OpenCart vs Magento
"Which shopping cart should I use?"
It's a great question that's asked a lot on business and ecommerce forums alike. While the answer will of course depend to some extent on what is being sold, two platforms that often come up are Magento and OpenCart.
Well let's put them head to head:
Feature | OpenCart [1] (free) |
Magento [2] Community (free) |
Magento [2] Enterprise (£9,000+/year) |
Multiple Stores |
Yes | Yes | Yes |
Multi-language |
Yes | Yes | Yes |
Multi-currency |
Yes | Yes | Yes |
Search Engine Friendly | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Product Configurations |
Yes | Yes | Yes |
Mobile Commerce |
Yes | Yes | Yes |
Web Services API |
Yes | Yes | |
Strong Data Encryption |
Yes | Yes | |
PCI Compliant |
Yes | Yes | Yes |
Customer Groups |
Yes | Yes | Yes |
Reward Points & Store Credit |
Free Extension [3] | Yes | |
Content Management System |
1 Level [4] | 1 Level | Yes |
Site Access Permissions |
Yes |
Free Extension |
Yes |
Full Page Caching |
Yes | [5] | Yes |
Online Demo |
Yes | Yes | Yes |
opensourcecms.com Rating |
4.30 | 2.78 | [7] |
Consulting Services | Yes [6] | Yes | |
Multiple Licenses |
Yes | Yes | |
Total | 20.30 | 13.78 | 19.78 |
In conclusion?
If you're comparing OpenCart to the free version of Magento, there isn't really any contest.
Compared to the £9k/year version it's closer but based on the features above OpenCart still wins.
[1] OpenCart features listed here:
http://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=feature/feature
[2] Magento version features listed here:
http://www.magentocommerce.com/product/compare
[3] This extension, developed by one of the main OpenCart team, provides store credit:
http://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=extension/extension/info&extension_id=5049
[4] OpenCart CMS extensions are relatively low cost:
http://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=extension/extension&filter_search=cms
[5] Perhaps this is why there are so many reports of Magento running slowly?
[6] We are one of many companies that provide this service, click here for more.
[7] No rating available so "2.78" was used.