Are you planning to build your e-commerce website but unsure which platform you must choose?
Has your web developer proposed WooCommerce but you are more inclined towards OpenCart or vice versa.
Which platform is suitable for your e-commerce website “WooCommerce” or “OpenCart”. This question can be quite challenging before hiring any web developer to get started on your e-commerce store development.
So, we decided to write a blog post on this and help our audience to choose the best e-commerce platform for them.
In this blog post, we have shared some major differences between WooCommerce & OpenCart.
Let’s Start.
#1 Ease Of Use
WooCommerce
When it comes to usability, WooCommerce (an e-commerce plugin for WordPress websites) always wins the battle.
We all know that WordPress is one of the most intuitive CMS available on the planet and the same is the case with the WooCommerce plugin.
When you use WooCommerce for building your e-commerce website, you are able to manage the products and other features like discount coupons, shipping rates, etc. easily, even if you are a non-programmer.
OpenCart
In the case of OpenCart, it has also got a user-friendly dashboard and backend, but it’s not as intuitive & self-understanding as the WooCommerce backend. There is a steep learning curve if you want to get familiar with OpenCart.
#2 FrameWork
WooCommerce
WooCommerce, being one of the WordPress plugins, is fully dependent on WordPress websites to set up an e-commerce website.
In other words, WooCommerce is not a standalone platform and it does require a WordPress website setup to build an e-commerce store.
OpenCart
OpenCart is a standalone platform that can build an e-commerce website on its own. All that it requires is PHP & MySQL-compatible server.
#3 Flexibility
WooCommerce
There are several WordPress plugins that are compatible with WooCommerce and can be used to enhance the features of a website. Most of these plugins are available free of cost and some of them are priced nominally.
OpenCart
In the case of OpenCart, there are some extensions that are available to use with the website in order to scale up its features but the numbers are not as much as with WooCommerce. You may need to hire a web developer in order to make customizations in the existing extensions in order to match them with your requirements.
Also, the OpenCart extensions (known as plugins in the case of WooCommerce) are priced higher as compared to WooCommerce plugins.
#4 Themes
WooCommerce
One of the major reasons to use WooCommerce to develop an e-commerce website is that there are hundreds of vibrant & beautiful themes available to change the look of the website.
Again, these themes are priced nominally so you don’t need to worry about redesigning your website if you need it in the future.
OpenCart
OpenCart also has some themes available but again, the numbers are not even close to WordPress themes. In other words, you may find fewer options for themes to be used on your OpenCart website.
Therefore, if you have an OpenCart website and you want to redesign it, you may need to hire an OpenCart developer to do this job who can design and develop the theme from scratch.
If you have a low budget to design or redesign your OpenCart website, you may consider choosing an affordable OpenCart web developer in India.
#5 Availability Of Web Developers
WooCommerce
In the case of WooCommerce, there are plenty of WordPress developers for you to hire at an affordable price.
Especially, you can find pocket-friendly WooCommerce developers in India who can deliver high-quality work at a nominal price.
OpenCart
Since OpenCart requires a steep learning curve to make customizations on the website, you may find OpenCart developers more expensive as compared to WordPress (WooCommerce).
#6 Security
WooCommerce
As we know by now that WooCommerce relies on 3rd party plugins to be integrated in order to build and enhance an e-commerce website, there could be some chances that some of those plugins may contain insecure codes that can affect the security of your website too.
But it doesn’t mean at all that WordPress/WooCommerce websites are not secured. It all depends on the WordPress developer, how we plan to build your e-commerce website, and what plugins he uses to develop it.
Therefore, it is always advised to hire only reliable web developers in India.
OpenCart
In the case of the open cart, there are not many options for extensions and the web developers have to customize the core extensions of OpenCart, in most cases. Because of this fact, OpenCart websites are more secure.
But as we mentioned above already, a professional web developer can make any website secure, be it a WooCommerce or OpenCart website.
