Migrating from commercetools to Swell - A Complete Guide

For mid-market businesses running on commercetools, the complexity-to-value equation often tilts in the wrong direction. Enterprise-grade MACH architecture makes sense for billion-dollar operations with dedicated development teams, but growing brands generating under $10M annually frequently find themselves overpaying for capabilities they don't use while struggling with implementation complexity that slows time-to-market. Headless commerce platforms like Swell offer the API-first flexibility commercetools provides—without the enterprise overhead.

The migration decision comes down to practical business realities. commercetools implementations typically require 4-6 months and dedicated engineering resources, while Swell migrations complete in 2-8 weeks with smaller teams. When platform costs represent a significant portion of operating expenses and every feature requires custom development, the case for purpose-built mid-market headless architecture becomes clear.

Key Takeaways

• commercetools implementations require significant annual costs with dedicated development teams, while Swell provides comparable headless capabilities at a fraction of the cost with built-in features eliminating third-party dependencies
• Migration success depends on following proper data dependencies: products→customers→orders→shipments→subscriptions, with 43% experience disruptions when skipping proper planning phases
• Swell's native subscription billing, B2B wholesale features, and marketplace capabilities come included—functionality requiring expensive custom development or third-party extensions on commercetools
• Technical migrations complete in 2-8 weeks depending on complexity, compared to commercetools implementations typically requiring 4-6 months
• Customer passwords cannot migrate across platforms for security reasons—plan communication strategies for password reset flows during transition

Understanding the Swell Advantage: Why Migrate from commercetools?

commercetools built its platform for enterprise-scale operations requiring maximum customization at the microservices level. This architectural approach serves global enterprises with complex omnichannel requirements and dedicated engineering teams. For growing businesses, however, the model creates challenges.

When Enterprise Architecture Creates Overhead

The MACH architecture (Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, Headless) powering commercetools provides extreme flexibility—but flexibility requiring significant development resources to implement. Every feature, from basic checkout flows to subscription management, requires custom development or third-party extensions.

Annual platform costs can reach significant levels—according to Weframe Tech, businesses generating $5M monthly in revenue could pay around $75K per month in platform and operational costs. Add development team costs for building and maintaining custom features, and total cost of ownership climbs substantially higher.

Swell addresses this gap with an API-first platform that balances flexibility with built-in functionality. The same Backend API powering Swell's dashboard and checkout is available to developers—meaning anything possible in the admin interface can be replicated or customized through code. But common requirements like subscription billing, B2B pricing, and marketplace features work out of the box.

Swell's API-First Philosophy

Swell's architecture follows API-first principles similar to commercetools, but with practical differences in implementation. The platform provides:

• RESTful Backend API with full CRUD access to all data models
• Frontend API for browser-based operations with public key authentication
• Checkout API enabling custom payment flows
• Webhook support for real-time event notifications

The developer console built into the dashboard lets teams test API calls, view request/response logs, and troubleshoot integration issues without leaving the browser. Custom fields work across all standard models—products, orders, customers, carts—and the model editor enables creating entirely custom data structures for business-specific needs.

Feature Face-Off: Swell vs commercetools Capabilities

The practical differences between platforms show up in daily operations, development timelines, and total cost of ownership.

Product Modeling Flexibility

Both platforms support unlimited product variants and custom attributes. Swell removes modeling restrictions entirely—no caps on variants, options, or custom fields. A B2B manufacturer can create products with unlimited configuration options, custom specifications, and buyer-specific attributes.

The difference lies in implementation effort. On commercetools, product modeling requires defining schemas, configuring project settings, and building custom admin interfaces. Swell provides immediate access through the dashboard with API access for automation and integration.

