What is Shopware used for?

Shopware is an open-source, API-first e-commerce platform built on Symfony and Vue.js, used by merchants and agencies to run online shops and headless storefronts. It is a good fit for agencies building custom online shops, merchants moving to a headless storefront and teams replacing Magento or PrestaShop.

Is Shopware open source?

Yes. Shopware is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at shopware/shopware and is written mainly in PHP.

Yes. Shopware is open source, so the software itself is free to use. A managed cloud version is also available, with paid plans from €600 per month.

Can I self-host Shopware?

Yes. Shopware can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What is Shopware an alternative to?

Shopware is an open-source alternative to BigCommerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, commercetools and Shopify. Other open-source alternatives to BigCommerce include Medusa, Magento Open Source and Spree Commerce.

Is Shopware actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Shopware was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v6.7.15.0, published on 1 October 2026. The project has 3.4k stars on GitHub.

Shopware: open-source alternative to BigCommerce

About Shopware

Shopware 6 is an open-source e-commerce platform written in PHP on top of the Symfony framework, with a Vue.js administration interface. It gives merchants, agencies, and developers a foundation for running online shops, from a conventional storefront to a headless setup in which a separate front end talks to the platform through its API.

The platform is API-first, so catalog, cart, and checkout functions can be consumed by custom storefronts, apps, or other business systems. Built-in experience-management tools let content teams assemble shopping pages, and a large extension store of community and commercial add-ons extends shop behavior without changing the core. Developers can build their own plugins and customize themes.

The code is published under the MIT license and can be self-hosted on a standard PHP and database stack, which suits agencies delivering custom shops and merchants who want control over their commerce stack. It competes in the same space as Magento and PrestaShop, both of which appear among the project's topics.

Key features

API-first headless commerce architecture
Storefront and administration built on Symfony and Vue.js
Experience manager for building shopping pages
Extension store with community and commercial add-ons
Plugin system for custom functionality
Product catalog, cart, and checkout management

Good fit for

→Agencies building custom online shops
→Merchants moving to a headless storefront
→Teams replacing Magento or PrestaShop

Built with: PHP; Vue
Tags: ecommerce; php; symfony; vuejs; headless-commerce; api-first; online-store; self-hosted

Shopware: questions and answers

What is Shopware used for?: Shopware is an open-source, API-first e-commerce platform built on Symfony and Vue.js, used by merchants and agencies to run online shops and headless storefronts. It is a good fit for agencies building custom online shops, merchants moving to a headless storefront and teams replacing Magento or PrestaShop.
Is Shopware open source?: Yes. Shopware is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at shopware/shopware and is written mainly in PHP.
Is Shopware free?: Yes. Shopware is open source, so the software itself is free to use. A managed cloud version is also available, with paid plans from €600 per month.
Can I self-host Shopware?: Yes. Shopware can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is Shopware an alternative to?: Shopware is an open-source alternative to BigCommerce, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, commercetools and Shopify. Other open-source alternatives to BigCommerce include Medusa, Magento Open Source and Spree Commerce.
Is Shopware actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Shopware was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v6.7.15.0, published on 1 October 2026. The project has 3.4k stars on GitHub.