Shopify and BigCommerce rent the store and the app store. WooCommerce is GPL-2.0 and runs on WordPress. Medusa is MIT. Saleor is BSD-3-Clause. All three can be operated by the client. Magento is often named in this category too, and we do not add it here because we did not confirm a licence for the tree we would deploy.
What is the real Shopify product?
Payments, themes, and an app for every edge case. The open-source store replaces the catalog and the checkout you host. It does not replace Shopify Payments. Card acceptance is covered on invoicing you can own, and payments you cannot.
Which one fits?
WooCommerce when the store is also a content site and the team already understands WordPress. Medusa or Saleor when the store is a headless catalog in front of a system the client already owns. Picking by GitHub stars is how this migration fails.
When should the store stay rented?
When the business is the app ecosystem and the team will not rebuild tax, shipping and reviews. Own the catalog data either way, so a cancelled shop does not take the product list with it.
What do we hand over?
We select the system, deploy it on infrastructure you control, connect it to the tools you keep, and write the runbook so your own team can operate it. Support after handover is optional. The rest of the map is in software you can stop renting; the engagement behind it is open-source business systems.
Name one process that still needs a person. We will tell you what a one-time build takes.
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