Built-in vs Custom Development

Features requiring third-party extensions or custom development on commercetools come native to Swell:

Native subscription management:

• Flexible billing intervals (monthly, yearly, custom schedules)
• Separate invoicing and fulfillment schedules
• Mixed carts combining subscription and one-time products
• Automatic payment retry with configurable dunning rules
• Customer self-service for pause/resume and plan changes

B2B and wholesale capabilities:

• Customer group-based pricing without additional development
• Volume-based pricing tiers
• Invoice generation and payment terms
• Multi-part payment plans for installments

Marketplace functionality:

• Split payment logic for vendor payouts
• Multi-vendor product management
• Unified admin across vendors

Checkout and Payment Processing

Swell offers hosted checkout (PCI-compliant) or custom checkout via API—both available across all pricing tiers. Integration with payment gateways including Stripe, PayPal, Authorize.Net, Braintree, and Amazon Pay processes through Swell's unified payment abstraction layer.

The encrypted card vault enables native subscription billing with any connected payment gateway, eliminating dependencies on third-party subscription services that add complexity and cost.

Technical Deep Dive: Migrating Core Data and Integrations

The migration process follows a specific sequence based on data dependencies. Skipping steps or importing data out of order causes referencing errors.

Migration Sequence Overview

Phase 1: Data Export (1-3 days)

• Export products, categories, customers, orders from commercetools Merchant Center
• Supported formats: CSV or JSON
• Include custom objects and extended data

Phase 2: Data Transformation (3-7 days)

• Map commercetools data fields to Swell's structure
• Transform product models to match Swell format
• Clean and validate data before import

Phase 3: Import to Swell (2-5 days)

• Follow recommended order: Products → Customers → Orders → Shipments → Subscriptions
• Use batch import API (up to 1,000 records per batch recommended)
• Leverage $migrate: true flag for orders to skip validation

Phase 4: Testing and Launch (1-2 weeks)

• Verify data accuracy across representative samples
• Test checkout flows with real transactions
• Validate integrations before go-live

Handling Customer Data and Passwords

Customer data exports should capture contact information, account creation dates, marketing consent, customer groups, and order history references. Passwords cannot migrate across platforms for security reasons—customers must reset passwords on first login.

Plan a communication strategy explaining the platform change and password reset process. Send emails during migration instructing customers on accessing their accounts.

Subscription Migration Considerations

Active subscriptions require the most careful planning. Do NOT use the $migrate: true flag when importing subscriptions—they rely on subsequent events to set up billing automation properly.

Subscription migration checklist:

• Export complete subscription data (billing frequency, next charge date, product SKUs)
• Extract payment tokens from existing gateway
• Import customers and products first
• Create subscription records with imported payment tokens
• Set date_trial_end to align with renewal dates
• Turn off subscription notifications during import to prevent duplicate emails

Test subscription billing in Swell's test environment before production migration.

Reimagining International Commerce: Localizing Your Store on Swell

Global expansion requires proper multi-currency pricing and tax compliance. Swell supports 230 currencies and content localization in 170 languages.

Multi-Currency Configuration

Two pricing approaches work for different business needs:

Explicit pricing sets specific prices in each currency—useful for psychological pricing (€99 vs $109) or market-specific strategies. Configure product prices, shipping costs, and discount amounts per currency through the dashboard or API.

Automatic conversion uses real-time exchange rates for dynamic calculation, reducing management overhead for businesses not requiring market-specific pricing.

Tax Compliance Automation

Complex tax requirements across regions make automated calculation essential. Swell integrates with leading tax services:

• Avalara AvaTax for real-time tax calculation worldwide
• TaxJar for automated sales tax compliance

Both integrations calculate taxes at checkout based on customer location, product type, and applicable rules. Custom tax rule groups handle specific requirements by location and product category through tax settings.

Success Stories: Brands Thriving on Swell

Real-world implementations demonstrate how Swell handles complex commerce requirements that drive businesses away from legacy platforms.

Velobici: Multi-Currency Bundling at Scale

Velobici, a cycling apparel brand, implemented product bundling for cycling kit sales—with 75% of revenue coming from bundles. The platform handles multi-currency pricing across 17 currencies (GBP, EUR, USD, JPY, and more) with multi-language storefronts.

The brand migrated from WooCommerce due to poor UI, difficult stock management, and plugin complexity. On Swell, bundled products track individual inventory while presenting as unified products to customers.

