- Is Simple Commerce a Laravel package or a Statamic addon?
- Simple Commerce is a Statamic addon rather than a standalone Laravel commerce package. Adopting it effectively means adopting Statamic as your content and data layer alongside Laravel. Products, variants, orders, and customers are modeled as Statamic entries, with cart and checkout logic layered on Laravel routing, sessions, events, and actions. If you are not already on Statamic, treat this as a two-platform adoption rather than a simple Composer install.
- How do I install Simple Commerce in a Laravel application?
- The prerequisite chain is Laravel, then Statamic, then Simple Commerce, so you must have a working Statamic installation before adding the package. Install it with Composer using the package name duncanmcclean/simple-commerce and follow the published setup steps for configuration and blueprints. Confirm the exact supported Laravel, Statamic, and PHP versions from the package composer.json before estimating the work. Each layer has its own major-version cadence, so the real compatibility unit is a triple.
- Which Laravel and Statamic versions does Simple Commerce support?
- Support depends on the specific Simple Commerce release, so check composer.json for the exact Laravel, Statamic, and PHP constraints rather than assuming a version. Because Simple Commerce is an addon, a stale release can pin your whole application's Statamic and Laravel versions. Ask the maintainer about the upgrade policy across Statamic majors before committing. Plan upgrades as coordinated Laravel and Statamic work, not drop-in package updates.
- What payment gateways does Simple Commerce support?
- Simple Commerce ships with Stripe and PayPal payment coverage, which meets most small and mid-sized business needs. Verify SCA and 3DS edge cases, partial refunds, disputes, and multi-gateway routing against the current release before going live. The pluggable gateway system is the right seam for custom payment logic or additional providers. A custom gateway adapter keeps payment business logic portable if the platform decision changes later.
- Can I use Simple Commerce without Statamic?
- No, Simple Commerce is designed as a Statamic addon and depends on Statamic for its content and data layer. Products, orders, and customers are Statamic entries, so removing Statamic would remove the core data model. If you need a Laravel-native commerce package without a CMS dependency, compare options such as Lunar, Aimeos, or Bagisto instead. Choosing Simple Commerce is materially a decision to adopt Statamic.
- How does Simple Commerce store products and orders?
- Products, variants, orders, and customers are modeled as Statamic entries, which gives you control-panel editing, blueprints, fieldsets, revisions, and multi-site support. The default flat-file storage introduces write contention, weak transactional guarantees, and awkward reporting for orders. Statamic's Eloquent driver can mitigate this for orders but adds configuration and operational surface. Decide between flat-file and Eloquent storage before modeling your data, not after.
- Does Simple Commerce handle tax and shipping calculations?
- Simple Commerce includes coupons, shipping, and tax support, but tax and shipping are deliberately simple by design. Real VAT or OSS rules, US nexus logic, and carrier-rate calculations will require custom integration behind a Laravel service contract. Budget that as bespoke development work rather than configuration. An abstracted tax and shipping contract also keeps the logic portable if you later change platforms.
- Is Simple Commerce free to use in production, and what is its license?
- The repository reports NOASSERTION, meaning no recognized open-source license was detected. Simple Commerce has historically carried commercial or production licensing terms, so review the actual license file before committing. Legal review of production entitlements, redistribution rights, and support obligations is a gating item, not a nice-to-have. Confirm whether a paid tier with an SLA exists if you need production assurances.
- How does Simple Commerce compare to Lunar or other Laravel commerce packages?
- Simple Commerce is best suited to content-led storefronts with small-to-mid catalogs, low order volume, few pricing and tax permutations, and a single currency or warehouse. It is a poor fit for marketplaces, subscriptions, multi-entity setups, or high-SKU warehouse logic where relational rigor matters. Lunar, Aimeos, Bagisto, and headless Shopify are more appropriate when you need Laravel-native or relational commerce. Compare honestly before committing, especially if you are not already on Statamic.
- Is Simple Commerce actively maintained and safe for production?
- The project has around 163 stars and effectively one primary maintainer, with a recent 7.8.10 release showing active maintenance but no organizational backstop or published SLA. Bus factor and platform coupling are real risks because a stale addon can pin your application's framework version. Before production, verify that inventory decrements are atomic and idempotent under concurrent checkout and that webhook retries and duplicate submissions are handled end to end. Legal license review and the supported version matrix should both be resolved first.