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PrestaShop is a free, open source eCommerce platform, which started out as a student project in Paris in 2005. It is currently used by 250,000 online stores worldwide and is used on 0.5% of all websites. PrestaShop is available as two free options: fully-hosted in the cloud, or self-hosted, giving you full technical control of your store. Easy to scale up, Virto Commerce positions itself as an enterprise ecommerce solution with an open architecture, built specially for you to integrate multiple features, plugins and applications as well as to safely deliver your website on the Microsoft e Commerce Cloud.

• Open Source Ecommerce Website

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Shopify vs WooCommerce – to put it simply, these are two of the most popular and easy-to-use eCommerce platforms available on the market.

Each one has multiple strengths and can possibly be the perfect solution for you to build an eCommerce store with. And the best news is that you can do so all on your own, without any help from professional designers and/or developers.

First, which one of the two is actually going to fit your specific needs better, Shopify or WooCommerce (for creating a fantastic online shop)? Which is more feature-rich? Which is cheaper? Which is better-looking? Which is more flexible? Which is the easiest to work with?

We have lots of questions to get to, but we're going to answer them all in this in-depth comparison. After reading it, you will know exactly which ecommerce platform to choose based on your individual needs. So, let's compare Shopify vs WooCommerce to see which one is the absolute best:

Table of Contents:

• Chapter #1: Design Comparison
• Chapter #2: Prices
• Chapter #3: Features
• Chapter #4: Ease of use
• Chapter #5: Customer Support
• Chapter #6: SEO Options
• Shopify vs WooCommerce Conclusion

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Btw, here's a video version of the comparison created by my colleague Joe. 🙂

Chapter #1: Shopify vs WooCommerce – Design

For websites (particularly ecommerce stores) design is everything. Customers simply don't trust a site that doesn't have the right aesthetic or doesn't function as well as it should.

How Shopify Does Design

One of Shopify‘s greatest selling points is the visual quality of its themes. In my opinion, they look absolutely great out of the box. Shopify comes with more than 54 different store templates, of which 10 are free. What's more, is that each of the themes has unique variations. Therefore, you're technically getting more than 100 separate designs.

The best part is that they are all mobile responsive and have a variety of different coloring options. They have a fashionably sleek and clean aesthetic, which makes it perfect for modern, forward-thinking websites.

Shopify's designs aren't created in-house, by the way. They're outsourced to a group of professional web designers who ensure they're as current and as engaging as they can be. We like this approach because you get creativity from a wide variety of companies and people, making for a better selection.

Unfortunately, the price tags on the premium ones go as high as $180. But what you get in exchange is a great design.

Luckily, there are free options available too.

The instant attraction of Shopify designs can cause many webmasters to select the same themes. Some Shopify users who have designed a site themselves have later complained of looking a little too similar to other websites. For that reason, customization is encouraged.

Luckily, Shopify themes are easy to change. You can quickly adjust colors and styles, while more adept developers can utilize the platform's specialized ‘Liquid' language to make more substantial changes and really make a brand stand out.

And even better, they do offer a Theme editor within the platform that you can use for customization. You can choose to hide sections within the theme editor without removing them. Hidden sections will still be customisable in the theme editor but not visible on the store front-end. This allows you to start sections for future releases and remove the need for theme duplications ( a common issue most developers face with WordPress).

How WooCommerce Does Design

As with many other aspects of the WooCommerce experience, when it comes to aesthetics, the world is your oyster. You just have to put the hours in.

WooCommerce is a plugin created by the developers from WooThemes (and acquired by Automattic). As such, it doesn't deliver any specific design traits on its own. What it does is provides you with the means to sell products and services online. The design part, however, is left to your current or future WordPress theme.

WooCommerce has been built to cooperate with most themes on the market, provided that they follow the standard recommendations and best practices.

This means that, in most cases, you are able to select any WordPress theme that you like, and still make it work together with WooCommerce.

However, you will also come across themes that have been built with WooCommerce in mind from the get-go and are tailor-made to make all your product/service listings look great. If the design of the eCommerce store itself is particularly important to you, you should look for themes that are specifically made for WooCommerce.

The place to start would be Woo's own default online store theme called Storefront (free). It's a really efficient creation that puts the focus on all the important elements of an eCommerce store.

