Connect any frontend to a full business backend with Wix Headless →
AI coding tools like Claude Code and Cursor can now produce a custom shop frontend in an afternoon. What they can't produce is the proven backend that takes care of carts, payments and orders.
This guide compares 12 options side by side, from an all-in-one headless solution to open-source and enterprise tools, so you can match the system to how you build.
Connect your project to Wix Headless for free. Upload or drag in your HTML, CSS and JavaScript files to get your site live with a shareable URL, then come back to compare the rest of the field.
TL;DR: best headless commerce platforms
The best headless commerce platforms for 2026 are Wix Headless, Shopify, BigCommerce, commercetools and Medusa, and the right pick depends on how much backend you want to run yourself. Wix Headless leads because it combines an ecommerce platform, a headless CMS, payments, online scheduling and events in one backend.
You'll learn:
What a headless commerce platform is and when it makes sense
Seven criteria that separate the best platforms from the rest
How platforms compare on hosting, pricing and ideal use case
Who each platform is best for and where each one has trade-offs
How headless differs from composable commerce
Which platform fits your team, budget and AI workflow
What is a headless commerce platform?
A headless commerce platform splits the part customers see, like product pages and checkout screens, from the backend that runs carts, inventory, payments and orders. The two sides talk through APIs, so your frontend can be a Next.js site, a mobile app or anything else you can code. If you want the full definition, start with what is headless commerce.
The timing is good. Americans spent $1.23 trillion online in 2025, and ecommerce keeps taking a bigger share of retail, according to the US Census Bureau. There has never been a better time to sell online.
Headless gives you speed and design control, but it also hands you a new job. You need a production frontend, and you need a backend you can live with for years. A traditional ecommerce platform bundles both together, while headless lets you choose each side on purpose.
Best headless commerce platforms at a glance
Here's how the 12 platforms line up on type, hosting, best use and pricing basis.
Platform | Type | Hosting | Best for | Pricing basis |
Wix Headless | Full business backend | Wix-managed or self-hosted | AI builders, agencies and one native backend | Free to connect, Premium plan to sell |
Shopify (Hydrogen) | SaaS with headless APIs | Oxygen or self-hosted | Brands already on Shopify | Shopify plan, Oxygen included on paid plans |
BigCommerce (Catalyst) | SaaS with headless APIs | External host such as Vercel | Mid-market SaaS plus custom frontend | BigCommerce plan, Catalyst has no extra cost |
commercetools | API-first SaaS | SaaS backend, you host the frontend | Large composable enterprises | Quote-based |
Medusa | Open-source framework | Self-hosted | JavaScript teams who want code ownership | Open source (MIT) |
Saleor | Open-source GraphQL platform | Self-hosted or Saleor Cloud | GraphQL-first teams | Open source (BSD-3) plus cloud plans |
Vendure | Open-core framework | Self-hosted or Vendure Cloud (beta) | TypeScript teams building B2B and omnichannel | Open core (GPLv3) plus commercial tiers |
Commerce Layer | API-first commerce engine | SaaS, you host the frontend | Multi-market checkout | Free developer plan, enterprise by quote |
Elastic Path | Composable commerce suite | SaaS or self-managed | Complex B2B and catalogs | Quote-based |
Adobe Commerce | Enterprise suite with APIs | Adobe cloud or self-managed | Adobe ecosystem enterprises | Open-source edition or paid Adobe tiers |
Salesforce Commerce Cloud | Enterprise suite with APIs | Managed Runtime (serverless) | Salesforce ecosystem enterprises | Quote-based |
Shopware | Open-source API-first platform | Self-hosted, PaaS or SaaS | Open-source PHP teams | Open-source Community Edition plus paid options |
12 best headless commerce platforms
01. Wix Headless: best for AI builders, agencies and teams that want one native business backend
Wix Headless is a headless solution that connects any frontend to a full native business backend, including ecommerce, a CMS, payments, bookings and events. You build and own the frontend on any AI coding tool or code stack, and Wix handles the backend. It is designed for AI builders, vibe coders and agencies who want full creative freedom on the front without building or managing infrastructure.
