Common Open Source Platforms for e-commerce Websites
Home / Open Source Technologies
Common Open Source Platforms for e-commerce Websites

What is Open Source Development?

The term ‘open source’ refers to something whose design is available on a public platform. Open-source software companies in Dubai is a software whose source code is available in the public domain and anyone could study, modify and improvise the code behind it. In comparison to open source software, proprietary software is ‘private’. The ownership of proprietary software can be an individual or a company. Only the owner can make any change in the underlying code. To use a proprietary software the user should agree to the terms and conditions offered by the owner. Linux is the most famous example of  Open Source Development Services code. Example for proprietary software is MS Office Suite etc.

Why is open source platforms preferred for e-commerce websites?

  • Most Open Source e-Commerce Development platforms are available free of cost
  • Creative freedom over the working and design 
  • Availability of unique features because these platforms are constantly evolving
  • Control over things like hosting, plugins and themes  
  • Open source systems are community built. Its developer friendly and support from the developer community 
  • And most importantly for e-commerce websites safety and flexibility is important

Some common open source platforms for e-commerce websites are

  1. WooCommerce : WooCommerce is a fully customizable and extendable, open-source e-Commerce solution built on WordPress. 
  2. Magento: Magento is another e-commerce platform written in PHP. Magento offers two distinct platforms: Magento Open Source and Magento Commerce.
  3. Drupal: Drupal is another framework written using PHP platform. The specialty of Drupal is the ability to create and support a wide variety of content types.
  4. Joomla: Joomla is a completely free open-source solution. It is a fully-featured content management system. The advantages of Joomla is that it is easy to learn, quick to set up, and free.
  5. Opencart: OpenCart is a PHP based online store management system. It uses a MySQL database and HTML components.

These are only a few of the open source platforms available to build your online store. It will always be beneficial to evaluate the pros and cons of each platforms whether it will be suitable to your needs or not.