OpenCart vs WooCommerce: Should you Move? What are the Differences?

OpenCart vs WooCommerce, which is a better solution for an eCommerce business? There are several platforms to choose from and it is quite normal to get confused between so many choices. But knowing which eCommerce platform is best suitable for your business comes down to many factors such as ease of use, price, customer support, and capability to meet the needs of your business. However, both OpenCart and WooCommerce are popular solutions. In this comparison guide, I will show you the main differences and similarities if any. This way you will be able to make your decision and pick the one suitable choice for your business.

eCommerce is one such business that needs everything aligned in a proper manner. In order to run a successful online store that can expand with the growth of your business, you need to choose a platform that is both flexible and powerful. However, OpenCart or WooCommerce can be that one such solution for your business.

There is no universal solution for every business. Therefore, you need to compare every shopping cart and then decide which can run your store perfectly. Well, this guide will help you with that. So, without much ado, let’s begin this comprehensive comparison and see they both weigh against each other.

OpenCart vs WooCommerce: Overview

What is OpenCart?

OpenCart is an open-source and free eCommerce platform that doesn’t require much time to configure it. It’s based on PHP and has a one-click install. You can easily handle multiple stores from a single back-end. It is the best option to build a small to a medium-size online store. It has a completely user-friendly interface. OpenCart is a highly intuitive and well-structured eCommerce solution with an extensive range of extensions.

What is WooCommerce?

Unlike OpenCart, WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin. It is not a complete and individual platform in itself. Rather it is a plugin that works with a site based on WordPress only. When you are having a WordPress website and if you want to turn it into an online store, then you will have to make use of WooCommerce. It is a highly reliable and widely used WordPress plugin due to its simplicity and flexibility. Since, it is an open-source plugin, so anybody with technical experience can edit its code and make the required changes.

When to Use OpenCart?

OpenCart is a robust solution and best suited for online shopping. If you wish to run an eStore and you have several products to add in your store, you want to use filters and categories, OpenCart is a great solution.

However, it is not a perfect solution if you wish to create a simple blog site or a landing page to attract your audience. You should use OpenCart when you want to sell products online and never want to compromise on speed as well.

When to Use WooCommerce?

You should use WooCommerce when you want to run a small online store. However, you can use the WordPress platform and create your blog site and then convert it into a full-fledged online store afterward. WooCommerce is beneficial for WordPress sites. WordPress is an ideal platform for beginners and professionals who wish to get online without much effort.

You can increase your customer base by creating a simple yet so beautiful website. WooCommerce is a simple-to-use plugin that can be installed without a hitch. You may also learn how to speed up Woocommerce store.

Check out best Woocommerce CRMs, Prestashop vs OpenCart ,WooCommerce vs Shopify, WooCommerce vs magento, migrate from PrestaShop to WooCommerce and read how to add subcriptions to Woocommerce.

OpenCart vs WooCommerce: Key Features

Ease of Use

OpenCart

OpenCart is a stand-alone platform and installing OpenCart is a simple process. You can choose either to install it manually or using one-click install features. However, the first method can be a little tiring for some people. Whereas, the other method is quick and easy to do especially for beginners. You can easily get started with your small to medium business using OpenCart. Here are some of our free OpenCart themes you can create more themes with our OpenCart theme builder or you can read these instructions and you’ll be able to create OpenCart theme from scratch.

WooCommerce

Since WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin so, the only prerequisite to install WooCommerce is you are required to have WordPress already installed. You can easily download and install WooCommerce right from the WordPress dashboard. However, you can install any plugin from the dashboard simply by searching, choosing, installing, and then activating it. Using WooCommerce is like a cakewalk. Anyone from beginners to professional developers can easily use WooCommerce.

Themes and Designs

OpenCart

OpenCart is an extensive eCommerce solution. It is capable of handling a lot of heavy designs. When you install OpenCart, it comes with basic store design. However, you can use several available free and premium OpenCart themes to design your store. The free themes that come with OpenCart are completely responsive that can be used to create an online store. However, OpenCart is a technical platform that requires technical knowledge to make changes to your store. And those who are a complete beginner may sometimes need to hire some professionals to do the desired task.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce, as we know, is a WordPress plugin, thus, you can use any WordPress theme to build your store. WordPress comes with tons of themes to choose from. There are plenty of free and premium themes available over the net via various channels that can easily be used to create your store. You will be overwhelmed with the available types of themes to design your site.