You can also get a range of child themes for Storefront in case you want to customize the look of your store further. Most of the child themes are available at $39 a piece (occasionally, though, there are themes with price tags as high as $119). If you're a developer with ecommerce clients, they have a package for $399 where you get all of the themes in the library.

Apart from that, you can also look into marketplaces like ThemeForest where they have hundreds of other WooCommerce-compatible themes.

To be honest, WooCommerce has a serious advantage over Shopify when it comes to designs. Shopify has wonderful themes, but they're limited to what you can find in the Shopify Theme Store. WooCommerce, on the other hand, is opensource so tons of developers sell (or give away) incredible WooCommerce themes for all sorts of industries and purposes.

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Chapter #2: Shopify vs WooCommerce – Price

Every webmaster wants slightly more bang for their buck, but the two platforms have really different approaches to pricing:

The main difference between Shopify pricing and WooCommerce pricing

To say this quite bluntly, Shopify pricing is very clear and straightforward. WooCommerce's isn't.

On the one hand, WooCommerce is a free open source software plugin. Yes, the plugin is free, but then you have to consider the additional costs that go along with making an online store. WordPress is free as well, but you have to consider things like hosting, the cost of a theme, a domain name, any additional extensions and an SSL certificate.

Shopify is all about delivering you a single, out-of-the-box solution with just a few pricing packages. You sign up, then you get to use your shiny new eCommerce store right away since everything you need is included from the get-go.

Here's a table that should make the costs involved with each platforms easier to grasp:

Note. Both Shopify and WooCommerce offer you a handful of tiers / options to upgrade your version of the platform depending on the type of your business, the scale of your sales, etc. To simplify this comparison, I'm going to focus on the cheapest path – what it costs, at the minimum to have a working eCommerce store with Shopify vs WooCommerce.

Shopify vs WooCommerce pricingSoftwareHostingSubdomainSSL certificateTop-level domainShopify$29 / monthIncluded for free$9 / yearWooCommerce$0$5-$100 / month (via 3rd party)n/aFree to $100+ / year (via 3rd party)$9+ / year (via 3rd party)When we sum things up, the above translates into:

• Shopify eCommerce store running on a top-level domain: $29 / month.
• WooCommerce store on the same setup: $29 / month (a modest $20 hosting, domain, SSL).

As you can see, even though the WooCommerce software is free, running an actual eCommerce store costs basically the same as Shopify, if not more.

But that's not all. With WooCommerce, you might also have to factor in the additional extensions for things like SEO, more payment gateways, and so on. Those extensions are usually around the $49-79 mark (one-time payments).

What it all comes down to is that although WooCommerce is technically the cheaper solution, it will require much more work to set it up, and you'll need to be more careful not to go over your budget, as every additional extension comes with a price tag. In the end, with WooCommerce, you're spending more time on setup and management, which translates to dollars.

Shopify boasts a much more conventional pricing structure. It has a sliding scale of packages which offer users a range of different features up front – Lite ($9 per month,) Basic Shopify ($29 per month,) Shopify ($79 per month) and Advanced Shopify ($299 per month).

Feel free to check out another resource of ours, where we focus primarily on the different pricing options available with Shopify and which one to choose.

Last but not least, there are the transaction fees. In essence, whenever you sell something with either of the platforms, they will charge you a small fee (for processing the payment, delivering the money to your account, etc.). Those fees change quite often, so I won't get into that here, but just be aware that they exist. Usually, they sit around 2%-3% per transaction but make sure to check the exact numbers before signing up with either of the platforms.

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Chapter #3: Shopify vs WooCommerce – Features

While both platforms' approaches to pricing are different, they're relatively similar when it comes to giving your eCommerce site what it needs. Unlike a platform like Bigcommerce, Shopify and WooCommerce are more basic with the ecommerce essentials built into the main software.

However, both have solid app stores for installing any other features you may need.

