Make Magento 2 small again

by | Mar 6, 2019 | 38 comments

With version 2.3.0, Magento includes about 200 internal PHP packages (in the “magento” namespace) plus more than a hundred external PHP packages. These numbers have grown a lot in the last few releases, especially with several packages for the GraphQL integration and for the Multi Source Inventory. Since the average Magento 2 project doesn’t need all those modules, wouldn’t it be great to get rid of some unused modules?

I have written about how you can remove unused core modules before, including suggestions on what modules can be removed in Magento 2.2. At the recent Magento Hackathon in Bremen, Germany, one of the groups chose the topic “Make Magento small again” with the goal to reduce the number of dependencies between modules in order to be able to remove as many modules as possible.

Benefits of removing core modules

  • Less code means less maintenance work
  • Removed code is debugged code
  • Fewer security risks
  • Magento becomes faster with certain modules disabled (especially the Magento_Swatches module, see our blog post about performance improvements)

Risks of removing core modules

  • Dependencies may not be declared correctly, so you might actually remove code which is needed by another module.
  • You might need some of the removed functionality as it’s not always clear which module contains which functionalities.

The Approach

It’s preferred to remove modules via composer. Add a block as follows to your composer.json file:

After that, call composer update. The modules will be removed from the code base.

Ideally, you remove modules before installing Magento in your project. Otherwise, the installation will create some module specific tables in your database which will be obsolete after removing the corresponding modules.

Selection of modules

It’s up to you which modules to remove. Here, we present a suggestion, but using it is on your own risk. Of course, you can re-add the modules you need in your project. For example:

  • If you use Swatches, enable magento/module-swatches and magento/module-swatches-layered-navigation.
  • If you’d like to use the Multi Source Inventory (MSI), don’t remove the modules starting with magento/module-inventory.
  • If you use ImportExport for your interfaces, don’t remove magento/module-*-import-export.

Suggestion for Magento 2.3.0:

Please look through the list in detail before using it.
There are no declared dependencies from any leftover core modules to the modules which are suggested to remove here, but there are dependencies between these removed modules. So if you re-add selected modules, you might need to re-add their dependencies too. Have a look at the module’s composer.json if you are unsure about their dependencies.

Work in Progress

If you look at the list above, you can see that two modules are not included:

  • magento/module-import-export
  • magento/module-catalog-import-export

That is because there are dependencies declared from the Magento_CatalogUrlRewrite module to those two – dependencies which shouldn’t be there in my opinion, because the Magento_CatalogUrlRewrite module will work flawlessly even without the ImportExport modules. It just adds two Observers which will never be instantiated if the ImportExport modules are not available. I have created a Pull Request to Magento about this issue – let’s see what the core engineers’ opinion is on this case.

Conclusion

If you don’t need them, you can remove up to half of the Magento 2 core modules and most external Magento 2 modules. But please take care before and during the removal – some of the code might actually be used, so test it thoroughly. Using the above suggestions is at your own risk.

Update May 2019

We removed some modules which have to do with message queues from the list as they are reported to cause problems with the REST API. Thanks Oleksandr Lyzun for reporting!

Andreas von Studnitz

Author: Andreas von Studnitz

Andreas von Studnitz is a Magento developer and one of the Managing Directors at integer_net. His main areas of interest are backend development, Magento consulting and giving developer trainings. He is a Magento 2 Certified Professional Developer Plus and holds several other Magento certifications for both Magento 1 and Magento 2. Andreas was selected as a Magento Master in 2019 and 2020.

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38 Comments

  1. Erfan
    Erfan on 1. April 2019 at 11:01

    For 2.3.1, add:

    magento/module-wishlist-graph-ql
    magento/module-sales-graph-ql
    magento/module-send-friend-graph-ql
    magento/module-directory-graph-ql

    Reply
  2. Anon
    Anon on 5. May 2019 at 23:13

    @Erfan

    Replacing those modules in 2.3.1 only caused error messages for me.

