OpenCart vs. Shopify: Which Is Better?

OpenCart is one of the most respected names when it comes to open-source e-commerce platforms, while Shopify ranks among the leading hosted solutions.

Hosted e-commerce platforms are an all-in-one shopping cart solution, which allows users to create and set up an online store quickly without any coding skills. On the other hand, open-source platforms are website builders that allow the original source code to be freely available for anyone to view, modify, and contribute.

But which one is the right platform for your online business? With a plethora of features to consider, choosing the best e-commerce platform can be challenging.

To help you make an informed decision, we provide a comparison between OpenCart and Shopify.

• OpenCart overview
• Shopify overview
• OpenCart vs. Shopify

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OpenCart overview

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OpenCart is an open-source, downloadable e-commerce platform that’s free to own, upgrade, and use. It’s been around for almost 20 years. And it’s ranked fifth in distribution among open-source providers, with over 463,000 current customers.

Note that even though OpenCart is free to download, you will have other costs to building a live website. These include basic expenses like web hosting, a domain name, and an SSL (secure sockets layer) authenticating certificate.

As an online shopping cart system, OpenCart follows a core+extensions model, which means you need add-ons to get a fully functioning website. The platform offers more than 13,000 extensions to choose from. Online entrepreneurs often like the ability to design and customize their websites, which is why OpenCart is a popular choice for many.

The platform is generally easy to use. But if you want to build and maintain your own e-commerce store, you may need to brush up on your coding skills and understanding of PHP computer language. Alternatively, you can hire a developer from Upwork to build your website for you.

Shopify overview

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With over 4 million current customers all over the world, Shopify is one of the biggest names offering hosted-cart solutions in the market today. Shopify is often described as a complete e-commerce platform because it’s based and hosted in the cloud.

This means you don’t have to worry about technical issues in creating or maintaining your e-commerce business website. They also handle software and server upgrades for you.

As a company offering software as a service (SaaS) e-commerce solutions, Shopify uses a subscription-based model with pricing that’s pretty straightforward. It comes with e-commerce features you need to easily create an online store without much tech knowledge.

And if you don’t want to build a Shopify store from scratch, you can buy a business from Shopify Exchange.

Shopify is a popular choice for its ease of use. It has attractive themes, comprehensive search engine optimization (SEO), and marketing tools. Shopify also supports selling through multiple channels, which is a great marketing approach to increase sales. This allows you to embed the Shopify Buy Button on other web platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and your own website.

OpenCart vs. Shopify

OpenCart and Shopify are both major players in the industry. Which e-commerce platform is best for your online store? It depends on your needs and the features and services that most matter to you.

Check out this comparison of what each provider offers.

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Let’s discuss some additional differences between Shopify and OpenCart that can help you decide which solution is best for you.

Additional differences

‍In this section, we look at OpenCart’s and Shopify’s pricing, the support available from each platform, and what users like and dislike about them.

Pricing

Pricing for OpenCart is tricky because it’s free to download, but you’re responsible for hosting, procuring an SSL certificate, getting a domain name, and paying for any extensions you need to build a fully functioning website.

In contrast, you can get started with Shopify with a basic plan for $29 per month. Here is a comparison of each platform’s pricing structure.

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Support

Shopify offers solid customer support that you can access through live chat, email, or phone. They also have a community where you can check in, ask questions, and learn from other members.

Since OpenCart is an open-source platform, support is limited to forums and documentation. This means your support options will be mostly self-help routes. Luckily, their forums are very active. There are numerous tutorials on YouTube, and you can always find developers willing to answer questions.

For more dedicated support, OpenCart has introduced support plans. You can choose between two payment options: a one-time fix starting from $150 or a $120 per month premium support plan. The one-time fix includes a 30-day “bug-free guarantee,” while the premium plan comes with three extension installations per month and one hour of bug fix support per month.

Their services also include password resets at $99 per reset and one-time store backup for $160 each.

Reviews

Most Shopify customers like that the platform is user-friendly, making it easy to set up and manage an online store even for beginners. Users are also happy to have everything in one place to streamline their operations. Shopify also gets favorable reviews for its intuitive interface.

On the other hand, some users say that Shopify can be expensive compared to other hosted platforms because the best features are only available for the higher-level plans. Some users are also dissatisfied with the limited number of free templates for customization.

Shopify also has Shopify Payments, which automatically set up online stores to accept all major payment methods. There are no charges for orders processed through third-party payment providers, such as Shop Pay, PayPal Express, or cash on delivery (COD).

So, it can save business owners a lot of money from additional transaction fees. However, since Shopify Payments are only available in select countries, the additional transaction fees can be hefty for small business owners.

With OpenCart, favorable reviews often mention that it’s free to download and use. Customers also like that there are free and paid extensions available. And they’re pretty happy with OpenCart’s customization capabilities, where they can control all aspects of their website.

Although you need web experience and coding skills to build your own website on an open-source platform, users say the learning curve for OpenCart isn’t as steep compared to others like PrestaShop or Magento.

