head to head · open source
Shopware vs thelia
Shopware has 3,425 GitHub stars, 1,211 forks, 1,356 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. thelia has 879 stars, 319 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Shopware leads on adoption by 290% (3,425 vs 879 stars). Shopware is written in PHP under MIT; thelia is written in PHP under GPL-3.0. Shopware has attracted 35% as many forks as stars, thelia 36%. thelia 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
| Shopware | thelia | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 3.4K | ★ 879 |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | PHP | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.2K | ⑂ 319 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Shopware if
- You weight community size — 3.4K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick thelia if
- You want the thelia feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and thelia fits your workflow better
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 →
About thelia
Thelia is an open source e commerce CMS and framework built on Symfony 7 and API Platform, for PHP teams that want to own and extend their storefront, back office and API instead of renting a hosted platform.
read the full thelia overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Shopware or thelia more popular?
Shopware has 3,425 GitHub stars and thelia has 879. Shopware has the larger community by that measure.
Are Shopware and thelia free?
Both are open source. Shopware is licensed under MIT and thelia under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Shopware and thelia?
Shopware is written in PHP and thelia 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, Shopware or thelia?
Choose Shopware if you want the larger community (3,425 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose thelia if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.