    Reply
  3. Mehdi
    Mehdi on 24. May 2019 at 14:43

    Hello,
    I have added the “replace” block to the composer.json file located in the main magento directory.
    I tried to do a “bin/magento setup:upgrade” from SSH but nothing seems to have been uninstalled. Could you help me? Maybe it’s not the right command.
    Thanks

    Reply
    • Andreas von Studnitz
      Andreas von Studnitz on 10. June 2019 at 20:33

      Try to call composer update after removing the lines from composer.json.

      Reply
  4. Hemd
    Hemd on 10. June 2019 at 18:58

    Adding some logic to the line items would be great – even better

    For instance we aim to use MSI … but dont know all those subsub modules and what they do starting with inventory*

    Reply
  5. sean
    sean on 10. June 2019 at 19:14

    After deletion via json file I ran composer update then magento setup upgrade.

    1 exception(s):
    Exception #0 (Magento\Framework\Exception\FileSystemException): The contents from the “vendor/klarna/module-core/etc/module.xml” file can’t be read. Warning!file_get_contents(/vendor/klarna/module-core/etc/module.xml): failed to open stream: No such file or directory

    After I get this warning for almost every module: what do I need to do? Did I forget a command?

    Reply
    • Andreas von Studnitz
      Andreas von Studnitz on 10. June 2019 at 20:31

      Please call composer update after removing the modules from composer.json. Also, remove the entries from app/etc/config.php.
      Ideally, you remove the module before they are being installed for the first time.

      Reply
  7. Alex
    Alex on 12. August 2019 at 09:46

    Hi Andreas,

    thank you for this great approach. We are using Magento 2.3.2 – could you confirm that this approach is working there, too?

    I found somebody talking about issues with using this and Magento 2.3.2

    Reply
    • Andreas von Studnitz
      Andreas von Studnitz on 12. August 2019 at 09:54

      In general, this approach will work on Magento 2.3.2 too. There might be additional modules which should be removed because they depend on other removed modules though. And again: everything is on your own risk and should be tested thorougly as not all dependencies are declared correctly.

      Reply
  8. Mike
    Mike on 13. August 2019 at 11:11

    Hallo Andreas,

    Die Module werden trotzdem noch unter “bin/magento module:status” aufgelistet.
    Kann ich das ignorieren?

    MfG Mike

    Reply
    • Sandy
      Sandy on 25. October 2019 at 17:56

      Once the modules are installed in the Magento system, it’s the best approach to uninstall the module at first with:
      php bin/magento module:uninstall

      After that it can be removed/replaced by composer

      Reply
  9. Dorieke Berends
    Dorieke Berends on 14. August 2019 at 16:40

    When upgrading from 2.3.1 to 2.3.2 we had to add the following modules to the replace section to get setup:di:compile to finish:

    magento/module-graph-ql-cache
    magento/module-directory-graph-ql
    magento/module-inventory-export-stock
    magento/module-inventory-reservation-cli

    Reply
  10. Dominic
    Dominic on 10. October 2019 at 00:50

    Would be amazing to see a break down of 2.3 minor releases similar to your 2.2 blog post

    Reply
  11. Solide
    Solide on 30. October 2019 at 15:07

    Cant get this to work on 2.3.3 unfortunately, not even when adding the extra modules as mentioned by Dorieke above. I would indeed like to see a break down for the Magento 2.3.x branche as mentioned by Dominic.