SEO

OpenCart

Needless to say SEO is an important aspect of your store’s online performance. OpenCart in this regard permits you to have better meta descriptions, meta tags, and other search engine optimized marketing strategies to bring traffic to your website. However, OpenCart has a steep learning curve, but once you get familiar with the platform, you will be able to build your own eStore with ease. It offers you some basic search engine optimization features. However, you can enhance your search results with the help of external plugins.

WooCommerce

When it comes to WooCommerce SEO, it has out-of-the-box functionality to offer. There are numerous SEO plugins available that can help you enhance the SEO capability to a great extent. Plugins such as Yoast, allows you to add meta descriptions, meta tags, alt text image, rich snippet, to make your site work well in the search results. It is a highly intuitive solution that will not only help you grow your business but will grow as you grow.

Support

OpenCart

However, OpenCart 3 is an open-source solution but like many other open-source solutions it does not have a big community forum. But it’s active enough to provide you answers soon after you submit your problem or query. OpenCart also supports third-party developers on their project, thus you can hire someone to guide you from their given lists. Moreover, they have a dedicated support feature as well. You can spend $99 one-time investment and get supreme support.

WooCommerce

Whereas, on the other hand, WooCommerce has a huge community base that makes it easier for you to find support from the forum. They have detailed documentation that covers every information you would ever need to run your business site. Since it has a large community, thus, the chances to find answers to your issue increase rapidly. You will get to know the professional developers and other like-minded people in the community. However, there are three different ways to reach the support and they are categorized depending on what you need help with. Here are some of our free WordPress themes you can create more themes with our WooCommerce theme builder or you can read these instructions and you’ll be able to create WooCommerec theme from scratch.

OpenCart vs WooCommerce: Pros and Cons

You must have got an idea by now that both OpenCart and WooCommerce are robust platforms. But as I said earlier there’s no one-fit-for-all solution that you can pick and work with. Both of them have their pros and cons that can help you make your choice. So, let’s have a look at them as well.

OpenCart

I suggest OpenCart if you are searching for a stand-alone solution and you are sure about your technical skills. However, OpenCart is a flexible platform to build a store of your choice.

OpenCart Pros

• SEO optimized solution.
• You can have unlimited products, categories, and manufacturers.
• It has multi-currency and multilingual support.
• You can have both phone support as well as tickets.
• It does not require WordPress as a prerequisite.
• Flexible solution.
• You can manage multiple stores from one single admin interface.

OpenCart Cons

• It has a steep learning curve.
• Not so beginner-friendly.

WooCommerce

I recommend WooCommerce to those who are already working on their WordPress sites. Especially those who do not have a large store. However, you can still make a large store using WooCommerce but for that purpose you will need to install several integrations to expand the functionality. There are following pros and cons of WooCommerce that you should know and that can help you make your final decision.

WooCommerce Pros

• It is an ideal choice for WordPress users.
• Seamless integration with WordPress CMS.
• You can easily check out the stats and analytics right in your WordPress dashboard.
• It is a highly SEO optimized solution.
• WordPress has a great source of integrations to help you expand your store’s functionality.
• The installation of WordPress is as simple as pie.

WooCommerce Cons

• WooCommerce is available with WordPress platform only.
• You can not use WooCommerce without WordPress.

OpenCart vs WooCommerce Comparison Table (2021)

So, Which Platform OpenCart vs WooCommerce Should You Use?

After going through this comprehensive comparison, you can be sure about your choice. OpenCart and WooCommerce 5.1.0 both have their own set of capabilities and incapabilities which are thoroughly described in this guide. However, when you choose an eCommerce solution, it is suggested to make a list of your requirements and compare the given options accordingly. The flexibility of any platform makes it a strong choice. Thus, you need to decide yourself after analyzing every aspect of your requirements with the given set of features of a platform. You can also read how to install OpenCart, OpenCart ssl certificate error, add Custom Product Tabs in WooCommerce Website and WordPress and WooCommerce SMS Plugins.

OpenCart vs WooCommerce: In Conclusion

So, this brings us to the end of this thorough comparison guide. Being the most simple solution WooCommerce is the best choice for beginners. Whereas, on the other hand, OpenCart is a little technical choice. Those who are a little tech-savvy and wish to try their hands-on technical side may go with OpenCart. But ultimately the platform selection is directly related to the kind of eCommerce store you want and other requirements you want to fulfill. You can share with me which platform did you choose and how it worked for you in the comments below.