head to head · open source
Spree Commerce vs mercur
Spree Commerce has 15,806 GitHub stars, 5,319 forks, 143 open issues and last shipped yesterday. mercur has 1,878 stars, 477 forks, 4 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Spree Commerce leads on adoption by 742% (15,806 vs 1,878 stars). Spree Commerce is written in Ruby under BSD-3-Clause; mercur is written in TypeScript under MIT. Spree Commerce has attracted 34% as many forks as stars, mercur 25%. Spree Commerce was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (ecommerce, headless-commerce, marketplace, multi-vendor), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Spree Commerce | mercur | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 1.9K |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | Ruby | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.3K | ⑂ 477 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Spree Commerce if
- You weight community size — 16K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick mercur if
- You want the mercur feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and mercur fits your workflow better
About Spree Commerce
Website · Free Sandbox · Next.js Storefront · Documentation · API · Roadmap · Discord Open source headless eCommerce platform with a complete REST API, TypeScript SDK, and a production ready Next.js storefront. BSD 3 Clause licensed — keep full ownership of your code, data, and infrastructure. Everything you need to launch cross border storefronts, B2B wholesale, or a custom commerce backend. Getting Started The fastest way to try Spree is to create a free sandbox — a hosted Spree store with the Admin Dashboard and storefront, nothing to install. To run Spree locally instead, copy and paste the following command…
read the full Spree Commerce overview →
About mercur
Mercur The open source marketplace platform. A Mirakl alternative. Website · Documentation · Live Demo · Discord What is Mercur Mercur is an open source, headless platform for building multi vendor marketplaces. Add vendor onboarding, multi vendor catalogs, offers, commissions, and automated payouts on top of a commerce core you can change at its foundation. Run B2C, B2B, and hybrid marketplaces without choosing between a profit draining SaaS platform and a build from scratch. Own your marketplace, no fees : Self host on your own infrastructure with full source access. No percentage of GMV, no per transaction…
read the full mercur overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Spree Commerce or mercur more popular?
Spree Commerce has 15,806 GitHub stars and mercur has 1,878. Spree Commerce has the larger community by that measure.
Are Spree Commerce and mercur free?
Both are open source. Spree Commerce is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and mercur under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Spree Commerce and mercur?
Spree Commerce is written in Ruby and mercur in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Spree Commerce or mercur?
Choose Spree Commerce if you want the larger community (15,806 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose mercur if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.