PrestaShop 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.
PrestaShop
Open-source online store builder
VS
thirty bees
Stable e-commerce platform forked from PrestaShop
| Feature | PrestaShop | thirty bees |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 92 · Excellent | 81 · Excellent |
| Category | E-commerce Platforms | E-commerce Platforms |
| License | OSL-3.0 | OSL-3.0 |
| Language | PHP | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | bare-metal, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 9,217 | ★ 767 |
| First released | 2007 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Shopify, BigCommerce | Shopify |
What are PrestaShop and thirty bees?
PrestaShop
PrestaShop is a free, open-source e-commerce solution written in PHP. It offers a feature-rich back office, themes, and a marketplace of modules for building and managing online stores of any size.
- Full-featured admin back office
- Large module marketplace
- Multi-store support
- Multilingual catalog
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
PrestaShop vs thirty bees: key differences
Both projects are written in PHP. PrestaShop is the lighter option, starting around 512 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for thirty bees. PrestaShop is the more established project (first released 2007), while thirty bees arrived in 2017. PrestaShop has the considerably larger community, at 9,217 GitHub stars versus 767.
Why pick each one
Choose PrestaShop if…
- Mature and well-documented
- No license fees for core
Watch out for
- Paid modules can be expensive
- Upgrades can be tricky
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 PrestaShop or thirty bees better?
Neither is universally better. PrestaShop has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are PrestaShop and thirty bees free and open-source?
Yes. PrestaShop is licensed under OSL-3.0 and thirty bees under OSL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run PrestaShop and thirty bees with Docker?
PrestaShop: yes. thirty bees: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, PrestaShop or thirty bees?
PrestaShop has the smaller minimum footprint at 512 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for thirty bees. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.