Enterprise-grade TypeScript + GraphQL commerce. The structured, modular pick.
Starts at Free (open source) · Vendure Cloud from $500/mo · Best for mid-market b2b, enterprise brands, graphql-first teams.
Last reviewed November 2, 2026
Overview
Quick facts about Vendure.
- Launched
- 2018
- Headquarters
- London, UK
- Ownership
- Vendure Ltd — bootstrapped, revenue-funded
- Scale
- 6,000+ GitHub stars · 300+ production stores · adoption primarily mid-market B2B
- Known for
- Enterprise-grade TypeScript + GraphQL headless commerce for structured, scalable builds
Pros & cons
The honest breakdown.
What's great
- Open-source MIT license — full code ownership
- GraphQL-first API — modern, strongly typed
- TypeScript throughout — type safety end-to-end
- Highly modular plugin system — swap or add anything
- Strong B2B features — the natural pick for complex catalogs
- Mature architecture — Vendure team has shipped enterprise commerce for 7+ years
What to watch for
- Smaller ecosystem than Medusa or Shopify
- Requires devops and TypeScript expertise
- No visual admin for non-developers (admin UI is dev-focused)
- Longer learning curve than lower-level frameworks
- Lower adoption vs Shopify — smaller talent pool
- No built-in frontend — storefront is your project
Vendure is the right call for mid-market and enterprise B2B/B2C where structure, type safety, and GraphQL matter. It's less fashion-forward than Medusa but more opinionated and more suited to teams that value architectural discipline. Not for first-time founders.
Ideal for
Mid-market and enterprise brands with TypeScript-fluent engineering teams, especially B2B wholesalers or complex catalog businesses doing $1M-$50M/year.
Skip it if
You don't have a TypeScript team, you want a visual admin, you need to launch in under 8 weeks, or your business is simple enough that Shopify Plus would serve you well.
Pricing plans
What each plan gives you (and what it costs).
Self-hosted (Open Source)
Free · $30-$500/mo infrastructure
Transaction fee: 0% platform fee · gateway fees only
Best for
Dev teams with devops capability
- Full source code (MIT)
- No feature gates
- Deploy anywhere (AWS, GCP, Hetzner, bare metal)
- Admin UI included
- GraphQL API out of the box
- Community support via Discord + GitHub
Vendure Cloud (Starter)
From $500/mo
Transaction fee: 0% platform fee
Best for
Teams wanting managed infrastructure
- Managed hosting + auto-scaling
- Automated backups
- Built-in monitoring
- Admin UI hosted
- Email support
- Standard SLA
Vendure Cloud (Pro)
From $2,000/mo
Transaction fee: 0% platform fee
Best for
Mid-market B2B at $1M-$10M revenue
- Multi-region deployment
- 99.95% SLA
- Priority support
- Advanced monitoring
- Custom plugin hosting
- Database tuning
Vendure Cloud (Enterprise)
Custom (typically $5,000-$25,000/mo)
Transaction fee: 0% platform fee
Best for
Enterprise B2B at $10M+ revenue
- Dedicated infrastructure
- 99.99% SLA
- Dedicated success manager
- Launch engineering support
- Custom module development
- Compliance support (SOC 2, PCI)
💰 Costs the pricing page doesn't show
Budget for these on top of the subscription. They're normal — just not advertised.
Frontend / storefront development
$20,000-$100,000 one-time
Custom Next.js, Remix, or Nuxt storefront built against Vendure's GraphQL API
Ongoing engineering team
$5,000-$30,000/mo
In-house TypeScript engineers or agency retainer — non-optional
Hosting (self-hosted path)
$80-$800/mo
Backend + Postgres + Redis + search (Elasticsearch) + frontend
Admin UI customization
$3,000-$20,000 one-time
Vendure admin UI is dev-focused; often customized for merchandising teams
ERP integration
$10,000-$80,000 one-time
Common for mid-market B2B — SAP, NetSuite, Odoo custom work
Payment gateway fees
1.5-2.9% + fixed fee per transaction
Standard gateway fees
Real-world cost
What Vendure actually costs at your scale.
Subscription is just the floor. Here's realistic monthly total including apps, payment fees, and day-to-day tools — based on real stores we've built and maintained.
Revenue
$0 – $50k/mo
$1,500 – $5,000/mo all-in
Self-hosted or Vendure Cloud Starter + part-time engineer + modest infrastructure
Revenue
$50k – $500k/mo
$5,000 – $15,000/mo all-in
Vendure Cloud Pro + 1-2 engineers + full observability stack
Revenue
$500k – $5M/mo
$15,000 – $60,000/mo all-in
Vendure Cloud Enterprise + full engineering team + ERP integration
Revenue
$5M+/mo
$50,000 – $200,000+/mo all-in
Enterprise plan + dedicated engineering team + 24/7 ops + compliance
Features
What's built-in, what's paid, what's missing.
Products + variants + facets
Cart + checkout
Discounts (highly flexible)
Tax calculation
Inventory + stock locations
Order workflow (highly customizable)
Customer-specific pricing
Customer groups + roles
Quote management
Via plugin or custom module
Multi-tier approval flows
Bulk pricing + tier pricing
Net payment terms
Multi-currency with per-channel pricing
Multi-region tax zones
Multi-language
Multi-store from one admin
Localized checkout
Built in frontend
GraphQL API (public + admin)
TypeScript types auto-generated
Plugin architecture
Webhooks + event system
Admin UI extensibility
REST API
GraphQL is first-class; REST available via wrappers
Starter templates
Next.js, Remix, Angular starters
Visual theme editor
No-code customization
Admin UI (included)
Angular-based, functional but dev-focused
Managed hosting (Vendure Cloud)
99.95%+ SLA (Pro/Enterprise)
Multi-region deployment
Pro tier+
Compliance support
SOC 2 on Enterprise
Global readiness
Can you actually sell globally on Vendure?
