OXID CE against Shopware CE
Tags: webdev, opensource, php
Published: 2023-02-26 08:05:07

Today's e-commerce market offers many shop systems for every taste, more precisely - business size, requirements, business logic, etc.

Shopware and OXID - both are exceptional in terms of usable functions and extremely popular in the German market. Both Shopware and OXID were developed in Germany and attach great importance to quality. In this article we compare the community editions of both systems - what do they have in common, how do they differ, for whom each software solution is better suited and what costs should you expect.

OXID Community Edition                             
OXID eShop is also a German e-commerce solution from OXID eSales AG based in Freiburg im Breisgau. This shop software was developed especially for beginners in the e-commerce sector and, with the Community Edition, is aimed more at small and medium-sized businesses.


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/zfuwkze001qgchhbkkmi.png)

Quelle: BuiltWith https://trends.builtwith.com/shop/OXID-EShop-Community              

Explanation of the scheme: TOP 10K, 100K, 1m - means: TOP of websites in terms of traffic, i.e. among the 100K most popular websites, for example, OXID-based websites took about 30 in 2022. Among the TOP 1m in the same year - about 90.

Advantages of OXID Community Edition

- Clear checkout with many forms of payment
- Internationalization easily possible
- Lots of extensions and plugins
- Modular software architecture
- Well scalable online shop solution
- Lots of online marketing tools
- Unique customer experience thanks to a large range of features
- Strong performance
- Integrated, automated business processes
- Omnichannel-Integration
- Full certification by Trusted Shops
- Maximum transparency
- Numerous interfaces to third-party providers (ERP, CMS, CRM, PIM, POS systems)
Disadvantages of OXID Community Edition 

- Multishops only from the Enterprise Edition
- Client capability only from the Enterprise Edition
- The backend is not very intuitive and confusing
- Many extensions require a commercial license
- ERP interfaces in all editions are chargeable
- Manufacturer support in all editions is also paid and quite expensive
- Small community
Cost of OXID Community Edition                                                  
The previously free open source OXID Community Edition (CE) has been subject to a fee since August 2022 - this event in the German e-commerce world is now on everyone's lips. Small projects that wanted to try out online trading and don't have complicated requirements and business logic were welcome to use the Community Edition for free. License costs for OXID eShop are now 111 euros per month.   



Shopware Community Edition
Shopware is the leading e-commerce platform in Germany, making a big leap in the world market. It is a modular online shop system with over 91,000 customers worldwide that was first released in 2004 as open source software. With this e-commerce solution, online retailers can design their own online shop flexibly and freely.


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/5bol7o33sgpjy5qrdxty.jpg)

Quelle: BuiltWith https://trends.builtwith.com/shop/Shopware 

Explanation of the scheme: TOP 10K, 100K, 1m - means: TOP of the websites according to the truffic, i.e. among the 100K most popular websites, for example, the Shopware-based websites took almost 125 in 2021. Among the TOP 1m in the same year - over 1000.

Advantages of Shopware Community Edition 

- Over 55,000 satisfied customers, the system is precisely tailored to the needs and requirements of the German market.
- Clear and easy to use backend
- Lots of responsive templates
- Shopping worlds
- Integrated blog
- Intuitive and clear structure in the front-end
- Affiliate and voucher system
- Effective Google Ranking
- Multi-shop and multi-language capable
- Product variants, stock levels, availability status and prices can be adjusted or added flexibly and quickly.
- Integrated payment methods and shipping methods. You can read more about this in our Article.  
- Numerous plugins in the Shopware Store, which extend the shop functionality. You can read more about this in our article “The most popular plugins for Shopware 6 at a glance”
- ChatGPT support for product description 
Disadvantages of Shopware Community Edition 

- Some important functions are only available in paid plugins
- A special server or web hosting is required
- High prices for support from Shopware AG
- Special technical knowledge is required for the installation of Shopware, and an experienced Shopware agency should also be hired for the Community Edition
Costs for Shopware Community Edition
The Shopware Community Edition is open source and free of charge, there are no license fees or other costs for using Shopware CE.

**Conclusion**
In terms of prices and functionality, Shopware CE is better than OXID CE and is an excellent choice when it comes to needs of small and medium-sized companies. Our agency has been dealing with various E-commerce software solutions for years, we are also [conversion optimization experts](https://kenner-soft.com/services/shopware) and are happy to advise you on Shopware, Magento and other e-commerce software. As a conversion optimization agency, we offer services in this area. Our references say more about us.