If you are planning to create an online store, you will find plenty of free, open source (FOSS) platforms you can use to host your e-commerce site. In a previous Linux Magazine article [1], I reviewed OpenCart, the shopping cart service that currently powers my online store. While OpenCart works well enough, I find it a bit lacking after running it for a couple of years.

Often, FOSS e-commerce solutions are distributed on a disguised freemium model. While the core of these solutions are free and open source, they have just enough features to get by. If you need additional features, you must purchase downloadable modules and extensions, which are often pricey and developed by third parties. OpenCart in particular needs a lot of modules and add-ons to turn it into a useful web store. After installing all these extra plugins, you soon realize that you have either spent a bunch of money buying the extensions, or a bunch of time developing them yourself.

In addition to the issue of extra plugins, the person in charge of OpenCart has been involved in some controversies regarding security advisories [2, 3] and version upgrades [4]. I once had OpenCart break during a minor upgrade, which did not inspire confidence.

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