Platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and Wix E‑commerce make it easy to start – but they come with hidden costs: transaction fees, monthly subscriptions that scale with your revenue, and worst of all, you don't own your customer data or your store's code.
Self‑hosted e‑commerce gives you full control. No per‑transaction fees (beyond payment processor fees). Unlimited products. Own your data. And you can customize absolutely everything.
Here are five of the best open source e‑commerce solutions you can self‑host today.
SolOPENpreneur includes WordPress + WooCommerce, ready to deploy.
Launch your e‑commerce store →WooCommerce is the world's leading open source e‑commerce plugin for WordPress. It powers over 30% of all online stores. With thousands of free and paid extensions, you can add subscriptions, memberships, bookings, and more.
Best for: Content‑driven stores, bloggers turning into e‑commerce, and anyone already comfortable with WordPress.
Key features:
Hosting requirement: Any VPS with PHP and MySQL. SolOPENpreneur includes WordPress Multisite, so you can add WooCommerce with one click.
Medusa is a relatively new open source e‑commerce platform built with Node.js. It's headless, meaning you can separate the frontend (your store design) from the backend (cart, payments, inventory). This gives you complete flexibility to build custom storefronts using React, Vue, or even static site generators.
Best for: Developers and brands that want a fully customized, modern store.
Key features:
Hosting requirement: Node.js + PostgreSQL VPS. More advanced to set up, but great for scale.
PrestaShop is a mature open source e‑commerce platform popular in Europe and beyond. It comes with hundreds of built‑in features and a massive marketplace of modules and themes. It's like Shopify but self‑hosted.
Best for: Mid‑sized stores needing advanced features out of the box.
Key features:
Hosting requirement: PHP/MySQL VPS. More resource‑intensive than WooCommerce.
Sylius is built on Symfony (PHP) and is designed for developers who need a clean, modular e‑commerce framework. It's used by brands like Volkswagen, L'Oréal, and Warner Music. It's not a one‑click solution, but it's incredibly powerful.
Best for: Developers building bespoke, high‑traffic stores.
Key features:
Hosting requirement: PHP + PostgreSQL or MySQL VPS. Requires developer expertise.
OpenCart is a simple, lightweight e‑commerce platform that's easy to install and use. It's not as feature‑rich as PrestaShop or WooCommerce, but it's fast and gets the job done for smaller stores.
Best for: Beginners, small catalogs, and low‑budget stores.
Key features:
Hosting requirement: PHP/MySQL – can run on a small VPS or even shared hosting.
Let's compare a typical SaaS store (Shopify) vs. self‑hosted (WooCommerce + SolOPENpreneur) over 2 years for a store with 500 products and 1,000 monthly orders:
The real savings come when you grow. At 10,000 orders/month, Shopify's monthly fee jumps to $299+ and transaction fees still apply. SolOPENpreneur stays flat. And you can run unlimited stores, unlimited products, unlimited bandwidth.
Get a managed VPS with WooCommerce pre‑installed – part of the SolOPENpreneur stack.
Start selling today →Next in our series: Automate Your Marketing: How Open Source Tools Can Help Solo Entrepreneurs – coming soon.
See exactly how much a solopreneur overpays for 16 SaaS subscriptions every year, and the open source stack that replaces them for one flat price. Plus occasional open source growth tips. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.