commercetools
Germany
EU
commercetools is a headless commerce platform from Munich, Germany. It was founded in 2006 and became independent from its owner REWE Group in 2019, when Insight Partners invested 145 million dollars. The...
European E-Commerce Platforms
JTL-Shop
Germany
EU
JTL-Shop is the shop software of JTL-Software-GmbH from Hückelhoven in Germany. JTL was founded in 2008 by two brothers, started with ERP software for online sellers and now employs more than 460...
plentyONE
Germany
EU
plentyONE, formerly plentymarkets, is a cloud e-commerce platform from PlentyONE GmbH in Kassel, Germany. It is run by founder and CEO Jan Griesel and combines an online shop with an ERP for...
PrestaShop
France
EU
Open Source
Self-Hostable
PrestaShop is open-source e-commerce software from Paris, France, available since 2007. According to the company, more than 230,000 stores run on it worldwide and generate 22 billion euros in gross merchandise value....
Shopware
Germany
EU
Open Source
Self-Hostable
Shopware is an e-commerce platform from Schöppingen in Germany. The brothers Stefan and Sebastian Hamann founded Shopware AG in 2000, and in 2022 the company took its first outside funding, 100 million...
Sylius
Poland
EU
Open Source
Self-Hostable
Sylius is an open-source headless e-commerce framework from Poland, developed by Sylius sp. z o.o. in Łódź. The project started in the early 2010s, and the company says the sylius/sylius package has...
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Submit SuggestionE-commerce platforms are the software behind an online shop: catalogue, checkout, orders and the connection to payment and shipping providers. This page lists shop software from companies headquartered in Europe, from free open-source systems such as PrestaShop and Shopware to the enterprise API platform commercetools. They are the usual European picks for merchants who look for an alternative to Shopify.
European e-commerce platforms at a glance
| Platform | Country | Model | Best suited for |
|---|---|---|---|
| PrestaShop | France | Open source, self-hosted | Small and mid-sized shops with a developer or agency |
| Shopware | Germany | Open-source Community Edition, paid cloud editions | Mid-sized and B2B merchants, strong in the German-speaking market |
| Sylius | Poland | Open source, headless framework | Custom shops built by developers |
| JTL-Shop | Germany | Shop software tied to the JTL ERP, free entry plan | German online sellers with marketplace sales |
| plentyONE | Germany | Cloud multichannel platform with ERP | Sellers on many marketplaces |
| commercetools | Germany | Headless commerce APIs | Large enterprises |
How they differ from hosted shop builders
Most of these systems are not all-in-one subscriptions. PrestaShop, Shopware and Sylius are open source and are usually installed on a server or a managed hosting plan, often with an agency. That brings full control over data, themes and extensions, and no per-sale platform fee, but the merchant or the agency also handles updates, hosting and security. JTL-Shop and plentyONE are built around an ERP that handles stock and marketplace listings, so they fit sellers who list on Amazon, eBay or similar channels. commercetools is a set of APIs without a ready-made storefront and is aimed at large organisations.
Ownership
PrestaShop and Sylius belong to the Polish group cyber_Folks since 2026. JTL is backed by the London investor Hg, and commercetools has REWE Group and Insight Partners among its shareholders. Shopware took its first outside investment in 2022 from PayPal and Carlyle.
What Europe does not offer
There is no European counterpart to Shopify as a single, globally operated subscription with an app store of over 10,000 apps. European shop software tends to be more modular and more regional, with strong partner networks in Germany, France and Poland.