Why It Matters
GraphQL-first architecture, built-in multi-channel support, and a serverless App system that extends without touching core code. One Saleor instance powers multiple markets with independent pricing, currencies, and checkout configs. Self-host for free or use Saleor Cloud — your commerce engine stays upgradeable either way.
Core Capabilities
What Saleor offers out of the box — and what it means for your business in plain English.
100% GraphQL API
Saleor is one of the few commerce platforms with a GraphQL-only API. Every feature — from product management to checkout to order processing — is accessed through a single, well-typed GraphQL endpoint. Schema introspection, auto-generated TypeScript types via graphql-codegen, and an interactive GraphQL playground for testing queries. Subscriptions (real-time events over WebSocket) for order updates and inventory changes.
What This Means For Your Business
GraphQL is like ordering at a restaurant where you can ask for exactly what you want — 'give me the product name, price, and first 3 images' — and get back exactly that, nothing more or less. Traditional APIs are like a buffet where you get everything whether you want it or not, which wastes time and resources. Saleor uses GraphQL exclusively, which means your website loads faster because it only requests the data it needs. Your developers also work faster because they get auto-complete and type checking for every piece of data.
Multi-Channel Architecture
Saleor's channel system lets you run multiple storefronts, markets, or sales strategies from a single Saleor instance. Each channel has its own currency, country settings, warehouse assignments, and checkout configuration. Products can be published to specific channels with channel-specific pricing. This is a core architecture feature, not a bolt-on addon.
What This Means For Your Business
Imagine running one store backend that powers your US website (in USD), your European website (in EUR), your mobile app, and your wholesale portal — each with different prices, product selections, and shipping options. With Saleor, you set this up as separate 'channels' within one system. Your inventory team manages everything in one dashboard, but each customer-facing channel has its own tailored experience. It's like having multiple specialized storefronts powered by one central warehouse.
Saleor Apps & Webhooks
Saleor Apps are external microservices that extend Saleor's functionality without modifying core code. They react to webhooks (order created, payment authorized, product updated, etc.) and can modify Saleor's behavior via synchronous webhooks. Apps are installed via the Saleor Dashboard and can add their own UI panels. Built with Next.js and the Saleor App SDK. Think of them as serverless plugins.
What This Means For Your Business
When something happens in your store — a customer places an order, a payment is processed, inventory drops — Saleor can automatically notify external services to take action. Need to send order data to your warehouse? An app does that. Need to calculate complex taxes? An app handles it. Need custom loyalty points? Build an app for it. The key advantage: these apps run outside of Saleor, so they never risk breaking your core commerce engine, and they can be updated independently.
Modern React Dashboard
Saleor includes a polished React-based admin dashboard (MaterialUI-based) for product management, order processing, customer management, discount/voucher configuration, and app management. The dashboard communicates with Saleor via the same GraphQL API that your storefront uses. It's fully customizable and can be extended with App dashboard extensions.
What This Means For Your Business
Your team manages the store through a modern, web-based admin panel that looks and feels like any premium SaaS tool — clean design, fast navigation, and intuitive controls. You can create products with rich descriptions, manage orders with drag-and-drop workflows, configure discounts and vouchers, and see real-time analytics. It runs in any browser and is much more modern-feeling than WordPress admin or traditional e-commerce backends.
Enterprise-Grade Permissions
Granular permission system with staff-level and app-level access controls. Create custom permission groups (e.g., 'Warehouse Manager' sees only inventory, 'Marketing Lead' manages discounts only). JWT-based authentication with refresh tokens. CSRF protection, rate limiting, and security headers built in.
What This Means For Your Business
You can control exactly who on your team can see and do what. Your warehouse team only sees inventory. Your marketing team only manages discounts. Your customer service team can view and edit orders but can't change product prices. This prevents mistakes and keeps sensitive data (like customer information and financial reports) visible only to authorized people.
