Saleor Enterprise Commerce

advanced

High-performance GraphQL e-commerce platform with dashboard.

Overview

Saleor is an open-source, headless commerce platform built on Django and GraphQL that emerged as a modern alternative to traditional monolithic e-commerce solutions. Originally developed by Mirumee Software, Saleor provides a complete backend for e-commerce operations while maintaining API-first architecture that separates content management from presentation layers. The platform emphasizes developer experience with its comprehensive GraphQL API, extensive webhook system, and plugin architecture that enables custom business logic without core modifications. This enterprise stack combines Saleor's API server with its React-based dashboard, supported by PostgreSQL for complex relational data management and Redis for high-performance caching and task queuing. The architecture leverages Celery workers for background processing of orders, inventory updates, and email notifications, while the dashboard provides administrators with real-time insights into sales performance, inventory levels, and customer analytics. Organizations choose this stack when they need enterprise-grade e-commerce capabilities with the flexibility to build custom storefronts, integrate with existing systems, and scale across multiple sales channels while maintaining full control over the customer experience and business logic.

Key Features

GraphQL API with real-time subscriptions for inventory updates and order status changes
Multi-channel sales support with separate pricing, inventory, and tax configurations per channel
Advanced product catalog with variant management, digital products, and gift card functionality
Comprehensive order management with split fulfillment, refunds, and automated tax calculations
Plugin architecture supporting payment gateways, shipping providers, and custom business logic
Celery-powered background processing for email campaigns, inventory synchronization, and analytics
Redis-backed session management and caching for sub-second API response times
PostgreSQL full-text search with product filtering and faceted navigation support

Common Use Cases

1Multi-brand retailers requiring separate storefronts with shared inventory management
2B2B marketplaces with complex pricing tiers and customer-specific catalogs
3Digital product platforms selling software licenses, courses, and subscription services
4International e-commerce with multi-currency support and localized tax calculations
5Headless commerce implementations using React, Vue, or mobile applications as frontends
6Enterprise migrations from Magento or Shopify requiring API-first architecture
7Omnichannel retail operations integrating online stores with POS and marketplace systems

Prerequisites

Minimum 4GB RAM for all services (PostgreSQL requires 1GB+, Saleor API needs 2GB+ for production workloads)
Docker Engine 20.10+ and Docker Compose 2.0+ with BuildKit support enabled
Ports 8000, 9000, and 5432 available on the host system
Basic understanding of GraphQL queries and Django admin interface
SSL certificates and reverse proxy configuration for production deployment
SMTP server credentials for transactional emails and order notifications

For development & testing. Review security settings, change default credentials, and test thoroughly before production use. See Terms

docker-compose.yml

1services: 
2  saleor-api: 
3    image: ghcr.io/saleor/saleor:latest
4    ports: 
5      - "8000:8000"
6    environment: 
7      DATABASE_URL: postgres://${POSTGRES_USER}:${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}@postgres:5432/${POSTGRES_DB}
8      REDIS_URL: redis://redis:6379/0
9      SECRET_KEY: ${SECRET_KEY}
10      ALLOWED_HOSTS: localhost,api
11      DEBUG: "False"
12      DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL: noreply@example.com
13    depends_on: 
14      postgres: 
15        condition: service_healthy
16      redis: 
17        condition: service_started
18    networks: 
19      - saleor-net
20    restart: unless-stopped
21
22  saleor-worker: 
23    image: ghcr.io/saleor/saleor:latest
24    command: celery -A saleor --app=saleor.celeryconf:app worker --loglevel=info -B
25    environment: 
26      DATABASE_URL: postgres://${POSTGRES_USER}:${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}@postgres:5432/${POSTGRES_DB}
27      REDIS_URL: redis://redis:6379/0
28      SECRET_KEY: ${SECRET_KEY}
29    depends_on: 
30      - saleor-api
31    networks: 
32      - saleor-net
33    restart: unless-stopped
34
35  saleor-dashboard: 
36    image: ghcr.io/saleor/saleor-dashboard:latest
37    ports: 
38      - "9000:80"
39    environment: 
40      API_URI: http://localhost:8000/graphql/
41    networks: 
42      - saleor-net
43    restart: unless-stopped
44
45  postgres: 
46    image: postgres:16-alpine
47    environment: 
48      POSTGRES_USER: ${POSTGRES_USER}
49      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
50      POSTGRES_DB: ${POSTGRES_DB}
51    volumes: 
52      - postgres_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
53    healthcheck: 
54      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U ${POSTGRES_USER} -d ${POSTGRES_DB}"]
55      interval: 10s
56      timeout: 5s
57      retries: 5
58    networks: 
59      - saleor-net
60    restart: unless-stopped
61
62  redis: 
63    image: redis:7-alpine
64    volumes: 
65      - redis_data:/data
66    networks: 
67      - saleor-net
68    restart: unless-stopped
69
70volumes: 
71  postgres_data: 
72  redis_data: 
73
74networks: 
75  saleor-net: 
76    driver: bridge

.env Template

.env

1# Saleor Configuration
2SECRET_KEY=$(openssl rand -hex 50)
3
4# PostgreSQL
5POSTGRES_USER=saleor
6POSTGRES_PASSWORD=secure_postgres_password
7POSTGRES_DB=saleor

Usage Notes

1Saleor API at http://localhost:8000/graphql/
2Dashboard at http://localhost:9000
3Create superuser: docker compose exec saleor-api python manage.py createsuperuser
4Populate demo data: docker compose exec saleor-api python manage.py populatedb

Individual Services(5 services)

Copy individual services to mix and match with your existing compose files.

