0-4 yrs
0-4 yrs
20%
20%
5
5
100+
100+
Solidus Development
We offer full Solidus development services, helping you to conceptualize, build, and optimize scalable online stores. We examine all options to guarantee your Solidus eCommerce platform is performing at speed, design, and performance to global benchmarks, when it comes to strategy development and implementation of the platform. Streamlining the technical foundation of a new store or enhancing the technical quality of an existing store, our Solidus developers focus on technical excellence and performance throughout the development and lifecycle.
Solidus Development
Every Solidus project is different. A B2B wholesaler with tiered pricing and net-30 terms looks nothing like a D2C brand with flash sales and subscription boxes. The framework handles both because it doesn't assume how your business works. We configure it to match.
Custom Solidus Development
Ground-up Solidus builds for new stores. We set up your product catalog, checkout flow, payment gateways, and shipping logic. You get a store that matches your business rules, not a template you have to work around.
Solidus eCommerce Consulting
Not sure if Solidus is right for your project? We'll tell you honestly. Sometimes Shopify is the better choice. Sometimes Spree still makes sense. We evaluate your product complexity, order volume, and team capacity before recommending a platform.
Solidus Upgrades and Migrations
Running an older Solidus version (or still on Spree)? We handle the upgrade. That includes updating custom extensions, fixing deprecation warnings, running your test suite against the new version, and testing checkout and payments in staging before anything touches production.
Solidus Extension Development
Custom extensions that add functionality without touching Solidus core. This keeps your store upgradable. When the next Solidus release drops, your custom code doesn't break because it's cleanly separated from the framework internals.
BUILT AROUND YOUR BUSINESS
Subscription Commerce
Sell products on a recurring schedule with a subscription engine built into the platform. Customers can pause, swap products, upgrade, or cancel on their own. Works for subscription boxes, replenishment (coffee, supplements, pet food), digital memberships, and “build your own box” models. Failed payments get automatic retry (dunning) so you don’t lose subscribers to expired cards.
Custom Checkout Flows
Build a checkout that matches how your business actually works, not how a platform thinks it should work. One-click reorders for returning customers. Multi-step flows for complex orders. Upsells and cross-sells placed exactly where they convert. Custom data collection during checkout (gift messages, engraving text, delivery instructions). If your checkout needs are too specific for Shopify, Solidus can handle them.
Advanced Promotions and Discounts
Go beyond basic coupon codes. Set up promotions with custom rules: buy-one-get-one, tiered discounts based on cart value, time-limited flash sales, site-wide percentage off, gift-with-purchase, and subscriber-only pricing. The promotions engine is programmable, so if you can describe the discount logic, it can be built.
Product Bundles and Personalization
Sell bundled products, kits, or curated sets as single items. Let customers personalize products through quizzes or configuration tools before adding to cart. Useful for gift boxes, custom supplement packs, skincare routines, or any product that needs customer input before purchase.
Flexible Product Catalog
Handle complex product structures that flat catalogs can’t. Dynamic variants (color, size, material in any combination), segmented pricing (different prices for different customer groups), rich category taxonomies, and product drops with controlled availability. Your catalog structure matches your actual product logic, not a template.
Returns, Exchanges, and Refunds
Self-serve returns where customers initiate their own return requests. Support for exchanges (swap for a different size or color), partial refunds, store credit, and complex return workflows. Integrates with your warehouse or 3PL so returns are tracked end to end.
Global Selling
Sell internationally with support for VAT, GST, and US sales tax calculated at rooftop-level accuracy. Split shipments across warehouses in different countries. Per-product tax rules and customer tax exemptions. Connect to third-party tax services for automated filing. One store, multiple markets, correct taxes everywhere.
No Transaction Fees, No Revenue Caps
Solidus doesn’t take a percentage of your sales. No per-transaction fees, no revenue-based pricing tiers, no penalties for growing. Your costs are development and hosting, which you control. Some of the largest DTC brands run on Solidus and process billions in yearly revenue.
BUILT AROUND YOUR BUSINESS
Modular Gem Architecture
Solidus ships as separate gems: solidus_core, solidus_api, solidus_backend, solidus_frontend, and solidus_sample. Include only what your project needs. Building headless? Skip the frontend gem entirely. The modular design keeps your app’s dependency footprint small and upgrades manageable.
