# Saleor API + MCP vs Shopify API + MCP

> Shopify API + MCP has a score of 75.2 (BB) against Saleor API + MCP's 68.7 (B). Both do commerce products. The largest gap is reliability, 23 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/saleor-vs-shopify
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/saleor-vs-shopify.md (~1,600 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/saleor-vs-shopify.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/saleor-vs-shopify.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: 2026-10-04

Shopify API + MCP has a score of 75.2 (BB) against Saleor API + MCP's 68.7 (B). Both do commerce products. The largest gap is reliability, 23 points.

- Saleor API + MCP: grade B, 68.7/100, rank #121 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/saleor.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/saleor.json
- Shopify API + MCP: grade BB, 75.2/100, rank #40 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/shopify.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/shopify.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Saleor API + MCP for agent ergonomics (+7), payments & pricing (+5).

Pick Shopify API + MCP for reliability (+23), transparency & trust (+14).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Saleor API + MCP | Shopify API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 50 | 73 | Shopify API + MCP +23 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 89 | 92 | Shopify API + MCP +3 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 86 | 79 | Saleor API + MCP +7 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 71 | 71 | even |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 45 | 40 | Saleor API + MCP +5 |
| 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) | 77 | 91 | Shopify API + MCP +14 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **68.7 · B** | **75.2 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Saleor API + MCP | Shopify API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Saleor | Shopify |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | BSD-3-Clause | none |
| Tools exposed | 8 | 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 | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-30 | 2026-09-30 |
| Popularity | 23k stars, 7.3k npm/wk | 657k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 3.6/5 (8) |

## Verdicts

**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.

**Shopify API + MCP.** Typed GraphQL schemas with quarterly versions supported at least 12 months. Closed platform. You can't self-host or change checkout internals.

## Before you call either

### 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

### Shopify API + MCP

1. Pin an API version in the URL and plan to move at least once a year. Old versions fall forward to the oldest supported one
2. Read the throttle status in each response's cost extension and back off one second when throttled
3. Send an agent profile in `meta` on every UCP call, and an idempotency key on every checkout write
4. Check `userErrors` on every mutation. A 200 response can still carry a failed write
5. Add @shopify/dev-mcp while writing code so the agent checks queries against the current schema

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- [BigCommerce API + MCP vs Saleor API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigcommerce-vs-saleor.md)
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