What Is E-Commerce?
Mix (16 tools)
- License: 8 open source · 8 proprietary
- Hosting: 7 self-hosted · 7 SaaS · 2 both
E-Commerce is the technology infrastructure that enables businesses to sell products and services online. An e-commerce platform provides the complete stack for running an online store: product catalog management, shopping cart and checkout, payment integration, order management, shipping and fulfillment, and customer account management.
Modern e-commerce platforms support multiple sales models and channels from a single platform:
- Product catalog – organize products with variants (size, color, SKU), categories, attributes, pricing tiers, digital assets, and rich descriptions; manage inventory quantities per SKU; support virtual and downloadable products alongside physical goods
- Shopping cart and checkout – session-managed cart with persistent cart recovery (abandoned cart emails), guest and registered checkout flows, address validation, coupon and discount codes, gift card redemption, and upsell/cross-sell recommendations at checkout
- Payment integration – connect to payment gateways (Stripe, PayPal, Adyen, Square) for card processing; support digital wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay); buy-now-pay-later (Klarna, Afterpay); alternative payment methods (iDEAL, Bancontact); PCI DSS compliance through hosted payment pages and tokenization
- Order management – full order lifecycle from placement through fulfillment, shipment, and return; order editing, partial fulfillment, split shipments, backorders, and cancellations; customer order history and self-service return initiation
- Shipping and fulfillment – carrier integration (UPS, FedEx, USPS, DHL, Royal Mail) for real-time shipping rates, label generation, and tracking; fulfillment rules for warehouse routing; dropship support; integration with 3PL (third-party logistics) providers
- Digital products and subscriptions – deliver software licenses, downloadable files, and media; manage subscription plans with recurring billing, free trials, metered usage, and dunning for failed payments; enforce access control for digital entitlements
- Multi-channel selling – synchronize product listings and inventory across channels: online storefront, Amazon Marketplace, eBay, Google Shopping, Facebook and Instagram Shops, TikTok Shop, and physical POS; unified order and inventory management across all channels
- Headless commerce – decouple the storefront presentation layer from the commerce backend; expose products, cart, and checkout via REST or GraphQL APIs; power custom frontend experiences built with Next.js, Nuxt, or React Native while the platform manages commerce logic and data
- Multi-store and multi-region – operate multiple storefronts from a single platform for different brands, markets, or locales; per-store product catalogs, pricing, currencies, tax rules, and shipping zones; localized storefronts with translated content and regional payment methods
- Tax calculation – automatic sales tax for US states, VAT for EU/UK, GST for Australia and Canada; product tax class assignment; nexus management; integration with dedicated tax engines (Avalara, TaxJar) for complex compliance scenarios
- SEO and marketing – canonical URLs, structured data (JSON-LD), sitemap generation, customizable meta tags, open graph tags for social sharing; built-in blog or CMS for content marketing; integration with Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, Google Tag Manager, and email marketing platforms
About this data & disclaimer
The information on these pages was researched by a combination of human review and large language models. This catalogue serves as a reference for the resources, applications, devices, deployment payloads, and other components that the ResorsIT platform integrates, deploys, and manages. To suggest an addition or correction, please contact us. Prepared by Rhodium Systems Inc., author of the ResorsIT platform — a unified IT operations management platform for IT teams and MSPs that integrates a curated suite of open-source, commercial, and SaaS applications into a single system with shared identity, single sign-on, access control, and a common audit trail. This information is compiled on a best-effort basis: it may be incomplete, contain errors, and become out of date as tools, vendors, licences, and features change. Use this catalogue only as a starting point for your own research, and independently verify and review any tool carefully against your own requirements before relying on it.
Comparison
SSO / OIDC Comparison
OIDC is the preferred SSO protocol; the notes below assume Authentik as the IdP.
