battles / Platforms
Solidus vs Sylius
Solidus (usage-based/mo, vibe code 6/10) vs Sylius ($1,200/mo/mo, vibe code 6/10). Solidus is the easier one to rebuild yourself — here is what you lose either way.
Platforms
usage-based/mo
- MVP
- 2 weeks
- Full replacement
- 8-14 months
easier to rebuild
get the build prompt →Platforms
$1,200/mo/mo
- MVP
- 2-3 weeks
- Full replacement
- 9-15 months
price gap / year
$14,400/mo
running both / year
$14,400/mo
our call
Start with Solidus — highest vibe code, weakest moat.
Solidus
There is no licence to escape. Rebuilding makes sense only if you want to leave Ruby; otherwise you are trading a maintained core for a bespoke one.
you can rebuild
- Catalog, variants and option types
- Cart, checkout and order state machine
- Promotions with basic rules and actions
- Admin interface for orders and products
what you lose
- A maintained upgrade path with a security-conscious core team
- Rails extensions for payments, taxes and reporting
- Free bug fixes from other people's production incidents
real moats
- An active maintainer community absorbing edge cases you have not hit yet
open source escape hatches
- spree/spree BSD-3
- medusajs/medusa MIT
- saleor/saleor BSD-3
Sylius
Sylius is free; what you pay for is the Plus licence, the Symfony expertise and years of hardened cart, promotion and taxation code. An AI can generate a comparable core in weeks, but promotion rules and multi-channel pricing are where custom builds rot.
you can rebuild
- Catalog, taxon tree and product variant/option modelling
- Cart and checkout state machine with address and shipping steps
- Order, payment and shipment records with status transitions
- Admin CRUD screens for products, orders and customers
- Channel-based multi-currency and multi-locale storefronts
what you lose
- A battle-tested promotion engine with rule/action composition
- Symfony ecosystem bundles (workflow, security, messenger) already wired together
- The Sylius Plus features: RMA, multi-source inventory, B2B partner accounts
- A large pool of agencies and developers who already know the codebase
- Upstream security patches and LTS upgrade paths
real moats
- Agency and developer familiarity with the Symfony/Sylius conventions
- Plugin ecosystem covering payments, ERP connectors and marketplaces
- Years of edge cases baked into the promotion, tax and shipping engines
open source escape hatches
- vendure-ecommerce/vendure MIT
- medusajs/medusa MIT
- saleor/saleor BSD-3
Questions people ask
Which is easier to rebuild with AI, Solidus or Sylius?
Solidus. It scores 6/10 on vibe code with a moat of 2/10, so an AI-assisted MVP takes about 2 weeks and a full replacement about 8-14 months.
Which one costs less, Solidus or Sylius?
Solidus at usage-based/mo for a typical mid-market store. The gap between the two is about $14,400/mo a year.
What do I lose if I replace Solidus?
A maintained upgrade path with a security-conscious core team Rails extensions for payments, taxes and reporting Free bug fixes from other people's production incidents
What do I lose if I replace Sylius?
A battle-tested promotion engine with rule/action composition Symfony ecosystem bundles (workflow, security, messenger) already wired together The Sylius Plus features: RMA, multi-source inventory, B2B partner accounts
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