Oct 21, 2026 | 14 minute read
written by Valerie Levanduski
The best commercetools alternatives are Elastic Path, Adobe Commerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, BigCommerce, and Shopify Plus. Which one fits depends on why you're leaving.
Many teams pick commercetools for its flexibility, then find out that flexibility has a price: more developers, longer timelines, and more vendors to manage. The strongest commercetools competitors close that gap. Orgill, for example, runs hundreds of dealer catalogs from one Elastic Path environment, while each dealer customizes its own storefront.
Below, we match each platform to the commercetools pain it solves (build cost, business-user tooling, B2B depth, or vendor sprawl), with honest strengths and weaknesses for every option, including Elastic Path.
In 2026, composable is table stakes. The question has moved from "Should we go composable?" to "How much do we want to build ourselves?" Three shifts are driving that question:
That's where commercetools fit gets tested. On commercetools, the storefront, content, search, and product information management (PIM) are usually separate builds or vendors, and B2B account hierarchies come through its Advanced B2B APIs, an add-on available with the Premium edition.
As a result, teams often depend on developers for routine changes, assemble B2B workflows from APIs, and manage a separate contract and integration for every best-of-breed vendor.
Note: None of this is a knock on quality. commercetools is proven at global scale and helped pioneer MACH (microservices, API-first, cloud-native, headless) architecture. It's a strong choice for engineering-led enterprises with a real platform team. This article is about fit.
Use commercetools as your baseline. Each row shows what you gain, and what you give up, by switching.
Tool
Architecture
Best for
Standout feature
commercetools (baseline)
Enterprise composable
Engineering-led enterprises with a platform team
Granular commerce APIs at global scale
Elastic Path
Enterprise B2B and B2B2C with complex catalogs
Product Experience Manager: unlimited catalogs and price books
Adobe Commerce
Monolith with headless options
Extension-heavy teams in the Adobe ecosystem
Native B2B module plus a large extension marketplace
Salesforce Commerce Cloud
Enterprise SaaS
Enterprises running on Salesforce
Shared data with Salesforce CRM and Agentforce AI agents
BigCommerce
Composable SaaS
Headless SaaS without a platform team
Catalyst, a Next.js storefront starter
Shopify Plus
DTC-led brands that need speed
Fastest time to launch and the largest app ecosystem
Spryker
Modular, B2B-native
Marketplaces and modular B2B
Built-in marketplace capabilities
Saleor
Open-source
Developer teams that want to own the code
GraphQL-native API
OroCommerce
B2B-native
Mid-market B2B workflows on day one
Built-in quotes, corporate accounts, and workflows
Elastic Path Composable Commerce shares commercetools' API-first, composable philosophy. The difference is what's already in the platform: the pieces commercetools leaves you to build or buy come included, from a storefront starter, CMS, and page builder to search, B2B workflows, an integration layer, and subscriptions. It's purpose-built for manufacturers and distributors with complex catalogs.
Three capabilities decide most Elastic Path vs. commercetools evaluations: catalog and pricing control, native B2B, and the integration and storefront layer.
Product Experience Manager separates products, pricing, and catalogs, so you get unlimited catalogs, hierarchies, and price books with no data duplication. Rules-based catalogs then assign the right assortment and price book to each account, region, or channel, and your merchandisers manage that logic instead of your developers.
That's a real contrast with commercetools. Elastic Path's commercetools comparison notes that the commercetools Merchant Center supports only a small portion of its APIs, and that bundles aren't supported out of the box.
Further reading: How PXM product import simplifies catalog management
Quoting, buy-on-behalf-of, custom buyer portals, multi-level account hierarchies, contract and volume pricing, and dynamic bundles are all part of the platform. On commercetools, account hierarchies come through Business Units in the Advanced B2B APIs add-on, and your developers build the buyer-facing workflows on top.
