Bagisto vs Smartstore
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted e-commerce platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Bagisto
Laravel-based open-source e-commerce platform
VS
Smartstore
Modern open-source .NET commerce platform
| Feature | Bagisto | Smartstore |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 97 · Excellent | 83 · Excellent |
| Category | E-commerce Platforms | E-commerce Platforms |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | PHP | C# |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 28,163 | ★ 1,521 |
| First released | 2018 | 2010 |
| Replaces | Shopify, WooCommerce | Shopify, Magento |
What are Bagisto and Smartstore?
Bagisto
Bagisto is a free, open-source e-commerce framework built on Laravel and Vue.js. It offers multi-warehouse inventory, a modular admin, and headless capabilities for building modern online stores.
- Built on Laravel framework
- Multi-warehouse inventory
- Headless GraphQL API
- Multi-channel and multi-locale
Smartstore
Smartstore is a free, open-source e-commerce platform built on ASP.NET Core. It provides a modern responsive storefront, modular plugin system, and a powerful admin for managing stores.
- Modern ASP.NET Core stack
- Modular architecture
- Responsive Bootstrap theme
- Built-in CMS pages
Bagisto vs Smartstore: key differences
Bagisto is written in PHP, while Smartstore is built with C#. Licensing differs — MIT for Bagisto versus AGPL-3.0 for Smartstore. Smartstore is the more established project (first released 2010), while Bagisto arrived in 2018. Bagisto has the considerably larger community, at 28,163 GitHub stars versus 1,521.
Why pick each one
Choose Bagisto if…
- Modern Laravel stack
- Active development
Watch out for
- Smaller extension ecosystem
- Documentation gaps in places
Choose Smartstore if…
- Polished modern UI
- Good plugin model
Watch out for
- Requires .NET hosting
- Smaller community than competitors
Frequently asked questions
Is Bagisto or Smartstore better?
Neither is universally better. Bagisto has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Bagisto and Smartstore free and open-source?
Yes. Bagisto is licensed under MIT and Smartstore under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Bagisto and Smartstore with Docker?
Bagisto: yes. Smartstore: yes.