When it comes to top-notch customization and scalability levels, commercetools vs Oracle Commerce easily land themselves among the top contenders. However, since most businesses can only afford to choose one, we are all left with one big question: which platform between these two is the better fit for your needs?
Let us help you find the answer here! In this article, we will compare both platforms based on:
- Pricing
- Ease of use
- Customization
- Payment gateways
- Multichannel activities
- Platform ecosystem
- Technical support
Without further ado, let's jump in!
Between commercetools vs Oracle Cloud Commerce: Which Wins?
All in all, commercetools and Oracle Cloud Commerce are both enterprise-grade eCommerce platforms, though their approaches differ. Specifically, commercetools is a headless, API-first platform designed for optimal flexibility; meanwhile, Oracle Commerce is a SaaS solution with built-in features and deep integration into Oracle’s ecosystem.
So, which one is the better solution for you? From our observation, although commercetools is an excellent choice for limitless customization, Oracle Commerce still emerges as the ultimate winner here.
Indeed, Oracle Commerce caters extremely well to both beginners and advanced developers, boasts a robust ecosystem, and delivers significantly better technical support. These factors likely also explain the stark contrast in the total user bases (commercetools's modest 3,000+ users compared to Oracle Commerce's impressive 30,000+).
Curious to learn more about their differences? Keep scrolling for a detailed commercetools vs Oracle Commerce breakdown!
commercetools vs Oracle Commerce Cloud: 7 Key Differences
To provide a fair and objective evaluation of commercetools vs Oracle Commerce, our team has conducted a thorough comparison based on seven key criteria:
1. Pricing (A tie)
First, our team evaluated the pricing to help you select the platform that best suits your current budget. Here's what we found:
commercetools pricing
A few years back, commercetools used to offer a clear pricing structure with three subscription tiers: Basic, Standard, and Advanced. However, it has since transitioned to a more flexible pricing model, which requires you to contact the team directly for a personalized quote.
While the exact cost varies, prices typically start at around $30,000 per year. The number varies depending on:
- Annual revenue: This refers to the licensing fee scales with your company's annual revenue. For instance, a company with a yearly revenue of approximately $100 million might expect to pay around $120,000 per year in licensing fees.
- Third-party integrations: Additional services such as ERP systems, CRM tools, or specialized marketing platforms often require separate licenses or subscription fees, which can vary widely depending on the service provider and the necessary setup level.
- Development: For comprehensive customization and deployment, you might have to hire developers or consulting services. Expect from $1000 to up to $10,000+ based on the rates of the professionals involved.
- Extra features and security: Do you opt for advanced functionalities beyond the standard settings (e.g., enhanced security measures, analytics, or premium customer support?). In that case, a follow-up increase in the total expense is to be expected.
Oracle Commerce pricing
Just like commercetools, Oracle Commerce hasn't publicly disclosed its pricing so far. You'll need to reach out to their sales team for a consultation and to negotiate the final cost.
Based on feedback from current users, pricing usually begins around $25,000 to $30,000 annually. Note that the following factors can influence the overall cost:
- Deployment method: As of this writing, Oracle Commerce covers several deployment options, including cloud-based, on-premise, or hybrid solutions. The differences in their structures are very likely to impact the overall pricing.
- Number of users: The licensing fee scales with the number of users accessing the platform. Simply put, businesses requiring access to larger teams naturally incur higher costs.
- Desired features: Additional functionalities (e.g., order management, product information management, marketing automation, and advanced analytics) obviously have direct impacts on the overall pricing.
The Verdict
As you can see, both commercetools vs Oracle Commerce prefer to adopt flexible models rather than fixed pricing structures, and we have yet to find any other significant differences between them in this regard. Hence, this round ends in a tie.
2. Ease of use (Oracle Commerce wins)
Next, let's look into the ease of use of both these platforms based on our hands-on experience over the past four months. Scroll to learn further details:
commercetools ease of use
All in all, the onboarding is quite clear-cut: once you've contacted the team and settled on a pricing plan (or started a free trial), you'll be directed STRAIGHT to the dashboard. The interface is clean and very polished, with a well-designed menu neatly positioned on the left for easy access.
However, as you explore the categories within the menu, it becomes increasingly clear that there are very few default settings to choose from. And there's actually a reason for that: commercetools has long aimed for boundless customization freedom, another evaluation factor we will discuss later down the line.
In simple terms, though navigating the options is straightforward, you must reach a solid level of technical expertise to leverage them effectively. Needless to say, that can be quite a challenge for most beginners.
Oracle Commerce ease of use
From our observation, Oracle Commerce's onboarding process is quite similar to commercetools in most parts. After completing your purchase, you will be guided to a clean, well-organized dashboard featuring a comprehensive core menu. Each option presented on this menu is easily accessible with a single click!
