Open Source E-commerce Solutions

Open source solutions have been a blessing for the web development world. Here are some of the most effective open source e-commerce solutions-

FishCart

Launched in 1998, Fish Cart is a well known open source e-commerce solution for products, services, online payment and online donation management. It is written in PHP4 and tested on Windows NT, Linux, and various UNIX platforms. This system supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, Solid, Oracle and MSSQL. Advantages include multiple parallel catalogs, multiple languages, timed sales, Associate ID tracking, and web based catalog maintenance.

Oscommerce

This is another open source e-commerce solution. It has an object oriented Php backend. This system supports multiple payment gateways such as 2Checkout.com, Authorize.Net, ChronoPay, iPayment, PayNova, Paypal, PSIGate, SecPay and TrustCommerce.Oscommerce supports unlimited products and categories. It supports multiple currencies. Also, it supports physical (shippable) and virtual (downloadable) products.

Zen Cart

ZenCart is similar to Oscommerce. Its user front end is validated to XHTML 1.0 transitional. Any PHP coding changes can be protected during upgrades by using the built-in override protection system. Zen Cart can be integrated with phpBB. The meta tags keywords and descriptions can be controlled at the per-product level.  

VirtueMart

VirtueMart is a renowned open source e-commerce application used in combination with Joomla. It is a highly advanced and customizable e-commerce platform meant for Joomla websites. VirtueMart can also be used as a Shopping Cart. It is written in PHP and requires the MySQL database environment for data storage. Virtuemart-Joomla integration is best suited for low to medium level traffic web-sites.

Shopify

It is built on Ruby on Rails technology. The online shop built with it is standards-compliant, fully customizable and requires little technical know-how. Shopify charges 3.75% commission on all sales. It is faster and easier to setup and has in-built SEO capabilities.  Shopify has discount codes with fine-grained options. It has an XML Sitemap automatically generated for search engine indexing. Also, it has a full featured asset system which lets use and re-uses stock photography, logos and product PDF. New order notifications via email, RSS, and on mobile phone with SMS messaging facilities are also available.

Magento

This is the most widely used e-commerce platform around the world. It has advanced features that make e-commerce easy and simple. It was founded by Varien, a web development firm. Magento Development supports multiple languages and multiple currencies. It is integrated with google analytics and has one page checkout process.  

DashCommerce

It is one of the only open source .NET e-commerce platforms available. Its features include - Single Page Checkout, Partial Refunds, Configurable Shipping Rates and Drop-In Themes / Skinning.

Cube Cart

Its main strength lies with its variety of different payment merchant vendor. Its features include - Professionally Security Audited, 100% Template Driven, Customer Order History and Multi Currency Support.

Tomato Cart

This is a unique open source ecommerce solution which aims at creating the best online shopping platform. It is devoted to blending all flexible functionalities for users even with the basic software knowledge. Features include - RIA based Administration Pane , Search Engine Optimization, Web Analytics (Piwik), Lightweight Framework and Content Management System.  

Prestashop

It is an open source e-commerce software for Web 2.0.  It is written in Php and MySQL. Many websites worldwide are created using Prestashop. It is absolutely modular and offers customizable solutions. It supports payment gateways such as Google checkout, paypal or payments pro via APIs. Further payment modules are offered commercially. The software makes extensive use of AJAX in the admin panel, while module blocks can be easily added to the store to provide extra functionality.