OpenCart vs WooCommerce: Which is the best e-commerce platform for you?

With a considerable increase in online stores, e-commerce websites are gaining great popularity in the market.

And this can only be achieved through a quality e-commerce website. You have to select the best e-commerce platform that is in vogue and will give your clients the best shopping experience.

For now, WoocCommerce and OpenCart are the most practical software tools for building an e-commerce website.

Using WooCommerce development services, you'll be able to develop websites for the WooCommerce platform.

If you have technical skills, you can build your website on OpenCart. 

Before that, let us give you an idea in this article on both the platforms, the similarities and differences to have a better understanding. 

What is OpenCart? 

OpenCart is an open-source e-commerce platform that enables the crafting of an online storefront. Its structure is based on the PHP language and MVC command which is supported by a MySQL or a PostgreSQL database. It also incorporates a variety of HTML components. 

OpenCart comes with a strong store administration caliber. You can have multiple advantages like built-in SEO, managing customers, products, promo codes, tax rules, orders, and more. 

You can also choose from a variety of themes and modules to enhance the operation of your online store. OpenCart provides two platforms: Free and cloud store. Cloud store is a paid platform. 

What is WooCommerce?

WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin used to create the eCommerce section of a website. It helps individuals and organizations to easily develop and manage online stores. 

It incorporates several vital features like inventory and tax management, shipping integration, and secure payments. 

WooCommerce also includes a store structure, product and checkout pages, a new e-commerce database, and an extensive dashboard that lets you develop and manage WooCommerce includes various features that remove the technical barriers of setting up and managing a website, thereby allowing anyone to do it.

What do OpenCart and WooCommerce share in common?

Open source 

Both OpenCart and WooCommere are based on open-source code. This means that their source code is the intellectual property of all users which they can modify and change to satisfy their individual needs.

SEO features 

Both platforms provide features and options for optimizing online stores for search engines. This includes meta tags, configurable URLs, site maps, and other enhancements for better visibility in search results. 

Numerous payment gateways and shipping options

The two platforms – OpenCart as well as Woocommerce have support for multiple payment gateways as well as shipping methods. This gives them the ease to offer various payment and delivery options to the customers.

Multicurrency and multilanguage support

OpenCart and WooCommerce are both native in many languages and currencies. This ensures that the payment process for the merchants is incorporated into the international e-commerce operations. Hence, they get a new audience of target customers.

User friendly 

OpenCart and WooCommerce provide intuitive interfaces both for managing products, orders, customers, and these aspects of an e-commerce store. They have been constructed with mind various levels of expertise of the users.

Extensible 

Both platforms allow for different types of extensions and plugins that can make them work better and them a unique look.

What is the contrast between OpenCart and WooCommerce?

Both OpenCart and WooCommerce are widely used platforms that share many common features. But they have a few differences as well. Let us discuss them in detail: 

Platform integration 

WooCommerce is a plugin that smoothly integrates with the WordPress content management platform. The WooCommerce plugins combine both WordPress’s blogging and website management features with e-commerce capability. 

OpenCart is not a plugin. It is a single platform powered by e-commerce that does not need any additional CMS to operate.

Technology 

WooCommerce relies on PHP and interacts closely with WordPress which is also written in PHP. Its underlying construction relies on the MySQL database management system.

OpenCart is also developed with PHP. However, it has its own MVC (Model View Controller) design and database structure.

Customization options

WooCommerce provides innumerable customization options via WordPress themes and plugins. Users can choose the extensions and WooCommerce plugins according to their preferences and tastes and create their own custom websites. 

While OpenCart also gives access to specific themes and extensions, there are limited options. Users may not find the variety of choices offered by WooCommerce.

Hosting Requirements 

WooCommerce requires a WordPress-compatible hosting environment because it works as a plugin. Users can select or hire WooCommerce experts to select the hosting provider that supports WordPress. 

OpenCart can be installed in almost any web hosting service that supports PHP and MySQL. It does not require any special hosting requirements linked to other platforms like WooCommerce.

Target audience

WooCommerce is a good fit for users who have a WordPress website or blog and plan to add e-commerce capabilities. It is primarily used by bloggers, content creators, and small and medium-sized enterprises.

OpenCart is perfect for users who are looking for a separate e-commerce solution built with no need to integrate with other software CMS. Therefore, it is used by small, medium, and large-scale enterprises. 

Updates and maintenance 

WooComerce updates are managed by WordPress’s built-in update mechanism. This enables WooCommmerce experts to quickly update the WooCommerce plugin from the WordPress dashboard. 

Users need to manually update their OpenCart installations when updated versions are available. This requires more effort than WooCommerce’s automatic update system.

Customer support 

You can get customer support in OpenCart by submitting a service ticket or official documentation. You can also watch blogs and tutorials available on the platform. Additionally, you can add customer support service that costs $120 per month. 

WooCommerce doesn’t offer any additional support services. Users need to handle problems and tackle them themselves. They need to be responsible for solving any kind of issue.

Conclusion

WooCommerce as well as OpenCart - both have their hidden resources of strengths and weaknesses. The choice is left to the user that determine the platform that the best requirements suit. If you have technical knowledge or development experience, you can opt for OpenCart.

But if you want to engage in creating a User-Friendly- Website with lots of features and themes, you can go with WooCommerce.

You can also opt for WooCommerce development services for extra ideas to be able to create your e-commerce website.

Overall, the decision lies in your hands! Check your business needs, preferences, and target audiences and decide the platform best suited for you.