General
What is TwelveTake Cart?
TwelveTake Cart is a self-hosted, white-label e-commerce platform built by TwelveTake Studios. It includes product management, checkout, payments, subscriptions, returns, loyalty programs, email marketing, and analytics.
What does "self-hosted" mean?
Self-hosted means you run TwelveTake Cart on your own server or infrastructure. Your data stays on your hardware, under your control. You're not locked into a third-party SaaS platform that can change pricing or terms at any time. If you don't want to manage servers yourself, we also offer managed hosting where we handle the infrastructure for you.
What's the current status of the product?
TwelveTake Cart is still in development.
Who is TwelveTake Cart for?
Anyone selling products online who wants their whole store in one platform. It's especially well-suited for businesses that sell custom merchandise (the built-in merch builder), run multi-vendor marketplaces, need B2B features, or want full control of their infrastructure and data.
What's the tech stack?
Astro 5 SSR with the Node.js adapter, SQLite via better-sqlite3, Tailwind CSS 4, Nodemailer for email, Sharp for image processing, and PDFKit for invoices and packing slips. All pages are server-rendered, with vanilla JavaScript for interactivity and no client-side framework.
Hosting & Deployment
Can I host it myself?
Yes. Build, deploy, and run it on any Linux VPS, dedicated server, or Docker container. See server requirements below.
Do you offer managed hosting?
Yes. If you'd rather not deal with servers, we'll install, configure, and manage TwelveTake Cart for you on dedicated infrastructure.
What are the server requirements?
Node.js 18 or higher (22 recommended), npm or pnpm, and enough disk space for your product images and database. A basic VPS with 1GB RAM is enough for most small-to-medium stores. There's no external database dependency. SQLite runs embedded in the application.
How do I deploy it?
Run npm run build to produce a standalone Node.js server, then run it with node dist/server/entry.mjs. Put it behind a reverse proxy (nginx, Caddy) for HTTPS. Use PM2 or systemd for process management. A full deployment guide is included in the developer documentation.
How do backups work?
Your entire store (database, settings, and uploaded files) lives in a single data/ directory. Back up that directory and you've backed up everything. To copy the database safely while the store is running, use SQLite's own backup command, sqlite3 data/store.db ".backup data/backup.db", rather than copying store.db by hand. A plain file copy of a live database can miss recent orders.
Features
What features are included?
Product management with variants and options, shopping cart and checkout, order management and fulfillment, returns and exchanges, subscriptions, gift cards, digital downloads, multi-vendor marketplace, B2B with quotes and net terms, loyalty program, affiliate program, email marketing, SMS marketing, abandoned cart recovery, analytics and reporting, merch builder, CMS and blog, multi-currency, and multi-language. See the product page for the full list.
What is the merch builder?
The merch builder is a product configurator for custom merchandise. You define product types (t-shirts, hoodies, mugs), blank images, and print zones. Customers upload their artwork, place it on the product, choose sizes and quantities, and see real-time pricing.
What payment processors are supported?
Square, Stripe, and PayPal are built in. There's also an offline/manual processor for checks, bank transfers, and purchase orders. You can also add your own processor by implementing a single interface. See the developer guide for details.
Does it support B2B / wholesale?
Yes. Company accounts with multiple contacts, purchase order numbers, quote-to-invoice workflow with dual approval, net terms payment (Net 15/30/60/custom), customer groups with tiered pricing, and built-in tax compliance (W-9 collection, the $599 IRS reporting threshold for vendor payouts, 1099-NEC PDF generation).
Does it support subscriptions?
Yes. You set the billing interval to daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly, and customers can pause, resume, cancel, skip, or swap a plan themselves. Failed payments are retried automatically with escalating reminder emails, and mid-cycle plan changes are prorated. Square and Stripe subscription adapters are included. PayPal handles checkout and refunds only; it does not yet support subscriptions.
Does it have email and SMS marketing?
Yes, both. Email marketing includes campaign builder, customer segmentation, A/B testing, automation rules (welcome series, post-purchase, win-back, birthday), and open/click/conversion tracking. SMS marketing includes Twilio integration, campaigns, automations, A/B testing, opt-in/opt-out management, and quiet hours.
Can I run a multi-vendor marketplace?