    Reply
  12. Jeroen Vermeulen
    Jeroen Vermeulen on 18. November 2019 at 17:41

    For Magento 2.3.3 I had to enable again by removing from the above list:


    "magento/module-captcha"

    and I had to additionally disable:


    "magento/module-graph-ql-cache": "*",
    "magento/module-authorizenet-graph-ql": "*",
    "magento/module-braintree-graph-ql": "*",
    "magento/module-directory-graph-ql": "*",
    "magento/module-paypal-graph-ql": "*",
    "magento/module-related-product-graph-ql": "*",
    "magento/module-send-friend-graph-ql": "*",
    "magento/module-wishlist-graph-ql": "*",
    "magento/module-inventory-export-stock": "*",
    "magento/module-inventory-reservation-cli": "*",
    "magento/google-shopping-ads": "*",
    "magento/module-inventory-advanced-checkout": "*",
    "magento/module-inventory-requisition-list": "*",
    "magento/module-admin-analytics": "*"

    Reply
  13. Erik Hansen
    Erik Hansen on 27. December 2019 at 20:19

    Thanks for this suggestion.

    I just ran some benchmarks locally and found that disabling the unnecessary extensions made pages load ~10% faster (testing with full_page and block_html caches disabled). Details here: https://gist.github.com/erikhansen/822e211c8eaf3123b160066f4c0acc55 I’m going to run with this approach and report back on issues I find.

    Looks like https://github.com/yireo/magento2-replace-all is a potentially simpler way to apply these “replace” commands.

    Reply
  14. Bill
    Bill on 8. January 2020 at 23:54

    “I have created a Pull Request to Magento about this issue – let’s see what the core engineers’ opinion is on this case.”

    they dropped it because you didn’t care.

    Reply
  16. Cian Castillo
    Cian Castillo on 12. February 2020 at 01:49

    Magento 2.3.4

    “magento/module-adobe-ims”: “*”,
    “magento/module-adobe-ims-api”: “*”,
    “magento/module-adobe-stock-admin-ui”: “*”,
    “magento/module-adobe-stock-asset”: “*”,
    “magento/module-adobe-stock-asset-api”: “*”,
    “magento/module-adobe-stock-client”: “*”,
    “magento/module-adobe-stock-client-api”: “*”,
    “magento/module-adobe-stock-image”: “*”,
    “magento/module-adobe-stock-image-admin-ui”: “*”,
    “magento/module-adobe-stock-image-api”: “*”

    Reply
  17. Michael N
    Michael N on 2. April 2020 at 22:15

    Thank you very much. This was incredibly helpful.

    Reply
  18. Charlie
    Charlie on 16. April 2020 at 23:19

    This is CRAZY! We need to Fork/Branch and offer a Magento Lite, all the core functions without the bloatware. I could see MOST ISPs wanting to take part or even sponsor this! I want Magento, not Adobe Stock, not Yotpo, not Someone else’s BS… I want core eCommerce and the ability to install the Extensions, Theme, Modules that I want.

    What would it take to Fork and do this? (Ok, I have to admit, I’m not a hardcore dev and know just enough to get myself in a jam, but this bloatware is going to get out of hand quickly!)

    Reply
    • Nix
      Nix on 9. July 2020 at 03:59

      I am using Magento 2.3.5-p1, so how do I install this module (specifically 2.3.5 branch) using composer? He updated 2.3.5 10 days ago, so I want the latest one, whereas others were updated 20-month ago.

      Reply
      • Nix
        Nix on 9. July 2020 at 04:38

        okay got it, how dumb of me.

        composer require yireo/magento2-replace-all:2.3.1

        Reply
  20. mark
    mark on 30. April 2020 at 01:02

    2.3.5 I had to re-enable module-captcha due to a dependency introduced on module-wishlist

    Also added the following:

    “dotmailer/dotmailer-magento2-extension-chat”: “*”,
    “magento/module-authorizenet-graph-ql”: “*”,
    “magento/module-braintree-graph-ql”: “*”,
    “magento/module-checkout-agreements-graph-ql”: “*”,
    “magento/module-related-product-graph-ql”: “*”,
    “magento/module-paypal-graph-ql”: “*”,
    “magento/module-directory-graph-ql”: “*”,
    “magento/module-theme-graph-ql”: “*”,
    “magento/module-sales-graph-ql”: “*”,
    “magento/module-send-friend-graph-ql”: “*”,
    “magento/module-wishlist-graph-ql”: “*”

