head to head · open source
Smartstore vs thelia
Smartstore has 1,521 GitHub stars, 587 forks, 530 open issues and last shipped yesterday. thelia has 879 stars, 319 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Smartstore leads on adoption by 73% (1,521 vs 879 stars). Smartstore is written in C# under AGPL-3.0; thelia is written in PHP under GPL-3.0. Smartstore has attracted 39% 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 1 topic tag (cms), 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
| Smartstore | thelia | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 1.5K | ★ 879 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C# | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 587 | ⑂ 319 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Smartstore if
- You weight community size — 1.5K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- 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 Smartstore
Smartstore is an open source, all in one eCommerce platform built on the ASP.NET Core ecosystem. It uses ASP.NET Core 10, Entity Framework Core 10, Vue.js, Sass, and Bootstrap to provide a modular storefront, product catalog, content tools, and shop management interface.
read the full Smartstore 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 Smartstore or thelia more popular?
Smartstore has 1,521 GitHub stars and thelia has 879. Smartstore has the larger community by that measure.
Are Smartstore and thelia free?
Both are open source. Smartstore is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and thelia under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Smartstore and thelia?
Smartstore is written in C# 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, Smartstore or thelia?
Choose Smartstore if you want the larger community (1,521 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose thelia if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.