Smartstore 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 | Smartstore | Sylius |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 83 · Excellent | 92 · Excellent |
| Category | E-commerce Platforms | E-commerce Platforms |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | C# | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,521 | ★ 8,542 |
| First released | 2010 | 2011 |
| Replaces | Shopify, Magento | Magento, Shopify Plus |
What are Smartstore and Sylius?
Smartstore
Smartstore is a free, open-source e-commerce platform built on ASP.NET Core. It provides a modern responsive storefront, modular plugin system, and a powerful admin for managing stores.
- Modern ASP.NET Core stack
- Modular architecture
- Responsive Bootstrap theme
- Built-in CMS pages
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
Smartstore vs Sylius: key differences
Smartstore is written in C#, while Sylius is built with PHP. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Smartstore versus MIT for Sylius. Smartstore is the lighter option, starting around 1,024 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Sylius. Sylius has the considerably larger community, at 8,542 GitHub stars versus 1,521.
Why pick each one
Choose Smartstore if…
- Polished modern UI
- Good plugin model
Watch out for
- Requires .NET hosting
- Smaller community than competitors
Choose Sylius if…
- Clean, modern PHP codebase
- Strong testing culture
Watch out for
- Requires Symfony knowledge
- Steeper learning curve
Frequently asked questions
Is Smartstore or Sylius better?
Neither is universally better. Sylius has the larger community, while Smartstore is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Smartstore and Sylius free and open-source?
Yes. Smartstore is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Sylius under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Smartstore and Sylius with Docker?
Smartstore: yes. Sylius: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Smartstore or Sylius?
Smartstore has the smaller minimum footprint at 1,024 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for Sylius. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.