It is said that “if your business is not online, your business is not alive.“ The countless sales and marketing opportunities that the online market provides businesses of any kind give credence to the statement. Many people now prefer to purchase online than the physical stores. This makes many business owners strive to benefit from the ecommerce world. To create your online store, you need an ecommerce platform.

The platform can either be Software as a Service, SaaS ecommerce platform, or self-hosted platform. The SaaS allows for easy and fast set up of ecommerce platform by yourself. This kind of ecommerce platform is easy for beginners with no coding knowledge. While self-hosted platform, on the other hand, gives you control to set up your website by creating a server and network. It allows users to alter some features of the ecommerce platform to create a more customized ecommerce store.

A soft-hosted ecommerce platform provides you the opportunity to add any function and feature to your online store to meet your distinct business needs. However, you need some coding skills or WordPress knowledge to do this effectively. That’s where the services of website developers are needed. PHP developers like working with self-hosting ecommerce platforms because it gives them creative control to create a great online store with excellent functionality. The PHP developers write standard, scalable codes that control web applications. PHP developers work with server-side and back-end components of web applications. Making sure that the site works across browsers. Developers make sure both the PHP modules that drive applications and other code elements like HTML, CSS, and javascript are consistent. As a business owner, you need a PHP developer to develop and implement your PHP modules, test and troubleshoot applications and integrate server-code with third-party modules.

As a business owner looking to hire a developer to create your online store, it is expedient for you to have a vivid understanding of the ecommerce platforms best for developers to create an online store that meets all the requisite business needs of a client.

Now, what are the best ecommerce platforms for developers? That’s the question the article will address elaborately. Come along with me.

We will be examining the best ecommerce platforms for developers based on their features, benefits, support service, and extension.

The best ecommerce platforms for developers are:

  1. XCart
  2. Magento open source
  3. WooCommerce
  4. PrestaShop
  5. OpenCart
  6. CS-Cart Multi-Vendor
  7. nopCommerce

1. XCart

Best Ecommerce Platform for Developers

Xcart is a hosted or self-hosted ecommerce platform with 1,400 extensions. It provides both cloud and enterprise solutions to businesses based on their need. This makes the platform scalable. X-Cart is ideal for ecommerce developers because it comes with a modular architecture and awesome features that allow 100% uptime hosting, high industry and marketing integration, and easy upgrade.

Benefits of XCart to Developers

  • It comes with many tools that will make an online website rank top of SERP. These tools include XML sitemap, SEO-friendly URL, titles, and meta-description
  • With a range of tools, features, and extensions to create a fully functional and well-customized online store, it has a very strong theme tweaker with webmaster mode.
  • It has over 400 direct or segment integration options. It may be sync with kissmetrics, google analytics, mixpanel and more. It also enables integration with social channels like Facebook, Amazon, Google Shopping, and eBay.
  • It is very fast as a result of its PHP support. It also has advanced security capabilities.
  • It gives developers free developers license, but later developer has to pay for the premium license.

2. Magento Open Source

Best Ecommerce Platform for Developers

Magento open source ecommerce platform. It is a free out-of-the-box ecommerce platform that was initially known as the Magento Community. It is a self-hosted ecommerce platform ideal for small businesses and developers. Magento comes with a lot of features, tools, templates, and themes. It is powerful and scalable too. It also has paid version that provides even more features, but you can start with the free version, Magento open source.

Benefits of Magento to Developers

  • It fortifies developers with everything they need to build a custom website. It has a lot of plug-ins that offer ecommerce solutions for shipping, payment processing, accounting, and a host of others
  • It has strong SEO features which help optimize your website. It also offers developers the opportunity to build a website with a fast load page.
  • Magento allows the developer to manipulate and modify features of the shopping cart with a page editor – what you see is what you get(WYSIWYG)
  • Magento is integrated with PCI, which allows developers to set up payment gateway and get an extension from market place to do more
  • It makes it easy to store and manage thousands of products, and it allows many websites on a single admin

3. WooCommerce

Best Ecommerce Platform for Developers

It is an ecommerce platform for WordPress websites. It is an open-source plug-in that is free, but you need website hosting and WordPress. WooCommerce provides developers with knowledge of WordPress veritable opportunities to create a functional and customized website with plenty of extensions, integration options, and themes. WooCommerce is built by over 350 contributors from around the world. It is free to download and install. It can be integrated with major payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe.

Benefits of WooCommerce to Developers

  • It has a modular system that enables developers to add on the required options to your website
  • It provides developers with awesome features, free themes, and extensions to build a website that meets all your business needs. It has over 400 extensions that may be used for payment, shipping, accounting, marketing, and more.
  • There is no limit to the customization option of WordPress website, provided the developer has adequate knowledge of WordPress
  • It is built with REST API for effective management of products and orders
  • It provides a guide that contains all information you need to make changes on the platform. From filter to the API endpoint, major release, and many others.
  • When you develop on WooCommerce, you get access to support from other developers. It is the most popular ecommerce platform. It had a very large community of users.

