15 Best Headless Ecommerce Platforms Reviewed for 2024
10 Best Headless Ecommerce Platform Shortlist
Here's my pick of the 10 best software from the 15 tools reviewed.
Our one-on-one guidance will help you find the perfect fit.
People have spilled a lot of ink trying to explain headless commerce. Mostly because it's hard to fully explain—frontend, backend, APIs, middleware. What you probably know most about it is that it makes for very fast and very performant ecommerce stores.
And, in recent years, many solutions have popped up to help merchants create insanely cool websites.
These platforms enable brands to keep their awesome ecommerce functionality on the backend (with something like Shopify, BigCommerce, Adobe, etc.) while creating a gorgeous separated frontend (what the customer sees) that wows.
There's a lot to consider when choosing a headless ecommerce platform, so you want to make sure the one you choose is the best one for you.
Which brings you here, a place full of ecommerce expertise and strong opinions. We did the research so you don't have to. With our big ecomm brains and our fancy scoring system, we've found the best headless platforms on the planet.
Let's do this thing.
What is a Headless Commerce Platform?
A headless commerce platform is a type of architecture where the frontend (the user interface) is decoupled from the backend (core ecommerce functionality).
This separation allows for greater flexibility in designing and updating the user interface without affecting the back-end systems.
The main advantage is using various frontend technologies to deliver a more personalized and seamless shopping experience across different devices and channels.
Headless platforms are ideal for companies looking to innovate rapidly and tailor their online presence to specific customer needs and behaviors.
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The Best Headless Ecommerce Platforms Pricing Summary
| Tools | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Subbly | From $29/month | Website |
| BigCommerce | From $29/month (billed annually) | Website |
| Shopify | From $29/month (billed annually) | Website |
| OroCommerce | Pricing upon request | Website |
| Lightspeed eCom | From $14.08/month | Website |
| Commercetools | From $30,000/year | Website |
| Elastic Path | From $50,000/year | Website |
| Magento Commerce | Starts at $15,000/year | Website |
| Contentful | From $300/month | Website |
| Kontent | From $1249/month | Website |
Compare Software Specs Side by Side
Use our comparison chart to review and evaluate software specs side-by-side.
Compare SoftwareHow to Choose Headless Ecommerce Platforms
With numerous headless ecommerce platforms available, selecting the right one can be challenging.
As you're shortlisting, trialing, and selecting headless ecommerce platform, consider the following:
- What problem are you trying to solve? Identify the specific feature gap you need to fill. This helps clarify the necessary features and functionality.
- Who will need to use it? Determine who will be using the software and how many licenses are needed. Assess whether it's for the ecommerce team or the entire organization. Decide if you prioritize ease of use for all users or speed for power users.
- What other tools does it need to work with? Identify which tools you are replacing, keeping, and needing integration, such as accounting, CRM, or HR software. Decide if you need seamless integration or can replace multiple tools with one consolidated platform.
- What outcomes are important? Define the desired results and capabilities. Establish metrics for success, such as gaining better visibility into performance. Focus on the outcomes you want to achieve to avoid wasting time.
- How will it work within your organization? Ensure the platform aligns with your workflows and delivery methods. Assess what’s working well and what needs improvement. Choose a tool that fits your unique business needs rather than relying on popularity.
By considering these factors, you can select the headless ecommerce platform that best suits your business requirements and supports your long-term goals.
Best Headless Ecommerce Platform Reviews
Here’s a brief description of each of the headless ecommerce platforms on my list showing what it does best, plus screenshots to showcase some of the features.
Subbly is a subscription-first commerce platform with AI features that help businesses manage and grow their subscription-based services. It offers a range of tools and features, including funnel and bundle builders, website creation, and migration assistance, as well as unique selling points such as native AI capabilities and full ownership of business data.
Why I Picked Subbly: I chose Subbly for headless ecommerce platforms because it offers a comprehensive solution tailored specifically for subscription-first businesses. Subbly stands out due to its native AI capabilities, designed to maximize revenue and improve customer retention. Additionally, Subbly's all-in-one platform eliminates the need for multiple plugins or complex systems, making it a more streamlined choice for businesses looking to simplify their operations.
