Shopware 5 or Shopware 6

Anyone switching to Shopware or starting out in e-commerce from scratch has to decide which Shopware version to launch with.

The release of Shopware 6 (23 May 2019) marks the start of a new era. Shopping worlds become even easier, the backend is fully responsive, and integrations via APIs, and therefore with external services, become even simpler.

Shopware 6 is a full-stack integration with Symfony 4: the new backend is no longer meant to be based on ExtJS but on Symfony 4. This should become particularly noticeable in terms of performance.

Conversion optimisation out of the box

Cart and order processes will be highly customisable in future. Tax handling and rounding behaviour will be freely configurable. Carts can be grouped on request, and multilingual shops become child’s play.

Shopware 5 will make up for some of these features with update 5.6, but because of its old “baggage” and its completely different theming technology, it will reach its limits here.

Shopware 5 lives on

Shopware 5 will nevertheless be officially supported until at least 2024. Both ecosystems will therefore continue to be developed over the next few years, so it can still make sense to build a shop with Shopware 5 now.

A shop operator who wants or needs to run an extensive shop with many extensions (plugins) is currently definitely better off with Shopware 5.

The plugin market is large, and the Shopware 5 engine is mature and has been proven over many years.

Over the next two years, we as a Shopware agency will definitely use and develop on both systems.

We are currently also planning long-term support for Shopware 5 beyond 2024, so that clients who do not want to switch will still be in good hands with their Shopware 5 shops.

Conclusion: If you want to start with Shopware 5, you can do so with a clear conscience and rely on proven technology. In our opinion, Shopware 6 is currently only suitable for smaller projects, because with so few plugins available you would otherwise quickly have to invest large sums in extensions that do not yet exist as plugins, unlike in Shopware 5.

Find out more about Shopware 6 with Web Labels and about updating from Shopware 5 to Shopware 6 on our website.

You might also be interested in this Shopware topic:

All the facts about Shopware 6 at a glance