    Reply
  21. mark
    mark on 30. April 2020 at 01:59

    For 2.3.5 I had to add the following,

    “dotmailer/dotmailer-magento2-extension-chat”: “*”,
    “magento/module-authorizenet-graph-ql”: “*”,
    “magento/module-braintree-graph-ql”: “*”,
    “magento/module-checkout-agreements-graph-ql”: “*”,
    “magento/module-related-product-graph-ql”: “*”,
    “magento/module-paypal-graph-ql”: “*”,
    “magento/module-directory-graph-ql”: “*”,
    “magento/module-theme-graph-ql”: “*”,
    “magento/module-sales-graph-ql”: “*”,
    “magento/module-send-friend-graph-ql”: “*”,
    “magento/module-wishlist-graph-ql”: “*”,
    “magento/module-adobe-ims”: “*”,
    “magento/module-adobe-ims-api”: “*”,
    “magento/module-adobe-stock-admin-ui”: “*”,
    “magento/module-adobe-stock-asset”: “*”,
    “magento/module-adobe-stock-asset-api”: “*”,
    “magento/module-adobe-stock-client”: “*”,
    “magento/module-adobe-stock-client-api”: “*”,
    “magento/module-adobe-stock-image”: “*”,
    “magento/module-adobe-stock-image-admin-ui”: “*”,
    “magento/module-adobe-stock-image-api”: “*”,
    “magento/module-google-shopping-ads”: “*”,
    “magento/module-inventory-advanced-checkout”: “*”,
    “magento/module-inventory-requisition-list”: “*”,
    “magento/module-inventory-reservation-cli”: “*”,
    “magento/module-inventory-export-stock”: “*”,
    “vertex/module-address-validation”: “*”,
    “magento/module-admin-analytics”: “*”,
    “magento/module-catalog-cms-graph-ql”: “*”,
    “magento/module-catalog-customer-graph-ql”: “*”,
    “magento/module-customer-downloadable-graph-ql”: “*”,
    “magento/module-graph-ql-cache”: “*”

    and also remove magento/module-captcha as wishlist has unfortunately introduced a dependency on that. I did not end to end test this yet, this is just to get DI compiled properly and the cms page loading!

    Reply
  22. CRACA
    CRACA on 9. May 2020 at 14:26

    pls help
    [root@ns3 a.siteco.uk]# bin/magento setup:di:compile
    Compilation was started.
    Interceptors generation… 4/7 [================>———–] 57% 8 secs 239.0 MiB
    In Generator.php line 139:

    Class Magento\AdobeImsApi\Api\ConfigInterface does not exist
    Class Magento\AdobeStockAdminUi\Controller\Adminhtml\System\Config\TestConnection\Interceptor generation error: The
    requested class did not generate properly, because the ‘generated’ directory permission is read-only. If — after
    running the ‘bin/magento setup:di:compile’ CLI command when the ‘generated’ directory permission is set to write –
    — the requested class did not generate properly, then you must add the generated class object to the signature of
    the related construct method, only.

    setup:di:compile

    [root@ns3 a.siteco.uk]#

    Reply
    • Andreas von Studnitz
      Andreas von Studnitz on 10. May 2020 at 12:18

      Sorry, we can’t give free support, especially if so many details (like what you did before, which Magento version you use etc.) are missing. Our examples assume Magento 2.3.0, not 2.3.4 or 2.3.5. Things have changed in between – this is no fire&forget solution.

      Reply
  23. Maxime
    Maxime on 18. June 2020 at 12:08

    How do you re-install modules ?

    Reply
    • Nix
      Nix on 9. July 2020 at 05:59

      bin/magento module:enable MODULE_NAME –clear-static-content

      If you want to enable/re-install all modules then i would suggest a reinstallation

      Reply
  24. Nix
    Nix on 12. July 2020 at 16:53

    Hi, I need a list for 2.3.5-p1, please update if someone of you has.

