# Ecwid by Lightspeed vs Vendure

> Vendure scores 70.9 (BB) on agent readiness against Ecwid by Lightspeed's 63.2 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Ecwid by Lightspeed leads on transparency & trust. Both do commerce products. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ecwid-vs-vendure
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ecwid-vs-vendure.md (~2,600 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ecwid-vs-vendure.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ecwid-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: 2026-10-08

Vendure scores 70.9 (BB) on agent readiness against Ecwid by Lightspeed's 63.2 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Ecwid by Lightspeed leads on transparency & trust. Both do commerce products.

- Ecwid by Lightspeed: grade B, 63.2/100, rank #316 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/ecwid.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/ecwid.json
- Vendure: grade BB, 70.9/100, rank #123 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/vendure.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/vendure.json

## Which one, for what

### Ecwid by Lightspeed (B)

Good for: An agent doing back-office work on an existing Ecwid store, such as catalogue edits, order export and discount coupons.

Ahead on:
- Transparency & trust, 72 against 67

Also in its favour:
- No incidents deducted, where Vendure loses 3 points for them

Watch for: Access tokens never expire and change only when the app is uninstalled and installed again

### Vendure (BB)

Good for: TypeScript teams that want a typed GraphQL commerce server and will host it.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 89 against 80
- Schema & documentation, 91 against 66
- Payments & pricing, 45 against 15
- Maintenance & community, 85 against 79

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- Open source

Watch for: No vendor-hosted API. Vendure Cloud is only partly available


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Ecwid by Lightspeed | Vendure | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 80 | 89 | Vendure +9 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 66 | 91 | Vendure +25 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 66 | 68 | Vendure +2 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 61 | 65 | Vendure +4 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 15 | 45 | Vendure +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 79 | 85 | Vendure +6 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 67 | Ecwid by Lightspeed +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **63.2 · B** | **70.9 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Ecwid by Lightspeed | Vendure |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Ecwid, Inc. (Lightspeed Commerce) | Vendure (Elevantiq GmbH) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://app.ecwid.com/api/v3` | `https://readonlydemo.vendure.io/shop-api` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the Lightspeed Service Agreement. The `@lightspeed/ecom-headless` npm package is MIT and the Java API client on GitHub is Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-30 | 2026-09-02 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-02-26 | 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 | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 22 stars, 307 npm/wk | 8.5k stars, 30k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Ecwid by Lightspeed.** The REST API has 40 access scopes, a published limit of 600 requests a minute per token with `Retry-After` on a 429, field selection through `responseFields`, and Markdown docs with an llms.txt index. Tokens never expire, there is no test mode or idempotency key, API access needs a paid plan, and carts are built only in the browser.

**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

### Ecwid by Lightspeed

1. Send the token as `Authorization: Bearer` to `https://app.ecwid.com/api/v3/{storeId}`. Tokens in the query string stopped working in March 2025
2. Use the secret token server-side only. The public token reads enabled products and places orders that are not marked paid
3. Add `responseFields`, for example `total,items(id,name,price)`, to keep responses small, and page with `offset` and `limit` (maximum 100)
4. Stay under 600 requests a minute per token and wait the `Retry-After` seconds on a 429. Repeated calls with a bad token get the token and IP blocked for longer
5. Work in a separate test store. There is no test mode, and `POST /orders` writes a real order with no idempotency key
6. After changing an app's scopes, uninstall and reinstall it, then replace the stored tokens. The old ones stop working

### 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

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Ecwid by Lightspeed or Vendure?

Vendure scores 70.9 (BB) on agent readiness against Ecwid by Lightspeed's 63.2 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Ecwid by Lightspeed leads on transparency & trust.

### Do Ecwid by Lightspeed and Vendure need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Ecwid by Lightspeed and Vendure without installing anything?

Yes. Ecwid by Lightspeed has a hosted endpoint at https://app.ecwid.com/api/v3 and Vendure at https://readonlydemo.vendure.io/shop-api.

### Are Ecwid by Lightspeed and Vendure open source?

No open-source release is listed for Ecwid by Lightspeed. Vendure is open source (GPL-3.0-or-later).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Ecwid by Lightspeed or Vendure

- [Adobe Commerce (Magento) vs Ecwid by Lightspeed](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-commerce-vs-ecwid.md)
- [Adobe Commerce (Magento) vs Vendure](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/adobe-commerce-vs-vendure.md)
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- [Saleor API + MCP vs Vendure](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/saleor-vs-vendure.md)
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