Dear community,
Another year is over. 2025 marks the 25th anniversary of Shopware, which makes it older than some of the people currently working at the company. It was invented seven years before the iPhone, which was introduced in 2007. Shopware is software with a legacy that has never stopped re-inventing itself.
This anniversary was still somehow subdued this year. Let’s have a look at why, and also what successes and noteworthy events happened in 2025.
Shopware Community Day (SCD)
Let’s start with “The SCD that never was”. Because of the discovery of old World War 2 bombs in Cologne, the city where the Community Day was supposed to take place, we needed to cancel it on very short notice on the day before the event.
We’re very grateful that nothing went wrong, and no one was hurt. Still, the SCD had to be cancelled, or rather, everything needed to be packed up, and the date was moved. With the Shopware Community Day being the big, yearly celebration of Shopware and the Shopware community, we couldn’t just shrug and let it be.
On September 16, 2025, we again opened the doors of the Confex in Cologne, and this time everything went smoothly!
We had a blast celebrating with everyone who was able to attend, and in case you missed it - there is always the next one! In 2026, the SCD will again take place at the Confex, this time on June 10th. Tickets are available at scd.shopware.com.
All the highlights of the SCD are condensed in this blog post, with one of them being the first award ceremony for the "Shopware Visionary Award". This award is given to shops that go above and beyond, pushing the boundaries of ecommerce in one way or another. More on that in a dedicated blog post about the award.
Agentic Commerce
AI is way more than just ChatGPT, Gemini, and the like. (None of them wrote this blog post, by the way, just in case you wondered. Hi, we are still human!)
Agentic AI, like many terms in the AI space, is fuzzy and can mean slightly different things depending on the context and the person using it. However, at its core, Agentic Commerce refers to systems that incorporate some form of AI and can also initiate actions independently.
Agentic Commerce refers to the application of such systems in the ecommerce space.
When it comes to connecting different systems, making purpose-built neural networks and adjacent programs talk to and understand each other, there is one looming danger. With 25 years of experience, Shopware is no stranger to the difficulties of moving data between systems. This tedious task of conversions and misunderstandings can also occur between different agency systems in ecommerce.
Already in 2024, we co-founded the Agentic Commerce Alliance, intending to establish the foundations for an open, interoperable, and merchant-centred ecosystem for Agentic Commerce.
The Alliance brings together AI-oriented companies, research institutions, and merchants to create the foundations for open Agentic Commerce.
In our view, Open Source should extend beyond the source code to shared standards, interoperable agents, and merchant-first data sovereignty.
Among multiple events throughout the year, the AI BBQ sure was one of the most fun ones.
If this topic sounds interesting to you, consider joining the alliance! In any case, take a look at the official website and take a look at the current research projects.
Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ 2025
For the 6th consecutive time, Shopware was included in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Digital Commerce. This places us among the world's most significant providers in the Digital Commerce market – again.
The distinction as Visionary is a special honor and shows us that our innovation strategy is on the right track, especially regarding the shifting ground that is the ecommerce space at the moment.
This was not the only recognition for the work and dedication that the people at Shopware and you, the community, put into the software and ecosystem.
Further reports and awards in 2025 were:
G2 Winter Reports 2025: Shopware leads in 13 categories → G2 Winter Reports overview
Market leader in Germany: Among the top 1,000 highest-grossing B2C shops in Germany, Shopware is the most used system → Read the full analysis on our blog
Shopware impresses again in the Paradigm B2B Midmarket Report 2025 with 11 out of 12 medals – including 6 gold awards → View more detailed report results
Shopware is recognized as a Top Performer at the Emerce100 → See the Emerce100 ranking an results
Lighthouse projects
Shopware is in the unique position of being accessible to anyone, but still being built for big, complex use cases. This makes it very valuable for brands to use Shopware, which showcases the system's capabilities at the highest level.
The most notable brands this year include:
To just name three. There are many more, and even more that may not count as lighthouse projects, but build the backbone and foundation for all of Shopware. Thank you all for being part of this incredible success story!
Customer Circle Events
These events are exclusive, so you might have missed them. It’s still important to know what they are and what happens. There is an extensive blog post on the topic, but the rundown is this:
Across two sessions in Hamburg and Düsseldorf, we spoke with more than 40 participants from over 25 B2B and B2C companies.
The goal? Getting the compass adjusted for how we continue to evolve Shopware, grounded in the real-world needs of merchants.
Shopware is not created in a vacuum, not in an ivory tower. And sometimes, it is a good thing to see that this extends beyond the open source codebase.
New features
All of the work and dedication eventually accumulate in new features and updates for Shopware, the software.
From B2B Budget Management to the Copilot and dedicated AI image generation that surpasses a general-purpose diffusion model, the year was marked by numerous releases and features.
A lot of this would not have been possible without the constant feedback, support, and contributions from our community. Thank you all for being part of this, thank you for your dedication!
For a non-technical overview of what is planned for 2026 and beyond, take a look at the roadmap.
Some features are not just a button in the interface with attached functionality, but delve deeper into the core, such as the performance improvements released with Shopware 6.7. This also plays into the new caching system that will be in the next major version, but is already available for developers, so they can already adapt their systems and extensions ahead of time.
Another noteworthy feature was Showpare Gateways. This one might have been under the radar, but it significantly enhances the possibilities for developers to do with the App System. Read more in the blog post and get involved! To extend this functionality, we need your input and feedback.
Community growth
Some numbers at the end of this recap, because who doesn’t like numbers!
This year, we had:
43 active translations
402 code contributions
552 contributors total
1610 users on Discord
2971 fixed tickets
3,850 users on the Community Hub
Community Hub? Oh, right, that was released this year as well! It is a central place where information from various sources is aggregated, along with learning paths and other distinctive features. Check out the announcement post in the Shopware blog.
And since you have read this far: Claim your 25th anniversary badge using this link!
Regarding Discord, this replaces the Shopware Community Slack workspace. Join via chat.shopware.com if you are not already there. Since switching to a new tool is always inconvenient, we have prepared a concise article explaining the most important things you need to know, available on our blog.
Finally, some more numbers, we now have:
1,600 certified agency and technology partners worldwide
More than 6,000 verified extensions in the Shopware Community Store
Over 45,000 active Shopware shops
Thank you all!
We are very proud of all what happened in 2025. But the most important message of this post: Thank you. It has been a long journey, and at every stage, the community was the most important building block of our shared success.
Whatever your contribution is, from code to using Shopware in your store, you are part of something bigger. Being in direct contact with the individuals the community consists of is one of the most rewarding experiences and unique perks of working at Shopware.
Thank you for an amazing 2025.
