The most important part of growing your business in these digital days is to make your business run online also. We have seen rapid growth in PHP eCommerce frameworks. It has to provide the owners of businesses a great number of opportunities.
Developing an e-Commerce website is an easy task nowadays. But, as the people are getting more experienced in online shopping their needs, are also increasing. There are so many ways of adding an online shopping option to the website you already made. Even you are developing a new one with the help of PHP eCommerce frameworks then also.
If you are going to add e-Commerce function so it will be easier for you to SaaS and CMS available. The questions you are having in your mind, it will be cleared in this article. So, its advisable to read the complete article, as half knowledge is harmful.
What are the PHP eCommerce frameworks?
PHP is a very famous open-source server-side scripting language. So it has made the process of building complicated websites much faster and easier. The popularity that PHP is having it gained that from a higher level of operating system compatibility, reliable codes, and also a wide range of plugins and themes so that we can choose from.
In the year 2019, PHP was used in making almost 80 per cent of the websites defeating all other server-side scripting languages as stated by W3Techs. These high figures will not let you choose any other language rather than this.
Why Prefer PHP eCommerce Frameworks?
There are so many big benefits of using PHP eCommerce frameworks for the development of an e-commerce website, some are stated below.
- As we all know it is open-source software so the cost of building and maintenance also both get reduced.
- This comes with some features like it will allow you to customize and other solutions, so it will help you in fulfilling the needs of the future.
- This provides a large range of themes and plug-ins to you to choose from for your website.
- It comes with strong security features, provided by out of the box security features.
- If you use this it will provide you with a mobile-optimized website that can be accessed by all the types of Operating systems. It will increase your customer base also.
- You will also get support and advice from the community of big popular developers.
First of all, there is no shortage of PHP eCommerce frameworks, it will not extinct as long as most of the developers will opt for PHP. Here is a big list of 15 amazing PHP eCommerce frameworks.
Symfony
It was developed in the year 2005, and it is also considered one of the oldest PHP eCommerce frameworks available in the market. Although, until now it has proven that it is most reliable for the developers as it is one of the most stable frameworks for you.
The biggest advantage that Symfony provides is its flexible nature. If you are using this you will be able to get together with other projects and also have the installation of those projects on different platforms. Another big advantage is its high performance. The compatibility of the symphony with different operating systems is also a high level.
The only con that can occur while using these PHP eCommerce frameworks is it can be difficult for you to understand its mechanism for the purposes of web development.
Laravel
It has so many features similar to symphony but this is claimed to be the most famous PHP eCommerce framework in the world of open-source frameworks. Although it is young in comparison to the Symfony as it was developed in the year 2011. A task like caching, security, routing, and authentication becomes much easy and very friendly to developers if you use this PHP eCommerce framework.
The advantages of using Laravel consists of the possibility of building complicated applications, features of customization like the migration of data, and MVC architecture support. But if we look into deep beyond these advantages, it does not provide you surety that it is secured by a high level and this is the biggest con of using this as the security is very important for all the e-commerce websites. As it is very young and it has developed very rapidly so, it can happen that developers find bugs while using this.
YII
It was developed in the year 2008. It can reduce the lazy loading time for you as it allows high-speed loading time.
Talking about its advantages, so it can easily get together with other PHP eCommerce frameworks also (for example Zend). Even though its performance is very great, it requires only some amount of space in memory. Cookie tampering is also provided by this PHP e-commerce framework which is a very useful security feature. Based on these advantages it is a good option for the developers who are working on e-commerce projects.
Yii is considered to have the fastest performance among all PHP eCommerce frameworks that are available. Moreover, it doesn’t give you permission for the creation of complicated applications, so this can be referred to as the biggest disadvantage of this PHP eCommerce framework.
Magento
We can say it as the most trusted PHP eCommerce framework and shopping car that is available for both the individuals as well as enterprises. This is based on the framework which is PHP based and it gives you permission to scale your online business very easily.
It consists of so many extensions as it gives permission to get together very easily with third-party applications that are relevant to the store of eCommerce. Initially, Magento was developed for the developers so that they get rid of starting from the starch. If you want to build an eCommerce store with the help of this, then you have to be a certain level of expertise in the programming of PHP. Magento is termed as the third most used eCommerce store developer and it has a market share of approximately 10 per cent.
Drupal
It is not so popular as above mentioned, but it also provides some features so it is used by more than 5 thousand websites. It is an open-source PHP eCommerce framework. If you use this, then you don’t have to worry about the tracking orders, receipts, payments, and invoices. Also, it links you with different shipping options and payment methods. It is basically inspired by the Drupal content management system and it provides you with all the features of administration that includes a form of checkout and multi-currency.
It also gives you permission to get linked with third-party integrations for social networks, fulfilment, and services of accounting.
Joomla
It is having a market share of approximately 6 per cent, and this describes its popularity among the users of eCommerce very well. This is majorly used in schools, churches, and various eCommerce stores where the owners are individuals. In the community of Joomla, you will find a huge number of developers and designers and it is hosting more than 7 lakh stores and websites of eCommerce.
