Shopware vs WooCommerce: 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 | WooCommerce | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | E-commerce | E-commerce |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| GitHub stars | 7k | 9k |
| Tech stack | PHP, Symfony, Vue.js, MySQL | PHP, WordPress, MySQL |
| Replaces | Shopify, Magento | Shopify |
WooCommerce 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
WooCommerce
Ecommerce on WordPress, a free alternative to Shopify.
Pros
- Ideal if your site already runs on WordPress
Things to consider
- Performance depends heavily on the plugins you install
Key features
Shopware
- Visual store editor (Shopping Experiences)
- API-first with decoupled admin
- Extension marketplace
WooCommerce
- The largest plugin ecosystem in the world
- Works with any WordPress theme
- Thousands of supported payment gateways