Shopify Standout Features & Integrations
Subbly Standout Features
Key features include its all-in-one platform, native AI capabilities, and its ability to cater to a wide range of subscription-based businesses. Additionally, the platform offers extensive customization options, cost-savings tools, and real-time visitor tracking to help businesses grow their subscription-based revenue and make informed decisions about their online presence.
Integrations include Twilio, Zapier, Intercom, Mailchimp, Google Analytics, Zendesk, Hotjar, Drip, Klaviyo, Facebook, ChartMogul, and TaxJar.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Customizable subscription plans
- Users retain data ownership and the freedom to switch
- All-in-one subscription management, website building, and ecommerce functionality
Cons:
- Limited integrations with popular CRM software
- Website-building features such as drag-and-drop are limited
BigCommerce is an ecommerce platform allowing businesses to create custom-made digital storefronts. It provides users powerful tools for managing customer relationships, order management, product catalogs, and promotions. The user-friendly drag-and-drop editor makes it simple for users to customize their ecommerce storefronts.
Why I Picked BigCommerce: BigCommerce is a great open source choice for businesses due to its endless scalability, extensive customization options, and strong developer community support, allowing businesses to create highly tailored and scalable ecommerce solutions on their own terms.
BigCommerce's built-in content management system makes it easy for users to create and publish content on their digital storefronts. With headless commerce, businesses can quickly launch new products, add new features, and optimize their sites in real-time without worrying about technical issues or coding knowledge requirements. Its digital experience platforms allow merchants to increase customer engagement with dynamic, personalized experiences regardless of their device or channel.
BigCommerce Standout Features & Integrations
Key features include an open API and several available SDKs for developers to quickly and easily spin up projects, making it an ideal choice for businesses looking to launch an integrated ecommerce experience. The platform’s front-end frameworks allow users to create and customize the customer-facing part of their online store. Features such as intelligent storefront search, A/B testing capabilities, machine learning-driven recommendations, real-time analytics, and tracking help facilitate optimization across all channels.
Integrations include LiveChat, ShipStation, Georgias, Mailchimp, Quickbooks Online, Yotpo Product Reviews, Justuno, Brightpearl, Acumatica, ActiveCampaign, Hubspot, Klavyio, Shopgate, Printify, and dozens of other apps.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Omnichannel marketing support
- Extensive design capabilities
- Helpful customer service
Cons:
- Hard to troubleshoot technical errors
- Some custom styles are costly
Shopify’s headless ecommerce system lets you separate your frontend design from backend infrastructure, which enables you to publish to any channel and make any device a platform for your brand. There is an extensive knowledge base that will solve basic queries, as well as an active community forum.
Why I Picked Shopify: Shopify is a great choice for usability and ease of use due to its intuitive interface, user-friendly design, and extensive documentation, making it accessible for users with varying levels of technical expertise to easily set up and manage their online stores.
The headless commerce functionality provides total creative control across all touchpoints to deliver a cohesive customer experience. You can use your business software and content management systems to engage customers through custom storefronts like kiosks, wearables, vending machines, and billboards. It can also help you speed up your site performance with a web app that reacts like a native mobile app.
Shopify Standout Features & Integrations
Key features include its extensive App Store, offering a wide range of third-party applications and integrations. This marketplace allows users to enhance their online stores with unique features and functionalities, ranging from marketing and sales tools to customer support and inventory management solutions. The vast selection of apps caters to various business needs, empowering users to customize and extend the capabilities of their Shopify stores in a way that is unparalleled in the industry.