Multi-Warehouse Fulfillment
Configure multiple warehouses with independent stock levels per location. Saleor automatically determines which warehouse(s) should fulfill each order based on stock availability and warehouse priority. Support for split shipments — a single order can be fulfilled from multiple warehouses. Click & Collect (buy online, pick up in store) support built in.
What This Means For Your Business
If you have products stored in multiple locations — a US warehouse, a European warehouse, and a local pickup point — Saleor keeps track of inventory at each location separately. When a customer in Paris orders, Saleor knows to ship from your European warehouse. If one warehouse is out of stock for part of an order, it can split the shipment between locations automatically. This ensures customers get their orders from the nearest location, reducing shipping costs and delivery times.
Key Strengths
Where Saleor genuinely excels — grouped by category so you can quickly assess what matters most to your business.
Best-in-class GraphQL API
Saleor's 100% GraphQL API is one of the most complete and well-designed commerce APIs available. Auto-generated TypeScript types via graphql-codegen, interactive playground, and schema introspection make development fast and error-free.
Modern tech stack (Python/Django + React)
Python is the #1 language in popularity. Django is battle-tested. The React dashboard is clean and extensible. Developers enjoy working with Saleor — faster hiring, faster onboarding, fewer frustrations.
Multi-channel from the core
Channels are not an afterthought — they're a fundamental architecture decision. Run multiple currencies, markets, and storefronts from a single Saleor instance without workarounds or plugins.
Multi-warehouse with automatic allocation
Built-in multi-warehouse inventory with automatic fulfillment allocation and split shipments. Most competitors require plugins or enterprise plans for this functionality.
Saleor Apps extensibility model
Extend Saleor via external microservices (Apps) rather than modifying core code. Apps react to webhooks, can modify behavior via sync webhooks, and even add UI panels to the dashboard. Clean separation of concerns.
Zero transaction fees
Neither self-hosted nor Saleor Cloud charges transaction fees. You only pay your payment processor's fees. Significant savings at scale compared to Shopify and BigCommerce.
Draft orders and advanced order management
Create orders manually (phone orders, B2B), edit orders after creation, split fulfillments across warehouses, and manage returns/refunds — all through the dashboard or API.
True multi-currency with channel-level control
Each channel has its own currency and pricing. Set USD prices for your US channel and EUR prices for your European channel. Products can have different prices, availability, and visibility per channel.
Starter Templates
Production-ready starter templates for building headless Saleor storefronts in your preferred framework.
React Native
CommunityCommunity starter for building iOS/Android commerce apps with React Native and Saleor's GraphQL API. Uses the same @saleor/sdk for data operations.
Nuxt
CommunityCommunity Vue.js storefront for Saleor using Nuxt 3. Connects to Saleor's GraphQL API with Villus or Apollo client for Vue.
Don't see your framework?
Saleor's Storefront API is framework-agnostic. Any frontend that can make GraphQL requests works — Angular, Astro, Solid, or even a mobile app. Use the GRAPHQL API with the official SDKs (TypeScript/JavaScript SDK, Python (native Django), React Storefront Kit (@saleor/sdk)).
Third-Party Integrations
The best tools to extend Saleor — from search and CMS to email marketing and shipping.
Search & Discovery
Headless CMS
Email & SMS Marketing
Analytics & Tracking
API Architecture
Pricing Plans
Saleor pricing breakdown — so you know exactly what you're paying for and which plan fits your business.
Open Source (Self-Hosted)
- Full GraphQL API
- React dashboard
- Multi-channel support
- Multi-warehouse
- Saleor Apps & Webhooks
- Community support (GitHub, Discord)
- No usage or feature limits
Saleor Cloud Starter
Most Popular- Everything in Open Source
- Managed hosting & scaling
- Automatic updates & security patches
- 99.9% uptime SLA
- Email support
- Staging environments
Saleor Cloud Enterprise
- Everything in Starter
- Dedicated infrastructure
- Custom SLA (99.99%+)
- Priority support with SLA
- Professional services
- Migration assistance
- Custom integrations
Zero transaction fees on all plans. Self-hosted and Cloud.
