Multi-Platform E-Commerce Evaluation Guide

This guide provides simple, minimal steps for users to evaluate various e-commerce platforms using simple Docker commands.

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Image Strategy & Selection Audit

This repository maintains custom evaluation images for platforms lacking lightweight, single-container community alternatives, while leveraging robust existing configurations where available:

#	Platform	Target Docker Image Tag / Source	Image Type	Architectural Rationale / Why
1	WooCommerce	acromedia/ecommerce:woocommerce	Custom Built	No active official standalone image exists. Built via Composer and WPackagist to inject the plugin safely into an official WordPress base image at build time.
2	OpenCart	acromedia/ecommerce:opencart	Custom Built	Official Bitnami images are deprecated. Built with dynamic directory discovery to handle changing .zip structures across official releases resiliently.
3	Shopware	dockware/shopware:latest	Community	Leverages the highly trusted community dockware image, which includes an embedded database footprint out of the box for zero-config run loops.
4	SpreeCommerce	acromedia/ecommerce:spree	Custom Built	The official cloud-ready image requires active external Postgres and Redis clusters to build. This image uses Ruby 4.x and a standalone SQLite profile.
5	Saleor	ghcr.io/saleor/saleor:latest	Official	Well-maintained official core API engine. This guide provisions a direct datastore link and bootstraps schema creation at execution runtime.
6	Medusa	acromedia/ecommerce:medusa	Custom Built	The official startup workflows force multi-container Docker Compose. This image pre-scaffolds the Node workspace cleanly for a lightweight startup loop.
7	Drupal Commerce	insready/drupal-commerce:11	Custom Built	Leverages your production-grade baseline layout container optimizing modern dependency caching layers and Drupal 11 core.

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1. WooCommerce

# 1. Start Database
docker run -d --name woo-db -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=secret -e MYSQL_DATABASE=wordpress mysql:lts

# 2. Start WooCommerce
docker run -d -p 8080:80 --name woocommerce --link woo-db:mysql -e WORDPRESS_DB_USER=root -e WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD=secret acromedia/ecommerce:woocommerce

Access URL: http://localhost:8080 Note: Complete the basic WordPress screen wizard; WooCommerce will be waiting for activation inside the 'Plugins' menu.

2. OpenCart

# 1. Start Database
docker run -d --name opencart-db -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=secret -e MYSQL_DATABASE=opencart mysql:lts

# 2. Start OpenCart
docker run -d -p 8080:80 --name opencart --link opencart-db:mysql acromedia/ecommerce:opencart

Access URL: http://localhost:8080 Note: Follow the graphical web installer steps using: Database Host: mysql, User: root, Password: secret.

3. Shopware

Uses a fully standalone image built by the community that includes an embedded database out of the box.

docker run -d -p 8080:80 --name shopware dockware/shopware:latest

Access URL: http://localhost:8080

Admin Panel: http://localhost:8080/admin (User: admin / Pass: shopware)

4. SpreeCommerce

A completely self-contained Ruby on Rails engine setup utilizing an internal SQLite profile for instant preview.

# 1. Start Backing Postgres Database
docker run -d --name spree-db -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=secret -e POSTGRES_DB=spree_development postgres

# 2. Start Spree Engine linked to the Database
docker run -d -p 3000:3000 --name spree --link spree-db:db -e DATABASE_URL=postgresql://postgres:secret@db:5432/spree_development acromedia/ecommerce:spree

Access URL: http://localhost:3000

Admin Panel: http://localhost:3000/admin (User: spree@example.com / Pass: spree123)

5. Saleor

Launches the official Saleor Core engine. Note that this spins up the backend GraphQL API playground directly.

# 1. Start Database
docker run -d --name saleor-db -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=secret -e POSTGRES_DB=saleor postgres

# 2. Run Migrations & Start Saleor Core API
docker run -it -p 8000:8000 --name saleor --link saleor-db:db -e DATABASE_URL=postgres://postgres:secret@db:5432/saleor ghcr.io/saleor/saleor:latest sh -c "python manage.py migrate && python manage.py populatedb && python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000"

Access URL: http://localhost:8000/graphql/

6. Medusa

An open-source headless engine paired alongside a standard datastore container.

# 1. Start Backing Database (Open Port 9000 to get around with Medusa v2 bug)
docker run -d --name postgres -p 9000:9000 -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=secret -e POSTGRES_DB=medusa postgres

# 2. Medusa attaches directly inside postgres's network using 127.0.0.1
docker run -d --name medusa --network=container:postgres \
  -e DATABASE_URL="postgres://postgres:secret@127.0.0.1:5432/medusa" \
  acromedia/ecommerce:medusa \
  sh -c "echo \"DATABASE_URL=\$DATABASE_URL\" > .env && npx medusa db:migrate && yarn seed && yarn start"

Access URL: http://localhost:9000/health

7. Drupal Commerce

Evaluates Drupal Commerce using a pre-packaged optimization layer image.

# 1. Start Database
docker run -d --name drupal-db -e MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=secret -e MYSQL_DATABASE=drupal mysql:lts

# 2. Start Drupal Commerce Container
docker run -d -p 8080:80 --name drupal-commerce --link drupal-db:mysql insready/drupal-commerce:11-dev

Access URL: http://localhost:8080