# Vendure — E-Commerce Platforms & Shop Systems

Vendure by Vendure holds a panel rating of 3/5 from 6 AI judges (category median 2.5/5), as of 2026-11-03. Provenance: provenance unknown; sovereignty: not determined.

- Vendor: Vendure (https://www.vendure.io)
- Category: [E-Commerce Platforms & Shop Systems](https://whats-best.ai/software/e-commerce.md)
- Provenance (editorial classification): provenance unknown
- Canonical page: https://whats-best.ai/software/e-commerce/vendure
- Alternatives: https://whats-best.ai/software/e-commerce/vendure/alternatives ([markdown](https://whats-best.ai/software/e-commerce/vendure/alternatives.md))
- Data as of: 2026-11-04 · evaluated 2026-11-03 · oldest source captured 2026-11-03

**AI-generated.** Every score, rationale and verdict here is written by a panel of AI judges from public evidence — an analysis, not a hands-on test. Every fact quotes the vendor page it was read from. No score can be bought. How scores are made: https://whats-best.ai/methodology

## At a glance

- Vendor: Vendure
- Headquarters: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 3 Nov 2026
- Data hosting: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 3 Nov 2026
- Free plan: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 3 Nov 2026
- Starting price: “Plans start at €199 a month, with no fee on order value, orders or users.” (vendor’s words) [S1]

## The panel's verdict

Vendure, an open-source commerce framework from Elevantiq GmbH in Austria, positions itself for complex B2B. Its highest scores are extensibility, where five of six judges gave 9, and data control and exit at 8 to 9: a GPLv3 core with a plugin exception, plugins declaring semver compatibility, self-hosting on PostgreSQL, MySQL or MariaDB including air-gapped environments, and a documented cutover between self-hosting and the planned Cloud. The lowest are tax and legal at 4 to 6 and operations at 5 to 6, where judges found no public information on invoicing from orders, OSS reporting data, e-invoicing formats, German checkout requirements, carrier label printing, multi-warehouse stock or maintained ERP connectors. Sovereignty splits widest, 5 to 8: judges credit self-hosting, but the published processor list includes United States providers under the Data Privacy Framework or standard contractual clauses, and where the vendor-run Cloud will host data is not stated. Pricing transparency spans 6 to 8, the gap reflecting how judges weighed the public tiers against the unpriced Enterprise tier and unpublished Cloud overage rates.

**Speaks for it:**
- Extensibility scores 9 from five of six judges for plugins as NestJS modules with semver compatibility declarations and independently extendable Shop and Admin GraphQL APIs.
- The GPLv3 Framework is free forever and self-hosts on PostgreSQL, MySQL or MariaDB, including on-premises and air-gapped environments.
- Moving between self-hosting and the planned Cloud is documented as a data and configuration cutover rather than a re-platform.
- Starter, Growth and Scale prices are public at €199/mo, €599/mo and €2,499/mo, a 12-month term billed monthly excl. VAT, with no fee on order value, orders or users and a 30-day trial with no card required.
- The B2B trade side is documented: customer-specific and contract pricing, quotes, quick order by pasting SKUs, approval limits and orders on invoice terms.

**Held against it:**
- Judges found no public information on invoicing from orders, OSS reporting data or e-invoicing formats, which keeps tax and legal at 4 to 6.
- Judges found no public information on carrier label printing, multi-warehouse stock or maintained connectors to named ERP and accounting systems.
- The Enterprise tier carries no public price, and Cloud usage above each plan's included base is billed on top at unpublished rates.
- The EU reverse-charge strategy's documentation page sits behind a Console sign-in.
- The published processor list includes United States providers, and where the vendor-run Cloud will host data is not stated.

**Best for:**
- You run a development team that wants to own the commerce core and reshape checkout and processes without a rebuild.
- You sell complex B2B, since customer-specific and contract pricing, quotes, quick order by pasting SKUs and approval limits are documented in the paid plans.
- You must keep catalogue, customer and order data in your own PostgreSQL, MySQL or MariaDB, on-premises or air-gapped.
- You are prepared to build storefront and ERP connections via APIs, going live with your own engineers, Vendure Professional Services or an official partner.

