ChatGPT answers, unedited

For a custom native mobile app frontend, I’d generally rank the options:

1. Shopify — best overall for most businesses
2. commercetools — best for enterprise/highly complex commerce
3. Medusa — best for maximum backend customization
4. Saleor — excellent API-first/open-source alternative

My recommendation: Shopify

If your frontend is a React Native, iOS, or Android app, Shopify is particularly compelling because its headless stack is explicitly designed for mobile. The Storefront API handles products, search, cart, pricing, etc., while Checkout Kit embeds Shopify's checkout directly into iOS, Android, or React Native. shopify.dev

The architecture can look like:

             ┌─────────────────────┐
             │   Native Mobile App │
             │ iOS / Android / RN  │
             └──────────┬──────────┘
                        │
                 Storefront API
                        │
             ┌──────────▼──────────┐
             │       Shopify       │
             │ Products / Cart     │
             │ Customers / Orders  │
             │ Inventory / Pricing │
             └──────────┬──────────┘
                        │
                  Checkout Kit
                        │
                 Shopify Checkout

Shopify also provides official client libraries for iOS and Android, and its Storefront API is GraphQL-based and framework-agnostic. shopify.dev

Shopify Storefront API documentation

When I'd choose something else

commercetools is particularly attractive if you're building a sophisticated enterprise architecture. It's explicitly API-first/composable and designed around independently assembled commerce capabilities. commercetools.com

Medusa is the option I'd investigate if your app isn't really a "Shopify-style store" and you anticipate unusual business logic—for example, marketplaces, complex fulfillment, custom checkout, or highly differentiated commerce workflows. Recent 2026 comparisons similarly position Medusa as a strong choice when maximum customization is more important than managed infrastructure. ribbsaetersystems.com

The key question

The answer changes substantially depending on what your app actually needs.

If you're building something like:

• Consumer retail app → Shopify
• DTC brand app → Shopify
• Subscription commerce → Shopify
• Large multi-country enterprise → commercetools
• Marketplace / unusual purchasing workflows → Medusa
• Engineering-heavy startup wanting full control → Medusa or Saleor
• Existing Shopify store + new mobile app → Shopify by a wide margin

One particularly nice Shopify setup is to use your own backend as a BFF/API layer rather than having the mobile app talk directly to every commerce service. That gives you room to add things like recommendations, loyalty, push notifications, analytics, and proprietary business logic without coupling the app tightly to Shopify.

If you tell me (1) React Native vs native iOS/Android, (2) B2C vs B2B, (3) approximate catalog/order volume, and (4) whether you already have a commerce backend, I can give you a much more specific recommendation and architecture.

If your primary frontend is a custom iOS/Android app, rather than a custom website, I’d rank the major headless commerce options differently than I would for a typical web storefront.

My recommendation

For most businesses: Shopify is the best choice.

Shopify’s Storefront API is explicitly designed to power native apps, and Shopify now provides Checkout Kit for embedding Shopify checkout directly into iOS, Android, and React Native apps. That means your app can own the product browsing, search, cart, UX, navigation, and branding while Shopify handles the underlying commerce and payment infrastructure. Shopify Shopify

The architecture would look roughly like:

Native Mobile App
     │
     ├── Product browsing
     ├── Search
     ├── Cart
     ├── Customer experience
     └── Custom UI/UX
           │
           ▼
     Shopify Storefront API
           │
           ├── Products
           ├── Collections
           ├── Pricing
           ├── Inventory
           └── Cart
           │
           ▼
      Shopify Checkout Kit
           │
           ▼
      Shopify Commerce
           │
           ├── Orders
           ├── Payments
           ├── Fulfillment
           ├── Admin
           └── Apps/integrations

Shopify specifically documents this mobile architecture, including official iOS and Android client libraries. Shopify Shopify

How I'd compare the main options

When I'd choose something other than Shopify

Choose Shopify if...

You want to launch quickly and minimize backend engineering.

You get a mature catalog/order/inventory/admin ecosystem, plus an enormous integration ecosystem. Most importantly for your use case, Shopify explicitly supports native mobile storefronts through the Storefront API and Checkout Kit. Shopify Shopify

I'd choose this for a consumer app where the business requirements are relatively conventional:

• Products/variants
• Categories
• Search
• Promotions
• Customer accounts
• Cart
• Checkout
• Payments
• Orders
• Shipping
• Inventory
• Subscriptions

Choose commercetools if...

You're building a large enterprise system where commerce itself needs to be extremely customizable.

For example, if you have:

• Multiple countries/brands
• Complex B2B pricing
• Multiple catalogs
• Sophisticated promotions
• Multiple sales channels
• ERP/PIM/CRM integration
• Complex product/pricing rules
• Several independent frontend applications

Then commercetools becomes much more compelling than Shopify. The tradeoff is considerably more architecture, integration, and operational work.

Choose Medusa if...

You have a strong engineering team and want to own the commerce backend.

Medusa is particularly interesting if your app isn't really a conventional ecommerce store—for example, you need highly customized checkout, marketplace functionality, unusual fulfillment logic, or commerce workflows that don't fit neatly into Shopify.