Integrations include Stocky, Apple Business Chat, Oberlo, Google Sheets, Mailchimp, Wave, Airtable, Slack, and 3k other vital business management apps. The product integrates smoothly with all the major marketplaces like Amazon and eBay.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- User-friendly platform
- In-depth inventory management
- Multiple customizable templates + themes
Cons:
- Monthly fee + transaction fees can add up
- Some plugins cost extra
OroCommerce comes from the same leadership team that built Magento and focuses on solutions for the B2B industry. Having said that, the platform can be customized to fit any B2B, B2B2C, B2B2B, and B2C ecommerce need. It operates on an open source philosophy and has a vibrant community that is constantly supporting each other.
Why I Picked OroCommerce: OroCommerce is a great choice for wholesalers due to its robust B2B features, including advanced pricing and catalog management, flexible workflows, and support for complex order fulfillment processes, allowing wholesalers to efficiently manage their operations and cater to the specific needs of B2B customers.
OroCommerce’s inventory management features let you conduct multi-website and multi-warehouse management. You can personalize catalogs and adjust pricing as well. OroCommerce lets you take your brand to the web and mobile with a platform that supports both headless ecommerce and traditional ecommerce. It integrates with CRM apps (such as Salesforce) and ERP apps (such as SAP) seamlessly.
OroCommerce Standout Features & Integrations
Key features include its advanced pricing and catalog management capabilities specifically designed for B2B wholesalers. It allows businesses to set up complex pricing structures, including negotiated pricing, volume-based discounts, customer-specific pricing, and contract-based pricing. Additionally, the platform offers extensive catalog management features such as tiered product pricing, configurable products, and custom catalogs, enabling wholesalers to efficiently manage their product offerings and tailor pricing strategies to meet the diverse needs of their B2B customers.
Integrations include Akeno, Epicor, SAP, Oracle, Infor, Microsoft Dynamics, and additional options using their Rest API, import/export engine, and using SFTP.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Easy multi-website management
- Great product catalog system
- Strong B2B selling capabilities
Cons:
- High entry, even for developers
- Limited user permissions options
Lightspeed Ecommerce is a cloud-based, headless ecommerce platform that helps businesses create and manage their online stores. You can optimize your ecommerce operations with features like product management, order fulfillment, and customer relationship management.
Why I Picked Lightspeed Ecommerce: Lightspeed Ecommerce is ideal for SMBs due to its comprehensive features, user-friendly interface, and scalable solutions that cater to the specific needs of small and medium-sized businesses, empowering them to effectively manage their online operations, streamline workflows, and drive growth.
Lightspeed Ecommerce has an awesome drag-and-drop website builder that’s easy enough that non-technical users can design and customize their online stores. The tool also has advanced inventory management features, including product variants and bundling, allowing you to really customize how your products are purchased. Lightspeed's multi-channel capabilities allow businesses to sell their products across multiple channels, including social media and marketplaces like Amazon and eBay, making it easier to reach a wider audience.
Lightspeed Ecommerce Standout Features & Integrations
Key features include its seamless integration with Lightspeed's point-of-sale (POS) system. This integration allows retailers to manage both their physical store and online operations from a single platform, ensuring synchronized inventory, unified reporting, and a seamless customer experience. The ability to bridge the gap between online and brick-and-mortar sales is a valuable and distinctive feature that sets Lightspeed Ecommerce apart from many competitors. Lightspeed Ecommerce offers specialized features designed specifically for the restaurant industry. It can help you quickly and easily set up an online storefront for takeout, delivery, subscription boxes, or reservations.
Integrations include PayPal and Stripe, shipping and logistics services like ShipStation and FedEx, and accounting apps like QuickBooks and Xero.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Free plan available
- Multi-channel selling, ie. Amazon, Google
- No setup or transaction fees
Cons:
- Limited customization options
- Phone support locked to highest plans
Commercetools is an omnichannel ecommerce platform that leverages headless ecommerce technology to create the foundation for evolutionary ecommerce architecture. It offers a point of sale functionality via cloud deployment. Its cutting-edge API approach powers retailers to create brand awareness by creating engaging customer experiences across multiple channels and also future-proof for emerging channels.
