I get to test drive a lot of programs as I write the many OSC manuals I have released over the years, but never has a  program knocked my socks off like this one! It is still lightweight but has powerful features that could run a store of nearly any size. More...

It’s a no-nonsense, right-sized, stable, efficient, well-organized and clean, powerful but not complex, FREE open source eCommerce program that works well for anyone from novices to power users with large stores. NO programming skills required. Many features for larger stores. More...

Powerful multi-store management and email handling, but NO individual, non-technical store owner should be using it unless you have a good technical pro on-call to help you when you want to do something, even if you are a rocket scientist. More...

Paris-based PrestaShop, aimed at small- to medium-sized businesses, has been around for several years. Eager acceptance by the user community has led to the new program being downloaded at a rate of over 25,000 copies per month. It's hard to find many cons against PrestaShop, perhaps just the fact that a French company developed it, so not all information is translated into English. It's a small quibble, especially since Google can translate for you. If you speak French, no worries! More...

The grand-daddy of most open source ecommerce programs, and in perpetual "beta" (not ready for live use) status, it is now sustained by the sheer weight of a decade-long industry. Uses the model of a plain, stripped-down program with thousands of plug-in customizations available for everything under the sun, but installing most of them is not a task for non-technical folks. Thousands of programmers available to work on it for you, if you can bear its private administration panel's last-century look and feel. Best for non-technical store owners who do not mind hiring a techie to do many things for you. More...

VirtueMart 2 is best for non-technical vendors who have a limited need for product attributes (your products have few different sizes or colors), or who have technical support, or who will install a simple plug-in to use them. VirtueMart, with its beautiful private Administration panel, is "right-sized" immediately out of the box, but you will want to customize it with the easy to install extensions.  Now uses Joomla templates, which just require finding the downloaded file on your computer and clicking it. Do not be afraid of learning Joomla to use this easy Joomla plug-in. More...

TomatoCart 1.1 has a lot of promise, but I do not advise starting a new store with it yet. The developers are working on a totally new TomatoCart 2.0 right now which will make any previous TomatoCart store obsolete. WAIT FOR TOMATOCART 2.0.

Another first-generation OSC cart that's getting dated in comparison to many newer carts out there. Nevertheless, an extremely loyal (some might say rabid) user community. Requires a zen-like persistence to use this program well. More...