Best 15 Open-Source eCommerce Platforms In 2022

Last Updated on January 21, 2022

With the growing number of customers going online, there is a rapid increase in the demand for ecommerce stores. A lot of traditional businesses went online in 2020 to meet customer demands. The global COVID-19 pandemic also acts as a catalyst in surging the ecommerce industry growth. Due to this growth, the expectations from open-source ecommerce development platforms have also increased. The open-source ecommerce platforms are popular because of their flexibility and safety. It has observed a flood of platforms hit the market in recent years.

There are so many platforms for opening up an online store and digitizing your business. These platforms boast the best in technology, features, security, support, and the developer’s community. This becomes quite hard to choose the right ecommerce platform. Thus, this article will go through the best 15 open-source ecommerce solutions with their comparison.

Top 15 Open-Source eCommerce Platforms In 2021

Here is the list of ecommerce platforms:

• Magento 2
• nopCommerce
• OpenCart
• OroCommerce
• Pimcore
• PrestaShop
• Reaction Commerce
• Saleor
• Shopware 6
• SimpleCart
• Spree Commerce
• Spryker
• Sylius
• VirtueMart
• WooCommerce

We will discuss each of these platforms in more detail.

a. Magento 2

Magento 2 is one of the most preferred and popular ecommerce development platforms. The community version is open-source, on which you can find vast features and functionalities. Currently, there are more than 2.5 lakh active ecommerce stores powered by Magento. This accounts for 12% of all online stores. You would be surprised to know that it is downloaded 5,000 times a day. Last year, 7,500 ecommerce retailers migrated to Magento from any other ecommerce platform. A few prominent brands using Magento are Jaguar & NCG, Nestle Nespresso, JCB, Canon, Nike, Land Rover, Jack Daniel’s, Paul Smith, etc.

Major Magento Features

• Seamless configuration deployment & configuration workflow
• Increased speed of production deployment
• Merchandise, marketing, content creation, and authoring
• Customers, loyalty, customer service, and store operations
• Local development template to ease cloud deployments
• Simplified build/deploy process management
• Cross Compatible, i.e., the native customer segmentation tools will work well with native Page builder

Features get updated and upgraded as part of the core application, and you don’t need to take tension of any issue during the upgrade.

b. nopCommerce

nopCommerce open-source ecommerce platform is powering tens of thousands of ecommerce stores, including big brands like Volvo, The North Face, and Reebok. It provides customers with a world-class shopping experience with user reviews, product comparison tools, discount options, etc. nopCommerce can be scaled very quickly to support millions of products in the store. The developers can modify it easily in lesser time than other solutions as its architecture is well defined and predictable. nopCommerce comes with active and growing community support.

Major nopCommerce Features

• In-built multi-vendor functionality to connect new suppliers
• Appoint different roles for your customers and define terms for each role
• Set different prices for different groups of customers and hide prices for extra valuable items
• Integrate with any CRM and ERP system that your company uses
• You can change every single element of the platform
• Clear architecture making customizations easy

c. OpenCart

OpenCart has a reputed name in online ecommerce development after popular CMS such as Magento and WooCommerce. It is an open-source ecommerce development platform having no monthly charges. OpenCart is highly customizable and comes with a robust administrator dashboard by which you can easily view essential metrics of your ecommerce store such as sales, customers, etc. There are many features in the OpenCart, with more than 14,000 add-on extensions you can integrate on your site. It supports multi-store development, so you can easily develop and manage different stores by a single interface. Therefore, you can upload different products for each store and upload a particular theme for each store. Product options and attributes are also quite flexible with OpenCart, and the solution lets you add extra product variables.

Major OpenCart Features

• Multi-location support, Content Filtering, and Automatic Backup
• Support for multi-lingual, multi-currency, multi-delivery and multi-stores
• Order Management, User Management, Quote Management, Price Management, Tax Management, and SEO Management
• E-mail Marketing, E-mail Templates, Reviews, and Ratings.
• Filters, Users Access Controls, Dashboard, Role-Based Permissions.

d. OroCommerce

OroCommerce is an excellent open-source platform for mid-market and large companies looking to improve their online presence or start their online ecommerce journey. OroCommerce is a great choice for B2B commerce distributors, manufacturers, wholesalers, suppliers, and multi-channel brands. Its design is focused on B2B practices.

Developing an OroCommerce doesn’t require top-graded technical skills, which makes it the first choice for newcomers. Its interface is user-friendly, and the site owners can get access to any feature they want. For SEO purposes, OroCommerce also offers powerful features such as SEO management, CMS support, landing pages, to name a few.

