In today’s world, with the exponential growth in commerce and digitization of society, more and more people depend on the internet for doing trade. To reach the vast market across geographical divides, one needs to leverage digital and online platforms.
That is the main reason behind the growth in eCommerce. To be successful in eCommerce, businesses must seek and select the most appropriate platform to support their online presence. The open-source platform’s flexibility, customizability, and cost-effectiveness are leading to increase in its popularity. Moreover, it gives more control over the platform to the owner of the business.
Open-source And Closed-source Or Proprietary Platforms In E-commerce
There are both open-source and closed-source platforms. In the former, the source code is available to the public and anyone can modify the source code and contribute to the software. In the case of the latter, the source code is not available to the public, is locked and all the modifications can be made only by the software developers and this limits the degree of customization.
Moreover, the support system for closed-source platforms is a central team provided by the software developers while in the case of open-source platforms, the support is provided by the community of users.
The collaborative community helps in various ways to improve the open-source platform according to the needs of the user without approaching the software developers, as required in the case of closed-source platforms.
Top 7 Open Source eCommerce Platforms
1. Magento Open Source
It is an e-commerce platform packed with features that provide online merchants with a flexible shopping cart system and control over the look, content, and functionality of online stores.
Magento is known for its flexibility, scalability and features that enable businesses to customize and scale their online stores as per the needs of the customer.
2. WooCommerce
WooCommerce is an open-course e-commerce plugin for WordPress and is designed for small to large-sized online merchants using WordPress.
It allows merchants to turn any WordPress website into a fully functioning online store and offers a wide range of features like product pages, checkout pages, and an entire dashboard to build and manage everything.
3. OpenCart
It is an online store management system based on PHP, using MySQL or PostgreSQL database and HTML components. OpenCart offers a dependable and customizable e-commerce platform with a wide range of features which is known for its user-friendliness and functionality and is suitable for businesses of all sizes
4. PrestaShop
PrestaShop, an open-source e-commerce platform with software published under Open Software License offers great features that allow businesses to create a professional and user-friendly online store. This platform is known for its intuitive interface and customization options.
5. Shopware
It is a trendsetting e-commerce platform designed to power the growth of online commerce which is built around the customer journey and provides an amazing experience.
Shopware offers a flexible and scalable e-commerce solution that focuses on customer experience which makes it a popular choice for businesses looking to provide a unique shopping experience
6. Spree Commerce
Spree Commerce is an open-source e-commerce platform for rrails6 that offers a mobile-first UX, an optional pWA frontend, REST API, GraphQL, and a system of third-party integrations.
Spree Commerce scores high marks for its flexibility and scalability and so has become very popular among businesses of all sizes
7. Drupal Commerce
It is used to build e-commerce websites and applications of all sizes and is lean and means, enforcing very strict developmental standards and leveraging great features of all major modules.
Drupal Commerce is also known for its flexibility and allows businesses to create customized e-commerce solutions depending on their needs
Also, Read: Top 6 E-commerce Platforms For 2024 Online Stores
Bottom Line
There are many open-source e-commerce solutions in the market and the interest in open-source platforms is increasing day in and day out as businesses come to know more about the benefits of having a unique online trading platform that can be developed, designed, improvised, and maintained by them.
In this rapidly evolving world of digital commerce open source ecommerce platforms have become a powerful tool for businesses of all sizes. They offer a great degree of flexibility, customizability, and cost-effectiveness.
It is for sure that the market share of open source platforms will continue to grow in the future as more businesses come to know about its advantages.
