A few years ago, there were very limited Open Source Php Ecommerce Platforms. But now there are plenty of options available. Open Source platforms are inexpensive and customizable option for launching an ecommerce store. In the recent years, we have seen a lot of growth in the Open Source platforms.

Below we have listed 4 of the most important and popular Open Source PHP Ecommerce Platforms:

• Magento: Magento is one the most popular and preferred Open Source Ecommerce platform. The features that make Magento most popular among developers is its Search Engine Optimization, powerful marketing tools and catalogue management. All this creates an excellent shopping experience for customers. Magento is free and there is a paid version available if you want to upgrade. Magento features are very comprehensive and very useful that you might not need any extensions. With Magento, you can send product alerts to customers for automated marketing. You can create separate multi lingual sites with Magento. Magento lets you customize the user interface, the way you want.
• OpenCart: OpenCart is an easy to use and lightweight Open Source Ecommerce platform. Open Cart is free and has a wide community that can help you. It is generally preferred by small businesses and start-ups. The cost is very low for start-ups. OpenCart has solid features and large catalogue functionality that works well for order processing. OpenCart is generally faster than magento as it has simpler structure and faster page times. OpenCart uses MVC pattern and has great documentation. OpenCart has numerous themes available and it allows you to customize your store. There are also numerous plugins available for added flexibility. But on the other hand, OpenCart is older which means that it doesn’t have all the features that other platforms have.
• PrestaShop: PrestaShop is one of the latest additions to Open Source Ecommerce platforms but it has made a place for itself due to its ease of use and stunning interface. It also does not involve much experience to install the plugin. It has a user friendly interface and effortless inventory management that is easy to understand. It is a lightweight platform for ecommerce business and does not slow down your website. It has multi-vendor support which is required by a lot of business. On the downside, PrestaShop is not as robust as Magento and it is mostly suited for small to mid-sized businesses. You cannot cross sell products in PrestaShop.
• Drupal: Drupal is one of the most common ecommerce platforms for any ecommerce website. Drupal offers various functionalities like multilingual, multicurrency making it a good option for online businesses. Drupal has in built caching which means that it will have better performance and speed than other ecommerce open source platforms. Drupal also has its own security system built so that your site is protected at all times. Even the Drupal online community is strong and can be helpful when required.

The above mentioned are the most preferred Open source PHP Ecommerce platforms and you can chose the one that fits your particular requirements for your online business. It does not matter what your budget is, you will find a platform that suits your requirements. It is essential to make sure you have a perfect mix of front and backend UX, features, loading speed and scalability.