head to head · open source
reaction vs Payum
reaction has 12,399 GitHub stars, 2,176 forks, 96 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. Payum has 1,925 stars, 347 forks, 99 open issues and last shipped 12 days ago. reaction leads on adoption by 544% (12,399 vs 1,925 stars). reaction is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0; Payum is written in PHP under MIT. reaction has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, Payum 18%. Payum was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| reaction | Payum | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 12K | ★ 1.9K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-03-01 | 2026-09-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 347 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick reaction if
- You weight community size — 12K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Payum if
- You want the Payum feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and Payum fits your workflow better
About reaction
Mailchimp Open Commerce, formerly Reaction Commerce, is an API first, headless commerce platform built on Node.js, MongoDB, and GraphQL for development teams that want to run a custom storefront, marketplace, or multi shop operation on their own infrastructure — and the project has been discontinued.
read the full reaction overview →
About Payum
Payum is a PHP payment processing library. It lives in the PHP e commerce ecosystem, where online stores and business software need to accept payments through external gateways. The project supports credit card purchasing, offsite purchasing, subscriptions, and payouts. It is released under the MIT license and is distributed as a PHP package.
read the full Payum overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is reaction or Payum more popular?
reaction has 12,399 GitHub stars and Payum has 1,925. reaction has the larger community by that measure.
Are reaction and Payum free?
Both are open source. reaction is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Payum under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between reaction and Payum?
reaction is written in JavaScript and Payum in PHP. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, reaction or Payum?
Choose reaction if you want the larger community (12,399 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Payum if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.