**Avoid if:**
- You rely on the platform for invoicing from orders, e-invoicing formats or OSS reporting data — the judges found no public information on any of these.
- You expect maintained connectors to named ERP, accounting or carrier systems rather than building the connections via APIs.
- You sell mainly to consumers and need PayPal, direct debit or buy-now-pay-later — payments are documented through community plugins for Stripe, Braintree and Mollie, and the judges found no public information on the others.
- You need a fully priced annual bill up front — ask the vendor: the public pages we read do not show it

## Scores by judge and criterion

Scores out of 5, each judge scoring independently against the published rubric (v2). "n/r" = not rated: the vendor publishes no price, or the judge found no public information on that criterion.

| Criterion | The Merchant | The B2B Seller | The Developer | The Operations Lead | The Data Protection Officer | The Skeptic |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Catalogue & checkout | 3/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 0/5 |
| Tax & German legal correctness | 2.5/5 | 2.5/5 | 3/5 | 2/5 | 2.5/5 | 0/5 |
| Extensibility & developer surface | 4.5/5 | 4.5/5 | 4.5/5 | 4.5/5 | 4.5/5 | 0/5 |
| Order operations & back office | 2.5/5 | 2.5/5 | 3/5 | 3/5 | 2.5/5 | 0/5 |
| Data ownership & exit | 4/5 | 4/5 | 4.5/5 | 4/5 | 4.5/5 | 0/5 |
| European sovereignty | 3.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 4/5 | 2.5/5 | 3.5/5 | 0/5 |
| Pricing transparency | 3/5 | 3.5/5 | 4/5 | 3.5/5 | 4/5 | 0/5 |
| **Weighted verdict** | **3/5** | **3/5** | **4/5** | **3.5/5** | **3.5/5** | **0/5** |

### The judges

- **The Merchant** (v1.0): Sells to consumers and lives on conversion. Wants a checkout that can be changed without a rebuild, the payment methods German shoppers expect including invoice, and promotions with rules. Judges price against contribution, not against a competitor's tier.
- **The B2B Seller** (v1.0): Sells to businesses across the EU: net prices, VAT-ID validation, reverse charge, customer-specific price lists and payment on account. Reads a shop that shows gross prices to a trade customer as one that has not met a trade customer.
- **The Developer** (v1.0): 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.
- **The Operations Lead** (v1.0): Ships the orders and handles the returns. Wants stock that is true across channels, partial shipments, carrier integrations with labels, and an ERP link the vendor maintains. A shop that cannot do a partial refund is a shop that has never had December.
- **The Data Protection Officer** (v1.0): The shop holds customers, addresses and buying histories, and the checkout is full of third parties. Wants the subprocessor list, consent handling that survives a complaint, deletion that executes against order history, and an answer on where the CDN and analytics sit.
- **The Skeptic** (v1.0): Knows the headline price is never the invoice here. Reads for the transaction fee, the apps that turn out to be mandatory, the hosting nobody mentioned, and what the platform charges to let a merchant leave with their own order history.

## European sovereignty — proven facts

Built only from facts on the vendor's own pages; a dimension we could not prove is left open, never scored as zero. Headline: not determined.

| Dimension | Finding | Points | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Legal entity | Not determined | — | — |
| Hosting location | Not determined | — | — |
| Hosting options | Not determined | — | — |
| Open source | Not determined | — | — |
| Data processing agreement | Not determined | — | — |
| Transfer impact assessment | Not determined | — | — |

## Key facts

Each fact is the vendor's own statement, cited to the source page it was read from ([S*n*] → Sources).

**Compliance**
- Children: yes [S3]
- Complaint authority: Austrian Data Protection Authority [S3]
- DPA on hosting: yes [S3]
- No automated decisions: no [S3]
- No data sale US: no [S3]
- Sanctions screening: OpenSanctions · yes [S3]
- Supply chain: yes [S5]
- VAT evidence: yes [S3]
- Vies checks: yes [S3]

**Data**
- Retention invoices: 7 · 10 [S3]
- Retention licence checks: 10 · 12 [S3]
- Retention package downloads: 7 [S3]
- Retention posthog: 1 · 30 [S3]
- Retention records: 10 [S3]
- Retention tax evidence: 10 [S3]
- Rights: access, correction, deletion, restriction, consent withdrawal, data portability [S3]
- Support access logged: yes [S3]

**Hosting**
- Cloud availability: Q1 2027 · closed beta for paid plans · no [S5]
- Go live options: own engineers · Vendure Professional Services · official partner [S1]
- Transfers: EU-US Data Privacy Framework · standard contractual clauses [S3]
- UK transfer: United Kingdom (Northflank): the European Commission's adequacy decision for the UK. [S3]