The downside is that you're taking responsibility for substantially more of the system yourself. Current 2026 comparisons generally position Medusa as the open-source/customization-oriented alternative to Shopify. Ribbsaeter Systems Hunchbite

Choose Saleor if...

Your team likes GraphQL and open-source commerce, particularly if you're building a sophisticated multi-market or B2B system.

It's a particularly good fit for engineering-led organizations that don't want their commerce model constrained by a SaaS platform.

One important distinction

I wouldn't necessarily choose Hydrogen for your project.

Hydrogen is Shopify's React framework for building web storefronts. Your mobile app doesn't need Hydrogen. You can go directly from your native iOS/Android/React Native frontend to Shopify's Storefront API, with Checkout Kit handling checkout. Shopify explicitly supports this architecture. Shopify Shopify

So:

Native app → Storefront API → Checkout Kit → Shopify

rather than:

Native app → Hydrogen → Shopify

My shortlist

If I were making the decision for a new custom mobile commerce app today:

1. Shopify — best overall/default choice
2. commercetools — best for complex enterprise architecture
3. Medusa — best if you want maximum backend ownership/customization
4. Saleor — best open-source GraphQL alternative
5. BigCommerce — worth considering for certain mid-market/enterprise setups

The deciding factor is really how unusual your commerce requirements are. If your app is basically "a beautiful, highly customized mobile shopping experience," I'd strongly favor Shopify. If you're saying "we need to invent our own commerce rules and backend," I'd investigate Medusa or commercetools.

If you tell me your app stack (React Native / Flutter / native Swift+Kotlin), expected GMV, number of SKUs, B2C vs B2B, and whether you need subscriptions/marketplace/multi-vendor, I can narrow this down to a specific recommendation and architecture.

Choose Saleor if...

Your team likes GraphQL and open-source commerce, particularly if you're building a sophisticated multi-market or B2B system.

It's a particularly good fit for engineering-led organizations that don't want their commerce model constrained by a SaaS platform.

One important distinction

I wouldn't necessarily choose Hydrogen for your project.

Hydrogen is Shopify's React framework for building web storefronts. Your mobile app doesn't need Hydrogen. You can go directly from your native iOS/Android/React Native frontend to Shopify's Storefront API, with Checkout Kit handling checkout. Shopify explicitly supports this architecture.

So:

If your primary requirement is a custom native mobile app frontend (iOS/Android/React Native) with a headless commerce backend, my default recommendation is Shopify—specifically Shopify’s Storefront API + Checkout Kit + Customer Account API.

Shopify explicitly supports mobile storefronts, including native iOS, Android, and React Native apps. The Storefront API handles products, search, collections, and carts, while Checkout Kit puts Shopify’s checkout into your app. shopify.devshopify.dev

My ranking

🥇 Shopify — best overall

For a mobile app, the architecture is particularly clean:

Your app
→ Storefront API
→ Shopify commerce backend
→ Checkout Kit
→ Shopify payment/order infrastructure

You own the entire mobile UX. Shopify's API is platform/framework agnostic, and its documentation specifically describes native mobile apps as a headless use case. shopify.dev

The biggest advantage is that you don't have to build commerce infrastructure yourself. Products, inventory, pricing, orders, payments, customer accounts, promotions, etc. remain in Shopify.

Shopify also has official mobile support: its Storefront API has Android and iOS client libraries, and Checkout Kit supports iOS, Android, and React Native. shopify.devshopify.dev

Shopify Storefront API documentation

I'd choose Shopify if: you want to get the app launched quickly and don't have a compelling reason to own the commerce backend.

🥈 Medusa — best if the commerce logic itself needs to be custom

Medusa is much more interesting if you're building something that doesn't fit the conventional Shopify model.

Its Store API is explicitly designed for storefronts including commerce mobile apps, and it exposes REST APIs that your mobile application can consume directly. docs.medusajs.com

For example:

React Native app
→ Your API/backend
→ Medusa
→ Stripe / tax / fulfillment / ERP / etc.

The benefit is that you have substantially more control over the underlying commerce model and business logic.

The tradeoff is that you become responsible for more of the system. You're not just customizing a storefront; you're effectively operating a commerce platform.

I'd choose Medusa if: you're building a marketplace, unusual purchasing model, highly customized checkout, subscription/business logic, or something where Shopify's data model becomes a constraint.

Medusa API documentation

🥉 Saleor — excellent if you're API/GraphQL oriented

Saleor is another strong choice for a completely custom application. It's particularly attractive if your engineering organization is comfortable with Python/GraphQL and you want the commerce engine to be highly programmable.

I'd put it ahead of Medusa for some enterprise-grade, GraphQL-heavy architectures, but I'd generally choose Medusa for a smaller team wanting a simpler JavaScript/TypeScript ecosystem.

When I'd pick commercetools

If you're talking about a large enterprise with multiple brands, countries, currencies, channels, ERP/PIM integrations, complex pricing, and a broader composable-commerce strategy, I'd seriously evaluate commercetools.

It's less attractive if your goal is simply:

"We have a mobile app and need ecommerce behind it."

For that, Shopify is generally much easier to justify.

