Commercetools vs Core dna
Commercetools gives you a powerful commerce engine and asks you to assemble everything else yourself.
Core dna gives you a complete platform including native commerce and content management so you can focus on your business, not on stitching together 10 different vendors.
Ready for composable without the complexity? See how Core dna delivers complete from day one
Composable is not complicated
Why enterprise teams choose a complete platform over a commerce-only engine. You can move fast with composable, until “composable” becomes “assemble everything yourself”, with more vendors, more integrations, and more developer dependency than you planned for. Here’s a quick reality check on what you get out of the box, and what you have to assemble.
| Capability / Reality | Core dna | commercetools |
|---|---|---|
| Complete vs. assemble required | ✓ Native commerce + CMS + personalization integrated in one platform | ✕ Commerce engine only, you need to build or integrate CMS, DAM, personalization, search, OMS, and more |
| Technical resource requirements | ✓ Business users and marketers can operate independently | ✕ Requires a dedicated development team to create and maintain a headless storefront |
| Content management | ✓ Full enterprise CMS built-in | ✕ Commerce-only, enterprises must integrate a separate CMS |
| Integration complexity | ✓ Core capabilities work together out of the box | ✕ Highly intricate, requiring significant custom development |
| Developer dependency | ✓ Marketers publish content and manage campaigns without dev tickets | ✕ Skilled developers required to fully leverage the platform’s capabilities |
| Essential commerce features | ✓ Complete commerce functionality including returns, exchanges, and complex workflows | ✕ Essential commerce functionality, but some scenarios require workarounds and extra build |
| System integration overhead | ✓ One complete platform reduces integration points | ✕ Must integrate CMS, personalization, PIM, CRM, marketing automation, analytics, and more |
| Learning curve | ✓ Intuitive for business users and developers | ✕ Complex for business teams to work with day to day |
| Content + commerce unity | ✓ Unified content and product management | ✕ Separate systems for content and commerce, integration required |
| Vendor coordination | ✓ One partner, one platform, one roadmap | ✕ Coordinate multiple vendors (commerce, CMS, DAM, personalization, search, etc.) |
| You’re not Amazon | ✓ Enterprise capabilities without enterprise assembly complexity | ✕ Mid-market teams often need agency partners just to launch and maintain the stack |
| Composable when you need it | ✓ API-first and composable, integrated by default | ✕ Composable is required for basic additions, you must assemble the rest |
| Time to value | ✓ Weeks to launch with a complete platform | ✕ Months to assemble, integrate, and test all required components |
Stop assembling. Start selling.
commercetools' API-first commerce engine is powerful, fast, and flexible. But if you need to hire additional devs to build a storefront, a CMS for content, add a DAM for assets and connect personalization then it becomes clunky.
That's not composable, that's complicated. Core dna eliminates the assembly tax:
- One platform means less complexity
- User autonomy, no need for a dedicated development team to do even the basics
- Composable when you need it, but integrated by default when you don't
- Weeks to launch vs. months assembling and integrating your commerce stack
Trusted by enterprises to deliver powerful digital experiences
Companies choosing Core dna over headless-only platforms report faster time-to-market, lower total cost of ownership, and marketing teams that can actually ship without waiting on developers.
- YMCA Toronto: $100k in annual savings + 500% growth in registrations after consolidating 7 systems into Core dna.
- Standard Process: 60% increase in eCommerce without hiring a single developer.
- Clark Rubber: 47 franchises unified under one digital platform, managed by a lean team of 4.
- RANDYS Worldwide: 4x revenue growth in year one with 7 integrated sites and 30,000 SKUs.
We built Core dna just right.
The enterprise platform that's neither too little nor too much
commercetools? Powerful engine, assembly required
commercetools delivers a genuinely excellent commerce API. Fast, flexible, well-documented. But it's an engine, not a complete platform, you still need to build or integrate CMS, DAM, personalization, search, OMS, and more.
Legacy platforms? Too rigid
Monolithic platforms like SAP Hybris and Oracle Commerce lock you into their ecosystem with upgrade cycles that break things and costs that spiral.
Shopify Plus? Too limiting
Shopify works for straightforward B2C, but breaks under B2B complexity, multi-brand operations, or enterprise customization needs.
Core dna? Just right
Core dna delivers the composability promise without the assembly complexity. You get native commerce + CMS + personalization with modern API-first architecture. Business users can manage content and products without filing dev tickets. Developers get clean APIs and extensibility when needed.
Secure, Speedy, Seamless
✓ 99.9% uptime SLA
✓ 100% Lighthouse performance scores
✓ Auto-scaling infrastructure
✓ Global CDN and regulatory compliance
✓ No versioning, no disruptive upgrades
✓ Continuous innovation included