head to head · open source
reaction vs Payum
reaction has 12,400 GitHub stars, 2,169 forks, 96 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. Payum has 1,926 stars, 347 forks, 99 open issues and last shipped yesterday. reaction leads on adoption by 544% (12,400 vs 1,926 stars). reaction is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0; Payum is written in PHP under MIT. reaction has attracted 17% 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 | 2026-11-02 |
| 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) Open Commerce Website Twitter Documentation Discord Discussions Mailchimp Open Commerce is an API first, headless commerce platform built using Node.js, MongoDB, and GraphQL. It plays nicely with npm, Docker and Kubernetes. Features Fast Returns data in split seconds, and faster queries mean faster web pages Proven Open Commerce fuels sites doing 10's of thousands of orders per day with 100's of thousands of products Composable A flexible plugin system allows you to pick and choose which integrations work best for you Multi tenant Host multiple shops in the…
read the full reaction overview →
About Payum
Supporting Payum Payum is an MIT licensed open source project with its ongoing development made possible entirely by the support of community and our customers. If you'd like to join them, please consider: Become a sponsor Payum Reduce Your Development Time with Payum integrating more than 50 payment services simultaneously. Payum is one of the most popular bug free solution that has over 1 000 000 downloads already. It is friendly for all top PHP frameworks and was successfully installed and tested by thousands of developers worldwide Sponsors Payum is supported by: GitBook — hosts our documentation If you'd…
read the full Payum overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is reaction or Payum more popular?
reaction has 12,400 GitHub stars and Payum has 1,926. 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 (12,400 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Payum if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.