**Integrations**
- CSV product import: csv · products · product variants · product & variant assets · product & variant facets · product & variant custom fields [S14]
- Customer addresses query: activeCustomer query exposes addresses (including defaultShippingAddress/defaultBillingAddress) for pre-populating checkout address forms [S7]
- Erp pim CRM: ERP · PIM · CRM · payment · fulfilment [S1]
- Import asset sources: local file system · remote http/https urls [S14]
- Import custom fields: yes [S14]
- Import custom scripts: yes · yes [S14]
- Import custom strategy: AssetImportStrategy · yes [S14]
- Import from other platforms: transform platform export into Vendure CSV format · script importing via other platform's API · yes [S14]
- Import initial data: paymentMethods · roles · defaultLanguage · countries · taxRates · shippingMethods · collections · yes [S14]
- Import multilanguage: yes [S14]
- Import populate function: populate() · yes [S14]
- Import specialized services: ImportParser · FastImporterService · Populator · AssetImporter · Importer [S14]
- Import test data: yes [S14]

**Legal**
- Copyright notice: Duplication/processing/distribution/commercialization requires prior written consent [S2]
- Ecg notice: Impressum per §5 ECG, §14 UGB, §25 Mediengesetz [S2]
- Entity: Elevantiq GmbH · Vendure [S3]
- Entity name: Elevantiq GmbH [S2]
- Jurisdiction: Austria [S2]
- Object of company: Services in automatic data processing and information technology. [S2]
- Privacy contact: legal@vendure.io [S3]
- Professional membership: Austrian Chamber of Commerce (UBIT), Information and Consulting Division [S2]
- Qu bec contact: managing director, legal@vendure.io [S3]
- Register number: Innsbruck Regional Court · FN 506751 y [S2]
- Registered office: Pass-Thurn-Straße 23, 6372 Oberndorf in Tirol, Austria [S2]
- Registered office: Pass-Thurn-Straße 23, 6372 Oberndorf in Tirol · Austria [S3]
- Supervising authority: BH Kitzbühel [S2]
- Terms version: 2026-10-20 · 2026-10-20 [S3]
- VAT id: ATU74103169 [S2]
- Vienna office: Stiftgasse 15–17/1/3, 1070 Vienna, Austria [S2]

**Pricing**
- Cloud beta benefit: Cloud beta invitation included; no fee on revenue, orders or users [S5]
- Cloud billing model: base Cloud resources included per plan, overage billed on top [S5]
- Growth price: excl. VAT · 12-month term, billed monthly · 30 · 599 · no [S5]
- Scale commercial licence: yes [S5]
- Scale price: excl. VAT · 12-month term, billed monthly · 2499 · yes [S5]
- Selfhost feature parity: yes [S4]
- Starter capabilities: Company accounts with tax ID validation; quotes, quick order and reorder; catalog search [S5]
- Starter price: excl. VAT · 12-month term, billed monthly · 30 · 199 · no [S5]
- Starting price: EUR · order value · orders · users · 199 [S1]
- Trial: yes · 30 [S1]
- Trial period: 30 · yes · yes [S4]

