Shopware or Kontorly? The short answer
If you want to launch a B2B online shop — with tiered pricing, customer groups, and clean invoices for business customers — and you're looking for a Shopware B2B alternative, the decisive question isn't which platform has more features. Shopware is one of Europe's most powerful commerce suites. The question is which operating model fits your company: a suite that an agency builds and maintains for you — or a SaaS service where tiered pricing, customer groups, and E-Rechnungen are natively on board from day one and operations sit with the provider.
That's exactly the decision we lay out here: honestly, with all the differences, without marketing fog.
Two paths to a B2B online shop
Before you choose a Shopware B2B alternative, you should understand the operating model — it determines agency needs, cost trajectory, and dependencies more than any feature list.
The commerce suite (e.g. Shopware): You license a platform and build your shop from it with an agency. The B2B features sit in the higher tiers — realistically from Evolve (€2,400/month). Setup, updates, plugins, and interfaces are agency work or your IT's job. According to industry analyses, the license accounts for only 15–25% of total costs — the rest is setup, operations, and continued development.
The SaaS service (Kontorly): You sign up and set up your shop in the browser — like a tool, not a construction project. Tiered pricing, customer groups, E-Rechnungen, and German taxes are natively in, without a plugin stack. Operations, maintenance, updates, and security sit with the provider. Your dependency is a contract cancellable monthly — no agency, no IT department of your own.
| Commerce suite (e.g. Shopware) | SaaS service (Kontorly) | |
|---|---|---|
| Core idea | License a suite, have the shop built agency-ready | Rent a ready-made shop service |
| B2B features | In higher tiers (Evolve from €2,400/mo) | Tiered pricing, customer groups, E-Rechnung native |
| Setup | Agency setup, typically five to six figures | Set up in the browser, no developers |
| Operations & updates | Agency or your own IT | Included with the provider |
| Extending | Plugin ecosystem + agency development | Built in by the vendor (integrations, roadmap) |
| German taxes & law | Via extensions and configuration | Native: German taxes, E-Rechnungen, legal texts |
| Scaling | Beyond tier, custom (~€6,500+/month) | Enterprise tier, no platform switch |
What Kontorly, the Shopware B2B alternative, has natively from day 1
Tiered pricing, customer groups, E-Rechnungen, and German taxes — at Shopware, B2B sits in higher tiers and runs through extensions. With Kontorly, everything is included from the first day.
Customer groups & terms
Regular customers, wholesalers, new customers — each group gets their own prices and payment terms.
Industriefolie A — Preis je Kundengruppe
AI chat assistant
Handle settings right in the chat: just describe what you want to change — the AI takes care of it. No menu digging, no manual.
„Füge 5 % Rabatt ab 50 Stück hinzu"
E-invoices (ZUGFeRD)
Automatic ZUGFeRD e-invoices as soon as an order is accepted — legally compliant with tax breakdown and your own branding. Meets the e-invoice mandate out of the box.
B2B quantities & order logic
Minimum order quantities, order increments and PAngV-compliant unit prices per product — B2B requirements that D2C shops don't cover.
Automatic legal texts
Imprint, privacy policy and shipping information are generated automatically and embedded in a legally compliant way — no lawyer, no copy & paste.
Tiered pricing & volume discounts
Define price tiers per product — 5% off from 10 units, 10% off from 50 units. All calculated automatically, no more Excel spreadsheets.
German taxes out-of-the-box
DE tax rates, small business rule, EU reverse charge, export handling — all automatic.
Closed customer circle
Invite your customers individually or via CSV — nobody orders until you approve them. Each buyer sees only their own shop.
Import products via CSV
Stripe + Invoice + Prepayment
DHL shipping labels
Own branding
Kontorly's architecture: everything from a single source
No plugin stack, no agency dependency, no suite bigger than your business — your B2B shop runs as an all-inclusive package.
B2B from the ground up
Not D2C with a B2B plugin bolted on, but built for B2B commerce from the very first line of code.
