Pros & Cons of 3 Free eCommerce CMS Platforms & Theme

You are ready to build your online store, but with so many choices out there, it can be hard to pick the best one for your eCommerce store. In this blog, we will look at the pros and cons of the 3 top free eCommerce CMS platforms. Whether you’re just starting or want to grow your store, knowing the good and bad sides of each platform will help you make the right choice.

When it comes to eCommerce, the right theme is just as important as the platform itself. We will also recommend the best theme for each of the 3 CMS platforms. Moreover, we will share the best platform where you can purchase a subscription plan to access all CMS themes for the price of one. Let’s dive in and discover the best options for your online business!

1- WooCommerce Pros

WooCommerce is the most popular platform for setting up a WordPress site to sell digital or physical products. It is a free alternative to many premium e-commerce plugins. WooCommerce is completely free and open source. It offers many features, including advanced search, shopping cart, one-page checkout, product reviews, and flexible payment gateway support. You can choose from over 100,000 free plugins to extend its capabilities.

It’s the best e-commerce platform that allows you to launch your own storefront. You can easily install it, and it updates automatically. It integrates with WordPress, allowing you to manage it using familiar tools.

It has improved considerably throughout the years and has now become one of the most widely used solutions for WordPress-powered shopping sites. Not only does it offer more shopping features than other platforms, but it also lets you sell products in any currency, accepts all major cards, and offers local payment methods.

WooCommerce Cons

While WooCommerce is a powerful platform, it has some drawbacks. Since it relies on plugins for advanced features, adding too many can slow down your website. Additionally, while WooCommerce itself is free, many premium themes, plugins, and payment gateway integrations come with extra costs, which can add up over time. Security is another concern, as you need to manage your own hosting, updates, and backups to keep your store safe.

Best WooCommerce Theme for eCommerce

The Woostroid2 theme is an excellent choice for WooCommerce, with 2,583 sales to date. It comes with over 75 different designs, making it perfect for all types of online stores, like electronics or fashion. Additionally, Woostroid2 gives you lifetime updates with no need to pay renewal fees—just a one-time payment.

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2- Prestashop Pros

Prestashop is open-source, meaning you can fully control and customize your store. Another significant benefit of Prestashop is its user-friendly interface. The dashboard is simple to navigate, making it easy to manage products, orders, and customer data, even if you don’t have technical skills. Additionally, Prestashop supports a wide range of payment gateways and shipping options. With numerous themes and modules available, you can enhance your store’s appearance and functionality without starting from scratch.

The Prestashop team constantly updates the platform with new features and enhancements. It has a large community of developers who contribute to its growth and improvement. It is also SEO-friendly and helps businesses improve their search engine rankings. Additionally, Prestashop creates an online store that meets the needs of any business.

Prestashop Cons

Just like other tools, there are a few common pitfalls that new users may encounter. For those unfamiliar with web development, using Prestashop can be challenging. It is not as widely adopted. Other options, like WooCommerce, are more popular. Because of this, there are fewer modules for e-commerce available. You might also face challenges finding compatible themes.

However, these cons are relatively minor when compared to the pros of using Prestashop, and overall it is a very powerful and effective eCommerce platform.

Best Prestashop Theme for eCommerce

The Electshop Prestashop theme is an ideal choice for electronics and digital stores. It has a clean, modern design that fits on all devices. The theme is easy to customize with different layouts and colors. It also includes features like product zoom, deal of the day, newsletter, and support for multiple currencies.

In addition to its design features, Electshop includes essential eCommerce functionalities like a wishlist feature, product comparison, and the quick-view option. Plus, the Electshop theme is SEO-friendly, helping your store rank better in search engines.

3- Opencart Advantages

As the third platform on our list, OpenCart offers easy-to-use features and flexibility, making it a powerful choice for eCommerce. It’s free and open-source, providing a large marketplace of extensions. With numerous free and paid options available, from over 36 payment gateways to shipping integrations, you can customize your store’s cart page design and functionality.

OpenCart offers both guest and registered user checkout options, letting you choose what works best to boost customer conversions. Another key advantage of OpenCart is its ability to manage multiple stores from a single dashboard. OpenCart is also a support for international businesses, as it offers multiple languages, currencies, and tax rates to manage a global eCommerce operation.

Moreover, OpenCart features a built-in affiliate system, enabling affiliates to promote products and earn commissions. You can set custom commission rates and offer payment options like check, PayPal, and bank transfer to manage affiliate partnerships.

OpenCart makes selling digital products effortless—just upload, set the price, and start selling. It also features a strong reviews and ratings system to influence customer decisions, along with a reward program to boost repeat purchases and increase customer loyalty.

If you’re looking for an open-source solution to your eCommerce needs, then OpenCart is an online shopping cart solution that lets you easily create, manage, and sell products without needing any programming knowledge.

Opencart Disadvantages

The OpenCart platform offers a lot of functionality, but it does have a few downsides. First, you need a reliable hosting service. It is not an ideal solution for small businesses with limited resources. Another limitation is that adding extra features to the code can be challenging. OpenCart integrates everything in a way that is highly interdependent, so making changes can break existing extensions. Moreover, OpenCart is not as widely used as other eCommerce platforms. As a result, there may be fewer developers experienced with OpenCart programming.

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By 2024, OpenCart had surpassed Magento in installations, with over 480,000 websites using the platform. However, OpenCart is still behind WooCommerce in terms of total installations.

Best Opencart Theme for eCommerce

The Quickstore multipurpose theme is an excellent option for starting an online store with OpenCart. It suits various businesses. Quickstore features a modern and clean design that effectively showcases products. It allows you to create SEO-friendly product pages and blog posts by adding meta titles, descriptions, and categories.

Quickstore enhances the shopping experience with helpful features such as a mega-menu, one-page checkout, a wishlist, and product comparison tools. The advanced Ajax search functionality allows customers to easily find what they need in no time.

It includes lifetime updates with no annual fees. Furthermore, Quickstore offers six months of support from the author, giving users peace of mind.

Best Platform for Accessing All CMS Themes at One Price

We highly recommend MonsterOne as the best platform for accessing all CMS themes at the cost of just one. With a MonsterOne subscription, you get unlimited access to premium themes for popular eCommerce platforms like WordPress, WooCommerce, PrestaShop, and OpenCart. This makes it easier to find the perfect theme for your online store without having to purchase multiple themes separately.

To sweeten the deal, use the discount code “newoffersee” at checkout and enjoy an extra 10% off on all subscription plans.

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