong data modeling and multi-channel delivery in one stack.

Lunar is a set of open-source Laravel packages that provide modern headless e-commerce functionality. It offers the core building blocks for catalogs, carts, and order processing while letting you build fully custom storefront experiences on top of Laravel.

Key Features

• Headless architecture that supports custom storefronts and multiple frontends
• Core e-commerce domain models and utilities built around Laravel Eloquent
• Admin hub for managing products, orders, and staff via a modern interface
• Extensible and customizable package-based architecture designed for bespoke store requirements

Use Cases

• Building a custom e-commerce storefront with a fully tailored UX on Laravel
• Implementing a backend commerce system for multiple channels (web, POS, apps)
• Creating client-specific e-commerce solutions where data models and workflows need customization

Lunar is a strong fit for teams that want Shopify-like backend capabilities while retaining full control over implementation details in Laravel. It provides a structured foundation for commerce features while remaining flexible for custom development.

Shopware Community Edition is the free, MIT-licensed core of Shopware 6. It provides an API-first commerce platform built on the Symfony framework with a Vue-based storefront reference and a visual page builder for creating shopping experiences. The Community Edition is maintained by Shopware and a global developer community. (shopware.com)

Key Features

• Visual page builder (Shopping Experiences) and default theme for storefront design.
• Media manager and content management tools.
• Rule Builder and Flow Builder for automation and condition-driven behavior.
• API-first architecture with Admin SDK, plugin system and App Store for extensions.
• Multi-channel, multi-language, currency and tax support for international stores.
• Inventory, product variants, dynamic product groups, order and customer management.
• Pricing rules, promotions, SEO basics and basic built-in search; supports external search engines. (shopware.com)

Use Cases

• Small and mid-market merchants who need a full-featured, extensible e-commerce core to self-manage their stores.
• Headless/composable storefronts and custom frontends that consume Shopware’s APIs (reference demo store and composable frontends exist).
• Agencies and developers building custom apps, integrations and plugins for merchants in the Shopware ecosystem. (developer.shopware.com)

Limitations and Considerations

• The Community Edition does not include Shopware’s paid enterprise features or official vendor support; advanced features and managed support are available via Shopware paid plans.
• The Fair Usage Policy requires businesses with annual GMV above €1M that use the Shopware Account/Store to adopt a Shopware plan to retain access to certain Shopware services.
• System compatibility notes: Shopware 6 requires modern PHP (>= 8.2), and officially supports MySQL 8.0+ or MariaDB 10.11+ with some specific incompatible point releases noted in the docs (certain minor MySQL/MariaDB versions are marked incompatible). Verify supported versions and optional components (OpenSearch/Elasticsearch, Redis, Varnish, Node.js) before production deployment. (shopware.com)

Shopware Community Edition is a versatile, developer-friendly commerce core suitable for building custom and composable e-commerce solutions. It is best suited to teams that need full extensibility and are prepared to manage hosting, updates and integrations themselves while leveraging the broader Shopware ecosystem.

Vvveb CMS is an open-source content management system featuring a built-in drag-and-drop page builder. It supports traditional CMS workflows as well as a hybrid headless mode via GraphQL and REST APIs, with multi-site, localization, and ecommerce capabilities.

Key Features

• Drag-and-drop page builder with real WYSIWYG rendering
• Hybrid headless CMS with GraphQL and REST APIs
• Multi-site management in a single installation
• Localization and multi-currency support
• Full ecommerce platform with subscriptions, discounts, and product variants
• One-click installer with SQLite, MySQL and PostgreSQL support
• Theme and plugin marketplace with one-click installs
• Role-based access control and permissions
• SEO tools including sitemaps and Open Graph meta tags
• High performance with caching and security hardening
• Demo content import to bootstrap new sites

Use Cases

• Build blogs, ecommerce stores, or portfolios from a single installation
• Run multiple websites or subdomains with shared admin and content
• Expose content to frontend frameworks via GraphQL/REST for a headless architecture

Limitations and Considerations

• Known vulnerability CVE-2025-44022 affected older versions; ensure upgrade to the latest released version to mitigate risk and follow security updates.

Conclusion Vvveb CMS blends traditional content management with modern headless capabilities, offering a fast, extensible platform for developers and content teams. It is suitable for websites, blogs, and ecommerce with a configurable, plugin-based ecosystem.

CoreShop is an e-commerce solution implemented as a bundle for the Pimcore platform. It extends Pimcore with commerce-specific data models, storefront components and workflows, enabling fully customizable online stores that leverage Pimcore's PIM/MDM and DAM capabilities.

Key Features

• Native integration with Pimcore data objects, assets and Pimcore's admin UI for unified PIM/MDM-driven commerce
• Product, variant and catalog management with support for large catalogs and complex product models
• Shopping cart, checkout, orders, pricing rules and promotions framework
• Multi-site, multi-currency and multi-language support for B2B and B2C use cases
• Extensible architecture built on Symfony bundles and Twig templating for custom business logic and themes
• APIs and headless-friendly endpoints to build custom frontends or integrate external services
• Deployment-friendly: works with common PHP tooling, Docker and Composer-based workflows

Use Cases

• Launching customizable B2B or B2C e-commerce storefronts that reuse Pimcore product and asset data
• Building a unified product catalog and order management system for multi-site or multi-brand operations
• Headless commerce setups where Pimcore/CoreShop provide PIM-backed APIs for custom frontends or marketplaces

Limitations and Considerations

• CoreShop is a Pimcore bundle and requires a compatible Pimcore installation (requires Pimcore 12.x or newer as indicated by project requirements)
• Some advanced or enterprise features may be offered via commercial extensions under an open-core model
• Performance and scalability depend on underlying Pimcore, PHP/Symfony configuration and chosen database; planning required for very large catalogs

CoreShop is suited for organizations that need deep PIM/MDM integration with commerce capabilities and want an extensible, developer-friendly stack based on Pimcore and Symfony. It is designed to be extended and integrated into larger digital experience architectures.