OpenCart Review
Lightweight, free, self-hosted shopping cart software.
Overview
OpenCart is a lean, genuinely free shopping cart that is easy to spin up and supports multiple stores from one admin. It is a favorite of developers who want a simple, no-license-fee foundation.
Its core stays minimal by design, so you will lean on the paid extension marketplace and your own hosting know-how to add advanced features.
Our verdict
OpenCart is a lean, genuinely free cart that is easy to spin up and supports multiple stores from one admin. Its core stays minimal, so you will lean on the paid extension marketplace and your own hosting know-how.
Best for: Developers wanting a simple, free self-hosted cart
Key features
Completely free
No license fees — a lightweight open-source cart you fully control.
Multi-store admin
Run several stores from a single dashboard out of the box.
Large extension market
Thousands of extensions add features the lean core omits.
Lightweight core
A simple codebase is quick to deploy and undemanding to host.
Pros
- Completely free and lightweight
- Multi-store from one dashboard
- Large extension marketplace
Cons
- Core features are fairly basic
- Quality of extensions varies widely
Ideal for
- Developers wanting a simple, free self-hosted cart
- Multi-store operators on a budget
- Technical sellers comfortable adding extensions
Not ideal for
- Non-technical merchants wanting rich built-in features
- Stores needing guaranteed extension quality and support
Pricing
free core + hosting & extensions · 0% (processor fees apply) transaction fees
Free, self-hosted
Typical monthly outlay
The core is free; budget mainly for hosting (~$20/mo typical) and extensions. Extension quality and support vary widely, so vet add-ons before relying on them.
Performance & reliability
The lightweight core runs well even on modest hosting. As always with self-hosted carts, your host and extension choices drive real-world speed.
Support
Free community forums and documentation, with paid commercial support available. Most help comes from the community and extension authors.
Full specifications
- Hosting type
- Self-hosted
- Free trial
- Free core
- Themes / templates
- Theme marketplace
- App marketplace
- 13,000+ extensions
- Staff accounts
- Unlimited (role-based)
- Multi-currency
- Yes
- POS included
- No
- Abandoned cart recovery
- No
- Built-in blog
- No
Payments & security
- Payment gateways
- Many via extensions
- SSL certificate
- Yes
- PCI compliant
- Yes
- Gift cards
- Yes
Capabilities & limits
- Product limit
- Unlimited
- Drag-and-drop editor
- No
- Multi-language
- Yes
- API access
- Yes
- Mobile app
- No
- Support channels
- Community forum, paid commercial support
Frequently asked questions
Is OpenCart really free?+
Yes, the core is free and open-source. You pay only for hosting and any premium extensions or themes you add.
Can OpenCart run multiple stores?+
Yes. Multi-store management from a single admin is a built-in feature.
How good are OpenCart extensions?+
The marketplace is large, but quality and support vary by author, so test extensions carefully.