REST and GraphQL APIs
Full REST API for storefront and admin operations. GraphQL API for more flexible data fetching. Both support custom endpoints so you can extend the API surface without patching core. Token-based authentication. The APIs cover products, orders, checkout, inventory, payments, promotions, and user management.
Headless and Composable
Use Solidus as a pure backend with any frontend: React, Next.js, Vue, mobile apps, or a custom SPA. The API layer handles cart state, checkout sessions, and authentication. You can start monolithic and decouple gradually. Pull out the storefront first, then individual services as your scale demands it.
Customizable Promotions Engine
Promotions in Solidus aren’t just config. They’re programmable. Each promotion has rules (conditions) and actions (what happens when conditions are met). You can write custom rule classes and custom action classes in Ruby. Time-based activation, code-based activation, and automatic application are all supported. This is where Solidus pulls ahead of Spree for complex pricing logic.
Native Subscription Engine
Subscriptions are integrated into the payment, checkout, promotion, and fulfillment pipelines. Not a bolted-on extension. Subscription orders flow through the same order pipeline as one-time purchases, which means they get the same promotions, tax calculations, and fulfillment logic. Dunning (automatic payment retries on failure) is built in.
Inventory and Fulfillment Pipeline
Stock management with multi-location inventory, backorder support, split shipments, and stock transfers. Integrates with WMS and 3PL systems. The fulfillment pipeline handles exchanges, returns, and partial refunds with auditable state transitions. Every inventory movement is tracked.
Tax Engine
Built-in tax calculation with support for US sales tax (rooftop-level accuracy), VAT, and GST. Per-product tax categories, customer tax exemptions, and refund tax adjustments. Or bypass the built-in engine and connect to a third-party tax service (Avalara, TaxJar) for automated calculation and filing.
Extension System and Upgrade Path
Solidus uses a decorator and engine-based extension pattern. Custom behavior lives in extensions that don’t modify core code, so version upgrades don’t break your customizations. The community maintains extensions for payment gateways, shipping carriers, and third-party integrations. Solidus has a regular release cadence and a clear deprecation policy, so upgrades are predictable.
Self-Hosted with Full Source Access
Deploy wherever you want: AWS, GCP, DigitalOcean, Hetzner, bare metal. You own the code, the data, and the infrastructure. Solidus also offers a managed cloud option (Solidus Cloud) if you want them to handle hosting, security patches, and infrastructure. Either way, you have full source access.
Compare
Solidus
Spree
Shopify
Source code
Fully open, you own it
Open source, smaller community
Closed, Shopify owns it
Transaction fees
None
None
0.5–2% unless using Shopify Payments
Custom checkout
Full control, modify anything
Full control
Limited to Shopify’s checkout (unless Plus)
Hosting
You choose (your servers, any cloud)
You choose
Shopify hosts it
Ongoing cost
Hosting + dev time
Hosting + dev time
Monthly plan + apps + transaction fees
Best for
Complex catalogs, custom business logic, high-volume B2B
Simpler stores wanting open source
Quick launch, small team, standard retail
Dev team needed?
Yes, Rails developers
Yes, Rails developers
No (but limited without one)
Solidus forked from Spree in 2015. Since then, Solidus has maintained a more consistent release schedule and a larger active contributor base. If you’re evaluating both, read our detailed comparison : spree-vs-solidus
Framework
Ruby on Rails + Solidus
Ruby on Rails (latest stable) + Solidus (latest stable). We don’t start projects on old versions.
Database
PostgreSQL
PostgreSQL. Every time. It handles the complex queries eCommerce generates (inventory lookups, order filtering, reporting) better than MySQL, and its JSON column support is useful for flexible product attributes.
Background jobs
Sidekiq + Redis
Sidekiq with Redis. Order confirmation emails, inventory sync, bulk imports, report generation. Anything that doesn’t need to happen in the request cycle goes here.
Search
Elasticsearch or Meilisearch
For stores with large catalogs (1,000+ products), we add Elasticsearch or Meilisearch for fast, typo-tolerant product search and filtering.
Caching
Redis-backed fragment caching
Redis-backed fragment caching. Product pages, category listings, and cart calculations get cached to keep response times under 200ms.
Deployment
Docker + your cloud provider
Docker containers on the cloud provider of your choice. We’ve deployed Solidus stores on AWS, DigitalOcean, Hetzner, and Render. CI/CD pipeline included so deployments are automated and tested.
