head to head · open source
reaction vs Shopware
reaction has 12,399 GitHub stars, 2,176 forks, 96 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. Shopware has 3,425 stars, 1,212 forks, 1,356 open issues and last shipped yesterday. reaction leads on adoption by 262% (12,399 vs 3,425 stars). reaction is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0; Shopware is written in PHP under MIT. reaction has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, Shopware 35%. Shopware was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (ecommerce, ecommerce-platform, hacktoberfest), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | Shopware | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 12K | ★ 3.4K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-03-01 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| 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 Shopware if
- You want the Shopware feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and Shopware 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 Shopware
Shopware 6 is an open source ecommerce platform for modern businesses. It lives in the PHP ecosystem, is based on Symfony 7 and Vue.js 3, and is described as an open headless commerce platform used by thousands of shops. The project is not only a ready to use shop application; it is also presented as an ecommerce framework that teams can extend or reuse.
read the full Shopware overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is reaction or Shopware more popular?
reaction has 12,399 GitHub stars and Shopware has 3,425. reaction has the larger community by that measure.
Are reaction and Shopware free?
Both are open source. reaction is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Shopware under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between reaction and Shopware?
reaction is written in JavaScript and Shopware 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 Shopware?
Choose reaction if you want the larger community (12,399 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Shopware if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.