# commercetools vs Saleor API + MCP

> commercetools scores 71.3 (BB) on agent readiness against Saleor API + MCP's 68.6 (B), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Saleor API + MCP leads on payments & pricing. Both do commerce products. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/commercetools-vs-saleor
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/commercetools-vs-saleor.md (~2,450 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/commercetools-vs-saleor.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/commercetools-vs-saleor.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: 2026-10-08

commercetools scores 71.3 (BB) on agent readiness against Saleor API + MCP's 68.6 (B), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Saleor API + MCP leads on payments & pricing. Both do commerce products.

- commercetools: grade BB, 71.3/100, rank #110 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/commercetools.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/commercetools.json
- Saleor API + MCP: grade B, 68.6/100, rank #165 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/saleor.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/saleor.json

## Which one, for what

### commercetools (BB)

Good for: Enterprises that already run or plan a composable commerce stack and want agents working across catalogue, pricing, carts and orders under scoped credentials.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 73 against 50
- Transparency & trust, 81 against 76

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: No public price. The pricing page describes order-based pricing and sends buyers to sales

### Saleor API + MCP (B)

Good for: Teams that want an open-source GraphQL backend with multi-channel pricing and an agent that reads store data safely.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 45 against 20

Also in its favour:
- Open source

Watch for: The MCP server can't create checkouts or orders


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | commercetools | Saleor API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 73 | 50 | commercetools +23 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 86 | 89 | Saleor API + MCP +3 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 83 | 86 | Saleor API + MCP +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 70 | 71 | Saleor API + MCP +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 45 | Saleor API + MCP +25 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 85 | even |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 81 | 76 | commercetools +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **71.3 · BB** | **68.6 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | commercetools | Saleor API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | commercetools GmbH | Saleor |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.{region}.commercetools.com/{projectKey}` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the commercetools Master Service Agreement. The API specifications are public, the SDKs are MIT (TypeScript, PHP) or Apache 2.0 (Java, .NET) and Commerce MCP is MIT | BSD-3-Clause |
| Tools exposed | none | 8 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-07 | 2026-09-30 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 221k npm/wk | 23k stars, 7.3k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**commercetools.** A public OpenAPI file with 822 operations, per-resource OAuth scopes and a managed MCP server whose tools an administrator selects per agent. Prices are quoted by sales only, and the HTTP API publishes no platform-wide rate limit. A 60-day trial needs no card.

**Saleor API + MCP.** One GraphQL schema with 78 typed error-code enums and 464 marked deprecations. The MCP server can't create checkouts or orders.

## Before you call either

### commercetools

1. Use the auth and API hosts for the project's region, such as auth.europe-west1.gcp.commercetools.com and api.europe-west1.gcp.commercetools.com. There are five regions
2. Send the resource's current `version` with every update or delete. On 409 ConcurrentModification, re-read the resource and retry only if the change is still needed
3. Retry 502 and 503 with exponential backoff from 200 ms, honour Retry-After, and check Content-Type before parsing an error body
4. For MCP, ask for an API Client scoped to `mcp:{projectKey}:{mcpServerKey}` and a server limited to the tools the task needs, not `all`
5. Keep page size at or under 500 and offset at or under 10,000. Product Search returns at most 100 per request

### Saleor API + MCP

1. Pass the channel slug on product and checkout queries. Prices and availability are per channel
2. Send X-Saleor-API-URL and X-Saleor-Auth-Token on every MCP request, with a token holding MANAGE_PRODUCTS and MANAGE_ORDERS
3. Read the `errors` array in every mutation payload. A 200 response can still carry a CheckoutErrorCode
4. Keep queries under the 50,000 complexity cap and 100 items a page, and send at most 4 mutations per request
5. The 3.24 changelog removes the old dummy payment plugins, so test checkouts should use a payment app

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, commercetools or Saleor API + MCP?

commercetools scores 71.3 (BB) on agent readiness against Saleor API + MCP's 68.6 (B), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Saleor API + MCP leads on payments & pricing.

### Do commercetools and Saleor API + MCP need an API key?

commercetools uses an OAuth sign-in. Saleor API + MCP takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call commercetools and Saleor API + MCP without installing anything?

commercetools has a hosted endpoint at https://api.{region}.commercetools.com/{projectKey}. No hosted endpoint is listed for Saleor API + MCP.

### Are commercetools and Saleor API + MCP open source?

No open-source release is listed for commercetools. Saleor API + MCP is open source (BSD-3-Clause).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/commercetools-vs-saleor.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/commercetools-vs-saleor.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "commercetools", "b": "saleor"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare commercetools saleor`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/commercetools.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/saleor.json

## Other comparisons with commercetools or Saleor API + MCP

- [BigCommerce API + MCP vs commercetools](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigcommerce-vs-commercetools.md)
- [BigCommerce API + MCP vs Saleor API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigcommerce-vs-saleor.md)
- [Commerce Layer API + MCP vs commercetools](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/commerce-layer-vs-commercetools.md)
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- [commercetools vs Snipcart API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/commercetools-vs-snipcart.md)
- [commercetools vs Square](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/commercetools-vs-square.md)
- [commercetools vs Swell](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/commercetools-vs-swell.md)
- [commercetools vs Vendure](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/commercetools-vs-vendure.md)
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- [Medusa API + MCP vs Saleor API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/medusa-vs-saleor.md)
- [Saleor API + MCP vs Shopify API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/saleor-vs-shopify.md)
- [Saleor API + MCP vs Shopware](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/saleor-vs-shopware.md)
- [Saleor API + MCP vs Snipcart API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/saleor-vs-snipcart.md)
- [Saleor API + MCP vs Square](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/saleor-vs-square.md)
- [Saleor API + MCP vs Swell](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/saleor-vs-swell.md)
- [Saleor API + MCP vs Vendure](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/saleor-vs-vendure.md)
- [Saleor API + MCP vs WooCommerce API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/saleor-vs-woocommerce.md)