Best Ecommerce Open Source Platforms

Open-source ecommerce shopping carts offer many advantages for small businesses. Open-source solutions can be developed to fit the needs of the merchant. They contain a nice combination of features at a minimal cost. And, though the support options may be more limited than proprietary or hosted platforms, open-source standalone solutions often have large communities of developers and partners to assist new merchants.

Here is a list of 11 open-source ecommerce solutions. All of the core applications are free. Each application has both free and premium extensions and support options to enhance the development of your store.

OpenCart

OpenCart is an open-source, PHP-based ecommerce solution for online merchants. OpenCart has a very loyal and active community for user support, as well as a list of commercial partners for professional installation and customization. OpenCart features more than 20 payment gateways and more than 8 shipping methods in the default downloads, with hundreds of additional gateways and shipping integrations in its extension directory. OpenCart is also designed to easily manage multiple shops from one admin interface. Its directory has over 2,700 themes.

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PrestaShop

PrestaShop is an open-source ecommerce solution, written in PHP and based on the Smartytemplate engine. PrestaShop comes with over 310 integrated features and 3,500 modules and templates. It features cross selling, downloadable products, product export, one-page checkout, shipping discounts, and much more. Downloaded over 4 million times, PrestaShop is used in 160 countries and translated into 63 languages. It has more than 600,000 community members.

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Magento Community Edition

Magento Community Edition is the free and open source version of the ecommerce platform. Merchants can access added features by installing extensions and themes from the huge Magento Connect marketplace. Magento does not provide technical support for the Community Edition, so answers to technical questions must be found in the user forum. One slight ruffle, Magento has announced the closing of its hosted solution, Magento Go, but for now the Community Edition is okay. Magento Community Edition supports more that 200,000 customer sites.

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Zen Cart

Zen Cart is an open-source ecommerce application written in PHP. Zen Cart branched from osCommerce code in 2003, with a solution that was more template-based. It features more that 1,800 add-ons in 16 categories. Zen Cart’s support community has approximately 150,000 members and 200,000 threads.

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Spree Commerce

Spree Commerce is an open-source ecommerce solution based on Ruby on Rails. The modular platform allows you to configure, supplement, or replace any functionality you need. Spree Commerce has more than 45,000 stores using the platform around the world, including Chipotle. Spree Commerce has been translated into more than 30 languages.

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Drupal Commerce

Drupal Commerce is an ecommerce app by Commerce Guys. It is built on the Drupal content management system. Drupal Commerce offers a complete product administration system, shopping cart, multilingual and multi-currency, and checkout form. The Drupal Commerce extension list is full of third-party integrations for payment gateways, fulfillment services, accounting applications, social networks, and much more. Technical support packages are available from Commerce Guys.

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osCommerce

osCommerce (i.e., open source Commerce) is one of the first open-source ecommerce applications. More than 7,000 free add-ons have been uploaded by its community to customize a online store. osCommerce is used by nearly 13,000 registered sites. The support community has approximately 280,000 members who have contributed 1.5 million forum postings. Direct communication with other community members is available in the Live Chat room.
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simpleCart

simpleCart(js) is a free and open-source JavaScript shopping cart. With its small footprint, simpleCart(js) is designed to keep simple and high traffic sites running fast. The simpleCart(js) free core comes with the ability to check out with PayPal Express, Google Checkout, and Amazon Payments. Email checkout and Authorize.Net integration are coming soon.

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WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a free open-source ecommerce application that lets merchants turn WordPress sites into stores. WooCommerce was developed by WooThemes from a fork of Jigoshop. WooCommerce has a large variety of plugins and themes from WooThemes, as well as third party sites like ThemeForest and CodeCanyon. With nearly 4.5 million downloads from WordPress.org, WooCommerce is a very popular ecommerce solution for WordPress. To get official WooThemes support, you need to purchase a product. Otherwise, get help from the active community forum.

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WP e-Commerce

WP e-Commerce is another popular application for converting a WordPress site into an ecommerce store. The WP e-Commerce plugin has nearly 3 million downloads at WordPress.org. Use your own HTML and CSS and have complete control over the look and feel of your online store. WP e-Commerce has a nice variety of standard features, including multi-tier pricing for quantity discounts and integration with social networks for marketing. For support, there are video tutorials and a WordPress.org forum, as well as featured consultants for professional help.

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Jigoshop

Jigoshop is a free and open-source ecommerce solution based on WordPress. Released in 2011, Jigoshop is the predecessor to WooCommerce. Jigoshop has more than 30 themes, 100 extensions, and three theme frameworks. Jigoshop is free, as is support at WordPress.org. However, access to Jigoshop.com’s community support starts at $40 per month.