Sylius

What is Sylius?

Sylius is an open source headless e-commerce platform built on top of PHP, the Symfony framework, and API Platform. It gives developers a modular commerce engine — product catalog, cart, checkout, orders, payments, and shipping — exposed over a REST API, so you can build a fully custom storefront while owning and hosting all of the code.

What is Sylius best for?

Sylius fits development teams and agencies — especially Symfony/PHP shops — building mid-market or enterprise stores that need deep customization rather than an off-the-shelf template. Its clean, testable codebase and headless API suit complex B2C and B2B catalogs. It’s a poor fit for a non-technical owner who wants to click a shop together, since every store needs developers.

What can Sylius do?

• Expose the full commerce backend (products, carts, orders, promotions, payments) over a REST API built with API Platform, ready for a headless or PWA storefront
• Run multi-channel stores with multiple currencies, locales, and tax/shipping zones from one backend
• Model complex catalogs with product variants, options, attributes, and flexible pricing
• Build custom checkout and promotion logic through Symfony’s modular, override-friendly architecture
• Ship with a strong testing culture out of the box — Behat and PHPUnit for behavior-driven development
• Add commercial capabilities through Sylius Plus: multi-store management, partial order fulfillment, returns handling, a loyalty system, and multi-source inventory

Where does Sylius fall short?

Sylius has a high barrier to entry: there is no drag-and-drop store builder, so even a basic shop requires a Symfony developer to set up, theme, and maintain. Compared to Shopify, you supply your own frontend, integrations, and hosting.

Some of the features enterprises expect — multi-store management, RMA/returns, loyalty, and multi-source inventory — live only in the paid Sylius Plus edition, not the free Community core. If you need those, budget for the annual license.

It’s also a Symfony-first tool: the productivity gains depend on your team already knowing PHP and Symfony conventions. A team outside that ecosystem may move faster with a Node-based headless engine like Medusa or Saleor.

Is Sylius free?

Yes — the Sylius Community edition is free and open source under the MIT license, with no per-sale or GMV fees. You only pay for your own hosting. Sylius Plus is a separate commercial edition sold as an annual subscription (reported to start around €14,900/year, scaled to gross merchandise volume) that adds enterprise features and vendor support.

What does Sylius replace?

Sylius stands in for hosted and enterprise commerce platforms when you want to own the code. It’s an open source Shopify alternative for teams that would rather build a custom storefront than pay monthly plans and transaction fees, and it competes with BigCommerce and the API-first commercetools in the headless, developer-led space. In the open source world it sits alongside PHP peers like Bagisto and Node-based engines like Medusa and Saleor.

FAQ

Is Sylius open source? Yes. The Sylius Community edition is released under the MIT license, one of the most permissive open source licenses, and its source is public on GitHub. The separate Sylius Plus edition is commercial and not open source.

Can I self-host Sylius for free? Yes. The Community edition is free to self-host with no license or transaction fees; you cover only your server costs. It runs on PHP 8.2+, Symfony 7, a database such as MySQL 8, MariaDB, or PostgreSQL, and Node.js for asset building.

Is Sylius a good Shopify alternative? For developer-led teams, yes — you get full control of the storefront, checkout, and data with no GMV fees. It’s not a like-for-like swap for non-technical merchants, since Sylius has no hosted click-to-build store and requires Symfony developers to run.

What do I need to run Sylius? PHP 8.2 or higher with common extensions, Composer, Node.js 20 or 22, and a supported database (MySQL 8+, MariaDB 10.4+, or PostgreSQL 13+). Docker-based installation is available to simplify the initial setup.