How Shopify Helps You Sell

Although you will probably need to install apps to make the most of the platform, Shopify offers significantly more free options. From the very start Shopify gives you:

• Unlimited products
• Unlimited file storage
• Automatic fraud analysis
• Embedded Oberlo integration
• Manual order creation
• Discount codes
• Blog module
• Free SSL certificate
• Mobile commerce optimization
• Editable HTML and CSS
• Credit card payments
• Multiple languages
• Adjustable shipping rates and taxes
• Customer profiles
• Drop shipping capabilities
• SEO-ready site structure
• Individual product reviews
• Facebook selling module
• Social media integration (and a spicy new integration with Instagram)
• Physical and digital products in the store
• Unlimited traffic to your store
• Daily backups
• Site stats and product reports
• Advanced reports (on Shopify and Shopify Advanced plans)
• Fully featured mobile app
• Product importing via CSV files
• Different product variations
• Print orders
• Gift cards (on Shopify and Shopify Advanced plans)
• Abandoned cart recovery (on Shopify and Shopify Advanced plans)

In comparison, some of these free features, such as CSV uploads, shipping options, and bookings will set you back up to $500-600 with WooCommerce.

How WooCommerce Helps You Sell

As open source software, WordPress is well known for allowing third-party developers to create various extensions and plugins. WooCommerce taps into that further by offering lots of interesting and exciting additions. Whether you want to easily edit aesthetics, sell on Facebook, ramp up email marketing techniques, understand user behavior or quite frankly do anything else, you'll be able to.

Here's what you'll find inside WooCommerce:

• You can sell physical products, digital products (including software and apps), plus it's also good for affiliate marketing
• Payments via PayPal and Stripe built-in (plus a range of other gateways available for an extra fee)
• Adjustable shipping rates and taxes
• Unlimited number of products and product categories
• Stock levels control
• Mobile-friendly structure
• You have complete control over your data
• Works with your current WordPress theme
• Literally hundreds of plugins (extensions) available
• A free Facebook ad and Facebook stores extension

Shopify vs WooCommerce Features Compared Side-by-side

Just to make everything above easier to grasp, here's a side-by-side comparison of the essential eCommerce features in Shopify and WooCommerce:

Shopify vs WooCommerce side by sideShopifyWooCommerceIs a subscription-based tool/service + a complete, out-the-box eCommerce solution.Is a free WordPress plugin. It requires hosting and a working WordPress installation to run.The core similarities and differencesAllows you to sell whatever you wish (physical, digital, products, services).Use it online (eCommerce store) + offline (via Shopify's “Point of Sale” kit).Use it online only (eCommerce store).24/7 email, chat, and phone support.Ticket support, forum support and lots of blogs online.Closed platform – you can only modify your store to the extent that Shopify allows.Open source – you can modify your store freely. There are no limitations.Shopify controls your store/website data.You have complete control over your data.Your eCommerce store designMore than 50 store designs available (10+ of them free).Thousands of store designs available (through WordPress themes).Mobile-friendly structure.Other similarities and differencesHosting included.No hosting included.Free subdomain included with every plan (e.g. YOURSTORE.shopify.com).No subdomain included.Free SSL certificate.You can hook up a free SSL certificate manually, but many people pay for this service.Unlimited file storage.File storage depends by your web host.Sell an unlimited number of products.Create/use coupon codes and discounts.Accept payments via PayPal, multiple payment gateways (including Stripe, credit cards), bank deposits, cash on delivery, and other methods. (Over 70 options)Accept payments via PayPal, Stripe, checks, bank transfers, cash on delivery.Sales stats and reports.Native support for multiple languages.Support for multiple languages via third-party plugins.Adjustable shipping rates and taxes.As you can see, there's nothing particularly important that's missing from either platform. Choosing one over the other can often come down to your personal preference, or your thoughts on the value (or lack thereof) of open source software vs the rest.

But, the devil is in the details. At the end of the day, Shopify seems like a more laser-focused solution. Everything that Shopify offers is geared at making your online store more functional and easy to use. With WooCommerce, the platform is extremely feature-rich and it doesn't lack any specific eCommerce features. However, it's still an add-on to WordPress, making it more complex to configure.

In the end, though, there's no clear winner here in the features department. Both platforms have everything that a standard eCommerce setup could need.

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Chapter #4: Ease of use

Since we haven't had a clear winner when it comes to eCommerce features, maybe we can have one in regards to the ease of use. The ease of use pertains to how easy it is to set up and manage a working eCommerce store with either platform.

How Easy to Use is Shopify?

