Shopware vs Shopify
Shopware (shopware AG, Schöppingen, Germany) is an open-source commerce platform with an MIT-licensed Community Edition and paid Rise, Evolve and Beyond plans, self-hosted or as SaaS/PaaS. Compared with Shopify — Shopify Inc., a Canadian corporation headquartered in Ottawa — whose all-in-one SaaS runs on its own infrastructure with US hosting and network subprocessors.
The German Open-Source Commerce Platform vs the Canadian SaaS Giant
Shopware is developed by shopware AG, a German Aktiengesellschaft headquartered in Schöppingen, North Rhine-Westphalia. Its roots go back to Hamann Media, the company Stefan and Sebastian Hamann started in the early 2000s; the product name became the company name in 2008. Shopware 6, released in 2019, is built on a modern PHP/Symfony stack, and its Community Edition is published under the MIT licence. On top of the open-source core, shopware AG sells three commercial plans — Rise, Evolve and Beyond — that can run self-hosted, as PaaS or as SaaS.
Shopify is operated by Shopify Inc., a corporation existing under the Canada Business Corporations Act, with principal executive offices in Ottawa. Its shares trade on Nasdaq and the Toronto Stock Exchange, and it has chosen to file annual reports on Form 10-K with the US SEC, although as a foreign private issuer it is not required to. European merchants contract with Shopify International Limited in Dublin. Shopify is the archetypal all-in-one hosted store builder: themes, checkout, payments, apps and hosting in a single subscription.
Unlike our other e-commerce comparisons — PrestaShop vs Shopify (small-shop open source) and commercetools vs Shopify Plus (enterprise headless) — Shopware is the European mid-market option: open source at the core, a full commercial platform on top, and a choice of where it runs.
Jurisdiction Comparison
| Shopware | Shopify | |
|---|---|---|
| HQ | Schöppingen, Germany | Ottawa, Canada |
| Corporate entity | shopware AG (German AG) | Shopify Inc. (Canada Business Corporations Act); EU contracts via Shopify International Limited (Ireland) |
| Founded | Early 2000s as Hamann Media; shopware AG since 2008 | 2006 |
| Ownership | Founder majority (Hamann brothers); minority investment from Carlyle and PayPal (2022) | Publicly listed (Nasdaq, TSX) |
| Licence | Community Edition open source (MIT); commercial plans proprietary | Proprietary SaaS |
| Hosting | Your choice: self-hosted, PaaS or Shopware SaaS (on AWS) | Shopify-operated only; sub-processors include Google Cloud Canada, AWS Inc. (USA), Cloudflare Inc. (USA) |
| EU transfer basis | Not needed when self-hosted in the EU | EU adequacy decision for Canada; Standard Contractual Clauses for other transfers |
| Certifications | ISO/IEC 27001:2022 | PCI DSS attestation, SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3 reports |
Product Capabilities
Store setup and ease of use
- Shopware: Powerful admin with rule builder and “Shopping Experiences” CMS, but setup — especially self-hosted — typically involves a developer or agency.
- Shopify: The easiest platform in the category. A non-technical founder can launch a store in hours with a theme and a handful of apps.
Notable: This is Shopify’s biggest advantage. If you have no technical resources, Shopify is hard to beat.
Customisation and code ownership
- Shopware: Full source access. Extensions, themes and the core itself can be modified; Symfony and Vue.js developers will feel at home.
- Shopify: Customisation through themes (Liquid), apps and APIs within the limits Shopify sets. Deeper checkout customisation is reserved for Shopify Plus.
B2B and complex catalogues
- Shopware: B2B components in Evolve, plus customer-specific pricing, digital sales rooms, subscriptions and multi-inventory in Beyond. Shopware itself highlights merchants running millions of automated price updates per day.
- Shopify: B2B is available on all plans, but Basic, Grow and Advanced are limited to 3 active B2B catalogues; unlimited catalogues, deposits and partial payments require Shopify Plus.
Payments
- Shopware: Payment-provider-agnostic. Use Mollie, Adyen, PayPal or a local PSP without a platform surcharge.
- Shopify: Shopify Payments is integrated and convenient; using an external provider adds a fee of 2% (Basic) down to 0.2% (Plus) per transaction.
Ecosystem
- Shopify: Very large global app store, theme marketplace and agency network.
- Shopware: Smaller but mature extension store and a strong partner-agency network, especially in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Sovereignty Model
- Shopware: EU-parented (German AG) and open source. The decisive point is that you decide where your store and customer data live. Self-host the Community Edition or a paid plan with a European hoster and no US provider needs to touch your data. Note that Shopware’s own SaaS runs on AWS, so if you choose the SaaS route, check the region and sub-processor list in your contract.
- Shopify: Canadian-parented — not a US company, and Canada benefits from an EU adequacy decision. However, Shopify’s sub-processor list includes US entities (Amazon Web Services, Inc. for cloud hosting; Cloudflare, Inc. for load balancing and DDoS protection), and those providers are themselves subject to US law, including the CLOUD Act, for data in their custody. Canada is also a Five Eyes member with its own lawful-access regime. Merchants cannot choose where Shopify hosts their store.
For European merchants, the difference is less about Canada versus Germany and more about control: with Shopware the infrastructure is a decision you make; with Shopify it is a decision Shopify makes for you.
Reference Customers
Shopware publicly highlights merchants such as Interpneu, a tyre wholesaler running around 16 million automated price updates per day on Shopware’s pricing functionality, and arktis.de, its first customer back in 2003. Typical Shopware scenarios include:
- German and DACH mid-market retailers that want an agency-built, deeply customised store
- B2B wholesalers and manufacturers with customer-specific pricing, large catalogues and sales-rep workflows
- Merchants with strict data-residency requirements who self-host in a European data centre
Typical Shopify scenarios: direct-to-consumer brands, creators and small shops that value speed of launch and app availability over infrastructure control.
