Our Infrastructure: 100% Open Source Development Stack

Everything We Use Is Open Source and Legally Free

Every tool we use to build, test, and deliver your PrestaShop modules is open source and legally free. No pirated software. No cracked licenses. No proprietary lock-in. This is not a marketing claim — it is the literal description of how we operate, every day, since 2018.

The best tools are the ones everyone can inspect, modify, and trust. When your module developer uses the same open stack as your store, you eliminate an entire class of compatibility surprises.

Our Server

Our production server runs TrueNAS (based on Debian 12 Bookworm) with 64GB of RAM and 3.5TB of SSD storage on ZFS — the same enterprise-grade filesystem used by Netflix, NASA, and major hosting providers. ZFS provides checksumming for every block of data, compression, and instant snapshots for rollback when testing goes wrong.

108 Docker Containers, Running Simultaneously

At any given moment, our server runs over 108 Docker containers built from 81 unique images. We maintain parallel PrestaShop environments across every version our modules support:

• PrestaShop 1.6 — because thousands of stores still run it, and we still support them.
• PrestaShop 1.7.6 through 1.7.8 — the most widely deployed versions in the wild.
• PrestaShop 8.1 and 8.2 — current stable releases.
• PrestaShop 9.0 and 9.1 — the latest major versions with Symfony upgrades.
• Multistore configurations — separate containers with multistore enabled, because multistore bugs are a category of their own.

Each PrestaShop instance gets its own dedicated database container (MySQL 5.7, MySQL 8.0, or MariaDB 10.11 depending on version requirements). A shared Redis instance provides caching across environments — mirroring how real hosting works.

Self-Hosted Everything

We do not send your support emails through Gmail. We do not rely on third-party services for critical operations.

• Gitea — self-hosted Git server. Every module repository lives on hardware we control.
• Mailcow — full email server with DKIM, SPF, and DMARC. Your emails stay on our infrastructure.
• Nextcloud — file storage. Client files and assets stored locally, not on Google Drive.
• Vaultwarden — password and secrets management, running entirely on our server.
• Uptime Kuma — monitoring for all services. We know when something is down before you do.
• Nginx Proxy Manager — reverse proxy with automatic SSL certificates.

ZFS snapshots let us save the exact state of any container or database in seconds. Before running a risky migration or upgrading a PrestaShop version — we snapshot. If anything goes wrong, rollback takes seconds instead of hours.

Self-hosting is more work than using SaaS. We do it anyway because it gives us complete control over our environment, your data, and our uptime.

Our Development Workstation

The primary development machine runs Arch Linux with the KDE Plasma desktop environment. Arch is a rolling-release distribution — we always run the latest stable versions of every tool without waiting for distribution release cycles.

Why Linux for Development

• Same as production: Your store runs on Linux. We develop on Linux. We catch path issues, permission problems, and case-sensitivity bugs that Windows and macOS developers miss entirely.
• No licensing costs: Zero euros per year for the operating system, upgrades, and support.
• Full control: No forced updates, no telemetry, no background processes consuming resources that should go to Docker containers and code compilation.

VS Code (Code - OSS) is our primary editor. Docker and Podman handle containers on server and workstation respectively. When full virtual machine testing is needed — for example, replicating a client's cPanel environment — we use QEMU/KVM, the same virtualization technology that powers most cloud providers. No VMware license required.

Design and Creative Tools

Module development is not just code. Every module needs icons, banners, screenshots, and occasionally custom fonts. We produce all of this with open source tools.

• GIMP 3.0 — primary image editor with redesigned interface and non-destructive editing. We use it instead of Photoshop.
• Inkscape — vector graphics for SVG icons and logos. We use it instead of Illustrator.
• Photopea — free web app that opens PSD, XCF, and Sketch files natively. When a client sends a Photoshop file, we do not need Photoshop to work with it.
• FontForge — custom icon font creation. Instead of loading an entire icon library, we build fonts containing only the icons each module needs.
• ImageMagick — command-line batch processing. When we need to process 200 images, we write a script instead of clicking through a GUI 200 times.
• Blender — 3D rendering for promotional materials. Used by major film studios and game developers — absurdly capable for a free tool.