The decision I'd make

If this is a normal ecommerce app:
→ Shopify

If this is a highly customized commerce product:
→ Medusa

If this is a large enterprise composable-commerce project:
→ commercetools

If your team strongly prefers GraphQL/Python and wants open-source:
→ Saleor

One particularly important consideration: don't choose a platform based solely on whether it has a "headless API." For a mobile app, I'd evaluate the entire flow:

Authentication → product/catalog API → pricing → cart → customer account → checkout → payment → order → refunds → fulfillment → webhooks → push notifications

Shopify is unusually strong here because it gives you a managed solution for most of that rather than merely exposing product APIs. Its current mobile architecture explicitly separates the app UI, Storefront API, and Checkout Kit. shopify.devshopify.dev

If you tell me (1) native Swift/Kotlin vs React Native/Flutter, (2) B2C vs B2B, (3) approximate order volume, and (4) whether you need subscriptions/marketplace/multiple vendors, I can narrow this down to a specific architecture and platform.

If your frontend is a fully custom iOS/Android app, I’d rank the major headless commerce options like this:

My default recommendation: Shopify

For a custom mobile app, Shopify is probably the best overall choice unless you have a strong reason not to use it.

Shopify's Storefront API is explicitly designed for custom experiences on native apps, and Shopify provides iOS and Android libraries. Its current mobile architecture lets your app use the Storefront API for products, search and carts, while Checkout Kit handles the actual Shopify checkout. shopify.dev

That gives you a fairly clean architecture:

Native app → Storefront API → Shopify commerce backend → Checkout

while your operations team still gets Shopify's mature admin, inventory, orders, payments ecosystem, etc.

Shopify developer documentation

When I'd choose Medusa instead

Medusa is particularly attractive if your mobile app is really the product, rather than simply a mobile storefront.

Its Store API is REST-based and explicitly intended for storefronts including commerce mobile apps. docs.medusajs.com

I'd choose it when you want:

• Complete control over the commerce backend
• Custom pricing/business logic
• Your own checkout experience
• A TypeScript/Node.js stack
• Less dependence on Shopify's opinionated commerce model
• Ability to modify the underlying commerce engine

The tradeoff is that you're taking on significantly more engineering and operational responsibility.

When commercetools wins

If you're building something enterprise-scale and unusually complex, I'd look seriously at commercetools.

It's API-first and composable, meaning you can assemble commerce capabilities rather than adopting one monolithic commerce platform. commercetools.com It also has specific guidance for mobile/browser applications and APIs for customer carts, orders, profiles, etc. docs.commercetools.com

It's excellent for things like:

• Multiple brands/markets
• Complex B2B pricing
• Multiple currencies and catalogs
• Sophisticated promotions
• ERP/PIM integration
• Very custom checkout/order flows
• Large engineering organizations

But it's usually overkill for a typical consumer app.

The key distinction

I'd make the decision based on this question:

Do you want to build a custom mobile experience, or do you want to build a custom commerce system?

If it's:

"We want a beautiful/custom mobile shopping app, but don't want to reinvent commerce."
→ Shopify

"Commerce itself is a core differentiator and we need to control everything."
→ Medusa

"We're an enterprise with complex B2B/multi-market/composable requirements."
→ commercetools

"We're an engineering-heavy organization that wants open source and GraphQL."
→ Saleor

One important Shopify caveat: for a mobile app, you should generally not put private Shopify credentials in the app. Shopify distinguishes public client-side access from private server-side access, with private tokens intended to remain server-side. shopify.dev

If you tell me (1) iOS/Android/native vs React Native/Flutter, (2) B2C vs B2B, (3) approximate catalog size, and (4) whether you need a completely custom checkout, I can narrow this down to a specific architecture and recommend the best 2–3 platforms for your case.

If the frontend is a fully custom native mobile app—React Native, Flutter, Swift, Kotlin, etc.—my shortlist in 2026 would be:

My pick: Medusa

For a custom mobile app, I'd lean toward Medusa if you have a capable engineering team.

Its Store API is explicitly designed for storefronts and commerce mobile apps, uses REST, supports JWT authentication appropriate for mobile clients, and lets you extend the backend with your own API routes, workflows, modules, and integrations. docs.medusajs.com

That makes an architecture like this straightforward:

iOS / Android app → API/BFF → Medusa → payments / search / CMS / ERP

The big advantage is that you're not trying to make your mobile UX conform to a prebuilt storefront model. You can design the app around your actual product experience.

When I'd choose something else

commercetools — probably the strongest choice for a large enterprise. It is genuinely API-first/headless, and its documentation specifically covers mobile/browser applications, OAuth, products, customers and carts. docs.commercetools.com

I'd choose it when you have things like:

• Multiple countries/regions
• Complex pricing
• B2B + B2C
• Multiple brands/channels
• Complicated promotions
• Large catalogs
• ERP/PIM/OMS integrations
• A dedicated platform engineering team

Saleor — excellent if your team likes GraphQL and Python. Saleor is GraphQL-native and exposes its commerce functionality through APIs rather than forcing a particular frontend architecture. It also has strong multi-channel and multi-region capabilities. saleor.io

Shopify — I'd pick this when speed and operational simplicity matter more than maximum backend control. You can use Shopify as the commerce engine while building the entire mobile experience yourself. The tradeoff is that you're still fundamentally working within Shopify's commerce model rather than owning the commerce engine.