How Wix Headless works
Wix Headless connects frontends built with AI coding tools such as Claude Code, Cursor, Codex and Gemini CLI, plus platforms like Base44, to Wix business solutions. For a new project, you paste the wix-headless.dev/skill.md prompt into your AI tool and your project is wired to the Wix backend in one step. Prefer more control? The Wix CLI creates a locally developed, Wix-hosted project, and a code library covers a fully self-managed setup. Our guide on how to make a Wix Headless website walks through each path.
Already built something in an AI tool? You can connect Claude Code to a backend and keep working in the same workflow. Wix Headless does not ask you to rebuild inside a Wix editor.
What Wix Headless includes for commerce
Wix Headless ecommerce lets developers manage orders, inventory, shipping and finances through Wix business solutions. It includes secure payments, optimized checkouts and automated sales taxes, and it syncs product data to Facebook and Instagram catalogs from the Wix dashboard. Every Wix Headless project runs on the same payments infrastructure that powers live Wix stores, so you can accept payments without a separate setup.
According to Itay Shmool, VP and Chairman of Payments at Wix:
"People using Claude or Cursor to build are moving at a speed that traditional infrastructure just can't match. They'll have a working prototype in an afternoon and then spend weeks trying to bolt on payments. Wix Headless closes that gap. The infrastructure is already there, you're not setting it up, you're connecting to it."
Commerce is only part of the backend. Wix Headless includes a headless CMS that organizes content into collections connected directly to your frontend, which pairs well with a shop that also needs a blog or editorial pages. If you are weighing options for content, see the best headless CMS options for a wider comparison. Wix Headless Bookings handles online scheduling end to end, so clients can book, pay and receive reminders automatically. Wix Headless Events covers tickets, RSVPs and guest management for any event website.
Worth being clear on: Wix Headless gives you a complete business backend with ecommerce, bookings, events, a CMS and payments, all natively connected. The frontend is yours to build and own, but if you don't have one yet, Wix Headless gives you the tools to create one too. Describe what you want on the Wix Headless page and it opens in your chosen vibe coding platform with the backend already wired in, or use wix.com/headless/skill.md with any AI coding tool to build and connect in one step.
Hosting, SEO and pricing
Wix Headless offers two hosting options. Wix-managed headless means Wix handles hosting, CDN, SSL and scaling for you. Self-managed headless means you host on Vercel, Netlify, AWS or any other platform and connect to Wix through its APIs and JavaScript SDK. Wix-managed projects use Astro and support React, Vue, Svelte and Solid frontends, and the whole setup runs on multi-cloud ecommerce hosting with a global CDN, automatic scaling and uptime monitoring.
Search visibility is covered too. Wix Headless provides Wix SEO controls for custom meta tags, editable URLs and structured data, plus an automatically maintained XML sitemap. If you already have a finished static site, drag and drop deploy takes HTML, CSS and JavaScript files up to 20 MB in total and gives you a live site on a shareable Wix URL.
This surprises most new users: there is no time limit, no credit card required and no sandbox mode when you connect. Wix Headless is free to connect, with no developer pricing, no API fees and no enterprise tiers. You build everything out and test every flow before spending anything, and the only things that need a paid Premium plan are accepting live payments, connecting a custom domain and unlocking advanced analytics. For the full breakdown, see how much does Wix Headless cost.
Worth knowing: Wix-managed headless and self-managed headless both connect to the same complete Wix business backend. The choice comes down to how much control you want over your hosting environment, not what backend features you can access.
Build your frontend your way and let Wix run everything behind it with Wix Headless →
Who Wix Headless is best for
Wix Headless suits AI builders, vibe coders, agencies and freelancers who want to own the frontend and skip backend engineering. Strugbits, a web and mobile development agency of about 150 people, now builds its own site and client sites on Wix Headless with Next.js frontends, and roughly 90 out of every 100 of its sites use the Wix CMS. Samprand built a Flutter app for iOS, Android and web on Wix Headless for a fitness creator, and she now manages her own content through the Wix CMS and Wix Automations.
Solo builders get results too. Developer Rafal Koziarz rebuilt his partner's online fashion store on Wix Headless using Claude Code for the build and Google Stitch for the design, then deployed it on Vercel. His partner now manages products and content from the Wix admin, so neither of them blocks the other.
Rafal Koziarz, developer of Solitairec, put the speed this way:
"The first version only took a day, because the checkout and login are still Wix, and the front end was already described to the LLM."
