Why a free, self-hosted store platform still makes sense, where it beats WooCommerce and Shopify, and how we build it.
OpenCart was built for selling, not bolted onto a blog. Catalog, checkout, multi-store, and OCMOD extensions ship in core. For a small to mid catalog you get a working store on day one, on $10/month hosting.
OpenCart is free under the GPL. So is WooCommerce, but OpenCart ships the cart, checkout, and catalog in core instead of as separate plugins. You pay for hosting (around $10/month) and the few extensions you actually need, not 2% of every order the way you do on Shopify.
Run several storefronts, say a retail brand and a B2B catalog, on one install with one product database. No second login, no syncing stock between sites. This is native, not a paid add-on.
The marketplace has roughly 13,000 extensions. OCMOD patches the store without editing core files, so a version update does not wipe our changes. Payment gateways, shipping rules, and marketplace feeds are mostly off the shelf.
Sell in several currencies and languages without buying an add-on. The admin handles tax zones and geo rules itself, which matters once you ship across borders.
A stock store runs fine on a $10/month VPS for a few thousand products. There is no heavy page builder and no plugin pile slowing the cart down.
Self-hosted PHP and MySQL. Change hosts, export the database, hire any PHP developer. There is no account anyone can suspend and no platform lock-in.
If you have B2B pricing tiers, a marketplace with multiple sellers, an ERP or 1C sync, or a checkout that does not fit the standard flow, we build it from scratch on OpenCart rather than forcing your model into a template.
We don't push OpenCart on every store. If your site is content first with a small shop attached, WooCommerce on WordPress is the better tool and we will tell you so. If you want zero server maintenance and will accept the monthly fee and per-sale cut, Shopify is fine. Already running OpenCart and just need it kept healthy? See our <a href="/opencart/services/">OpenCart support and development</a> options, and the <a href="/opencart/modules/">extensions</a> we trust.
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Yes. OpenCart is open source under the GPL, so the software costs nothing. Your real costs are hosting (about $10/month for a small store), a domain, an SSL certificate, and any paid extensions or theme you choose. There is no monthly platform fee and no commission on sales.
Both are free and self-hosted, so hosting is the main cost for either. OpenCart tends to run lighter because the store features are in core, while a WooCommerce build often needs a stack of plugins that add weight and renewal fees. If you already live in WordPress for content, WooCommerce wins. If the site is a store first and foremost, OpenCart usually costs less to keep running.
A tuned OpenCart store handles tens of thousands of products. We have run catalogs in the 20,000+ range on a modest VPS with caching and a clean theme. Past that, the work is mostly database tuning and hosting, not a platform limit.
Yes. We move products, categories, customers, and orders, set up the same URL structure with redirects so you keep your rankings, and rebuild the checkout and payment flow. See our OpenCart services for scope and pricing.
Yes, both are built in. You add languages and currencies in the admin and set tax zones per region. For a store selling across countries this avoids the paid plugins you would need elsewhere.
OpenCart is as secure as its hosting and maintenance, same as any self-hosted platform. We harden the admin path, keep core and extensions patched, force HTTPS, and put it behind a firewall like Cloudflare. The risk usually comes from abandoned extensions, not the core.
A standard catalog store with a configured theme, payment and shipping, and product import takes about 3 to 5 weeks with us. A heavily customized build with B2B pricing or a marketplace setup takes longer. We give a fixed timeline after we see your catalog and requirements.
OpenCart is the store platform we reach for when a client wants to sell online, own their code, and not hand a percentage of every order to a platform. It is free, self-hosted PHP, and the cart, catalog, and checkout are in core rather than bolted on as plugins. For a deeper look at the work we do on it, see the OpenCart development services page and the OpenCart extensions we install most.
This page covers where OpenCart fits an online store, where WooCommerce or Shopify make more sense, and what a build costs with us. Start at the OpenCart hub if you want the wider picture first.
On payments, most of our OpenCart stores run Stripe; here is the Stripe extension we install.
Selling to trade customers as well as retail? See OpenCart for B2B and wholesale for per-group pricing, quotes, and net terms on the same store.
The form below is pre-tagged: cms=opencart, site_type=ecommerce. CRM will know exactly which combination you came from.
