Vendure vs Shopify Plus
For Plus merchants whose B2B buying rules have outgrown accounts, terms and catalogs, and whose platform bill rises with revenue.
The short answer
Choose Vendure when
- Buyers need order approvals, contract prices, quotes or PunchOut
- The platform bill should stay flat as revenue grows
- You want your own payment provider without a surcharge
- You need to choose the region and run your own infrastructure
- Checkout and pricing logic must change in your own code
What you leave behind on Shopify Plus
- A variable platform fee once revenue grows
- 0.20% on third-party payment provider transactions
- Buyer orders held as drafts, with no approval rules
- A 500-line cap on every order
Three walls B2B teams hit on Shopify Plus
Buyer approvals end at a draft order
Shopify B2B stops at company and location accounts, net terms, catalogs and quick order. There is no RFQ, CPQ or punchout and no buyer approval rule: an order can only be held as a draft for the merchant to review, and it caps at 500 lines. Vendure ships company accounts and quotes from Starter, organization hierarchy at Growth, contract pricing and single-level order approvals at Scale, and negotiation, access policy, Configurator, PunchOut (cXML) and multi-level approvals with timeouts and delegation at Enterprise. Each plan inherits the one below, so you buy the depth your workflows actually need.
The Plus bill rises with your revenue
Plus starts at $2,300 a month on three years, Shopify moves larger merchants to a variable platform fee, and every transaction through a third-party payment provider carries 0.20%. Vendure Framework is free, the plans are a flat monthly fee and Enterprise a flat annual one. There is no revenue share, no per-order surcharge and no fee for choosing your own payment provider, so growing revenue does not reprice the platform.
Checkout, core and region stay Shopify's call
On Plus, customisation sits at the extension points Shopify defines, the core engine and checkout do not change, and there is no hosting-region choice. With Vendure, the GPLv3 Framework cannot be revoked or discontinued for you, the plugin-licence exception keeps your customisations proprietary, and your data sits in your own SQL database. You choose the region and the cloud.
How they compare
Six dimensions, the same six on every Vendure comparison page. Every claim about Shopify Plus is sourced at the foot of this page.
| Dimension | Vendure | Shopify Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture and extensibility | VendureTypeScript end to end on NestJS, with GraphQL Shop and Admin APIs. Plugins sit beside the Framework. No forks, no extension cap. | Shopify PlusClosed SaaS. Themes, apps, metafields and Functions at fixed extension points. The core engine and checkout do not change. |
| Licensing and cost model | VendureFree open-source Vendure Framework under GPLv3. Four flat, cumulative plans from €199 a month on a 12-month term, with Enterprise from €60,000 a year. No GMV, per-order or per-user fees. | Shopify Plus$2,300 a month on three years, $2,500 on one (€2,100 and €2,250 in the EU), plus 0.20% per transaction on third-party payment providers. Larger merchants move to a variable platform fee, and stores past the tenth cost €250 a month each or a revenue share. |
| B2B depth | VendureCompany accounts and quotes from Starter. Organization hierarchy at Growth. Contract pricing, single-level order approvals, the audit log and the Next.js B2B storefront at Scale. PunchOut (cXML), Configurator and multi-level approvals with timeouts and delegation at Enterprise. | Shopify PlusCompany and location accounts with net terms, catalogs and quick order. No buyer approval rules. Orders can only be held as drafts for merchant review. No RFQ, CPQ or punchout. Orders cap at 500 lines. |
| Hosting and operations | VendureSelf-host on any cloud or on-premises, in any region. Managed Vendure Cloud is planned for Q1 2027, with a base set of Cloud resources in each paid plan. | Shopify PlusManaged SaaS operated by Shopify. No hosting-region choice, no infrastructure or log access. |
| Ecosystem and talent | VendureMainstream TypeScript, Node and GraphQL. No proprietary skill silo. | Shopify PlusAgencies listed in the Shopify Partners directory. Custom checkout and discount logic needs Shopify Functions skills. |
| Migration effort | VendureImport catalogue and customers, then rebuild the storefront on the GraphQL API or start from the Next.js storefront included from Scale. | Shopify PlusNot applicable. |
Vendure pricing: a free open-source framework, then four flat tiers
Vendure Framework is free under GPLv3. Starter, Growth, Scale and Enterprise add B2B capabilities cumulatively, on a flat fee with no GMV, per-order or per-user charges.
When Plus merchants start a replatform review
Usually a head of ecommerce at a brand or manufacturer that added wholesale to a Plus store, at contract renewal or halfway through rebuilding Scripts on Functions.