On the flip side, to get OpenCart to work, you’ll need extensions, which can get expensive. In addition, add-ons aren’t necessarily compatible with each other. This is why some users complain that upgrading and updating your site can be time-consuming and difficult.

Specific services

Below, we’ll discuss the differences between Shopify and OpenCart on specific services, such as design customization, SEO capabilities, and tools available for store management.

Design

As mentioned, OpenCart is popular because it’s highly customizable. When you download the platform, you get a default template, which you can design according to your specifications. You can purchase themes on the OpenCart marketplace, which has over 13,000+ additional extensions of themes and plug-ins, all rated by users.

Customization isn’t a strong suit for Shopify. And even though you can choose from free and paid apps to design your store, this only brings up another drawback, which is Shopify’s reliance on its app store.  

To be fair, apps are a great way to improve and add functionality to your site. However, the cost of paid apps can quickly rise if you’re not careful. Also, adding apps and plug-ins opens up your store to bugs and security breaches, so make sure you’re only adding good-quality apps.

These caveats apply for both platforms. Ultimately, you can design your e-commerce website however you want, whether you go with Shopify or OpenCart. You’re only limited by how much you want to spend on extensions or apps.

Of course, with OpenCart, you’ll need coding skills to realize your vision or hire a web developer.

SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of getting your website to show up on search engine results pages (SERPs). This is important because ranking high on search engines can bring your website more traffic that can translate to more sales. So, SEO should be one of your main criteria when choosing a platform for your site.

Opencart’s default template doesn’t come optimized for SEO, so you have to do it yourself. The platform allows you to format the metadata, product descriptions, categories, and individual webpages to follow relevant SEO principles.

You can start by optimizing your URL. Further, you can use SEO extensions available from the marketplace to make the job easier and achieve your goals faster.

In this regard, Shopify comes with many marketing functionalities, including social media promotions, email marketing, and SEO. And if these areas aren’t your strong suit, you’ll be happy to know that Shopify handles all the related technical aspects.

For instance, your Shopify store is set up so that Google can quickly analyze what your business is all about and what you’re selling.

Store management

When it comes to store management tools, both OpenCart and Shopify allow users to list unlimited products and descriptions—something that not all e-commerce platforms offer.

OpenCart offers a variety of shipping methods around the world. Aside from features like product category management, point accumulation for loyal customers, discounts, and coupon services, it also allows for multiple stores from one admin panel. In addition, OpenCart has a built-in affiliate system.

Plus, it comes with more than 50 payment methods and multiple payment gateways like PayPal and Square—all of which make it a great e-commerce solution for businesses that sell internationally.

You can also set up your site for customers to leave feedback and ratings on your products. And, as always the case with OpenCart, you can configure your website to have all the features you want—you just need to play with a few add-ons and modules to find what works best for you.

Alternatively, Shopify offers many of the same features that you can get from OpenCart, plus a few more that make store management a breeze. These additional tools include drop-shipping integrations, fulfillment center connections, email templates for email marketing, and abandoned cart recovery. All of these are designed to help you boost your conversion rate and, ultimately, increase sales.

Moreover, Shopify automatically integrates with the Shopify POS (point of sale) system, which allows you to sell in person. Shopify also helps you maximize your sales potential with multi-channel selling. This means you can connect your online store and market your products on other platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, eBay, Amazon, and your own website.  

Winner: Whatever suits your needs

Depending on your needs, wants, and coding abilities, OpenCart or Shopify can serve your business well.

OpenCart can be an excellent choice if you want to create a unique website for your business. In addition, OpenCart is self-hosted, with most of the expenses to build your website one-time costs. So, it can be economical if you don’t want to pay monthly subscription fees.

On the other hand, Shopify offers a completely cloud-based and cloud-hosted e-commerce solution. So, it’s a great option if you’re a small business owner looking to get your online store up and running as quickly and easily as possible. It’s also best if you aren’t super tech-savvy or don’t want to spend much time managing the back end of your online store.

An e-commerce specialist knows what’s best

OpenCart can be a great choice for online businesses. The open-source solution allows for a lot of flexibility in website customization and design. But to get the most out of the platform, you need web experience or should hire a web developer.

Shopify also provides great performance as a platform that manages most of the technical aspects for you. If you want that with the ability to build a unique e-commerce website, you can have the best of both worlds by working with a web developer.

Connect with e-commerce specialists who know how to achieve the vision you have for your online business. Browse Upwork and get to know our talented Shopify developers or OpenCart developers.

Alternatively, try posting a specific job to start getting proposals. Once you’ve found your expert, you can talk about timing, availability, and prices before going ahead.

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Upwork is not affiliated with and does not sponsor or endorse any of the tools or services discussed in this section. These tools and services are provided only as potential options, and each reader and company should take the time needed to adequately analyze and determine the tools or services that would best fit their specific needs and situation. Prices are current at the time of writing and may change over time based on each service’s offerings.