What Is Shopware? Editions, Hosting, Pricing and B2B Explained

Shopware is an open-source ecommerce platform from shopware AG. Its developer documentation describes it as "an API-first, open-source E-commerce platform" built on "Symfony PHP and VueJS," offered with "both cloud-hosted and self-hosted plans." Merchants run B2C and B2B stores on it, either on the free Community Edition or on one of three paid plans.

This guide explains what Shopware is in 2026 from Shopware's own pages: the company, the platform's architecture, the Community Edition and paid plans, the three hosting models, the Fair Usage Policy, how B2B Components work, and how a move to Shopify works if you are weighing one.

Key takeaways

• Open source at the core: the Community Edition is licensed under the MIT License.
• Four plans: Community Edition (free), Rise (from €600 a month), Evolve (from €2,400 a month) and Beyond (custom), with prices shown excluding VAT.
• Three hosting models: Shopware SaaS, Shopware PaaS, or self-hosted on infrastructure you choose.
• A GMV threshold: Community Edition merchants above €1 million in annual GMV must move to a paid plan to keep access to the Shopware Account and Shopware Store.
• B2B Components: quotes, purchasing approvals, budgets and rule-based customer pricing come with the Evolve plan, and Beyond adds customer-specific prices brought in from an ERP.
• Moving to Shopify: at Uncap, a migration from another platform typically takes 10 to 16 weeks, with a median cutover around 14 weeks.

What is Shopware?

Shopware is an ecommerce platform built for both B2C and B2B selling. Shopware's developer documentation defines it this way: "Shopware is an API-first, open-source E-commerce platform that provides a wide range of features to help businesses build and manage online stores. It utilizes the modern technology stack, comprising Symfony PHP and VueJS framework."

The company behind it is shopware AG. Its own history traces the company to the village of Schöppingen, where the Hamann brothers started out, and its company page says it was founded in 2000. That history also records the move to open source, when Shopware brought "an open source 'Community Edition' to market," and the debut of Shopware 6, the version line the platform runs on today.

Shopware 6 has three parts, in Shopware's words:

• Core: "Contains all the commerce processes that take place on the platform."
• Administration: "An interface where you, as a merchant, can manage all the resources associated with the previous layer."
• Storefront: "Represents the default frontend app that store visitors see and interact with."

Because the core is exposed through APIs, Shopware calls itself "API-first with a headless core." It explains that this means "a flexible and modern software architecture where the backend is separated from the frontend," which it says enables integrations "with various B2B software solutions, including ERP, CRM, and PIM systems."

Shopware's developer page lists who it is for: it is "Suitable for all B2B AND B2C business models" and "Available as a cloud-based or on-premise ecommerce system."

Shopware editions and plans

Shopware sells one platform in four plans. All of them sit on the same open-source base: Shopware says the "Community Edition is the foundation for Shopware Rise, Shopware Evolve, and Shopware Beyond plans."

• Community Edition: "For businesses and developers building a store they can customize and grow." It is listed as "Free," with a visual page editor, product and order management, Shopware Payments and community support. Shopware's pitch is "Start with no platform license fee" and "Adapt your store with access to the source code."
• Rise: "For growing businesses ready for more tools and support," from €600 a month excluding VAT, with the first 30 days free. It adds AI-assisted content creation, product customization options, returns management and direct support from Shopware.
• Evolve: "For businesses with advanced B2B or B2C requirements," from €2,400 a month excluding VAT. It adds "B2B components such as quotes and purchasing approvals," advanced product search, customer-group content targeting and extended support with phone access.
• Beyond: "For businesses managing complex pricing and fulfillment," priced on request. It adds customer-specific pricing brought in from your ERP or another business system, multi-location inventory, Digital Sales Rooms and 24/7 priority support.

The plan you pick decides which B2B features you get. In Shopware's plan comparison, quote management, budgets, organization units and individual pricing rules start on Evolve, and customer-specific prices brought in from an ERP via API arrive on Beyond, so the B2B features you need point to the plan you need.

Shopware's prices are shown in euros on its pricing page, which also offers a US dollar view, and Shopware notes that all prices are "quoted net of the statutory value-added tax."

How Shopware is hosted: SaaS, PaaS or self-hosted

Shopware gives you a hosting choice: "With Shopware, choose SaaS, PaaS, or self-hosting." Its hosting page describes each one.