Use Case Fit
How well Saleor fits different commerce scenarios — from small D2C brands to enterprise B2B operations.
Best Fit Industries
See which industries get the most value from Saleor — and how it specifically addresses their e-commerce needs.
Fashion, beauty, and lifestyle brands needing pixel-perfect storefronts that match their brand identity. Saleor's headless API gives complete creative freedom while handling all commerce operations.
Companies selling across multiple countries with different currencies, languages, and pricing. Saleor's channel system handles this natively — one backend, multiple markets.
Companies operating multiple brands from one commerce backend. Each brand gets its own channel with independent pricing, currencies, and product availability.
Multi-warehouse fulfillment with automatic stock allocation is ideal for perishable goods and regional distribution. Click & Collect support for local pickup.
Draft orders, customer-specific pricing via channels, and the API-first approach enable complex B2B flows. However, lacks native quote management and purchase orders — these require custom Apps.
Supports digital products with file attachments. However, lacks advanced digital rights management or license key generation — these require custom implementation via Apps.
Saleor lacks native subscription billing. You'd need to build a custom App integrating Stripe Subscriptions or Chargebee. Consider Shopify or WooCommerce if subscriptions are your primary model.
Honest Trade-Offs
No technology is perfect. Here are the real limitations of Saleor — so you make an informed decision, not a surprised one.
| Trade-Off | Impact | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Smaller ecosystem than WooCommerce or Shopify | High | ~30 official Saleor Apps vs. 8,000+ Shopify apps or 55,000+ WordPress plugins. Many integrations require custom development. The App ecosystem is growing but still young. |
| No built-in subscription or recurring billing | Medium | Saleor doesn't have native subscription/recurring billing. You need to build a custom Saleor App that integrates with Stripe Subscriptions or a similar service. Not ideal for subscription-first businesses. |
| Requires development team for storefront | Medium | There is no theme system or no-code storefront builder. You must build the customer-facing website from scratch using the API. This requires frontend developers skilled in React/Next.js, Vue/Nuxt, or similar frameworks. |
| Saleor Cloud pricing is opaque | Medium | Unlike Shopify's clear $29/79/299 tiers, Saleor Cloud requires contacting sales for pricing. This makes budget planning harder for teams evaluating the platform. Self-hosted is free but requires DevOps investment. |
| Python/Django less common in commerce ecosystem | Low | Most commerce platforms and frontend tools are JavaScript/TypeScript-based. Saleor's Python backend means you need Python developers for core customizations. JavaScript-only teams may struggle with backend changes. |
| Steeper learning curve than traditional platforms | Low | GraphQL, headless architecture, Saleor Apps, channels, warehouses — there are many concepts to understand before becoming productive. The documentation is good but the architecture is complex. |
~30 official Saleor Apps vs. 8,000+ Shopify apps or 55,000+ WordPress plugins. Many integrations require custom development. The App ecosystem is growing but still young.
Saleor doesn't have native subscription/recurring billing. You need to build a custom Saleor App that integrates with Stripe Subscriptions or a similar service. Not ideal for subscription-first businesses.
There is no theme system or no-code storefront builder. You must build the customer-facing website from scratch using the API. This requires frontend developers skilled in React/Next.js, Vue/Nuxt, or similar frameworks.
Unlike Shopify's clear $29/79/299 tiers, Saleor Cloud requires contacting sales for pricing. This makes budget planning harder for teams evaluating the platform. Self-hosted is free but requires DevOps investment.
Most commerce platforms and frontend tools are JavaScript/TypeScript-based. Saleor's Python backend means you need Python developers for core customizations. JavaScript-only teams may struggle with backend changes.
GraphQL, headless architecture, Saleor Apps, channels, warehouses — there are many concepts to understand before becoming productive. The documentation is good but the architecture is complex.
Common Questions
Real questions developers and founders ask about building with Saleor — answered with specific, actionable guidance.