What Is commercetools? Sphere, Headless Commerce and B2B Explained

commercetools is a headless, API-first commerce platform for large enterprises. Its platform, Sphere, is described by commercetools as "the unified commerce platform that brings together channels, customer context and commerce operations on a single headless foundation," with "every commerce capability" exposed "as an independent, versioned API." The storefront and the systems around it connect through those APIs.

This guide explains what commercetools is in 2026 from commercetools' own site and developer documentation: what headless and composable mean here, how the platform is run and priced, how B2B works through Business Units, Associates and Quotes, and how a move to Shopify works if you are weighing one.

Key takeaways

• Headless by design: commercetools separates the front end from the commerce engine and exposes capabilities through APIs.
• Sphere: the name of commercetools' commerce platform today.
• Enterprise focus: commercetools says 500+ enterprises in 50+ countries run on it.
• B2B through APIs: Business Units, Associate Roles, approval flows and Quotes, with the buyer portal built by the seller.
• Pricing on request: commercetools describes order-based pricing and asks buyers to contact it for plans.
• Moving to Shopify: at Uncap, a migration from another platform typically takes 10 to 16 weeks, with a median cutover around 14 weeks.

What is commercetools?

commercetools is a commerce engine delivered as a set of APIs rather than a ready-made online store. Its platform page says Sphere is "a headless, modular and intelligent foundation," and that "Every commerce capability is exposed as an independent, versioned API, giving teams full freedom and control over how they build their stack."

The company says it was founded on that idea. In its own account, in 2010 Dirk Hoerig and Denis Werner "saw that legacy commerce platforms were slowing businesses down," built commercetools, and the result "was headless commerce." Today commercetools calls itself "the leading AI-native digital commerce company" and lists offices including Boston, Berlin, London and Munich.

The platform is aimed at enterprises. commercetools' homepage says "500+ enterprise customers in 50+ countries trust commercetools," and its about page describes Sphere as "Built for enterprise complexity." It supports "B2C, B2B, D2C, marketplaces, subscriptions and any hybrid in between."

What you get from the platform, per commercetools, covers the core commerce jobs:

• Product data: "Model, manage and publish product data across every channel."
• Carts and orders: "Run carts, checkout and the full order lifecycle."
• Inventory: "Track and allocate stock across warehouses, stores and channels."
• Promotions: "Model discounts, offers and campaign rules across markets."
• Pricing: "Price by customer, channel, market and contract."
• Accounts: "Manage shoppers, business accounts, roles and buyer permissions."

What headless and composable mean on commercetools

Two terms come up in every commercetools conversation, and commercetools defines both.

Headless commerce, in commercetools' words, "is an architecture that separates the frontend experience layer from backend commerce functionality, exposing capabilities through APIs." The commerce engine does not dictate what the store looks like. Websites, apps, kiosks and other touchpoints all call the same APIs.

Composable commerce "is a modern approach to building commerce platforms using independent, best-of-breed components. Instead of relying on a single, one-size-fits-all system, businesses assemble the capabilities they need and integrate them flexibly over time."

For an operator, the practical meaning is that a commercetools store is assembled: the front end and the services you choose to combine with the commerce APIs are selected and integrated by your team or partner. commercetools sells a storefront solution of its own, which it describes as "the solution for digital storefronts," and says Sphere lets you "Use the programming languages, frameworks, and tools you prefer."

Day-to-day administration has its own tool. commercetools' documentation describes the Merchant Center as "an administration application that allows you to manage every aspect of a project," with sections for products, prices, discounts, Business Units and Quotes.

That flexibility also sets the shape of the project: the front end, the integrations and the people who maintain them are part of the build.

How commercetools is run and priced

commercetools runs Sphere as a cloud service. Its site describes "cloud-native and API-first technology" and "Cloud-native infrastructure with auto-scaling." Its API documentation addresses each project at a regional endpoint, in the form "https://api.{region}.commercetools.com/{projectKey}."

You can also buy it through cloud marketplaces. commercetools says: "Purchasing commercetools through Google Cloud Marketplace or AWS Marketplace is fast, easy and offers a range of benefits, from simplified procurement to consolidated billing and flexible payment options."

On price, commercetools publishes its model rather than a number. Its pricing page says: "Unlike GMV-based models, our order-based approach ensures no hidden fees or penalties for scaling. Enjoy unlimited catalogs, channels and storefronts with predictable pricing as your business grows." For figures, it asks buyers to "Contact us for more information on pricing plans."

