Most of the Open Source E-commerce Platforms available these days come at quite cheap rates and yet when it comes to choosing them you have to do a decent amount of research.
The open-source model has revolutionized the way people start setting up their business websites. Most of them are pretty easy to operate and have intense blogs and videos to give you a brief idea of how best to set them up.
In spite of that when making a choice you first need to decide what your requirement is. You can opt for self- hosting or look for a deal where you pay a nominal fee and get hosting and any other feature that is useful.
Here we are to guide you and choose the best open source E-commerce platform for yourself. We have put together a list of 10 Best Open Source E-commerce Platforms for 2021 and assessed each on the basis of what they have to offer along with their features, pricing, and benefits.
After going through the list you can decide which kind of platform would be able to match your need the best. After that, you can analyze whether it falls in your budget and it is an easy choice.
Given that the look and feel of your website makes a huge difference in the success of your website, you need to be careful of the theme you choose for your site. For people to trust your website, you need to make sure to pick up a professional design (which makes your site trustworthy). Collectiveray have an excellent list of the WordPress business themes.
Also if you want to compare the two most popular platforms, you can check out this article here.
Open Source eCommerce Platforms
1. WooCommerce
WooCommerce is built on WordPress, the software that runs 26% of the web. Regularly audited by Sucuri, an industry leader in security, you’re in good hands.
Review: eCommerce platforms
If you’ve used WordPress for e-commerce, you’ve probably heard of WooCommerce. It’s the crown jewel of the e-commerce world and considered one of the best plugins for WordPress.
Not only does WooCommerce boast a large collection of features in a compact WordPress plugin, but it’s completely free. In this WooCommerce review, I’ll outline some of the best tools inside WooCommerce along with some information on how much you’ll actually be spending when you install the e-commerce plugin.
2. Zen Cart
Zen Cart truly is the art of e-commerce; free, user-friendly, open source shopping cart software. The e-commerce web site design program is developed by a group of like-minded shop owners, programmers, designers, and consultants that think e-commerce web design could be, and should be, done differently.
Some shopping cart solutions seem to be complicated programming exercises instead of responding to users’ needs, Zen Cart puts the merchants and shoppers requirements first.
Similarly, other shopping cart software programs are nearly impossible to install and use without an IT degree, Zen Cart can be installed and set-up by anyone with the most basic web site building and computer skills.
Review: Capterra
Pros: Once you have it downloaded & set up. Functionality is fantastic. You can see behind the scenes. If a potential customer calls and wants to know if their order went through online (because in reality it did not), you can actually see where the breakdown happened & what they had in their cart even if they were shopping as a guest. The program definitely requires a learning period but it is worth it.
Cons: Requires a good amount of tech knowledge. If you are not tech savvy or don’t have someone that is, then this is not the way to go. You will only get support through the forums & “tickets”. There is no phone support.
3. Magento Open Source
Magento is a modern cloud eCommerce platform. Magento extends beyond the shopping cart for every shoppable experience, including email, mobile, in-store, and more.
Now, as a part of Adobe Experience Cloud, Magento joins the only integrated platform for analytics, advertising, content creation, and commerce — everything you need for customer experience management.
Review: eCommerce platforms
The fact that Magento is so popular may come as no shock to some of you. I have a feeling that others are shrugging their shoulders as to what Magento even provides.
E-commerce solutions usually come in one of three forms: Built for people with no programming experience, some experience, or lots of experience.
4. X-Cart
X-Cart is an extremely flexible open source platform with tons of features and integrations, 24/7 support and a full range of professional services.
Get your ecommerce website up and running fast — without breaking the bank. Take a peek at all the great design templates we offer, then choose your fave and start customizing.
All you pay is a one-time licensing fee! No fee for transactions, no large monthly fees, no sneaky add-on fees like you get with “free” ecommerce software. When you want an upgrade, simply press one button and X-Cart updates automatically.
Review: PCmag
Pros: Both hosted and self-install versions available. 30-day free trial. Refunds. Free plan. Extensive features.
Cons: Requires manual coding and setup. Might be too much to handle for small businesses and startups.
Bottom Line: X-Cart is aimed mainly at seasoned e-commerce professionals due to a somewhat complex user interface when compared to the competition, as well as a need to know HTML coding to get full functionality. If you’re HTML-enabled, though, it’s well worth a look.
5. PrestaShop
PrestaShop is an efficient and innovative e-commerce solution with all the features you need to create an online store and grow your business.
Choose your colors, your logo and design from among a selection of professional-looking themes. Manage your products, orders, customer relationships, and track your statistics.