The main strength of Shopify is that it's a subscription-based online tool. In other words, to use it, all you need to do is visit Shopify.com, click the signup button, go through a basic setup wizard, and you're done.

Shopify is going to help you along the way, asking about the purpose/nature of your store (what you're planning to sell), and giving you some overall tips as to which design/structure to choose and how to set everything up.

Once you get through that initial wizard, you will get access to the main dashboard. It's from there that you can create your new eCommerce store, add new products, and so on.

Overall, the whole process is very straightforward, and most importantly, you don't need any design or site-building skills in order to get through it.

Later on – once you have the store running – you can access every crucial option from the sidebar of the dashboard.

This sort of organization should make your daily work in the store very easy to grasp.

When it comes to adding new products to your store, handling sales and orders, it's rather intuitive. For example, when adding a product, all product parameters are available from a single panel, so you don't have to visit different areas of the dashboard to set things like the name, price, images, stock levels, and etc.

Here's what the “new product” screen looks like:

Overall, Shopify is a solid solution, and the best thing about it is that you can sign up and create a store right away, with no unexpected interruptions.

How Easy to Use is WooCommerce?

To some extent, WooCommerce is just as easy to use as Shopify. But there's a catch.

The catch is this: Although working with WooCommerce on a daily basis is just as simple as with Shopify, setting up the store isn't.

Basically, since WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin and not a subscription-based solution like Shopify, this means that you need to handle a couple of things before you ever get to work with WooCommerce itself.

Mainly, you need to complete the following:

1. Get a domain name
2. Sign up for a hosting account
3. Install WordPress
4. Find and install a WordPress theme

It is only after you have those four taken care of that you can install the WooCommerce plugin on your WordPress website and start getting through the configuration of your online store.

Unfortunately, those steps do require some level of comfort around web-related things. After all, it involves setting up your web server, redirecting your domain to said server, and lastly getting WordPress properly installed and made operational.

To make that somewhat easier on yourself, you can choose a specialized WordPress hosting company that will take care of the domain and WordPress installation for you, leaving only the WooCommerce part to you. Either way, it's all significantly more difficult than Shopify's one-click, “sign up” button.

There's also the design. WooCommerce doesn't come with any actual “design”. It's all handled via a WordPress theme of your choice. Luckily, WooCommerce works with basically all themes on the market, but it's still on you to find one you like and install it on the site.

Now, about WooCommerce itself:

As I said, the platform in itself is just as easy to use as Shopify. The second you get the WooCommerce plugin installed and activated, you'll see the on-screen setup wizard. It consists of five(-ish) steps and takes you by the hand through every crucial element.

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Basically, it lets you choose the main parameters of the store, and get everything neatly configured. For example, some of the important steps involve things like currency settings, shipping and tax, and payment gateways.

Once the installation is done, you can start using your store and begin adding products.

I showed you Shopify's “add product” page above, so now let's look at WooCommerce's:

As you can see, it's very much the same. Only some of the details are showcased slightly differently.

Which is Easier to Use, Shopify or WooCommerce?

Because of the initial hassle involved with setting up a WooCommerce store, I have to give this round to Shopify.

The fact that you can just click the sign up button and then have the whole store set up within minutes is very impressive in Shopify.

However, once you're working with the store on a daily basis, Shopify and WooCommerce both present a similar level of ease.

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Chapter #5: Shopify vs WooCommerce – Support

There's also the issue of technical support. Shopify is renowned for its high quality of customer care. Each client can enjoy 24/7 access to a customer adviser in case they have any issues or queries (via email, open chat, phone call).

Apart from that, you also get access to an extensive knowledge base that covers some of the common user questions and problem solutions.

The matter of support with WooCommerce isn't as straightforward. First off, WooCommerce is a free WordPress plugin. This means that you can get support through the WordPress forums. However, at the same time, the WooCommerce team also enables everyone to create a free user account over at WooCommerce.com and get support there.

There are also tons of blogs on the internet that cover WooCommerce topics. Overall, WooCommerce is great for people who don't need to speak with a rep but would rather complete their own research online.

In the end, I have to give the support round to Shopify. Nothing beats 24/7 access to a support person.

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Chapter #6: Shopify vs WooCommerce – SEO

Any website that wants to make a splash needs strong SEO. Luckily, both contenders here have a lot going for them.

