When you start to create an online store, one of the most important decisions you have to make is choosing the e-commerce platform to use for your store. And with the plethora of eCommerce options available, this choice becomes the hardest.
Although there are many eCommerce platforms available, the two that are often at odds with each other are WooCommerce and OpenCart. Choosing between these two is not easy. Both are powerfully designed to offer a pleasant shopping cart experience, both offer many useful features that help you run your store smoothly, and both offer customization options to design your store as you wish.
So how do you choose one between the two?
In this comparison article, we will give you a detailed and comprehensive comparison of WooCommerce vs. OpenCart. We will cover the various aspects and features of both platforms to help you decide which one is best for you.
Then let’s get started right away!
WooCommerce vs OpenCart: Overview
WooCommerce was released in 2011 by WooThemes. It is an easily accessible open source WordPress plugin with a lot of useful features. WooCommerce is designed to turn any of your existing WordPress websites into a fully functional online store. You can also use WooCommerce while creating a new website from scratch.
On the other hand, OpenCart is older than WooCommerce as it was released in 2008. It is also an open source platform but it is a PHP based platform. OpenCart uses HTML components and MySQL database.
Now that we know what WooCommerce and OpenCart are at a glance, let’s dig a little deeper to get a better picture of these two cargo eCommerce platforms.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is the most popular and sought after eCommerce platform today. According to the latest findings, 40% of online stores use WooCommerce for their eCommerce needs. One of the best features that makes WooCommerce a leader in eCommerce is that it is built as a WordPress extension. So, if you know how to run a website on WordPress, you can easily use WooCommerce as well.
As soon as you install the WooCommerce plugin on your website, it will become an eCommerce store right away. You will have all the basic operations and functionalities of an online store, such as order processing, inventory management, payment facilities and more.
WooCommerce is a free and unrestricted platform. In addition to the various functionalities built into the platform, you can install additional plugins to enhance its functions according to your needs. Although OpenCart entered the market a few years before WooCommerce, these unique benefits and features make WooCommerce more popular than OpenCart.
OpenCart
OpenCart is also an open source e-commerce platform, like WooCommerce. OpenCart also has powerful online store management tools, various extensions and themes, and a strong support system to help you at all times.
However, OpenCart has not been able to conquer the market like WooCommerce. There may be various reasons behind this. The main reason behind this could be the lack of freedom and customization present in OpenCart. We’ll look at all of these things in the next section to understand why OpenCart failed to catch on like WooCommerce.
However, OpenCart is widely used by small-scale and startup business owners. This platform is best suited for store owners who want to have a fast and free setup as it provides great features to run a small store with a limited number of products.
Detailed Comparison
Here, we will review some of the main features and functionalities of both platforms to make a detailed comparison between the two.
Ease of installation
WooCommerce:
WooCommerce is a plugin designed specifically for WordPress. Therefore, you can easily install it like any other WordPress plugin. As it is a free open source platform, you do not need to pay any installation or monthly fees.
The WooCommerce installation method is quite simple and straightforward. You have to follow these steps:
- Go to “Plugins” in the left panel of your WordPress dashboard.
- Enter “WooCommerce” in the search bar.
- Seeing WooCommerce in the search results, click the “Install Now” button provided.
When installation is complete, click the “Activate” button, after which you will be guided through a WooCommerce setup wizard to fill in some basic information about your store.
OpenCart:
Now let’s see the OpenCart installation procedure.
When it comes to installing OpenCart, you have two options. The first setup option involves a one-click installer provided by hosting providers. This option normally costs around $3 to $15.
The second setup option involves installing the OpenCart store manually. But this method is very complicated and challenging as you will be required to have basic technical knowledge. You should know how to use FTP to transfer the OpenCart files to your server and then build a database via phpMyAdmin.
The winner:
Definitely WooCommerce. Where anyone can install and configure WooCommerce, OpenCart can only be installed by someone with technical knowledge and skills.
Themes and Design
WooCommerce:
Over 2,100 free themes and over 30,000 paid themes – that’s what WooCommerce offers. Whether you want SEO driven themes, magazine themes, business defined themes, or eCommerce themes – WooCommerce has you covered. Not many eCommerce platforms can compete with WooCommerce when it comes to themes and layouts.
Design plays an important role in the success of an online store and WooCommerce understands that. That is why they have created a platform that seamlessly integrates with most of the themes available on the market. Mainly, you can select any WordPress theme you want and make it work perfectly with WooCommerce. Then the options become limitless!
OpenCart:
Unlike WooCommerce, OpenCart offers fairly limited options when it comes to themes and layouts. It only offers a sum of 500 free and paid themes, where their cost varies between $60 and $70. Moreover, working with the available themes also requires the user to have all CSS and HTML skills. Otherwise, you may need to hire a professional to do the customizations for you.
