Best Free and Open Source eCommerce Software

Buyers Guide For Free eCommerce Software?

According to a survey by Statista, 40% of internet users have bought products online via mobile, desktop, and other devices. This equals 1 billion users and the number is projected to increase exponentially.

With rising eCommerce sales, most small businesses are including online selling as a part of their strategy. Small business owners do not have big budgets to spare for making an online eCommerce store. Every retail owner wants a reliable, cost-effective, and easy-to-set-up online platform that can be easily managed.

Advantages Of Using Free eCommerce Software

• The online store can be set up with a few clicks.

• The store can be set up without paying a penny.

• These platforms have a large community of developers to help in case of technical issues.

With numerous open source eCommerce Software Solutions in the market, selecting the most appropriate one for your business is a challenging task.  We’ve summarized a list of 10 open source eCommerce software free downloads specially designed to meet the requirements of small businesses. They’ll help in increasing sales, attracting and retaining customers, and will boost your business.

Top 10 Free eCommerce Software Options For You

1. Zen Cart

ZenCart is a free, user-friendly open source shopping cart created with the PHP framework. Installation, addition, and updating of products are easy and do not require HTML coding. There are numerous templates to customize the look of your eCommerce store.

The admin can control and edit the product information from the dashboard. This leverages the ability to customize product-related content.

Features

• Easily customizable eCommerce store.

• Quick integration with multiple payment gateways.

• Supported by all hosting servers with PHP, Apache and MySQL framework.

• Easy to update catalog – products are added, deleted and modified without HTML coding.

• Multiple shipping options such as post, courier, pickup, and delivery.

• Advanced search functionality to search for products by name, description, meta-tags, and price.

Pricing

• Free to download and use

USP

You can seamlessly integrate with popular payment gateways using Zen Cart. That means once you are ready with your side, you can readily start accepting payments.

2. Magento

Magento is an open source eCommerce platform software that allows store owners to modify the source code and add features using Magento extensions. Great flexibility and control over the look, content, and functionality make it the most powerful eCommerce solution in the market. Download free eCommerce platform software for your eCommerce store.

Features

• In-built Search engine optimization for better visibility on search engines.

• Targeted promotions and personalized shopping experiences.

• Product recommendation, up-selling and cross-selling.

• One-page checkout process supported by multiple payment gateways.

• A/B testing by integration with Google Optimizer.

• Online transactions are secured by SSL.

• Easy integration with third-party applications for customized website styling and added functionalities.

Pricing

• Free to download and use

USP

You can create an individualized shopping experience for your customers by using the Magento Community and Magento Enterprise Edition. In addition, it also allows you to customize the back-end handling of your inventory.

3. OpenCart

Online merchants can make feature-rich, visually appealing, and search engine-friendly eCommerce stores using OpenCart, a powerful open source eCommerce Platform software free to download.

Features

• Automatic image resizing

• Addition of unlimited products, their categories and information pages

• The inclusion of product reviews and ratings

• Monthly/weekly sales reports

• Customizable templates.

• Inbuilt backup and restore modules

• Built on AJAX technology, it has quick loading speed

Pricing

• Free to download, use, and upgrade

• Cloud-based version pricing is based on the number of stores created

USP

OpenCart is a very user-friendly and effective platform that even non-tech savvy users and merchants can operate. It offers an intuitive and well-designed user-interface as well as a higher selection of extensions.

4. PrestaShop

PrestaShop is one of the best open source eCommerce platform software and used to build and maintain an online store free of cost. By integration with eBay, Amazon, and other listing websites, store owners can increase the exposure and promotion of their products. Download free eCommerce software source code.

Features

• Easily customizable mobile responsive themes.

• 2,000+ templates to choose from.

• 300+ features including beautiful promotion banners, product quick views, customizable product layout and centralized backend for analytics.

• Payments accepted from credit cards, debit cards, and gift cards.

• Tracking and automatic calculation of local tax rates.

• In-depth conversion statistics.

Pricing

• Free to download and use

USP

You can easily build online stores from scratch using PrestaShop. They offer extensive training materials for users at all levels. Moreover, store elements are also customizable, and there are many add-on modules to choose from.

5. osCommerce

osCommerce is a secure, easily customizable and self-hosted free open source eCommerce platform software for online vendors to sell their products globally. This platform has 7000+ modules and add-ons for the e-retailer.

Features

• Management of product catalogs – the addition of unlimited products, categories, manufacturers, product attributes and information.

• Automatic tax calculation based on customer location.

• Thousands of modules can be added to customize the eCommerce platform.