Wix Headless is also a practical path if you want to sell from a website built in an LLM or if you are ready to migrate from WordPress to Wix Headless. It is a lighter fit for large enterprises that need deep ERP-driven B2B workflows or a fully composable stack of specialist services. Those teams will find strong options further down this list.
02. Shopify (Hydrogen)
Shopify's headless route centers on Hydrogen, its React Router based framework, and Oxygen, its global edge hosting platform. Hydrogen includes pre-wired components and a CLI, and it connects to Shopify's headless APIs, which are versioned quarterly. Oxygen is included at no extra charge on paid Shopify plans, and you can also self-host Hydrogen or use the Headless sales channel to host a custom frontend anywhere.
The big strength is a proven checkout and a huge app ecosystem, so brands already on Shopify can get a fully custom frontend without moving their operations. Hydrogen versions track Shopify's API versions, which means breaking changes arrive on Shopify's schedule rather than yours.
The backend stays a managed Shopify system tied to your Shopify plan. Choose Shopify when your catalog and operations already live there and your goal is a faster, more custom frontend. If you also want bookings or event ticketing in the same backend, check how Shopify handles them before you commit.
Learn more:
03. BigCommerce (Catalyst)
BigCommerce is a SaaS ecommerce platform, and Catalyst is its open-source headless framework. Catalyst is built with Next.js, React and BigCommerce's GraphQL API, and it is released under the MIT license. BigCommerce says Catalyst is free to use for any merchant with an available channel, including trial stores, at no additional cost from BigCommerce.
Catalyst gives you a production-ready B2C shopping flow out of the box, with product pages, a cart, customer accounts and a secure redirected checkout. That hosted checkout keeps payment data off your frontend, which simplifies PCI compliance. You still host the Next.js frontend yourself on Vercel or any host that supports Node.js or Docker.
BigCommerce asks for some development experience, so it suits teams with developers or a certified agency. It is a sensible middle option for mid-market brands that want SaaS convenience without running their own commerce backend, though deep customization stays inside BigCommerce's model.
Learn more: Wix vs BigCommerce
04. commercetools
commercetools is an API-first commerce platform built on MACH principles, which stand for microservices, API-first, cloud-native and headless. It helped define composable commerce and runs as a SaaS backend, so you build and host your own frontend and any custom middleware. Large organizations with several brands, regions and channels use it to model complex catalogs and pricing.
Its flexibility is also its cost. You assemble a great deal yourself, so commercetools works best with a dedicated platform team and a real composable strategy. Add-ons for areas like B2B come as paid modules.
commercetools prices by quote, so you will need to talk to sales for numbers. It is a strong choice for global enterprises that want maximum architectural freedom and have the engineers to use it. Smaller teams usually find it more platform than the project needs.
05. Medusa
Medusa is an open-source commerce platform with a built-in framework for custom commerce applications, released under the MIT license. Its commerce modules are freely available on npm, and the codebase is mostly TypeScript. Teams use it to build B2B or direct-to-consumer stores, marketplaces, distributor platforms and point-of-sale systems.
The appeal is control and zero license fees. You can read, fork and extend the code, and the module system keeps customizations tidy. If your team already works in JavaScript or TypeScript, Medusa will feel familiar from day one.
Open source means you own the operations too. Expect to assemble more yourself, and check that the advanced B2B or enterprise features you need are mature before you commit. Medusa is a strong pick for developer-led teams that want a flexible, fully owned starting point.
06. Saleor
Saleor is an open-source, GraphQL-only commerce platform built on Python and Django, released under the BSD-3 license. It offers native multichannel control, with per-channel pricing, currencies and stock, plus webhooks, apps and metadata for extensibility.
Saleor also provides a dashboard and an open-source React and Next.js frontend starter.
You can self-host Saleor with Docker or start faster on Saleor Cloud, which offers developer accounts. The API design is clean because everything runs through GraphQL, and that makes mobile and multi-frontend builds easier to reason about.
The main consideration is the backend stack. Saleor runs on Python, so it fits teams comfortable there, or teams that only touch the API from a JavaScript frontend. Pick Saleor when GraphQL-first design and multichannel selling matter more than a built-in frontend.
