Microsoft's eShop is a reference sample demonstrating microservices and .NET patterns; CleenUI is a production codebase intended to be the actual application you ship.
eShopOnContainers (and its successor eShop) is Microsoft's flagship reference sample for .NET — a polyglot e-commerce site demonstrating microservices, event-driven architecture, Docker, Kubernetes, and most major .NET libraries. It's a teaching tool — read it, fork it, adapt patterns from it. CleenUI is the opposite end of the spectrum: a production-intent codebase you license and ship as your own application. The two compare more like 'reference sample vs. production codebase' than 'starter A vs. starter B.'
| Category | CleenUI | eShopOnContainers / eShop |
|---|---|---|
| Intent | Production-intent codebase (ship as your own) | Reference sample / teaching tool |
| Distribution model | Licensed source code (one-time license) | Open-source GitHub repo (MIT) |
| Architecture style | Modular monolith (vertical-slice modules in one deployable) | Microservices (multiple bounded contexts, event bus) |
| Domain | Generic SaaS foundation (auth, accounts, support, observability, translations, notifications, messaging, tasks, AI, etc.) | E-commerce (catalog, basket, ordering, payment) |
| Frontend | Single React 18 SPA frontend | Multiple — Blazor, MAUI, React Native, MVC web UI |
| Operational complexity | Low — single Web API, single SQL DB, WebJobs + Functions | High — Docker Compose, Kubernetes, service bus, multiple databases |
| Onboarding model | Architect-led delivery available | Clone the repo, read the docs |
| Pricing model | Custom-scoped engagement | Free |
Pick eShop when you're learning .NET microservices, when you specifically need an event-driven multi-service architecture, or when budget rules out a licensed codebase.
Pick CleenUI when you're shipping a real product and want the foundation to be the codebase rather than a sample you have to rewrite. Modular monolith over microservices is the right fit for most B2B SaaS teams in the 2-20 engineer range.