head to head · open source
Shopware vs Smartstore
Shopware has 3,466 GitHub stars, 1,220 forks, 1,356 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Smartstore has 1,740 stars, 608 forks, 530 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Shopware leads on adoption by 99% (3,466 vs 1,740 stars). Shopware is written in PHP under MIT; Smartstore is written in C# under AGPL-3.0. Shopware has attracted 35% as many forks as stars, Smartstore 35%. Shopware 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Shopware | Smartstore | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 3.5K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | PHP | C# |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.2K | ⑂ 608 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Shopware if
- You weight community size — 3.5K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Smartstore if
- You want the Smartstore feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and Smartstore fits your workflow better
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 →
About Smartstore
Ready. Sell. Grow. A modular, scalable, and ultra fast open source all in one eCommerce platform built on ASP.NET Core 10. Try Online & 8729; Developer Guide & 8729; Forum & 8729; Marketplace & 8729; Translations Smartstore is a cross platform, modular, scalable, and ultra fast open source all in one eCommerce platform built on ASP.NET Core 10 , Entity Framework Core 10 , Vue.js , Sass , Bootstrap , and more. Smartstore includes all the essential features to create multi language, multi store, and multi currency shops , with built in AI capabilities for text and image generation powered by the world's leading AI…
read the full Smartstore overview →
More in Business Software
Related comparisons
More E-commerce Platforms projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the E-commerce Platforms field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Shopware or Smartstore more popular?
Shopware has 3,466 GitHub stars and Smartstore has 1,740. Shopware has the larger community by that measure.
Are Shopware and Smartstore free?
Both are open source. Shopware is licensed under MIT and Smartstore under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Shopware and Smartstore?
Shopware is written in PHP and Smartstore 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, Shopware or Smartstore?
Choose Shopware if you want the larger community (3,466 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Smartstore if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.