Open Cart
This is a popular PHP e-commerce framework that is available for free for use in the market. It is having a big community of strong and helpful professionals. If you are a user os Open Cart then it is very easy to manage your website as it provides you more than 8 shipping options, 20 payment methods, and not only this, it has hundreds of shipping options and payment methods stored in the directory.
If you want to do the customization of your store then you have the option of more than 2500 elegant and attractive themes. The interface of Open Cart is very easy to use also.
PrestaShop
This is smarty theme engines built and PHP based eCommerce framework. The features like on-page checkout, downloadable products, one-page checkout, and cross-selling are provided by Prestashop. It is having great popularity as it has been used in 160 countries and even it has been translated into 63 different languages. These have made Prestashop a big and strong community and it has over 100k members. It also allows you to customize templates and many features like add-ons.
Os Commerce
This can be referred to as the oldest open source builder of eCommerce and it is having over 13 thousand stores that have been built with the help of Os Commerce. Since there are hundreds of add-ons so stores built on this can be easily customized. Os Commerce is having a community of 280k members and it is very suitable to be used with PHP.
Zencart
Zencart is another eCommerce platform that is open-source based on PHP. In simple words, it is basically an extension of Oc Commerce and Its branches were created in the year 2003. It is having over 16 categories and approximately 1800 add-ons. In the community of Zencart, there are 150k members that are active and those members provide support for different languages.
X-cart
It was developed and launched by Creative Technologies in the year 2000 firstly, and now it is an important name which we take while making a list of best PHP eCommerce framework. The important part of it is that it is having a distinction that it was the first PHP based software for e-commerce but now more than 30 thousand websites are using X-cart. This provides you the get together of shipping and carrier such as FedEx, UPS, Canada Post, and Australia Post. For the protection of the user from fraud, it has in-site Payment modules also.
Virtuemart
VirtueMart was first known by the name “mambo” PHP shop and is a free eCommerce platform that is written in PHP. It is most preferable by the websites that don’t have so much traffic on it. Virtuemart works as a plug-in to be added in Mambo or Joomla and it does support other extensions like Zlib, XML, and MySQL. It is a software where developers have the option to update, view, or customize operations depending on their needs.
Jigoshop
It is also an open-source PHP eCommerce framework for those eCommerce applications that are basically based on the CMS, WordPress which is popular. Similar to Virtuemart, it was also developed for the usage of small and low traffic websites. The very first edition of Jigoshop was launched in the year 2011 on 31st May.
Zeuscart
It is also a very easy eCommerce platform that is based on PHP in use. With the help of the features that are offered by Zeuscart, you can increase the sales of your business. It also, allows you to promote is very well. If you are a user of Zeuscart, even if you are a non-technical person you can easily build a store online with the help of this and it also makes your efforts so less.
Woo Commerce
It is a WordPress based plug-in and most often uses the setup for e-commerce. Although it is least demanded in the creation of structure and strength. It is having very simple steps for creating an e-store. Majority of the clients with the help of the features provided by it and in terms of UI and UX. If you are beginners so Woo Commerce is a good option for you. The two most majorly used structures are Woo Commerce and Shopify.
In the use of SaaS and CMS, there are no doubts. Each of these stages has been working so hard to satisfy the needs of the online business from the ground level. If you choose an open-source web-based CMS. Then you have to spend some amount for introducing the costs for the creation.
Additional Words
So, adding some words to it, for choosing the best for your future development projects. The framework of CMS and it is an essential step and it deserves the attention of the majority of people. If you are looking for a building a website very rapidly. It also provides all the important features such as SEO, third-party integrations, so you should directly proceed towards the CMS and SaaS solutions. If you want to run your business online and you are looking for the site where it provides you with better controls, better customization, and height security so frameworks stand best for you.
With systems like Magento and osCommerce, there very bulky and poorly coded. OpenCart is an MVC Style framework, so if you have ever used Codeigniter you would know half the system already.
The system does not take up heavy resources, unlike some frameworks. It has given an admin interface that shows you graphical statistics of your sales. It also helps you forecast sales, simple and logical payment API systems. This eventually allows you to add more payment systems with just drag and dropping of files.
Final words
So, finally, this big list came to an end. I would say you that this is not all PHP eCommerce framework, still, there is a large range of frameworks. If you want to build an eCommerce store that is a high performance. It has a linkage with more advanced technologies so this compilation was only for you.
I have told you only some of the most commonly used PHP open-source eCommerce framework. These frameworks are free for use, open-source in nature. It also helps you in getting started by providing you with many tutorials and guides which you have just entered.
As if you are building an eCommerce store then you need so many things to keep in mind. Such as how to start running the business? how to manage the scaling? how to expand the business to more and more people? So after keeping these things in mind you should choose the best PHP eCommerce framework. From the available list and use it for your benefits.
When we start anything we need practice and good guidance to get success in that work. So similar to that in this also you need guidance in using PHP eCommerce frameworks also.
Thank you for reading this article, I hope this was helpful for you to choose the best PHP eCommerce framework. You can also check out our article on Powerful PHP Frameworks for building complex web applications.
