> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.mercurjs.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Mercur - an open-source Mirakl alternative > How Mercur compares to Mirakl and other marketplace platforms: open-source, self-hosted, no GMV fees, full code ownership. If you're evaluating [Mirakl](https://www.mirakl.com/) - or any hosted, enterprise marketplace SaaS - Mercur is the open-source alternative built for teams that want to own their marketplace outright instead of renting it. Mirakl is a mature, capable platform. It's also closed-source, priced as a percentage of the GMV that flows through it, and delivered as a hosted service you don't control. Mercur takes the opposite position: MIT-licensed core, self-hosted on your own infrastructure, no per-transaction cut, and full access to every line of code. This page is an honest comparison. Mirakl is the right choice for some teams; Mercur is the right choice for others. The goal here is to help you tell which one you are. ## At a glance | | **Mercur** | **Mirakl** | | ----------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------- | | **License** | Open source (MIT core) | Proprietary / closed source | | **Hosting** | Self-host anywhere, or fully managed (Medusa Cloud / Rigby-hosted) | Vendor-hosted SaaS only | | **Pricing model** | No GMV fees, no per-transaction cut | Percentage of GMV + platform fees | | **Code ownership** | Full source access; fork or modify freely | No source access | | **Customization** | Extend/override workflows, APIs, and UI without forking | Configuration within platform limits | | **Data ownership** | Your database, your infrastructure | Vendor-controlled | | **Tech stack** | TypeScript, Node.js, React, PostgreSQL | Proprietary | | **Extensibility** | Composable blocks, typed API client, workflow hooks, Dashboard SDK | Connectors and APIs within the platform | | **Storefront** | Bring your own (headless, API-first) | Integrated / connector-based | | **Enterprise features** | Mercur Enterprise: Buy Box, dedup, master-data governance, KYC - on your own infra | Included in the platform | | **Support & SLAs** | Contractual SLAs and named contact via Mercur Enterprise | Vendor support contract | | **Delivery help** | Rigby builds/launches marketplaces with you | Sales-led onboarding | | **Time to first marketplace** | `bun create mercur-app` in minutes | Sales-led onboarding | ## Where Mercur is the better fit * **You want to own your marketplace, not rent it.** No percentage of GMV, no per-transaction cut, no vendor lock-in. Your data, customers, and roadmap stay yours. * **You have (or want) an engineering team.** Mercur is code you control end-to-end. If you plan to customize deeply - bespoke commission logic, custom vendor onboarding, non-standard order flows - an open, hackable core is a decisive advantage over a configuration-bound SaaS. * **You need to control where data lives.** Self-host on your own cloud, on-prem, or inside an air-gapped network. There's no proprietary runtime to adopt and no hosting tier you're forced onto. * **You want to avoid platform risk.** MIT license means the core can never be taken away from you, re-priced out from under you, or discontinued. ## Enterprise-grade, without giving up ownership The features that usually pull teams toward Mirakl - a winning-offer engine, product deduplication, master-data governance, multi-channel stock sync, vendor KYC - aren't a reason to accept closed source and GMV fees. **[Mercur Enterprise](https://www.mercurjs.com/enterprise)** delivers that same enterprise surface area as a licensed module suite you deploy and run on your own infrastructure, exactly like the open-source core: * **Buy Box / winning-offer engine** - pick the winning offer across competing sellers, the way large marketplaces do. * **EAN matching & deduplication** - collapse duplicate seller submissions into a single master product. * **Master-data governance** - controlled, auditable catalog data across thousands of vendors. * **Multi-channel stock sync** - keep inventory consistent across sales channels and feeds. * **Automated split payouts & vendor KYC** - compliant onboarding and settlement at scale. …and more, with new modules added over time. Everything is maintained, tested, and upgraded by the core team, and backed by a direct support relationship: a dedicated support channel, contractual SLAs with guaranteed response times, prioritized bug fixes and security patches, and hands-on onboarding and architecture guidance. Higher tiers add priority escalation and a named technical contact. The difference from Mirakl: you still own the code, host it yourself, and pay no percentage of GMV. ## Don't want to build it yourself? We'll build it with you Mercur is built and maintained by [Rigby](https://rigbyjs.com), a team that has designed, built, and launched multi-vendor marketplaces in production. If you'd rather not staff the whole project, we work alongside your team - architecture reviews, integrating Mercur with your existing stack, hardening, scaling, and getting your marketplace live on schedule. This closes the usual "we don't have engineering capacity" gap that sends teams to a fully managed SaaS: you get a done-with-you (or done-for-you) delivery path *and* keep an open-source core you own. [Talk to our team](https://www.mercurjs.com/contact). ### Don't want to run the infrastructure either? You don't have to. Not wanting to manage servers is not a reason to accept closed source and GMV fees - Mercur runs as a fully managed deployment too. Ship it to [Medusa Cloud](https://medusajs.com/pricing/) with push-to-deploy and auto-scaling, or have Rigby deploy, host, and operate it for you. Either way you get the zero-ops experience of a SaaS while keeping the open-source core, your data, and no percentage of GMV. ## Migrating from Mirakl Already live on Mirakl? Rigby helps you move - porting your catalog, sellers, offers, orders, and commission structure onto Mercur, then hardening and cutting over without disrupting your marketplace. [Talk to our team](https://www.mercurjs.com/contact) to scope a migration. ## What Mercur gives you Built on the [Medusa](https://medusajs.com) commerce framework, Mercur adds the marketplace layer on top: * **Multi-vendor sellers** - onboarding, approval, suspension, and member management. * **Master products & offers** - a shared catalog where multiple sellers list offers (SKU, price, inventory, shipping) against the same product. * **Commissions** - configurable fixed or percentage rules matching across product, type, collection, category, and seller. * **Automated vendor payouts** - a pluggable payout pipeline with Stripe Connect out of the box. * **Order splitting** - a single customer cart spanning multiple sellers splits into per-seller orders under an order group. * **Admin and Vendor panels** - role-specific dashboards, plus a headless Store API for any storefront. See [Concepts](/rc/learn/concepts) and [Architecture](/rc/learn/architecture) for the full picture, or jump straight to [Installation](/rc/learn/installation) to spin up a marketplace locally. ## Get started ```sh theme={null} bun create mercur-app@latest my-marketplace ``` Then head to the [Installation guide](/rc/learn/installation) to run it locally, or [talk to our team](https://www.mercurjs.com/contact) if you're migrating from an existing platform.