Major OroCommerce Features

• Access controls, roles & permissions
• Personalized B2B catalog management
• Multiple organizations, websites, and stores
• Inventory Management, Promotions Management, Tax Management, SEO management, and more.
• Quotes and Orders, Multiple price lists, multiple shopping lists.

e. Pimcore

Pimcore’s ecommerce platform is the most flexible open-source ecommerce platform for digital B2C and B2B stores. The composable commerce components give you a free choice to do the development. You can extend the platform’s capabilities to meet your custom requirements without purchasing any 3rd party solution. Pimcore is easy to integrate because it can adapt to your processes for a smooth commerce experience.

Pimcore’s stable, extensive, and service-oriented APIs are based on open standards for highly flexible integrations. They ensure that it quickly integrates with any 3rd party software for delivering rich content management needed to handle any complex product data.

Major Pimcore Features

• Create sophisticated, personalized, and high-performing stores
• Provides the necessary building blocks
• Flexibility and innovation of open-source
• 2,500+ sales channels such as Amazon, Google Shopping, or Zalando
• Each channel data differs in assortments, attributes, and pricing
• Product Feed Management, Enrich Product Content, Centralize Product Catalogs

f. Prestashop

Prestashop is a popular open-source ecommerce platform that allows you to create a next-level ecommerce store and grow your business multifold. The developers can utilize its features such as rich functionality, low-maintenance cost-free solutions, etc., to create ecommerce stores using this platform. While hiring a Prestashop developer, their expertise will help you develop a multi-store for multiple locations, add more than 1,000 products, and play host to multiple customers. If you want to extend the functionality of your Prestashop store, then Prestashop has an add-on marketplace having a lot of modules available. You can visit the marketplace and choose the best add-ons for your store.

Major Prestashop Features

• Multi-lingual and multi-currency platform
• Inventory management features such as item tracking and out-of-stock alerts
• Large selection of Payment methods
• Sales and order statistics
• Customizable checkout process
• Compatibility with a large number of add-ons and 3rd party integrations

g. Reaction Commerce

Launched in March 2017, Reaction Commerce is a Meteor.js-based open-source platform. The development team has set up a real-time reactive and 100% customizable ecommerce platform in such a short span of time. This is a real-time platform that combines the flexibility developers and designers want to stabilize and support business needs. A large open-source community supports it, as it utilizes famous and flexible frameworks and technologies, including JavaScript, Node.js, npm, React, and MongoDB. It also uses NoSQL databases which are more scalable for handling large data volumes. Currently, it is known as Mailchimp Open Commerce.

Major Reaction Commerce Features

• Inventory and Product Management
• Universal tags to organize your products into a structured hierarchy
• Order Management
• Advanced Search and Notifications
• Flexible Shipping rates, Customized themes

h. Saleor

Saleor is a headless ecommerce platform that lets you develop fast, dynamic, and personalized ecommerce stores. You can create a good-looking ecommerce that will have all the features a modern store should have. You can use Saleor whether you are a small, midsize or enterprise-level retailer with a physical or digital inventory.

If you develop your ecommerce store using Saleor, your store will be available as a typical online store and a PWA application. PWA means customers can browse the store like a mobile app and do shopping online with no internet connection.

Major Saleor Features

• Integration with tools such as CRM, CMS, or fulfillment API
• Use either default PWA storefront, JavaScript SDK or build the frontend from scratch
• Set up products as they are and integrate them with accounting & inventory management
• Supports Multi-channel, multi-currency, multi-language, and multi-warehouse

i. Shopware 6

Shopware is a German ecommerce development platform, open-source in nature, and highly focused on improving customer experience. The company was established in 2000. They have more than nearly 80,000 happy and satiated clients. The company has been consistent in upgrading its platforms, and now its latest version is Shopware 6.

It is a community-driven platform in which the plugins will be automatically updated, and new ones will come up as per the new demands in the market. The API-focused platform lets you choose a sales channel or a custom-favored device.

Major Shopware 6 Features

• Cross-selling tool Rule Builder is a great tool for cross-selling abilities
• Content, text, media is organized properly on product and category pages
• Control all your business operations from one place
• Autosales plugin which allows having items with a discounted price
• Recommended products for a great up-selling strategy

j. SimpleCart

Simplecart(js) is a lightweight free, and open-source JavaScript shopping cart that provides an ecommerce solution for any website. It is a straightforward tool with no databases, and no programming is required. It is fast, easy to use, and customizable JavaScript enabled on the client-side, and basic HTML is required to run this shopping cart on your store.