Yes. Vendors get their own dashboard to manage products, view orders, and track earnings. Commission types include margin, percentage, and flat fee. Features include on-demand cashout, payout processing (PayPal, Venmo, manual), product approval queue, and 1099-NEC generation.
Is it accessible?
Yes. TwelveTake Cart targets WCAG 2.1 AA compliance with keyboard navigation, screen reader support, focus management, non-color status indicators, and accessibility checks that run automatically on every release.
Does it support multiple languages?
Yes. Translate your products, categories, and store text, with a URL prefix per language. Right-to-left languages like Arabic and Hebrew are supported. Translations can be exported and re-imported as files if you work with an outside translator.
Can I sell on social media platforms?
Yes. TwelveTake Cart includes Google Shopping feed generation in XML, TSV, and CSV formats with filtering rules, and bidirectional catalog sync with Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok shops including order import and fulfillment push.
Pricing & Licensing
How much does it cost?
Pricing hasn't been published. Get in touch.
Are there transaction fees?
No. TwelveTake Cart never takes a percentage of your sales. Your payment processor (Square, Stripe, PayPal) charges their standard processing fees, but those go to them, not to us.
Are any features paid add-ons?
No. The merch builder, B2B, subscriptions, email marketing, SMS marketing, analytics, multi-vendor marketplace, affiliate program, loyalty program: all of it is built into the software, not sold separately.
Migration
Can I migrate from Shopify or WooCommerce?
Yes. Built-in import tools for WooCommerce CSV exports, Shopify CSV exports, and generic CSV files with column mapping. Import products, customers, and order history. The CSV mapper includes auto-matching to suggest column mappings based on header names.
Developer & API
Does it have an API?
Yes. A full REST API with 230+ endpoints covering products, orders, customers, inventory, settings, and every feature module. An OpenAPI 3.0 spec is included, with interactive API documentation built into the admin panel.
Can I use it headless?
Yes. Cross-origin requests are supported out of the box. Use the REST API as a headless backend with your own frontend (React, Vue, Next.js, whatever you want). Or use the included storefront as-is.
How does authentication work for integrations?
Integrations authenticate with API keys that carry scoped permissions. Create keys in the admin panel, grant read or write access per resource type (products, orders, customers, inventory, settings), and authenticate with a Bearer token. Keys can be revoked at any time.
Does it support webhooks?
Yes. Event types covering orders, products, customers, returns, low stock, and subscription renewals. HMAC-SHA256 signed payloads, exponential backoff retry on failure, and delivery logs viewable in the admin panel.
Can I extend it with custom code?
Yes, multiple ways. Event hooks let you run custom code before or after key operations (orders, payments, shipping, inventory). Just drop a file in the hooks/ directory. You can add custom payment processors by implementing a single interface. Custom fields can be defined on products, orders, and customers without schema changes. And since it's self-hosted, you have full access to the source code.
Where's the documentation?
Right here. The developer guide covers architecture, API, webhooks, payment integration, database, deployment, and extending the platform. The admin guide covers every feature module from the store operator's perspective.
White-Label & Customization
Is it white-label?
Yes. No TwelveTake branding is visible to your customers. Every label, color, logo, and URL is configurable.
Can I customize the look and feel?
Yes. Change brand colours, fonts, border radius, and light or dark mode from the admin panel, no code required. Upload your logo and favicon in Settings > Appearance. If you need to go further, point the store at your own stylesheet and webfonts, and they load without touching the codebase.
Can I use it for multiple stores?
Yes. A single deployment can run multiple independent storefronts (each on its own domain, with its own branding and settings) from one shared database, using per-storefront setting overrides. The number of sites depends on your license.
Security
How is security handled?
CSRF protection on all form submissions, HTTP-only session cookies, rate limiting on authentication endpoints (login and registration), brute-force protection, RBAC with granular permissions, two-factor authentication for admin accounts, a full audit log of every admin action, and HMAC-SHA256 signed webhook payloads.
Is customer data encrypted?
Yes. Sensitive credentials (payment processor keys, social login tokens, and admin two-factor secrets) are encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM. The encryption key is supplied as an environment variable and is required in production, so it never sits in the database beside the data it protects.
Does it handle PCI compliance?
TwelveTake Cart never touches raw credit card numbers. Payment processing is handled entirely by your chosen processor (Square, Stripe, PayPal) using their client-side SDKs. Card data goes directly from the customer's browser to the processor. It never passes through your server.