• Multi-currency and language settings.

• Advanced tools such as controlling banner promotions, cache control, data backup, and eCommerce security.

Pricing

• An open source e-commerce platform that is free to use

USP

Apart from offering a robust e-commerce software program, the best thing about osCommerce is that it can be easily integrated on any website or web server that has PHP and MySQL installed.

6. WooCommerce

With over 1.6 million downloads, WooCommerce is among the most popular free open source eCommerce platform software. It’s hard to find another WordPress plugin with similar functionalities and potential.

Features

• Vendors can sell physical and virtual goods along with downloadable and affiliate products.

• It is possible to integrate a blog with a fully functional website.

• The store owner gets to select from 39 themes. After the theme selection, the color and special features can be modified.

• A detailed list of customer engagement features and order tracking tools.

• Statistics about total sales, sales on each day, customer stats and total orders are presented in easily understandable graphs.

• Many ready API’s to build third-party extensions and a huge documentation library.

Pricing

• Free to download but comes with priced upgrades and updates

USP

It comes with a robust and reliable set of tools, which boasts of enterprise-level quality and features. Furthermore, you also get full support from the WooCommerce team and user communities that include business owners and software experts.

7. CubeCart

CubeCart is the best option for eCommerce players wanting to get a hang of the online business. The set-up is easy, look and feel of the website can be customized and doesn’t cost a penny. Download free open-source eCommerce software.

Features

• CubeCart is amongst the few platforms accompanied by Brute Force Protection for added security for the eCommerce website.

• Allows bulk product price updates and bulk product category management

• Create amazing images with their hover zooming and lightbox viewing functionality.

• Automated shipping tax calculations.

• Custom tax calculations using geo-location.

• Customer friendly user interface.

Pricing

• Free to download and use

USP

Simple yet effective, Cubecart comes with all the tools needed to sell online. In addition, it offers complete safety and security by regularly monitoring the servers for the latest software updates, security patches, and firewalls.

8. nopCommerce

Built on Microsoft’s ASP.NET framework, nopCommerce is an open-source eCommerce platform. It provides comprehensive features that fit the needs of all kinds of users — from demanding eCommerce experts to new online merchants. Plus, you can avail loads of features fresh out-of-the-box.

Features

• Safe and secure, the program can be used to manage serious projects

• Offers thousands of integrations with marketing automation, shipping, and payment software

• Allows you to run multiple stores from a single nopCommerce installation

Pricing

• The open source e-commerce platform is free to download and use

• Third-party applications and extensions can be purchased as add-ons

USP

Apart from offering a fully-functional platform, nopCommerce lets you create a mobile-optimized version of your website. It is easy to use and install.

9. X-Cart

Highly suited for medium- and enterprise-sized organizations, X-Cart is licensed software that lets you run an eCommerce website securely from your own server. The vendor offers two selling solutions – a shopping cart to build your own online store and a multi-vendor solution, which allows you to build your own marketplace.

Features

• Allows you to create a mobile-optimized website

• Capable of translating the storefront and catalog into 40+ languages

• Provides an easy-to-use and intuitive interface for improved user experience

Pricing

• Free edition

• Business: $495

• Multivendor: $1495

• Ultimate: $5995

USP

X-Cart is highly scalable and packed with some of the most advanced features. It is fully customizable. So if you are looking to expand your operation, it has the ability to meet all the requirements to build a robust e-commerce website.

10. Abantecart

Founded in 2011, Abantecart is an open-source eCommerce platform with great attention to detail. It is specifically developed for small- and medium-sized enterprises.

Even a user with little or no coding experience can set up and handle Abantecart. Its intuitive control panel and easy layout make this application very easy to use.

Features

• Allows you to host your cart on multiple sites from the same admin

• SEO-friendly; generates searchable URLs for your products and pages

• Offers responsive and mobile-friendly website designs

Pricing

• Abantecart is free to download and use. You just need to pay for security certificates, hosting, or any other add-ons that you may choose.

USP

AbanteCart is a highly versatile eCommerce application, which can be easily expanded with extensions in case you decide to grow your business. In addition, it is fast and safe as it is constantly monitored by a group of expert developers.

 

With an increase in the number of people using online mode for shopping, the number of industries opting for eCommerce software solutions has also hiked up. Aforementioned is a list of free and open source eCommerce solutions which can be used to serve your purpose well.

Well, no doubt there are companies which have also opted for serving their customers on a mobile device itself. Here is a list of 8 platforms to build eCommerce mobile app.

If we have missed any, then your thoughts are most welcome in the comment section below.