07. Vendure
Vendure is a headless commerce platform built with TypeScript, NestJS and GraphQL. Its pitch is a single coherent commerce core that you extend with plugins and expose through one GraphQL API. It targets B2B and omnichannel needs such as multiple sales channels, customer-specific pricing and company account hierarchies.
Vendure is open core. The commerce core is open source under the GPLv3 license and free to self-host, while advanced enterprise capabilities live in a commercial layer. You can run it yourself or use Vendure Cloud, which the team has opened as a beta with general availability planned for Q1 2027. Vendure also offers an open-source Next.js frontend starter.
Self-hosting means you carry the operations unless you use Vendure Cloud, and the platform assumes a team comfortable with a modern TypeScript codebase. Choose Vendure when you sell into B2B or across many channels and want one extensible backend.
08. Commerce Layer
Commerce Layer is an API-first, headless commerce platform built for globally distributed, multi-market selling. It provides checkout, orders, pricing and inventory through a large API surface of more than 400 resources, and it keeps content and commerce decoupled so you can pair it with your preferred CMS and frontend.
Its multi-market design is the standout. Each market can have its own price lists, currencies and localized catalogs without duplicating data. Commerce Layer offers a free developer plan, and enterprise plans are priced through sales. It also publishes documentation on how AI agents interact with its APIs through MCP.
Commerce Layer is infrastructure, not a ready-made shop, so you build the frontend and the surrounding stack yourself. It rewards engineering-led teams that want checkout and orders as clean building blocks across many channels.
09. Elastic Path
Elastic Path is a composable commerce provider built on MACH principles. Its product family includes Product Experience Manager for catalogs, Composer for integrations and orchestration, and a self-managed commerce option for enterprises with specific infrastructure needs. The team says it pioneered headless commerce in 2011.
Elastic Path leans into hard problems such as contract-based pricing, reseller hierarchies and multiple catalogs, which are common in B2B. Its catalog tooling is designed so product data, price books and category hierarchies stay separate, giving merchandisers more flexibility without custom development.
Pricing is custom, and the platform expects real integration work. Elastic Path pays off when your requirements go beyond what a more packaged platform can express. Mid-market teams often find it heavier than they need.
10. Adobe Commerce
Adobe Commerce builds on Magento and offers a large extension ecosystem plus GraphQL and REST APIs for headless delivery. Adobe's current guidance for new headless projects centers on Edge Delivery Services, where a frontend is composed from drop-in commerce components and hosted on Adobe's global content delivery network.
That setup gives teams document-based content authoring and performance-focused delivery, and it connects naturally to the wider Adobe stack. Adobe Commerce also comes in an open-source edition for self-hosting, with paid Adobe tiers that add managed cloud and enterprise features.
The trade-off is weight. Adobe Commerce is a large application to run, upgrade and extend, and the Edge Delivery path requires specific commerce services to be configured on the backend. It makes the most sense when your team already lives in Adobe.
11. Salesforce Commerce Cloud
Salesforce Commerce Cloud pairs its B2C Commerce backend with a headless option built on the PWA Kit. That option combines the PWA Kit, an open-source React framework licensed under BSD-3, with Managed Runtime, a serverless hosting environment for your frontend. Your frontend talks to the commerce backend through Salesforce Commerce APIs.
Managed Runtime scales with traffic and includes 100 environments out of the box at no additional cost, so teams can spin up test and staging copies easily. The real draw is tight integration with the wider Salesforce ecosystem across CRM, marketing and service.
Commerce Cloud is a proprietary platform priced through sales, and it gives developers less low-level control than open or API-only options. It is more of an ecosystem decision than a pure commerce one, and it fits enterprises already standardized on Salesforce.
12. Shopware
Shopware 6 is an open-source commerce platform built on the Symfony PHP framework with a Vue.js administration. It was built API-first, with a Store API for customer-facing apps and an Admin API for back-office work. Its Community Edition is free to use, and the Shopware PaaS and SaaS offerings are built on top of it.
For headless projects, Shopware offers Composable Frontends, a set of platform-independent packages for building a custom frontend with Vue, React or another framework. Its API client is an independent TypeScript library, so you are not tied to one framework.
You will need PHP and Symfony skills for backend customization, and you take on hosting unless you choose a managed Shopware option. Shopware is a good fit for teams that want open-source control with a mature, API-first design.
