Shopinvader 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.
| Feature | Shopinvader | Sylius |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 60 · Good | 92 · Excellent |
| Category | E-commerce Platforms | E-commerce Platforms |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | HTML | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 135 | ★ 8,542 |
| First released | 2017 | 2011 |
| Replaces | Shopify Plus, commercetools | Magento, Shopify Plus |
What are Shopinvader and Sylius?
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
Sylius
Sylius is an open-source e-commerce platform built on the Symfony framework. It targets mid-market and enterprise stores that need a fully customizable, API-first commerce solution.
- Built on Symfony components
- API-first architecture
- Behavior-driven testing baked in
- Highly customizable codebase
Shopinvader vs Sylius: key differences
Shopinvader is written in HTML, while Sylius is built with PHP. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Shopinvader versus MIT for Sylius. Sylius is the more established project (first released 2011), while Shopinvader arrived in 2017. Sylius has the considerably larger community, at 8,542 GitHub stars versus 135.
Why pick each one
Choose Shopinvader if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in HTML
Choose Sylius if…
- Clean, modern PHP codebase
- Strong testing culture
Watch out for
- Requires Symfony knowledge
- Steeper learning curve
Frequently asked questions
Is Shopinvader or Sylius better?
Neither is universally better. Sylius has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Shopinvader and Sylius free and open-source?
Yes. Shopinvader is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Sylius under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Shopinvader and Sylius with Docker?
Shopinvader: yes. Sylius: yes.