Overview

Bagisto brings conventional online retail together with multi-vendor marketplaces, B2B commerce and multi-tenant SaaS stores. That breadth makes it worth considering when a business needs more than one commerce model; it is less compelling for teams looking for a managed service that removes server operations from their remit.

The platform supports multichannel sales, digital products and an app marketplace. It does not include abandoned cart recovery, a notable gap for retailers who depend on automated follow-up to recover incomplete orders. The software is free and open source, but self-hosting still means providing and maintaining the environment yourself.

Key features

Headless storefront and APIs

Bagisto separates its storefront from the commerce backend, with support for frontends built using React, Vue, Angular or Next.js. That flexibility suits teams with frontend development capacity; it adds little for operators who want a single, ready-managed storefront. REST and GraphQL APIs cover commerce operations including cart, checkout, shipping and payment, giving developers documented interfaces for connecting customer experiences to the backend.

Integrations and retail

Integrations span marketplaces, payments, shipping, analytics, CRM, ERP and PIM. Named options include Amazon and eBay for marketplaces, PayPal and Stripe for payments, FedEx for shipping, Google Analytics for analytics, and Akeneo for PIM. The homepage also describes retail POS with real-time order and inventory synchronization between physical outlets and the online store. These connections broaden Bagisto’s potential role in an existing commerce stack, though teams should assess the integrations they specifically depend on before committing.

Security and support

Bagisto describes its data encryption practices and alignment with GDPR and SOC 2. Release notes for v2.4.0 describe admin two-factor authentication and an upgrade to reCAPTCHA Enterprise for bot protection. The headless platform page offers three months of free support. These features may matter to teams reviewing access controls and bot defenses, but they do not remove the need to assess the platform against an organization’s own security requirements.

Pricing

Bagisto — 0.00 USD per free. The free open-source download is self-hosted and requires PHP 8.3 or higher, MySQL 8.0.32 or higher or MariaDB 10.3 or higher, and at least 4 GB of RAM. It suits teams able to supply and operate compatible infrastructure and avoids a software license charge. The price does not include hosting or eliminate deployment and maintenance work.

Bagisto offers Composer installation, a source package, and cloud or AWS deployment options. Its listed environment requirements also include Apache 2 or NGINX, a 1 GHz or faster processor, Node 18.12.0 LTS or higher, and Composer 2.5 or higher. These are meaningful prerequisites for teams planning a deployment, not incidental setup details.

Platforms

Bagisto is self-hosted and supports Linux, Windows, web and API platforms. Its deployment options include cloud or AWS, alongside Composer installation and a source package. The server and toolchain requirements make it a better fit for teams with deployment capacity than for buyers seeking a hosted commerce service.

Who it's for

Bagisto is best suited to technical teams building a commerce operation that may span retail, marketplaces, B2B or multi-tenant SaaS, and that want frontend freedom through a headless architecture. It is a poor fit for teams that cannot take responsibility for servers, or for retailers that consider abandoned cart recovery essential.

Pros and cons

Pros: Free, open-source software provides a broad foundation for stores, marketplaces, B2B and multi-tenant SaaS commerce without a license charge.
Pros: REST and GraphQL APIs, several supported frontend frameworks, and integrations across payments, shipping, analytics and business systems offer room to fit into a varied stack.
Pros: Retail POS synchronization connects physical outlet orders and inventory with the online store.
Cons: Self-hosting requires compatible infrastructure and ongoing operational responsibility, so the zero software price is not the full cost of adoption.
Cons: Abandoned cart recovery is absent, which limits its fit for retailers that rely on that capability to recapture sales.

Alternatives

Aimeos is another free, self-hosted option with an API and web support; consider it when its open-source commercial-use terms and framework approach better suit your stack.

Crystallize has a free Particle plan with one tenant per project, unlimited users and languages, 25 orders, 100 items and 5 GB bandwidth. It may suit a project that fits within those stated caps and values its listed web, macOS and Windows platforms.

Commerce Layer offers a free Developer plan capped at one organization, two users, two markets, 1,000 SKUs, 10 links and 100 free live orders per month. Choose it instead when those defined limits fit the operation and its Android, iOS, web and API platform coverage is a better match.

Solidus offers a 0.00 USD per free DIY Edition that includes the entire platform while requiring users to bring their own infrastructure. It is an alternative for teams seeking a self-hosted commerce platform with that edition structure.

Spree Commerce offers a self-hosted Community Edition for DTC, B2B and marketplace commerce. Consider it as another open-source option when those stated commerce models fit.

Sylius offers an open-source MIT-licensed Standard edition with community support and on-premise distribution. It is a relevant alternative for teams who prioritize those terms.

Unchained Engine is a free, open-source, self-hosted option with no licensing or per-transaction fees, while users pay for hosting infrastructure. It may appeal to teams looking for those explicit cost terms.

Vendure offers an open-source commerce framework under GPLv3. It is another option for teams evaluating self-hosted platforms.

For more options, compare Headless Ecommerce Platforms or Ecommerce platforms.

Verdict

Choose Bagisto if your team wants a free, adaptable commerce foundation for multiple store models, with APIs and frontend choice, and can take on self-hosting. Look elsewhere if you need managed hosting or abandoned cart recovery as part of the platform.

	Bagisto	Cartum
Free plan	Yes	No
Free trial	No	No
Paid from	Free	€9/mo
Open source	No	No
Platforms	api, Linux, self-hosted, Web, Windows	Web
Free plan	Yes	No
Hosting model	self-hosted	hosted
Sales channels	multichannel	multichannel
Abandoned cart recovery	No	Yes
App marketplace	Yes	—
Digital products	Yes	Yes

Bagisto vs Cartum

Bagisto

Cartum