OpenCart

OpenCart, a free, open‑source eCommerce platform that helps people build and run online stores.

OpenCart is positioned as “simple to start” and “easy to run,” with core tools for managing products, customers, orders, taxes, and coupons, plus built-in SEO features to support discoverability in search engines.

A big part of the OpenCart ecosystem is its Marketplace, which offers thousands of extensions and themes to expand store functionality; covering design, marketing, reporting, payments, shipping, and language packs.

OpenCart.com also highlights support options, including community forums and dedicated commercial support from the OpenCart team.

In addition to the self-hosted software, it promotes OpenCart Cloud, a hosted version where infrastructure and management are handled for you, with multiple plans designed to fit different business sizes.

OpenCart out because of its open-source and free to download, with no mandatory monthly platform fees; you can self-host and control your store’s code and data. It’s built around a large extension and theme marketplace (13,000+ add-ons) so you can customise functionality without rebuilding everything from scratch.

It also offers both paths: a DIY, self-hosted setup and OpenCart Cloud for businesses that want a more managed, hosted option.

Finally, support is flexible: you can use an active community forum or pay for dedicated support.

OpenCart can help improve key eCommerce metrics like conversion rate (better checkout and UX via themes), average order value (bundles, upsells, coupons), cart abandonment (remarketing extensions), organic traffic (built-in SEO), repeat purchase rate (customer management/loyalty tools), and fulfilment speed (shipping and order-management integrations).

Store owners and eCommerce managers run day‑to‑day trading, catalog, pricing, promos, and orders. Developers or technical admins handle installation, hosting, upgrades, and customisations. Designers choose/themes and tweak UX. Marketers manage SEO, email, and tracking integrations. Customer service uses order/customer records. Ops manages shipping and payment setups.

Setup size varies. A simple store using a standard theme and basic payments/shipping can be launched in days. A typical SMB build (theme customisation, key extensions, analytics, tax/shipping rules, product import) often takes 2–6 weeks. Complex builds with custom development, ERP integrations, multi‑store, or migrations can take months.

OpenCart is great for small to mid-sized businesses that want a cost-effective, self-owned eCommerce platform with flexibility to customise via themes and extensions. It suits brands with a product catalogue, standard checkout flows, and the willingness to manage (or hire help for) hosting, updates, and plugins; especially if you want to avoid mandatory platform fees.

It may not work well for teams who want a fully managed, “set-and-forget” platform with minimal technical overhead, or enterprises needing highly bespoke workflows, complex B2B features, heavy custom integrations, or guaranteed SLAs out of the box without dedicated development and support.