A vendor is a person or company that sells goods or services, such as a street food vendor or a software vendor. A supplier is a person or company that provides goods or materials, often to a business rather than the public. A market vendor sells food to shoppers; a supplier provides the cotton a factory turns into cloth.
The core difference
A vendor sells, often to the end buyer, while a supplier provides goods or materials, typically further up the chain.
- vendor — a person or company that sells goods or services: the street was lined with food vendors selling tacos and fresh juice.
- vendor — also a machine that sells items automatically: there's a snack vendor on the second floor of the office.
- supplier — a person or company that provides goods or materials: the factory switched suppliers after repeated late deliveries.
How to tell them apart
Both words describe businesses on the selling side of a deal, which is why they get used almost interchangeably in casual talk. Vendor tends to suit a sale closer to the end buyer, whether that is a market stall, a snack machine or a software company selling licences. Supplier tends to suit an earlier stage, providing raw materials or components that a business then uses or resells, such as a supplier of raw cotton.
The overlap shows up most in business software, where the same company switching software vendors elsewhere gets called a supplier. Either word usually works for a business relationship, but vendor fits selling to a buyer, while supplier fits providing what a business needs to operate.
