Shopify OR OpenCart Which is good for you?

When it comes to Shopify VS OpenCart , its difficult choose. Because both platforms are widely used for E-Commerce having their own strengths and weakness. Which one is good for you depends upon your requirements.

Besides this, E-Commerce market offers many cart systems that turn the websites into attractive and professional looking web store. These cart systems also have plenty of features which are required for an E-Commerce store.

Let’s discuss more about these cart system and make it easy for you to choose for your store.

OPENCART:

OpenCart is an online store management system. It is PHP-based, using a MySQL database and HTML components. In addition to this it is a free open-source shopping cart system. It’s also a self-hosted platform with simple installation procedure.

OpenCart is easy to use platform, but when you go deep into store customization it can be a bit complicated and also requires you to put in extra effort. Essentially OpenCart has everything a merchant needs to build their online store. But while using advanced template system, you can modify the look of your OpenCart e-shop easily and efficiently.

SHOPIFY:

Shopify is also one of the leading platform to build your E-Commerce. It is a self-hosted, which enables you to build and run your store in just few clicks. Shopify is user friendly platform to start your E-Commerce.

Furthermore, Shopify have variety of professional themes free and paid both. It also comes with many built-in features and apps required for an E-Commerce website. Therefore, it is the best choice of business owner due to its easy to use functionality. It supports multiple languages.

Thus, Shopify is a complete pack for anyone who is looking to start up an online business.

WHY CHOOSE OPENCART ?

1. It supports multiple store functionality, unlimited categories and products.
2. OpenCart is also search engine friendly and enables meta-tags per category and product.
3. Furthermore, it includes pre-defined templates, designs and over 6000 extensions.
4. It also supports multiple currencies and languages that are managed from a single admin interface.
5. Plus it offers full freedom to customize the store along with free lifetime updates and support.

WHY CHOOSE SHOPIFY ?

1. Its marketing tools include a discount system and coupon codes, free advertise credits, email marketing system and social media integration.
2. Also, it comes with built-in CMS (Content Management System) to enable a blog establishment.
3. Shopify also sets up a mobile version of your store by default.
4. It also includes SEO-friendly URLs, Meta descriptions, and automatic sitemap generation.
5. Moreover, Shopify offers out-of-the-box multiple payment gateways and shipping options.

PROS AND CONS OF OPENCART :

Let’s glimpse into the strength and weakness of OpenCart.

PROS :

• It’s complete free to use and free is always a plus for software.
• Full freedom of customization.
• Great customer support also.
• OpenCart being user-friendly makes it easy to use for non-technical person.
• Amazing set of basic features that also provides quick and simple set-up of store.

CONS :

• Many extensions available have some serious security issues.
• There are serious limitations for larger shops too.
• Similarly, it is an extensive shopping cart customization which requires sufficient programming skills too.

PROS AND CONS OF SHOPIFY:

Now let’s put some light on strength and weakness of Shopify.

PROS :

• Marketing tools included i.e. Discount coupons, Email marketing and many more.
• Plus easy to do customization.
• 24/7 customer support.
• Shopify has thousands of themes (Free and Paid) both.
• No need to worry about any technical problem.

CONS :

• Have to pay for transaction if not using Shopify’s payment gateway.
• Less number of free themes available.

FEATURES OF OPENCART :

• Unlimited categories and unlimited products
• Plenty manufactures
• Multi-Currency and Multi-Language
• Product reviews and Rating
• Open source
• Free documentation
• Automatic image resize
• 20+ payment gateways available
• 8+ shipping methods offered

FEATURES OF SHOPIFY :

• Advanced shopping cart features
• 100+ professional themes
• Full blogging platform
• Mobile responsive
• Your own domain name
• Free SSL certificate
• 70 payment gateways
• Multiple languages
• Automatic carrier shipping charges
• Marketing and SEO
• 24/7 Customer support

CONCLUSION :

After reading it you must have a clear picture of Shopify and OpenCart both. OpenCart is targeted mostly at newcomers, yet it has all the necessary E-Commerce functionality a business of any size will benefit you from. Whereas, Shopify will give you the functionality that will worth each penny you spend on it.

Additionally, both platforms includes a powerful list of features for developing an eye-catching, professional and elegant platform. While, individually both of these platforms have their pros and cons.

Let’s just wrap it up in few words. The best advice would be to try each of them before doing a final decision. Since OpenCart is free to download and Shopify offers 14 days free trail So, this is the best chance to try out both and then decide.

To find more about Shopify read our more blogs.