Scripts stopped running on 30 June 2026
so logic that lived in Scripts is being rebuilt on Functions right now, which is a natural moment to ask where it should live
Contract prices with validity dates
negotiated per customer
Formal quote or approval processes
particularly multi-step approval chains
ERP as the source of truth
with a call needed at checkout rather than a nightly sync (Enterprise Advanced pricing gives you the hook, and your team writes the call)
Configurators beyond three options
where the product itself is assembled rather than picked
Orders past 500 lines
which is a documented platform cap
Multi-entity groups
with separate legal entities, catalogues or currencies
EU data-residency mandates
where no hosting-region choice is a hard stop
App sprawl on a single process
where three or four apps and a spreadsheet hold one workflow together
Migration runs in three phases: catalogue and customer import, storefront rebuild, then integration cutover. We scope the effort against what is actually in production rather than quoting a band.
Moving off Shopify Plus?
Felipe Arango of iDeum has moved Plus and headless Hydrogen stores onto Vendure. His guide covers sorting the apps and Functions before anyone writes code, what ports and what gets rebuilt, and why B2C goes before B2B.
Teams building complex commerce with Vendure
Vendure and Shopify Plus, answered
When the buying rules belong in the platform: multi-step approval chains, contract pricing with validity dates, RFQ, punchout, ERP write-back built on Vendure by your team, or multi-entity structures.
Company accounts, quotes, lists, quick order and store credit from Starter. Organization hierarchy, managed lists, packaging, gift cards and global search at Growth. Contract pricing, order approvals, the audit log, single sign-on, search analytics and the Next.js B2B storefront at Scale. Negotiation, access policy, advanced approvals, audit governance, Configurator and PunchOut at Enterprise. They are licensed capabilities rather than services you commission.
Vendure Framework is free under GPLv3. Four cumulative paid plans sit on top: Starter at €199, Growth at €599 and Scale at €2,499 a month on a 12-month term, with Enterprise from €60,000 a year. Each plan inherits the one below, and there is no GMV charge, per-order surcharge or per-user fee, so growing revenue does not reprice the platform.
Yes. Vendure Framework is a complete open-source commerce framework under GPLv3, written in TypeScript on Node.js with GraphQL Shop and Admin APIs. It is free to run and self-host, and the licence cannot be revoked or discontinued for you. The commercial B2B capabilities are separately licensed plugins layered on top of the Framework. Every paid plan also includes a commercial licence for Vendure Framework for your project, as an alternative to GPLv3.
Your team or an official Vendure partner self-hosts it on any cloud or on-premises, in any region, with your data in your own SQL database. That is what makes EU-mandated and otherwise regulated deployments possible today. Vendure Cloud, our managed hosting, opens as a closed beta for paid plans, with general availability planned for Q1 2027. Each paid plan will include a base set of Cloud resources, and usage above that is billed on top.
Yes. Vendure runs B2C and B2B on one platform with a shared catalogue, inventory and fulfilment, which is usually the point for a manufacturer or distributor selling through both. The Next.js storefront included from the Scale plan covers both models, and you can also bring your own frontend against the GraphQL APIs.
Shopify moves larger merchants from the fixed subscription to a variable platform fee, and charges 0.20% on transactions through third-party payment providers. Vendure has no transaction or revenue fees. The paid plans are a flat monthly fee, and Enterprise a flat annual one, with no revenue share, no per-order surcharge and no surcharge for using your own payment provider, so your platform cost is not a function of how much you sell.
Sources (7) · claims last checked 2026
- Shopify Plus pricing: subscription, contract terms, the variable platform fee, expansion stores and the third-party payment provider fee · shopify.com/plus/pricing
- Shopify B2B requirements and limitations: B2B on Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus, and the 500 line item limit on orders and draft orders · help.shopify.com/manual/b2b/getting-started/considerations
- Shopify B2B companies: company and location accounts, payment terms, catalogs, and orders submitted as drafts for review · help.shopify.com/manual/b2b/companies-and-customers/creating-companies
- Shopify B2B online store: quantity rules, volume pricing and the quick order list · help.shopify.com/manual/b2b/store-customization
- Shopify developer changelog: Shopify Scripts stopped running on 30 June 2026, with Shopify Functions as the replacement · shopify.dev/changelog
- Shopify Partners: the partner and agency directory · shopify.com/partners/directory
- Vendure pricing and plans · vendure.io/pricing