| Tool | OIDC | SAML | SCIM | Authentik Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WooCommerce | Yes* | No | No | Via OpenID Connect plugin (miniOrange or oauth2-server); Authentik as IdP |
| Magento Open Source | Yes* | No | No | Via third-party OIDC extension; Authentik as IdP |
| PrestaShop | Yes* | No | No | Via OAuth2 module from PrestaShop Addons; Authentik as IdP |
| OpenCart | Yes* | No | No | Via third-party OAuth2 extension; Authentik as IdP |
| Medusa | No | No | No | API-first; no built-in admin SSO; custom middleware required |
| Saleor | No | No | No | API-first; no built-in admin SSO; custom middleware required |
| Solidus | No | No | No | Rails-based; SSO via Devise + OmniAuth; Authentik as IdP |
| Spree Commerce | No | No | No | Rails-based; SSO via OmniAuth; Authentik as IdP |
| Shopify | No | Yes | Yes | SAML SSO on Shopify Plus; SCIM for staff accounts; Authentik as SAML IdP |
| BigCommerce | No | Yes | No | SAML SSO on Enterprise plan; Authentik as SAML IdP |
| Salesforce Commerce Cloud | No | Yes | Yes | SAML SSO via Salesforce Identity; SCIM provisioning; Authentik as SAML IdP |
| commercetools | Yes | Yes | No | OIDC and SAML for Merchant Center; Authentik as IdP |
| Shopware | Yes* | No | No | Via Shopware SSO plugin (open core); Authentik as OIDC IdP |
| Ecwid | No | No | No | Email/password only; no SSO support |
| Squarespace Commerce | No | No | No | Squarespace account login only; no SSO |
| Wix eCommerce | No | No | No | Wix account login only; no SSO |
* = requires specific plugin, extension, or module
Best SSO support: Shopify Plus (SAML + SCIM), Salesforce Commerce Cloud (SAML + SCIM), commercetools (OIDC + SAML)
No SSO: Ecwid, Squarespace Commerce, Wix eCommerce, Medusa, Saleor (no native SSO; custom integration or reverse proxy required)
API Comparison
| Tool | REST API | GraphQL | Webhooks | SDK / CLI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WooCommerce | Yes | No | Yes | PHP (official), JS (community) |
| Magento Open Source | Yes | Yes | Yes | PHP (official), JS (community) |
| PrestaShop | Yes | No | Yes | PHP (official) |
| OpenCart | Yes | No | Yes | PHP (official) |
| Medusa | Yes | No | Yes | JS/TS (official), Python (community) |
| Saleor | No | Yes (primary) | Yes | Python (official), JS (official) |
| Solidus | Yes | No | Yes | Ruby (official) |
| Spree Commerce | Yes | Yes | Yes | Ruby (official) |
| Shopify | Yes | Yes (Storefront + Admin) | Yes | Ruby, Python, Node.js, PHP, Go (official) |
| BigCommerce | Yes | Yes (Storefront) | Yes | Python, Node.js, PHP (official) |
| Salesforce Commerce Cloud | Yes (OCAPI + SCAPI) | No | Yes | JS/Node.js (official SFCC SDK) |
| commercetools | Yes | Yes | Yes | Java, Python, Node.js, PHP, Go, .NET, Ruby (official) |
| Shopware | Yes | No | Yes | PHP (official), JS (official) |
| Ecwid | Yes | No | Yes | JS (official) |
| Squarespace Commerce | Yes (limited) | No | Yes | None official |
| Wix eCommerce | Yes (Wix APIs) | No | Yes | JS/TS (official Wix SDK) |
Best developer experience: Shopify (full REST + GraphQL Admin and Storefront APIs, broadest SDK coverage), commercetools (comprehensive REST + GraphQL with SDKs in 7 languages)
GraphQL-first: Saleor (GraphQL is the primary API; REST not available), Shopify (both REST and GraphQL Admin API), commercetools (both REST and GraphQL)
Most limited API: Squarespace Commerce (limited public API; primarily for reading store data)
Deployment Comparison
| Tool | Self-Hosted | SaaS | Hybrid | Technology |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WooCommerce | Yes | No | No | PHP / WordPress; MySQL |
| Magento Open Source | Yes | No | Yes (Adobe Commerce Cloud) | PHP; MySQL / MariaDB; Elasticsearch |
| PrestaShop | Yes | No | No | PHP; MySQL / MariaDB |
| OpenCart | Yes | No | No | PHP; MySQL |
| Medusa | Yes | No | Yes (Medusa Cloud) | Node.js / TypeScript; PostgreSQL |
| Saleor | Yes | No | Yes (Saleor Cloud) | Python / Django; PostgreSQL |
| Solidus | Yes | No | No | Ruby on Rails; PostgreSQL / MySQL |
| Spree Commerce | Yes | No | Yes (Spree Cloud) | Ruby on Rails; PostgreSQL |
| Shopify | No | Yes | No | Proprietary SaaS |
| BigCommerce | No | Yes | No | Proprietary SaaS |
| Salesforce Commerce Cloud | No | Yes | No | Proprietary SaaS (Salesforce infrastructure) |