The key difference, however, lies in Oracle Commerce's approach to a slightly higher level of user-friendliness. Specifically, unlike commercetools, Oracle Commerce still offers an impressive, approachable suite of preset options for every category. All you have to do is activate or deactivate a specific setting from each section within seconds.
Of course, advanced users will eventually have to seek advanced customizations at some point in the process (a topic we will cover later). Nevertheless, these friendly preset settings are still appreciated, as they help newcomers familiarize themselves much faster with the platform and gain extra confidence during the early stages.
The Verdict
Overall, both commercetools vs Oracle Commerce feature intuitive and very well-structured dashboards. Still, Oracle's extensive preset settings make it much easier for beginners to get started and, therefore, easily take the win in this round.
3. Customization (commercetools wins)
Now that we have covered pricing and usability, let's move on to another critical factor: customization. Specifically, our team will explore how these platforms allow users to personalize and modify their sites to best meet current business goals.
commercetools customization
Since its inception, commercetools has always been dedicated to its headless commerce architecture.
This model decouples the front end (user interface) from the back end (functionality and data), which paves the way for unmatched flexibility for EVERY aspect of your experience. You can design a unique user interface from the ground up, define custom product attributes, implement dynamic pricing rules and promotions, and even tailor the checkout flow. The sky's the limit here!
That said, to harness the platform's full potential, technical expertise is absolutely non-negotiable. Your team must be proficient in key programming languages and front-end frameworks (React, Angular, or Vue.js), not to mention version control systems (e.g., Git), CI/CD pipelines, and deployment tools like Docker or Kubernetes.
Oracle Commerce customization
On the other hand, Oracle Commerce offers preset configurations (as mentioned earlier) and pre-built templates that can be customized using a visual drag-and-drop editor. Thanks to this convenient, no-code solution, beginners can easily set up a basic site in minutes!
And how about advanced users? For this demographic, Oracle Commerce allows direct editing of CSS, HTML, and JavaScript to create unique front-end designs; plus, you can leverage RESTful APIs to integrate third-party tools or develop advanced features. Better yet, automating processes like inventory updates and order management is also well within reach.
To clarify, Oracle Commerce's structure still ties the front end and back end together (unlike commercetools), meaning customization remains limited to a certain degree. Nevertheless, since not every business requires the same extensive flexibility that commercetools offers, Oracle Commerce's options are still more than sufficient for many growing organizations.
The Verdict
commercetools takes the crown here for its headless architecture and boundless customization possibilities. That said, Oracle Commerce remains a strong contender at the end of the day, particularly for businesses that are not really in need of thorough, headless flexibility.
4. Payment gateways (commercetools wins)
When running a business of any kind, you must consider beforehand how your team will accept payments from customers and clients. With that important reminder in mind, our research team has dug deeper into the payment gateway options provided by commercetools vs Oracle Commerce:
commercetools payment gateways
As mentioned earlier, commercetools truly stands out for its headless architecture and extensive APIs.
This unmatched flexibility clearly extends to payment gateways as well, meaning you can integrate your site with basically ANY payment provider, from PayPal and Stripe to Aydan, Klarna, etc. Your customers will encounter zero trouble finding a payment method that works best for them!
Regarding transaction fees, commercetools does not charge any for individual sales. Instead, it operates on an annual licensing model, with fees proportional to your business's revenue. For example, companies with annual revenues of around $100 million might pay approximately $120,000 per year in licensing fees.
Oracle Commerce payment gateways
How about Oracle Commerce? Though the platform doesn't specify the exact number of payment gateways it supports, our research indicates about 10+ options, including widely used providers such as PayPal, Cybersource, Skrill, and ChasePayment Tech.
For payment gateways that are not directly supported, Oracle Commerce provides users the option to configure a custom Credit Card Payment webhook. Nevertheless, as of this writing, this option is still limited to credit card payments and does not support the 3D-Secure protocol (which is critical for sensitive transactions).
How about transaction fees? As of this writing, specific transaction fees are not typically associated with Oracle Commerce itself.
However, if you integrate Oracle's payment processing services, such as Oracle Payment Cloud Service, transaction fees may apply. For example, Oracle's Retail Payment Cloud Service charges a card-present rate of 2.5% plus $0.30 per processed payment. For detailed pricing tailored to your business needs, it's advisable to contact Oracle directly.
The Verdict
Even though both platforms allow smooth integration with a range of payment gateways, commercetools still offer significantly greater flexibility thanks to their headless architecture. Hence, it's once again the clear winner between the two here.
