Top 10 Open Source Free eCommerce Software to Start Your Online Store

If you’re planning to start your online store, there are many phases to go through such as developing your business plan, building your own online store by registering a domain, choosing a web hosting company, designing your website, and choosing an eCommerce software to allow users to view products and make a secure purchase.

Honestly, choosing a domain and web host is not that difficult but developing a business plan and choosing the best eCommerce software may be difficult in some cases. So, to make your work easy here I compiled a list of the top 10 open sources of free eCommerce software to start your online store.

Top 10 Open Source eCommerce Software

As I already told you that it’s not that easy to choose the best eCommerce software for your online store, so carefully read about all of these eCommerce platforms and select the best one for your business.

1. Adobe Commerce

Adobe Commerce (Formerly Magneto) is my first choice as an open-source eCommerce software to start an online store as the fastest-growing eCommerce platform with the power of thousands of merchants worldwide. For your primary information, it was originally launched by Varien Inc., but as of July 2023, Adobe owns 100% of Magento.

Without having to read more about this eCommerce platform, you can guess Magento’s popularity, features, and services by knowing about its customer base. There are the world’s most successful brands and online retailers, such as Nike, Mothercare, Rosetta Stone, etc., use this eCommerce software.

Magento provides three platforms: Magento Community Edition, Magento Enterprise Edition, and Magento Go. You have to pay for the Enterprise Edition, which is packed with extremely useful features. Still, the Community Edition is meant for developers only and is free to download.

2. osCommerce

Another one of the best free eCommerce software options for online stores is osCommerce. As an open-source platform, it offers a wide range of features and functionalities for online store management without any cost. Its key advantage lies in its compatibility with any web server equipped with PHP and MySQL, making it easily accessible to a diverse user base without the need for specific hosting requirements.

Having been established in Germany in March 2000, osCommerce has a proven track record of reliability and adaptability for businesses of all sizes. Its extensive collection of over 9,169 add-ons is a significant highlight, empowering users to customize their online stores to suit their unique needs and preferences. The platform’s popularity is evident from the impressive count of over 36,054 registered sites.

The success of osCommerce can also be attributed to its thriving community of 3,08,160 members. This community actively contributes to the platform’s growth and continuous improvement. Through collaboration, users exchange valuable insights, ideas, and solutions, ensuring osCommerce remains updated and relevant in the ever-changing landscape of eCommerce.

3. PrestaShop

PrestaShop is another free, open-source eCommerce platform that was launched in August 2007. It supports many popular payment gateways, such as PayPal, DirecPay, Google Checkout, and more.

Over 300,000 online stores worldwide are successfully running with PrestaShop. Technical support is provided via Paid support plans or free support on the official forum from the PrestaShop growing Community consisting of more than 600,000 active members.

The PrestaShop has over 30000 catalog items that you can get from the official marketplace of PrestaShop add-ons. PrestaShop is translated into 63 languages but with only English, French, Portuguese, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Polish, and Russian having full support in all release versions.

4. OpenCart

OpenCart is an open-source PHP-based online eCommerce solution and a free shopping cart system. It supports hundreds of payment gateways and shipping method integrations. Some of the popular payment gateways it supports are PayPal, Nochex, Skrill, WorldPay, BluePay, and more.

With OpenCart, you can easily switch between different templates or migrate your site’s current look. In the case of extensions, OpenCart has over 471669 entrepreneurs all over the world.

OpenCard has many more interesting and lovely features, such as Automatic Image Resizing, Multi-Language, Multi-Currency, Backup and Restore Tools, Sales Reports, Error Logging, etc.

5. Ecwid

Moving forward in the eCommerce platforms list, we think Ecwid is one of the most straightforward methods to add your online store to any website or social network presence. Ecwid provides everything you need to contact your clients no matter where they are: in-person, online, via your website, Instagram, Facebook, Amazon, or Google Shopping. Users can create product catalogs with photos, pricing, and weight details and conduct transactions via a web browser without the need for software installations.