saleor-api

saleor-api:
  image: ghcr.io/saleor/saleor:latest
  ports:
    - "8000:8000"
  environment:
    DATABASE_URL: postgres://${POSTGRES_USER}:${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}@postgres:5432/${POSTGRES_DB}
    REDIS_URL: redis://redis:6379/0
    SECRET_KEY: ${SECRET_KEY}
    ALLOWED_HOSTS: localhost,api
    DEBUG: "False"
    DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL: noreply@example.com
  depends_on:
    postgres:
      condition: service_healthy
    redis:
      condition: service_started
  networks:
    - saleor-net
  restart: unless-stopped

saleor-worker

saleor-worker:
  image: ghcr.io/saleor/saleor:latest
  command: celery -A saleor --app=saleor.celeryconf:app worker --loglevel=info -B
  environment:
    DATABASE_URL: postgres://${POSTGRES_USER}:${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}@postgres:5432/${POSTGRES_DB}
    REDIS_URL: redis://redis:6379/0
    SECRET_KEY: ${SECRET_KEY}
  depends_on:
    - saleor-api
  networks:
    - saleor-net
  restart: unless-stopped

saleor-dashboard

saleor-dashboard:
  image: ghcr.io/saleor/saleor-dashboard:latest
  ports:
    - "9000:80"
  environment:
    API_URI: http://localhost:8000/graphql/
  networks:
    - saleor-net
  restart: unless-stopped

postgres

postgres:
  image: postgres:16-alpine
  environment:
    POSTGRES_USER: ${POSTGRES_USER}
    POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
    POSTGRES_DB: ${POSTGRES_DB}
  volumes:
    - postgres_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
  healthcheck:
    test:
      - CMD-SHELL
      - pg_isready -U ${POSTGRES_USER} -d ${POSTGRES_DB}
    interval: 10s
    timeout: 5s
    retries: 5
  networks:
    - saleor-net
  restart: unless-stopped

redis

redis:
  image: redis:7-alpine
  volumes:
    - redis_data:/data
  networks:
    - saleor-net
  restart: unless-stopped

Quick Start

terminal

1# 1. Create the compose file
2cat > docker-compose.yml << 'EOF'
3services:
4  saleor-api:
5    image: ghcr.io/saleor/saleor:latest
6    ports:
7      - "8000:8000"
8    environment:
9      DATABASE_URL: postgres://${POSTGRES_USER}:${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}@postgres:5432/${POSTGRES_DB}
10      REDIS_URL: redis://redis:6379/0
11      SECRET_KEY: ${SECRET_KEY}
12      ALLOWED_HOSTS: localhost,api
13      DEBUG: "False"
14      DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL: noreply@example.com
15    depends_on:
16      postgres:
17        condition: service_healthy
18      redis:
19        condition: service_started
20    networks:
21      - saleor-net
22    restart: unless-stopped
23
24  saleor-worker:
25    image: ghcr.io/saleor/saleor:latest
26    command: celery -A saleor --app=saleor.celeryconf:app worker --loglevel=info -B
27    environment:
28      DATABASE_URL: postgres://${POSTGRES_USER}:${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}@postgres:5432/${POSTGRES_DB}
29      REDIS_URL: redis://redis:6379/0
30      SECRET_KEY: ${SECRET_KEY}
31    depends_on:
32      - saleor-api
33    networks:
34      - saleor-net
35    restart: unless-stopped
36
37  saleor-dashboard:
38    image: ghcr.io/saleor/saleor-dashboard:latest
39    ports:
40      - "9000:80"
41    environment:
42      API_URI: http://localhost:8000/graphql/
43    networks:
44      - saleor-net
45    restart: unless-stopped
46
47  postgres:
48    image: postgres:16-alpine
49    environment:
50      POSTGRES_USER: ${POSTGRES_USER}
51      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
52      POSTGRES_DB: ${POSTGRES_DB}
53    volumes:
54      - postgres_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
55    healthcheck:
56      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U ${POSTGRES_USER} -d ${POSTGRES_DB}"]
57      interval: 10s
58      timeout: 5s
59      retries: 5
60    networks:
61      - saleor-net
62    restart: unless-stopped
63
64  redis:
65    image: redis:7-alpine
66    volumes:
67      - redis_data:/data
68    networks:
69      - saleor-net
70    restart: unless-stopped
71
72volumes:
73  postgres_data:
74  redis_data:
75
76networks:
77  saleor-net:
78    driver: bridge
79EOF
80
81# 2. Create the .env file
82cat > .env << 'EOF'
83# Saleor Configuration
84SECRET_KEY=$(openssl rand -hex 50)
85
86# PostgreSQL
87POSTGRES_USER=saleor
88POSTGRES_PASSWORD=secure_postgres_password
89POSTGRES_DB=saleor
90EOF
91
92# 3. Start the services
93docker compose up -d
94
95# 4. View logs
96docker compose logs -f

One-Liner

Run this command to download and set up the recipe in one step:

terminal

1curl -fsSL https://docker.recipes/api/recipes/saleor-commerce/run | bash

Troubleshooting

saleor-api exits with 'relation does not exist' errors: Run `docker compose exec saleor-api python manage.py migrate` to apply database migrations
Dashboard shows 'Network Error' when connecting to API: Verify API_URI environment variable matches the accessible URL from browser, not internal Docker network
Celery workers fail with Redis connection errors: Ensure Redis container is healthy before starting workers, add health checks or init containers
GraphQL queries timeout or return incomplete data: Increase PostgreSQL shared_buffers and effective_cache_size in custom postgresql.conf volume mount
Image upload failures or missing media files: Add persistent volume mount for `/app/media` directory in saleor-api service
Webhook delivery failures to external services: Configure ALLOWED_HOSTS to include webhook recipient domains and verify firewall rules

Community Notes

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Includes docker-compose.yml, .env template, README, and license

Components

saleor-apisaleor-dashboardpostgresqlrediscelery

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