Why I Picked Commercetools: Commercetools has a big focus on scalability, in that they provide a microservices-based architecture, which sets it apart from traditional monolithic commerce platforms. By breaking down the commerce functionality into independent and scalable microservices, Commercetools offers exceptional agility and scalability, allowing businesses to evolve and adapt their commerce ecosystems rapidly. This unique approach enables organizations to add, remove, or modify individual microservices without disrupting the entire commerce system.
Overall, the solution contains all the important functions needed to run an ecommerce business, with the capabilities to constantly evolve and add new features. In terms of inventory management, Commercetools has features for tracking inventory, adjusting inventory, returns management, and multi-store management.
Commercetools Standout Features & Integrations
Key features include its API-first architecture, which places the API at the core of its platform. This unique approach allows for unparalleled flexibility and extensibility, enabling developers to build custom commerce solutions and integrations tailored to their specific needs. The API-first approach empowers businesses to deliver commerce experiences across various touchpoints, including web, mobile, IoT, voice, and more, while ensuring seamless scalability and agility.
Integrations include Contentstack, Cybersource, and Frontastic. It also works out of the box with DXPs and front-end CMS systems like Bloomreach and Adobe Experience Cloud.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Easy to customize
- Pay only for what you need (microservices-based)
- API-first architecture from ground-up
Cons:
- Additional integrations welcomed
- Require some coding knowledge for full advantages
Elastic Path is an API-first commerce platform that empowers businesses to create flexible, personalized, and seamless commerce experiences across various touchpoints. With its headless architecture and extensive API capabilities, Elastic Path enables businesses to innovate, adapt, and deliver unique commerce solutions tailored to their specific needs.
Why I Picked Elastic Path: Elastic Path's dynamic catalog management tools provide businesses with robust capabilities to efficiently manage and organize their product catalogs. With flexible product modeling, businesses can create and configure complex product structures, variations, and relationships. Elastic Path's dynamic catalog management tools allow businesses to easily update and modify product information, attributes, pricing, and inventory across multiple channels.
Elastic Path excels as a headless ecommerce platform by offering an API-first approach, enabling businesses to decouple the front-end presentation layer from the commerce backend. This allows for greater flexibility in front-end development, seamless integration with various touchpoints, and the ability to deliver personalized and consistent commerce experiences across channels.
Elastic Path Standout Features & Integrations
Key features include advanced revenue optimization capabilities, leveraging machine learning algorithms to dynamically optimize pricing, promotions, and offers in real-time. This unique feature allows businesses to maximize revenue by automatically adjusting pricing strategies based on customer behavior, market conditions, and business objectives, delivering personalized and optimized commerce experiences while driving conversions and increasing profitability.
Integrations include Advanced Commerce GrapheneHC, Ayden, Algolia, AWS Cognito, Authorize.net, Avalara, Braintree, Braze, Card Connect, Constructor.io, Covio, Google Merchant Center, Paypal, OpenAI, and other popular ecommerce, development, and content tools.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Responsive, engaged customer support team
- Lightweight API for rapid development cycles
- Simple promotion and personalization engine
Cons:
- Not appropriate for small biz/startups
- Can be complex to customize for new users
Magento Commerce equips developers to deliver tailor-made applications with a high level of customization based on the customer’s needs. This personalization can be enabled by experimentation. Magento empowers experimentation due to the systems being divided and not disturbing the operations of each other. The decoupled architecture facilitates new features and integrations at a fast rate.
Why I Picked Magento Commerce: Magento Commerce is a great choice for robust analytics due to its advanced reporting and analytics capabilities, providing businesses with comprehensive insights into customer behavior, sales performance, and marketing effectiveness, allowing for data-driven decision-making and optimization of ecommerce strategies. You can also export data directly to people’s inboxes, as well as get insights for average order value, lifetime value, and retention rates.
Magento’s inventory management features let you ship inventory to the right store at the right time. It lets you accurately track your inventory levels across multiple locations like warehouses, stores, and dropshippers. You can obtain a live count of your saleable stock. It also allows you to configure management settings globally, per source, and per product.