Monitoring
Error tracking, performance monitoring, and uptime alerts from day one. Not added later when something breaks.
01 / WEEK 1–2
Discovery
We review your product catalog structure, pricing rules, shipping logic, and payment requirements. If you’re migrating from another platform, we audit what you have. The output is a technical spec, not a sales proposal.
03 / LAUNCH
Staged
Soft launch with real orders on a subset of traffic before full switchover. We monitor error rates, checkout completion, and payment processing in real-time during the transition.
02 / BUILD PHASE
Iterative
We work in 2-week cycles. Each cycle delivers working functionality you can test on a staging environment. Product catalog first, then checkout, then integrations. You see progress every two weeks, not a big reveal after three months.
04 / POST-LAUNCH
Ongoing
Solidus releases regularly. We keep your store current, monitor performance, and handle the inevitable “can we add this feature?” requests that come after launch.
faqs
Everything you need to know before getting started with us. Below are out most common questions we get asked.
What is Solidus development?
Solidus is an open-source eCommerce framework built on Ruby on Rails. It forked from Spree Commerce in 2015 and is maintained by an active community. Solidus development means building, customizing, and maintaining online stores using this framework. It gives you full control over your storefront, checkout flow, and backend logic without the vendor lock-in of hosted platforms like Shopify or BigCommerce.
Why choose a Solidus development company for your eCommerce project?
A dedicated Solidus development company brings deep knowledge of the framework's internals, extension ecosystem, and upgrade path. Solidus has a steeper learning curve than hosted platforms, so working with developers who specialize in it means fewer architectural mistakes, faster delivery, and code that follows Solidus conventions rather than fighting them. You also get a team that understands Rails, which is the foundation Solidus runs on.
What are the benefits of custom Solidus development?
Custom Solidus development gives you complete ownership of your eCommerce code. You control the checkout flow, pricing logic, inventory rules, and integrations without paying per-transaction fees to a platform. Solidus scales horizontally, handles complex product catalogs, supports multi-currency and multi-store setups, and lets you extend functionality through Ruby gems without waiting for a platform vendor to add features.
How does Solidus compare to other Ruby on Rails eCommerce solutions?
Solidus forked from Spree Commerce and is now the more actively maintained option. Spree's community has shrunk while Solidus has a consistent release schedule and active core team. Compared to non-Rails platforms, Solidus gives you full source code access, no transaction fees, and the flexibility to build custom business logic. The trade-off is that you need Rails developers to build and maintain it, unlike hosted solutions that provide a visual admin out of the box.
How do Solidus developers ensure scalability and performance?
Scalability in Solidus comes from proper database indexing, query optimization, caching strategies (fragment caching, Redis-backed page caching), and background job processing for tasks like order processing and inventory sync. Solidus runs on Rails, so standard Rails performance techniques apply: eager loading to prevent N+1 queries, CDN integration for assets, and horizontal scaling with multiple application servers behind a load balancer.
What is Solidus extension development, and why is it important?
Solidus extensions are Ruby gems that add functionality to a Solidus store without modifying core code. This matters because it keeps your store upgradable. When a new Solidus version releases, extensions that follow conventions can be updated independently. Common extensions cover payment gateways, shipping calculators, tax engines, and marketing integrations. Custom extension development lets you add business-specific features while keeping a clean separation from the Solidus core.
What do Solidus upgrade services include?
Solidus upgrade services cover migrating your store from an older version to the latest release. This includes reviewing deprecation warnings, updating custom extensions for compatibility, running the full test suite against the new version, migrating database schemas, and testing checkout and payment flows in a staging environment before deploying to production. Falling behind on Solidus versions means accumulating technical debt and missing security patches.
How can Solidus eCommerce consulting benefit your business?
Solidus consulting helps you make the right architectural decisions before writing code. That includes choosing between Solidus and alternative platforms based on your actual requirements, planning your product catalog structure, designing the checkout flow, selecting payment and shipping integrations, and estimating realistic timelines and budgets. Good consulting prevents expensive rewrites later by getting the foundation right from the start.
How to hire the best Solidus developer for your project?
Look for developers or teams with production Solidus deployments, not just Spree or general Rails experience. Check their contributions to the Solidus ecosystem (open-source extensions, community involvement). Ask about their upgrade experience, since Solidus releases regularly and keeping stores current is a core competency. Review their approach to testing, as eCommerce stores handle payments and inventory where bugs have real financial consequences.