# OpenCart review (2026): is it any good? > Free open-source shopping cart you host yourself Checked Nov 12, 2026 ยท graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA. OpenCart is a free, open-source shopping cart that you download and run on your own web hosting. It has no monthly fee, handles unlimited products and categories, and can run several stores from one admin. Themes, payment gateways and other add-ons come from its marketplace, which lists over 13,000 modules and themes. - **Category:** Online Store Builders - **Made by:** OpenCart - **Website:** https://www.opencart.com/ - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Not for you if you want a hosted store, as you run it yourself. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 12, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 12, 2026, OpenCart is free to use. - **Pricing model:** Free - **Free plan:** None. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | OpenCart | $0 | Free download with no monthly fees. You supply and pay for your own hosting; paid themes and extensions are optional. | Read from https://www.opencart.com/ on Nov 12, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with OpenCart before buying. ## Key features - **Multi-store admin:** Several stores can be managed from one admin screen, each with its own theme, localized settings and per-store product prices. - **Unlimited catalog:** No cap on products or categories, with product options and attributes, filters, reviews and ratings, reward points and downloadable products. - **Payments and currencies:** 36 payment methods ship with it, including PayPal, Klarna and Authorize.Net, plus recurring payments and multi-currency pricing with automatic rate updates. - **Languages:** Available in more than 40 languages, including right-to-left ones such as Arabic and Hebrew. - **Marketplace and extensions:** A marketplace of over 13,000 modules and themes covers shipping, payments, marketing, accounting and reporting. - **Built-in marketing tools:** Coupons, discounts and specials, an affiliate system with set commission percentages, and a newsletter signup are part of the core software. ## Good for - Merchants who already have web hosting and want no software fee - Developers building custom stores on an open-source PHP base - Sellers who need several storefronts from a single admin ## Worth knowing - You install, update, secure and back up the store yourself or pay a host or partner to do it. - Dedicated support is sold per job: a version update starts at $300, a bug fix at $100 and a one-time backup is $50. - OpenCart Cloud, the hosted option, is signed up for through ScalaHosting, whose pricing is not recorded here. - Extensions and themes come from third parties in the marketplace, and many cost extra. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.4 out of 4**, graded Nov 12, 2026. OpenCart is a free PHP shopping cart with multi-store admin, an unlimited catalog and 36 payment methods built in. You supply and run the hosting, support is sold per job, and many extensions and themes in its marketplace cost extra. - **Value for money: C.** Free to download with no monthly fee, but only if you host it yourself, which needs a server. Many marketplace extensions and themes are paid. - **Free plan and trial: B.** A free download with no caps on products or categories. You pay for your own hosting. - **Features: B.** Multi-store admin, an unlimited catalog, 36 payment methods, multi-currency, 40+ languages, coupons and an affiliate system. The listing shows no gap in the core store job. - **Ease of use: D.** No store rating on record. You install, update, secure and back up the store yourself, or pay someone to. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web, with a marketplace of over 13,000 modules and themes for shipping, payments, marketing and accounting. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from OpenCart's own pages on 12 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among online store builders - OpenCart's GPA of 2.4 is higher than 15 of the 26 other online store builders we grade, and level with 5. - It stands best on features (B, above 18 of 26) and worst on ease of use (D, above 0). - OpenCart has no paid plan. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4, and no tool on the category's chart scores higher without costing more. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/online-stores ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** OpenCart is free, so making your own would save you nothing. And it is not the kind of software a weekend replaces. - You could make: Digital downloads: an app builder makes this well. - You could not: Checkout, card payments and sales tax handled for you. - You could not: It plugs into other products, PayPal, Klarna and Authorize.Net among them. - You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with PayPal, Klarna, Authorize.Net, Skrill, SagePay, First Data, Amazon Payments, LiqPay **Tags:** Online store, Open source, Self-hostable, Digital downloads ## Alternatives - [WooCommerce](https://toolgpa.com/tools/woocommerce): Free, open-source store plugin for WordPress that you host yourself. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/opencart-vs-woocommerce) - [PrestaShop](https://toolgpa.com/tools/prestashop): Open-source ecommerce software, free to self-host or sold hosted. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/opencart-vs-prestashop) - [Shopware](https://toolgpa.com/tools/shopware): Open-source commerce platform for B2B and B2C stores. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/opencart-vs-shopware) - [nopCommerce](https://toolgpa.com/tools/nopcommerce): Free open-source ASP.NET Core shopping cart. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/nopcommerce-vs-opencart) - [Ecwid](https://toolgpa.com/tools/ecwid): Online store you can add to any website or run as its own site. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/ecwid-vs-opencart) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 12, 2026: - https://www.opencart.com/ - https://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=cms/feature - https://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=cms/company - https://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=support/support - https://dedicated.opencart.com/ - https://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=cms/download Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/opencart Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).