Magento Commerce Standout Features & Integrations
Key features include its ability to handle multi-brand companies with diverse product catalogs, efficiently managing offerings for different target markets such as B2B and B2C, and its built-in PWA Studio, which facilitates the creation and launch of progressive web apps that prioritize performance optimization and responsive design, ensuring exceptional user experiences across various devices.
Integrations include over 3,700 paid and free options, like EasyShip, eDesk, Facebook Business, Google Shopping, LiveHelp, Stripe, Mailchimp, Quickbooks, SendCloud, and Stripe.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Interconnected to all Adobe software & systems
- Deep analytics with personalizable dashboards
- Free community/open source edition
Cons:
- Comparatively costly vs other options
- Time-consuming for initial setup + launch
Contentful is a next-generation content-focused platform that works with a decoupled infrastructure and agile workflows meant to reduce time to market. It enables teams to unify content in a single hub and structure it for any digital channel. There is extensive documentation, user guides, and a supportive community to help you find your way.
Why I Picked Contentful: Contentful is a great choice for agile workflows due to its headless architecture, flexible content modeling, and powerful API, enabling rapid iteration, seamless collaboration between teams, and easy integration with various front-end technologies.
Using open APIs and strong integration capabilities, it can structure the content for multiple platforms and channels.It has an intuitive user interface and support for multiple spaces. This can be helpful for organizations that need separate projects for development, staging, or production.
Contentful Standout Features & Integrations
Key features include a robust and highly customizable Rich Text Editor that allows content editors to create and format content with a wide range of options, including text styles, embedded media, links, and more. Unlike many other CMS platforms, Contentful's RTE offers a highly extensible and flexible approach, enabling developers to create custom extensions and integrations tailored to specific content requirements, providing a unique level of control and creativity.
Integrations include Dropbox, Jira, Google Analytics, Commercetools, and other similar business tools.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- User-friendly platform
- Permissions are very granular and flexible
- Create custom content models suitable for complex data structures
Cons:
- Slows down with large volumes of content
- Search & filtering could be better
Kontent.ai is a versatile Headless CMS designed to meet the needs of ecommerce businesses, providing a flexible content management system that seamlessly integrates with various frontend technologies. With its emphasis on ecommerce, Kontent.ai enables businesses to efficiently manage and deliver product content, promotions, and personalized experiences across multiple channels, driving engaging and conversion-focused ecommerce experiences.
Why I Picked Kontent: Kontent.ai provides a visually intuitive content modeling interface, allowing content editors and administrators to easily define and structure content types and relationships without the need for complex technical knowledge or coding. This unique feature simplifies the content creation and management process, empowering non-technical users to contribute and collaborate.
Kontent.ai is a robust and versatile headless CMS platform that empowers businesses to manage and deliver content seamlessly across various digital channels. With its user-friendly interface and powerful features, Kontent.ai simplifies the content creation and management process, enabling content editors and administrators to structure and organize content without technical expertise. The platform's unique focus on flexibility and scalability makes it ideal for organizations seeking a customizable content management solution.
Kontent Standout Features & Integrations
Key features include Content Variants and Variations, which allows businesses to efficiently manage and customize content for different target audiences, languages, regions, or any other custom attributes. This capability enables businesses to streamline content localization, A/B testing, and personalization efforts, providing a highly tailored and localized experience to their customers, all within a single content repository.
Integrations include Builder.io, GatedContent, Algolia, Bynder, commercetools, Gatsby, Cloudinary, Gridsome, Magento, Netlify, Recomby, Ultracommerce, SEMrush, Scaleflex, and other similar tools. You can also unlock more options with a paid plan through Zapier.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Flexible, 'composable DXP' approach
- Easy-to-use content authoring
- Well-designed content types elements
Cons:
- No library of website themes
- More native integrations welcomed
Other Headless Ecommerce Platforms
Here’s a few more that didn’t make the top list.
Related Ecommerce Software Reviews
If you still haven't found what you're looking for here, check out these related ecommerce tools that we've tested and evaluated.