Review: G2crowd
What do you like best?
I started to use and adjust Prestashop not knowing anything about the platform. Saying that I built a complete online shop with it would be the best illustration of how user-friendly it. (well, to be honest my experienced colleague was there to support me as well).
TPV adjustment for a newcomer would be the most difficult part, but for an experienced user it is easy. I also liked the part of being able to form payment bills for the clients directly in the platform. You are also able to choose a transportation company to deliver your goods according to the timing and prices that you need or even offer several transportation companies for your buyer.
What do you dislike?
We had some bugs with saving descriptions of the products (they were not saving), but finally turned out to be our mistake in the adjustments.
What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?
Selling product to a customer.
6. osCommerce
provide you the tools to set up your very own complete and self-hosted online store and website for free to securely sell products and services to customers worldwide.
You have complete access to and total control of your online store and data.
Our growing community of over 341,106 store owners, developers, and service providers are there to help you at every stage of running your online store and business. Over 8,880 free Add-Ons have been uploaded by the community to use and customize your online store with.
Review: Merchant Maverick
Pros
- Free to download
- Numerous integrations
- Strong user community
Cons
- Limited features
- Difficult to use
- Developer skills required
- Outdated design templates
Overview
Sure, we all know some things get better with age. Unfortunately, osCommerce is not one of them. The German-based open source shopping cart launched by Harald Ponce de Leon back in 2000 gets points for being one of the original PHP-based carts that gave a broader cross-section of merchants the ability to launch online stores.
7. JigoShop
Well established e-commerce platform that combines broad functionality, easy migration options and professional support packages. Jigoshop is optimised for the search engines, PCI DSS compliant and has resulted in success for many of our clients which you can read about here.
Review: eCommerce platforms
Jigoshop is an open-source and user-friendly WordPress e-commerce plug-in developed by highly-experienced folks at Jigowatt, a UK based company. The first public beta version of this feature-packed plug-in was released on 31 May 2011. Since then, it has been updated many times with the recently released version Jigoshop 1.11.4.
Till date, which is more than three years since its launch, Jigoshop has been downloaded over 370,000 times. Trusted and used by thousands of shops and individuals worldwide, Jigoshop provides you everything you need to set up your eStore lickety-split. If you’re looking for a simple yet very advanced eCommerce solution for your WordPress online store, then you should definitely give Jigoshop a try.
8. WP eCommerce
The WP eCommerce Plugin is everything you need to sell anywhere! Convert visitors to customers with a beautiful online store and a secure shopping cart. Powering over 36,186 stores, WP eCommerce is one of the most relied upon open-source solutions for business owners across the globe.
Tired of eCommerce solutions that don’t do things the WordPress way? WP eCommerce has all the features you want.
- Easily add products to your catalog
- Monitor sales and reporting
- Configure taxes and shipping
- Industry-leading payment gateways
- White-glove customer support
9. Ubercart
Ubercart is the most popular Drupal E-Commerce platform for your website. It implements everything you need to start selling products online. Web Developers from all skill ranges can use it to support a variety of E-Commerce industries– including physical goods, digital downloads, or even subscription-based billing services. Ubercart can do it all!
Review: SitebuilderReport
We are indeed using Ubercart, mostly because we started with it ages ago and haven’t had any problems.
I don’t have much to say about the experience of using it other than it does what we need, even if it’s sometimes a bit cumbersome (like the process for managing stock for similar items, think a single shirt in different sizes or setting up shipping).
10. PaGO Commerce
Easy to deploy and extend, paGO Commerce plays well with others. Plus it’s modular, so you can grow with no hacks or work-arounds.
paGO Commerce has the built-in marketing tools you need to sell to your mobile, global buyers. Sell to them on any device, wherever they go.
Global currency conversion, language and more to give you the edge over your global competitors.
Review: joomla
Until now, you haven’t had a choice but to leave the confines of Joomla to use a professional grade E-commerce shopping cart solution. Now you don’t have to go to Magento or Drupal Commerce and trade off inadequate Content Management in order to get professional E-commerce.
paGO Commerce is engineered by ‘corePHP’ to help you engage and sell to customers no matter what device they’re on, be that mobile phone, tablet, laptop or desktop. It’s truly mobile commerce at its best, for Joomla!
Reach 50% More Buyers in Today’s Mobile Generation
Your buyers are mobile. You better be mobile too. paGO lets you sell to them on any device – from desktop to dashtop and everything in between – wherever they go. Hence our slogan: “Go anywhere, sell everywhere.”