Shopify / WooCommerce
Kontorly
all natively included — no plugin needed
No plugin hell
Every feature is natively integrated — no searching, no installing, no updating third-party plugins.
No IT expert, no agency
You need neither a developer nor an agency: add products, define prices, invite customers — all on your own, without a single line of code.
Classic shop system
- Developer or IT expert for setup & maintenance
- Agency for B2B customizations
- Ongoing plugin maintenance & updates
Kontorly
- Set up yourself in minutes
- B2B features included from day one
- Maintenance & updates included
Who the Shopware B2B alternative is the right choice for
Manage your product range with tiered pricing and customer groups. Complete digital order processing and invoicing.
Sell directly to retailers — digitally and automated. From the order to the ZUGFeRD invoice.
Build your online B2B channel with professional tools. Scalable with your growth.
Kontorly customers order themselves — around the clock
Your customers order around the clock directly in your shop — with tiered pricing displayed live. No more calls for orders, no lost emails. Everything in one place, clear and traceable.
What a B2B shop with Shopware really costs
The license at Shopware is only the most visible number — and at the same time the smallest line item. The real decision falls in the lines below.
| Cost item | Commerce suite (e.g. Shopware) | SaaS service (Kontorly) |
|---|---|---|
| License/subscription | Rise €600 · Evolve €2,400/month · Beyond ~€6,500+ | Starter €249 · Business €449/month |
| B2B depth | Only from Evolve — retrofit below | Native features, no tier logic |
| German taxes & E-Rechnung | Extensions/configuration | Included natively |
| Build | Agency setup: simple shops €5,000–15,000, B2B portals €30,000–100,000+ | Set it up yourself in the browser |
| Ongoing support | Agency retainer or your own IT time | Not needed — operations included |
| Transaction surcharge | No platform cut — fair's fair | No platform cut, standard Stripe rates |
| Scaling | Beyond, custom (~€6,500+/month) | Enterprise from €1,299/month |
(Platform list prices as of 2025/26 — we keep them current, but always check the original pages before deciding.)
Then there's the question of dependency: a Shopware shop lives off the agency that built it — or off your IT department maintaining plugins, updates, and interfaces. If it drops away, what remains is a system nobody really knows anymore. Industry analyses agree: license costs account for only 15–25% of total costs in Shopware projects. A SaaS Shopware B2B alternative couples in the other direction — you rely on the vendor and its lifecycle. With Kontorly that's a deliberate deal: a German service cancellable monthly, instead of a structure with follow-up costs.
Anyone wanting to compare all four paths in detail finds numbers and a sample calculation in What Does a B2B Online Shop Cost?
Shopware for B2B — an honest look
Shopware is the established heavyweight in the German Mittelstand — rightly so. The suite is mature, the plugin ecosystem is large, and with the Evolve tier Shopware brings serious B2B features: custom price lists per customer, quick order for buyers, adaptable checkout flows. Anyone looking for a Shopware B2B alternative should acknowledge that fairly.
For your B2B business, three sticking points remain:
- B2B starts at Evolve. The B2B features sit in the tier from €2,400/month — five times the Rise entry price. With Rise at €600 you don't build a tiered-pricing-and-customer-groups shop, but a D2C shop with a B2B extension.
- Hardly anyone runs Shopware alone. Setup, updates, performance, interfaces — the system is designed for agency operations. That's not a defect, it's the architecture of a suite. It just means: agency setup up front, agency retainer behind, every year.
- The suite is bigger than the standard case. If your core business is: catalog, tiered pricing per customer group, orders on invoice — with Shopware you pay for and maintain architecture you never fully use. It's built for international multi-channel monsters. For German wholesale with 40 business customers, it's a torque wrench for a bicycle.
If you see these three points as solvable — agency under contract, Evolve budget released, growth plans that exhaust the suite — the path can work. If you see them as dead weight, that's exactly the reason Kontorly exists.