- Ecommerce Platforms
- Inventory Management Software
- Payment Processing Software
- Shopping Cart Solutions
- Order Management Systems
- Warehouse Management Software
Selection Criteria for Headless Ecommerce Platforms
Selecting the right headless ecommerce platform involves a careful evaluation of what they have to offer.
Through extensive personal trials and research, we've developed criteria to guide software buyers towards making an informed decision.
Core Functionality: 25% of total weighting score
- API flexibility and coverage: Ensuring broad and deep API capabilities for custom integration needs.
- Multi-channel support: Facilitating sales across web, mobile, social media, and marketplaces.
- Product information management: Efficiently managing a comprehensive product catalog.
- Scalability: Ability to scale operations up or down based on traffic and transaction volume.
- Security: Robust security features to protect customer and business data.
Additional Standout Features: 25% of total weighting score
- Unique integration capabilities: Seeking platforms that offer innovative integration with emerging technologies and platforms.
- Customization potential: Platforms that allow for extensive customization to create differentiated user experiences.
- Advanced analytics and insights: Identifying platforms that provide deeper insights into customer behavior and business performance.
- Enhanced user engagement tools: Platforms offering advanced tools for engaging users, such as AR/VR, chatbots, and personalized shopping experiences.
Usability: 10% of total weighting score
- Intuitive design: Platforms should feature an interface that is easy to navigate for both technical and non-technical users.
- Streamlined product management: Tools that simplify the management of extensive product catalogs with efficient sorting, tagging, and filtering capabilities.
Onboarding: 10% of total weighting score
- Comprehensive learning resources: Availability of detailed documentation, tutorials, and community forums.
- Interactive product tours and training: Platforms that offer guided tours and interactive training sessions to accelerate the learning curve.
- Customer onboarding support: Dedicated support during the onboarding process to ensure a smooth transition.
Customer Support: 10% of total weighting score
- Responsive support: Quick and helpful customer service across multiple channels (email, chat, phone).
- Community and forum support: Active user communities and forums for peer assistance and advice.
Value For Money: 10% of total weighting score
- Competitive pricing: Pricing that aligns with the features and capabilities offered, considering different business sizes and needs.
- Transparent cost structure: Clear explanation of pricing tiers, additional costs, and scalability options.
Customer Reviews: 10% of total weighting score
- Positive feedback: High ratings and positive reviews from current and past users regarding usability, support, and functionality.
- Success stories: Case studies and testimonials that highlight successful implementations and outcomes.
When evaluating headless ecommerce platforms, it's crucial to consider how well each platform aligns with your specific business requirements, from core functionality to unique features that set you apart.
Balancing functionality with usability ensures that the platform not only meets your current needs but also supports your growth and evolves with your business.
Trends in Headless Ecommerce Platforms for 2024
Here are some trends we’ve noticed for headless ecommerce technology and what they might mean for the future of the marketing industry.
We sourced countless product updates, press releases, and release logs to tease out the most important insights.
- Emphasis on omnichannel experience: Platforms are increasingly focusing on providing seamless shopping experiences across multiple channels, recognizing the need for businesses to meet customers wherever they are.
- Advanced personalization capabilities: Rapid evolution in features allows for deep customer personalization based on behavioral data, ensuring every customer interaction is tailored and relevant.
- Integration with emerging technologies: Novel functionalities include integration with AR/VR for immersive shopping experiences, IoT for smarter product interactions, and AI for predictive analytics and automated customer service.
- Sustainability features: Emerging trends also include functionalities that help businesses operate more sustainably, such as carbon footprint calculators and sustainable shipping options.
- Decentralization of commerce: The move towards decentralizing ecommerce, allowing for more peer-to-peer transactions and blockchain integrations, marks a novel shift in how ecommerce might function in the future.
Leveraging a headless ecommerce platform that aligns with these evolving trends will be key to creating differentiated, engaging, and efficient online shopping experiences that meet the ever-changing expectations of consumers.