One important architectural point

For a serious mobile app, I wouldn't necessarily have the app talk directly to the commerce platform for everything.

I'd generally prefer:

             iOS / Android
                   │
                   ▼
            Mobile API / BFF
                   │
        ┌──────────┼──────────┐
        ▼          ▼          ▼
     Commerce    Search     CMS
     platform
        │
        ├── Payments
        ├── Inventory
        ├── Orders
        └── Customer data

The BFF (backend-for-frontend) gives you control over authentication, response shapes, caching, aggregation, business rules, and protecting backend credentials. commercetools itself recommends a middleware layer for custom frontends for precisely this kind of control. docs.commercetools.com

Bottom line

If you told me only "we're building a custom mobile commerce app", I'd rank them:

1. Medusa — best overall for a technical team wanting maximum control
2. commercetools — best for enterprise-scale/complex commerce
3. Saleor — best if you're strongly GraphQL/Python oriented
4. Shopify — best if minimizing engineering/operations is the priority
5. BigCommerce — good middle ground

If you tell me your app type (DTC, marketplace, grocery, fashion, B2B, subscriptions, etc.), expected order volume, tech stack, and whether you need an admin/catalog system, I can narrow this down to one platform and a recommended mobile/backend architecture.

For a custom mobile app frontend, my default recommendation is Shopify—specifically Shopify’s Storefront API + Checkout Kit. It gives you a mature commerce backend while letting your iOS/Android/React Native app be completely custom.

Shopify explicitly supports native mobile storefronts: the Storefront API handles products, search, carts, and checkout initiation, while Checkout Kit can present Shopify checkout inside the app. It also provides official iOS, Android, and JavaScript tooling. shopify.dev

My ranking

1. 🥇 Shopify — best overall

For an app like:

React Native / Swift / Kotlin → your app UI → Shopify Storefront API → Shopify commerce backend

you get products, variants, inventory, pricing, carts, customers, and orders without having to build the commerce engine yourself. Shopify's API is explicitly designed to work with native apps, and Shopify provides a mobile-specific architecture using Storefront API + Checkout Kit. shopify.devshopify.dev

The particularly nice part is that your mobile frontend can be 100% custom. You're not building a Shopify-themed mobile website; you're building your own app and consuming Shopify's commerce APIs. shopify.dev

I'd choose Shopify if:

• You're a DTC/ecommerce brand.
• You want to launch relatively quickly.
• You need robust payments/checkout.
• Nontechnical staff need a good admin.
• You want Shopify's ecosystem of apps/integrations.
• The app is primarily a custom shopping experience.

2. 🥈 Medusa — best if you're engineering-led

Medusa is more interesting if you want the commerce backend itself to be highly customizable.

Its Store API is REST-based and explicitly intended for storefronts including commerce mobile apps, and it supports JWT authentication that's appropriate for mobile applications. docs.medusajs.com

The architecture is closer to:

React Native / Swift / Kotlin → Medusa API → your infrastructure/database/services

rather than having a SaaS platform dictate as much of the underlying commerce behavior.

I'd seriously consider Medusa if your app has unusual requirements such as:

• complicated pricing
• unusual product/configuration logic
• custom promotions
• marketplace-like behavior
• deep integration with your own backend
• significant custom business logic
• desire to own/control the commerce infrastructure

The tradeoff is that you are taking on substantially more engineering responsibility.

3. 🏢 commercetools — best for enterprise

If you're building something like a large retailer's mobile ecosystem, with multiple countries, catalogs, currencies, B2B pricing, ERP/PIM integrations, and multiple sales channels, commercetools becomes much more compelling.

It's less attractive if you're a startup or ordinary DTC brand because you're paying for enterprise-grade composability that you may not need.

4. Saleor — interesting middle ground

Saleor is worth considering if your engineering team likes Python/GraphQL and wants an open-source/headless architecture.

I'd put it ahead of Medusa if your team is particularly strong in Python and GraphQL; otherwise I'd generally favor Medusa for a JavaScript/TypeScript-heavy organization.

What I'd pick based on your situation

If you're building a normal consumer shopping app:
→ Shopify

If you're building a highly differentiated commerce product where the backend needs to be customized:
→ Medusa

If you're building enterprise-scale composable commerce:
→ commercetools

If your team is Python/GraphQL-centric and wants open source:
→ Saleor

One important architectural recommendation: don't have the mobile app directly contain privileged commerce credentials or business logic. Use public/client-safe APIs from the app and put privileged Shopify/commerce operations behind your own backend where appropriate. Shopify specifically warns that private Storefront API tokens should remain server-side. shopify.devshopify.dev

If you tell me (1) React Native vs native iOS/Android, (2) approximate catalog size, (3) DTC vs marketplace, and (4) whether you need subscriptions/B2B/multi-vendor, I can narrow this down to the best 1–2 options and show you the recommended mobile-app architecture.