Professional results without a single Adobe subscription. GIMP, Inkscape, FontForge, ImageMagick, Photopea, and Blender together cost exactly zero euros per year.

Why This Matters to You

Our infrastructure choices directly affect the quality of what you receive.

Lower Overhead, Competitive Pricing

We pay zero in software licensing fees. No Adobe Creative Cloud. No JetBrains IDE. No Windows licenses. No Microsoft 365. No VMware. This is thousands of euros per year that we do not need to pass on through module pricing.

We Run What You Run

Your PrestaShop store runs on Linux, Apache/Nginx, MySQL/MariaDB, PHP, and Redis. Our environment runs the same stack. When we test a module, we test it on the same software your server uses — not on a Windows approximation with WAMP that behaves differently in subtle and painful ways.

Our 108-container setup means we test across every PrestaShop version we support, with real databases, real caching, and real multistore. A bug that only appears on PrestaShop 1.7.6 with MySQL 5.7 — we catch it because we have that exact environment running.

Transparency and Trust

Every tool in our stack has publicly available source code, audited by thousands of developers. When we say your support email is private, it genuinely is — it sits on our Mailcow server, not routed through a provider that scans content for advertising.

We Practice What PrestaShop Preaches

PrestaShop is open source. You chose it because you believe in the model. We chose our entire infrastructure for the same reason. When you buy a module from us, you support a developer who is genuinely part of the open source ecosystem — not someone who sells open source products but runs their business on proprietary software.

We do not just build for open source platforms. We build with open source tools, on open source operating systems, using open source infrastructure. The entire chain is transparent.

The Full Stack

For the technically curious — every item on this list is open source or legally free.

Operating Systems

• TrueNAS (Debian 12 Bookworm) — production server OS with ZFS
• Arch Linux — development workstation with CachyOS kernel
• KDE Plasma — desktop environment

Server Infrastructure

• Docker — containerization (108+ containers)
• Nginx Proxy Manager — reverse proxy with automatic SSL
• Mailcow — email server (SMTP, IMAP, webmail, DKIM, SPF, DMARC)
• Gitea — self-hosted Git
• Redis — in-memory caching
• MySQL 5.7 / 8.0, MariaDB 10.11 — databases
• Nextcloud — file storage
• Vaultwarden — password management
• Uptime Kuma — monitoring

Development

• VS Code (Code - OSS) — primary editor
• Git — version control
• Composer — PHP dependency management
• Node.js / npm / Yarn — JavaScript toolchain
• PHP 8.4 + Xdebug 3.4 + OPcache — runtime and debugging
• Podman — rootless containers for local testing
• QEMU/KVM — virtual machines

Design and Creative

• GIMP 3.0 — raster image editing
• Inkscape — vector graphics (SVG)
• Photopea — PSD compatibility (free web app)
• FontForge — custom icon fonts
• ImageMagick — batch image processing
• Blender — 3D rendering

Office and Communication

• LibreOffice — documents and spreadsheets
• Thunderbird — email client
• Discord — community

Browsers

• Chromium — primary testing browser
• Brave — secondary browser

Security and Networking

• WireGuard — VPN
• OpenVPN — legacy VPN
• SSH — encrypted remote access
• Let's Encrypt — free SSL certificates

Monitoring

• Uptime Kuma — service health
• btop — system resources
• nvtop — GPU monitoring
• smartmontools — disk health
• ZFS — filesystem integrity and snapshots

Since 2018

We did not switch to open source last month for a blog post. This infrastructure has been our daily working environment since 2018, refined through thousands of module releases and years of client support.

Every choice was made because it solved a real problem. The 108 Docker containers exist because we got tired of "works on my machine" bugs. The self-hosted email exists because we got tired of Gmail flagging our support replies as spam. The ZFS snapshots exist because we once lost a day of work to a bad database migration. Practical decisions, practical tools, practical results.

We do not use pirated software. We do not need to. The open source ecosystem provides everything required to build world-class PrestaShop modules — and it has been doing so for us every single day since 2018.

Want to learn more about PrestaShop development and best practices? Browse our Knowledge Base for in-depth technical articles on performance, security, Docker, multistore, and more.