A community edition or free version of something is a blessing to many people. And Shopware Community Edition (SCE) is one such thing. SCE is a handy solution for eCommerce enthusiasts. In this blog post, we will let you know what is Shopware Community Edition and how you can use it for your eCommerce business to make very professional stunning online shops.
Understanding Shopware Community Edition
Before jumping into the Shopware Community Edition in detail, it’s important to understand what Shopware is and the significance of its Community Edition. That’s exactly what we will discuss here about SCE overall so that you can understand it better. If you want to make the most of it, you need to understand what it is all about. Below are the details…
What is Shopware Community Edition?
Actually, Shopware’s Community Edition or SCE in short is an open-source, basic and light version of Shopware. SCE is free for everyone to use. All other Shopware offerings, such as PaaS (Platform as a Service) and SaaS (Software as a Service) are based on the Community Edition. As per Shopware, it’s a headless eCommerce platform powered by Symfony framework and Vue.js. And Shopware CMS is already used by thousands of shops and supported by a huge worldwide community.
Fetures of the Shopware Community Edition
SCE is the foundation of Shopware’s all editions. It has almost all the basic features you need to run an online shop. But if you would like to have more features and scale up your eCommerce business then you can check Shopware’s pricing plans. Free doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a lot of features. Shopware’s Community Edition has huge built-in features and it’s also highly customizable at the same time. Let’s have a look at them as bullet points:
- Large-scale customization options
- Extensive plugin ecosystem
- SEO-friendliness
- Community support
- Product management
- Marketing and promotional tools
- Internationalization and localization
- Intuitive backend
- Responsive design
So, now you know the basic features of Shopware’s Community Edition. Let me explain them a little bit more…
Large-scale customization options
The beauty of Shopware is the customization options. And Community Edition isn’t out of that. With this, you have also full control over the design and layout of your online store. You or any Shopware developers can customize any themes, templates, CSS etc of Shopware CMS to match the brand identity and create a unique shopping experience for the shop users.
Extensive plugin ecosystem
Plugins are really helpful to add extra features to any website or online shop. In this case, Shopware is great! Lots of Shopware developers, contributors and enthusiasts are contributing to making the ecosystem very professional. Shopware has a vast collection of plugins, apps or extensions. They have a vibrant plugin ecosystem, where you can find a wide range of extensions and plugins to enhance the functionality of your online store. These plugins cover areas like payment gateways, shipping providers, analytics, SEO and many more. Alphanauten as a Shopware plugin developer already made 22 great plugins for Shopware.
SEO-friendliness
You know how important the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is! And Shopware comes with full compatibility with SEO. They have some built-in options even on Community Edition. Shopware is designed with SEO in mind. It includes features such as customizable URLs, meta tags etc which allow you to optimize your store’s visibility in search engine results. But if you’re not happy with their built-in SEO system then you have other options too. You can choose the best SEO plugins for Shopware for a little price. The SEO Suite plugin which is made by alphanauten costs only €29.00 per month.
Community support
It doesn’t matter if you have the Community version or the paid one, Shopware covers you. You will get Community Support via Slack and Stackoverflow. Being an open-source CMS, Shopware has an active community of developers and users. You can find helpful resources, documentation, forums and community support to assist you in building and maintaining your online store.
Product management
Shopware is great for product management. Shops owners can manage their product catalog efficiently using Shopware CMS. It supports unlimited product variations, including different sizes, colors and other options. Shop admin can organize products into categories, set prices, manage stock levels, define product attributes etc.
Marketing and promotional tools
Shopware provides various marketing and promotional features to help to attract and retain customers. It includes discounts, vouchers, customer segmentation, cross-selling, upselling, product reviews, and other related features.
Internationalization and localization
This great online shop CMS offers comprehensive internationalization and localization possibilities. That means shop owners or developers can create multilingual stores and set up multiple currencies. It is also possible to handle tax rates specific to different regions. There are even special plugins for that. Our One-Stop Shop (OSS) Plugin for Online Shop does that for the shop owners. This plugin simplifies the bureaucracy of the EU tax system.
