Which eCommerce engine is better: PrestaShop or OpenCart?

In the following article we will analyze which eCommerce engine is better: PrestaShop or OpenCart.

PrestaShop is a free solution that allows you to build your store either on the PrestaShop Cloud, or via download to setup it on your own hosting. The basic functionality is enormously wide and can be modified by the additional modules. There are also lot of custom templates available to update the standard design.

OpenCart is an open source PHP-based online shopping cart system. It’s a robust eCommerce solution for Internet merchants with the ability to create their own online business and participate in e-commerce at a minimal cost. OpenCart templates are designed feature rich and easy to use.

They both have their advantages and disadvantages. Certainly selecting best eCommerce system out depends on your project requirements and budget too. PrestaShop provides much more functionality and additional modules, however OpenCart is more simple in use. Feel free to find the detailed features comparison in the following table.

PrestaShop interface is user-friendly, however there still is a learning curve which can be difficult for some users. You will definitely need some time to study, so the bulk range of video tutorials should be checked. It also provides the user with a good inbuilt caching system and SEO URLs mechanisms.

OpenCart offers a basic set of features, including a powerful catalog functionality and a good mechanism for order processing. Caching is not provided by OpenCart, and must be added using an extension for improving performance. OpenCart does not promise a very high performance, unless users opt for additional plugins such as for SEO. The most OpenCart features are already described in video tutorials.

OpenCart contains a lot of default Shipping and Payment systems, while PrestaShop mostly requires the additional modules or manual configuration. We recommend to check the payment and shipping comparison for more details.

As a conclusion, we would like to enumerate the following:

• PrestaShop contains more commercial features (cross-selling, layered navigation, coupons etc.), where with OpenCart you need to use the paid extensions.

• There are more useful extensions and themes available for PrestaShop.

• PrestaShop engine is more complicated and better documented.

• PrestaShop specifies the higher degree of hosting requirements, which means more optimization possibilities.

• OpenCart might be easier to start with, since more features can easily turn into a higher learning curve. That is the best engine for small stores. However, if you are going to develop a large business, PrestaShop is a better choice.

That is the end of the article. Now you know better what eCommerce engine to choose.