Ecwid offers a forever-free plan and three affordable paid subscriptions, with prices starting at $19 per month. Each plan comes with its own set of features, including the number of products, sales channels, priority support, and integrations. Ecwid’s free option is excellent for selling a few items and seamlessly integrating them into an existing website or social channels with a Buy Now button.

Most Ecwid users talk about how simple it is to use and how valuable its free plan is. They stated that it is sufficient to begin selling things online without the trouble of setting up an Internet store. It also is focused on adding a shopping cart functionality to existing websites or channels. The majority of negative comments, on the other hand, are centered on the annoyance that it is not as customized as they require. Something else that might be a negative point for some is that Ecwid’s free plan only allows you to list 5-10 products.

6. NopCommerce

NopCommerce is also one of the best free, open-source eCommerce platforms based on the Microsoft.NET framework. It is designed to have a comprehensive solution for online stores, catering to businesses of all sizes, from small enterprises to large corporations. Among various CMS platforms, NopCommerce stands out with its unique capabilities, ensuring a distinctive, engaging, and unlimited shopping experience for users.

By adopting NopCommerce, your business can experience a transformative shift, benefiting from simplified online store management and increased operational efficiency through automation features. The platform’s advanced marketing tools can significantly influence customer behavior, while secure and flexible payment options provide a seamless buying experience.

NopCommerce has garnered an excellent reputation among its customers, evident from numerous positive reviews on various software review sites. Many users have praised the software’s value for money and highlighted their outstanding experiences. Customers from diverse sectors, including IT firms with Project Managers, have lauded its powerful capabilities, such as multi-store support and user-friendly SEO services.

7. VirtueMart

VirtueMart is a leading free eCommerce software integrated with Joomla!, functioning akin to Ubercart for Drupal. VirtueMart is an open-source solution written in PHP and relies on a MySQL database for seamless data storage. It is highly optimized to cater to low to medium-level traffic websites, making it an excellent choice for businesses seeking fee-free and feature-rich eCommerce software.

With a comprehensive suite of hundreds of attractive features, VirtueMart stands out as a powerful option for online merchants seeking a cost-effective solution. It enables effortless management of unlimited products and categories, providing the flexibility required to showcase a diverse range of items.

VirtueMart seamlessly integrates with Joomla! extensions, enhancing the website’s capabilities beyond eCommerce and providing a truly holistic website management experience.

8. Drupal Commerce

Drupal Commerce is an open-source eCommerce framework used to build truly flexible shopping websites. It presents the products for purchase within the context of a Drupal-based site.

Hundreds of site enhancements or extensions, such as modules, themes, sandbox, etc., are available to customize your Drupal Commerce site.

Drupal Commerce has many features, such as Creating product types with custom modules, Dynamic product displays, Order management, Discount pricing rules, and more.

9. Zen Cart

Zen Cart is another PHP-based eCommerce platform for easily starting your online store. Truly, Zen Cart is absolutely free and open-source online store management system.

Hundreds of plugins and add-ons are available in the Zen Cart Plugins and Add-ons directory for different purposes, such as Admin tools, Buttons and Graphics, Marketing tools, Payment modules, Pricing tools, Shopping modules, and many more.

Zen Cart, a free open-source eCommerce software, is licensed under GPL2. It means you can modify the source code in whatever your application requires. It has many other features, such as working with any web hosting company, being easily integrated with your payment gateways, using your own domain, etc.

10. CubeCart

CubeCart is a complete eCommerce shopping cart software solution. With CubeCart, you can quickly set up a powerful online store to sell digital or tangible products globally to new and existing customers.

CubeCart V5 Lite is free of cost whereas CubeCart V5 Pro is available for $180. The free version only has a customer limit of 100 customers, and the order limit is 250. Many other important features are restricted in the free version.

Winding Up

These 10 free open-source eCommerce software are very popular worldwide, and that’s why I listed them in the top 10 free eCommerce platforms. However, if you want to make your online store live with premium eCommerce software, I highly recommend you use Shopify, a powerful eCommerce software.