Shopware vs Vendure: which one to choose in 2026?
Both are open source alternatives to Shopify. We compare license, tech stack and features to help you decide which fits your team best.
| Shopware | Vendure | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | E-commerce | E-commerce |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| GitHub stars | 7k | 6k |
| Tech stack | PHP, Symfony, Vue.js, MySQL | TypeScript, NestJS, PostgreSQL |
| Replaces | Shopify, Magento | Shopify |
Shopware has more GitHub stars, which usually indicates a larger community (not necessarily that it's the best option for your use case).
Shopware
Ecommerce with a visual editor and API-first design, an alternative to Shopify/Magento.
Pros
- Very powerful visual editor for product landing pages
Things to consider
- Some advanced features are Commercial-edition only
Vendure
TypeScript ecommerce framework, an alternative to Shopify for devs.
Pros
- Carefully crafted developer experience (TypeScript end-to-end)
Things to consider
- Smaller plugin ecosystem than the Shopify App Store
Key features
Shopware
- Visual store editor (Shopping Experiences)
- API-first with decoupled admin
- Extension marketplace
Vendure
- TypeScript plugin system
- Auto-generated GraphQL API
- Multi-store and multi-channel selling