JTL-Shop and Shopify split this panel by criterion, not by product. JTL-Shop leads operations (mean 7.3 vs 4.7; 6 judges to 0), sovereignty (3.7 vs 1.5; 6–0), tax and legal (2.3 vs 1.3; 5–0 with one tie) and data control and exit (4.5 vs 2.7; 5–0 with one tie). Shopify leads extensibility (6.0 vs 3.7; 6–0), catalog and checkout (4.2 vs 3.2; 4–0 with two ties) and pricing transparency (6.7 vs 5.7; 4–0 with two ties). Weighted totals: four judges to JTL-Shop — merchant, B2B seller, operations lead, data protection officer — one to Shopify, the developer, with the skeptic tied at 3.6 to 3.6. Scores also spread inside criteria: JTL-Shop's data control and exit runs 4 to 6, Shopify's 1 to 4. The attributes list JTL-Shop's legal entity jurisdiction as Germany; Shopify's as Canada, with data residency US by default and subprocessor exposure US CLOUD Act.
Choose JTL-Shop if
You run marketplace and warehouse operations — the operations lean is 6 judges to 0 for JTL-Shop (mean 7.3 vs 4.7), and the verdict credits synchronised selling on 30+ marketplaces without extra licences, WMS with mobile warehouse devices and shipment tracking.
Your review prioritises European tax handling — tax and legal leans 5 judges to 0 for JTL-Shop (2.3 vs 1.3, one tie); the verdict credits GoBD-conformant finance processes, while the criterion's own scores run 2 to 3.
Your team weighs a self-hosting option — data control and exit leans 5 judges to 0 for JTL-Shop (4.5 vs 2.7, one tie), where judges weighed the 'Lokal – Auf eigenem Server' hosting option.
You report to a data protection officer — sovereignty leans 6 judges to 0 for JTL-Shop (3.7 vs 1.5), and that judge's weighted total is 4.4 vs 3.3.
Your procurement requires a German legal entity — the attributes list JTL-Shop's legal entity jurisdiction as Germany, against Shopify's Canada.
Choose Shopify if
You build on an app ecosystem and headless tooling — extensibility leans 6 judges to 0 for Shopify (mean 6.0 vs 3.7), with more than 21,000 apps, the Hydrogen headless toolkit and API rate limits published per plan in the verdict.
You need published subscription pricing — pricing transparency leans 4 judges to 0 for Shopify (6.7 vs 5.7, two ties), with tiers of 27 €, 79 € and 289 € per month on annual billing public alongside per-plan card fees; the verdict notes the top tier's own price is not public.
Your storefront work centres on catalog and checkout — catalog and checkout leans 4 judges to 0 for Shopify (4.2 vs 3.2, two ties), where JTL-Shop's verdict calls the criterion thin beyond payment integrations and unlimited articles.
You are a developer — the developer judge's weighted total is 4.4 for Shopify vs 3.7 for JTL-Shop.
Read this comparison as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.
The Developer
Will maintain this for five years. Wants local development, version control for themes, a plugin architecture with a dependency model, and upgrades that do not orphan the customisations. Reads a closed template editor as a future migration.
JTL-Shop
Shopify
This judge's pick
Criterion by criterion
Catalogue & checkout
JTL-Shop
The evidence gives me 'unlimited articles' and 'Integrationen zu allen beliebigen Payment-Anbietern', and that is the entire catalogue-and-checkout story — not one word on variants, bundles, tiered pricing, guest checkout, promotions or vouchers. Payment integrations exist, so it is above the flat-list floor, but silence on everything else caps it well below the standard-checkout anchor.
Shopify
Checkout is the headline: Shop Pay is claimed to convert up to 50 % better than guest checkout, buyers can check out directly inside AI chats, B2B catalogues run to three on standard plans with unlimited on Plus, and Shopify Markets carries localised selling. Checkout customisation reads 'Eingeschränkt' on every plan except Plus, and we found no public information on variant or bundle mechanics, tiered pricing, or the payment methods a German shop needs such as invoice and direct debit.
Tax & German legal correctness
JTL-Shop
All I have is a 'Tax powered by' module name and a DSGVO/GoBD compliance claim for finance processes — no VAT-by-destination, no OSS, no reverse charge, no VAT-ID validation, no XRechnung/ZUGFeRD, nothing on mandatory checkout elements. For a German mid-market vendor this should be the strongest section, and the evidence evidences almost none of it; a compliance slogan is not tax correctness.
Shopify
The only legal material on the captured pages is privacy compliance and PCI DSS Level 1 certification; we found no public information on VAT determination, OSS, reverse charge, e-invoicing (XRechnung/ZUGFeRD) or the checkout texts German law imposes. A merchant would have to verify every one of those pieces elsewhere before signing.