The winner:
It’s a no-brainer. WooCommerce is still a winner in this aspect as well. The aesthetics, unlimited options, ease of use, and simple customizations in WooCommerce make it way ahead of OpenCart.
Pricing
Both WooCommerce and OpenCart are free and open source eCommerce platforms. However, even though the platform itself is free, there are still some fees associated with running an online store, such as:
Hosting:
Both platforms require you to have a hosting service which typically costs between $5 and $100 per month depending on the service you choose.
Domain Name:
Domain name charges also apply to both platforms and are typically $10 per year.
Any additional extensions:
In case you use additional extensions, such as paid premium themes, those charges are also included in the total cost of running a store.
SSL certificate:
You need an SSL certificate to be able to accept online payments securely, and that is another expense you will have to cover.
So the winner is:
It’s a tie! Yes, this aspect is the same for both platforms, as both are free to install and use, but require the same amount of additional expenses.
SEO
WooCommerce:
WordPress has a huge SEO advantage over other CMS and therefore so does WooCommerce. WordPress is built on SEO-friendly PHP code that is highly preferred by Google as well as other search engines. Consequently, any website built on WordPress automatically gets better SEO.
In addition to that, there are tons of WooCommerce SEO plugins that provide a variety of additional SEO functionality, such as flexible URLs, Google Analytics, robots.txt, sitemap generation, meta descriptions, and much more.
OpenCart:
OpenCart does not offer the built-in benefit of SEO friendly programming. However, you can edit your store Metas while using OpenCart as your eCommerce platform. In addition, you can also use search engine optimized URLs for your online store and product web pages. However, if you need to employ better SEO features in OpenCart, you should hire an expert.
The winner:
WooCommerce easily wins this one, as it offers strong SEO features that don’t require you to deal with technical SEO issues.
Customization
WooCommerce:
WooCommerce is based on PHP and is also integrated with WordPress, which means that when you use WooCommerce, you have direct access to the code via FTP. If you’re tech-savvy or willing to hire experts, you’ll have a remarkably high level of control over every area of your eCommerce store.
You can also use the REST API, which allows you to add an extra layer of functionality. This will allow you to further customize your website. In simple words, in WooCommerce, everything can be customized according to your unique business needs.
OpenCart:
While using OpenCart, you will find that OpenCart is highly customizable, but only if you can take advantage of the underlying code. If you do, you can easily customize the functionalities to have a unique e-commerce system. However, you will need to have high class coding skills to be able to do that. Also, you can always hire expert developers to help you that way.
The winner:
It’s a tie! Both platforms are open source and therefore allow you to make deep customizations to your store, but only if you have the technical knowledge or can hire professionals.
Supported Product Types
Both WooCommerce and OpenCart platforms allow you to have unlimited items, product categories and product descriptions in your store. Plus, you can sell all kinds of products on both:
Physical Products:
WooCommerce and OpenCart allow you to sell physical products online. You can easily maintain your product catalog, price items, manage your orders, calculate all taxes, and do many more physical product sales activities on both platforms.
Digital Products:
In addition to selling physical products, both platforms also support the sale of digital products. Digital products include all those items that can be purchased and downloaded directly over the Internet, such as an electronic book.
The winner:
Well, it’s pretty obvious. WooCommerce and OpenCart are the same in the aspect of supported product types. So it’s a tie!
Extensions and plugins
WooCommerce:
WooCommerce allows you to extend and increase the functionality of your online store in various ways. As of now, the WooCommerce Extensions store has more than 400 extensions. These extensions enhance the functionality and/or outlook of your store. Extensions include tools for store management, marketing, reservations, shipping, subscriptions, taxes, and many more. On top of that, WooCommerce can seamlessly integrate with all WordPress plugins, which number around 56,540.
OpenCart:
OpenCart also offers a number of useful extensions. You can also buy these extensions on the OpenCart marketplace or other marketplaces. Although limited in number compared to WooCommerce, these extensions are enough to get your store running smoothly. OpenCart extensions include admin tools, email integrations, social media integrations, payment methods, shipping methods, and more.
Conclusion
We know that choosing an e-commerce platform can be quite a challenging and difficult decision to make. With so many ecommerce options available on the market, you might get confused.
Here, we have tried to make your decision easier by providing a detailed comparison of two giants in the world of e-commerce. We hope this blog will help you make the right decision.
To conclude the comparison, we would give our verdict in favor of WooCommerce. Thanks to its unlimited design options, high customization capabilities, ease of use, and easy installation, WooCommerce is suitable for all types of online applications.
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