    Reply
  25. Sreelakshmi
    Sreelakshmi on 2. November 2020 at 07:46

    I have removed the msi modules using replace in composer.json. How can i reinstall these modules ? Please share the steps.

    Reply
  26. Osio
    Osio on 6. January 2021 at 17:31

    Is there a Gist where we could work on this together out there?
    Is there a version for Magento 2.4.1?

    Reply
  27. erwab
    erwab on 20. April 2022 at 21:30

    updated list for Magento 2.4.4, again use at your own risk

     

    Reply
    • Dimitris
      Dimitris on 8. October 2022 at 16:21

      I have noticed that Magento 2.4.3 has a number of GraphQl core extensions. In which case those extensions can be disabled? Will the disabling of them have some noticeable performance gain?

      Magento_BundleGraphQl
      Magento_CatalogCmsGraphQl
      Magento_CatalogCustomerGraphQl
      Magento_CatalogGraphQl
      Magento_CatalogInventoryGraphQl
      Magento_CatalogRuleGraphQl
      Magento_CatalogUrlRewriteGraphQl
      Magento_CheckoutAgreementsGraphQl
      Magento_CmsGraphQl
      Magento_CmsUrlRewriteGraphQl
      Magento_CompareListGraphQl
      Magento_ConfigurableProductGraphQl
      Magento_CustomerDownloadableGraphQl
      Magento_CustomerGraphQl
      Magento_DirectoryGraphQl
      Magento_DownloadableGraphQl
      Magento_EavGraphQl
      Magento_GiftMessageGraphQl
      Magento_GraphQl
      Magento_GraphQlCache
      Magento_GroupedProductGraphQl
      Magento_InventoryGraphQl
      Magento_InventoryInStorePickupGraphQl
      Magento_InventoryInStorePickupQuoteGraphQl
      Magento_InventoryQuoteGraphQl
      Magento_LoginAsCustomerGraphQl
      Magento_NewsletterGraphQl
      Magento_PaypalGraphQl
      Magento_QuoteGraphQl
      Magento_ReCaptchaWebapiGraphQl
      Magento_RelatedProductGraphQl
      Magento_ReviewGraphQl
      Magento_SalesGraphQl
      Magento_StoreGraphQl
      Magento_TaxGraphQl
      Magento_ThemeGraphQl
      Magento_UrlRewriteGraphQl
      Magento_VaultGraphQl
      Magento_WishlistGraphQlMagento_BundleGraphQl
      Magento_CatalogCmsGraphQl
      Magento_CatalogCustomerGraphQl
      Magento_CatalogGraphQl
      Magento_CatalogInventoryGraphQl
      Magento_CatalogRuleGraphQl
      Magento_CatalogUrlRewriteGraphQl
      Magento_CheckoutAgreementsGraphQl
      Magento_CmsGraphQl
      Magento_CmsUrlRewriteGraphQl
      Magento_CompareListGraphQl
      Magento_ConfigurableProductGraphQl
      Magento_CustomerDownloadableGraphQl
      Magento_CustomerGraphQl
      Magento_DirectoryGraphQl
      Magento_DownloadableGraphQl
      Magento_EavGraphQl
      Magento_GiftMessageGraphQl
      Magento_GraphQl
      Magento_GraphQlCache
      Magento_GroupedProductGraphQl
      Magento_InventoryGraphQl
      Magento_InventoryInStorePickupGraphQl
      Magento_InventoryInStorePickupQuoteGraphQl
      Magento_InventoryQuoteGraphQl
      Magento_LoginAsCustomerGraphQl
      Magento_NewsletterGraphQl
      Magento_PaypalGraphQl
      Magento_QuoteGraphQl
      Magento_ReCaptchaWebapiGraphQl
      Magento_RelatedProductGraphQl
      Magento_ReviewGraphQl
      Magento_SalesGraphQl
      Magento_StoreGraphQl
      Magento_TaxGraphQl
      Magento_ThemeGraphQl
      Magento_UrlRewriteGraphQl
      Magento_VaultGraphQl
      Magento_WishlistGraphQl

      Reply
  28. Sahil
    Sahil on 30. May 2023 at 11:19

    I have disabled all these. Lets see how this works!

