Headless Commerce Platforms Compared: The Honest Guide for 2026

Choosing between headless commerce platforms is one of the most consequential technical decisions an e-commerce team will make. The architecture you pick determines your development speed, your hosting costs, your vendor dependencies, and ultimately how fast your storefront loads for customers. This guide compares the six most viable headless ecommerce platforms in 2026, with honest assessments of where each one excels and where it falls short.

What makes a platform "headless"?

A headless ecommerce platform decouples the storefront (what customers see) from the commerce engine (where products, orders, and payments live). The two layers communicate through APIs, meaning you can build your frontend with any framework — React, Vue, Svelte, or anything else — while the backend handles business logic independently.

This matters because it removes the performance ceiling of server-rendered monoliths, gives developers full control over the user experience, and lets businesses deliver content across multiple channels (web, mobile, kiosks, IoT) from a single source of truth.

1. Shopify Hydrogen

Shopify Hydrogen is Shopify's official React framework for building custom storefronts. It sits on top of the Storefront API and is designed to be deployed on Oxygen, Shopify's own hosting infrastructure. If you're already in the Shopify ecosystem and want a headless ecommerce platform with first-party support, Hydrogen is the obvious starting point.

The developer experience is genuinely good. Hydrogen ships with React Server Components, streaming SSR, and built-in commerce primitives for carts, products, and collections. The framework handles a lot of the boilerplate that you'd otherwise write yourself. Shopify's documentation is thorough, and the community is large enough that most problems have been solved before.

Who it's for

Funded e-commerce teams who are already on Shopify (or willing to migrate) and want a managed, batteries-included experience. Hydrogen works best when you commit fully to Shopify's ecosystem.

Pricing

Hydrogen itself is free and open-source, but there's a catch: you need Shopify Plus to access the full Storefront API capabilities and Oxygen hosting. Shopify Plus starts at $2,300/month and scales from there. You can technically use Hydrogen on lower-tier Shopify plans with self-hosted deployment, but you lose Oxygen's edge network and some API features.

2. BigCommerce (headless)

BigCommerce has positioned itself as the most "API-first" of the traditional SaaS e-commerce platforms. Unlike Shopify, BigCommerce was designed from the ground up with headless use cases in mind, and it doesn't force you into a specific frontend framework or hosting provider. You get a complete commerce backend with REST and GraphQL APIs that work with Next.js, Gatsby, Nuxt, or anything else.

The multi-channel story is where BigCommerce genuinely stands out. You can sell across Amazon, eBay, Instagram, Google Shopping, and your own custom storefront — all managed from a single dashboard. For businesses that need to be everywhere, this is a significant advantage over platforms that treat headless as an afterthought.

Who it's for

Mid-market to enterprise businesses that sell across multiple channels and want the reliability of a managed backend without being locked into a specific frontend framework.

Pricing

Plans start at $29/month (Standard), but headless functionality realistically requires the Pro tier ($299/month) or Enterprise (custom pricing) for full API access, no transaction fees, and higher API rate limits. The lower tiers impose rate limits and feature restrictions that make headless development impractical.

3. Medusa

Medusa is an open-source headless commerce engine built with Node.js and TypeScript. It's the platform you choose when you want complete control over every aspect of your commerce stack — from data models and business logic to hosting and deployment. There are no monthly fees, no vendor lock-in, and no artificial feature gates.

The trade-off is effort. Medusa gives you building blocks, not a finished product. You'll need to set up your own database, host your own servers, configure your own payment integrations, and build your own admin workflows beyond what the default admin panel provides. For teams with strong backend engineering capabilities, this is freedom. For everyone else, it's a time sink.

Who it's for

Developer-led teams who need deep customisation of their commerce logic and have the infrastructure expertise to self-host. Particularly well-suited for complex B2B, marketplace, or subscription models that SaaS platforms handle poorly.

Pricing

Medusa is free and MIT-licensed. Your costs are entirely infrastructure: servers, databases, CDN, and the engineering time to set it all up. There is no managed cloud offering from Medusa directly, so you'll need to host on AWS, Railway, DigitalOcean, or similar. Budget for $50-500+/month in infrastructure depending on traffic, plus significant developer time.

4. Saleor

Saleor is another open-source headless commerce platform, but built with Python (Django) and a GraphQL-first API. It ships with a polished admin dashboard out of the box, which puts it a step ahead of some open-source alternatives in terms of day-one usability. Saleor also offers a managed cloud option for teams who want open-source flexibility without the operational burden.

The GraphQL API is comprehensive and well-designed. If your frontend team prefers GraphQL over REST, Saleor provides one of the cleanest developer experiences in the headless ecommerce space. It handles multi-currency, multi-warehouse, and multi-channel natively, which are features you'd typically need to bolt on with other platforms.

Who it's for

Teams who want open-source commerce with a more opinionated, production-ready starting point than Medusa. Particularly strong for international sellers who need multi-currency and multi-language support from day one.

Pricing

The self-hosted community edition is free under the BSD licence. Saleor Cloud (managed hosting with SLA, support, and automatic updates) pricing is custom and typically starts in the hundreds per month. Self-hosting costs are similar to Medusa: $50-500+/month in infrastructure.

