ZenCart vs OpenCart 2021 - What Are the Differences?

Both OpenCart and ZenCart are popular online store management systems that favored by a large number of eCommerce merchants, nevertheless, some significant differences exist in many aspects of features, ease of use, specifications, payment gateways, integrations and technical support.

In below, we mainly concentrate on comparing the applications, aiming to dig out the specific differences so that people planning to set up online business with either of the two options have a clear understanding and choose a right one according to their needs and preference.

Server Requirements

OpenCart: Some requirements have to be met to properly operate the store. First, a web server (preferably Apache) must be created to make the OpenCart store publically available on the web; second, selecting a hosting service which provides PHP5.2 or greater, MySQL, Curl; third, it requires hosted/online operating system.

ZenCart: Here are minimum server requirements for running on the platform: Curl, PHP4.3 or higher, Apache 1.3.38 or higher and MySQL 3.2.x or higher. The application program requires Windows operating system to fully function.

Design Features

OpenCart is designed with rich features including digital goods, daily backup, multi-store support, bulk image upload, PCI compliance, site template andunlimited categories, products and manufactures marking a turn-key ready “out of the box ” shopping cart solution. Generally speaking, it provides all necessary features to run a basic store and allows customization according to personal needs and requirements of merchants.

Meanwhile, managing business on the platform is greatly effort-reduced due to the inbuilt SEO that positively influence the traffic rates. Besides, 18 optional languages are available for people coming from all over the world.

ZenCart, however, features simplified installation andincreased flexibility which enables people easily handle a great number of product features containing dedicated IP address, breadcrumb navigation, , drag and drop design, WYSIWYG editor and optimized URLs.

Some extra offers like data encryption, database caching, dedicated SSL, daily backup and PCI compliance ensure online store to run in a secure hostingenvironment. Moreover, affiliate program support, email list management, gift cards, newsletters and coupons greatly help business promotion and marketing.Note that only English is the supported language version.

Shipping

Each software is integrated with shipping price as well as weight calculator, tax by state/country and USPS price lookup. Besides, OpenCart supports product specific tax rules, flat rate shipping and weight based shipping, which differentiate from the other featured international postage fee lookup, FedEx price lookup and UPS price lookup.

Payment Gateways, Payment & Pricing

OpenCart platform adopts four payment and pricing features consisting of cash on demand payment, money orders, discount management and multi-currency. Instead of giving them all, its competitor allows the last two which set up some inconvenience to customers.

As for payment gateways, we clearly display the details as follows.

• OpenCart payment gateways: PayMate, eWAY, SagePay, WorldPay, PayPal, Authorize.net & Skrill.
• Zen Cart payment gateways: Iridium, Beanstream, PayPal,Nochex, Authorize.net & Skrill.

Technical Support

Customer service means a lot for eCommerce merchants, especially for beginners with a little online managing or selling experience. OpenCart users are allowed to seek help via videos, emails, blogs, user manual, phone, request form, knowledge base and online self-server. However, the other provides customers with FAQ, forums, help desk, wiki, knowledge base and online self-server.

Choose a Proper One

From what we have compared, both software have own pros and cons, so the choice depends on what kind of online store people runs. If they want to easily handle the site with much technical help, then Open Cart is an ideal choice. Otherwise, Zen Cart is worth considering if people have basic technical skills and manage store focusing on English-speaking customers.

Since online business relies heavily on a reliable hosting environment, no matter which software people choose, they need a high quality hostingplan. With years of hosting experience, we conclude the following web hosts providing excellent OpenCart and ZenCart hosting service which greatly help business achieve success.