How Shopify Helps with SEO

Shopify may come second when we look at the overall volume of SEO features available, but there's certainly no shame in the way that it presents content. It also handles basic SEO practices like meta information and site copy with ease. So long as your business is producing quality content, there's no reason to suggest you won't enjoy great results and strong user engagement.

Site wide, there are plenty of ways that Shopify proves to beat WooCommerce in the SEO game. It's actually renowned by developers like me as having some of the cleanest code and natural linking structure, which offers a smooth user experience and in turn enhances visibility in search engine rankings.

One interesting case that's worth pointing out is what happened to the Lost Cyclist, an eCommerce expert. When he moved his site from Shopify to WooCommerce, he noticed that the traffic dropped quite a bit:

(If you'd like to dig deeper into how different shopping cart platforms can help your business with SEO, you might want to read this post.)

What's more, Shopify is fast. Because it's a hosted platform that's built on huge infrastructure, Shopify offers each of its webmasters rapid loading pages. As a result, shops stand a better chance of ranking well and a better chance of leading customers to conversions.

How WooCommerce helps with SEO

WordPress is primarily a content creation platform, and it's renowned by SEO experts as one of the most reliable options available. It's easy to add and edit content and meta information to ensure that pages have a strong chance of ranking for specific keywords.

With plugins such as Yoast SEO, you can make your WordPress site highly optimized and be in full control of every little detail that's SEO-related.

WooCommerce takes advantage of what's already there in WordPress, or what's available through third-party plugins like the aforementioned Yoast SEO, or the WooCommerce-dedicated version of the Yoast plugin.

In the end, WooCommerce gives you more SEO-specific options overall, purely because of the fact that it's built on top of WordPress. The only problem is that your site speed largely depends on the hosting you go with. Because of this, the SEO category goes to Shopify. You don't have to worry about optimization much, and your speeds are always going to be top-notch.

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WooCommerce vs Shopify Pros and Cons

As we compare WooCommerce vs Shopify, it becomes clear that both have strengths and weaknesses. Let's explore which can be attributed to each platform.

Shopify

Pros

• You know exactly how much you'll be paying every month and the pricing is fair.
• There's access to thousands of apps to extend your store.
• The themes are plentiful and beautiful.
• Shopify handles everything for you from hosting to security.
• It takes just a few minutes to launch your store.
• Dropshipping is rather simple with Shopify.
• The support is the best in the business.

Cons

• You don't have as much control over your site with Shopify.
• Customization is better with other platforms.
• You're stuck with a monthly payment that's only going to get higher.

WooCommerce

Pros

• WooCommerce offers complete customization and control.
• WordPress has a huge community online.
• The themes and plugins are endless, since just about anyone can make and sell them online.
• WooCommerce is simple to configure on WordPress.
• The WooCommerce plugin is free.

Cons

• WordPress does have a bit of a learning curve.
• You may find that WooCommerce ends up being more expensive due to plugins, themes, and hosting.
• You're stuck managing everything from hosting to security, and maintenance to backups.

WooCommerce vs Shopify – Security

Security is a huge concern when running transactions online and through your own store. Big problems can occur if your site is compromised. You'll also have some situations with customers if their data is compromised.

How do WooCommerce and Shopify stack up in the security game?

WooCommerce doesn't technically have any security measures included with the plugin. Since it runs on WordPress, most of the security falls in your own hands. For instance, you would have to get your own SSL certificate and ensure that your hosting company has secure servers. You'd also want to configure site security plugins, two-factor authentication, and some other things to protect your site.

Shopify, on the other hand, covers all security measures for you. Therefore, you don't have to think about getting an SSL or ensuring that your site is being hacked into. You should, however, make a strong password.

Shopify is PCI compliant right out of the box, while WooCommerce can become that way if you utilize the right tools. You can also add security badges on both.

Other Alternatives to WooCommerce and Shopify

Both WooCommerce and Shopify are considered some of the top dogs in the ecommerce platform business. However, several other options are available for you to test out. In fact, we have in-depth comparisons and reviews of all the systems listed below.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce has very similar pricing to Shopify. It also offers some of the most beautiful themes in the industry. BigCommerce is similar to Shopify in that it provides hosting with the monthly packages. You also get a complete platform for launching your store within minutes. Compared to Shopify, Bigcommerce has more built-in features, while Shopify relies more on apps for extending the functionality of your store.