5. Commerce.js

Commerce.js takes a different approach: it's a fully managed, API-first commerce backend delivered as a service. There's nothing to install, no servers to manage, and no databases to configure. You sign up, get your API keys, and start building. For teams who want the fastest path from zero to a working headless storefront, Commerce.js removes nearly all backend complexity.

The simplicity is both its strength and its limitation. Commerce.js handles products, carts, checkout, and basic order management well, but it lacks the depth of more established platforms when it comes to advanced features: complex promotions, B2B pricing, subscriptions, and multi-warehouse fulfilment all require workarounds or external services.

Who it's for

Small teams and indie developers building straightforward storefronts. Good for MVPs, digital products, and simple physical goods catalogues where you don't need deep commerce customisation.

Pricing

Commerce.js uses a transaction-based pricing model. There's a free tier for development and low-volume stores, with paid plans scaling based on order volume. This means costs are unpredictable — a spike in sales directly increases your platform costs, which can erode margins on lower-priced products.

6. WooCommerce + WPBundle (headless)

Here is the scenario that none of the platforms above address well: you already run a WordPress site with WooCommerce. You have products, customers, orders, payment gateways, tax configurations, and shipping rules that took months to set up. You want headless performance and a modern frontend, but migrating your entire commerce backend to Shopify, Medusa, or anything else is a non-starter.

WPBundle turns your existing WooCommerce installation into a headless commerce platform. It pairs a production-ready Next.js storefront with a companion WordPress plugin that extends the WooCommerce REST API. Your store managers keep using the WordPress admin they already know. Your developers get React, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS. Your customers get a storefront that loads in milliseconds.

Who it's for

Teams already running WordPress and WooCommerce who want headless performance without abandoning their existing backend, content, and workflows. Also a strong choice for agencies building headless storefronts for clients already on WordPress.

Pricing

WPBundle is a one-time purchase — no monthly fees, no transaction charges, no per-seat pricing. You host the Next.js frontend wherever you like (Vercel, Netlify, Cloudflare Pages, or self-hosted). Your ongoing costs are just your existing WordPress hosting plus frontend hosting, which typically runs $0-20/month on modern platforms with generous free tiers.

Platform comparison at a glance

Platform	Type	Starting cost	Best for
Shopify Hydrogen	SaaS (managed)	$2,300/mo (Plus)	Funded teams wanting a managed ecosystem
BigCommerce	SaaS (managed)	$299/mo (Pro)	Multi-channel sellers
Medusa	Open-source (self-hosted)	$0 + infra costs	Teams needing deep customisation
Saleor	Open-source (self-hosted/cloud)	$0 + infra costs	International sellers, GraphQL teams
Commerce.js	SaaS (managed)	Free + transaction fees	MVPs and simple storefronts
WooCommerce + WPBundle	Open-source + starter kit	One-time purchase	Existing WordPress/WooCommerce teams

How to decide: a practical framework

After reviewing these headless ecommerce platforms, the right choice depends less on which platform is "best" in the abstract and more on your specific constraints. Here is a decision framework that cuts through the marketing noise.

Start with your existing stack

The single biggest factor is what you already have. If you're running WooCommerce with years of product data, customer history, and configured payment gateways, migrating to Shopify or Medusa means rebuilding all of that. WPBundle exists specifically to avoid this migration. If you're starting from scratch, you have more freedom — but you also have more decisions to make.

Assess your team's capabilities

Medusa and Saleor demand strong backend and DevOps skills. If your team is primarily frontend developers, a managed platform (Shopify Hydrogen, BigCommerce, or Commerce.js) will let them focus on what they do best. If you have full-stack engineers who want to own the entire stack, open-source options give you the control to do that.

Calculate the true cost

Monthly SaaS fees are only part of the picture. Factor in developer time for initial build and ongoing maintenance, infrastructure costs for self-hosted options, transaction fees that scale with revenue, and the cost of migrating your existing data. A "free" open-source platform that takes six months to launch costs far more than a paid platform you can ship in six weeks.

Match the platform to the problem

Think about year two, not just day one

The platform that's easiest to set up isn't always the one you want to be on in two years. Consider how pricing scales with your revenue, whether you can migrate away if needed, how active the community and development roadmap are, and whether the platform supports the features you'll need as you grow (subscriptions, B2B, international expansion).

Headless commerce is not a one-size-fits-all decision. The best headless ecommerce platform is the one that fits your team, your budget, and your existing infrastructure — not the one with the most hype.

Where WPBundle fits

WPBundle is not trying to compete with Shopify Hydrogen for venture-backed DTC brands, or with Medusa for teams building bespoke marketplace platforms. It solves a specific, common problem: you already have a WooCommerce store and you want a fast, modern headless frontend without migrating your entire backend.

If that describes your situation, WPBundle gives you the performance and developer experience of a headless architecture with none of the migration pain. Your store managers keep WordPress. Your developers get Next.js. Your customers get a storefront that actually loads.