Which platform is best for a multi-vendor marketplace?

There's no single best platform; it depends on your vendor types, payment complexity, and scale. Shopify Plus works well if you need something immediately operational but costs $2,000+ monthly. Custom builds on Node.js or Python (Django/FastAPI) give full control but take 3-6 months and require a dev team. Magento Commerce handles high-volume multi-vendor but has steep hosting costs ($1,000+/month minimum). For MVP testing, WooCommerce with multivendor plugins (Dokan, MVendor) costs under $100/month but scales painfully. WordPress-based solutions like WCFM work for 10-50 vendors; beyond that, they slow down.

Better questions: How many vendors launching day-one (1-5, 50+)? Do they need inventory sync, subscription payments, or just product uploads? What's your payment processor (Stripe, PayPal, local)? These answers narrow it down fast. Most successful marketplaces start on Shopify Plus or a lightweight custom build, then migrate once they hit $50K+ MRR and can justify engineering time. Skip pre-built enterprise platforms until you've proven unit economics with vendors.