The developer-friendly alternative to commercetools
Both Commerce Layer and commercetools are consistently rated the top headless ecommerce platforms. Both enable you to build a completely composable store, which unlocks all types of scaling and branding opportunities that monolithic solutions can’t support. This page explores the differences between Commerce Layer and commercetools to help you make the right choice.
What are the key differences?
The way Commerce Layer has been built focuses on flexibility, speed-to-market, and overall ease-of-use.
- We are more flexible: Our data model allows you to implement unique business logic. Whether it is a B2C company or B2B companies that build online sales portals, Commerce Layer supports any and all situations.
- We do not require an orchestration layer: Our client-side APIs, caching strategy, and authentication model removes the need for an orchestration layer, delivering maximum performance without compromising security.
- We are more composable: Our API-first focus makes it easier to integrate with any external service, going beyond a list of built-in integrations.
- We are easier to work with: The fact that most of commercetools builds have to be set up by certified partners shows how hard it is to actually get started with commercetools.
- We are a developer-first company: We are committed to shipping clean, open source code that eases the technical lift required.
Comparison table
| Commerce Layer | commercetools | |
|---|---|---|
| Composability | Focused on commerce | Mixed content and commerce |
| OMS | included | external |
| Catalog | external | included |
| Search | external | included |
| Default frontend | Micro frontends Web components |
commercetools’ frontend Frontastic |
| Payment gateways | Out-of-the-box Custom |
Custom |
| Promotions | Flexible promotional engine | Limited promotional engine |
| Time-to-market | 3-9 months | 12-24 months |
| Pricing | More cost-effective | More expensive |
True headless commerce doesn't own content
Transactional data and product content are two distinct domains, each demanding unique attention. We believe the commerce platform thrives on processing orders, managing inventory, and orchestrating payments, while product descriptions, marketing content, and multimedia elements flourish best in a tool like a CMS that is best suited to manage this type of data.
Unlike commercetools, Commerce Layers focuses on managing transactional data. This way, your content team is free to update marketing messaging while preserving the core transactional processes' integrity.
Pioneering microfrontends
Commerce Layer has pioneered the use of microfrontends in ecommerce. Microfrontends (MFEs) are a collection of self-contained commerce components that you can insert anywhere on the web, such as prices, availabilities, carts or checkouts.
This extreme case of composability sets Commerce Layer aside from commercetools by accelerating time-to-market and helping you going live in hours.
Why we created Commerce Layer
We are former ecommerce developers. We've worked for the most recognizable brands in the world. During that experience, we have never seen a web store coming out of any platform with a beautiful design and sophisticated commerce logics. The former requires innovation and flexibility. The latter always pulled back for security and stability.
You can’t compromise a beautiful design or experience because your backend can’t support it. You also can’t compromise to optimize your profits because a monolith can’t support the business logic required.
All the traditional ecommerce platforms failed in filling this gap. In some cases, they actually were the cause of it. So, we created our own solution.
Loved by developers, trusted by brands.
Why you should choose Commerce Layer?
- Integrations
Commerce Layer is unopinionated and "data-model agnostic". That means it works everywhere. Take a CMS. Instead of aligning with just one of the best-in-breed CMS providers like Contentful, Drupal, or Adobe Experience Manager, Commerce Layer can integrate with all of them with no friction.
- Performance
Commerce Layer’s architecture can withstand any payload and handle high-traffic spikes. It's one of the things we focus on intently. With great focus, comes great results.
- Scalability
By our nature, Commerce Layer can support any business model, whatever its complexity. You can launch new markets and sales channels without having to secure five or six figures of more budget just to unlock internationalization add-ons.
- Stability
Our API has 99.99% uptime reliability. Our service is self-contained so that you can isolate it from the rest of your stack, lowering maintenance requirements. As your stack evolves, Commerce Layer will continue to work independently, preventing any accrual of tech-debt and losing control of your code.
- Pricing
Commerce Layer is an enterprise-level platform available to anyone. It supports the early-stage businesses as well as the most established brands. We are free for developers, forever. Our free plans are not limited in time or in features.
- Support
Our documentation is the best in the market. You can talk to our developers at any time, on slack, chat or by email. We are committed to providing the best developer experience in the industry.