When you think about developing an online e-commerce store, you will have to go through many options over choosing one right platform. There are plenty of platforms divided into two paths of development that are open source and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform. Both platforms have a lot to share but as compared to the (SaaS) platform, Open source is way more flexible to your online business.
Open source e-commerce platform will give you the ability with the freedom to edit and even helps you to develop exactly what you need for your e-commerce solution. It offers your business an inexpensive and customizable option for launching an online store. This platform is currently becoming more popular over current market trends and though will continue to grow all because of its functionality and services. Open source is for those who prefer to have custom developed e-commerce online store.
Reasons to choose Open source platforms are:-
- Open source platforms are free.
- Get control over your design and store data.
- This platform is packed with many features because it changes constantly while being developed.
- Control your hosting, plug-in and themes.
Here are some Open source platforms, which you can go through to understand them more in details for your references.
List of 11 Best Open Source E-Commerce Platforms – 2019:-
| Magento | OS Commerce | Open Cart |
| Woo Commerce | Prestashop | Drupal Commerce |
| XCart | Zen Cart | WP eCommerce |
| Virtue Mart | Spree Commerce |
Magento
Magento is a CMS platform with open source functionality which provides you unique featured services for business owners and helps to expand their business operations digitally in e-commerce world. It has a powerful functions, system, scalability, flexibility and easy customization. Magento is the best option for those who want to expand their businesses for long-term goals.
One thing is for sure with Magento development is that if you convey your best online shopping experience to your customers you will surely end up with loyal customers and users. It gives you the complete control over its offering on service by providing comprehensive tools.
Launch Year: 2008
Services: Free
No of Online Store: 260,000+
Advantages and Features of Magento:
- Simplicity – Easy to use platform that totally focuses on providing simplicity services and customer support.
- Flexibility – You can develop your own custom made design with extended plugins options.
- List out unlimited products and categories – You can sell an unlimited number of products online with unique search options.
- User Management – Easily manage the users and user levels on your e-commerce website through the back end.
- Search Engine Optimization – You can combine the design with the SEO services for gaining the optimal search engine results.
Who is using it?
Coco Cola | Nike | Huawei | Pepe Jeans
Website: https://magento.com/
OS Commerce
It’s a platform that makes you feel little bit outdated version of Amazon but you can say that OS Commerce is been into this business for more than 15 years and should have been performing well over in the current markets.
Unluckily, there are only 13000 stores which are currently run over this platform. You can say that OS commerce has been loyal open source platform which is really a very major factor that expresses about the ability to still compete for the modern e-commerce market trends without any changes.
Launch Year: 2001
Services: Free
No of Online Stores: 210,000+
Advantages, Disadvantage and Features of OS Commerce:-
It is considered to be one of the oldest platform which gives you a vital reason for building an online store through OS Commerce.
- Quick setup
- Easy for a developer to customize
- Secured product management
- Affordable price
Disadvantages:
- Lack of technical support
- Being an entrepreneur through OS Commerce platform is tough.
Who is using it?
Ambi | Rebel Collection | Buy bies
Website: https://www.oscommerce.com
Open Cart
Open cart allows you to achieve your online market goals, no matter how big or small they are. This is one of the very active communities and though actively developed on every aspect over providing better services. This platform is free which includes MVC design patterns with easily developed extensions.
It is popular among small businesses because they don’t have much staff with a lot of programming experience. The best part about OpenCart is that it doesn’t drag on your server, you can slow everything down by adding up numbers of plugins and for most of the people, this is one of the fastest options.
Launch Year: 2009
Services: Free
No of Online Store: 200,000+
Advantages, Disadvantages and Features of OpenCart:-
- Always ready to use template options
- Multi-lingual mode
- Multi-Store option
- Plenty of options on extensions and modules
Disadvantages:
OpenCart doesn’t promise you to serve a very high-performance service unless the user decides to avail addition plugins. It doesn’t have to cache too but can be done through by adding an extension for boosting up the performance.
Who is using it?
Wooden Poster | Choco Concept | Svapostore
Website: https://www.opencart.com
WooCommerce
An open source platform which is free to download and offers you with an enormous amount of extended features, even after being extremely flexible both by nature. WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin that has user-friendly features and functions to provide a better experience to have a perfect e-commerce startup.
It helps you to feel free for an online business that makes easy to understand easily without any hesitation regarding the services.
Launch Year: 2008
Services: Free
No of Online Stores: 210,000+
Advantages, Disadvantages and Features of WooCommerce-
It never forces the user to go beyond their comfort zone because it helps you with plenty of other option. So that it can help you built an amazing online e-commerce store.
- Numerous customization options
- Simple and professional
- WooThemes
- Great flexibility
Disadvantages:
The main disadvantage of this platform is the plugins which aren’t free and they play a very important role in development. Even this platform doesn’t have a hosted solution that means everything from security to site issues is up to your end.
Who is using it?
Sock Box | The Darkroom | Air Stream
Website: https://woocommerce.com
Prestashop
Prestashop is the famous e-commerce platform currently in European markets which is easily available at free of cost because of being an open source CMS platform. The built-in functions are made for creating, managing and launching successful online store without paying any fees for the license.
This platform supports various payment gateways like Google Checkout and PayPal. It requires fewer servers and resources though as compared to other e-commerce development platforms.
Launch Year: 2007
Services: Free
No of Online Stores: 200,000+
Advantages, Disadvantages and Features of Prestashop-
It is a completely free platform that helps you to save over the cost, especially if you are looking forward to getting that developed with a budgeted price.