For a custom mobile app frontend (iOS/Android, React Native, Flutter, or native), the “best” headless commerce platform is usually the one with the strongest API model, checkout flexibility, mobile SDK support, and ability to handle custom business logic—not necessarily the one with the best website storefront tools. Headless platforms vary a lot: some are truly API-first commerce engines, while others are traditional ecommerce platforms that expose APIs. vendure.io

My shortlist:

vendure.ionaturaily.com

My recommendations by scenario

1. You are building a unique mobile shopping experience (marketplace, subscriptions, unusual checkout, loyalty, custom workflows)
→ Medusa or Saleor

These give your engineering team control over the backend instead of forcing your app to work around ecommerce assumptions. Medusa is particularly attractive if your team is already using TypeScript. vendure.io

2. You are a consumer brand selling standard products and need to launch quickly
→ Shopify Plus

You get payments, taxes, inventory, promotions, fraud tooling, and merchant workflows without rebuilding them. The mobile app can consume Shopify’s APIs while your frontend remains fully custom. vendure.ionaturaily.com

3. You are building a large-scale commerce ecosystem (multiple countries, brands, B2B + B2C, complex pricing)
→ commercetools or Elastic Path

These are designed for organizations where commerce is a core platform rather than just an online store. vendure.io

4. You want the fastest path with a reasonable engineering burden
→ BigCommerce

It provides a hosted commerce engine with APIs, avoiding much of the operational overhead of running your own backend. vendure.io

For a mobile app specifically, I would evaluate these features:

• GraphQL support (important for reducing mobile payload sizes)
• Native SDKs or strong API tooling
• Offline-friendly patterns
• Checkout API flexibility
• Authentication/customer account APIs
• Inventory and pricing APIs
• Webhook/event support
• Ability to customize promotions, bundles, subscriptions, and loyalty

My default picks:

• Startup / small engineering team: Shopify Plus or Medusa
• Engineering-heavy startup: Medusa or Saleor
• Enterprise app ecosystem: commercetools
• Mobile-first commerce product: Saleor (GraphQL) or Medusa (TypeScript)

If you share your app type (retail, marketplace, subscriptions, B2B, food delivery, etc.), expected scale, and tech stack (native/Flutter/React Native), I can narrow this to 2–3 choices.

If your frontend is a custom native mobile app (iOS/Android or React Native), I’d shortlist these:

My default recommendation: Shopify

For most teams, Shopify is the best choice even when the customer-facing experience is entirely custom.

Shopify's Storefront API is explicitly designed for custom experiences including native mobile apps, and its current mobile tooling supports iOS, Android, and React Native. You can use the Storefront API for products, search, pricing and carts, then use Checkout Kit to present Shopify checkout inside the app. shopify.devhunchbite.com

That gives you an architecture like:

Native app → your API/backend → Shopify APIs → Shopify commerce backend

or, for simpler cases:

Native app → Shopify Storefront API → Shopify Checkout Kit

Shopify also has a Customer Account API with a specific mobile client configuration, which is useful for authentication and customer account functionality. shopify.dev

The big advantage is that your team doesn't have to build/operate inventory, pricing, promotions, orders, payments, tax integrations, admin tooling, etc. from scratch.

When I'd choose something else

Choose commercetools if you're building a sophisticated enterprise commerce system—multiple brands, markets, currencies, complex pricing, B2B, multiple sales channels, or lots of external systems. It's more "composable commerce" than "online store with APIs," but consequently requires a stronger engineering organization.

Choose Medusa if commerce itself is something you want to deeply customize. It's particularly attractive if your team is strong in TypeScript/Node and wants to own the backend architecture rather than adapt your business to Shopify's model. Current comparisons characterize it as an open-source, highly customizable commerce engine. hunchbite.com

Choose Saleor if you like the open-source/API-first approach and your team is comfortable with Python/GraphQL. It's a particularly interesting option when you want more control than Shopify without building a commerce engine completely yourself. vendure.io

The decision I'd make

If I were choosing for a new custom mobile commerce app:

• Startup / mid-market: Shopify
• Enterprise with complex commerce requirements: commercetools
• Engineering-heavy company wanting maximum control: Medusa
• Open-source + GraphQL preference: Saleor

One important distinction: don't choose based primarily on whether the platform supports "headless." Almost all serious platforms do now. For a mobile app, I'd evaluate customer authentication, cart semantics, checkout/payment flow, webhooks, inventory consistency, promotions, subscriptions, API rate limits, and SDK quality much more heavily.

If you tell me (1) iOS/Android vs React Native, (2) approximate catalog size, (3) B2C vs B2B, (4) subscriptions or one-time purchases, and (5) whether you need Shopify-like merchant tooling, I can give you a much more definitive recommendation and architecture.

For a custom mobile app frontend, I’d put Shopify first for most businesses, but Medusa or commercetools can be better if your commerce model is unusually custom.

