Top 10 Online Shopping Cart Software For 2022 – Ultimate Guide
It might be difficult to select where to spend your money when there are so many different online retailers to choose from in the billion dollar market of online shopping. The greatest solution if you’re seeking for a means to set up and manage your online store is to include an online shopping cart. Businesses can add an online shopping cart, which is web-based software, to their online stores so that customers can use it just like a traditional shopping cart. Customers may gather the things they want to buy and change the quantity before checking out thanks to this programme. There are numerous options available, but to assist you in getting started, here is a list of the top 10 online shopping cart software solutions for small businesses.
Therefore, shopping cart software is crucial for online sales, and it is frequently used as a shorthand for an ecommerce platform (opens in new tab). However, you have a few important options: put everything up yourself, or spend money on a pre-made solution. Both will be covered in this guide.
You’ll need ecommerce web hosting to support your shopping website if you want to set up your own shopping cart software, and you need also include a credit card processing option to accept payments online. If you’ve worked with websites and servers online before, this won’t be as difficult for you as it might seem.
However, a lot of individuals will almost probably favour a pre-packaged solution that comes with everything. Of course, the fact that everything is ready for use is a benefit. Of course, the trade-off is that doing this will almost probably end up costing you more over time than if you operated your own website.
The best shopping cart software must be quick and appropriate for the shopping experience you offer.
Take into account the fact that about 70% of consumers who add things to an online basket will later leave that cart without completing the purchase. Some of these individuals, however, were only window shoppers and had no genuine intention of making a purchase. However, that can’t really apply to all 70%, can it? Not at all, no. People frequently remove items from their online shopping carts before completing the transaction for a variety of reasons. The greatest e-commerce shopping cart can solve many of these problems with ease.
Before we move on to our list, allow me to give you a small example. Twenty percent of online shoppers who abandoned their carts before completing their purchases did so because the cart or website crashed or had issues. These people were prepared to pay for the stuff they desired. In fact, they most likely had their wallets out and were getting ready to type their credit card numbers—or perhaps they had already done so. It was a done deal! But later, the cart broke down, and the deal was lost.
You will learn about the top 10 shopping cart software options available in this article. According to fundamental attributes including usability, payment support, adaptability, and back-end management features, we have ranked them.
Top 10 Shopping Cart List – Full Review
With the help of the eCommerce platform Shopify, you can build a distinctive online store and start selling goods and services. You can easily manage your inventory, orders, and customers with the use of this software. The programme has a simple-to-use checkout and a reporting function that allows you to see how well your online store is performing.
Shopify, like many of the alternatives on this list, is a hosted, all-in-one solution that enables you to create an online store and start selling your goods without having any prior experience with HTML, CSS, or Javascript. You won’t need to be knowledgeable about how to set up a payment gateway or create a database. Instead, Shopify gives you the option to pick a template to base your website on. One of Shopify’s main flaws is this. Only 10 free templates are available for selection. 53 additional themes are also available to you, but they will cost you between $140 and $180 each. Once you’ve set up the basic structure of your website using a theme, you can start developing your store by adding products, making changes to the tax and shipping information, and utilising the built-in SEO tools.
All of this is possible thanks to simple menus and a clear user interface. Additional options offered by Shopify include the ability to sell via your Facebook profile, a variety of payment channels, and more. One feature that really distinguishes Shopify from its rivals is the ability to conduct in-person sales using a tablet or phone, a Bluetooth card reader, and the item being sold. This may be enough of a reason to choose Shopify over other products if you sell both online and offline. One of Shopify’s shortcomings is the requirement for third-party apps to install a lot of functionalities that you might expect to be included as standard.
This is an inconvenient situation that ought to occur in 2018. With Shopify, you can purchase one of three main plans. They are priced between $29 and $299, with the features and fees increasing in line with the cost. This enables you to start off more affordably when your organisation is just getting started before gradually shifting to higher tiers as it grows.
