[opensourcedex]

WooCommerce is a free, open source e-commerce platforms project written in PHP and released under a custom open-source licence. It has 10,514 GitHub stars, 10,675 forks and 1,638 open issues, and was last pushed 3 hours ago. On this registry it ranks #7 of 30 tracked projects in E-commerce Platforms, and is listed as an open source replacement for 1 paid product, with 5 head-to-head comparisons available. It gained 10 stars over the last 6 tracked days.

What is WooCommerce?

What it is

WooCommerce is an open-source ecommerce platform built on WordPress. It lives in the WordPress ecosystem, where a website owner can add commerce functionality through a plugin. The project is described as customizable and positioned as an open alternative to Shopify.

The concrete problem it solves is that WordPress sites often need commerce functionality without moving away from the WordPress ecosystem. WooCommerce provides a core plugin and an extension ecosystem for that need, while the public monorepo exposes the source used to develop the core plugin and WooCommerce extensions.

Key capabilities

  • It provides the core WooCommerce plugin for WordPress-based ecommerce.
  • It supports a broader commerce solution through WooCommerce extensions and related plugins in the monorepo.
  • It includes PHP packages and JavaScript packages for community use and internal dependencies, with some packages marked with an internal- prefix.
  • It uses a monorepo structure containing plugins, packages, and tools for building, testing, and maintaining the project.
  • It supports development workflows that require Node.js, PNPM, PHP 7.4 or higher, and Composer for dependencies, builds, and tests.
  • It identifies ReactJS among its topics, indicating that React is part of the project's technical stack.

Who uses it and how

  • WordPress site owners use WooCommerce to add ecommerce functionality to an existing WordPress installation.
  • Plugin developers use the monorepo to browse the source, track open issues, and contribute code to the core plugin and extensions.
  • Developers can use the packages, tools, and extension structure to build or adapt commerce solutions.
  • Security researchers use the HackerOne process to report vulnerabilities instead of public issue trackers.
  • Contributors can participate in development work indicated by the hacktoberfest topic and the repository's contribution guidance.

Getting started

The README describes a monorepo development setup that requires Node.js, PNPM, PHP 7.4 or higher, and Composer, then uses pnpm install --frozen-lockfile and pnpm build to prepare build outputs. It also notes that a POSIX-compliant operating system is assumed, and that Windows users are recommended to use WSL.

When to use it — and when not to

Compared with Shopify, WooCommerce is an open alternative, but the provided facts do not describe a managed hosted path for end users. It is a fit when an organization wants ecommerce inside WordPress and is willing to operate the surrounding stack, including PHP, Composer, Node.js, PNPM, and build tooling for development. It may be less suitable for users who want minimal operational responsibility, because the repository is centered on source development and support is directed to separate self-help and premium support channels.

project readme (upstream, from github) — read inline

WooCommerce Monorepo

WooCommerce

Welcome to the WooCommerce monorepo on GitHub. Here you can find all of the plugins, packages, and tools used in the development of the core WooCommerce plugin as well as WooCommerce extensions. You can browse the source, look at open issues, contribute code, and keep track of ongoing development.

We recommend all developers follow the WooCommerce development blog to stay up to date with everything happening in the project. You can also follow @DevelopWoo on X (formerly Twitter) for the latest development updates.

Getting Started

To get up and running within the WooCommerce Monorepo, you will need to make sure that you have installed all of the prerequisites.

Prerequisites

  • Node.js: Required to run PNPM and the monorepo's build and test scripts. You do not need to match a specific Node version by hand. PNPM reads the version pinned in pnpm-workspace.yaml (useNodeVersion, mirrored in .nvmrc) and automatically installs and uses it for every script it runs. A Node version manager such as NVM is optional, but still handy for installing Node itself.
  • PNPM: Our repository utilizes PNPM to manage project dependencies and run various scripts involved in building and testing projects.
  • PHP 7.4+: WooCommerce Core currently requires PHP version 7.4 or higher. It is also needed to run Composer and various project build scripts. See troubleshooting for troubleshooting problems installing PHP.
  • Composer: We use Composer to manage all of the dependencies for PHP packages and plugins.

Note: A POSIX-compliant operating system (e.g., Linux, macOS) is assumed. If you're working on a Windows machine, the recommended approach is to use WSL (available since Windows 10).

Once you've installed all prerequisites, the following will prepare all of the build outputs necessary for development:

# Install the PHP and Composer dependencies for all of the plugins, packages, and tools.
# PNPM automatically uses the pinned Node version for every script it runs.
pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
# Build all of the plugins, packages, and tools in the monorepo
pnpm build

Repository Structure

Each plugin, package, and tool has its own package.json file containing project-specific dependencies and scripts. Most projects also contain a README.md file with any project-specific setup instructions and documentation.

  • Plugins: Our repository contains plugins that relate to or otherwise aid in the development of WooCommerce.
    • WooCommerce Core: The core WooCommerce plugin is available in the plugins directory.
  • Packages: Contained within the packages directory are all of the PHP and JavaScript provided for the community. Some of these are internal dependencies and are marked with an internal- prefix.
  • Tools: We also have a growing number of tools within our repository. Many of these are intended to be utilities and scripts for use in the monorepo, but, this directory may also contain external tools.

If you'd like to learn more about how our monorepo works, please check out this guide here.

Reporting Security Issues

To disclose a security issue to our team, please submit a report via HackerOne here.

Support

This repository is not suitable for support. Please don't use our issue tracker for support requests, but for core WooCommerce issues only. Support can take place through the appropriate channels:

NOTE: Unfortunately, we are unable to honor support requests in issues on this repository; as a result, any requests submitted in this manner will be closed.

Community

For peer to peer support, real-time announcements, and office hours, please join our slack community!

Contributing to WooCommerce

As an open-source project, we rely on community contributions to continue to improve WooCommerce. To get started, check out our Contributing guide for a quick reference of common development commands, or visit the Contributing to Woo docs for broader contribution guidelines.

Frequently asked questions

Is WooCommerce free to use?

WooCommerce is open source. There is no licence fee and no seat count — you can self-host it or, where the project offers one, pay a vendor for a managed version instead.

What does WooCommerce do?

Open-source ecommerce platform for WordPress

What is WooCommerce written in?

WooCommerce is primarily written in PHP. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/woocommerce/woocommerce, and it has 10,514 GitHub stars.

What is a good open source alternative to Shopify?

WooCommerce is one of the open source options listed as an alternative to Shopify. Compare licences, stars and activity side by side on the WooCommerce profile.