An open source shopping cart (sometimes called an e-Commerce platform) is software that lets you set up, manage, and customize an online store. Unlike traditional shopping carts, open source shopping carts are freely available to download and customize. That means you can tailor the source code to build exactly the kind of store that you’d like.
Here are some of the advantages of using open source shopping carts:
Low cost - Open source shopping carts are a much more cost-effective alternative to purchased shopping cart software, as there’s no need to pay for the license, hosting, or additional services. Most open source shopping carts are free to download and use.
Customization and control - By having access to the software’s source code, you can tweak it to make it suit your needs exactly, rather than relying on existing features and designs.
Flexibility - Open source shopping carts can also be more flexible when it comes to designing the store, adding features, and offering different payment and shipping methods.
Online community - Open source shopping carts are often supported by a large online community of users, who can offer advice, share tips and tricks, and provide a helpful support network.
Security - Open source shopping carts can also provide users with greater control over security, since they can modify the code or ask the community to review a security issue.
To get started with open source shopping carts, there are plenty of options available. Popular choices include Magento, PrestaShop, WooCommerce, OpenCart, and Zen Cart. To learn more, check out this guide to the best open source shopping carts.
