A digital twin that keeps your Shopware store up to date and ready to sell, and protects your customers’ data.
With it, updates for Shopware and extensions are tested all the way to checkout and go live without interruption. At night the store is checked for unexpected files, and every morning a test order runs through the entire purchase process.
In most stores everything happens while sales are running: an update, a new payment method, a changed shipping rule. Updates are tedious, risky and tend to get pushed back. Known security holes stay open for weeks. And if something does go wrong, your customer notices at the checkout before you do. Every hour the checkout is stuck costs revenue.
The Doppelgänger changes that: a test environment that always mirrors your live store. With it, I keep your store up to date, monitor its condition and prevent outages. You don’t have to take care of anything. What used to be reserved for corporations with their own IT, I now make possible for small and mid-sized businesses too.
Since our store got its Doppelgänger, where Julian checks every update and every change first, the store has been running absolutely smoothly. Updates are no longer a big project we keep putting off. We see and test new features there before they go live, and only approve them once everything is right. It has made our work noticeably more productive.
The Doppelgänger is an exact copy of your store: the same Shopware version, the same extensions, products, prices and order structures. Only the customer data is anonymized on every copy. Meanwhile your live store keeps selling. A regular sync keeps it up to date.
What stays as it is: your hosting, your domain, your payment contracts and your inventory system.
A Shopware update, a new extension, a change to the theme: everything happens on the Doppelgänger first, while your live store keeps selling.
A new payment method, a changed shipping rule, a Shopware update: you click through the complete order process on the Doppelgänger, show it around and sign off before a real customer sees it.
No manual uploads, no forgotten files. The new version is prepared in full and switched over in an instant.
Names, addresses and payment details are replaced on every copy. So you test with realistic data volumes, without a second database full of personal data.
Even a major Shopware update is run through in full with all extensions, through to checkout, before your customers see it.
An attack is spotted quickly, every change is visible and can be undone. That keeps the damage small.
AI-assisted programs scan the entire internet around the clock for vulnerable websites. They don’t ask how big your company is, only which version you run. If you update promptly, you close the gap before it is found.
A known vulnerability is often exploited automatically within a few hours, long before “we’ll update when we get around to it”.
Automated attacks don’t pick a target. They hit every store with a known vulnerability.
Stolen payment data, manipulated prices, a store that sells nothing for days. Cleaning up costs many times more than prevention.
Under the GDPR, a neglected website is not a cosmetic flaw. It requires security in line with the state of the art, from small businesses too.
Every change to your store goes into the dossier: when, what, by whom. Even a year later you can trace when a tax rule or a price was last touched.
Every change with date, description and author, whether from you, your team, an agency or a freelancer. So you keep track even with many people involved.
If something goes wrong, the store is switched back to the last clean version. Individual changes can be undone selectively, without losing anyone else’s work.
New staff or a new agency start with a documented store and a complete dossier. No knowledge locked in one person’s head, no dependence on individuals.
An example calculation: four update rounds a year by hand, the Doppelgänger and a single incident compared.
Per update round less than two hours of a developer’s time, and every round is tested first.Usually costs about as much as four rounds by hand, but updates three times as often and checks every update on the copy first.Less than four update rounds a year at an agency, and monthly instead of quarterly.
For a week the website redirected visitors to casino sites. Five websites on the same server were infected, and so were the host’s backups.For a week the website redirected visitors to casino sites. Five websites on the same server were infected, and so were the host’s backups.For weeks, card details were skimmed at checkout through an outdated extension. It was the bank that reported it.
See the case See the case See the caseExample: 2 to 3 hours per round including backup, updates, clicking through and small fixes, at a median freelance developer rate of €90. Example: 3 to 5 hours per round for WordPress with WooCommerce or a page builder, at €100 an hour. Example: 6 to 8 hours per round for minor updates (an agency’s estimate), at an agency rate of €130. Incident costs: the example calculation from the case, without lost sales. Sources: freelancermap 2025, Patchstack 2026.
A Shopware store depends on payment providers, shipping services, inventory management and a number of extensions. An update that looks harmless in the admin can block the checkout at any of these points. That is why the Doppelgänger tests all the way to payment.
Patch, minor and major updates of Shopware 6 are applied on the Doppelgänger and tested with a complete order. Only once the test order goes through does the update go live.
Before every update I check that your extensions from the Shopware Store, custom plugins and theme changes work with the new version. Anything incompatible shows up on the Doppelgänger, not while you are selling.
Payment providers such as PayPal, Mollie or Stripe run in their test modes on the Doppelgänger. You order all the way to payment without any money changing hands or a package being sent.
Names, addresses and email addresses are replaced on every copy. You test with real products, prices and order structures, without a second database full of personal data.
Connections to inventory management, ERP or marketplaces are disconnected on the Doppelgänger or point to test systems. Tests do not create duplicate orders or wrong stock levels.
If your store still runs on Shopware 5, the migration to Shopware 6 is rehearsed on the Doppelgänger: several times, with real data and without any risk to the running store.
You give me one login, and I set up everything else.
SSH access or a login to your hosting control panel is enough. That is all I need from you.
I copy your store to the Doppelgänger, install the plugin and set up the nightly checks. After two to three days, everything is ready.
Costs depend on your project. After a first review of your system, you get a quote.
In a short conversation I find out what your store needs, how the switch works and what it costs. No obligation, no rush.
Developed by Julian Bräucker, Düsseldorf. Servers in Germany.