A website is a business’ online representation. It’s how visitors can experience your products and services, learn more about you, or even become a customer. When it comes to creating an effective web presence with the help of open-source software, there are many tools on the market to choose from. Choosing the right one for your needs can be overwhelming because of all the options available in today’s market. In this post, we’ll discuss ten different open-source software programs that will help upgrade your website.
1. OpenCart: A Comprehensive E-commerce Platform
OpenCart is a free and open-source shopping cart application written in PHP. It’s available under the GNU General Public License (GPL) 2.0 and was released on August 13, 2008. The code for OpenCart can be found through their GitHub account. Since its release, it has become one of the most popular open-source shopping cart applications on the web.
2. Magento: The Leading E-commerce Platform
One of OpenCart’s main competitors is Magento. This platform is also free and open-source, but it was released slightly earlier in March 2007. It can be found under the Apache License version 2. The code for Magento can also be found through their GitHub account. Due to it being a powerful and flexible platform, they even offer paid services for hosting and customizations.
3. PrestaShop: An Advanced Community-based Platform
PrestaShop is another free and open-source e-commerce platform that’s written in PHP. It was released back in January 2007 and is available under the GNU General Public License version 2. The code for this platform is hosted by their GitHub account, where you’ll also find a large developer community. According to BuiltWith, PrestaShop powers more than 200,000 online stores around the world.
4. Open e-Commerce: For Businesses with High-end Needs
Open e-Commerce is another open-source shopping cart platform that’s completely free and available under the GNU General Public License version 2 . It was created in 2004 by Markus Egger, who still actively maintains it. The project releases new versions every six months. It has a large community of users on its GitHub page, and some large companies use it for their e-commerce needs.
5. Drupal Commerce: Enhanced Enterprise Level Support
Drupal web development is a free, open-source CMS written in PHP by Dries Buytaert. It powers millions of sites worldwide, and they offer paid services for developers to build fully customized websites on top of it. From the Drupal website, you can get a great module that can be downloaded separately and will add e-commerce features to the core of the CMS. It’s currently available under version 2 of the General Public License. You can find its code on their GitHub account.
6. Shopify: A Popular Platform for Beginners & Power Users
Shopify is a commercial, proprietary platform that lets you set up an online store to sell your products. Free trials are available for 14 days with no credit card required. The platform offers many business features, including unlimited bandwidth, monthly page views, transactions, and more. Paid plans start at $29 per month if you have under $2000 in sales or $79 per month if you have over $2000 in sales.
7. Oscommerce: A Leading Open Source E-Commerce Platform
Osc Max is a free open source shopping cart platform released back in April 2002. It can be downloaded here, and it’s compatible with PHP 4.3.2 or later, MySQL 3.23 or later, and Apache 1.3 or later. The application is available to download under the General Public License version 2.
8. Open eShop: For Small Businesses
Open eShop is another free open source shopping cart platform released in May 2005 by the SobiPro team. Their official website says that it’s used on more than 50,000 websites around the world. The platform is released under General Public License version 3. You can find their code on GitHub.
9. Zen Cart: A Simple E-commerce Platform
Zen Cart is a free, open-source shopping cart solution that was first released back in January 2001. Its code can be found through their official GitHub account, and it’s available for PHP 5.2 or later and MySQL 4.1.2 or after. In order to use the platform, you need to download it from their official website and then add your payment gateway through extensions.
10. Spree Commerce: For Developers and Entrepreneurs
Spree Commerce is an open-source platform for Ruby on Rails. It’s available under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3, and it’s maintained by the team behind Spreecommerce. They also offer paid services to help you build custom functionality on top of the base platform.#C excel is useful for app developers.
11. Cartridge: An Open Source E-commerce Platform Written in the Laravel Framework
The cartridge is a free and open-source e-commerce platform that’s written in PHP and Laravel. It features built-in support to easily install extensions, connect your API, and more. The cartridge was created by Tyler Good along with Sami Keijonen and built on top of the Laravel Framework.
12. Elgg Store: A CMS for E-commerce
Elgg is an open-source social networking engine that powers more than 100,000 websites around the world. Elgg Store was created by WPMU DEV back in 2008, and it lets you add e-commerce features to any site built on top of the Elgg platform. The application is released under the General Public License version 2.
13. WordPress E-commerce Plugin
The E-Commerce plugin for WordPress is a popular platform used by more than 100,000 websites worldwide. It was created by WooThemes back in 2009, and it lets you add features such as coupons, catalogs, different payment gateways, and more to any site built with WordPress. Excel .net works best for word documents helping you to create a word library.
Conclusion
E-commerce has become a significant part of the digital economy over the last decade. Today you can buy and sell almost anything online, and it’s creating new opportunities for entrepreneurs around the world. There are many free open source platforms available to develop your e-commerce website on, and I’m sure we’ll see even more options in the future.
There are many options when it comes to open source e-commerce platforms. The list above is by no means complete, but it’s an excellent place to start if you’re looking for an application that you can easily customize with your features and payment gateways.