My ranking

🥇 Shopify — best default

Shopify is particularly compelling because it now explicitly supports native iOS, Android, and React Native storefronts. The Storefront API handles products, search and carts, while Checkout Kit lets you present Shopify's checkout inside the app. shopify.dev

A typical architecture would be:

Native app → Storefront API → Shopify → Checkout Kit → Shopify payments/orders

You aren't required to use Hydrogen—the Storefront API is framework-agnostic and can be consumed from essentially any frontend. shopify.dev

I'd choose Shopify if you want:

• Fastest path to production
• Excellent product/catalog/order management
• Reliable hosted infrastructure
• Large ecosystem of integrations
• Native-feeling checkout without building payment infrastructure yourself
• Your app to coexist with a conventional web storefront
• Nontechnical operators to manage commerce through an admin UI

Big caveat: Shopify is still Shopify. If your app requires radically different pricing, checkout, order orchestration, fulfillment, or product models, you'll eventually encounter platform constraints.

🥈 Medusa — best if the app is the product

I'd seriously consider Medusa if you're building something where the commerce experience is highly differentiated.

It's a headless-first, Node.js/TypeScript commerce engine with APIs and a modular architecture, making it attractive when your engineering team wants to own the business logic rather than adapt the business to Shopify. hunchbite.com

For example, if you're building:

Mobile app → custom recommendation engine → custom pricing → custom subscription logic → custom checkout → multiple fulfillment providers

I'd lean toward Medusa over Shopify.

The tradeoff is that you own more of the system—hosting, upgrades, integrations, operational reliability, and more of the commerce infrastructure.

🥉 commercetools — best for enterprise

If you're talking about a large organization with multiple brands, countries, currencies, catalogs, B2B pricing rules, channels, or complex order workflows, I'd put commercetools near the top.

It's designed around composable/API-first commerce rather than treating the storefront as the center of the system. Current comparisons generally position it toward enterprise composable commerce and complex B2B/multi-market implementations. naturaily.com

The downside is cost and architectural complexity. It's probably overkill for a startup or ordinary DTC app.

What I'd choose

If you gave me no other requirements:

Shopify + Storefront API + Checkout Kit

That's the combination I'd recommend for a custom mobile commerce app in 2026. Shopify specifically documents the mobile architecture, including native iOS/Android/React Native support, Storefront API cart management, and embedded checkout. shopify.dev

But if you tell me (1) what you're selling, (2) iOS/Android/React Native, (3) whether you need subscriptions, (4) approximate SKU/order volume, and (5) how custom the checkout/pricing logic needs to be, I can narrow it down to a Shopify vs Medusa vs commercetools recommendation and show you the architecture I'd use.

If your primary requirement is a custom iOS/Android app frontend, I’d shortlist Shopify, Medusa, and Saleor. My default recommendation is Shopify unless you specifically need deep control over the commerce backend.

My ranking

🥇 Shopify — best overall

For a custom mobile app, Shopify is surprisingly strong. Its Storefront API is explicitly designed for native apps, and Shopify now provides Checkout Kit for iOS, Android, and React Native. You can build product browsing, search, cart, and essentially your entire app UI yourself while Shopify handles commerce and checkout. shopify.dev

A typical architecture would be:

React Native / Swift / Kotlin app → Storefront API → Shopify

and:

App cart → Checkout Kit → Shopify checkout → order

The big advantage is that you don't have to build things like payments, order management, promotions, inventory administration, merchant tooling, etc. from scratch.

I'd choose Shopify if you want to ship quickly and minimize backend maintenance.

Shopify Storefront API documentation

🥈 Medusa — best if the backend itself needs to be custom

Medusa is more attractive if your app has unusual commerce logic—for example:

• complex product configuration
• unusual pricing rules
• marketplace-like behavior
• custom fulfillment
• sophisticated subscriptions
• multiple external services
• highly customized checkout
• wanting to own the commerce infrastructure

Its Store API is REST-based and specifically supports storefronts including commerce mobile apps. You can also create your own API routes and custom functionality. docs.medusajs.com

The tradeoff is that you're taking on substantially more engineering and infrastructure responsibility than with Shopify.

Medusa documentation

🥉 Saleor — excellent for a GraphQL-heavy architecture

I'd seriously consider Saleor if your engineering team likes GraphQL + TypeScript/React + Python and wants an open-source/API-first system.

Saleor is GraphQL-native, frontend-agnostic, and exposes commerce functionality through APIs rather than forcing you into a particular storefront technology. saleor.io

It's particularly compelling if you want your mobile app, web app, and other channels to consume the same commerce API.

Saleor documentation

When I'd choose commercetools

For a large enterprise, especially one already using an ERP, PIM, CMS, multiple regions, multiple brands, or multiple commerce channels, commercetools becomes much more interesting.

It's designed around composable/headless commerce, but I'd consider it overkill for a typical consumer mobile app.

What I'd pick

If you're building a normal consumer shopping app:

Shopify + React Native + Storefront API + Checkout Kit

That's probably the best balance of developer experience, mobile support, reliability, and time-to-market. Shopify explicitly supports native mobile storefronts and has dedicated mobile checkout tooling. shopify.dev

If commerce is a core differentiator of your product and you need to invent your own commerce logic:

Medusa

If you want open-source + GraphQL + maximum frontend freedom:

Saleor

If you're building a very large enterprise/composable architecture:

commercetools

One important architectural point: I would not have the mobile app directly own sensitive backend logic. For a serious production app, I'd generally put a BFF/API layer between the app and commerce platform, particularly for authentication, customer data, custom business rules, integrations, and secrets.