4. PrestaShop

Best Ecommerce Platform for Developers

PrestaShop is an open-source hosted ecommerce platform. It was launched in 2007. It is a suitable ecommerce platform for small and medium businesses. It’s a preferred choice for developers because of the many features it offers to build a unique ecommerce website. It has over 300 flexible features, over 1000 modules, thousands of plug-ins, and tons of themes. PrestaShop has quick install features and an intuitive interface. It comes with a guide making the platform easier for developers to use.

Benefits of PrestaShop

  • It is an open-source ecommerce platform that enables the creation of a high-end ecommerce website on it at and less costly rate.
  • Developers can utilize the various amazing features and tools that PrestaShop provide to create a highly customized website that meets the demand of the business
  • The platform gives you the flexibility to create an admin panel for the delete and addition of ecommerce store features.
  • Its software is lightweight and fast to use, even with the least internet speed
  • It has a stimulating user interface that makes developers create an online store that provides an outstanding user experience to its end-users
  • It allows you to create an instant online shopping cart. It also enhances quick management of sales.

5. OpenCart

Best Ecommerce Platform for Developers

This is an open-source ecommerce platform with many features and a vast library of extensions. It is a suitable ecommerce platform for selling digital products. It comes with many benefits for developers. OpenCart allows developers to add unlimited numbers of products, manufacturers, and categories. It is a PCI-compliant platform. It is highly flexible hence, giving developers total control ecommerce online store creation process.

Benefits of OpenCart to Developers

  • OpenCart is mobile responsive, making it easy to use on the go. It has a vast marketplace with over 13,000 modules and themes. This gives developers varieties of options and tools for building a highly functional online store.
  • It allows developers to add unlimited digital and physical products with a one-off and subscription sales method. It allows you to create guests and register users to check out.
  • It enables easy management of products, customers, orders, and more. It also comes with features like sales reports, viewed products, and purchase products.
  • It provides a wide range of options of payment gateway Integration. It has over 35 integrated payment gateway
  • OpenCart has a wide community of users that provides support through OpenCart free forum.

6. CS-Cart Multi-Vendor

Best Ecommerce Platform for Developers

This is an open-source ecommerce platform that provides excellent ecommerce solutions for small businesses and big businesses online stores. CS-Cart Multi-Vendor provides you all you need to create an online marketplace with all the full features your store needs for optimal function. It is a self-hosted platform that has over 500 functionalities, numerous themes, and extra integration. CS-Cart Multi-Vendor doesn’t offer a monthly subscription; you pay annually. The prices fall in the range of $1,450, $3,500 to $7,500. The higher the price, the more features you get. It has great SEO tools, strong security, marketing tools, content management system, a responsive mobile-friendly layout as well as a user-friendly admin panels. Making it easy for developers to create an online store that perfect online store that has all the necessary features. This makes it a suitable ecommerce platform for developers.

Benefits of CS-Cart Multi-Vendor to developers

  • It offers developers all the requisite features needed to create and manage an online store effectively. It gives you the freedom to create a customized online mall with vital storefront functionalities and integration.
  • The ecommerce platform gives much importance to online marketing for excellent sales. Its great digital promotion and SEO tools massively aid the growth of businesses. run on the platform
  • The admin panels that come with the platform makes it easy for users to manage all aspect of the online store effectively. It also ensures easy navigation and a seamless user experience.
  • CS-Cart Multi-Vendor has unlimited flexibility. It allows you to acquire and install server and manage and maintain your online store properly.

7. nopCommerce

Best Ecommerce Platform for Developers

nopCommerce is another best ecommerce platform for developers, and it is completely free, unlike CS-Cart Multi-Vendor. It is very easy to download. It has an alternative source code version that is best for developers. It allows developers to rework the code any time they want to. nopCommerce is suitable for any size of business – start-up, small, medium, and big enterprises. Some of its awesome features include an admin panel for managing and tracking the online store activities, a storefront-end for hosting buyers, a flexible shopping cart, strong SEO-friendly tools, and numerous integration options.

Benefits of nopCommerce to Developers

  • It is a free, open-source platform with awesome features for building an online store with great capabilities that allows you to sell different kinds of products.
  • It offers its users two download options – the one-click download option that requires no source code and the source code download option, which is very beneficial to developers. It gives developers limitless customization opportunities.
  • nopCommerce has thousands of built-in integration tools that make it easy for developers to integrate online stores with other apps. This will ensure proper marketing, payment, and shipping.
  • Developers with versed knowledge of CSS, HTML, MS SQL, and NET programming can take full advantage of the many ecommerce solutions offered by nopCommerce
  • nopCommerce has a vast community of vibrate developers all around the world who can help provides support for other users.

As a developer, you will find any of these ecommerce platforms fantastic to work with. These platforms will allow you to build your client’s a fully functional ecommerce store that meets all their ecommerce need. With these ecommerce platforms, developers can always offer client quality service and optimal satisfaction. But it is important to consider a client budget before choosing your choice of ecommerce platforms to develop an ecommerce store.