    Magento_GoogleAdwords Magento_GoogleOptimizer Magento_GoogleAnalytics Magento_GoogleGtag Magento_CardinalCommerce Magento_SampleData Magento_Persistent Magento_Multishipping

    Magento_LoginAsCustomerGraphQl Magento_LoginAsCustomerAssistance Magento_LoginAsCustomerLog Magento_LoginAsCustomerPageCache Magento_LoginAsCustomerQuote

    Magento_LoginAsCustomerSales Magento_LoginAsCustomerAdminUi Magento_LoginAsCustomerFrontendUi Magento_LoginAsCustomer Magento_LoginAsCustomerApi

    Magento_WishlistAnalytics Magento_WishlistGraphQl Magento_SendFriend Magento_SendFriendGraphQl Magento_CheckoutAgreements

    Magento_Marketplace Magento_AwsS3 Magento_Ups Magento_Usps Magento_Dhl Magento_Fedex

    Magento_GroupedImportExport Magento_GroupedCatalogInventory Magento_MsrpGroupedProduct Magento_GroupedProduct Magento_DownloadableImportExport Magento_ConfigurableImportExport

    Magento_BundleImportExport Magento_QuoteDownloadableLinks Magento_QuoteConfigurableOptions Magento_QuoteBundleOptions Magento_QuoteAnalytics Magento_ReviewAnalytics Magento_CustomerAnalytics

    Magento_AdvancedPricingImportExport Magento_CatalogRuleConfigurable Magento_MsrpConfigurableProduct

    Magento_WeeeGraphQl Magento_VaultGraphQl Magento_CatalogInventoryGraphQl Magento_CatalogUrlRewriteGraphQl Magento_ThemeGraphQl Magento_CompareListGraphQl Magento_TaxGraphQl

    Magento_SwatchesGraphQl Magento_CmsUrlRewriteGraphQl Magento_UrlRewriteGraphQl Magento_SalesGraphQl Magento_ReviewGraphQl Magento_RelatedProductGraphQl Magento_ConfigurableProductGraphQl

    Magento_PaypalGraphQl Magento_PaymentGraphQl Magento_NewsletterGraphQl Magento_CatalogCmsGraphQl Magento_GiftMessageGraphQl Magento_CustomerDownloadableGraphQl Magento_DownloadableGraphQl

    Magento_DirectoryGraphQl Magento_CatalogCustomerGraphQl Magento_QuoteGraphQl Magento_CustomerGraphQl Magento_CatalogGraphQl Magento_CmsGraphQl Magento_CheckoutAgreementsGraphQl

    Magento_BundleGraphQl Magento_GroupedProductGraphQl Magento_EavGraphQl Magento_CatalogRuleGraphQl Magento_StoreGraphQl Magento_GraphQlCache Magento_GraphQl Magento_NewRelicReporting

    Magento_CustomerImportExport Magento_TaxImportExport Magento_SwaggerWebapiAsync Magento_SwaggerWebapi Magento_Swagger Magento_JwtUserToken Magento_JwtFrameworkAdapter

    Magento_CatalogAnalytics Magento_AdminAnalytics Magento_ConfigurableProductSales Magento_ProductVideo Magento_EncryptionKey

    Magento_PaypalCaptcha Magento_Weee Magento_CatalogWidget Magento_RemoteStorage Magento_Amqp Magento_Version

    Magento_SwatchesLayeredNavigation Magento_Swatches Magento_ConfigurableProduct Magento_WebapiSecurity

     

    Reply

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