Add-ons are priced on top. commercetools lists Premium Support and Audit Log Premium, "Advanced B2B APIs," additional regions and connectors, and performance testing and HIPAA compliance, the last two "available with the Premium package."

Budget for the build as well as the license. Because the storefront and integrations are yours to assemble, implementation is a separate line, and commercetools points buyers to its Solution Hub of "ready-to-go integrations, accelerators and connectors" and to partners.

How B2B works on commercetools

B2B on commercetools is modeled in the API. Its documentation sets out the building blocks.

• Business Units: "representations of Companies or Divisions. They allow you to model the structure of a business and the access rights of its users." They "can be organized hierarchically up to a maximum of 5 levels, with the top level being a Business Unit of type Company."
• Associates and roles: "An Associate is a Customer acting on behalf of a company," and each Associate has roles that determine their Permissions, such as creating carts or placing orders. Associates and roles can be inherited down the hierarchy.
• Approval rules: "An Approval Rule outlines the conditions under which an Order that matches a predicate needs approval from an approver before it can be ordered."
• Quotes: a buyer creates a Quote Request from a cart, the seller answers with a Staged Quote, and "A Quote is the legally binding result of the negotiation process between a Buyer and a Seller."
• Company-specific assortments and prices: Business Units "can be used to model company-specific products, pricing, and discounts with the help of Stores, Product Selections, and Channels."

One detail matters for planning. commercetools' documentation says "A Buyer portal is a frontend interface hosted and implemented by the Seller." The B2B logic lives in the APIs, and the buyer-facing portal is something you build.

On the commercial side, commercetools' pricing page lists "Advanced B2B APIs" as an add-on that lets you "Model any account hierarchy with Business Units" with "Buyer approval flows, quote management and more." Its B2B page adds "thousands of customer-specific price lists, contract terms and negotiated discounts" and integrations with "ERP, CRM, OMS, procurement and other systems of record."

Is commercetools like Shopify?

Not in how it is delivered. commercetools and Shopify are separate platforms from separate companies, and their own descriptions show the difference.

• Shape of the product: commercetools describes Sphere as a "single headless foundation" where every capability is an API, and its documentation says the B2B buyer portal is "hosted and implemented by the Seller." Shopify describes itself as "a cloud-based and hosted platform."
• Pricing: commercetools describes an order-based model and asks buyers to contact it for plans. Shopify publishes plan prices on its pricing page.
• B2B: on commercetools, B2B is modeled with Business Units, Associates and Quotes, with "Advanced B2B APIs" listed as an add-on. On Shopify, B2B features are part of the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Shopify Plus plans, including companies, catalogs and net payment terms. Shopify says B2B "isn't available on the Starter or Retail plans," and below Plus you can assign "up to 3 active catalogs across all your B2B markets."

For a side-by-side on fit, team size and cost, see our commercetools vs Shopify Plus comparison. For how Shopify B2B works plan by plan, see our Shopify B2B guide.

How a move from commercetools to Shopify works

A move off commercetools follows the same order as any replatform. Shopify's migration guide says to import products first, then customers, then historical orders, "so that products and customers can be properly connected to the orders." Customer passwords do not move in a CSV import: Shopify explains that "because passwords are encrypted outside of Shopify, you can't migrate customer passwords from another online store using a CSV," so you invite customers to create new passwords.

At Uncap, a Shopify Platinum Partner, a migration from another platform typically takes 10 to 16 weeks, and our median cutover is around 14 weeks. The work runs in six phases: plan the move, build and migrate in parallel, map redirects and protect search, test against real workflows, cut over, and watch it hold. Our guide to how long a Shopify B2B migration takes covers what moves that timeline.

The commercetools-specific work is the composable layer around the APIs. Business Units and Associate Roles map to Shopify B2B companies, company locations and location-level permissions, and customer-specific prices are rebuilt with Shopify B2B catalogs, which Shopify says "determine the products and pricing your B2B customers can access." Each service that was assembled around commercetools, such as the storefront and the ERP connection, is either replaced by what Shopify includes or reconnected. Our commercetools to Shopify migration page covers the move step by step.

Most migrations start with Uncap Blueprint, a $7,500 fixed-price plan delivered in four weeks and credited toward implementation. If your ERP has to stay in sync after the move, Uncap Connect starts at $8,000 to set up and runs $390 a month.

Talk to Our Experts, and bring your commercetools project, the services around it and your ERP. We will tell you what moves cleanly and what needs a plan.