9 Key Features of Headless Ecommerce Platforms
Ecommerce platforms typically offer a range of key features to facilitate online retail operations. Common features include:
- Product catalog management: Easily manage and organize product listings, including categorization, attributes, pricing, and inventory management.
- Shopping cart and checkout: Seamless shopping cart functionality with multiple payment options and secure checkout to facilitate smooth transactions.
- Order and inventory management: Tools to track and manage orders, including processing, shipment tracking, and inventory control.
- Payment gateway integration: Integration with popular payment gateways for secure and convenient payment processing.
- Customer management: Manage customer accounts, profiles, order history, customer reviews, wish lists, and personalized recommendations.
- Marketing and promotions: Create and manage promotional campaigns, discount codes, coupons, loyalty programs, and targeted marketing campaigns.
- Analytics and reporting: Built-in analytics and reporting features to track sales performance, customer behavior, conversion rates, and other key metrics.
- Mobile responsiveness: Ensure the platform is optimized for mobile devices, providing a seamless user experience across different screen sizes.
- SEO and content management: Tools for optimizing product pages, managing SEO metadata, and creating and managing content like blogs, articles, and landing pages.
These features may vary across different ecommerce platforms, allowing store owners to choose based on their specific needs and requirements.
Benefits of Headless Ecommerce Platforms
Headless ecommerce platforms revolutionize online sales by offering unprecedented flexibility and control over the digital customer experience.
By decoupling the frontend presentation layer from the backend ecommerce functionality, these platforms provide several key advantages critical for staying competitive in today's fast-paced market.
- Enhanced flexibility: Customize and innovate storefronts without constraints, tailoring the online presence to the brand identity and customer needs.
- Faster time to market: Rapid deployment of updates or new features allows businesses to quickly adapt to market trends or customer feedback.
- Omnichannel experience: Seamless integration across multiple platforms and devices ensures consistent and engaging user experiences on web, mobile, social media, and IoT devices.
- Improved performance and scalability: Faster load times and the ability to handle traffic spikes smoothly by optimizing the site for performance without back-end complexities.
- Better SEO and marketing agility: Easier implementation of SEO and content marketing strategies, allowing for swift updates and improved search engine rankings.
Focusing on these benefits helps organizations make informed decisions that align with their strategic goals, ensuring they harness the full potential of their online presence to drive growth and customer satisfaction.
Cost & Pricing for Headless Ecommerce Platforms
Headless ecommerce platforms offer a range of pricing plans to cater to businesses of various sizes and needs.
These platforms provide scalable solutions, from basic setups for startups to complex configurations for large enterprises.
Plan Comparison Table for Headless Ecommerce Platforms
Here’s a general overview of plan tiers for these platforms:
Here’s a detailed overview:
| Plan Type | Average Price | Common Features Included | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free Option | $0 | Basic API access, community support, very limited SKUs | Hobbyists, solopreneurs |
| Basic | $200 - $500/month | API access, community support, basic analytics, limited SKUs | Startups, small businesses |
| Professional | $1,000 - $3,000/month | Enhanced API access, dedicated support, advanced analytics, more SKUs | Growing businesses, SMEs |
| Enterprise | $5,000+/month | Custom API development, 24/7 support, unlimited SKUs, personalized integration assistance | Large enterprises with complex needs |
When exploring headless ecommerce platforms, consider the following factors:
- Customization options: Determine the level of customization you need for your front-end and how flexible the platform is in allowing these changes.
- Number of products: Consider the scale of your product catalog and ensure the platform can handle your inventory efficiently.
- Built-in marketing tools: Evaluate the marketing tools included, such as SEO optimization, email marketing, and promotional features.
- Hosting and security features: Ensure the platform offers robust hosting options and security features like SSL certificates and PCI compliance.
- International selling capabilities: Look for features that support multiple currencies and languages if you plan to sell internationally.
- Scalability: Assess how well the platform can grow with your business, supporting increasing traffic and sales.
- Support options: Consider the level of support provided, such as community forums, dedicated account managers, or 24/7 customer service.
- Transaction fees: Be aware of any transaction fees that might apply, especially if you have high sales volumes.
