Open source ecommerce application may be the best option to start your own online store. There are a lot of open source applications available through online communities for online stores. In this blog we are going to compare four leading open source ecommerce applications so you can select the right product for your business.
What is Open Source?
Open source software and applications are released under General Public License (GNU) and are freely available with their complete source code along with their help documents. These applications are continuously being updated and extended by the community members. Programmers can customize these software according to their needs and redistribute their customized work. Open source software is much better and stable than proprietary software in many aspects. Programmers all around the world contribute to the software features, quality, bug fixes and security making it more reliable and safe. Most leading open source software are built on tried and tested frameworks such as MVC. Furthermore, they are supported by third party modules, add-ons, plug-ins, localization packs and connectors which make it real easy to not only enhance the functionality but also integrate with other systems and applications.
Which Open Source Application to choose for your shopping cart?
Selection of open source shopping cart application for your online store is not an easy task. You have to consider each and every aspect from basic layout towards the complex payment processing features right from the beginning. However, the application features must fulfill the business needs and requirements. For example if you are have thousands of products and expect a huge volume of traffic, then it is recommended to go for a most stable and enterprise level application. On the other hand if you have few products to sell online and expect low volume traffic, you can go for an entry level application. The entry level applications are easy to customize, have a low cost to run and maintain but may not be able to handle large volume of transactions and security demanded by medium to large size businesses.
We have prepared a comparison matrix of some popular open source shopping carts with respect to their stability, ease of use, feature list, availability of advance options, customization complexity etc. The matrix will help you choose the right product for your online business.
Most Popular Shopping Carts
For the comparison matrix, we have selected the following most popular open source shopping cart applications:
- Magento
- ZenCart
- OpenCart
- OsCommerce
Magento
Magento is a feature-rich ecommerce platform built on open-source technology (MySQL and PHP) that provides online merchants with unprecedented flexibility and control over the look, content and functionality of their ecommerce store. Magento’s powerful administration interface features, search engine optimization and catalog-management tools give merchants the power to create sites that are tailored to their unique business needs [1].
Magento is the ecommerce platform of choice for integration with Openbravo ERP system. For medium to large businesses, Openbravo ERP extends the functionality of an ecommerce application to include stock control, sales order management and finance and accounting.
ZenCart
ZenCart is a free, user-friendly and open source shopping cart software. It has been developed by a group of like-minded shop owners, programmers, designers, and consultants that think ecommerce web design could be and should be done differently. [2].
OpenCart
OpenCart is an open source PHP-based online shopping cart system. A robust e-commerce solution for Internet merchants with the ability to create their own online business and participate in e-commerce at a minimal cost. OpenCart is designed feature rich, easy to use, search engine friendly and with a visually appealing interface [3].
OsCommerce
osCommerce Online Merchant is an Open Source online shop e-commerce solution that is available for free with a feature rich set of out-of-the-box online shopping cart functionality that allows store owners to setup, run, and maintain online stores with minimum effort and with no costs, fees, or limitations involved. [4].
Comparison Matrix of open source ecommerce Applications
Here we are going to present a comparison matrix of these 4 most popular open source ecommerce applications.
1 – Essentials
| Magento | ZenCart | OpenCart | OsCommerce | |
| Requirements | PHP5.2 MySQL4.1.20+, InnoDB, cURL | PHP4.0+ MySQL4.1.14+ | PHP4.0+ MySQL4.1.14+
InnoDB, cURL |
PHP5.2 MySQL4.1.20+, |
| SSL support | full SSL | full or shared SSL | full or shared SSL | full or shared SSL |
| Knowledge level for coding? | advanced | intermediate | intermediate |
intermediate |
| Ease of use? | intermediate | easy | easy | easy |
2 – Site Management
| Magento | ZenCart | OpenCart | OsCommerce | |
| Multi-store |  |
 |
|
|
| Multi-Lingual | |
|
|
|
| Support for Multiple Currencies | |
|
|
|
| Tax Rate support | |
|
|
|
| iPhone optimised | |
|
|
|
| Template system | |
|
|
|
| WYSIWYG Editor for HTML content | |
|
|
add-on (ck editor) |
| Page content management | |
|
|
|
| Email template management | |
|
|
|
| Administration Roles and Users | |
|
|
|
| Open Source? | |
|
|
|
| Unlimited products? | |
|
|
3 – Catalog Management
| Magento | ZenCart | OpenCart | OsCommerce | |
| Batch Import and Export of catalog | |
add-on | |
|
| Google Base Integration | |
add-on | add-on | |
| Downloadable/Digital Products | |
|
|
|
| Filtering of products | |
limited | |
|
| Product comparisons | |
|
|
add-on |
| Product reviews | |
|
|
|
4 – Product Management
| Magento | Zen Cart | OpenCart | OsCommerce | |
| Multiple Images Per Product | |
|
|
|
| Reports | |
limited | |
|
| Bundled products | |
|
add-on | add-on |
| Up-sells in Shopping Cart | |
|
|
|
| Stock Control | |
limited | limited | add-on |
| Product call for price | add-on | |
add-on | add-on |
| Min or max quantities and units | add-on | |
add-on | |
| Cross Sells | |
|
|
add-on |
| Related Products | |
|
|
|
| Auctions | add-on | add-on | add-on | add-o |
5 – Marketing, Sales and SEO
| Magento | Zen Cart | OpenCart | OsCommerce | |
| Google Site Map | |
add-on | add-on | add-on |
| URL Rewrites | |
add-on | add-on | add-on |
| Meta-information for products and categories | |
|
|
|
| Discount Coupons | |
limited | limited | |
| Catalog Promotional Pricing | |
|
|
|
| Multi-tier pricing | |
|
add-on | |
| Customer groups | |
add-on | add-on | |
| Wishlist | |
|
|
|
| Newsletter | |
|
|
|
| Gift Certificates | |
|
|
|
6 – Checkout
| Magento | Zen Cart | Opencart | OsCommerce | |
| Delivery / Billing address | |
|
|
|
| Ship products to multiple addresses in one order | |
|
|
|
| One-Page Checkout | |
add-on | add-on | add-on |
| Checkout without account/Guest Checkout | |
add-on | add-on | add-on |
| Integrated with Google Checkout (Level 2) | |
add-on | add-on | add-o |
7 – Order Management
| Magento | Zen Cart | OpenCart | OsCommerce | |
| Manage orders from admin | |
|
|
|
| Create, edit orders from admin panel. | |
add-on | add-on | add-on |
| Create one or multiple invoices, shipments and credit memos per order to allow for split fulfillment | |
|
|
|
| Order statuses | |
|
|
|
Conclusion
We hope that after going through this article you are able to select the right product for your online store. If you feel that this article was informative and helpful, please share it with others.
References
1 – http://www.magentocommerce.com