Pricing
| Plan | Shopware (excl. VAT) | Shopify (annual billing, Germany) |
|---|---|---|
| Entry | Community Edition: free (self-hosted; hosting + development extra) | Basic: €27/month (€36 monthly) |
| Growth | Rise: from €600/month | Grow: €79/month (€105 monthly) |
| Advanced | Evolve: from €2,400/month | Advanced: €289/month (€384 monthly) |
| Enterprise | Beyond: custom | Plus: from €2,100/month |
| Third-party payment fee | None | 2% (Basic) to 0.2% (Plus) |
Prices as of October 2026 from the official Shopware and Shopify pricing pages. Shopware’s commercial plans are priced on GMV and other individual factors.
For small shops Shopify is clearly cheaper to start. For mid-market and B2B merchants, compare total cost of ownership: Shopify Plus, paid apps and payment surcharges on one side; Shopware licence, hosting and agency work on the other.
Who Should Switch?
Shopware is the right choice for:
- Mid-market merchants in Europe who want an EU-parented platform and a free choice of hosting
- B2B sellers needing customer-specific pricing, sales-rep workflows and complex catalogues
- Development-led teams who want full code ownership and no vendor lock-in on the core
- Merchants who prefer European payment providers such as Mollie or Adyen without platform surcharges
- Organisations with data-residency requirements that can only be met by self-hosting in the EU
Shopify remains the better choice for:
- Solo founders and small shops without technical support
- Brands that depend on Shopify-specific apps, Shop Pay or the Shop app
- Teams that want zero infrastructure responsibility and accept the platform’s hosting choices
The Bottom Line
Shopify is an excellent product: fast to launch, polished, and backed by a huge ecosystem. It is also Canadian rather than American, with an EU adequacy decision behind its main data flows — a nuance often lost in sovereignty debates. But merchants cannot choose where Shopify runs, its sub-processors include US cloud and network providers, and its business model ties payments and apps closely to the platform.
Shopware gives European merchants control back: an EU-parented, founder-majority German company; an MIT-licensed core you can host anywhere; and commercial plans with serious B2B depth. The trade-off is real — higher entry prices for the paid plans and more technical effort — so it is a better fit for growing and mid-market businesses than for a weekend side project.
Looking for more European e-commerce alternatives? See also: PrestaShop vs Shopify, commercetools vs Shopify Plus and Mollie vs Stripe.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Shopware based and how does its jurisdiction compare to Shopify's?
Shopware is developed by shopware AG, a German Aktiengesellschaft headquartered in Schöppingen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The company grew out of Hamann Media, founded by brothers Stefan and Sebastian Hamann in the early 2000s, and has operated as shopware AG since 2008. It is subject to GDPR and German data-protection supervision. Shopify is operated by Shopify Inc., a corporation existing under the Canada Business Corporations Act with principal executive offices in Ottawa. European merchants contract with Shopify International Limited in Dublin, Ireland. Shopify is not a US company, but its sub-processor list includes US entities such as Amazon Web Services, Inc. (cloud hosting) and Cloudflare, Inc. (load balancing and DDoS protection).
Is Shopware really open source?
Yes, the Shopware Community Edition is published under the MIT licence on GitHub. You can download it, self-host it and modify it without licence fees. The commercial plans (Rise, Evolve, Beyond) add features such as B2B components, advanced search, digital sales rooms and support, and are priced based on gross merchandise value (GMV) and other factors. Shopify, by contrast, is proprietary SaaS — you cannot run it on your own servers.
Is Shopware's cloud offering hosted in the EU?
Shopware announced in 2021 that Amazon Web Services is its exclusive hosting partner for the SaaS offering. AWS is a US-parented provider, so if infrastructure-level sovereignty matters to you, confirm the hosting region and sub-processors in your contract, or self-host the Community Edition (or a self-hosted paid plan) with a European hosting provider. This is the key advantage over Shopify: with Shopware, the hosting decision is yours.
Who owns Shopware?
In February 2022 Shopware raised USD 100 million in growth capital from Carlyle (via Carlyle Europe Technology Partners IV) and PayPal — its first outside funding. The founders retained a significant majority stake. In August 2026 Shopware announced that CFOO Joachim Weber becomes co-CEO from 17 August 2026 and sole CEO from 1 January 2027, while Stefan and Sebastian Hamann remain on the Executive Board and continue to hold the majority of the company's shares.
How do Shopware and Shopify compare on price?
As of October 2026, Shopify's German price list shows Basic at €27/month, Grow at €79/month and Advanced at €289/month on annual billing (€36, €105 and €384 monthly), with Plus from €2,100/month. Shopify also charges an extra fee of 2% (Basic) down to 0.2% (Plus) when you use a third-party payment provider instead of Shopify Payments. Shopware's Community Edition is free (you pay for hosting and development); Rise starts at €600/month, Evolve at €2,400/month and Beyond is custom, all excl. VAT and GMV-based. For small shops Shopify is cheaper; for mid-market and B2B merchants the comparison is closer once Shopify Plus, apps and transaction fees are included.
How does Shopware differ from PrestaShop and commercetools?
PrestaShop is a French open-source platform popular with small and mid-sized shops. commercetools is a German headless, API-first platform aimed at large enterprises replacing Shopify Plus. Shopware sits in between: an open-source core that small teams can self-host, plus paid plans with strong B2B and mid-market features, available self-hosted, PaaS or SaaS.
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