9 kick ass Open source E-commerce platforms reviewed
With e-commerce webdesign really starting to take off, its never been more important to choose a platform which suits you as a developer (i.e. one that you can support) and one that will provide your clients with the features that they need to run a successful online shop.
There are a number of ways of getting a shop online, and we’ve focused primarily on open source e-commerce platforms here.
OsCommerce
OsCommerce has a number of store owners on its books, notable customers include TruffleShuffle and LinuxUk.
So what features do you get with OsCommerce? There are multiple payment Gateway’s to choose from including (but not limited to) - 2Checkout.com, Authorize.Net, ChronoPay, iPayment, PayNova, Paypal, PSIGate, SecPay and TrustCommerce.
As expected from a platform such as this its jam-packed with features
Notable Features
- Supports unlimited products and categories
- Multicurrency support
- Support for physical (shippable) and virtual (downloadable) products
- Object oriented PHP backend
- Web Browser Install and Plugin support
Problems - front end of OsCommerce is not developed using CSS, therefore skinning and reskinning is a bit of a nightmare, that said installation is a breeze - and if you are more comfortable with tables then OsCommerce is probably for you.
You can however always add on one of the popular template systems plugins and save some time -but its not supported out of the box. The code base is also overly complex which makes extending more difficult.
OsCommerce is widely popular and thus has a larger support base, and forum if you need help.
ZenCart
Zencart’s website doesn’t do justice to the professionalism of the end product, and although it doesn’t not offer as many payment processing options as OsCommerce and other e-commerce platforms it is a more mature product, with OsCommerce often taking quite a long time to release fixes for important issues such as security. ZenCart is a fork of OsCommerce so you can expect very similar sorts of features, its also easier for the newbie developer to get into than Osc. Payment gateways include LinkPoint, Authorize.Net and Paypal.
Notable Features
- User frontend is validated to XHTML 1.0 Transitional
- Any PHP coding changes can be protected during upgrades by using the built-in override protection system
- Integrate with phpBB
- Meta Tags keywords and descriptions can be controlled at the per-product level
VirtueMart
VirtueMart is an Open Source E-Commerce solution designed to be used with Joomla! (but also works with Mambo). Joomla and VirtueMart are written in PHP and made for easy use in a PHP / MySQL environment.
Notable Features
- Stock Level Control for Products and Item
- Ajax-powered Product Overview allows to quickly add Products to the cart
- Product Attributes (like Size or Color) can be added to Product
- Manage different Currencies, Countries & States
- Product Availability: show how fast a Customer can expect delivery
Payment Gateways supported include Authorize.net, PayPal, 2Checkout, eWay, Worldpay, PayMate and NoChex. If you have an existing Joomla based site, integration is particularly easy <5 minutes (if you have a working installation of Joomla, <10 minutes otherwise. Virtuemart uses Joomla’s admin interface for store administration, and because it is implemented inside an already rich CMS, administration will come very easily to Joomla users. Given that Joomla is (probably) one of the best CMS systems out there, it may easily give OsCommerce and others a run for their money.
Magento
http://www.magentocommerce.com
Varien, a Los Angeles web development firm is the brainchild behind Magento, and my what a fantastic job they have done on this product. It’s by far one of the more exciting e-commerce platforms available for free on the market today. Dripping with features, they really have thought of everything. Wishlists, shop by price and category, item comparison - all the things we’ve come to expect from professional web stores. Its software as good as this that really keeps licensed software on their toes..
Just some of the features, for a full list download the pdf
Notable Features
- Integrated with Google Analytics
- Multiple Images with Zoom
- Add to Wishlist
- Send to a Friend
- Batch Import and Export of Catalog
- One Page Checkout
- Multi Lingual
DashCommerce
If you are a advocate of all things Microsoft this wont be the first time you’ve come a cropper with finding open source software. One of the only Open source .NET e-commerce platforms on the market we could lay claim to was Dashcommerce (formerly the Microsoft Commerce Starter Kit) at its present status can only provide us with Paypal support for payment integration, and its lead developer has recently announced that the Roadmap for the product appears to be going in a more commerce route. If you need one of the other payment vendors listed above, you are going to have to rip the source code apart and tackle it yourself. Some sites which have been built using Dash include Grossi Wines and GoWheelChair.
