Open Source eCommerce Platforms are excellent options to set the online store, and more and more people are choosing them. They offer flexibility and freedom that software solutions like Shopify and BSSCommerce don’t provide.
In this article, I am going to mention the top 10 PHP based open source eCommerce platforms.
Top 12 Open Source eCommerce Platforms
- WooCommerce
- Magento
- Drupal
- Joomla
- Opencart
- Prestashop
- OsCommerce
- Zencart
- X-Cart
- Virtuemart
- JigoShop
- ZeusCart
WooCommerce
Over 30% of all the online stores are using WooCommerce. It is one of the most powerful and popular WordPress Plugin. If you can install WordPress, you can install WooCommerce.
Sucuri audits regularly keeps the WooCommerce secure, and the vast open source community is actively supporting it. The best part is, it works with WordPress (the world’s most popular CMS), which seamlessly integrates the content and commerce.
It is entirely customizable and can be modified as per the need of the store.
Number of Stores: 3,876,748
Themes: WooCommerce has lots of paid and free themes in the market. Third-party themes are also available.
Extensions: WooCommerce is itself an extension of WordPress, but many paid/free plugins can extend the WooCommerce.
Magento
Magento is another significant leader in the eCommerce market. Built on PHP, it is a highly scalable platform uses by various enterprises. On average, merchants having an online store on the Magento grow three times faster than others.
The Magento 2 platform is secure and supported by the Magento community.
However, it was built for the developers. Installation of the Magento requires advance knowledge of the PHP language and programming.
Number of Stores: 178,334
Themes: Lots of themes available. Third-Party themes are also available.
Extensions: Many extensions are present, free, and paid. However, many Magento owners make their extensions.
Drupal
Drupal Commerce is an open source eCommerce platform based on PHP, designed to offer an architecture to build an online store. It is different from the other eCommerce solutions, as it is not a platform but a framework to work on.
According to them:
Whereas eCommerce solutions are often developed with an application mindset, highlighting what you can do with it out of the box, Drupal Commerce was designed with a framework mindset, focusing on what you can build with it.
However, the software does have all the functions and tools that are needed to develop an online store. The central authority releases the upgrades regularly and keeps the platform secure.
Number of Stores: 553,137
Themes: Drupal does have themes, and there are third party creators too.
Extensions: More than 40k Modules
Joomla
Joomla is a PHP based open source Content Management Platform with extensions that can turn it into an eCommerce store. It is similar to WordPress, but as WordPress has WooCommerce, Joomla has its list of eCommerce extensions.
Joomla is the world’s second most popular CMS, and there is no limit to its functionalities. However, there are not many extensions and themes to support the platform. Joomla also fails in
Number of Stores: 2,500,000+
Themes: Templates available from third-party sellers
Extensions: More than 7000 official extensions, then there are unofficial extensions too.
Opencart
Opencart is a popular PHP open-source eCommerce platform that lets you launch your online store, add/manage the products, let the customers use a shopping cart to buy them, and then process the orders.
It is entirely free and open-source, and you allowed to make any modifications you like. However, the platform is not a beginner-friendly and requires some web experience.
The platform is easy to use with the clean interface and manageable admin area. Opencart has a simple learning curve.
Number of stores: 322,395
Theme: Many official themes and there are third-party apps that makes Opencart themes
Extensions: 13000+ extension in the marketplace and more are external
PrestaShop
PrestaShop is an open-source eCommerce solution written in PHP, with lots of features and functionalities. Supported by a hugely active community, PrestaShop is a secure platform that releases regular updates.
The open-source software lets you make changes at every level of its structure, and the platform is built to support large online stores.
PrestaShop has easy to use interface, and you can sell globally with the platform as it is available in more than 75 languages. The software is also very SEO friendly.
Number of Stores: 243,011
Theme: 2671 templates in the Prestashop Market and third party templates are available
Extensions: 3500+ Modules in the marketplace, categories as per the function
OsCommerce
OsCommerce is helping in developing eCommerce stores for the past 20 years. It is one of the oldest eCommerce builders, and with time, its popularity has been gone down, but it is still a powerful platform to create your store on.
osCommerce is an excellent option because it is simple to use, easy to modify, and easy to get running just the way you need it.
