Shopware 6 Performance Tuning: Getting the Most Out of Elasticsearch, Redis, and HTTP Cache

A slow shop costs revenue. Various studies show that users abandon a page if it takes longer than three seconds to load. Shopware 6 provides all the tools needed to achieve fast load times even with large product catalogs and high traffic — you just have to use them correctly.

1. Elasticsearch / OpenSearch for Product Search and Listings¶

Shopware 6 natively supports Elasticsearch and OpenSearch. Without a search engine, Shopware uses its own DAL (Data Abstraction Layer) with MySQL/MariaDB for all product queries — which becomes noticeably slower starting at around 10,000 products.

Installation and Activation¶

# In .env
SHOPWARE_ES_ENABLED=1
SHOPWARE_ES_HOSTS=localhost:9200
SHOPWARE_ES_INDEXING_ENABLED=1
SHOPWARE_ES_INDEX_PREFIX=sw

# Build the initial index
php bin/console es:index
php bin/console es:create:alias

Important Configuration in config/packages/shopware.yaml¶

shopware:
    elasticsearch:
        enabled: true
        hosts:
            - '%env(SHOPWARE_ES_HOSTS)%'
        index_prefix: '%env(SHOPWARE_ES_INDEX_PREFIX)%'
        throw_exception: true
        # Enable product fields for aggregations
        product:
            custom_fields_mapping:
                my_custom_field_text:
                    type: text
                    fields:
                        keyword:
                            type: keyword

Pitfalls¶

• Re-indexing after changes: Every product change triggers a re-index. When making bulk changes, keep the Message Queue supervisor running.
• Mapping changes: New custom fields require running es:index again.
• Heap size: Elasticsearch requires at least 1 GB of heap — configure it in jvm.options: -Xms1g -Xmx1g.

2. Redis for Session, Cache, and Queue Storage¶

Redis significantly accelerates Shopware in three areas: session storage, object cache, and as a message queue backend.

Configuring Redis¶

# config/packages/framework.yaml
framework:
    session:
        handler_id: 'redis://localhost:6379/0'
    cache:
        app: cache.adapter.redis
        system: cache.adapter.redis_tag_aware
        pools:
            cache.adapter.redis:
                adapter: cache.adapter.redis
                provider: 'redis://localhost:6379/1'

Redis for the Shopware Cache¶

# config/packages/shopware.yaml
shopware:
    cache:
        invalidation:
            delay: 0
            count: 150

In config/packages/prod/framework.yaml:

framework:
    cache:
        prefix_seed: '%env(APP_SECRET)%'
        app: cache.adapter.redis_tag_aware
        pools:
            cache.app:
                tags: true

Redis Connection Pool with Sentinel (High Availability)¶

framework:
    cache:
        pools:
            cache.app:
                adapter: cache.adapter.redis_tag_aware
                provider: 'redis+sentinel://sentinel1:26379,sentinel2:26379,sentinel3:26379?redis_sentinel=mymaster'

Message Queue on Redis¶

# config/packages/messenger.yaml
framework:
    messenger:
        transports:
            async:
                dsn: 'redis://localhost:6379/messages'
                options:
                    auto_setup: false
                    delete_after_ack: true

3. HTTP Cache (Varnish / Symfony Reverse Proxy)¶

Shopware supports two HTTP cache backends: the built-in Symfony reverse proxy and Varnish. The HTTP cache makes pages extremely fast for non-logged-in users because no PHP execution is required.

Activating the Built-in HTTP Cache¶

The HTTP cache is activated via environment variables — Shopware handles the kernel configuration internally. Manual changes to public/index.php are not necessary.

In .env:

SHOPWARE_HTTP_CACHE_ENABLED=1
SHOPWARE_HTTP_CACHE_DEFAULT_TTL=7200

Cache Tags and Invalidation¶

Shopware uses cache tags to invalidate precisely. When a product is changed, only pages containing that product are removed from the cache.

<?php

declare(strict_types=1);

namespace MyPlugin\Subscriber;

use Shopware\Core\Framework\DataAbstractionLayer\Event\EntityWrittenEvent;
use Shopware\Storefront\Framework\Cache\CacheResponseSubscriber;
use Symfony\Component\EventDispatcher\EventSubscriberInterface;

class ProductInvalidationSubscriber implements EventSubscriberInterface
{
    public static function getSubscribedEvents(): array
    {
        return [
            'product.written' => 'onProductWritten',
        ];
    }

    public function onProductWritten(EntityWrittenEvent $event): void
    {
        foreach ($event->getIds() as $productId) {
            // Invalidate the cache tag for this product
            // Shopware handles this automatically via the EntityCacheKeyGenerator
        }
    }
}

Configuring Varnish¶

For high-traffic setups, Varnish is the better choice. Shopware ships a default.vcl template:

# In .env
SHOPWARE_HTTP_CACHE_ENABLED=1
SHOPWARE_HTTP_REVERSE_PROXY_ENABLED=1
SHOPWARE_HTTP_REVERSE_PROXY_HOSTS=http://localhost:6081
SHOPWARE_HTTP_REVERSE_PROXY_TTL=7200

4. Database Optimization¶

Not to be neglected: the database. Shopware uses MariaDB/MySQL. Important settings:

# my.cnf / mariadb.conf.d/shopware.cnf
[mysqld]
innodb_buffer_pool_size = 2G          # 70-80% of RAM
innodb_log_file_size = 256M
query_cache_type = 0                  # Removed in MySQL 8 anyway
max_connections = 300
thread_cache_size = 16

Identifying missing indexes:

-- Find slow queries
SET GLOBAL slow_query_log = 'ON';
SET GLOBAL long_query_time = 0.5;
SET GLOBAL slow_query_log_file = '/var/log/mysql/slow.log';

5. Asset Optimization¶

Shopware automatically compresses and bundles assets. Important for production environments:

php bin/console asset:install
php bin/console theme:compile
# Then Brotli/gzip compression via nginx

Conclusion¶

Performance tuning in Shopware is not a one-time event but an ongoing process. The three most important measures after a base setup:

1. Elasticsearch for large product catalogs (starting at ~10,000 products)
2. Redis for session, cache, and message queue
3. HTTP Cache for all non-personalized pages

With this combination, load times under 500ms are achievable even on complex shops.