| commercetools | No | Yes | No | Proprietary SaaS (GCP, AWS, Azure) |
| Shopware | Yes | No | Yes (Shopware Cloud) | PHP / Symfony; MySQL; Elasticsearch |
| Ecwid | No | Yes | No | Proprietary SaaS |
| Squarespace Commerce | No | Yes | No | Proprietary SaaS |
| Wix eCommerce | No | Yes | No | Proprietary SaaS |
Self-hosted OSS: WooCommerce (GPL-3.0), Magento Open Source (OSL-3.0), PrestaShop (OSL-3.0), OpenCart (GPL-3.0), Medusa (MIT), Saleor (BSD-3-Clause), Solidus (BSD-3-Clause)
SaaS-only: Shopify, BigCommerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, commercetools, Ecwid, Squarespace Commerce, Wix eCommerce
Open core with managed cloud: Shopware (MIT community edition; paid enterprise and cloud), Spree (AGPL-3.0 / commercial + Spree Cloud)
AGPL-3.0 Note: Spree Commerce uses AGPL-3.0 for its community edition, which requires sharing modifications with all network users. Organizations must evaluate AGPL obligations. The same caution applies as noted in the Wiki & Knowledge Base, Workflow Automation, and Low-Code / No-Code Platforms evaluations.
Monitoring Comparison
| Tool | Telegraf | Fluent Bit | Grafana | Health Check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WooCommerce | Yes (apache/nginx input, MySQL input, PHP-FPM) | Yes (WordPress/PHP logs) | Yes (MySQL + web server dashboards) | HTTP endpoint monitoring |
| Magento Open Source | Yes (nginx input, MySQL input, Redis, Elasticsearch) | Yes (Magento logs via tail) | Yes (full stack dashboards) | HTTP + Elasticsearch health |
| PrestaShop | Yes (apache/nginx, MySQL inputs) | Yes (PrestaShop logs via tail) | Yes (web server + DB dashboards) | HTTP endpoint monitoring |
| OpenCart | Yes (apache/nginx, MySQL inputs) | Yes (OpenCart logs via tail) | Yes (web server + DB dashboards) | HTTP endpoint monitoring |
| Medusa | Yes (node process metrics via exec, PostgreSQL input) | Yes (Node.js structured logs) | Yes (Node.js + PostgreSQL dashboards) | REST health endpoint |
| Saleor | Yes (gunicorn metrics, PostgreSQL input, Redis) | Yes (Django structured logs) | Yes (Python + PostgreSQL dashboards) | REST health endpoint |
| Solidus | Yes (puma/unicorn metrics, PostgreSQL input) | Yes (Rails structured logs) | Yes (Rails + PostgreSQL dashboards) | HTTP health endpoint |
| Spree Commerce | Yes (puma metrics, PostgreSQL input) | Yes (Rails structured logs) | Yes (Rails + PostgreSQL dashboards) | HTTP health endpoint |
| Shopify | Limited (no server access; API rate limit metrics via exec) | No (SaaS; no log access) | Partial (Shopify Analytics API data) | External HTTP probe |
| BigCommerce | Limited (API rate limit metrics via exec) | No (SaaS; no log access) | Partial (BigCommerce Analytics API) | External HTTP probe |
| Salesforce Commerce Cloud | Limited (SFCC API metrics via exec) | No (SaaS; no log access) | Partial (SFCC reporting API) | External HTTP probe |
| commercetools | Limited (API metrics via exec) | No (SaaS; no log access) | Partial (commercetools dashboards) | External HTTP probe |
| Shopware | Yes (nginx input, MySQL input, Elasticsearch) | Yes (Shopware logs via tail) | Yes (full stack dashboards) | HTTP + Elasticsearch health |
| Ecwid | No (SaaS; no server access) | No | No | External HTTP probe only |
| Squarespace Commerce | No (SaaS; no server access) | No | No | External HTTP probe only |
| Wix eCommerce | No (SaaS; no server access) | No | No | External HTTP probe only |
Best self-hosted monitoring: WooCommerce, Magento Open Source, Shopware (full monitoring stack: Telegraf for server + DB metrics, Fluent Bit for log collection, Grafana dashboards)
SaaS monitoring limitations: Shopify, BigCommerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, commercetools, Ecwid, Squarespace, Wix (SaaS platforms; no server access; monitoring limited to external HTTP probes and API-based metrics polling)
Node.js / Python monitoring: Medusa (Node.js process metrics + PostgreSQL), Saleor (gunicorn
- PostgreSQL + Redis)
Headless / API-First Comparison
| Tool | Storefront API | Admin API | GraphQL | Composable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WooCommerce | Yes (REST) | Yes (REST) | No | Partial |
| Magento Open Source | Yes (REST + GraphQL) | Yes (REST) | Partial | Partial |
