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.

What it is

Thelia is a PHP framework for building online stores and managing web content. Version 3 runs on PHP 8.3, 8.4 or 8.5, Symfony 7.4 LTS, API Platform 4.3 standalone and the Propel ORM. Its front office uses a Twig theme named Flexy and its back office a Twig theme named default-twig; both are built with Twig, Symfony UX (Stimulus, Twig Components, Live Components) and Bootstrap 5, and API authentication uses Lexik JWT. The development repository is thelia/thelia, while thelia/thelia-project is the skeleton used to create an actual shop.

The concrete problem it solves is assembly work. A storefront on Symfony otherwise means wiring routing, an ORM, an admin interface, a theme and an API by hand before any commerce logic exists. Thelia ships that as one stack and adds a command-line installer, bin/install, which reads database credentials and applies theme, demo and admin choices in one pass. For teams already on Thelia 2, the Smarty back office remains available alongside the Twig back office, so migration does not have to be a single-step rewrite.

Key capabilities

• Twig front office (Flexy theme) and Twig back office (default-twig theme) built on Bootstrap 5 and Symfony UX.
• API Platform 4.3 standalone with Lexik JWT for API authentication.
• Propel ORM, with MariaDB 10.11 or later recommended and MySQL 8.x supported.
• bin/install command-line installer reading DATABASE_HOST, DATABASE_PORT, DATABASE_NAME, DATABASE_USER and DATABASE_PASSWORD, or accepting the same values as flags.
• Install flags for --frontoffice_theme, --backoffice_theme, --pdf_theme, --email_theme, --with-demo and --with-admin, plus admin login, password, first name, last name and email.
• Asset compilation handled by bin/install itself through importmap:install and tailwind:build.
• The Smarty back office from Thelia 2 stays available for projects that need it during migration.

Who uses it and how

• Self-hosting PHP and Symfony shops: Nginx or Apache with the document root set to public/, PHP 8.3 recommended, Composer 2.7 or later.
• Teams migrating from Thelia 2, running the Smarty back office while content and configuration move across to the Twig back office.
• Developers working locally with DDEV (PHP 8.3, MariaDB 10.11, Node.js 20); no Docker setup ships with the repository, and the maintainers use DDEV.
• Integrators and headless front ends consuming the API Platform endpoints with JWT authentication.
• Framework contributors, who work in thelia/thelia rather than the shop skeleton; the repository carries the hacktoberfest topic.

Getting started

Install from Packagist through the thelia/thelia-project skeleton, or clone the development repository, run composer install and then bin/install (or php bin/install outside DDEV) with your database variables and theme flags. bin/install builds the assets itself.

How it compares

The registry entry names no paid products that Thelia replaces and no similar tools to weigh it against, so it stands alone in this registry. No licence, self-hosting or cost comparison can be drawn from the facts provided.

When to use it — and when not to

Self-hosting means operating PHP 8.3, MariaDB 10.11 or MySQL 8, Nginx or Apache with the document root at public/, Composer 2.7 or later, and the pdo_mysql, openssl, intl, gd, curl, dom, mbstring and zip extensions; no Docker setup is included, so the environment is yours to build. Teams wanting managed hosting, a non-PHP stack or an out-of-the-box container deployment should not pick it. Note also that thelia/thelia is the framework repository rather than a shop starting point, so creating a store directly from it is the wrong entry point.

ddev config --project-type=php --php-version=8.3 --database=mariadb:10.11 --docroot=public --nodejs-version=20
ddev start
ddev exec composer install

ddev exec bin/install \
  --frontoffice_theme=flexy --backoffice_theme=default-twig \
  --pdf_theme=default --email_theme=default \
  --with-demo --with-admin \
  --admin_login=thelia --admin_password=thelia \
  --admin_first_name=Admin --admin_last_name=User \
  --admin_email=admin@example.com

ddev exec php bin/console importmap:install   # front-office JavaScript dependencies
ddev exec php bin/console tailwind:build      # front-office stylesheet (Flexy)
ddev exec php bin/console sass:build          # back-office stylesheet (default-twig)

ddev exec bin/console template:set backOffice default-twig   # or: default

ddev exec composer test       # PHPUnit test suites
ddev exec composer cs-diff    # coding standard (php-cs-fixer)
ddev exec composer phpstan    # static analysis