Hi All, We need to build a relatively basic e-shop. I now know Magento is more for big shops so we have thinned it down to either Shopify or OpenCart.
I know Shopify charges you BUT is self hosted in a secure environment. My understanding is OpenCart is slightly more advance but that both are easy to use. Anyone have any thoughts on if either is really better and if so why?
Thank you all.
I’d say OpenCart
I use it, both for my full time employer for 2 fairly big shops and for my personal shops and clients shops.
In terms of usability, and more crucially customising, I find it a dream to work with frankly
Thank you SimpleSites4u - first hand experience is what we needed. Am i right in thinking that hosting can be any shared or dedicated server (better with an SSL)? And to use Credit card payment is just a question of adding PayPal gateway to the site? Thank you again for your thoughts
i would say opencart and the credit card processing is done by adding an extension/plugin. very simple.
I have installation on reseller, vps and dedicated, and there all the same tbh
I have implemented SagePay on the big boys which honestly is easy, just as simple as PayPal 
I’m certain you will find it a breeze to work with
Hopefully I’ll have my OC template accepted here soon so you can really give your site some kick, lol
Thank you both for your replies and we look forward to your site. Good luck with approvals
Opencart is better from my point of view. It is well documented with enough support over the internet. It is more handy and offers more functionalities
Yeap, I subscribe to OpenCart, it’s much better in my opinion.
I would not chose Shopify for only one reason- it take 2% fee for each transaction. Isn’t it too much?
Even though this is a year old now, I liked the article.
I’m in the middle of deciding to use OpenCart or Shopify and will most likely try both before giving my client an answer. It seems that both are very good with Shopify being easier to use but costly and I’m concerned more about security. If I was to host this on a shared hosting plan, which is better (well being that I host OpenCart only)?
You have much money go for Shopify but my suggestion is OpenCart or Woocommerce.
Regards.