Reaction Commerce 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.
| Feature | Reaction Commerce | thirty bees |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 58 · Fair | 81 · Excellent |
| Category | E-commerce Platforms | E-commerce Platforms |
| License | Apache-2.0 | OSL-3.0 |
| Language | JavaScript | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, source | bare-metal, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 12,401 | ★ 767 |
| First released | 2013 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Shopify, commercetools | Shopify |
What are Reaction Commerce and thirty bees?
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
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
Reaction Commerce vs thirty bees: key differences
Reaction Commerce is written in JavaScript, while thirty bees is built with PHP. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Reaction Commerce versus OSL-3.0 for thirty bees. Thirty bees is the lighter option, starting around 1,024 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Reaction Commerce. Reaction Commerce is the more established project (first released 2013), while thirty bees arrived in 2017. Reaction Commerce has the considerably larger community, at 12,401 GitHub stars versus 767.
Why pick each one
Choose Reaction Commerce if…
- Cloud-native design
- Highly scalable
Watch out for
- Complex to operate
- Development paused upstream
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 Reaction Commerce or thirty bees better?
Neither is universally better. Reaction Commerce has the larger community, while thirty bees is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Reaction Commerce and thirty bees free and open-source?
Yes. Reaction Commerce is licensed under Apache-2.0 and thirty bees under OSL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Reaction Commerce and thirty bees with Docker?
Reaction Commerce: yes. thirty bees: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Reaction Commerce or thirty bees?
thirty bees has the smaller minimum footprint at 1,024 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for Reaction Commerce. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.