**Product**
- Active order limit per session: 1 [S6]
- Active order strategy: ActiveOrderStrategy · yes · session [S6]
- Add payment to order: addPaymentToOrder mutation takes a method code and a JSON metadata argument [S7]
- Admin dashboard: Admin dashboard extensible with own routes, panels and actions [S5]
- AI agents support: Claude Code · Cursor · Copilot · yes [S1]
- APIs graphql: GraphQL · yes [S4]
- Arranging payment state: Orders transition to ArrangingPayment state which locks the order during payment; done via transitionOrderToState mutation [S7]
- Authenticated cart persistence: Authenticated carts persist across logout/login [S6]
- Auto payment state transition: Order auto-transitions to PaymentSettled or PaymentAuthorized when payments cover total [S12]
- B2b b2c same platform: yes [S1]
- B2b platform: ecommerce platform for complex B2B [S1]
- Brands markets included: search · Vendure B2B Storefront · brands and markets [S1]
- Bulk order item ops: Bulk add/adjust/remove order line methods exist for efficiency (since v3.1.0) [S12]
- Calculate method recaculation trigger: adding/removing items · applying promotions · setting ShippingMethod · use caching, only call external APIs when necessary [S8]
- Calculate tax lines args: ctx: RequestContext · order: Order · orderLine: OrderLine · applicableTaxRate: TaxRate [S8]
- Cart merge on login: Anonymous cart can be merged with existing account cart on login [S6]
- Cart mutations: addItemToOrder · adjustOrderLine · removeOrderLine · session context · no [S6]
- Cart unified with order: A cart is an Order in the AddingItems state; no separate cart entity [S6]
- Checkout transition validation: at least one item · shipping method set · custom validation from order process plugins [S6]
- Cli plugin creation: npx vendure add · yes [S10]
- Cloud billed usage: base Cloud resources included per paid plan, overage billed [S4]
- Cloud ga timing: Q1 2027 · closed beta for paid plans [S4]
- Cloud migration: Moving to Cloud is a runtime change, not a re-platform [S5]
- Cloud migration reversible: yes [S4]
- Community payment integrations: Community payment integration plugins: Stripe, Braintree, Mollie [S7]
- Community support: community · Discord · GitHub [S5]
- Core capabilities: products · variants · stock · orders · customers · payments · shipping · promotions · tax [S5]
- Core plugins: Core plugins provided for assets handling, email sending, and search [S10]
- Coupon codes: Coupon codes can be applied/removed on Orders, validated against active Promotions [S12]
- Coupon removed during checkout error: addPaymentToOrder returns CouponRemovedDuringCheckoutError with removedCouponCodes, previousTotalWithTax, newTotalWithTax, currencyCode instead of charging a higher total [S7]
- Custom entities: yes [S5]
- Custom fields: yes [S5]
- Custom tax strategies supported: yes · yes [S8]
- Customer role examples: Company admin · Buyer · Order approver · Project finance [S1]
- Customer scale: Munch · 10000 [S4]
- Customer specific pricing: customer-specific pricing · company accounts · approvals · ERP APIs [S1]
- Database migrations required: npx vendure migrate [S10]
- Databases: PostgreSQL · MySQL · MariaDB [S5]
- Default order process assumed: The checkout flow assumes the default OrderProcess; custom processes may alter steps [S7]
- Default tax line calculation strategy: applies a single TaxLine based on the applicable TaxRate · DefaultTaxLineCalculationStrategy [S8]
- Deployment options: AWS · Azure · GCP · on-prem · Kubernetes · Docker · single VM · yes [S5]
- Docs version: 3.8.1 [S15]
- Draft orders: Draft Orders: create orders manually on behalf of customers, useful for phone orders or special requests [S13]
- Dummy payment handler: Demo data includes a "Standard Payment" method using the dummyPaymentHandler to simulate a payment provider [S7]
- Duplicate variant behavior: Same variant added twice increments quantity on existing OrderLine instead of creating a duplicate [S6]
- Eligible payment methods: eligiblePaymentMethods query lists available payment methods including isEligible flag [S7]
- Eligible shipping methods: eligibleShippingMethods query returns available shipping methods with id, price and description [S7]
- EU reverse charge docs access: The EuReverseChargeTaxExemptionStrategy documentation page content is gated behind Vendure Console sign-in [S9]
- Extensibility: TypeScript [S1]
- Extension model: Plugins are NestJS modules with services, resolvers, entities, event handlers, scheduled tasks [S5]
- Extensions upgrade: extensions external to Framework, fork-free upgrades [S4]
- Framework licence: GPLv3 with plugin exception · yes [S4]

**Subprocessors**
- List: WorkOS: sign-in and identity management for Vendure Console and our portals, including sign-in and invitation emails. [S3]
- List: Amazon Web Services (Amazon SES): sending account and billing emails from Vendure Console, from its Frankfurt region. [S3]
- List: Vercel: hosting for our websites, portals and the Vendure Console interface (Vendure Console and its admin interface in Frankfurt). [S3]
- List: Northflank: hosting for our application infrastructure, APIs and databases, in Frankfurt. [S3]
- List: Twenty: customer relationship management, enquiries and related communication, hosted in the EU. [S3]
- List: Loops: newsletter and marketing emails. [S3]
- List: Google Workspace: email, documents, collaboration, video calls on Google Meet, and call recordings, transcripts and summaries with Gemini. [S3]
- List: Anthropic (Claude) and OpenAI (Codex): AI assistants our team uses to work on support requests, under business terms that don't allow training on our data. [S3]
- List: Sentry: error monitoring for our websites and Vendure Console, hosted in its EU region. [S3]
- List: PostHog: website, documentation and Vendure Console analytics, hosted in its EU region. [S3]
- List: Plausible: cookieless website analytics, hosted in the EU. [S3]
- List: Dealfront (Leadfeeder): company identification for website visits, only with your consent. [S3]
- List: OpenSanctions: sanctions list screening. [S3]
- List: Linear: issue tracking, including support requests. [S3]
- List: Slack: internal communication, including about support requests. [S3]
- Stripe: Stripe · payment processing [S3]