A shopping cart solution called Shopify was first created in Canada. Two young men trying to sell their snowboards online originally came up with the idea for the business. Shopify was created as a result of discontent with the options available at the time. The platform has received a lot of accolades for being completely code-free and requiring zero website coding expertise to set up and use. All major credit cards are accepted by Shopify, which also offers a quick checkout process using either Apple Pay or its own Shopify Pay.
If you don’t already have one, Shopify works smoothly with over 100 of the biggest names, like Sage Payments and PayPal. Depending on the plan chosen, Shopify Payments costs between 2.9 percent and 2.4 percent plus a transaction fee. Currently, the US, Puerto Rico, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Ireland all offer access to the software. The amount of products that basic members can submit is unlimited, however Shopify only permits two staff accounts for shop management.
One of the better options accessible when it comes to internet shopping cart solutions is Magento. For small businesses who want to alter the look of their website, this online shopping cart software is ideal. The open-source code that Magento offers consumers makes it simple to connect with your existing website. With this special function, you can modify your website however you see fit without having any prior coding knowledge.
With this open source software, you may get all the essential tools you need for your shopping cart for nothing. However, there are more potent extra tools that are only available in the paid versions. This is not a good option if you are just starting out in the field of website development because it is meant to be used by seasoned developers and has a fairly steep learning curve. But it can be a potent tool if you’re confident in your coding abilities.
Magento is a free and open source(opens in new tab) software programme for controlling every element of online shopping carts. Nearly a quarter million merchants presently use it, including well-known organisations like Nike, Cisco Systems, and Ford. The Magento platform was created in 2007 and is currently owned by Adobe. Due to its open source nature, Magento supports a vast array of functionality and can be tailored to the requirements of each unique store. Right out of the box, the software allows accepting manual payment methods including checks and money orders.
Additionally, it is already set up to interact with a number of significant payment processors, including PayPal, SagePay, and Authorize.net. Magento may be hosted on your company’s own server, unlike the other solutions we’ve looked at so far, so you’re no longer reliant on a third party for shopping cart solutions. This does imply, however, that it is your duty to maintain the security of your server, for example, by obtaining and installing SSL Certificates. Even if you are proficient in HTML and CSS, Magento is difficult to set up, install, and customise because the template system is quite hostile and necessitates extensive programming skills to typically alter the shopping cart platform. As a result, even if Magento first appears to be a low-cost alternative, plan to pay one or more web experts to administer your Magento platform.
With its user-friendly and adaptable web shop, OpenCart provides eCommerce solutions. With a few button clicks, you can design, launch, and administer your website. Additionally, this software provides personalised templates with a huge selection of no-cost Google online fonts. Meta tags, headings, titles, and both short and lengthy descriptions are generated automatically.
The cleverly named OpenCart is renowned for making transactions and orders simple to access. There is a sizable online community, so you can receive assistance quickly if you run into issues. Beginners will find it very simple to use and won’t need to mess with the coding until they’re ready. Additionally, websites like the British Red Cross favour it as their preferred option.
OpenCart is an open-source eCommerce application that may be used to build an online store by both inexperienced and seasoned online business owners. It’s currently arguably the most well-liked open-source shopping cart, supported by a sizable user and developer community that is constantly willing to lend a hand. In its marketplace, there are hundreds of plugins, both free and paid, including tools for reporting, import/export, payment gateway integration, themes, SEO tools, and other things. The only drawback of OpenCart is that it requires plugins to function properly, thus setup may take some time.
Nevertheless, OpenCart’s creators frequently provide software updates, and if you have the technical know-how to perform your own customisation, you might just find that it’s a highly effective tool. Currently, it offers an excellent administrator dashboard that will provide you with a rapid summary of what is happening in your store. You want to be able to display widgets for sales, clients, active visitors, and other things on your dashboard.