Wix

Wix is a hosted platform where you pay a monthly fee. It's one of the cheapest options on this list, and we like it for complete beginners with no design skills. The reason for this is because Wix has a drag-and-drag editor, whereas most others don't (you can add one in WooCommerce). The designs are pretty nice, too.

Volusion

Volusion has been changing over the years, and it appears to have become far more competitive with Shopify and Bigcommerce. Volusion is a hosted package with similar pricing to Shopify. We don't like the themes as much, but launching a store is really easy. Not to mention, Volusion has its own built-in dropshipping program.

Ecwid

The Ecwid platform is great if you already have a website without ecommerce functionality. It essentially gives you a versatile shopping cart to place on other websites. For instance, you could add Ecwid to your WordPress blog. Selling on Facebook, Instagram, and other options are also possible. The first plan is free forever, and the next upgrade is $15 per month. This is not a complete ecommerce platform, but rather a shopping cart and online store module to add to other sites.

Squarespace

Squarespace is one of the newer options you have for ecommerce. It's been around for a while with a regular website builder, but the expansion to ecommerce has been a welcome one. The pricing is a little higher than Shopify, but it's competitive. If you plan on posting large, high-resolution images on your website, Squarespace is worth looking into. The main reason we like Squarespace is because the themes are incredible and it supports the highest quality media uploads.

FAQs About Shopify and WooCommerce

We often get repeated questions from our users about Shopify and WooCommerce. Since these are so common, we want to share them all with you, along with the answers!

How easy is it to migrate from WooCommerce to Shopify?

Migrating from WooCommerce to Shopify is a bit easier than the other way around. The reason for this is because Shopify has a dedicated support team that's eager to get you on their platform. I would recommend contacting the support team to get as much help as possible. Shopify also has online guides to walk you through the process, along with some apps that transfer data.

How easy is it to migrate from Shopify to WooCommerce?

You won't be able to exactly duplicate the design of your website during a migration like this. However, everything from the database to the blog content and products can be moved over fairly easily. I recommend seeking out tutorials to figure out the best methods. In my experience, the best solution is with a WordPress plugin. A handful of them exist, but the Cart2Cart plugin caters to Shopify users. You could also hire someone if all of this terrifies you.

What is the difference between WordPress and Shopify?

There are two main differences:

1. Control – WooCommerce is an opensource tool that must be self-hosted. This means you have complete control over hosting, maintenance, plugins, security, and more. Shopify hosts your websites for you in exchange for a monthly fee. Some people like the freedom of self-hosting, while others think it's far too confusing or tedious.
2. Built-in ecommerce tools – WooCommerce is a great starting point for selling online, but it typically takes additional plugins and designs to get exactly what you want. Shopify is a product that pretty much comes out of the box ready to go. In short, it's much easier to configure Shopify.

Is Shopify better than WooCommerce?

This depends completely on a few things:

What type of experience do you have with web design and ecommerce? Do you have someone on your team with experience in these fields? If not, yes, Shopify is better than WooCommerce.

If you'd like to know exactly how much you're going to spend each month for a website–yes, Shopify is better than WooCommerce.

If you don't want to worry about managing many aspects of your website–yes, Shopify is better.

However…

If you want complete control over things like hosting, customization, security, and overall site maintenance–WooCommerce is better.

I would also argue that you could potentially make WooCommerce more cost-effective, but you have to get creative.

Finally, WooCommerce has a larger community online and far more plugins and themes to choose from.

Shopify vs WooCommerce: Conclusion

Comparisons such as this are never cut and dry. When I talk with clients, my recommendations always fluctuate depending on their specific situations.

Here are my recommendations based on the type of user that you are / what you expect from your eCommerce platform:

• You appreciate a hands-off approach, where you can just sign up and have an eCommerce store launched as a result of it.
• You don't want to have to deal with any of the setup yourself, and you don't mind paying a fee to have everything taken care of for you.
• At the same time, you want a highly optimized solution that's in no way worse than what the competition has.
• You want to have a reliable and fast-responding support team at your disposal, just in case you have any questions.
• You basically don't care about any of the technical details of your eCommerce platform. You just want it to work as expected, and be accessible to all customers and on all devices (mobile and desktop).

