Shopware
Shopware 6 is an open-source, API-first e-commerce platform on Symfony & Vue.js - powering 30,000+ stores with native B2B, headless, and AI Copilot capabilities.
Shopware is an open-source, API-first e-commerce platform built on Symfony and Vue.js, trusted by over 29,000 live stores worldwide. Its latest stable release, Shopware 6.7.8.0 (March 2026), brings AI-powered Copilot capabilities, individual B2B pricing, and European Accessibility Act compliance — making it the platform ELIVTECH reaches for when mid-market and enterprise commerce teams need room to grow.
Shopware at a glance
Why teams choose Shopware
API-first architecture
Every feature ships with a REST API, enabling headless storefronts, custom PWAs, and deep ERP/CRM integrations without ever touching the core.
Rule Engine & Flow Builder
Visual, no-code business logic for promotions, tax rules, shipping conditions, and order workflows — freeing your merchandising team from developer queues.
Native B2B Suite
Individual pricing, quote management, company account hierarchies, and custom catalogues ship out-of-the-box in Shopware's B2B Components.
Built-in AI Copilot
Shopware Copilot brings generative AI for product descriptions, SEO metadata, data insights, and personalisation directly inside the admin.
Multi-channel & multi-language
Sales Channels isolate storefronts, languages, currencies, and tax configurations per market — running cross-border commerce from a single installation.
Open source, no lock-in
The Community Edition is free and MIT-licensed. Rise, Evolve, and Beyond tiers layer on SaaS hosting, advanced analytics, and enterprise SLAs when you need them.
How a Shopware store fits together
A modern Shopware build is a set of clean layers — a Symfony core, an API surface, and your choice of storefront — each replaceable without disturbing the others. Here is the architecture ELIVTECH deploys on a typical project:
Shopware 6 architecture — from shopper to data layer
A type-safe engine that plugins extend safely
Shopware 6 runs on a Symfony 7 kernel with a Doctrine ORM data layer and a Vue.js 3 admin. A Symfony Messenger bus handles async work such as indexing, mail, and event automation, while Elasticsearch powers product search at scale. The Data Abstraction Layer gives every entity a type-safe, queryable API, so plugins extend the data model without ever modifying core tables.
Ship fast now, go composable later
The Classic Storefront uses server-rendered Twig with Sass and Bootstrap for the quickest route to launch. The headless path decouples the frontend entirely — build with Nuxt, Next.js, or any JS framework against the Store API for CDN-edge rendering and sub-second Core Web Vitals. Shopware Frontends (the Nuxt SDK) gives your team a ready-made headless starting point.
Connect the tools your business already runs
The Admin API and Store API are OpenAPI-documented and OAuth 2.0-secured. Native integrations cover SAP, Salesforce, Klaviyo, Stripe, PayPal, and Amazon. The App System lets third-party SaaS register webhooks and inject UI without PHP in the core, keeping every upgrade clean — and the 3,500+ marketplace covers ERP connectors, PIM bridges, tax services, and fulfilment.
Run it your way, scale it with confidence
Self-hosted deployments run on any LAMP/LEMP stack with PHP 8.2+ and MySQL 8 or MariaDB 10.11. For cloud-native setups, Shopware ships official Docker images and a Kubernetes Helm chart, while the managed Shopware Cloud handles infrastructure and patching for you. CI/CD pipelines use the Shopware CLI for migrations and blue-green deploys, with horizontal scaling via shared Redis sessions and async queue workers.
Where Shopware is strongest
Shopware's presence is concentrated in the DACH region, where it holds the top position among the 1,000 highest-revenue German B2C stores. Here is how live installations are distributed by region (Q1 2026):
Shopware live stores by region — Q1 2026 (storeleads.app)
| Capability | Shopware 6 | Adobe Commerce | WooCommerce | Shopify Plus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| API-first / headless | — | |||
| Native B2B features | — | — | ||
| Open-source core | — | |||
| Visual Rule / Flow Builder | — | — | ||
| Built-in AI Copilot | — | — | — | |
| Multi-sales-channel in core | — | |||
| Hosting flexibility | — | |||
| Lower total cost of ownership | — | — |
Where we use Shopware at ELIVTECH
D2C brand stores
Fashion, lifestyle, and consumer-electronics brands launching branded storefronts with rich content, visual merchandising, and loyalty programs.
B2B & wholesale portals
Multi-tier customer groups, negotiated pricing, order-approval workflows, and account-specific catalogues for manufacturers and distributors.
Cross-border & multi-market
A single Shopware installation serving separate Sales Channels per country, each with localised currency, VAT rules, language, and payment methods.
Headless PWA frontends
Composable commerce with Shopware as the engine and a Nuxt or Next.js storefront delivering edge-cached, app-like experiences.
ERP & PIM migrations
Replacing legacy platforms and integrating SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, or Akeneo PIM via the Admin API for real-time catalogue synchronisation.
Marketplace & multi-vendor
Shopware as the commerce backbone for operator-managed marketplaces with vendor-specific storefronts, commission logic, and seller portals.
Where Shopware is a great fit
- Brands whose primary markets are DACH, Benelux, or the UK and need EU-native VAT and tax handling
- B2B commerce with company accounts, individual pricing, and quotes — without paying for expensive middleware
- Teams that want a headless architecture but also a solid out-of-the-box admin for merchandising staff
- Migrations from Shopware 5, Magento 1/2, or a custom PHP shop that need a proven upgrade path
- Long-term projects where an open-source core and App System keep you free of vendor lock-in
What this means for your business
Behind the architecture, choosing Shopware with ELIVTECH comes down to four plain outcomes:
Sell in more markets, sooner
One installation runs every country storefront with its own currency, language, and tax rules — so expanding into a new market is a configuration, not a rebuild.
Own your platform, control your costs
An open-source core with no per-order fees and flexible hosting means predictable running costs and no surprise bills as your order volume climbs.
Empower your commerce team
The visual Rule Engine and Flow Builder let your merchandisers launch promotions and workflows themselves, without waiting in a developer queue.
Built to evolve with you
Start with a fast classic storefront and move to headless when you are ready — the API-first core means your store grows in steps, never a risky big-bang replatform.
Build your next product on Shopware
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