Zen Cart provides the option to create an online store with the ability to sell goods and services, just like the other shopping cart solutions previously discussed. But because it’s not a hosted solution like the other shopping carts described above, you can pick the hosting provider for this programme. As there is no involvement of a third party in the creation or maintenance of your website, this allows users total control over their websites. You may set up taxes for each sort of shipping option given and manage various warehouses with this shopping cart solution.
In reality, the osCommerce code is where Zen Cart originated. Zen Cart split off in 2003 to concentrate more on offering helpful templates. With a vast user base and a lot of customization options, Zen Cart can assist you solve any issues. The community must be consulted if you run into problems because there is no true customer assistance. Although it’s not a terrific solution for absolute beginners, larger companies with a tech team on staff may find this to be a wise decision.
Another open-source shopping cart that you can download and modify on your current website to make it into an online store is Zen Cart. Similar to other shopping cart plug-ins, Zen Cart enables customers to completely personalise the checkout process, integrate with a number of payment processors, as well as integrate with additional third-party programmes for a more useful online business. At the time this article was written, Zen Cart has thousands of free plugins and themes at its disposal.
When building an online store, 3dCart is a fantastic option. Over 50 features in this software will aid you in making judgments about purchases and will help you optimise your website for higher conversion rates. With the help of this product, you may create a platform with templates that are specifically tailored to your interests.
A comprehensive platform for DIY e-commerce development, 3dcart comes with a powerful and adaptable online shopping cart. With 3dcart, you can easily build a website, personalise it, and sell your goods or services, similar to a number of other services on this list. However, this lack of effort does not imply a lack of talent or qualities. In contrast, 3dcart offers the majority of the capabilities you’d want or anticipate from an e-commerce platform. With 3dcart, you have access to a wide variety of templates right now.
Once you’ve selected a template that works for your company, you can customise it using an intuitive editor that gives you full control over almost every aspect of your store. Additionally, 3dcart provides you with access to a large number of payment channels and has an excellent support system in case you have any queries or issues. On the other side, using 3dcart isn’t the easiest experience. If you aren’t particularly tech-savvy, this might not be the greatest choice for you because of its slightly steeper learning curve than some of the other services on this list. In addition to this, 3dcart charges additional fees for specific add-on features, independent of the plan you select. Thankfully, the majority of the bundles don’t come at exorbitant costs.
The least expensive monthly plan costs $19.99, while the most expensive is $129.99. There are three additional packages available for subscription that lie halfway between those two extremes. At this point, it’s important to note that one of the major restrictions of the $19.99 plan is that it only allows for a paltry 130 daily visitors for your website. You won’t be able to remain at that package level for very long if your goal is to grow.
WooCommerce is a fast online store builder. Free plugins and templates can customise your website. Your eCommerce solution can include 100,000 extensions. WooCommerce is well-known among WordPress users who sell online. This toolkit may be linked to any WordPress blog to build an online store. Your online store is configured by default. Adding products, delivery costs, quality, etc. will take roughly 30 minutes. WooCommerce only operates on WordPress and relies on paid plugins for extra features. Changing a product’s features for variants might lead to higher costs. Outside developers offer various free plugins and themes. Some things work, others don’t. WooCommerce is a top open-source shopping cart.
You may add a fully complete e-commerce site to WordPress with the free Woocommerce plugin. Installation of the plugin through WordPress is all that is necessary for setup, however you will need to install further extensions to enable full functionality. Some are sold on third-party sites, but the majority are on Woocommerce. Payment processors like Paypal, Sagepay, and Stripe can bring functionality to your organisation. This can include inventory control. Xero and Mailchimp connectors are available. Most additions are affordable, costing in the tens rather than the hundreds of dollars. Others require annual renewal payments to continue support and improvements.
