head to head · open source
reaction vs Sylius
reaction has 12,400 GitHub stars, 2,169 forks, 96 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. Sylius has 8,564 stars, 2,164 forks, 225 open issues and last shipped yesterday. reaction leads on adoption by 45% (12,400 vs 8,564 stars). reaction is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0; Sylius is written in PHP under MIT. reaction has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, Sylius 25%. Sylius was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (ecommerce, ecommerce-platform, hacktoberfest, headless), 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 | Sylius | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 12K | ★ 8.6K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-03-01 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 2.2K |
| 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 Sylius if
- You want the Sylius feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and Sylius 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 Sylius
Sylius is an Open Source eCommerce framework on top of Symfony . The highest quality of code, strong testing culture, built in Agile (BDD) workflow and exceptional flexibility make it the best solution for applications tailored to your business requirements. Powerful REST API allows for easy integrations and creating unique customer experience on any device. We're using full stack Behavior Driven Development, with PHPUnit and Behat. Enjoy being an eCommerce Developer again! ⚙️ Installation Install Sylius with Composer (see requirements details). Follow the Getting started with Sylius tutorial! 📖 Documentation…
read the full Sylius overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is reaction or Sylius more popular?
reaction has 12,400 GitHub stars and Sylius has 8,564. reaction has the larger community by that measure.
Are reaction and Sylius free?
Both are open source. reaction is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Sylius under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between reaction and Sylius?
reaction is written in JavaScript and Sylius 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 Sylius?
Choose reaction if you want the larger community (12,400 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Sylius if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.