LiteCart vs Spree Commerce
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted e-commerce platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
LiteCart
Lightweight free shopping cart built with PHP
VS
Spree Commerce
Open-source Rails e-commerce platform
| Feature | LiteCart | Spree Commerce |
|---|---|---|
| Category | E-commerce Platforms | E-commerce Platforms |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | PHP | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 236 | ★ 15,607 |
| First released | 2013 | 2008 |
| Replaces | Shopify, Ecwid | Shopify, BigCommerce |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is LiteCart or Spree Commerce better?
Neither is universally better. Spree Commerce has the larger community, while LiteCart is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are LiteCart and Spree Commerce free and open-source?
Yes. LiteCart is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Spree Commerce under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run LiteCart and Spree Commerce with Docker?
LiteCart: check the project docs for container support. Spree Commerce: yes.