Intuitive backend
Shopware offers an intuitive and user-friendly backend admin panel. It provides easy-to-use tools for managing products, orders, customers, content, blogs etc. These features make it simple to operate and maintain online stores.
Responsive design
As an entrepreneur or Shopware developer, you know how important is Responsive design or mobile friendliness. When it comes to technical SEO then mobile responsiveness is very important. And Shopware came here with a great solution. It provides responsive templates that are optimized for mobile devices. In this way, this CMS is ensuring a seamless shopping experience across different screen sizes for the users.
Shopware vs other eCommerce platforms
Shopware stands out among other eCommerce platforms with its feature-rich and customizable options. As an open-source and free solution, Shopware provides businesses with greater flexibility to optimize their online stores to specific needs. Its user-friendly admin panel and responsive front-end design enhance the overall user experience.
In comparison with other CMS, Shopware really stands alone. Magento offers scalability but demands more technical expertise, while WooCommerce appeals to WordPress users with ease of use. But WooCommerce isn’t much professional when it comes to use on a larger scale. On the other hand, Shopify’s cloud-based simplicity suits smaller businesses. But I would say, it is expensive if you want to use it largely. We have a detailed blog post about Shopware vs Shopify explanation. And BigCommerce offers a hosted solution with robust built-in SEO tools. Ultimately, the choice depends on factors like business and revenue size, budget and the level of customization needed. If you think about all these aspects then Shopware is an excellent option for versatile eCommerce ventures.
Benefits of using Community Edition
Shopware Community Edition (SCE) offers numerous benefits for businesses seeking an efficient eCommerce solution for free. Since it’s free of cost, means first of all, you can save money. There are even free plugins that can also help your online shop to grow organically. And with multi-language and multi-currency support, it facilitates international expansion. Moreover, a vibrant Shopware community provides regular updates, security enhancements and direct help if you face any problem with Shopware CMS. That’s why, if you are thinking to make an online shop for free of cost then Shopware CMS could be a great option.
What if you need more than a free version of Shopware?
As a certified Shopware partner we (alphanauten) get huge questions like: what to do if not happy with the free version of Shopware? The answer is also easy. There are other paid versions of Shopware. If you want to have a cloud version of Shopware or self-hosted, isn’t a problem. We can manage all for you. Just click on the button below and get consultation or support from us related to Shopware.
FAQs
What is Shopware and why is it so popular?
Shopware is an open-source eCommerce platform. Normally, it is popular for its flexibility and customization options. But Shopware mostly gained popularity due to its user-friendly admin interface, responsive design for various devices and support for multiple languages and currencies. Its active community and extensive plugin ecosystem also made Shopware a unique online shop-making CMS.
Is Shopware free?
Yes, Shopware offers a free Community Edition (which is known as Shopware CE). Shopware is an open-source eCommerce platform which is also known as headless. Businesses can download, use and customize it without any licensing fees. However, additional costs may arise for hosting, domain registration, premium plugins and professional Shopware support services if needed.
Is Shopware a CMS?
Many people ask this question: Is Shopware a CMS? To answer this question, we would like to say, Shopware is primarily an eCommerce platform rather than a content management system (CMS) like WordPress. While it does include lots of CMS features to manage content related to products and categories, its main focus is providing a comprehensive solution for setting up and running online stores with various eCommerce functionalities. So you can say, Shopware is a CMS but with lots of other features to create and manage online shops.
Where to get Shopware Community Edition for free?
You can get Shopware Community Edition for free from their website itself. Or you can also download it from GitHub. Shopware GitHub channel has Community Edition’s link to download for free. You can check the GitHub link of Shopware or go to their download section directly.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we would like to say, the Shopware Community Edition (SCE) is a great tool for eCommerce enthusiasts to create professional online stores for free. In this blog post, we have tried to give you an insight into this CMS and cover its features at the same time. If you find this post helpful then please share it with your friends and colleagues. If you got any feedback, or if you want to ask a question feel free to contact us today.
