Why the Journal Theme Might Not Be the Best Choice for Your OpenCart Store

Posted by Joe on October 21, 2025

Journal is one of the most popular OpenCart themes - but as we all know, popular doesn't always mean better.

Ask any experienced OpenCart developer, and you'll often hear the same thing: "Avoid Journal wherever you can!" Here's why:

1. It's Overly Complex

Journal comes packed with features and visual bells and whistles - but that power comes at a huge cost: bloat.

The theme adds layer upon layer of custom code, making even simple changes time-consuming and expensive. Developers often find that a small custom tweak that would take an hour on a standard OpenCart theme can take ten times longer on Journal.

If you ever need to add or adjust a feature, expect higher costs and longer development times.

2. Many Extensions Don't Work with It

Journal essentially replaces large parts of OpenCart's core system, far beyond just the look and feel of the front end. That means many third-party extensions simply won't work out of the box - if at all.

Most extensions are built for OpenCart's default structure. When they encounter Journal's heavily modified templates and scripts, conflicts are common. You'll even see some extensions specifically advertised as “Journal compatible!” - which says a lot about how incompatible the theme is with the rest of the OpenCart ecosystem.

If you need an extension that isn't built for Journal, getting it to work can be frustrating, time-consuming, and costly.

3. It's Slow

This is the big one. Journal is notoriously slow.

The extra layers of code and scripts mean that even powerful servers can struggle. A clean OpenCart site on modest hosting can load a page in about half a second. We've seen Journal sites take 3 seconds or more just to start loading - even on high-end VPS setups.

To make matters worse, Journal often relies on caching plugins just to reach acceptable speeds. When traffic spikes, performance can still tank - frustrating your customers and hurting conversions.

If you're not running on top-tier hosting, your site could feel painfully sluggish under Journal.

"But It Has So Many Features!"

Yes, Journal comes with tons of built-in modules and customization options. But here's the good news: you can get the same functionality - faster, cleaner, and easier to manage - without Journal.

Here are some of our recommended alternatives:

Modern Look & Customization

Our lightweight, CSS-based OpenCart themes offer the same sleek, professional design without the slowdown. They're fully customizable too - try our Theme Chooser to see how easily you can change colors and layouts.

One-Page Checkout

Journal's checkout looks nice, and there are plenty of one-page checkout extensions that are faster, more stable, and integrate beautifully with any standard theme. Our pick is the MarketInSG Quick Checkout extension, as the most reliable and performant out of all of the ones we've used.

Product Filters

The Mega Filter PRO extension offers powerful filtering with excellent performance, and works with most OpenCart themes out of the box.

Blog

Our own Blog extension provides everything you need to manage posts, categories, and comments, while staying fully compatible with standard OpenCart themes.

Header Notices

The Antropy Promo Bar lets you create attention-grabbing header messages. It's fast, lightweight, and easy to use.

Need a Clean Break?

If your current site is weighed down by Journal's legacy code and endless caching plugins, it might be time for a fresh start.

An OpenCart Rebuild can give your store a clean foundation - faster, easier to maintain, and ready for growth. You'll spend less on ongoing fixes and enjoy a faster, more reliable website that's simple to extend in the future as.

Request a quote from us to find out how we can help rebuild your site the right way.