Notable Features
- Single Page Checkout
- Partial Refunds
- Configurable Shipping Rates
- Drop-In Themes / Skinning
CubeCart
Cubecart have released two different versions of their product. Cubecart 3 is their free version, Cubecart 4 is their inexpensive commercial version. The pricing structure for Cubecart can been seen below.
| Cost | ||
| Copyright Removal Key (Optional) | $89.95 | $89.95 |
| Installation Service (Optional) | $59.95 | $59.95 |
| Upgrade Eligibility | All Releases of v3 | All Releases of v4 |
One of Cubecart’s main strength’s lies with its variety of different payment merchant vendor, including but not limited to the following for the free version:
2Checkout, AsianPay, Authorize AIM / SIM , BluePay, ccAvenue, ccNow, ChronoPay, PayPal Pro Direct Payment (US), PayPal Express Checkout, HSBC (API), Linkpoint Connect, Mals-E, Moneybookers, Nochex (Basic & APC), PayJunction, PayMate, PayOffline, PayPal Standard & IPN, Print Order Form, Protx (VPS Form), psiGate, SECPay, Verisign, WorldPay Junior
Notable Features
- Professionally Security Audited
- 100% Template Driven
- Customer Order History
- Multi Currency Support
- Tell a Friend
X-Cart
Whilst not free, X-Cart costs $229.00 for the Gold version (see features here) and $575.00 for the professional version (see features here). X-Cart is well thought of piece of software amongst the developer community. X-Cart is an easy-to-use cart, although many customers say that its learning curve is too difficult for beginners. A knowledge of the templating engine that it uses (Smarty) would be a major advantage if you do decide to use it, and would make the learning curve that bit easier. X-Cart has a relative ease of self-maintenance, and your clients will find it easier to use than LiteCommerce.
Notable Features
- Unlimited product options
- Variety of payment gateways
- Import/export all types of X-Cart
- Real-time USPS, FedEx and UPS shipping calculation
- Support for E-goods
- Membership levels and membership-based pricing
- Add-To-Cart buttons for existing websites
LiteCommerce
LiteCommerce is developed by the same people as X-Cart, and is a cut down version of the product. It really lends itself towards smaller stores, and if you are needing a quick version, with easier code maintainance that works then LiteCommerce is for you. It also has a few features such as the bulk shopping add on option which X-Cart doesn’t have. LiteCommerce has 97% of its source code open - whilst X-Cart has 100%, but for some developers this stipulation wont factor much. LiteCommerce also uses the FLEXY template engine, whereas X-Cart uses Smarty.
Notable Features
- 27 Payment Gateways
- Gentler learning curve than X-Cart
- FLEXY template Engine
- No programming required to Setup -Windows Program
- Control Panel for Windows
But if you clients budget doesn’t stretch that far, and you would be happy to integrate a shop with a hosted solution you wont go far wrong with Shopify, see below:
Shopify
Shopify - built on Ruby on Rails technology is a full-stack hosted e-commerce package, which basically means everything you need is right there at your fingertips. You shop will be Standards-compliant, fully customizable and requires very little technical skill to get going. Best of all setting up a store is free Creating a store is free. Shopify takes a 3.75% commission on all sales, which can take the fear of setting a shop up away for some clients who want to test the water.
Notable Features
- Faster and Easier to setup than any other solution
- SEO Build in! Shopify has been designed by SEO experts and every default theme is carefully crafted with SEO in mind
- Discount codes with fine-grained options
- XML Sitemap automatically generated for search engine indexing
- A full featured Asset system which lets you use and re-use your stock photography, logos or product pdf’s wherever you need them.
