Spree Commerce
Open-source headless e-commerce platform
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Spree Commerce is an open-source API-first e-commerce platform.[3]
| Spree Commerce | |
|---|---|
| |
| Original authors | Sean Schofield, Damian Legawiec |
| Developers | Spree Commerce, Inc., Spark Solutions, Vendo |
| Initial release | 2007 |
| Stable release | |
| Written in | Ruby |
| Platform | Ruby on Rails |
| Type | Online shopping |
| License | BSD-3-Clause[2] |
| Website | spreecommerce |
| Repository | |
It was created by Sean Schofield in 2007 and has since had over 800 contributors[4] and gained over 15,000 GitHub stars,[5] making it the number 4 open-source eCommerce solution on GitHub. Spree was downloaded over 2.7 million times from RubyGems.[6]
Companies using Spree include Goop (company), Craftsman, Kenmore, DieHard, New England Patriots, Blue Bottle Coffee, Fortnum and Mason,[7] GoDaddy,[8] Everlane,[9] Surfdome.
Features
On April 2, 2025, a new major Spree 5 version was released.[10] Notable features in the free Community Edition (BSD-3-Clause[11] licensed) include:[12]
- Multi-country, multi-language, multi-currency
- Product catalog management
- Customer Segments
- Price Lists
- Inventory management
- Product search & discovery
- Promotions & Loyalty
- Shipping management
- Taxes management
- Customizable checkout
- Order management
- Physical and Digital Products
- Storefront API for headless projects, e.g. a decoupled storefront, a mobile app[13]
- Platform API for 3rd party system integration and programmatic store management[14]
Spree 5 also introduced, besides a free Community Edition, an Enterprise Edition[15] designed for medium to large projects with complex requirements. It includes pre-built modules such as B2B eCommerce, multi-tenant white-label eCommerce, and multi-vendor marketplace integrations (Shopify, WooCommerce sync, product approval flows, automatic payment splitting via Stripe Connect, and vendor payouts).
The Enterprise Edition also provides enterprise-grade security and governance features including configurable team permissions, audit logging, single sign-on (SSO), full data encryption, GDPR and HIPAA compliance alignment, as well as dedicated support with contractual SLAs, 24/7 monitoring, and managed hosting options.
Typical Use Cases
Since Spree Commerce is an open-source and self-hosted software, it is built for complex use cases requiring extensive customization and full tech stack ownership for technical, business, security or compliance reasons.[16]
The Enterprise Edition comes with a collection of private gems supporting the following use cases:
- multi-tenant eCommerce – for hosting thousands of isolated stores in a white-label SaaS model[17]
- B2B eCommerce – with customizable customer signup forms, customer segmentation, pricing per customer or customer segment, user organizations and roles, and post-purchase support[18]
- multi-vendor marketplace – for selling products delivered by 3rd party vendors in a dropshipping model[19]
Licensing
Spree Commerce is licensed under the open-source BSD-3-Clause license — free to use, modify, and distribute for any purpose, including commercial use.[20]
Spree ecosystem packages (starters, SDKs, payment integrations, and extensions) are licensed under the MIT license.[21]
The Multi-Store module (spree_multi_store) is available under the AGPL v3, which is an OSI-approved open-source license, with a Commercial License option available for those who wish to keep their code changes private. Single-store installations are not affected by this.[22]
Spree Commerce history
On July 1, 2011, Spree received $1.5 million in seed funding from AOL and True Ventures.[23] On February 25, 2014, Spree raised an additional $5M in Series A funding led by Thrive Capital. Also participating were Vegas Tech Fund (led by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh), Red Swan (led by Bonobos CEO Andy Dunn) as well as existing investors True Ventures and AOL Ventures.[24]
On September 21, 2015, it was acquired by First Data.[25] After the First Data acquisition, developers from Spark Solutions and VinSol now maintain and develop the Spree Commerce Open Source project. Vinsol also develops Spree extensions.
In 2016 an OpenCommerce Conference was held in New York to showcase the newest e-commerce projects running on Spree.[26]
In 2021 Spree changed its model from a monolithic e-commerce platform to an API-first application allowing non-Ruby developers to customize and run Spree applications. JavaScript SDK also became available.