**Support**
- Customer story hans kohler: replaced phone, email and fax ordering with one shop on Vendure, ERP: Microsoft [S1]
- Growth tier: Direct support (Growth) [S5]
- Scale tier: Priority support (Scale) [S5]

84 more facts on the canonical page: https://whats-best.ai/software/e-commerce/vendure

## Questions

### Is Vendure European?

Not determined: the vendor’s pages as captured do not say where Vendure is based.

### Where does Vendure store data?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 3 Nov 2026.

### Does Vendure have a free plan?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 3 Nov 2026.

### What are the best alternatives to Vendure?

As of 3 Nov 2026, the panel rates [Shopify (3/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/e-commerce/shopify), [Sylius (3/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/e-commerce/sylius) and [OpenCart (3/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/e-commerce/opencart) highest among the other 27 E-Commerce Platforms & Shop Systems products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is [OXID eSales](https://whats-best.ai/software/e-commerce/oxid-esales) (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: [how scores are made](https://whats-best.ai/methodology#ordering). The full list, with European products first: [Vendure alternatives](https://whats-best.ai/software/e-commerce/vendure/alternatives).

## What this page leaves out

- 11 product facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 4 legal facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 2 pricing facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.
- 3 sovereignty dimensions could not be confirmed on the vendor’s own pages and are shown as unknown.

## Sources

- [S1] Vendor page: https://www.vendure.io (checked 2026-11-03)
- [S2] Legal notice — found from the homepage: https://vendure.io/company/legal-notice (checked 2026-11-03)
- [S3] Privacy policy — found from the homepage: https://vendure.io/company/privacy-policy (checked 2026-11-03)
- [S4] Self-hosting / on-premises installation docs — found from the homepage: https://vendure.io/solutions/self-hosted-commerce (checked 2026-11-03)
- [S5] Open-source licence page — found from the homepage: https://vendure.io/core (checked 2026-11-03)
- [S6] Catalogue & checkout — found from sitemap: https://docs.vendure.io/current/framework/core-concepts/cart (checked 2026-11-03)
- [S7] Catalogue & checkout — found from sitemap: https://docs.vendure.io/current/framework/storefront/checkout-flow (checked 2026-11-03)
- [S8] Tax & German legal correctness — found from sitemap: https://docs.vendure.io/current/framework/reference/typescript-api/tax/tax-line-calculation-strategy (checked 2026-11-03)
- [S9] Tax & German legal correctness — found from sitemap: https://docs.vendure.io/current/platform/reference/typescript-api/tax-id-management-plugin/eu-reverse-charge-tax-exemption-strategy (checked 2026-11-03)
- [S10] Extensibility & developer surface — found from sitemap: https://docs.vendure.io/current/framework/developer-guide/plugins (checked 2026-11-03)
- [S11] Extensibility & developer surface — found from sitemap: https://docs.vendure.io/current/framework/developer-guide/extend-graphql-api (checked 2026-11-03)
- [S12] Order operations & back office — found from sitemap: https://docs.vendure.io/current/framework/reference/typescript-api/services/order-service (checked 2026-11-03)
- [S13] Order operations & back office — found from sitemap: https://docs.vendure.io/current/framework/user-guide/orders (checked 2026-11-03)
- [S14] Data ownership & exit — found from sitemap: https://docs.vendure.io/current/framework/developer-guide/importing-data (checked 2026-11-03)
- [S15] Data ownership & exit — found from sitemap: https://docs.vendure.io/current/framework/reference/typescript-api/import-export (checked 2026-11-03)

---

Cite as: whats-best.ai, "Vendure — E-Commerce Platforms & Shop Systems", AI panel analysis, as of 2026-11-04. https://whats-best.ai/software/e-commerce/vendure

Corrections: https://whats-best.ai/correct/1411?target=page