The problem is when it comes to reliability and scalability, and as the product database and number of sales increase, the platform fails to perform in handling the orders. The user experience disrupts, and the site was unable to perform and bring more sales.
Number of Stores: 75,025
Theme: Not many templates, however, third-party themes are available
Extensions: 9000 Add-Ons beside external modules
Zencart
Zencart is an eCommerce software that can turn your entire site into an eCommerce store. The software, based on PHP/MySQL, is fully customizable and completely free to download.
Zen Cart is a fork of OsCommerce, which is an online store management tool. Zen cart has changed front-end and includes many features that were no present in the OsCommerce at the time.
Now, Zen Cart is a complete software supporting many eCommerce stores. The active community patches the bugs and release the updates.
Number of Stores: 195,804
Themes: The third party templates are available
Extensions: 2098 Modules are present in the Plugin section
X-Cart
X-Cart is known as one of the first PHP based open source e-commerce platform that helped the early web developers to create eCommerce stores. Started from X-Cart has gone under many updates and changes, and now it has many advances features, like mobile responsiveness and multiple payment gateways.
It is highly customizable due to the open-source nature, but you will need developers to do that. The front-end customizations are limited, and the rest can only be done via coding.
There is a community, but the support is slow. To get better help, you have to pay an annual subscription fee.
Number of stores: Approx 30,000 Stores
Themes: 45 Templates in the marketplace and 3rd party templates
Extensions: Many useful extension in the marketplace
VirtueMart
VirtueMart is a free open source eCommerce extension for Joomla. It does not work for WordPress or any other PHP platform. There is no stand-alone extension that can work on other platforms as well. You have to install Joomla to begin working with the VirtueMart.
The extension is highly scalable and allows limitless categories and products to add on the store
However, it is getting outdated and lacks features like mobile responsiveness and social media integration. But that could be achieved via other Joomla extensions. If you want to use VirtueMart, you will need a developer as it is not easy to use the program.
Number of Stores: 54,439
Themes: All the Joomla templates work on VirtueMart
Extensions: Joomla Extensions and 203 Extension in the Marketplace
Jigoshop
Once widely popular, Jigoshop was a popular WordPress plugin to power ecommerce stores. The plugin launched on May 31, 2011, and quickly became the favorite among the WordPress online store owners.
It was free with additional paid features, including themes and plugins. Jigoshop was incredibly easy to use. A rarely known fact is that the most popular ecommerce plugin developed on PHP is forked by Jigoshop.
Jigishop version 2 was 3times faster, and one day, the developer Jay Koster and Mike Jolley stopped working on the plugin. The plugin is discontinued, closed as of January 3, 2020, and is not available for download.
However, the code is available on Github, which you can use.
Number of Stores: 0
Themes: Had many themes and extensions. Though they have migrated to work with WooCommerce.
Extensions: Similarly to the themes, extensions are also moved to use with WooCommerce.
Zeus Cart
Zeus Cart is another popular PHP-based ecommerce platform. It is stable, fast, and has all the features required to develop a functioning and scalable ecommerce store.
Targeting small and medium-size ecommerce store owners. The features include inventory management, SEO, inbuilt CMS, integrated payment gateways, newsletter, and templates.
Also Read:
- How to Disable PHP Execution in WordPress Directories?
- How To Run Custom PHP Files in Magento 2? (In NGINX)
- Best PHP Editors and PHP IDE for the Development
Wrapping Up
If you are looking to make an eCommerce store with the PHP framework, this article is for you. I have talked about the top 10 PHP based open source eCommerce platforms that you can install and start working on.
This list will also help you if you are migrating from an open-source platform, and looking for another open-source platform.
Open-Source eCommerce platforms are sturdy and give lots of flexibility to work on, but there is also a learning curve, and one needs to take manage them.
One Response
The platforms you mentioned are quite good, but right now some platforms like ecomsta, php base are also in the market which leaves others behind in functionality.