• Shopware SaaS: "a fully managed application and hosting environment, including infrastructure operations and automatic software updates." Shopware says this suits businesses "that prioritize operational simplicity."
• Shopware PaaS: "managed infrastructure with greater freedom to customize and develop your application. Shopware handles infrastructure operations, while your team or partner manages application development, integrations, and software upgrades."
• Self-hosting: "Your team or hosting partner takes responsibility for infrastructure operations, maintenance, and software upgrades." Shopware positions it for organizations with "specific infrastructure, compliance, or operational requirements."

The model also changes how far you can customize. Shopware says SaaS offers "customization through supported configuration, extensions, and integrations," PaaS offers "greater application-level flexibility," and self-hosting "provides the greatest control over the application and hosting environment."

Switching later takes planning. Shopware says moving between models "may be possible," that the effort "depends on your existing architecture, customizations, integrations, data, and the capabilities supported by the target environment," and gives the example that "moving from a highly customized self-hosted environment to SaaS may require changes to functionality that depends on direct application or infrastructure access."

There is also a buying difference. Shopware notes that "Booking a Rise plan within the account is only available for self-hosted stores," while for SaaS and PaaS you contact its sales team.

Is Shopware free? The Community Edition and Fair Usage Policy

Yes, the Community Edition is free and open source. Shopware says it "continues to be fully open source and is licensed under the permissive MIT License," which means "merchants and developers can freely access, modify, and extend the software."

There is one condition to know about as a store grows. Shopware's Fair Usage Policy, introduced with its terms on March 24, 2025, applies to Community Edition merchants who use the Shopware Account and Shopware Store, where extensions are rented and managed.

• Below €1 million GMV: Community Edition merchants with annual GMV under €1 million through their Shopware store "will continue to have full access to the Shopware Account and Shopware Store without any changes."
• Above €1 million GMV: merchants "must subscribe to Shopware Rise, Evolve, or Beyond to retain access to the Shopware Account and Shopware Store."
• Reporting: "GMV reporting is mandatory for all Community Edition users," at least once a year, through an extension or a form.

Shopware is clear that the policy "does not impact the open-source license of the Community Edition." A merchant who stays on the Community Edition without the Account and Store keeps "full access to the Shopware CE source code," but loses access to paid extensions and support.

What Shopware costs

Shopware publishes its plan prices, so the starting license cost is clear: free for the Community Edition, from €600 a month for Rise, from €2,400 a month for Evolve, and custom pricing for Beyond.

Shopware is also direct that the license is only part of the cost. Its hosting page says "Beyond licensing and hosting, the real cost of a commerce platform includes the people and resources required to operate and maintain it." How that splits depends on the hosting model:

• SaaS: "licensing, infrastructure management, and software updates are included within the subscription's service scope."
• PaaS: "combines a paid Shopware license with managed infrastructure priced according to your requirements, while application development and upgrades remain your responsibility."
• Self-hosting: "infrastructure, operations, and software maintenance are managed by your team or partner, alongside any applicable license fees."

Across all three, Shopware says "Implementation, extensions, integrations, and ongoing application work may add costs." That is a fair checklist for any platform budget: license, hosting, the team that runs it, and the extensions and integrations around it.

What Shopware includes

Shopware's developer documentation lists the platform's core features. Here are the ones operators ask about most.

• Catalog management: dynamic product groups that update "based upon flexible filter criteria," and customizable properties for generating variants.
• Shopping Experiences: Shopware's content system, which "allows you to create dynamic content pages with Shopware, using expressive images and relevant content, without dependency upon third-party services."
• Multiple stores: "the capability to efficiently manage multiple stores using a single interface."
• Rules for pricing and promotions: a rules engine for "price, promotions, discounts, tax, shipping and more," which can also show or hide content by condition.
• Marketing: customer segmentation by shopping behavior, banners and loyalty programs.
• International selling: support for "multi-currency and multi-language."
• Extensions: apps and themes from Shopware's community store, which you can "install, purchase, update, and delete."

