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Can anyone recommend a headless e-commerce platform? I have only looked at saleor.io so far.

by lagrange77 4y ago

ssharp 4y ago
Shopify offers an official headless platform: https://hydrogen.shopify.dev https://hydrogen.shopify.dev
sebrindom 4y ago
https://github.com/medusajs/medusa https://github.com/medusajs/medusa
amoopa 4y ago
Medusa (mentioned above) is one of the most notable in the OS space. Of proprietary solutions Commercetools & Fabric are often mentioned among larger commerce businesses.
intrasight 4y ago
Honest question: what is "headless" in this context? Aren't all web back-ends headless?
- FanaHOVA 4y ago
  MVC frameworks like Django, Rails, etc, are not headless by default, as they take care of all frontend rendering. Headless = frontend and backend are fully separated; the "promise" was to have the backend be used on multiple projects. You would have a headless backend, then a web frontend project, an iOS one, an Android one, etc without having to rewrite any backend code.
  - intrasight 4y ago
    So "headless" = " Web API"
- cnj 4y ago
  I think your criticism of the term is somewhat valid, in the end these are just back-ends with APIs :) However, the point the platforms are trying to make is that their APIs have been written with the explicit purpose of building a frontend ontop of them later on. A lot of the old-school platforms have some APIs as well, but they are meant to e.g. import products or export orders. They are not meant to implement a frontend on top of, because they have a frontend engine as part of their monolith, and many functions you need to write a proper frontend will not be available through their APIs. So the term "headless" means "we have APIs, and they are designed for you to build a frontend on top of".
  - lagrange77 4y ago
    Well said!
  - intrasight 4y ago
    Thank you. The only usage of that term that I was familiar with was that given here: https://www.howtogeek.com/660841/what-is-a-headless-server/ https://www.howtogeek.com/660841/what-is-a-headless-server/ A “headless” computer system is just one without a local interface. There’s no monitor (“head”) plugged into it. There’s also no keyboard, mouse, touchscreen, or other local interface for controlling it.
tootie 4y ago
Nacelle is another. This is a very industry/salesy website, but they recommend a load of the most mature headless software platforms and integrators for stuff like ecomm and CMS: https://machalliance.org/ https://machalliance.org/
dotty- 4y ago
I've been following https://www.shopware.com/en/ https://www.shopware.com/en/ for a couple years. Awesome to see how they've grown in the space. Since it's written in PHP, I feel like it's a great replacement for Magento, especially as Adobe's catered more towards enterprise customers.
sedzia 4y ago
Headless e-commerce has been growing lately. See the MACH Alliance [1] to find out about closed-source platforms in this space. One thing to note is that we can see more and more specialization, new categories, such as headless loyalty/PIM/search etc., appeared on the market. Earlier this year, I wrote a short article [2] explaining what problems these APIs try to solve (sorry for the clickbait title). [1] https://www.machalliance.com/members https://www.machalliance.com/members [2] https://dev.to/voucherify/whats-mach-and-how-it-can-make-you-10x-ecommerce-developer-2bk0 https://dev.to/voucherify/whats-mach-and-how-it-can-make-you...
pwillia7 4y ago
https://developer.bigcommerce.com/docs/ZG9jOjE4MjIyNjU2-introduction-to-headless-commerce https://developer.bigcommerce.com/docs/ZG9jOjE4MjIyNjU2-intr...
tmnvix 4y ago
Snipcart may be of interest. https://snipcart.com/ https://snipcart.com/
JLuterek 4y ago
Saleor.io is a good start. Consider Medusa and Vendure if you want to stay open-source. If you are interested in SaaS, look at Elastic Path. I see a lot of people recommending the MACH Alliance. That is a marketing organization where members pay in to push their products. Nothing wrong with MACH technology, but worth understanding what it is before going down that road.

Can anyone recommend a headless e-commerce platform? I have only looked at saleor.io so far.

ssharp 4y ago

Shopify offers an official headless platform: https://hydrogen.shopify.dev https://hydrogen.shopify.dev

sebrindom 4y ago

https://github.com/medusajs/medusa https://github.com/medusajs/medusa

amoopa 4y ago

Medusa (mentioned above) is one of the most notable in the OS space. Of proprietary solutions Commercetools & Fabric are often mentioned among larger commerce businesses.

intrasight 4y ago

Honest question: what is "headless" in this context? Aren't all web back-ends headless?

FanaHOVA 4y ago
MVC frameworks like Django, Rails, etc, are not headless by default, as they take care of all frontend rendering. Headless = frontend and backend are fully separated; the "promise" was to have the backend be used on multiple projects. You would have a headless backend, then a web frontend project, an iOS one, an Android one, etc without having to rewrite any backend code.
- intrasight 4y ago
  So "headless" = " Web API"
cnj 4y ago
I think your criticism of the term is somewhat valid, in the end these are just back-ends with APIs :) However, the point the platforms are trying to make is that their APIs have been written with the explicit purpose of building a frontend ontop of them later on. A lot of the old-school platforms have some APIs as well, but they are meant to e.g. import products or export orders. They are not meant to implement a frontend on top of, because they have a frontend engine as part of their monolith, and many functions you need to write a proper frontend will not be available through their APIs. So the term "headless" means "we have APIs, and they are designed for you to build a frontend on top of".
- lagrange77 4y ago
  Well said!
- intrasight 4y ago
  Thank you. The only usage of that term that I was familiar with was that given here: https://www.howtogeek.com/660841/what-is-a-headless-server/ https://www.howtogeek.com/660841/what-is-a-headless-server/ A “headless” computer system is just one without a local interface. There’s no monitor (“head”) plugged into it. There’s also no keyboard, mouse, touchscreen, or other local interface for controlling it.

tootie 4y ago

Nacelle is another. This is a very industry/salesy website, but they recommend a load of the most mature headless software platforms and integrators for stuff like ecomm and CMS: https://machalliance.org/ https://machalliance.org/

dotty- 4y ago

I've been following https://www.shopware.com/en/ https://www.shopware.com/en/ for a couple years. Awesome to see how they've grown in the space. Since it's written in PHP, I feel like it's a great replacement for Magento, especially as Adobe's catered more towards enterprise customers.

sedzia 4y ago

Headless e-commerce has been growing lately. See the MACH Alliance [1] to find out about closed-source platforms in this space. One thing to note is that we can see more and more specialization, new categories, such as headless loyalty/PIM/search etc., appeared on the market. Earlier this year, I wrote a short article [2] explaining what problems these APIs try to solve (sorry for the clickbait title). [1] https://www.machalliance.com/members https://www.machalliance.com/members [2] https://dev.to/voucherify/whats-mach-and-how-it-can-make-you-10x-ecommerce-developer-2bk0 https://dev.to/voucherify/whats-mach-and-how-it-can-make-you...

pwillia7 4y ago

https://developer.bigcommerce.com/docs/ZG9jOjE4MjIyNjU2-introduction-to-headless-commerce https://developer.bigcommerce.com/docs/ZG9jOjE4MjIyNjU2-intr...

tmnvix 4y ago

Snipcart may be of interest. https://snipcart.com/ https://snipcart.com/

JLuterek 4y ago

Saleor.io is a good start. Consider Medusa and Vendure if you want to stay open-source. If you are interested in SaaS, look at Elastic Path. I see a lot of people recommending the MACH Alliance. That is a marketing organization where members pay in to push their products. Nothing wrong with MACH technology, but worth understanding what it is before going down that road.