5. Multichannel activities (A tie)
The fact that you are pondering between commercetools vs Oracle Commerce in the first place (rather than more common options like Shopify) indicates that your business is experiencing VERY rapid growth.
Hence, we trust you might be particularly interested in how these platforms handle multichannel activities. Don't worry; we've got you covered here:
commercetools multichannel activities
At this point, it has been established quite clearly that headless architecture is at the core of commercetools' overall structure. And this advantage once again takes the spotlight here, as the loosely tied backend and frontend allow commercetools to integrate with basically ANY third-party system. You can synchronize your data across various touchpoints as a result (via APIs), including:
- Online stores
- Mobile apps
- Social media platforms
- Marketplaces
- In-store systems (e.g., POS)
- IoT devices
Better yet, its exceptional scalability goes hand in hand with the ability to handle extremely high traffic, which is another fundamental part of smooth omnichannel experiences.
Oracle Commerce multichannel activities
Just like commercetools, Oracle Commerce is also well-equipped for omnichannel businesses. Feel free to use APIs (coupled with middleware if desired) to facilitate integration with any third-party system you choose! There are also extra built-in tools to further improve your multichannel management, such as:
- Oracle CX Commerce: Ensures consistent product information and pricing across channels, providing a unified customer view.
- Oracle Retail Order Management System (OMS): Directly integrates with Oracle Commerce to manage orders across multiple channels.
- Oracle Service Cloud: Consolidates email, chat, social media, and phone interactions into a single interface.
The Verdict
Although their approaches differ slightly, it's undeniable that both platforms excel at delivering top-notch omnichannel/multichannel advantages. We didn't encounter any significant drawbacks that would disrupt functionality, either, so this category gives us a tie.
6. Platform ecosystem (Oracle Commerce wins)
In the previous sections, we have made it clear that both platforms offer impressive levels of customization for scaling businesses. Nevertheless, direct access to pre-existing apps and integrations (if available) can still be a technical game changer! Let's take a closer look at commercetools vs Oracle Commerce addresses this common need:
commercetools ecosystem
As of this writing, commercetools' Integration Marketplace offers around 50 apps and solutions for integration.
Unfortunately, a closer look reveals that only a few of these apps are actually ready for instant installation. The rest still require technical expertise (e.g., API configuring) for a complete implementation, which barely offers anything new over the customization process we've already discussed above!
Oracle Commerce ecosystem
On the contrary, Oracle Cloud Marketplace proudly boasts over 900 apps (from $0 to approximately $300/month), all provided by trusted Oracle partners.
And the best part? There's an advanced filtering and categorization system to help you narrow your search. Specifically, the apps are sorted into 30+ topics, two installation methods (“Deploy Now” or “Contact Partner”), 30+ languages, and two trial options (“Jump Start” or Free Trial.”).
As you can see, it wouldn't take much time to browse through the entire collection and find exactly what you need. And even if the app doesn't meet all your expectations, uninstalling it barely requires any effort at the end of the day.
The Verdict
When comparing Oracle's library (900+) to commercetools's modest selection (50), the difference is more than clear enough. Oracle Commerce takes the win in this category as a result.
7. Technical support (Oracle Commerce wins)
Lastly, considering the technical expertise required for building and maintaining a website, it's only natural to wonder whether commercetools vs Oracle offers reliable technical support. Here's what we've found:
commercetools support
As of now, commercetools provides standard 24/7 support for all users at no additional cost, though keep in mind that this support is primarily offered through their support site or status page. If you're looking for dedicated, direct assistance (such as phone callbacks), you'll need to pay an extra fee for their Premium Support package.
We have tested this phone support service several times and found it to be quite satisfactory. Still, we must say that the advice offered to us was not as tailored as we had hoped; this is likely due to commercetools' small user base, which limits their ability to draw on diverse customer experiences.
In addition to direct support, commercetools also offers detailed documentation and tutorials covering critical development topics. All these resources are instantly accessible, even when you haven't created a commercetools account or made your purchase yet.
Oracle Commerce support
Regarding customer support, Oracle offers robust technical support through its Oracle Premier Support, which includes 24/7 phone and live chat services. While there are additional fees (typically a percentage of the product license cost), we found our general experience well worth the investment.
Furthermore, for those who prefer self-guided problem-solving, Oracle provides “Oracle Guided Learning” and “Oracle University,” consisting of hundreds of tutorials, documents, and courses to help you address every issue. You can access them right upon purchasing Oracle Commerce, with no other additional costs involved.
The Verdict
From our observation, commercetools' direct support is not as comprehensive as Oracle's (though this area can easily be improved as commercetools grows its user base). For now, Oracle remains the stronger choice and secures its win in this final aspect of our comparison.
commercetools vs Oracle Commerce: Find The Right Fit for Your Business
Although Oracle Commerce comes out as the winner, remember that both platforms have their unique strengths, and the key is to determine which one aligns best with your long-term vision! To help you make an informed decision, we'll break down when each platform is the optimal choice for your business.
