# Saleor review (2026): is the free plan enough?

> Open-source headless commerce with managed Cloud hosting

Checked Nov 12, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA.

Saleor is an open-source, GraphQL-based commerce platform for retail, B2B and marketplace stores. It can be self-hosted, or run on Saleor Cloud, where plans bundle hosting, migration and an engineering team and are priced against a store's monthly sales. A free sandbox is limited to non-commercial use.

- **Category:** Online Store Builders
- **Made by:** Saleor Commerce
- **Website:** https://saleor.io/
- **Runs on:** Web
- **Who should skip it:** Pricey if you're small: Cloud starts at $1,599 a month, and Volume is $3,999.
- **Facts last checked:** Nov 12, 2026

## Pricing

As of Nov 12, 2026, Saleor has a free plan, and paid plans start at $1599 per month (Cloud Select, up to $200,000 monthly GMV).

- **Pricing model:** Free plan
- **Free plan:** Sandboxes: free forever for non-commercial use such as prototyping and trying new features.
- **Free trial:** None listed.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Sandboxes | $0 | Free forever, for non-commercial use only: prototyping, side projects and trying new features. |
| Select | $1599 per month, up to $200,000 monthly GMV | For new projects and smaller companies; 0.8% charged on orders above the GMV limit, with a fair API usage policy. |
| Volume | $3999 per month, up to $1,000,000 monthly GMV | For high-volume businesses; 0.4% charged on orders above the GMV limit, with a fair API usage policy. |
| Enterprise | Custom | Negotiated pricing with a fair API usage policy. Sold through sales. |

Read from https://saleor.io/pricing on Nov 12, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Saleor before buying.

## Key features

- **Headless GraphQL core:** Customization is done by building Saleor Apps that connect through GraphQL, webhooks and pub/sub, which keeps the core files untouched.
- **Saleor Engine:** A beta feature that runs your storefront, apps and ERP sync alongside Saleor, with deployment, variables and logs managed from the Dashboard.
- **Essential Apps:** Cloud-only apps cover multilingual customer emails, Adyen payments, Google Merchant Center feeds, MCP, ACP/UCP and Ink AI Search.
- **Pulse dashboard:** Dashboard home shows revenue, orders, returns and low stock, and flags anything that looks unusual.
- **Migration and engineering support:** Each Cloud plan includes migration from platforms such as Shopify Plus or Magento, a delivery lead, a Slack channel and 24/7 support with SLAs.
- **Cloud and self-hosted:** Moving between Saleor Cloud and self-hosted open source is supported, though a data migration or version update may be needed.

## Good for

- Growing or high-volume merchants that want a custom headless build
- Teams that want to keep code and data with an option to self-host
- B2B and marketplace sellers who need a flexible API-first core

## Worth knowing

- Cloud pricing is tied to monthly GMV, and orders above the plan's limit add a percentage fee (0.8% on Select, 0.4% on Volume).
- The free Sandboxes plan is for non-commercial use only.
- Optional add-ons: the Accelerator Plan costs $6,000 and Forward Deployed Engineering $12,000, credited back over 12 months after go-live.
- Saleor Engine is labeled beta, and the Essential Apps run only on Saleor Cloud.

## ToolGPA grades

**GPA: 1.6 out of 4**, graded Nov 12, 2026. Saleor is a headless, GraphQL-based commerce platform you can self-host or run on its Cloud. Cloud plans start at $1,599 a month, the free Sandboxes plan is for non-commercial use only, and the dearer add-ons run to $6,000 and $12,000.

- **Value for money: D.** Select is $1,599 a month for up to $200,000 in monthly sales, with 0.8% on orders above that. The category's dearest tenth starts at $89. Migration help and 24/7 support are included.
- **Free plan and trial: D.** Sandboxes are free forever but for non-commercial use only, so you can't run a real shop on them. No trial is listed.
- **Features: C.** GraphQL core, Saleor Apps, a dashboard and Cloud-only Essential Apps. Saleor Engine is labeled beta, and a storefront has to be built.
- **Ease of use: D.** No store rating on record. Customising means building apps over GraphQL, so it needs developers.
- **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web, with GraphQL, webhooks and pub/sub, and a Cloud or self-hosted option. No phone or desktop app.

These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Saleor's own pages on 12 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews.

## Where it stands among online store builders

- Saleor's GPA of 1.6 is higher than 0 of the 26 other online store builders we grade, and level with 1.
- It stands best on platforms and integrations (B, above 5 of 26) and worst on value for money (D, above 0).
- Its paid plans start at $1,599 a month, against a middle price of $29 for the category: 18 of the 18 others that charge start lower.
- On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.0 out of 4. 13 tools score higher and cost less.

The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/online-stores

## Keep it, or make your own?

**Keep it.** To replace Saleor you would be making checkout, card payments and sales tax handled for you. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. That makes this kind of software worth paying for, not this one in particular: 25 of the 26 other online store builders grade higher. It costs $19,188 a year. Saleor is open source, so there is a third way: take its code and run it yourself.

- You could not: Checkout, card payments and sales tax handled for you.
- You could not: It plugs into other products, Adyen and Google Merchant Center among them, and has an API.
- You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself.

A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it.

## Works with

Adyen, Google Merchant Center

**Tags:** Online store, Open source, Self-hostable, Public API, AI features

## Alternatives

- [Medusa](https://toolgpa.com/tools/medusa): Open-source commerce framework for developers. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/medusa-vs-saleor)
- [Vendure](https://toolgpa.com/tools/vendure): Open-source B2B commerce framework with paid plans. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/saleor-vs-vendure)
- [commercetools](https://toolgpa.com/tools/commercetools): API-first headless commerce platform for large retailers. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/commercetools-vs-saleor)
- [Shopware](https://toolgpa.com/tools/shopware): Open-source commerce platform for B2B and B2C stores. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/saleor-vs-shopware)
- [BigCommerce](https://toolgpa.com/tools/bigcommerce): Hosted ecommerce platform with plans set by yearly sales. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/bigcommerce-vs-saleor)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 12, 2026:

- https://saleor.io/pricing
- https://saleor.io/

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/saleor
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).