Django Oscar vs thirty bees
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted e-commerce platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Django Oscar | thirty bees |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 91 · Excellent | 81 · Excellent |
| Category | E-commerce Platforms | E-commerce Platforms |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | OSL-3.0 |
| Language | Python | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | bare-metal, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 6,628 | ★ 767 |
| First released | 2011 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Shopify, Magento | Shopify |
What are Django Oscar and thirty bees?
Django Oscar
Oscar is an open-source e-commerce framework for Django. Rather than a turnkey store, it provides flexible building blocks that can be overridden to model complex commerce domains.
- Highly customizable models
- Class-based override pattern
- Strong catalog and pricing
- Django ecosystem integration
thirty bees
thirty bees is an open-source e-commerce platform forked from PrestaShop with a focus on stability, performance, and merchant-friendly features. It runs traditional online stores and is compatible with many PrestaShop modules.
- PrestaShop module compatibility
- Stability focus
- Multi-store support
- Theme system
Django Oscar vs thirty bees: key differences
Django Oscar is written in Python, while thirty bees is built with PHP. Licensing differs — BSD-3-Clause for Django Oscar versus OSL-3.0 for thirty bees. Django Oscar is the more established project (first released 2011), while thirty bees arrived in 2017. Django Oscar has the considerably larger community, at 6,628 GitHub stars versus 767. Thirty bees lists first-class Docker deployment; Django Oscar does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Django Oscar if…
- Extremely flexible
- Good for complex domains
Watch out for
- Requires Django expertise
- Not a ready-made store
Choose thirty bees if…
- Released under the OSL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in PHP
Watch out for
- Smaller community
- Slower release cadence
Frequently asked questions
Is Django Oscar or thirty bees better?
Neither is universally better. Django Oscar has the larger community, while thirty bees is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Django Oscar and thirty bees free and open-source?
Yes. Django Oscar is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and thirty bees under OSL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Django Oscar and thirty bees with Docker?
Django Oscar: check the project docs for container support. thirty bees: yes.