Major Simplecart Features

• Sell any product, including digital products
• Supports discount and gift certificates which can be easily applied to the cart
• Add capabilities such as products, buy-now buttons, customer shopping info, and check out to your website
• Turn any social network into a sales opportunity
• Fast and affordable payment systems

k. Spree Commerce

Popularly known as “Spree,” Spree Commerce is an open-source, free codebase that web developers can use to develop astonishing ecommerce stores of any complexity. Sean Schofield developed it in 2007, and it has gained huge popularity since then. It has been downloaded more than 230,000, and there are over 20,000 successful Spree Commerce stores. Since it is an open-source platform, there are no licensing restrictions.

Major Spree Commerce Features

• Personalization: Site search, Guide shopping, Product recommendations, Personal relevance, Wishlists
• Product Personalization: Gift Packaging, Name or initials, Photos
• Payment Methods: Credit & debit cards, Country-specific payments, Installment payments
• Social media integrations – Social Login, Social sharing, Facebook integrations
• Social Commerce: Client reviews, Referral marketing, Live chat
• Shipping management, Inventory management, Product catalog management, Customer management, and support

l. Spryker

Spryker is a flexible and UI-friendly ecommerce platform. It supports headless commerce and allows for an agile approach as well as continuous optimization during operation. It is fundamentally different from other ecommerce platforms. While it offers out-of-the-box features, it is best thought of as a developer-focused framework rather than an off-the-shelf solution. It supports a headless approach. It offers decoupled frontend apps and backend capabilities with a Lego-like toolkit of individual software components.

Major Spryker Features

• Adaptive shop solution
• Interface friendly headless architecture
• Interface management via GLUE-API
• Fast testing and swift adaptation, including modifications

m. Sylius

Sylius is an Open source framework based on Symfony and released under the MIT license, which is most permissive. It is completely free and maintained by the creative community of developers and companies. It is developed from fully decoupled components. Therefore, every feature of it, i.e., products, catalog, shipping engine, promotion system, and others, can be used in any other application. The integration of Sylius with existing systems is also quite easy and guarantees a fast time to market. Sylius has a great coding environment which makes the developer’s work more efficient. In addition to this, finding an expert Symfony developer who can learn& understand Sylius quickly is also simple. It is designed to resolve 70-80% of common ecommerce issues in a framework. The remaining 20 – 30% is what makes the ecommerce site special.

Major Sylius Features

• Selling on multiple platforms, with multiple currencies
• Easy catalog for products
• Product options and attributes
• Customers and groups creation
• Customize checkout process

n. Virtuemart

Virtuemart is an open-source ecommerce solution for the Joomla CMS. It was created in 2009, and now over 269,000 ecommerce stores use Virtuemart. The development team of Virtuemart focused on the Core System and the project’s open program sources. To use VirtueMart, you’ll first need to install Joomla. This ecommerce solution is not available as a stand-alone product or any other CMS, such as Drupal or WordPress.

Major Virtuemart Features

• Easy product editing, lists, and categorization
• Create custom fields to populate the details
• List the products and organize them in any manner
• Integrated Product Reviews
• Handle coupons for product discounts, order management, and shopper management

o. WooCommerce

More than 11% of the total ecommerce market relies on WooCommerce. It is the ecommerce plugin of the world’s leading CMS platform, WordPress. WooCommerce is basically a WordPress plugin that can turn a WordPress website into ecommerce. The plugin is open source and comes with features like inventory management, product pages, etc. It is amongst the best ecommerce platforms for small businesses or beginners of ecommerce. WooCommerce retailers benefit from a large pool of developers and WooCommerce professionals. If you need to make changes to your WooCommerce store, it won’t be hard to find someone to do the work for you.

Major WooCommerce Features

• Supports all product types
• Seller Review and Rating
• Marketplace Seller Central
• Order Management
• Tons of themes available for intuitive interface

Wrapping Up

In this article, we have gone through the most popular 15 open-source ecommerce platforms. In the 21st century, ecommerce has become a need of the hour for most businesses. It doesn’t only give the companies an online presence, but the customers looking to buy authentic and genuine products trust only the brand’s official website. Thus, it becomes mandatory for the brands to have an ecommerce store. At Emizentech, the best ecommerce development company in India, we can develop such solutions from scratch. Let us know your requirements.