For many enterprise brands, Salesforce Commerce Cloud (SFCC) is less a growth engine and more a cost center.
We’re not telling the story—the numbers are: four months to implement, 16 months to see ROI, and a cost perception that’s four-dollar-sign expensive. This is a burden for enterprises, and often out of reach for small businesses.
Even giants like Mattel felt the strain, until they switched to Shopify. Mattel’s VP of Technology, Subramanian Kovilmadam, noted that Shopify’s traffic-based fees helped the company handle product surges without getting locked into high fixed costs.
If you’re wondering whether to make the same move, this guide is for you. We’ll break down the best Salesforce Commerce Cloud alternatives in 2025—and show why Shopify consistently outperforms on cost, speed, and conversion.
Why are companies looking for alternatives to Salesforce Commerce Cloud?
Enterprises on SFCC are running into the same obstacles: slower launches, higher costs, developer bottlenecks, and an innovation pace that can’t match modern commerce.
Even third-party reviewers are starting to call it out.
In its 2025 list of the best B2B ecommerce platforms, TechRepublic named Shopify Plus “the top recommended ecommerce platform,” billed as the best option for teams who need fast launches and a user-friendly interface.
Salesforce Commerce Cloud made the list too, but more for how it connects into Salesforce’s broader ecosystem than for its ability to drive commerce outcomes directly.
So how do the leading alternatives compare on cost, conversion, and speed?.
The cost problem
SFCC’s revenue-based pricing creates a growth penalty: the more successful you become, the more you pay.
Code Digital reports that the SFCC license cost, on average, is about 1%–3% of your revenue. And that’s just the starting point. On top of licensing, businesses absorb developer time, consultant hours, and third-party integrations—even if they’re already locked into Salesforce CRM or Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
“You have to estimate three years worth of your business and buy essentially that much GMV upfront with an annual upfront fee all at once,” says David Cost, vice president of digital and ecommerce at Rainbow Shops.
The retailer had only three full-time engineers, but still managed to compete with Amazon, Walmart, and Shein—but not while running on SFCC.
“If you go under, they charge overages. If you buy too much, shame on you, you eat it.”
So Rainbow Shops replatformed. The move to Shopify resulted in an 80% reduction in platform fees, reframing their total cost of ownership (TCO).
“With Shopify, not only is the fee 80% less expensive, we pay monthly for exactly what we use,” David says. “No more, no less. Shopify has to earn our business every month.”
The speed problem
On SFCC, every change requires a developer. That slows down launches, ties up resources, and makes it harder for teams to move quickly. Agencies that once built their business around Salesforce are shifting away as a result.
CQL, a leading enterprise commerce agency, now runs more than 80% of its total business on Shopify after working with both platforms for years. They’ve seen a 50%–75% reduction in implementation timelines compared to Salesforce Commerce Cloud.
“Gone are the days of 24-month [Salesforce] Commerce Cloud implementations. We can do things on Shopify in half or a quarter of the time that we used to on other platforms,” says Ryan Donahue, Shopify practice lead at CQL.
The growth problem
The platform’s small partner ecosystem and integration difficulties limit businesses’ ability to quickly enter new markets or branch into multiple sales channels. That lack of flexibility restricts growth at a time when enterprises need omnichannel reach.
Maze, a digital commerce agency, has seen this firsthand. “There hasn’t been a system—homegrown or commercial—that Maze couldn’t integrate with Shopify,” says CEO Vince Santo.
Meanwhile, integrating other Salesforce products often requires additional layers of system integration, even within the same Salesforce ecosystem.
That complexity creates a ceiling. Vince notes that many clients assumed alternative platforms couldn’t “meet their needs at the enterprise level,” a fear rooted in SFCC’s positioning—not Shopify’s capabilities.
Decor Steals ran into that same ceiling. After migrating from SFCC to Shopify in 2023, they’ve already unlocked more than 8% of revenue from new sales channels; experiments they couldn’t even test before switching.
The innovation problem
Testing new features on legacy platforms can feel slow, costly, and resource-intensive. That’s the rut NYDJ found itself in after a string of ownership changes left the denim brand boxed in by their old ecommerce setup.
“One of the first projects I worked on at NYDJ was launching the Afterpay integration with our online store. With…
Source link
