Mercado vs Sylius
Mercado
mercado.africaSylius
sylius.comSide by side
| Figure | Mercado | Sylius |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $15,000/mo | €66.67/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 5 | 4 |
| Spec score · Ecommerce platforms | 8.9 (#34) | 9.3 (#7) |
| API | A REST API is offered at api.mercado.africa with order creation, inventory reservation, payment-link return and journal posting. | Sylius provides a customizable REST API built with API Platform for headless frontends and microservice architectures. |
| App marketplace | Yes | Yes |
| Documentation | Mercado advertises live runnable API documentation with curl, TypeScript and Python examples, but no separate public help-center content was found. | Public documentation covers installation, configuration, APIs, customization and release policies, while the complete reference book requires login. |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Hosting model | hosted | self-hosted |
| Integrations | The site names Paystack, Flutterwave, Stripe, MTN MoMo, WhatsApp, Instagram catalogs, Okta, Azure AD and Google SSO/SAML. | The API is intended to connect ERP, CRM, PIM and other best-of-breed enterprise systems. |
| Inventory | Inventory supports multiple locations, automatic transfers, low-stock alerts, reservations and movement audits. | Sylius Plus adds multi-source inventory management as a commercial module. |
| Payments | Supported payment methods listed are Paystack, Flutterwave, Stripe, bank transfer, cash and mobile money. | Official and ecosystem integrations include Stripe, PayPal, Mollie, Adyen and other payment providers. |
| Product | Mercado describes itself as a commerce operating system for Africa that combines storefront, ledger, inventory, and payments. | Sylius is an open-source headless eCommerce platform for mid-market and enterprise brands seeking custom solutions. |
| Promotions | Promotion tools include discount codes, automatic carts, BOGO, tiered loyalty and scheduled drops. | Core commerce capabilities include promotions and coupons, with Sylius 2.3 adding improved multi-channel promotion behavior. |
| Sales channels | Merchants can sell through a storefront, WhatsApp, POS terminal, and marketplace using the same catalog, prices, and inventory. | omnichannel |
| System requirements | The maker describes browser, POS, mobile and third-party integration access but publishes no specific hardware or operating-system requirements. | Current documentation requires PHP 8.2 or newer with gd, exif, fileinfo, intl and sodium extensions plus Composer; Windows use is through WSL. |
| What it does | Mercado presents itself as an African commerce operating system combining storefront, ledger, inventory and payments. | Sylius is a headless, open-source eCommerce framework built on Symfony for customizable B2C and B2B commerce. |
Plans
Mercado
- Growth$15,000 a month
- Scale$75,000 a month
- EnterprisePrice not published
- StarterFree
- EnterprisePriced on request
Sylius
- Sylius Plus€800 a year
- Sylius StandardFree
- Sylius StandardFree
- Sylius Plus€800 a year
In their own words
Sylius
Sylius is an open-source headless eCommerce platform for mid-market and enterprise brands building custom commerce solutions. Its framework supports B2C and B2B use cases and provides a customizable REST API built with API Platform for headless frontends and microservice architectures. Sylius Standard is a Symfony application with Sylius core as a dependency; it can be installed with Composer or Docker and run on a standard VPS. Docker and Kubernetes are also deployment options for cloud environments. The Addons marketplace lists plugins and third-party integrations. Sylius Plus adds commercial modules such as advanced multi-store, returns management, multi-source inventory, loyalty, partial shipment and request for quotation. Standard is offered under the MIT license with community support and no response-time guarantee; Plus lists SLA-backed support with a one-day response time. Standard has no native quotation process, so customers cannot start price inquiries online. No Standard price is listed. Sylius Plus starts from €800 per year.