Online presence is becoming important in today’s competitive world of business. This is applicable for both small and medium-sized companies. Before you get in touch with eCommerce developers you must choose the right platform that will match up with your business needs.
An eCommerce platform is that software that allows you to build an online store to run your business online. Most of the eCommerce frameworks are currently free or inexpensive. Many eCommerce store owners are opting for free open-source eCommerce platforms.
The tools that are needed to sell online might appear to be hefty whether it is a monthly or yearly expense, especially at the enterprise level. But the use of open-source software comes with an attractive price and many are free too. Additionally, you have greater control over your online presence as they also offer customizability, community support, and scalability.
9 Best PHP Opensource eCommerce Platforms to Build Online Store in 2021
Opting for a free open-source eCommerce platform will be an easy decision for your business especially if you are new to the online market. Click here for the best platform will however prove to be far more difficult.
This is because all of them have various strengths and weaknesses.
The open-source platforms are valuable and managed by experienced eCommerce developers across the globe. Open-source platforms are used by people because they are packed with unique features and are developer-friendly.
There are numerous open-source eCommerce platforms and we are listing the nine best PHP open-source platforms to help you build an online store:
1. WooCommerce – This is said to be the best eCommerce platform for startups and is the most popular WordPress plugin. This open-source platform for eCommerce has a great user community. You don’t need to have any technical knowledge to set up and manage your online shop which is one of the biggest benefits of this platform. Being mobile-friendly will help your online shop visitors to make orders from their mobile devices increasing your sales. A mobile app with your products can be created with one of its add-ons. To get customized features from this open-source eCommerce solution you will have to pay for extensions and templates. One disadvantage is that WooCommerce works only with WordPress websites. This does not go well with some types of businesses. Nevertheless, it is a great option for your business if you are familiar with the WordPress admin panel.
2. Magento – This is said to be the best open-source eCommerce platform and holds about 26% of the eCommerce software market making it an industry leader. Large businesses handling big amounts of traffic and looking for technical, installation, and troubleshooting support should use this platform. Magento has a solution for small and medium companies. Its community edition allows online retailers to enjoy loads of features for free. It is a multi-store eCommerce platform and supports languages and customs modules. This platform provides users with flexibility and infinite scalability with its wide range of plugins and add-ons.
3. Shopware – It is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms these days. Founded in 2000 it has turned out to be the perfect solution for shops of any size. This platform supports multiple storefronts, languages, and currencies. The architecture of Shopware is modern and tough allowing templates, plugins, and extensions to be added as per the requirement. The main advantage of this open-source platform is that it has a symbiosis of technology and design, simple setup and admin, on-premise and cloud-based solutions, great flexibility, and marketing strategies.
4. Bagisto – This is powered by PHP’s Laravel framework and offers a wide range of basic to advanced features making it an ideal platform for start-ups and entrepreneurs as well. Bagisto can be used by multi-level types of vendors with its RTL support and powerful SEO features. It allows you to control multi-channel inventories, link the store with various inventory sources and easily monitor the store’s product stock in the given inventory.
5. OpenCart – It is a very popular free PHP eCommerce shopping cart and platform. Its strong community of professionals is very helpful. OpenCart allows you to customize your store from its 2500+ attractive themes. The interface of this platform’s directory has more than eight methods of shipping, about twenty gateways for payment, and hundreds of gateways and shipping methods.
6. Joomla – This has almost 6% of the market share thus enjoying moderate popularity among the eCommerce community. It is more of a content management system and thus mostly used by individual eCommerce stores, schools, and churches. It has a very strong community of eCommerce developers and designers hosting more than 700,000 eCommerce websites and stores.
7. Prestashop – This is built on a smart template engine offering hundreds of features. It includes page-checkout, products that can be downloaded, cross-selling of features, etc. Prestashop has been translated into various languages and is used in 160 countries. It has helped build a strong community and comes with customizable themes and add-ons.
8. Drupal – This is a PHP open-source eCommerce platform used by over 5K sites. Drupal commerce keeps track of orders, receipts, payments, and invoices along with various options for shipping and payment methods. It is based on a content management system and offered a complete administration system with checkout forms and usage of multi-currency. Drupal also offers third-party assistance for social networks and accounting services.
9. X-Cart – Released in 2000 this has now become a prominent name among eCommerce platforms. X-Cart has got the distinction of being one of the first PHP-based eCommerce software with more than 30k websites using it. It also offers shipping integration with FedEx, UPS, etc with an in-site payment module to detect frauds.
Ultimately, it is not possible to say which is the best platform because it all depends on your specific needs and the features that will benefit you the most.
Conclusion
Choosing the right eCommerce open-source platform is not easy. If you are only doing basic eCommerce and do not need scalable or customizable options then go for a small and simple platform. But if it is the versatility that you are looking for and you are willing to pay for eCommerce developers then a high-performance platform is more suitable.
Eventually, you are the one to decide what is best for your business. Remember people will judge your online business based on your storefront so choose wisely.
Author’s BIO:
Sunny Chawla is a Managing Director at Alliance Recruitment Agency. He specializes in helping client for international recruiting, staffing, HR services and Careers advice service for overseas and international businesses.