| PrestaShop | Yes (REST) | Yes (REST) | No | No |
| OpenCart | Yes (REST) | Yes (REST) | No | No |
| Medusa | Yes (REST) | Yes (REST) | No | Yes |
| Saleor | Yes (GraphQL) | Yes (GraphQL) | Yes (only) | Yes |
| Solidus | Yes (REST) | Yes (REST) | No | Partial |
| Spree Commerce | Yes (REST + GraphQL) | Yes (REST) | Partial | Partial |
| Shopify | Yes (REST + GraphQL) | Yes (REST + GraphQL) | Yes | Partial |
| BigCommerce | Yes (REST + GraphQL) | Yes (REST) | Partial | Partial |
| Salesforce Commerce Cloud | Yes (SCAPI) | Yes (OCAPI) | No | No |
| commercetools | Yes (REST + GraphQL) | Yes (REST + GraphQL) | Yes | Yes |
| Shopware | Yes (REST) | Yes (REST) | No | Partial |
| Ecwid | Yes (REST) | Yes (REST) | No | No |
| Squarespace Commerce | Limited | Limited | No | No |
| Wix eCommerce | Yes (Wix APIs) | Yes (Wix APIs) | No | No |
True headless-native: Medusa (API-first; no built-in storefront), Saleor (GraphQL-only API; no built-in storefront), commercetools (API-only; no storefront at all)
Best GraphQL: Saleor (GraphQL as sole API), Shopify (mature GraphQL Admin and Storefront APIs), commercetools (REST + GraphQL)
Traditional (storefront-coupled): PrestaShop, OpenCart, Ecwid, Squarespace Commerce, Wix eCommerce (minimal or no headless capabilities)
B2B Features Comparison
| Tool | Company Accounts | Customer Pricing | Quote / PO | Net Terms | Bulk Orders |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WooCommerce | Via plugin | Via plugin | Via plugin | Via plugin | Via plugin |
| Magento Open Source | Yes | Yes | Via B2B extension | Via B2B extension | Yes |
| PrestaShop | Via module | Via module | Via module | No | Via module |
| OpenCart | Via extension | Via extension | No | No | No |
| Medusa | Custom dev | Custom dev | Custom dev | No | Custom dev |
| Saleor | Custom dev | Yes (price lists) | Custom dev | No | Custom dev |
| Solidus | Via extension | Via extension | Via extension | No | Via extension |
| Spree Commerce | Via extension | Via extension | Via extension | No | Via extension |
| Shopify | Yes (Plus only) | Yes (Plus only) | Yes (Plus only) | Via app | Yes (Plus) |
| BigCommerce | Yes | Yes | Via app | Via app | Yes |
| Salesforce Commerce Cloud | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| commercetools | Yes | Yes (price lists) | Custom dev | Custom dev | Yes |
| Shopware | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ecwid | No | No | No | No | No |
| Squarespace Commerce | No | No | No | No | No |
| Wix eCommerce | No | No | No | No | No |
Best B2B: Salesforce Commerce Cloud (enterprise B2B built-in), Shopware (strong B2B features in open core), BigCommerce (B2B Edition)
B2B requires extensions: WooCommerce, Magento (B2B module), Solidus, Spree (plugin ecosystem)
No B2B support: Ecwid, Squarespace Commerce, Wix eCommerce (consumer-focused platforms only)
Tools
17 tools.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce is a publicly traded (NASDAQ: BIGC) SaaS e-commerce platform founded in 2009 in Austin, Texas.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Web App without SSO
Access & Identity: Vaulted credential
commercetools
commercetools is a cloud-native, headless commerce platform and the leading commercial representative of the MACH (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, Headless) architecture approach.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Web App without SSO
Access & Identity: Vaulted credential
Ecwid by Lightspeed
Ecwid (E-Commerce Widget) is a SaaS e-commerce platform founded in 2009 in Ulyanovsk, Russia and later headquartered in San Diego.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Web App without SSO
Access & Identity: Vaulted credential
Magento Open Source / Adobe Commerce
Magento is one of the most feature-rich open-source e-commerce platforms available. Originally released in 2008 by Varien, it was acquired by eBay in 2011 and then by Adobe in 2018.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: direct, saas · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Web App without SSO
Access & Identity: Forward-auth · Vaulted credential
Medusa
Medusa is a modern, headless e-commerce platform built with Node.js and TypeScript, designed from the ground up for developer experience and composability.