- New order notifications via email, RSS, and on your mobile phone with SMS messaging
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As a note, there are several versions of most of the opensource carts you’ve listed that are heavily modified from the originals. Our own firm offers a rewrite of osCommerce to produce tableless XHTML / CSS designs without the use of templates, for instance. Although ours and others are ‘for pay’, they are sometimes a good alternative to spending hours and hours developing what somebody else already has.
Just a thought.
May 5th 2008
Shopify sounds like a neat app… but the pricing you listed is wrong (maybe they’ve changed it recently?); the plans all have monthly fees, from $24 to $299/month.
May 5th 2008
Thanks Rob, you are right, it had been a while since I checked the pricing structure.
May 5th 2008
To my knowledge, Shopify is not open source. However at least two components of Shopify, ActiveMerchant and Liquid, are open source.
May 5th 2008
@Erik,
Thanks for that. I didn’t realise that parts of the system are in the public domain.
I only included Shopify in here, due to the fact that it is a good low budget solution, and for developers the tendancy to use O.S. is primarily due to the price tag.
Thanks for the feedback,
Paul.
May 5th 2008
Don´t forget http://iompi.com
Easy and fast!
May 5th 2008
CS Cart is very similar to X-Cart and may be owned by the same company. Based out of the Ukraine, I believe.
You can download a demo of each of these, but the source code is encrypted. Once you purchase the software, you get the actual source code files. That’s what I did for a project I was working on, and it was only then that I discovered the use of Smarty templates. They are a pain when it comes to customization. For me, it added an additional layer of complication to deal with.
I had a custom install that required tweaks from the programmers in Russia. They were great. Recommended (if you’re down with Smarty)
May 5th 2008
2 pretty good ones you left off Ubercart http://www.ubercart.org/ and Prestashop http://www.prestashop.com/
Both are free and Opensource
May 5th 2008
I’m very much looking forward to the Magento cart that was recently released. None of the other open source solutions out there really did it for me, but Magento looks promising.
May 5th 2008
@Zoid,
Good man. Those two look pretty sweet as well. Thanks for the links.
May 6th 2008
Thank you. I was just about to buy an expensive commercial one. I’m telling my partner! Very useful.
May 6th 2008
You forgot xt-commerce. it’s the most used software in europe. and maybe asia.
http://www.xt-commerce.com
May 6th 2008
@all
Thanks for the additional links guys, wasn’t aware of some of those.
May 6th 2008
Hi
Good links about e-commerce platforms.
In elojas.com.pt ( portuguese site about e-commerce) I have related some applications you have write in your Blog.
Quick.Cart is also a good solution for small shops. Prestashop is a interesting new application.
May 6th 2008
Why not consider Freeway as well. It is much more powerful than any of the systems you have mentioned. http://www.openfreeway.org
May 6th 2008
some stores are also new for me. it’s difficult to find the best for personal needs.
http://www.fwpshop.org is also on a good way. from germany
May 6th 2008
Might want to consider OpenEdit (openedit.org) which is an open source ECM with eCommerce. OE is rated by users as best eCommerce on cmsmatrix.org and includes support for physical (shippable) and virtual (downloadable) products.
May 6th 2008
FYI the Copyright Removal Key for CubeCart V4 is not the price of purchasing the software. It is an additional, optional cost to remove the “Powered by CubeCart” notices from your store once you’ve purchased a license.
May 12th 2008
Hi Paul Anthony
Barry here from IrishDev.com - saw your post on carts - just wanted to add that Patrick Collinson of Auctomatic http://auctomatic.com is presenting at the Irish Open Source Technology Conference in June - http://iotc.firstport.ie
Best
Barry
May 12th 2008
Hi Barry,
Patrick looks like an interesting speaker. Thanks for that.
Paul.
May 12th 2008
Anyone know what the best eCommerce system is regardless if it is paid or not? Im just looking for the best solution overall. It is very hard to find reviews of all software that are not affiliated to someone. This article was great though for free ones. Thanks!