This is the assembly work commercetools leaves to you, already done:
Pro tip: Need logic no platform offers by default, like dealer-specific fields? Commerce Extensions let you extend core resources through custom APIs without touching platform code.
Johnstone Supply, the largest HVAC/R wholesale distributor in the U.S., runs a catalog of over a million SKUs across 450-plus stores on Elastic Path.
The journey doesn’t stop here. With Elastic Path, we can continue iterating, testing, and improving—without needing to replatform every few years.Lindsay Althouse Director, Business Systems and Delivery
The journey doesn’t stop here. With Elastic Path, we can continue iterating, testing, and improving—without needing to replatform every few years.
Orgill, the fastest-growing independent hardware distributor, runs a B2B2C program on Elastic Path, with hundreds of dealer catalogs already running from one centrally managed environment.
Our dealers need flexibility and customization, and we need support, scalability, and the ability to manage all stores within a controlled, centralized environment. The only way to bring this program to life was with composable commerce and Elastic Path.Grant Morrow Director, eCommerce
Our dealers need flexibility and customization, and we need support, scalability, and the ability to manage all stores within a controlled, centralized environment. The only way to bring this program to life was with composable commerce and Elastic Path.
See how Elastic Path handles B2B eCommerce, or how Orgill runs a dealer network on one environment.
Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento Commerce) gives you a full admin, a native B2B module, and one of the largest extension marketplaces in commerce.
commercetools pain it solves: Business-user tooling and B2B depth.
Pain it doesn't: Build cost and implementation time.
Company accounts, shared catalogs, negotiable quotes, requisition lists, and purchase orders are built in, so you configure them rather than assembling them from APIs.
Adobe Commerce connects to Adobe's content, analytics, and personalization tools. If your marketing team already runs on Adobe, that shared stack is the main draw.
Compare the two in our Elastic Path vs. Adobe Commerce guide.
Salesforce Commerce Cloud is now sold as Agentforce Commerce, a suite covering B2B Commerce, B2C Commerce, Order Management, Payments, and Point of Sale.
commercetools pain it solves: Vendor sprawl, if your CRM, service, and marketing already run on Salesforce.
Pain it doesn't: Flexibility outside the Salesforce stack.
B2B Commerce runs on the core Salesforce platform. Accounts, contract pricing, and quotes share data with your sales and service teams, so a rep and a self-service buyer see the same account.
AI agents for shoppers, buyers, and merchants are built into the platform, so you don't need to integrate a separate AI layer.
Read our Elastic Path vs. Salesforce Commerce Cloud comparison.
BigCommerce is a managed SaaS platform with strong headless support. It suits mid-market teams that want composable flexibility without running infrastructure.
commercetools pain it solves: Build cost and the need for a dedicated platform team.
Pain it doesn't: Deep enterprise B2B complexity, like multi-catalog dealer networks.
Catalyst is BigCommerce's Next.js storefront starter, which gives headless teams a maintained starting point instead of a from-scratch frontend.
B2B Edition adds company accounts, buyer roles, quotes, and a buyer portal. Multi-storefront lets you run several brands or regions from one backend.
See our Elastic Path vs. BigCommerce guide, or browse more headless commerce platforms.
Shopify Plus is Shopify's enterprise tier. It trades composable control for speed, a polished admin, and the largest app ecosystem in commerce.
commercetools pain it solves: Business-user tooling and time to launch.
Pain it doesn't: Complex B2B pricing and catalog logic, and architectural control.
Plus includes company profiles, customer-specific catalogs, and payment terms, which covers straightforward wholesale alongside a consumer business.
Hydrogen is Shopify's React-based headless framework, and Oxygen hosts it, so teams can go headless without leaving Shopify's managed backend.
See our Elastic Path vs. Shopify comparison.
Spryker is a modular commerce platform with strong B2B and built-in marketplace capabilities. It solves the B2B-depth pain, since you start with B2B and marketplace modules instead of assembling them from APIs.