By understanding these factors and balancing cost against the features and support provided, you can select a headless ecommerce platform that aligns with your business goals and supports your growth.
Always assess your current needs and future growth plans to make an informed decision.
Headless Commerce Platform FAQs
To make this go-to list of the best headless ecommerce platforms even more comprehensive, I wanted to cover some of the most frequently asked questions on the topic.
How much do headless ecommerce platforms cost?
The cost of headless ecommerce platforms can vary significantly depending on various factors such as the platform provider, customization requirements, scale of the business, and additional services or features needed.
Costs can range from $14.08/month to $489/month for entry level prices, whereas advanced needs or large enterprises can expect to pay up to $150,000 annually.
Ongoing costs may include monthly or yearly licensing fees, hosting charges, maintenance and support fees, and potential costs for additional integrations or extensions.
What is the difference between headless and decoupled platforms?
Headless and decoupled platforms are architectural approaches used in web applications, especially content management systems (CMS). They differ in how they manage the presentation layer and backend.
Headless CMS
A headless CMS focuses on managing and delivering content to various front-end channels, such as websites, mobile apps, and IoT devices, separate from the presentation layer. Key features include:
- Content management: The backend offers a user-friendly interface for creating, organizing, and storing content without impacting the front end.
- Content delivery: Provides an API (usually RESTful or GraphQL) to deliver content in a structured format to front-end applications.
- Front-end flexibility: Developers can use any technology (like React, Angular, or Vue.js) to build the front end, consuming content via the API.
Decoupled CMS
A decoupled CMS, or hybrid CMS, separates content management and presentation layers but includes a default presentation layer. Key features include:
- Content management: Offers a user-friendly interface similar to traditional CMS for creating and managing content.
- Content delivery: Provides APIs to access and deliver content to front-end applications, often with predefined templates or themes.
- Presentation layer flexibility: Encourages using default templates but allows developers to modify or extend them as needed.
What is an example of headless ecommerce?
One example of headless ecommerce is a fashion retailer using a separate frontend application built with a modern JavaScript framework like React or Angular. This frontend interacts with a backend ecommerce platform via APIs.
The frontend handles the user interface, product displays, and customer interactions, while the backend manages inventory, order processing, and other business logic.
This separation allows the retailer to:
- Customize and optimize the frontend independently
- Provide a seamless shopping experience across web, mobile apps, and voice assistants
- Integrate with various systems
- Leverage advanced personalization techniques
- Rapidly adapt to changing market demands
This results in a more engaging and tailored shopping experience for customers.
Check out our Complete Guide To Headless Ecommerce (Examples & Platforms) for more.
Additional Ecommerce Platform Reviews
There are plenty of ecommerce platform types to choose from. Here are some similar software review lists that will complement your research of marketplace platform.
You can start with the overall best Best Ecommerce Platforms, which contain a little bit of everything ranked in an ultimate list.
Ecommerce Platforms by Business Type
- B2B Ecommerce Platforms
- Subscription Ecommerce Platforms
- Ecommerce Platforms For Small Businesses
- SaaS Ecommerce Platforms
- International Ecommerce Platforms
Ecommerce Platforms by Need
- Easiest Ecommerce Platforms
- Open Source Ecommerce Platforms
- Free Ecommerce Platforms
- Cheap Ecommerce Platforms
- Hosted Ecommerce Platforms
- Ecommerce Platforms In Canada
The Takeaway
According to Gitnux, 60% of major retailers in North America are expected to adopt a headless platform by 2025.
Headless ecommerce is great for store owners because it provides them with the flexibility to customize the frontend, integrate with various systems, deliver personalized experiences, and scale their business according to their specific needs and market demands.
Additionally, headless ecommerce is great for online shoppers as it enables seamless shopping experiences across multiple channels and devices, personalized recommendations, and a consistent user interface.
That sounds like a potential win-win scenario that could net you better customer satisfaction, more control over the way your store website is built and run, and an increase in profits using this hyper-adaptable approach to selling online.
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