Reaction Commerce vs Shopinvader
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted e-commerce platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Reaction Commerce | Shopinvader |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 58 · Fair | 60 · Good |
| Category | E-commerce Platforms | E-commerce Platforms |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | JavaScript | HTML |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, source | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 12,401 | ★ 135 |
| First released | 2013 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Shopify, commercetools | Shopify Plus, commercetools |
What are Reaction Commerce and Shopinvader?
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
Shopinvader
Shopinvader is an open-source headless commerce framework that exposes Odoo product and order data through indexed APIs. It pairs an Odoo backend with a decoupled storefront for fast catalog browsing.
- Odoo-backed catalog
- Elasticsearch indexing
- Decoupled storefront
- REST APIs
Reaction Commerce vs Shopinvader: key differences
Reaction Commerce is written in JavaScript, while Shopinvader is built with HTML. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Reaction Commerce versus AGPL-3.0 for Shopinvader. Reaction Commerce is the more established project (first released 2013), while Shopinvader arrived in 2017. Reaction Commerce has the considerably larger community, at 12,401 GitHub stars versus 135.
Why pick each one
Choose Reaction Commerce if…
- Cloud-native design
- Highly scalable
Watch out for
- Complex to operate
- Development paused upstream
Choose Shopinvader if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in HTML
Frequently asked questions
Is Reaction Commerce or Shopinvader 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 Reaction Commerce and Shopinvader free and open-source?
Yes. Reaction Commerce is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Shopinvader under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Reaction Commerce and Shopinvader with Docker?
Reaction Commerce: yes. Shopinvader: yes.