Extensibility & developer surface
JTL-Shop
The only API in evidence is the JTL-Wawi REST API, marked Beta and priced at 199/99 € per month as an add-on — an API behind a paywall is a revenue line, not a developer surface I can build a five-year maintenance commitment on. Partner apps, extensions and interfaces are claimed, but there is no mention of themes, template editing, webhooks, staging, local development or version control anywhere; a closed template story is a future migration, and here I cannot even confirm templates exist.
Shopify
What I can verify as a developer is a store of more than 21,000 apps, the Hydrogen headless toolkit with one headless storefront on standard plans and twenty-five on Plus, and API rate limits published as a plan feature ('Bis zu 10x für ausgewählte APIs' on Plus). What I would live in for five years is unverified: we found no public information on local development, version control for themes, an extension framework with its own dependency model, staging environments, or an upgrade path that preserves customisations — and checkout customisation itself is 'Eingeschränkt' below the Plus tier.
Order operations & back office
JTL-Shop
This is the one criterion where the evidence is dense: multichannel sync that 'reduziert Überverkäufe', 30+ marketplaces without extra licences, WMS with mobile warehouse devices, bank reconciliation, and a named accounting bridge via JTL2DATEV powered by JERA. It falls short of the top anchors because shipping labels are literally 'Coming soon', and dropshipping, supplier flows and partial returns/refunds are silent despite a Returns module name appearing.
Shopify
Multi-channel intake is real and priced: unlimited marketplace imports with fifty synced orders free per month before a 1 % fee, stock across ten locations (two hundred on Plus), POS keeping online and offline sales in sync, Collective for sourcing products, and over 200 real-time reports. We found no public information on returns and refunds, partial shipments, carrier label printing, or maintained interfaces to ERP and accounting systems.
Data ownership & exit
JTL-Shop
'Lokal – Auf eigenem Server' is the one structural ownership fact, and it matters — self-hosting beats a promised export. But the evidence says nothing about export completeness, database access, or a documented path out; the only 'Migration' mention is about migrating INTO the platform, not leaving it, and the beta paid REST API is a poor extraction route.
Shopify
Hosting sits with the vendor in every subscription and we found no public information on a self-hosting option, on export of catalogue, customers or order history, or on a documented migration path. The exit that is documented runs on the vendor's clock — store information is retained for two years after closure before deletion begins — with portability exercised as a privacy right through the privacy portal.
European sovereignty
JTL-Shop
The pipeline scored this 0 on unknowns, but the imprint is unambiguous: JTL-Software-GmbH, Amtsgericht Mönchengladbach HRB 12450, German VAT ID, German address, external DPO appointed — a German contracting entity, not a non-EU vendor. It stalls at 4 because data residency and the subprocessor list are absent even though named partners (Dealavo, JERA, GREYHOUND) sit inside the product chain; the local hosting option is a partial mitigation but not evidence of a named, European chain.
Shopify
EEA users contract with the Irish subsidiary Shopify International Ltd. and the binding corporate rules carry European approval, but the company is Canadian, personal data is described as flowing onward 'einschließlich Kanada (wo wir ansässig sind) und der USA', and data residency is not confirmed on the vendor's own pages. We found no public information naming individual subprocessors, only categories such as cloud hosting, content delivery, data analysis, internal logging, fulfilment services and email transmission.
Pricing transparency
JTL-Shop
Genuinely better than the category norm: order-limit overages are priced per tier (0,22/0,16/0,11 € per extra order), order packages, module add-ons like the REST API and production modules, the annual discount and Wawi Cloud pricing are all public. It cannot reach 8 because Enterprise is 'Auf Anfrage' — a sales conversation — payment transaction rates, VAT treatment and minimum terms are not stated, and only the Advanced tier's headline price appears in the captured evidence.
Shopify
Close to fully computable: annual prices per tier ('27 € EUR/Monat', '79 € EUR/Monat', '289 € EUR/Monat'), card fees per tier and card type ('2,1 % + 0,30 €' on Basic), external-provider transaction fees from 2 % down to 0,2 %, the POS Pro add-on at '+79 €/Mo.', hosting and unlimited bandwidth included, no setup fees, and the Plus commitment stated as one or three years. The gaps: VAT treatment of the listed prices is not stated, and we found no public information on order or GMV limits or on what the commonly needed apps cost.
Sovereignty, side by side
Dimension
JTL-Shop
Shopify
Legal entity
Incorporated in DE
Incorporated in CA
Ownership
Not determined
Not determined
Data residency
Not determined
Not determined
Subprocessors
Not determined
Not determined
Facts, side by side
Only facts both products carry under the same definition — anything else would not be a fair row.