If you want to sell your products and services online, you will need a shopping cart.

Yes you can sign-up with Shopify, but it can become quite pricey especially when you are just starting out.

We did some research and found a number of great free and cheaper alternatives that you can choose from. You will find that some of these e-commerce solutions are stand-alone and some are plug-ins or extensions for a CMS (Customer Management System).

See the list below and let us know in the comments which one works best for and why:

WooCommerce (WordPress plugin): With more than 3 million active installs, WooCommerce is easily the most used WordPress e-commerce plugin. It benefits from a wide variety of helper plugins available from WooThemes and other third-party vendors.

PrestaShop: With native features for managing products, payments, shipping, and manufacturers, PrestaShop boasts a large number of add-on modules to allow you to add new features and customize your store.

VirtueMart (Joomla extension): Offered as a Joomla extension, VirtueMart has been around for more than a decade and is the most used Joomla e-commerce solution.
 
OsCommerce: Featuring a support forum with more than a quarter of a million users, osCommerce was one of the first open-source e-commerce solutions. It also features a live chat room where you can directly communicate with other users.

OpenCart: With the ability to manage multiple shops from one platform, OpenCart features the ability to set precise user permissions for single users and user groups while supporting a multitude of payment processors natively and through extensions.

Magento Community Edition: Built specifically for developers and small businesses, Magento Community Edition is the counterpart to its more enterprise-focused sibling. It features an enormous marketplace that enables you to extend the platform to perform a wide variety of tasks.

Zen Cart: Originally a fork of osCommerce, ZenCart differs in that it comes with a variety of templates for users to choose from right out of the box.

Drupal Commerce: Obviously built around the CMS that bears its name, Drupal Commerce features a long list of third party extensions to support a variety of payment processors.

Ubercart (Drupal): Featuring Drupal integration, Ubercart offers an e-commerce platform with powerful and secure Drupal features behind it.

Shuup: A powerful e-commerce platform, Shuup offers the ability to run a full-featured shopping cart as well as the ability to host products for use on other platforms.

Spree Commerce: Built to be modular, Spree Commerce allows you to configure, supplement or replace functionality in order to create the exact storefront you desire.

XCart: Released in 2000, XCart was the first open-source PHP e-commerce platform and remains in active development today.

JigoShop (WordPress Plugin): Fast and stable, JigoShop provides a WordPress e-commerce plugin that is optimized for search engines.

WP e-commerce: The original e-commerce plugin for WordPress, WP e-commerce is a developer-friendly platform offering integration with many free and premium payment gateways.

CubeCart: Started in 2005 as a proprietary e-commerce platform, CubeCart celebrated its 10 year anniversary by releasing its source code in 2015.

RokQuickCart (Joomla Extension): Another Joomla extension. RokQuickCart offers extensive customization options and allows you to make use of Joomla’s sophisticated user access controls.

Choose your solution carefully with your target customer in mind.

​Happy shopping from the Start-Up Mentors Team !