Editor’s note: We build Wix Headless, so we ranked it first. Every platform here was judged on the same criteria and described using public vendor documentation as of October 2026.
How to choose a headless commerce platform
Wix Headless is our product, so we put it first and judged every platform on the same criteria below. Each section also names where a platform is not the best fit, including ours.
Start with ownership. Open-source platforms like Medusa let you read and fork the code, while SaaS platforms run the backend for you. Then look at hosting, because some platforms are managed, some are self-hosted and some are both. Hosting decides how much operations work lands on your team.
Next, count what you have to assemble. A single backend with commerce built in is one thing to run, while a fully composable stack of separate services is an ongoing integration project. Check how much of the frontend you must build from scratch, since that is the most underestimated cost of any headless project. Finally, compare pricing and total cost of ownership, and ask how well the platform fits your pace of building.
That last point matters more every month. McKinsey projects that agentic commerce, where AI agents research, compare and buy on behalf of consumers, could drive up to $1 trillion in US B2C retail revenue by 2030, with global potential reaching $3–5 trillion, marking the next frontier beyond social and mobile commerce. Pick a backend your AI tools can connect to without piles of glue code.
Worth knowing: a platform's license price is rarely your biggest cost. Frontend build time, integrations and the people who maintain them usually add up to more, so compare total cost of ownership rather than sticker price.
Learn more: What is an AI workflow?
Headless vs composable commerce
Headless and composable are related but not the same. Headless decouples the frontend from the backend. Composable commerce goes further and splits the backend itself into separately chosen and separately operated services, such as search here and pricing there. Platforms like commercetools, Elastic Path and Commerce Layer sit firmly on the composable side.
Composable promises plug-and-play best-of-breed vendors, but it can also mean managing many contracts and integrating many APIs that change on their own schedules. Wix Headless takes the other route with a decoupled frontend over one native backend that includes ecommerce, a CMS, payments, bookings and events. For background on how the two sides relate, read about headless CMS vs traditional CMS and what a backend as a service actually provides.
Worth knowing: you can go headless without going fully composable. A decoupled frontend over one coherent backend gives you design freedom without a dozen separate vendor relationships to manage.
Which headless commerce platform is right for you?
The platforms above sort cleanly once you match them to your situation instead of a ranking. Use this quick guide to narrow your shortlist.
AI builders and agencies: Wix Headless gives you one native backend for commerce, content, bookings and events, with frontend freedom on any AI tool or framework.
Brands already on Shopify: Shopify with Hydrogen is the fastest path to a custom frontend without leaving a platform that already works.
Mid-market teams that want SaaS plus a custom frontend: BigCommerce with Catalyst keeps the backend managed while you build your own frontend.
Developer-led teams that want code ownership: Medusa for a JavaScript-first base, Saleor for a GraphQL-first Python stack or Vendure for a TypeScript core with strong B2B features.
Global enterprises with platform teams: commercetools, Elastic Path or Commerce Layer for composable, multi-market commerce.
Enterprises tied to a major suite: Adobe Commerce if you live in Adobe and Salesforce Commerce Cloud if you live in Salesforce.
Open-source PHP teams: Shopware for an API-first core you can host and extend.
One thing worth knowing: the best platform is the one your team can actually build and run. More features do not help if nobody has time to assemble them, so match your pick to the engineering time you really have.
Small teams are proving how far the right backend can go. Freelance agency builder Shahkam Abdul Aziz pairs the Wix CLI with Cursor and has built every client project on Wix Headless since February 2026.
Shahkam Abdul Aziz, freelance agency builder, describes the impact:
"Wix Headless cut my dev time by at least 70 to 75 percent. Projects that used to take me months now take weeks, and sometimes less than two."
See how one native backend feels for yourself with Wix Headless →
Best headless commerce platform FAQ:
Which headless commerce platform is easiest to start with?
Wix Headless is one of the easiest to start with because it is free to connect and a single prompt that wires your AI-built project to the backend.
What's the difference between headless and composable commerce?
Headless commerce separates the frontend from the backend and connects them through APIs. Composable commerce also splits the backend into separate services that you choose and connect yourself. You can be headless without being fully composable by using one coherent backend behind a custom frontend.
