OpenCart vs Reaction 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?
OpenCart
Free PHP-based shopping cart system
VS
Reaction Commerce
Headless GraphQL commerce microservices platform
| Feature | OpenCart | Reaction Commerce |
|---|---|---|
| Category | E-commerce Platforms | E-commerce Platforms |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | PHP | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, kubernetes, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 8,174 | ★ 12,400 |
| First released | 2009 | 2013 |
| Replaces | Shopify, Wix Stores | Shopify, commercetools |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is OpenCart or Reaction Commerce better?
Neither is universally better. Reaction Commerce has the larger community, while OpenCart is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are OpenCart and Reaction Commerce free and open-source?
Yes. OpenCart is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Reaction Commerce under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run OpenCart and Reaction Commerce with Docker?
OpenCart: yes. Reaction Commerce: yes.