WooCommerce is a plugin for the popular CMS WordPress, not a comprehensive website builder and online shopping cart. WordPress has become one of the most popular systems for developing websites, blogs, and online stores due to its adaptability, quantity of themes, and extensive plugin repository (both free and paid). WordPress’s freeness helps. WordPress loses its free advantage by being more sophisticated than many of our premium programmes. Instead of drag-and-drop, WordPress requires HTML and CSS knowledge. It’s not as easy to customise as other services.
If you’re skilled, you can make it do anything (or can afford to employ someone who does). WooCommerce’s performance. WooCommerce is open-source like WordPress. This WordPress plugin may turn an ordinary website into an online store. Because it’s open-source, various plugins have been built. It’s basically limitless. If WooCommerce’s built-in capabilities don’t help, a plugin will. WooCommerce (and WordPress) has a severe learning curve. If you lack technical knowledge, you’ll need help putting up your site and store. It’s also fractured. Instead of employing a single service for everything, WordPress requires dozens of plugins. If you’re not used to this, it may be time-consuming and difficult.
WooCommerce is a great alternative if you want a free solution or already have a WordPress site and don’t mind some more work. If you lack IT competence, avoid it or find a mentor.
WooCommerce’s cost depends on your needs and features. Price tiers vary based on customization. There are $9-$249/month solutions that can meet your needs.
One of the most adaptable shopping cart software programmes available today is PrestaShop. Without any HTML or CSS coding experience, you may personalise any of the more than 240,000 free themes on our site to suit your own preferences. Additionally, their platform gives you access to a wide range of payment channels and shipping choices.
A wonderful choice for a global marketplace is PrestaShop. It is utilised in more than 65 countries and has more than 250,000 merchants. Additionally, it is offered in more than 75 other languages, with the support of the online community, whose translations are of higher quality. Additionally, it offers a multi-store option that lets you control multiple stores from a single location. If you needed any more persuasion, McDonald’s also makes advantage of it.
PrestaShop will be mentioned by 90% of people who have been selling online for some time about the best open-source cart. PrestaShop is currently among the top open-source ecommerce solutions, and rightfully so. Nearly 300,000 internet retailers are currently using it as of this writing. It is a one-stop shop CMS for eCommerce enterprises, including analytics, a user-friendly admin dashboard, a gorgeous user interface, and a tonne of other features that are useful even to free users. The only drawback is that you might need to employ a web developer if you want to modify your business and you’re not one now. Aside from that, I believe PrestaShop is in good shape.
Shopaccino provides customers with some of the most flexible shopping cart software now on the market. VISA, Mastercard, PayPal, Cash on Delivery (COD), and bank transfers are among the many payment options that can be chosen from. The variety of payment methods accessible is quite extensive. The outstanding interface also has the capability to automatically calculate tax on transactions. Shopaccino includes a module that is integrated for the management of shipping, which enables you to select the areas in which your store can deliver packages and control the charges associated with postage.
The module can also put into effect free shipping for customers who purchase items from your online store. Customers also have the option of compiling a “Wishlist” of things they might be interested in purchasing in the future. The user interface of the store is uncomplicated and straightforward, making it possible for merchants to add pictures and data about their products with no hassles. There are even versions of the software for Android and iOS, allowing you to manage things even while you’re not at your computer.
Shopaccino also provides online support for its customers. After the trial period of 14 days, you will be required to subscribe to one of their paying plans in order to continue using the software. The quantity of resources you need, the number of people you want to support, and the variety of services you want all play a role in determining these costs.
The easy-to-use shopping cart system Ecwid( claims to be “as simple as adding a YouTube video.” It may be added to a number of platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Weebly, WordPress, and Weebly websites. With over 1.5 million merchants in 175 nations, it is rather well-liked. Ecwid connects with more than 40 payment gateways and supports more than 50 different languages. The company states that it is “A PCI DSS approved Level 1 Service Provider, which is the gold standard for e-commerce solutions worldwide” and that this solution delivers a high level of protection.