When to choose Oracle Commerce
Overall, Oracle Commerce is undoubtedly the ideal option if you:
- Need extensive scalability without having to build everything from scratch (offering both no-code and coding solutions).
- Prefer quick deployment of pre-built apps and extensions.
- Prioritize high-touch customer service and reliable technical support.
When to choose commercetools
On the other hand, commercetools is the better fit between commercetools vs Oracle Commerce if you:
- Have a highly skilled development team.
- Seek EXTREME scalability and adaptability to meet highly complex requirements.
- Look for smooth data synchronization across all touchpoints and systems via API-first approaches.
Can You Migrate Between commercetools vs Oracle Commerce?
Absolutely, you can!
However, it’s important to note that transferring data between these platforms is far more complex than some otherwise traditional migrations (e.g., between Shopify and Wix). Custom integrations and features that your team spent hours — or even days — configuring won’t translate smoothly to a new platform without meticulous planning at every stage. Not to mention, even just one unexpected issue arising might delay your entire project and increase the total cost.
That's why partnering with LitExtension is the smartest move for your business, as we have got you covered with our All-in-One Migration service. No more handling technical details; we will manage EVERY aspect for you, including custom features tailored to your needs. All you have to do is sit back and enjoy regular updates as we transform your new store into a ready-to-run powerhouse.
And here's the best part: our post-migration insurance ensures smooth sailing even after the migration is complete. Outstanding services include:
- Re-migration (free) (within 30 days after the migration)
- Recent data updates (free for data less than 5%) (within 30 days)
- Unlimited smart updates (free) (for 90 days)
So, what are you waiting for? Contact us now to bid farewell to any lingering migration worries!
commercetools vs Oracle Commerce Alternatives
In addition to commercetools vs Oracle Commerce, the market also offers numerous powerful solutions that come with advanced core features and customization options. Here's a brief overview of their strengths and limitations drawn from our own evaluation:
Alternatives | Advantages over commercetools | Advantages over Oracle Commerce | Limitations |
Easier to use; extensive pre-built themes and apps | Faster deployment; more affordable for small to mid-sized businesses | Limited customization for highly complex needs; lacks headless architecture for full flexibility | |
Built-in multichannel selling tools; simpler setup | Lower starting price; robust out-of-the-box features | Limited flexibility for large-scale customizations; smaller app ecosystem compared to Oracle | |
Strong AI-driven personalization; seamless multichannel management | Comparable customer support; better CRM integration | Higher cost; steeper learning curve for small teams | |
Open-source option available; vast community and plugins | More customization flexibility with the open-source version | High technical expertise needed for advanced setups; significant maintenance overhead | |
SAP Commerce Cloud | Advanced product information management; strong B2B features | Better integration with enterprise-grade tools | High implementation cost; complex setup |
Lower cost; wide availability of third-party plugins | Simpler management for small-scale businesses | Limited scalability; dependent on WordPress; lacks advanced enterprise-grade features | |
Open-source flexibility; cost-effective for small businesses | Easier to manage for non-technical users | Limited scalability; fewer enterprise features | |
VTEX | Native multichannel features; collaborative commerce tools | Stronger marketplace management | Smaller app ecosystem; less brand recognition in certain regions |
OroCommerce | Specialized B2B features; high customization | Lower cost for mid-sized enterprises | Limited B2C functionality; smaller community |
Easier to use; highly aesthetic templates | Cheaper for small businesses | Limited scalability; unsuitable for large or complex eCommerce operations |
FAQs
Why use commercetools?
commercetools is one of the leading cloud-based, headless commerce platforms built on microservices. It enables the integration of best-of-breed components, which allow boundless flexibility as businesses can freely select and combine features that best meet their needs.
Is Oracle an eCommerce platform?
No. However, Oracle does offer an eCommerce platform known as Oracle Commerce, which helps both B2C and B2B businesses connect customer, sales, and back-office data with financial and operational information.
What big companies use Oracle?
Costco Wholesale, AT&T, Commercewealth of Pennsylvania, FedEx Express, and more have been utilizing Oracle's products and services over the years.
Final Words
By now, you should have a good sense of whether commercetools vs Oracle Commerce is the better fit for your business.
And if you're considering switching from commercetools to Oracle Commerce (or the other way around), remember that LitExtension is here to help! With over 12 years of experience working for 200,000+ satisfied customers, we can guarantee a smooth, accurate, and completely stress-free migration process for you, no matter what it takes.
For more information, check out our guides and join our Facebook Community.