It doesn't solve build cost. Spryker is developer-heavy, so expect a partner-led implementation similar in scale to commercetools.
Best for: Enterprises launching a B2B or multi-vendor marketplace.
Saleor is the strongest open source commercetools alternative for developer-led teams. It's headless and GraphQL-native, and because the core is open source, it solves the ownership pain: you control the code.
It doesn't solve build burden or business-user tooling. You own the storefront, integrations, and B2B logic.
Best for: Engineering teams that want to own and host their commerce engine.
OroCommerce is a B2B-native platform with corporate accounts, quotes, and configurable workflows built in. It solves the B2B-depth pain for mid-market sellers who want those workflows live without custom development.
It doesn't solve the composable question. OroCommerce is a more traditional, all-in-one application, and its open-source roots mean it needs real technical resources to configure and maintain.
Best for: Mid-market manufacturers and distributors that want B2B features out of the box.
commercetools works for some brands, but four specific traits push B2B and enterprise teams to evaluate other headless commerce platforms.
The commercetools core delivers commerce through APIs. Its storefront is a separate product, commercetools Frontend, bundled into the Foundry edition alongside Checkout and Connect, and it's built for developers, with no low-code or no-code page builder for business users.
Content management, search, and PIM are typically separate vendors or builds, and each missing piece becomes its own project. That's why first-year cost and long timelines come up so often.
How Elastic Path handles it: The Composable Frontend (a pre-integrated Next.js framework), Visual CMS, and native search come included, so your developers start from a working foundation.
According to Elastic Path's commercetools comparison, the Merchant Center supports only a small portion of commercetools' APIs, and day-to-day schema management needs developer involvement. In practice, that can turn routine catalog, price, and promotion changes into developer tickets.
How Elastic Path handles it: In Commerce Manager and Product Experience Manager, merchandisers create, launch, and swap catalogs and price books with rules. No code required.
commercetools offers B2B building blocks, like Business Units for account hierarchies, through its Advanced B2B APIs add-on. Your developers then turn those APIs into buyer-facing quoting, approval, and portal workflows. For manufacturers and distributors, those workflows are the baseline, not an advanced feature.
How Elastic Path handles it: Sales-assisted buying, buy-on-behalf-of, custom buyer portals, and multi-level accounts are native. See how Orgill manages its dealer network.
Best-of-breed by default means separate contracts, integrations, and monitoring for your CMS, search, PIM, subscriptions, and more. Every added vendor is another cost line and another failure point.
How Elastic Path handles it: Composer gives you one place to build, deploy, host, and monitor integrations. Subscriptions and search are native, where commercetools relies on third-party subscription integrations. Learn more about Elastic Path's platform architecture.
Further reading: What AI agents need from your B2B ecommerce catalog
Your next step depends on why you're leaving commercetools. If you're a $100M+ manufacturer, distributor, or multi-brand seller and you want composability with native B2B and less to build, Elastic Path is the fit.
If you want managed SaaS speed, start with BigCommerce or Shopify Plus. If you want to own the code, look at Saleor or alternatively, Elastic Path Self-Managed Commerce for full access to the source code. Still comparing? Our ecommerce software comparison guide lays out the trade-offs side by side.
Book an Elastic Path demo or read our Elastic Path vs. commercetools comparison.
Valerie Levanduski
Marketing Manager
It depends on complexity. For enterprise B2B with complex catalogs and negotiated pricing, choose Elastic Path. For mid-market B2B workflows out of the box, consider OroCommerce.
Yes. Saleor is open source and GraphQL-native, and Medusa and Vendure are other options. You host the code and build the storefront yourself.
It depends on your build. Because commercetools is API-first, your product, customer, and order data is accessible for export, but custom storefront code and integrations take the most work.
Yes. Both are API-first and MACH-based, and Elastic Path also includes a storefront starter, CMS, integration layer, and native B2B features.
Schedule a demo to see how Elastic Path delivers unified commerce for leading global brands.