It is also intended to be suited for mobile devices, including smartphones, and is powered by Amazon Web Services. Notably, Ecwid has a free tier that supports up to 10 products, which is perfect for getting started and exploring the possibilities of e-commerce. Additionally, it offers a number of paid levels that can grant access to the Facebook Shop, give sophisticated SEO tools, enable the selling of digital goods, and provide a mobile point-of-sale.
Another open-source shopping cart with a thriving community is AbanteCart. To advance the software’s development, users and developers are actively exchanging ideas. Although it’s not everyone’s top choice, AbanteCart has been around since 2011 and has undergone its fair share of revisions; it is still regularly updated in response to user requests.
Abante means “to advance forward” in Tagalog, a language widely spoken in the Philippines, therefore the developers are explicitly informing their consumers that AbanteCart was created to lead. It is completely open-source, with accessible code that developers may use to tailor online stores, and for good reason. AbanteCart’s own digital personal assistant, similar to Siri, has a voice-controlled dashboard, which is shocking for some reason. which is unexpected!
CubeCart is one of the most robust shopping carts currently available, and it can be utilised by companies of varying sizes. It is free since it is open-source, but unlike other open-source shopping carts, CubeCart provides help to all of its users. This sets it apart from other open-source shopping carts. The ability to integrate third-party apps is CubeCart’s strongest suit. MailChimp, eBay, Amazon, Xero, QuickBooks, and a whole host of other programmes that are essential for running an online business are all supported natively by this platform. In addition, as it is completely free and open-source, you are allowed to modify it in any way you see fit. Additionally, if you are unsure of what you are doing, you can always seek assistance from the thousands of active users (both casual users and developers) that are currently on the platform.
LiteCart is a user-friendly shopping cart that is available as open source software and is utilised by thousands of different companies. It has a user interface that is very nicely developed, and it allows for an endless number of items, categories, customers, and other types of users. Users are granted the ability to manage stocks, add and adjust product options, and a great deal more. The installation and operation of LiteCart are both quite simple, which is one of the reasons why many people choose to use it.
LiteCart is a shopping cart that, in contrast to other shopping carts, does not require you to have any prior experience with servers or coding in order for it to be deployed on your server automatically. If you have cPanel, all you need to do is search for “Softaculous,” and you will see it showcased there. LiteCart also makes the claim that their shopping cart software is 99 percent faster than all other websites, in particular online retailers. It has been continuously optimised to lower the load time of the page, the load time of the server, the usage of bandwidth, and the consumption of power; in case you were unaware, all of these factors are also vital for search engine optimization.
nopCommerce is an open-source eCommerce shopping cart that provides a large number of features that are available for use by online businesses. With all of its in-depth features, it is designed to meet the needs of both newly founded and well-established companies. In addition, it supports a variety of languages, including Arabic, Bengali, Danish, German, English, Japanese, Russian, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, and Chinese, amongst others, which sets it apart from similar products on the market. One of the advantages of utilising nopCommerce is that one of its features permits multi-vendor and multi-warehouse administration. This is not something that is readily available to other eCommerce platforms, even for paid ones.
14. Weebly
Weebly is one of the most well-known services for do-it-yourself web design, along with Wix. When you sign up, you gain access to a variety of templates that you may edit to give your site the look you want. Less well known may be Weebly’s e-commerce features, such as their online store. Since Weebly’s design environment and shopping cart are completely linked, you won’t need any additional knowledge to start selling your goods online. It only takes a few minutes to add your products to the database once your site has been constructed. Your customers may easily and swiftly make purchases because to the frontend’s streamlined design. You have a tonne of options for virtually every part of your online store on the backend.
You can track your transactions, run your store while you’re on the move, and alter how each of your products looks. The shopping cart on Weebly offers your consumers a wide range of payment alternatives, automated e-mails, and coupon and discount options. Depending on the capabilities you require, a Weebly bundle can be purchased for as little as $8 per month. It costs $38 per month if you need everything Weebly has to offer. Even Weebly’s most expensive service is affordable when compared to many of the higher-end options. Its lack of feature-richness in comparison to some of the other stores on the list, such as Goshly or BigCommerce, is its biggest downside.
