Well, SOPE tries to use several Zope concepts. This page tries to explain differences ...

Notes

Python vs WebScript vs Objective-C
WO components and dynamic elements vs DTML and ZPT
SoOFS vs ZODB
EOF/GDL vs ZODB
Platform support
Available applications
Renderers and content negotiation
templates! (Publisher style)
dispatcher objects
SOPE vs Zope Acquisition
Zope objects vs SOPE attributes, relationships and lookupName

Some Links