QOR Commerce 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.
| Feature | QOR Commerce | Reaction Commerce |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 71 · Good | 58 · Fair |
| Category | E-commerce Platforms | E-commerce Platforms |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | docker, kubernetes, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 5,344 | ★ 12,401 |
| First released | 2016 | 2013 |
| Replaces | Shopify, Magento | Shopify, commercetools |
What are QOR Commerce and Reaction Commerce?
QOR Commerce
QOR is an open-source set of Go libraries for building content management systems and e-commerce sites. It provides admin scaffolding, product modeling, and order handling for custom commerce applications.
- Go commerce framework
- Auto-generated admin
- Product modeling
- Pluggable architecture
Reaction Commerce
Reaction Commerce (Open Commerce) is an API-first, headless commerce platform built with Node.js and GraphQL. It uses a microservices architecture suited to flexible, custom storefront builds.
- GraphQL-first API
- Microservices architecture
- Real-time inventory
- Plugin-based extensibility
QOR Commerce vs Reaction Commerce: key differences
QOR Commerce is written in Go, while Reaction Commerce is built with JavaScript. Licensing differs — MIT for QOR Commerce versus Apache-2.0 for Reaction Commerce. QOR Commerce is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Reaction Commerce. Reaction Commerce is the more established project (first released 2013), while QOR Commerce arrived in 2016. Reaction Commerce has the considerably larger community, at 12,401 GitHub stars versus 5,344. Reaction Commerce lists first-class Docker deployment; QOR Commerce does not.
Why pick each one
Choose QOR Commerce if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Mature project with 5.3k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Choose Reaction Commerce if…
- Cloud-native design
- Highly scalable
Watch out for
- Complex to operate
- Development paused upstream
Frequently asked questions
Is QOR Commerce or Reaction Commerce better?
Neither is universally better. Reaction Commerce has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are QOR Commerce and Reaction Commerce free and open-source?
Yes. QOR Commerce is licensed under MIT and Reaction Commerce under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run QOR Commerce and Reaction Commerce with Docker?
QOR Commerce: check the project docs for container support. Reaction Commerce: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, QOR Commerce or Reaction Commerce?
QOR Commerce has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for Reaction Commerce. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.