- Demographic assistance
- Limited Scalability ( This platform is especially for small and medium-sized stores)
- Appealing back-end interface
- Debugging is easier
Disadvantages:
- Payment gateways generate few errors sometimes with the response time but this has to be controlled.
- Some extensions, modules and plugins are to be purchased as they don’t come with the pack.
Who is using it?
Champagne De Lozey | Tracia | Bein Manger
Website: https://www.prestashop.com
Drupal Commerce
Drupal Commerce is flexible and most unique functionality of handling complex payment models easily. Drupal commerce readily integrates with numerous third-party apps and through built-in CMS it makes a very strong content marketing eCommerce strategy. Same as like other open source e-commerce platforms the support will cost you.
Drupal Commerce offers some great deals over a digital marketing support that can help you to a lot through its e-commerce system.
Launch Year: 2004
Services: Free
No of Online Store: NA
Advantages, Disadvantages and Features of Drupal Commerce:
There is no licensing cost or usage limit over it, you can customize as per your desire.
- Safe and secured e-commerce platform
- License-free
- Marketing enabled
- PCI Compliant (Payment card industry data security standard)
Disadvantages:
- For the promotion of a Drupal e-commerce it might be too difficult for any new developer
- It is DIY friendly and though not a right platform for CMS too.
Who is using it?
Carteir | Chais d’oeuvre | Royal Mail
Website: https://drupalcommerce.org
XCart
It is the platform that helps you to go online easily across global markets by providing you access and full control over everything. XCart supports OOP to PHP7 and the database is user-friendly too that is made up with MySQL, Maria DB and so on.
Launch Year: 2001
Services: Free
No of Online Stores: 50,000+
Advantages, Disadvantages and Features of XCart:-
- Analyze and track sales properly
- 24×7 support
- Highly Secured
Disadvantages
- The platform is not perfect though but still needs to have a lot of improvements.
- XCart has a very high upgradation fee which requires manual coding to setup.
Who is using it?
Roto Pax | Collectibles of the game | Corvette Store Online
Website: https://www.x-cart.com
ZenCart
Zen Cart is the platform which is more users friendly that helps you to scale up quickly even if you don’t have much-advanced skill overdeveloping. It has great product management system with controlling inventory to creating specials and sales all at your fingertips. This platform is made to take merchants and shoppers requirements as prior.
You can say that Zen Cart has a variety of add-ons and community that contributes module with customizable templates that are ready to run always.
Launch Year: 2003
Services: Free
No of Online Stores: NA
Advantages, Disadvantages and Features of Zen Cart:
- It focuses on the user’s need
- Easy to set up the programming
- Complete freedom to customize the store
Disadvantages
- No good layout
- Stressful upgrades which are hard to do.
- Requires expertise level on PHP
Who is using it?
Cosmic-gestiox | Bread and Butter (Co.Nz)
Website: https://www.zen-cart.com
WP eCommerce
This is another platform which is filled with WordPress plugin options, WP e-commerce platform has been in demand and have been downloaded more than two million times to boost up the e-commerce solution through WordPress functions. WP e-commerce coding is relatively simple even after being an open source eCommerce platform.
Services: Free
No of Online Store: 36,000+
Advantages, Disadvantages and features of WP e-commerce:-
- Easily add products to your catalog
- Configure taxes and shipping
- Industry-leading payment gateways
- White-glove customer support
Disadvantages
- There are not much add-on options.
- Multi-lingual tools are just okay which are not much advanced at all.
Who is using WP e-commerce?
MollyMeg | Cronut
VirtueMart
You can say VirtueMart is an online expansion for Joomla. The core system of this platform is very small; it can be worked easily by 4-5 developer actively over it. VirtueMart is an open source e-commerce B2B solution which is been there since 2004. This open source platform is very easy to use for beginners and experts too, it has an enormous number of built-in functions which makes your store look professionally in a few minutes.
VirtueMart is not just as usual platform but helps you with improving your web-based business site. This platform is not friendly to the people who are not aware of techs; you will surely need a developer who is well experienced with Joomla CMS system and PHP.
Launch Year: 2005
Services: Free
No of Online Store: 105,000+
Advantages, Disadvantages and Features of VirtueMart:-
- Shop Statistics option
- Directory extensions
Disadvantages
- The platform doesn’t include any ability to sell downloadable products and have to set up all the sales plugins that are paid versions too.
- VirtueMart has complicated payment process and doesn’t have much options on payment gateways too.
Who is using it?
Straight Razor Designs | Stand Up Paddle Sports
Website: http://www.virtuemart.net
Spree Commerce
The platform is based on Ruby on Rails(ROR), Spree Commerce is an e-commerce platform that is very beneficial for hi-tech developers. It is visually appealing, modern and different from all other platforms which have large developer’s active community.
Spree Commerce is the first mobile compatible e-commerce platform that has been widely used through any number of applications.
Launch Year: 2007
No of Online Stores: NA
Advantages, Disadvantages and Features of Spree Commerce:-
- Quick and Rapid Development Solution
- It is a subset of Ruby On Rails
- Mobile ready
- Enlightening documentation with community support
Disadvantages:
- Requires technical assistance
- A limited number of themes
Who is using it?
Farmdrop | Nubikk | Pack help
Website: https://spreecommerce.org
Conclusion
In a nutshell, you can come up with many options but all you have to choose base on your budget, project technical requirement, community resources, Regular version updates and many more.
If you are facing any questions or query related to Open Source Platform, please feel free to contact us.