If you tell me (1) iOS/Android/React Native/Flutter, (2) approximate catalog size, (3) subscriptions or one-time purchases, and (4) whether you need Shopify-level merchant tooling, I can narrow this down to the best 1–2 choices and show you the recommended architecture.

For a custom mobile app frontend (iOS/Android built with Swift, Kotlin, React Native, Flutter, etc.), the “best” headless commerce platform is usually the one with the strongest APIs, checkout flexibility, customer management, and operational tooling—not necessarily the one with the nicest web storefront tools. Headless platforms are designed to expose commerce capabilities through APIs so your app can own the UX. naturaily.com

My shortlist:

naturaily.compowergatesoftware.com

My recommendation by scenario

1. You are building a premium consumer mobile app (fashion, beauty, retail, subscriptions):
→ Shopify Plus headless is often the pragmatic choice. You get reliable commerce operations while your app team focuses on the customer experience. Shopify supports headless builds through APIs while keeping products, orders, payments, and merchant workflows managed. vendure.io

2. Your app is the business (marketplace, complex workflows, multiple sellers, unusual checkout):
→ commercetools is usually the strongest long-term architecture. It is built around composable commerce and API-first services rather than adapting a storefront platform. naturaily.com

3. You have a strong engineering team and want maximum ownership:
→ Medusa or Saleor. You can shape the backend around your app instead of fitting your app into a SaaS platform. naturaily.compowergatesoftware.com

4. You need to launch quickly with a smaller team:
→ Shopify or BigCommerce.

For a mobile app specifically, evaluate these APIs/features:

• Product/catalog API — supports filtering, variants, bundles, recommendations
• Cart API — persistent carts across devices
• Checkout API — ideally supports native app checkout flows
• Customer identity — OAuth, social login, account management
• Payments — tokenized payments, Apple Pay/Google Pay support
• Inventory APIs — especially if you have stores or fulfillment centers
• Webhooks/events — order updates, inventory changes, customer events
• SDK quality — official mobile SDKs or clean REST/GraphQL APIs

A common architecture looks like:

iOS / Android App
        |
        | API layer (optional BFF)
        |
Headless Commerce Platform
        |
Payments | Inventory | OMS | CRM | CMS

If you tell me:

1. your app type (DTC store, marketplace, subscription, B2B, etc.),
2. expected scale (orders/day or users), and
3. your stack (React Native, Flutter, native iOS/Android),

I can narrow this to a top 1–2 choices.

For a custom mobile app frontend (native iOS/Android, React Native, Flutter, etc.), the “best” headless commerce platform is usually the one with the strongest API design, checkout flexibility, SDK support, scalability, and ability to support app-specific experiences. A website-first headless platform is not always the best mobile backend. elogic.covendure.io

My shortlist:

vendure.io

My recommendations by scenario

1. Building a serious mobile-first commerce app from scratch

• Pick commercetools if you have enterprise requirements:
  • multiple regions/currencies
  • complex pricing
  • B2B workflows
  • multiple apps/channels
  • long-term composable architecture

• Pick Medusa if you have a strong engineering team and want control:
  • custom checkout logic
  • unusual product models
  • marketplace-style features
  • lower platform lock-in

2. Building a consumer shopping app quickly

• Pick Shopify Plus if:
  • your business already runs on Shopify
  • you need reliable catalog/order/payment management
  • your app is mostly a custom shopping experience layer

3. Building a React Native / Flutter app
I would prioritize:

1. API quality
2. authentication/customer management
3. cart persistence
4. checkout APIs
5. webhooks/events
6. SDK availability

A mobile app usually benefits more from a clean commerce API than from a fancy storefront framework.

A typical architecture I would choose

iOS / Android App
        |
        |
API Gateway / Backend-for-Frontend
        |
        |
Headless Commerce Platform
        |
 ┌───────────────┐
 | Products      |
 | Cart          |
 | Checkout      |
 | Orders        |
 | Customers     |
 └───────────────┘

For many mobile apps, I would avoid having the app talk directly to commerce APIs. A thin backend layer often handles:

• app authentication
• personalization
• analytics
• feature flags
• combining commerce + loyalty + CRM data

My default picks

• Startup / custom mobile commerce: Medusa
• Mid-market brand: BigCommerce or Shopify Plus
• Enterprise app ecosystem: commercetools
• Developer-first GraphQL stack: Saleor

If you tell me your situation (B2C vs B2B, expected order volume, native vs React Native/Flutter, marketplace vs single brand, and whether you already use Shopify/Magento/etc.), I can narrow it to one or two choices.

For a custom mobile app frontend, my default recommendation is Shopify—specifically Shopify’s Storefront API + Customer Account API + Checkout Kit.

Shopify is unusually well suited to mobile because its APIs are explicitly designed for native iOS, Android, and React Native apps. You can keep the entire customer-facing UI native while Shopify handles products, inventory, carts, customers, checkout, payments, orders, and much of the commerce infrastructure. shopify.devshopify.devdocs.medusajs.com

My ranking

🥇 Shopify — best overall

For a mobile app, the architecture is particularly clean:

Your app
→ Storefront API
→ Shopify commerce backend
→ Checkout Kit
→ Shopify payment processing

Shopify's Storefront API provides products, collections, search, cart operations, pricing, etc., while Checkout Kit can present Shopify checkout directly inside an iOS, Android, or React Native app. shopify.dev

It also has a mobile-specific Customer Account API client type, which is useful for authentication and customer accounts in native apps. shopify.dev

The biggest advantage isn't just the API—it's that you get Shopify's mature admin, inventory, promotions, payments, fulfillment, analytics, and ecosystem without having to build all of that yourself.