License: MIT (OSS) · Kind: web · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Web App without SSO
Access & Identity: Forward-auth · Vaulted credential
OpenCart
OpenCart is a lightweight, open-source e-commerce platform with a custom PHP MVC framework, making it easier to understand and modify than heavier platforms like Magento.
License: GPL-3.0-only (OSS) · Kind: web · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Web App without SSO
Access & Identity: Forward-auth · Vaulted credential
OroCRM
Purpose-built B2B CRM with e-commerce focus from the Magento creators; Apache 2.0 licence; PHP / Symfony with PostgreSQL or MySQL.
License: Apache-2.0 (OSS) · Kind: web · Deploy: docker, direct, saas · SSO: SAML
ResorsIT usage: Web App without SSO
Access & Identity: Single sign-on
Evaluated under CRM / SFA.
PrestaShop
PrestaShop is a mature open-source e-commerce platform founded in Paris in 2007 and particularly strong in European and Latin American markets.
License: AFL-3.0 (OSS) · Kind: web · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Web App without SSO
Access & Identity: Forward-auth · Vaulted credential
Saleor
Saleor is a headless, API-first e-commerce platform built with Python/Django and a GraphQL-first API.
License: BSD-3-Clause (OSS) · Kind: web · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Web App without SSO
Access & Identity: Forward-auth · Vaulted credential
Salesforce Commerce Cloud
Salesforce Commerce Cloud (SFCC), formerly Demandware (acquired 2016), is Salesforce’s enterprise SaaS e-commerce platform targeting large retailers and brands.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Web App without SSO
Access & Identity: Vaulted credential
Shopify
Shopify is the world’s leading SaaS e-commerce platform, hosting over 2 million active stores and processing hundreds of billions of dollars in GMV annually.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Web App without SSO
Access & Identity: Vaulted credential
Shopware
Shopware is a German e-commerce platform founded in 2000 in Schöppingen, Germany. Long a dominant player in the German-speaking DACH market, Shopware 6 (released 2019) represents a complete rewrite using Symfony and Vue.js that has position…
License: MIT (OSS) · Kind: web · Deploy: direct, saas · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Web App without SSO
Access & Identity: Forward-auth · Vaulted credential
Solidus
Solidus is a free, open-source e-commerce framework for Ruby on Rails, forked from Spree Commerce in 2015.
License: BSD-3-Clause (OSS) · Kind: web · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Web App without SSO
Access & Identity: Forward-auth · Vaulted credential
Spree Commerce
Spree Commerce is the original Ruby on Rails e-commerce framework, first released in 2007 by Sean Schofield. It became one of the most influential open-source commerce platforms, inspiring numerous forks including Solidus.
License: BSD-3-Clause (OSS) · Kind: web · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Web App without SSO
Access & Identity: Forward-auth · Vaulted credential
Squarespace Commerce
Squarespace is a New York-based website builder and SaaS platform founded in 2004 and publicly traded (NYSE: SQSP) since 2021.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Web App without SSO
Access & Identity: Vaulted credential
Wix eCommerce
Wix is an Israeli cloud-based website development platform founded in 2006 and publicly traded (NASDAQ: WIX) since 2013. Wix eCommerce is the integrated selling capability within the Wix website builder platform.
License: Proprietary (proprietary) · Kind: web · Deploy: saas · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Web App without SSO
Access & Identity: Vaulted credential
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is the world’s most widely deployed e-commerce plugin, built on top of WordPress. First released in 2011 by WooThemes and later acquired by Automattic in 2015, it powers an estimated 25-30% of all online stores globally.
License: GPL-3.0-only (OSS) · Kind: web · Deploy: direct · SSO: none
ResorsIT usage: Web App without SSO
Access & Identity: Forward-auth · Vaulted credential
