# Commerce Layer API + MCP vs Vendure

> Vendure has a score of 71.4 (BB) against Commerce Layer API + MCP's 63.9 (B). Both do commerce products. The largest gap is payments & pricing, 20 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/commerce-layer-vs-vendure.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-05

Vendure has a score of 71.4 (BB) against Commerce Layer API + MCP's 63.9 (B). Both do commerce products. The largest gap is payments & pricing, 20 points.

- Commerce Layer API + MCP: grade B, 63.9/100, rank #192 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/commerce-layer.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/commerce-layer.json
- Vendure: grade BB, 71.4/100, rank #84 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vendure.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/vendure.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Commerce Layer API + MCP for nothing in particular (no category where it leads by five points or more).

Pick Vendure for reliability (+19), schema & documentation (+12), payments & pricing (+20), transparency & trust (+13).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Commerce Layer API + MCP | Vendure | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 70 | 89 | Vendure +19 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 79 | 91 | Vendure +12 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 68 | Vendure +4 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 64 | 65 | Vendure +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 25 | 45 | Vendure +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 85 | Vendure +3 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 59 | 72 | Vendure +13 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **63.9 · B** | **71.4 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Commerce Layer API + MCP | Vendure |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Commerce Layer | Vendure (Elevantiq GmbH) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://core.commercelayer.io/api/public/resources` | `https://readonlydemo.vendure.io/shop-api` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| Tools exposed | 11 | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-29 | 2026-09-02 |
| Popularity | 7.3k npm/wk | 8.5k stars, 30k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 3/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Commerce Layer API + MCP.** Public OpenAPI 3.0 file and llms.txt. No price between the free plan and a sales-quoted Enterprise contract.

**Vendure.** Full cart, coupon, shipping and payment flow in the GraphQL Shop API, with ErrorResult types an agent can branch on. No vendor-hosted API. Vendure Cloud is only partly available.

## Before you call either

### Commerce Layer API + MCP

1. Call `get_resource_schema` before any write. Preflight rejects bad filter shapes before they reach the API
2. Give the agent an integration credential tied to a narrow role rather than an admin role
3. On a 429, wait out the sliding window. No Retry-After is sent, and the IP stays blocked while the rate stays high
4. Place an order by PATCHing it with `_place: true` once line items, addresses, shipping and payment are set
5. Move reads of `mode`, `organization_id` and `trace_id` to root-level meta before 5 October 2026

### Vendure

1. Keep the session token from the first Shop API response and send it on every call. It holds the active order
2. Check each mutation result's `__typename` and `errorCode`. Expected failures return 200 with an ErrorResult
3. Don't retry addItemToOrder blindly. Read the active order first, since a repeat adds the quantity again
4. For server-side work, enable `api-key` in authOptions.tokenMethod and give the key one role in one channel
5. Run 3.7.3 or later, and purge old job records, which may still hold session tokens

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