One of the more economical shopping cart options on the market right now is X-Cart. Using this software, you may build an online store with integrated content management capabilities, recurring billing, and support for numerous shopping carts for both small and large organisations. With this solution, you can create many payment channels for users to choose from in addition to managing your complete inventory.
Provides access to a wide variety of features that, when combined, make it possible for you to establish an online storefront or shop. These features range from basic storefronts based on templates that are suitable for beginners to the incorporation of advanced web design concepts developed by your web designer.
17. Ubercart
Another excellent option for your Drupal site is Ubercart. Actually, the same team that created Ubercart also created Drupal Commerce. And while they have some similarities, they differ drastically in other respects. Of the two, Ubercart is currently the most well-liked but has been around for a lot longer. When compared to Drupal Commerce, there are some things that Ubercart can perform that Drupal Commerce cannot. Also the opposite. If you have a Drupal website, compare the two to determine which is a better fit.
18. osCommerce
This e-commerce programme has been around longer than most others. This has the advantage of having a tonne of third-party add-ons, which is one advantage. It is starting to seem a touch dated, with the front end looking especially old-fashioned. But the fact that osCommerce is still in use after all these years is due to how simple it is to customise to your particular setup requirements. Although it doesn’t scale well, it’s still a fantastic option for someone who is new to the game.
BigCommerce allows you to construct an online store with the ability to sell goods and services, just like Shopify does. BigCommerce offers you the ability to design your own storefront while simultaneously taking care of hosting and maintenance for you thanks to their user-friendly interface. Since 1998, Bigcommerce has provided assistance to businesses of all sizes.
api2cart gives you access to a lot of different features that, when put together, let you set up an online storefront or shop. These features range from simple storefronts based on templates that are good for beginners to the use of advanced web design ideas that your web designer came up with.
F.A.Q
What is Shopping Cart Software?
An online shopping cart is a web-based tool that allows users to gather their online buying items in one location. Customers can check the contents of their carts as they fill them up and change the quantities before completing their purchases. To get started, many small eCommerce enterprises require more than just an online store. They need a productive system for handling customer orders, inventory, and customer information. You can accomplish all of that with online shopping cart software.
How do Online Shopping Carts Work?
A few things from your company are required for an online shopping cart to function. You will want a computer with internet connectivity and a web hosting service that can offer server space for your website, at the very least. The shopping cart software must also have the ability to accept payments and have an SSL certificate before its features may be used. Once your website is operational, you can begin adding items to your store and customising it to suit your tastes.
How Much does Shopping Cart Software Cost?
Software for small businesses shopping carts typically ranges in price from $30 to $500, depending on the features and functionality offered by each solution. Although there are free choices, they don’t have the robust capabilities you need to manage an online store successfully.
Shopping Cart vs eCommerce Platform
Customers can choose and gather the goods they want to buy using shopping cart software. This programme is compatible with existing websites. An eCommerce platform, on the other hand, is a more complicated option that handles everything, including online payment processing. These systems frequently have the ability to manage the entire transaction process without the aid of outside providers or email marketing tools. Check out our list of the top eCommerce systems if this sounds more like the answer you require.
How to Choose the Best eCommerce Shopping Cart for Your Business
Many small company owners use a cost-effective shopping cart service as a component of their online marketing plan to reach a larger audience. You may start without too much trouble if you utilise an intuitive platform that interfaces with companies that offer payment services, including PayPal and eBay.
Final Thoughts
Due to the fact that every business owner has different needs, there is no “ideal” option. Shopping cart software, however, provides access to much more than just an online store for enterprises. These solutions provide everything you’ll need to create and maintain an eCommerce website while maximising its revenue-generating potential. This may be the ideal choice for you if you want a solution to manage all area of your business in one location.