OpenCart vs Sylius

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?
FeatureOpenCartSylius
CategoryE-commerce PlatformsE-commerce Platforms
LicenseGPL-3.0MIT
LanguagePHPPHP
Setup difficultyEasyHard
Min. RAM256 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, sourcedocker, bare-metal, source
GitHub stars★ 8,174★ 8,510
First released20092011
ReplacesShopify, Wix StoresMagento, Shopify Plus

Why pick each one

Choose OpenCart if…

  • Low resource requirements
  • Beginner-friendly setup
OpenCart details

Choose Sylius if…

  • Clean, modern PHP codebase
  • Strong testing culture
Sylius details

Frequently asked questions

Is OpenCart or Sylius better?

Neither is universally better. Sylius 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 Sylius free and open-source?

Yes. OpenCart is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Sylius under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run OpenCart and Sylius with Docker?

OpenCart: yes. Sylius: yes.

Related comparisons