One commerce platform. The freedom to run it your way.

Your customization options depend on how Shopware is operated.

• Shopware SaaS provides a managed application environment with customization through supported configuration, extensions, and integrations.

• Shopware PaaS offers greater application-level flexibility, allowing your team or partner to develop custom functionality and integrations while Shopware manages the underlying infrastructure.

• Self-hosting provides the greatest control over the application and hosting environment, allowing you to manage customization and infrastructure according to your technical requirements.

The right approach depends on the level of customization your business needs and the development resources available to support it.

The right choice depends on your customization requirements, operational priorities, and how much responsibility you want your team or partner to manage.

• Shopware SaaS provides a fully managed application and hosting environment, including infrastructure operations and automatic software updates.

• Shopware PaaS combines managed infrastructure with greater freedom to customize and develop your application. Shopware handles infrastructure operations, while your team or partner manages application development, integrations, and software upgrades.

• Self-hosting gives you control over your hosting environment. Your team or hosting partner takes responsibility for infrastructure operations, maintenance, and software upgrades.

Consider the total cost of ownership. Beyond licensing and hosting, the real cost of a commerce platform includes the people and resources required to operate and maintain it.

• With SaaS, licensing, infrastructure management, and software updates are included within the subscription's service scope.

• PaaS combines a paid Shopware license with managed infrastructure priced according to your requirements, while application development and upgrades remain your responsibility.

• With self-hosting, infrastructure, operations, and software maintenance are managed by your team or partner, alongside any applicable license fees.

Implementation, extensions, integrations, and ongoing application work may add costs across all three models.

Your hosting requirements may evolve as your business grows, enters new markets, or introduces more complex functionality. Moving between hosting models may be possible, but it isn't necessarily an automatic or seamless transition. The effort involved depends on your existing architecture, customizations, integrations, data, and the capabilities supported by the target environment.

For example, moving from a highly customized self-hosted environment to SaaS may require changes to functionality that depends on direct application or infrastructure access. Our team can help you evaluate the available options and understand the technical and operational implications before planning a transition.

Responsibilities differ across the three hosting options.

• SaaS: Shopware manages the application environment, infrastructure operations, and software updates within the service scope.

• PaaS: Shopware manages the underlying infrastructure, while your team or partner remains responsible for application development, integrations, and Shopware upgrades.

• Self-hosting: Your team or hosting partner manages infrastructure operations, maintenance, security updates, and application upgrades.

Security remains a shared responsibility in practice. Regardless of the hosting model, your business must manage areas such as user access, data governance, and the security of its own integrations.

Yes. Shopware supports different hosting approaches to accommodate varying operational and architectural requirements.

• SaaS provides a managed environment where infrastructure operations are handled within the service scope.

• PaaS allows infrastructure resources to be aligned with your application's requirements while retaining greater customization flexibility.

• Self-hosting gives your team or hosting partner responsibility for planning and managing infrastructure capacity.

The right choice depends on your expected transaction volumes, performance requirements, customization needs, and operational capabilities. Specific performance and scaling requirements should be assessed against the selected hosting environment.