head to head · open source
reaction vs SimplCommerce
reaction has 12,400 GitHub stars, 2,169 forks, 96 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. SimplCommerce has 4,412 stars, 1,669 forks, 172 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. reaction leads on adoption by 181% (12,400 vs 4,412 stars). reaction is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0; SimplCommerce is written in C# under Apache-2.0. reaction has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, SimplCommerce 38%. SimplCommerce was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ecommerce, 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 | SimplCommerce | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 12K | ★ 4.4K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | C# |
| Last push | 2026-03-01 | 2026-06-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 1.7K |
| 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 SimplCommerce if
- You want the SimplCommerce feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and SimplCommerce 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…
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About SimplCommerce
A simple, cross platform, modulith ecommerce system built on .NET Core High level architecture Build Status Online demo (Azure Website) Store front: Administration: Email: admin@simplcommerce.com Password: 1qazZAQ! Docker For testing purpose only docker run p 5000:80 simplcommerce/ci build Continuous deployment: Visual Studio 2022 and SQL Server Prerequisites SQL Server Visual Studio 2022 and .NET 8 Steps to run Update the connection string: Open appsettings.json in src/SimplCommerce.WebHost. The default is configured for a local SQL Server If you are using Visual Studio LocalDB, change it to Ensure you have a…
read the full SimplCommerce overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is reaction or SimplCommerce more popular?
reaction has 12,400 GitHub stars and SimplCommerce has 4,412. reaction has the larger community by that measure.
Are reaction and SimplCommerce free?
Both are open source. reaction is licensed under GPL-3.0 and SimplCommerce under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between reaction and SimplCommerce?
reaction is written in JavaScript and SimplCommerce in C#. 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 SimplCommerce?
Choose reaction if you want the larger community (12,400 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose SimplCommerce if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.