Multi-currency, multi-language, local payment methods, regional tax compliance — the four pillars of international commerce. Here's where Vendure lands on each.
Countries
Any country — hosting location is your choice
Currencies
Unlimited; per-channel currency pricing is first-class
Languages
Unlimited; built-in translation support in product data
Tax compliance
Pluggable — TaxJar, Avalara, Stripe Tax, custom per-region integrations
Local payment methods supported
Strongest in
Weak in
How it compares
Vendure vs the main alternatives.
The head-to-head that actually matters — what each platform wins on, based on 19 years of delivering both.
Both open-source Node.js headless frameworks. Vendure is more structured and B2B-oriented; Medusa is more modular and DTC-friendly.
Vendure wins on
- GraphQL-first (vs Medusa's REST-first)
- Stronger native B2B features
- More opinionated architecture (less setup choice fatigue)
- Better admin UI out of the box
- Mature plugin system
Medusa wins on
- Larger community + more agencies
- More flexible modular architecture
- Faster-moving ecosystem
- Better Medusa Cloud offering (vs Vendure Cloud which is newer)
- DTC starter template more polished
Shopify is the easier, faster, managed path. Vendure is the custom, flexible, dev-led path.
Vendure wins on
- Zero platform fees
- Full code ownership
- Complex B2B workflows Shopify Plus can't match
- Lower long-term cost at $5M+/year
- GraphQL + TypeScript end-to-end
Shopify wins on
- Launch in 1-4 weeks vs 12-24 weeks
- Shop Pay / Shopify Markets / 8,000+ apps
- No engineering team required
- Managed everything
- Lower year-one cost for standard stores
Migration
Moving in, and moving out.
What it actually takes to get onto Vendure — and how painful it is if you outgrow it later. No vendor lock-in surprises.
Moving to Vendure
Here's what it typically takes to migrate from common starting points.
Typical time
10-20 weeks
Typical cost
$30,000-$120,000
Full re-platform. Usually chosen when B2B requirements have outgrown Shopify Plus or when platform fees have become significant at scale.
Typical time
16-32 weeks
Typical cost
$50,000-$300,000
Natural migration for Magento shops seeking modern TypeScript/GraphQL stack. Common for enterprise B2B escaping Magento performance issues.
Leaving Vendure later
How hard is it if this isn't the right platform for you in 2-3 years? (Honest vendor lock-in reality.)
Open-source, GraphQL API, direct database access. All data exportable. Moving to another headless platform is straightforward; moving to a SaaS requires accepting SaaS constraints.
Social proof
Brands that run on Vendure.
Various enterprise B2B wholesalers (private)
B2B / wholesale
EnterpriseMid-market DTC brands (private)
DTC
Mid-marketFAQ
People ask us this a lot.
What's the difference between Vendure and Medusa?+
Both are open-source headless commerce frameworks, both built on Node.js, both free as software. Vendure is GraphQL-first and TypeScript-strict with a stronger B2B story. Medusa is REST-first with a more modular 'build what you need' architecture. Vendure feels like an opinionated enterprise framework (think Angular); Medusa feels like a flexible toolkit (think Express). For a complex B2B catalog with enterprise-grade requirements, Vendure often wins. For a dev-forward DTC brand that values flexibility, Medusa often wins.
Is Vendure really free?+
The Vendure framework is free and MIT-licensed. You pay for hosting ($30-$500/month self-hosted), optional Vendure Cloud for managed infrastructure ($500-$5,000+/month depending on tier), developer time ($5,000-$20,000/month for ongoing engineering), and third-party services (search, email, analytics). Realistic year-one cost for a working Vendure B2B store: $25,000-$150,000 depending on self-hosted vs cloud and in-house vs agency.
Why would I pick Vendure over Shopify Plus for B2B?+
Four reasons. First, zero platform fees (Shopify Plus charges $2,300+/month plus payment processing). Second, custom B2B logic that Shopify Plus still can't handle gracefully (complex multi-tier approval workflows, dynamic bundled pricing, custom product configuration). Third, data ownership and compliance requirements (data sovereignty, SOC 2 at your spec). Fourth, long-term cost — at $5M+/year revenue, Vendure typically costs 40-60% less than Shopify Plus with equivalent capability. The trade: 6-12 months longer time-to-market and ongoing engineering team cost.
How long does a Vendure launch take?+
12-24 weeks for a production-ready mid-market store with custom frontend. Breakdown: 3-6 weeks for backend setup and B2B configuration, 6-10 weeks for custom storefront build (Next.js is most common), 2-4 weeks for payment and ERP integration, 2-4 weeks for admin UI customization, 3-6 weeks for QA and launch prep. Compare to Shopify Plus's 8-12 weeks for a fully custom themed store with similar scope — Vendure's longer timeline is paid back in architectural flexibility.
Find what's slowing your Vendure store down.
We've audited 500+ stores. Vendure has predictable failure modes — get the prioritized fix list specific to your store.
- 12 dimensions audited (performance, SEO, security, conversion + more)
- Done by Dharmendra (20 yrs, 500+ stores)
- Razorpay USD/INR · NDA-protected · 24-hr refund
Still unsure if Vendure is right for you?
Book a 30-minute call. I'll tell you honestly — even if the answer is "pick something else."
Book a call · $29