head to head · open source
Saleor vs Shopware
Saleor has 23,503 GitHub stars, 6,170 forks, 263 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Shopware has 3,465 stars, 1,217 forks, 1,356 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Saleor leads on adoption by 578% (23,503 vs 3,465 stars). Saleor is written in Python under BSD-3-Clause; Shopware is written in PHP under MIT. Saleor has attracted 26% 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 1 topic tag (ecommerce), 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
| Saleor | Shopware | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 24K | ★ 3.5K |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | Python | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.2K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Saleor if
- You weight community size — 24K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- 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 Saleor
Commerce that works with your language and stack GraphQL native, API only platform for scalable composable commerce. Get to know Saleor: Talk to a human Talk to the API Join our community: Website Twitter Discord Blog Subscribe to newsletter Table of Contents What makes Saleor special? Why API only Architecture? Features Installation Documentation Saleor Platform Storefront Dashboard Contributing License What makes Saleor special? Technology agnostic no monolithic plugin architecture or technology lock in. GraphQL only Not afterthought API design or fragmentation across different styles of API. Headless and API…
read the full Saleor overview →
About Shopware
Shopware Modern open source e Commerce Shopware 6 is an open headless commerce platform powered by Symfony 7 and Vue.js 3 that is used by thousands of shops and supported by a huge, worldwide community of developers, agencies, and merchants. If you like Shopware 6, give us a ⭐️ on GitHub! 🙋♂️ Be part of shopware! We are hiring! 🙋 🌎 Discover our website 🧩 Browse more than 3,100 extensions in our community store 📖 Learn how to develop extensions and everything else about the tech behind Shopware via our developer docs. 🉐 Translate Shopware or help by contributing to existing languages 🛠 Report bugs in…
read the full Shopware overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Saleor or Shopware more popular?
Saleor has 23,503 GitHub stars and Shopware has 3,465. Saleor has the larger community by that measure.
Are Saleor and Shopware free?
Both are open source. Saleor is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Shopware under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Saleor and Shopware?
Saleor is written in Python 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, Saleor or Shopware?
Choose Saleor if you want the larger community (23,503 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose Shopware if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.