One of the most important things is Choosing an e-commerce platform when you’re going to start an online business.

Not all like to install a WordPress theme & start selling. Some are quite conscious of choosing technologies because there are many factors you need to consider – high-performance, scalability, security, extensibility, pricing, programming language, etc.

Related:Why I’m in Love with .Net Core – Future of .Net Core

A key feature of any E-Commerce is its modular architecture which allows additional features to be added that’s one of the reasons that WordPress became so popular while choosing Platform for an online store. But the Good News is that .Net Core also has some shopping Platforms with pluggable/modular architecture.

Mobile responsiveness is another must-have feature for any online business because 82% of smartphone users buy while surfing the Internet on their smartphone.

Since you’re here, so you’ve decided to develop your e-commerce store using Asp.net Core.

But choosing the best option is not an easy task. If you start developing your E-commerce platform from scratch it could take months, depending upon your development team. So starting from an open source project is one of the best choices.

In this article, I’ll list down some of the best E-commerce platforms developed in Asp.net Core & available at Github. So let’s get started with the Top 3 Open Source E-commerce platform in ASP.NET Core.

Open Source Ecommerce Website

1. NopCommerce

NopCommerce is a free and open-source e-commerce platform.

It’s a fully customizable shopping platform developed in Asp.Net Core.

Its architecture is modular & clean which allows developers to easily customize the front-end design and the back-end functionality.

New themes and add-ons can also be developed on top of nopCommerce.

Features

Responsive: nopCommerce has fully Responsive & Mobile ready design.

Multi-store: you can host many frontend stores on different domains and manage all operations from your single backend panel.

Multi-vendor: multiple vendors can add their products & sell.

Product comparison: user can select & compare products features.

Search Engine Optimization: customized URLs, friendly SEO names for products, sitemap, microdata, URL Canonicalization & Google analytics integration.

Reward Points System: points earning system on the money spent at store.

Discounts and coupons: It can either be a fixed value or a percent off, e.g. $20 off or 20% off. we can also define between what dates discount offer is valid.

Payment methods: more than 50 supported payment methods.

Affiliate program: supports affiliate marketing feature.

Tax Feature: Tax calculation system is so configurable.

Plateform

.Net Core SDK Version: .Net Core 2.2

Database: SQL Server 2008

2. SimplCommerce

SimplCommerce is Another simple, cross-platform, customized E-commerce system developed on .NET Core.

SimplCommerce is divided into many self contained modules.

Features

Responsive: fully responsive UI on all size devices.

Product Comparison: user can compare different products.

Coupons & Discounts: you can generate discount coupons for direct & percentage of discounts.

Payment Methods: Stripe, Paypal Express, COD

Tax System: Tax System is available for tax per country, state or zip code.

Plateform

.Net Core SDK Version: .Net Core 2.2

Database: Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite

3. GrandNode

GrandNode is a functional cross-platform e-commerce solution developed for the most demanding users. You are able to run it on any system – Linux, Windows.

It’s based on ASP.NET Core 2.2 and MongoDB – non-relational database system.

Features

Responsive: Support devices of all sizes.

Multi-store: can host many web store using a single back-end

Multi-vender: also support Multi-vender functionality like NopCommerce.

Product Comparison: user can compare different products.

Search engine optimization: Sitemap, Friendly URLs, Google Analytics integration & Localizable URLs.

Reward Points System: Reward Points System, Gift Cards, Discounts

Coupons & Discount: can generate coupans for discounts.

Payment Methods: more than 50 payment methods and gateways.

Tax System: flexible tax system.

Plateform

.Net Core SDK Version: .Net Core 2.2

Database: MongoDB

Comparison

Feature	nopCommerce	SimplCommerce	GrandNode
Docker	Yes	Yes	Yes
Multi-store	Yes	Yes	Yes
Multi-vender	Yes	Yes	Yes
Product Comparison	Yes	Yes	Yes
Payment methods	50+	Stripe, Paypal Express, COD	50+
Reward System	Yes	Yes	Yes
Coupons Discount	Yes	Yes	Yes
.Net Core Version	2.2	2.2	2.2
Database	SQL Server 2008	SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite	MongoDB

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