Solidus is a free, BSD-3-Clause licensed e-commerce platform built with Ruby on Rails, aimed at developers and merchants who want to own and modify their entire storefront rather than rent one from a hosted provider.

What it is

Solidus is a complete open-source e-commerce solution written in Ruby on Rails. It is distributed as a set of gems: when an application requires the solidus gem in its Gemfile, Bundler installs solidus_api (the RESTful API), solidus_backend (the admin area), and solidus_core (the essential models, mailers, and classes), with additional companion gems following the same naming convention. The project lives in the Ruby and Rails ecosystem, is listed under Business Software and E-commerce Platforms, and is developed in the open on GitHub, where it carries the ecommerce, ecommerce-framework, ecommerce-platform, rails, ruby, solidus, and storefront topics alongside hacktoberfest. The README describes it plainly as a free, open-source e-commerce platform that gives complete control over a store, and the project publishes documentation at docs.solidus.io and longer-form guides at guides.solidus.io.

The concrete problem Solidus solves is dependency on a closed storefront and on a platform vendor's roadmap. It began as a fork of Spree, so teams that wanted the Rails e-commerce model but a different governance and release direction could continue on a codebase they control. Because the catalogue, order, and admin logic arrive as gems inside the merchant's own Rails application, the store is a normal application that can be extended, tested, and deployed like any other service, rather than a product configured through someone else's dashboard. Solidus is community-driven and funded through backers and sponsors on Open Collective, which is how the project sustains development without a paid licence.

Key capabilities

• Requires the solidus gem in a Gemfile; Bundler then installs solidus_api, solidus_backend, and solidus_core together.
• solidus_api exposes a RESTful API for integrating the store with other systems.
• solidus_backend provides the administrative area for managing the store.
• solidus_core supplies the essential models, mailers, and classes that the rest of the platform builds on.
• Ships with a public demo, so the storefront and admin can be evaluated before any installation work begins.
• Documents a dedicated Installation Options section, covering more than one way to bring the platform into a project.
• Publishes a Performance section, acknowledging that tuning a Rails commerce application is part of running it.
• Maintains community infrastructure around the code: a Slack workspace at slack.solidus.io, a security mailing list, guides, and a public roadmap as a GitHub project.

Who uses it and how

• Rails development teams that want commerce logic inside their own application, where models, mailers, and admin screens can be modified directly rather than worked around.
• Merchants whose requirements outgrew a hosted storefront and who are willing to operate a Ruby application in exchange for full control of the codebase.
• Contributors participating through Hacktoberfest and the project's contribution guidelines, since the repository is explicitly open to outside work.
• Supporters and partners who fund the project through Open Collective at bronze, silver, and gold tiers, plus Solidus Ambassadors who are listed with a link to their website.
• Organisations following the project's direction, which is currently guided by Nebulab as the main code contributor and director, coordinating community efforts and technical guidance.

Getting started

Add the solidus gem to a Rails application's Gemfile and let Bundler install solidus_api, solidus_backend, and solidus_core; the README's Getting Started and Installation Options sections, together with the guides at guides.solidus.io, walk through the rest. A demo is available for evaluating the storefront and admin before committing to an install.

How it compares

The README names Spree directly as the project Solidus forked from, so the closest comparison in the facts is that upstream Rails commerce codebase. Solidus carries a BSD-3-Clause licence and is directed by a specific main contributor and director in Nebulab, with funding routed through Open Collective rather than a product licence. No list of paid products that Solidus replaces is provided, so any further comparison would go beyond what the project itself states.

When to use it — and when not to

Choose Solidus if the team already works in Ruby on Rails and wants commerce models, mailers, and an admin area living inside its own application, with a permissive BSD-3-Clause licence and no per-transaction platform fee. Do not choose it if the goal is a managed storefront with no engineering involvement: the facts describe a gem-based Rails framework, installation options, and performance considerations, not a hosted service, and the repository currently carries 92 open issues with community support routed through Slack, guides, and a security mailing list. Teams without Rails experience, or without appetite for operating and upgrading their own application, will find the maintenance burden lands on them.

bin/rails s

gem 'solidus', github: 'solidusio/solidus'

bin/rails g solidus:install --migrate=false --sample=false --seed=false

bin/rails railties:install:migrations
bin/rails db:migrate
bin/rails db:seed
bin/rails spree_sample:load

config.assets.debug = false

//= require turbolinks
//
// ... current file content
//
//= require spree/backend/turbolinks-integration.js

docker-compose up -d

docker-compose build --build-arg RUBY_VERSION=3.0 app
docker-compose up -d

RAILS_VERSION='~> 5.0' docker-compose up -d

# sqlite
docker-compose exec app bin/rspec
# postgres
docker-compose exec app env DB=postgres bin/rspec
# mysql
docker-compose exec app env DB=mysql bin/rspec

## sqlite
docker-compose exec app sqlite3 /path/to/db
## postgres
docker-compose exec app env PGPASSWORD=password psql -U root -h postgres
## mysql
docker-compose exec app mysql -u root -h mysql -ppassword
`