5 Best Open Source eCommerce Platforms

As a previous article has proven, the increase in internet use boosts the need for eCommerce websites. With more and more people accessing the internet using the widest variety of tools – desktop and portable computers, tablets, and smartphones – the importance of offering them a tool to help them buy your products becomes critical. But it’s also important to use the right platform, both for you – the operator – and your customers. Here is a shortlist of eCommerce platforms that are Open Source and have proven their worth in time.

1. PrestaShop

When it comes to functions and scalability, PrestaShop is hard to overtake. It comes with over 300 integrated features out of the box and further over 3,500 templates and modules installed later. It has functions like cross-selling, downloadable products, shipping discounts, coupon codes, and more. Besides all the above, PrestaShop is available in 63 languages and has a community of over 600,000 users from 160 countries of the world Web Posting Pro.

2. WordPress

You might argue that WordPress is actually a CMS, but with the right add-ons installed, it can easily turn into a fully-fledged webshop. It is one of the most versatile publishing engines – it is used for everything from business presentation pages to webshops, forums, social networks, and dating sites, and even casino websites, like the red flush casino, is home to over 600 casino games use it as part of their publishing strategy. With WooCommerce, an open-source eCommerce plugin, or WP e-Commerce, another viral eCommerce plugin, you can start selling your products in no time. Both have millions of users and major communities built around them.

3. OsCommerce

No list of the best open-source eCommerce platforms would be complete without OsCommerce, the first-ever open-source webshop platform ever released. OsCommerce has over 7,000 add-ons uploaded by its community to ease their fellow users’ lives, and over 13,000 stores are registered as users of the platform.

4. ZenCart

ZenCart is another fork of the OsCommerce platform, another open-source PHP eCommerce platform, more template-driven than its predecessor. It has over 1,800 community developed add-ons to choose from. ZenCart is also easy to use and to the skin and is a popular solution for many uses.

5. Shopify

This is not exactly an open-source solution but a handy one to offer small businesses a quick and secure way to start selling their product online. Shopify is a turnkey eCommerce solution offering a storefront, payment processing services, hosting, inventory management, marketing, and customer relationship management tools. The best thing about it that, unlike the above, Shopify does not require any technical skills – users can set up their webshop and start selling instantly.