Vendure

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.