Shopware's site also lists newer products that sit around the core:

• Shopware Nexus: to "Integrate your tech stack with Shopware Nexus."
• Multichannel Connect: to "Sell on marketplaces with Multichannel Connect."
• Shopware Payments: to "Handle transactions with Shopware Payments."
• Shopware Analytics: to "Monitor business KPIs with Shopware Analytics."
• Deep Search: to "Help buyers find products with Deep Search."
• Digital Sales Rooms: to "Connect and sell with Digital Sales Rooms," listed on the Beyond plan.
• 3D and AR: to "Help buyers explore products in 3D and AR."

On the AI side, Shopware's site lists Copilot for analyzing data and running tasks, along with AI-assisted content creation on the Rise plan and up. Not every product is on every plan, so check the plan comparison before you count on one.

How B2B works on Shopware

B2B on Shopware runs through B2B Components. Shopware describes them as "a modular system tailored to meet your unique requirements," "Built upon the versatile, open source Shopware 6 core," and "Fully integrated in Shopware 6 core." The components Shopware lists include:

• Quick order: customers order "using convenient item number entry" or by uploading item lists.
• Organizational structures: "individualized accounts, efficient workflows, and comprehensive rights and role management."
• Quotes and negotiation: "Efficiently manage inquiries, craft personalized offers, and conduct all negotiations" inside Shopware.
• Order lists: "dynamic order lists, easily shareable with stakeholders."
• Approval rules and rights: "differentiated approval workflows" and "user-level permissions for accessing B2B functionalities."
• Departments and budgets: departments with their own shipping addresses or payment methods, and the ability to "Allocate roles, permissions, limits, and budgets to their employees."
• Catalog pricing: "A rule-based catalog pricing engine that applies customer- and organisation-unit-specific discounts (percentage, fixed, fixed-price, volume tiers)."

Shopware positions B2B and B2C together: "you can easily integrate both B2B and B2C commerce onto a single platform." It also invites merchants on its B2B Suite to migrate to B2B Components.

On the plans, Evolve adds "B2B components such as quotes and purchasing approvals," along with the rule-based catalog pricing above, and Beyond adds customer-specific prices brought in "from your ERP or another business system," so the B2B scope you need sets the plan.

Is Shopware the same as Shopify?

No. The names are close, but Shopware is made by shopware AG and Shopify is a separate platform made by Shopify. Here is Shopware vs Shopify on the points both vendors document.

• Source code: Shopware's Community Edition is open source under the MIT License, and Shopware says you can "Adapt your store with access to the source code."
• Hosting: Shopware offers SaaS, PaaS or self-hosting. Shopify describes itself as "a cloud-based and hosted platform."
• B2B: on Shopware, B2B Components come with the Evolve and Beyond plans. On Shopify, B2B features are part of the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Shopify Plus plans, including companies, catalogs and net payment terms. Shopify says B2B "isn't available on the Starter or Retail plans," and below Plus you can assign "up to 3 active catalogs across all your B2B markets."

For how Shopify B2B works plan by plan, see our Shopify B2B guide.

How a move from Shopware to Shopify works

A Shopware to Shopify move follows the same order as any replatform. Shopify's migration guide says to import products first, then customers, then historical orders, "so that products and customers can be properly connected to the orders." Customer passwords do not move in a CSV import: Shopify explains that "because passwords are encrypted outside of Shopify, you can't migrate customer passwords from another online store using a CSV," so you invite customers to create new passwords.

At Uncap, a Shopify Platinum Partner, a migration from another platform typically takes 10 to 16 weeks, and our median cutover is around 14 weeks. The work runs in six phases: plan the move, build and migrate in parallel, map redirects and protect search, test against real workflows, cut over, and watch it hold. Our guide to how long a Shopify B2B migration takes covers what moves that timeline.

The Shopware-specific work is mapping B2B Components onto Shopify B2B. Company accounts, roles and departments map to Shopify B2B companies, company locations and location-level permissions, and customer-specific pricing is rebuilt with Shopify B2B catalogs, which Shopify says "determine the products and pricing your B2B customers can access." Quote workflows can move into Uncap Quotes, which runs the configure, price and quote process inside the Shopify admin. Our Shopware to Shopify migration page covers the move step by step.

Most migrations start with Uncap Blueprint, a $7,500 fixed-price plan delivered in four weeks and credited toward implementation. If your ERP has to stay in sync after the move, Uncap Connect starts at $8,000 to set up and runs $390 a month.

Talk to Our Experts, and bring your Shopware plan, your hosting model and your B2B setup. We will tell you what moves cleanly and what needs a plan.