Finding the best e-commerce platform for yourself is not that easy. It is quite subjective and tricky. When you try comparing the open-source platforms, you will find that each of them has its own advantages. Some of these would be suitable for some customers, but not for others. If you want to host an e-commerce website, the chances are that you have already explored a managed woocommerce hosting. While this is an open-source e-commerce platform, let us check out the top 5 open-source platforms.
Magento – One of the well-known enterprise solutions is Magento. While WordPress hosting plans are perfect for content management, large retailers with high sales commonly use Magento sales. The platform is popular with the leading brands in the world. It can handle huge traffic and data. If you have a big enterprise, this becomes an important requirement. With its robust mechanism, Magento keeps its position. Magento has a high-security level and can detect vulnerability issues. The security team reacts by launching security patches.
OpenCart – OpenCart is a lightweight system and does not require as many resources as Magento. It can have only a limited number of users and has restrictions on the number of products being handled. It should be used if you do not require very high bandwidth for your store. OpenCart is a perfect solution for small companies and startups, mostly for independent web stores. The user-friendliness and clarity of the platform are what make it suitable. Managing the platform is easy and convenient.
WooCommerce – WooCommerce is the most preferred tool in the eCommerce category worldwide. There are plenty of professional developers in the community. They have a vast array of options and customizations for web stores. If you do not find the features by default, it is probable that someone has developed the extension, and it would be available in the marketplace. The community is huge. You can buy WordPress hosting and integrate WooCommerce as WordPress users are one of the target audiences of WooCommerce. You need to install a shopping cart plugin, customize it to your requirements and create products.
PrestaShop – The next big player is PrestaShop. With about 250,000 customers and a community of 30,000, and 850,000 forum members, this is one of the largest open-source e-commerce platforms. This open-source e-commerce platform is available in 200 countries and 65 languages. A PrestaShop developer will not cost you as much as a Magento developer. However, the modules for the platform are quite expensive. It is easy to set up and it supports single-click installation.
nopCommerce – nopCommerce is a free and open-source eCommerce platform that is based on ASP.NET. If you would not like to opt for managed Woocommerce hosting, nopCommerce is a good PHP-based solution. The user interface of the admin panel is clean and quite easy to use. It is similar to OpenCart. If you want to offer a responsive design for mobile users, you have all the essential features.
These are the top 5 open-source e-commerce platforms. In addition to these, there are other platforms to choose from as well.
