SimplCommerce is an open-source, cross-platform, modulith ecommerce system built on .NET that targets .NET developers and teams who want to own and extend a storefront rather than rent one.

What it is

SimplCommerce is a C# ecommerce application built on ASP.NET Core and distributed under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its distinguishing idea is the "modulith": a single deployable web application assembled from independent, modular components, rather than either a monolithic codebase with no internal boundaries or a distributed set of separately deployed services. The front end uses Angular 1.6.3, persistence goes through Entity Framework Core, identity is handled by ASP.NET Identity Core, and MediatR 7.0.0 carries domain events between modules. A high-level architecture diagram ships in the repository root as modular-architecture.png.

The concrete problem it solves is the gap between hosted ecommerce SaaS and building a store from scratch. A team that needs a shopping cart, catalog, and administration back office but cannot or will not hand its storefront, customer data, and business logic to a vendor can deploy SimplCommerce itself, extend it at the module level, and keep the whole stack on infrastructure the team controls. The thing it replaces is a licensed or subscription storefront product, along with the custom ASP.NET Core application a team would otherwise write to get the same modular structure.

Key capabilities

• Modulith architecture: independent modules composed into one deployable application, documented in modular-architecture.png.
• Storefront plus built-in administration back office reachable at /Admin.
• SQL Server deployment through Entity Framework Core migrations, applied with Update-Database from the Package Manager Console in Visual Studio 2022 against .NET 8.
• PostgreSQL deployment on Mac and Linux using .NET Core SDK 8.0 and the Entity Framework Core tools installed via dotnet tool install --global dotnet-ef.
• Cross-platform bootstrap script simpl-build.sh, run as sudo ./simpl-build.sh or sudo bash simpl-build.sh on Ubuntu 18, followed by dotnet run from src/SimplCommerce.WebHost.
• Docker image simplcommerce/ci-build, started with docker run -p 5000:80 simplcommerce/ci-build for testing purposes.
• Hosted Azure demo with storefront at http://demo.simplcommerce.com and administration at /admin, plus documentation at docs.simplcommerce.com and a published roadmap wiki.

Who uses it and how

• .NET developers on Windows who build the solution in Visual Studio 2022, point appsettings.json in src/SimplCommerce.WebHost at a SQL Server instance, apply migrations, and run SimplCommerce.WebHost as the startup project.
• Teams on Mac and Linux that standardize on PostgreSQL, run simpl-build.sh, then dotnet run and open http://localhost:49206.
• Small organizations that need a working back office for catalog and order administration rather than a bespoke admin panel, and are willing to operate the database themselves.
• Contributors and evaluators: the repository carries the hacktoberfest topic, accepts issues and pull requests, and is funded through OpenCollective backers.
• Anyone assessing fit before committing, using the public Azure demo storefront and /Admin account to inspect behavior first.

Getting started

Build from source: clone the repository, set the DefaultConnection string in appsettings.json under src/SimplCommerce.WebHost, run Update-Database for SQL Server or simpl-build.sh followed by dotnet run for Mac and Linux with PostgreSQL. For a quick test only, run docker run -p 5000:80 simplcommerce/ci-build, or use the hosted Azure demo instead of installing anything.

How it compares

The provided facts name no paid products that SimplCommerce replaces and no similar tools in this registry, so no contrast can be drawn on licence, hosting, data ownership, or cost model. On the evidence available, it stands alone in this registry.

When to use it — and when not to

A self-hoster must operate a database, either SQL Server or PostgreSQL, install and run Entity Framework Core migrations, and have the .NET 8 SDK available; there is no hosted production option in the facts, only a demo and a Docker image explicitly labelled for testing. The front-end stack is old, with Angular 1.6.3 and MediatR 7.0.0, and the README publishes working demo and built-in administrator credentials, [email protected] and 1qazZAQ!, which must be replaced before any real deployment. Anyone without .NET operations capacity, or wanting a managed SaaS storefront, should not pick it.