THE RAYY: Custom Product Configuration

THE RAYY, a fine jewelry brand, needed extensive product personalization for custom engravings and complex configurations. The brand migrated from BigCommerce because headless architecture was required for their unique customer experience.

Key implementations include:

• Unlimited custom product options for personalization
• Multi-currency pricing (EUR, USD, CHF)
• Worldwide tax rule groups
• Complex product modeling for jewelry specifications

Spinn Coffee: IoT-Connected Marketplace

Spinn Coffee built a DTC marketplace connected to their mobile app and IoT coffee brewer. Customers purchase coffee from multiple roasters with flexible subscription scheduling—all managed through Swell's unified backend.

Optimizing Post-Migration: Swell's Ecosystem and Support

After migration, ongoing optimization ensures maximum platform value.

Integration Ecosystem

Native integrations connect critical business tools:

• Klaviyo for email marketing automation
• ShipStation for fulfillment
• Contentful for headless CMS
• Zapier for workflow automation

Support and Resources

Swell provides tiered support scaling with business needs. Email and chat support are available across plans, with priority support and developer assistance on higher tiers. The help center offers product guides, and developer documentation provides technical implementation details.

For complex migrations, Swell's partner network includes agencies experienced in platform transitions.

Platform Reliability

Swell maintains high platform reliability with Backend API, Frontend API, Dashboard, and Hosted Checkout maintaining consistent availability. Infrastructure uses a combination of bare metal servers and cloud providers for performance during traffic spikes.

Financial Considerations: Understanding the Value Proposition

Total cost of ownership comparisons reveal substantial differences between enterprise and mid-market headless platforms.

Direct Cost Reduction

commercetools implementations require significant annual platform fees before development costs. Add dedicated engineering teams (often 2-4 FTEs) for building and maintaining custom features, and annual costs climb significantly.

Swell's tiered pricing structure scales with business size. Built-in features for subscriptions, B2B, and marketplace functionality eliminate development costs for capabilities requiring custom work on commercetools.

Hidden Cost Elimination

Beyond platform fees, migration to Swell typically eliminates:

• Third-party subscription service fees
• Custom development for B2B pricing features
• Extension costs for marketplace functionality
• Ongoing maintenance for custom integrations

The time-to-market advantage—2-8 weeks for Swell migration versus 4-6 months for commercetools implementation—also represents significant opportunity cost savings.

Frequently Asked Questions

What data cannot be migrated automatically from commercetools to Swell?

Customer passwords cannot transfer between platforms for security reasons—they must be reset on first login. Custom UI components, complex workflows built on commercetools extensions, and proprietary integrations require rebuilding using Swell's API and Apps framework. Most common use cases already have built-in solutions on Swell, but highly customized implementations need evaluation for equivalent functionality.

How do I maintain order number continuity during migration?

Set the starting order number in Swell Settings → General before importing historical orders. This ensures new orders continue sequentially from your existing order numbers. Use custom fields to store original commercetools order IDs if you need to reference both systems during the transition period.

Can I run both platforms simultaneously during migration?

Yes, many businesses maintain commercetools as a backup for 30-60 days post-migration. This provides a safety net for data verification and customer service reference. Plan your DNS cutover strategy carefully—lower TTL values 24-48 hours before migration to speed up DNS propagation when you switch.

What happens if I exceed my plan's sales volume during high-traffic periods?

Swell's pricing tiers include sales volume thresholds with overage provisions rather than hard stops. Revenue-based fees apply when exceeding plan limits. For businesses anticipating significant growth or seasonal spikes, evaluate higher-tier plans in advance to optimize total cost.

How does Swell handle complex B2B pricing scenarios without custom development?

Native customer groups support tier-based pricing, volume discounts, and customer-specific rates through the dashboard. B2B features include invoice generation, payment terms via Resolve integration, and multi-part payment plans. Sales reps can create orders on behalf of customers using the admin interface—functionality that would require custom development on commercetools.