Choose Shopify if: you want to launch relatively quickly and your commerce requirements are fairly conventional.

🥈 Medusa — best if the app is really custom

Medusa becomes more attractive if your app isn't really a traditional ecommerce storefront.

Its Store API is explicitly intended for things like commerce mobile apps, and because the platform is open-source and extensible, you can implement substantially more custom commerce logic yourself. docs.medusajs.com

For example, I'd lean toward Medusa if you need:

• Highly unusual product/configuration logic
• Custom pricing engines
• Marketplace-like behavior
• Nonstandard checkout flows
• Deep control over your backend
• Your own infrastructure/database
• A TypeScript/Node engineering team

The tradeoff is that you become much more responsible for the commerce platform. Shopify buys you a lot of infrastructure; Medusa gives you a lot more control.

🥉 commercetools — enterprise choice

I'd consider commercetools if you're building a large enterprise mobile commerce ecosystem, particularly if the app is one of many channels.

It's more of a composable commerce infrastructure play than a straightforward "put ecommerce in my app" solution. The flexibility is excellent, but the architecture and implementation effort are correspondingly greater.

The decision I'd make

If you told me only:

"We have a custom iOS/Android app and need a commerce backend."

I'd pick Shopify.

If you told me:

"Commerce is a core part of our product and we need to fundamentally customize how commerce works."

I'd pick Medusa or commercetools, depending on company size and engineering resources.

One important distinction: headless doesn't mean you need to build your own checkout. With Shopify, your app can have a completely custom native shopping experience while handing the actual checkout/payment flow to Shopify through Checkout Kit. shopify.devshopify.devdocs.medusajs.com

If you tell me your app type (e.g. fashion, grocery, marketplace, subscriptions, B2B), expected scale, and whether you're using React Native, Flutter, Swift/Kotlin, etc., I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 options and show you the recommended architecture.

For a custom native mobile app frontend, I’d pick Shopify for most businesses—specifically Shopify’s Storefront API + Checkout Kit.

Shopify explicitly supports native iOS, Android, and React Native storefronts: the Storefront API handles products, search, and carts, while Checkout Kit presents Shopify checkout inside the app. shopify.dev

My ranking

🥇 Shopify — best overall

The architecture is particularly good for a mobile app:

Your iOS/Android/React Native app
→ Shopify Storefront API
→ Shopify commerce backend
→ Shopify Checkout Kit
→ payment/order

You don't have to use Shopify's frontend at all. The Storefront API is explicitly designed to power custom experiences on native apps and other platforms. shopify.dev

Shopify also provides official iOS and Android client libraries, and its Customer Account API has a mobile-client configuration. shopify.dev

Big advantage: you get the mature Shopify admin, inventory, orders, payments, discounts, subscriptions, apps, etc., while your app can be completely custom.

Potential downside: you're still operating within Shopify's commerce model. If your app has highly unconventional pricing, checkout, fulfillment, marketplace, or order logic, you'll eventually run into platform constraints.

Shopify Storefront API documentation

🥈 Medusa — best if your commerce logic is highly custom

I'd seriously consider Medusa if you're building something that is more than a conventional ecommerce app.

Medusa's Store API is specifically intended to power storefronts including commerce mobile apps, and it gives you substantially more control over the commerce backend. docs.medusajs.com

The tradeoff is that you're taking on considerably more engineering responsibility than with Shopify: infrastructure, integrations, payments, operational tooling, upgrades, etc.

Choose Medusa if: your engineering team wants the commerce backend to behave like a product you've built, rather than a SaaS service you're configuring.

🥉 commercetools — enterprise choice

If you're talking about a large organization with multiple brands, countries, B2B/B2C channels, ERP/PIM integrations, complex pricing, or multiple customer experiences, commercetools becomes very compelling.

It's API-first and composable, with 500+ commerce APIs according to the company. commercetools.com

But I wouldn't choose it simply because you're building a mobile app. It's generally more architecture than you need for a straightforward ecommerce app.

What I'd choose based on the app

Typical ecommerce app:
→ Shopify

Highly customized marketplace / unusual business model:
→ Medusa

Large enterprise with complex systems:
→ commercetools

Engineering team strongly prefers open source/Python:
→ Saleor

Already heavily invested in BigCommerce:
→ BigCommerce

One important architectural recommendation: don't put your private commerce credentials directly in the mobile app. Public/mobile-safe credentials can be used where appropriate, but secrets should live behind your backend/BFF. Shopify specifically warns that private access tokens should not be exposed client-side. shopify.dev

If you tell me what the app sells, expected scale, iOS/Android/React Native, and whether you need subscriptions/marketplace/multi-vendor, I can narrow this down to the best 1–2 platforms and sketch the recommended mobile architecture.