Kontorly grows with you — no rebuild, no repurchase
Whether 10 or 10,000 products — Kontorly grows with you. A modern architecture that never gets in your way.
KontorlyProdukte
10.240
Kunden
1.847
Wachstum
+34%
Wachstumskurve
Kontorly: GDPR, hosting, and invoices from a single source
Shopware is a German company — fair's fair. The difference is the model: with Kontorly, your complete shop operation comes from Germany, EU hosting, GDPR factored in from the start, E-Rechnungen in the German format. One instance instead of an architecture.
GDPR-compliant
Full compliance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation.
Hosting Germany
Server location Germany for maximum data security.
SSL encryption
All connections are SSL-encrypted.
E-invoices (ZUGFeRD)
Automatic ZUGFeRD e-invoices — legally compliant, with tax breakdown and your own branding.
Preconfigured tax rates
Ready for Germany and global B2B trade — including the small-business scheme, EU reverse charge and export.
Legal text generation
Imprint, privacy policy and shipping information are generated automatically and embedded in a legally compliant way.
Made in
Germany!
Kontorly connects to what you already have
Stripe, DHL, analytics — the interfaces your B2B day needs, Kontorly brings along. You don't extend via a plugin marketplace; you get integrations from the provider.
Stripe
Credit card, Klarna and more payment methods
DHL
Shipping labels directly from the order
Tracking & Analytics
Google Analytics 4, Meta Pixel, Google Tag Manager
ERP integration
On request in the Business plan.
FAQ
What does Shopware cost for B2B?
The list prices: Rise from €600, Evolve from €2,400, Beyond custom (~€6,500+/month). For B2B you're realistically on the road from Evolve — and the license is only the smallest item: agency setup (simple €5,000–15,000, B2B portals €30,000–100,000+) and ongoing support come on top. A sample calculation over three years is in our Shopware costs article and the B2B online shop cost comparison.
Do I need an agency for Shopware?
In practice: yes. Setup, theme, plugins, updates, and interfaces are agency work — for that there's a strong partner network. With a Shopware B2B alternative like Kontorly it's deliberately different: you set up products, tiered pricing, and customer groups in the browser, CSV import included. Operations, maintenance, and security sit with the vendor.
What's the difference between a suite and a SaaS service?
A suite like Shopware is a powerful platform you license and expand into your shop with an agency. A SaaS service like Kontorly is a fully operated shop service: you configure in the browser, the vendor operates. The difference isn't the feature list but the operating model — and with it, agency needs, cost trajectory, and dependencies.
Can't Shopware do B2B?
It can — from the Evolve tier (€2,400/month), Shopware brings real B2B features: price lists per customer, quick order, adaptable processes. The limit isn't the function but the effort around it: agency setup, ongoing care, and a suite built for bigger scenarios. For multi-layered pricing logic in the German Mittelstand, a Shopware B2B alternative can be the shorter path.
How do I get my articles and customer data in?
Via CSV import — natively, without extra tools. You maintain your products with tiered pricing and add your business customers by invitation: customers register, you approve them, assign them to a customer group — and the personal price framework is done. Your customers then order themselves in the browser, the way they know from any good online shop.
What our customers say
Voices from German B2B trade — from traditional manufacturers to growing shops.
„For a long time, orders came in by phone and fax. Today our retailers order on their own, and by evening the list is simply done. That a traditional business like ours took to it that easily surprised even me.“
„The hospitality trade orders when it needs something — not when someone happens to have time. That used to be a lot of manual work; today customers place their orders themselves. Our team's heads are free again for products and customers.“
„Orders used to come in by email and were typed up twice. Today the customer orders directly, and in the morning I have a clean overview of what needs to ship — our business customer sales have become a lot calmer.“
Ready for the Shopware B2B alternative?
Richte deinen Shop in Minuten ein — Staffelpreise, Kundengruppen und E-Rechnungen inklusive. Oder lass dir alles in einer persönlichen Demo zeigen.