Free Shopping Carts

Free Shopping Cart Free shopping carts are 100% free ecommerce solutions used to build an online store. Most run off of PHP and are open source, so they require some PHP coding knowledge. Others have an online admin tool for easy customization and design. Compare these free carts side by side to see which is the best option for your online store.	Vendio	Magento	osCommerce	Zen Cart	CubeCart	Highwire Commerce	Mal's	Shopster	CRE Loaded	WP e-Commerce
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PHP Knowledge Required? Most open source shopping carts utilize PHP and MYSQL. Those who have created these free carts work hard to make them intuitive, but the fact is that most require a strong knowledge of PHP to customize and use all the available features. If you are not a developer, then consider one of the free shopping carts that doesn't require knowledge of PHP to use.	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
Transaction Fees / Ads / Hidden Costs? Some free shopping carts are free to download and setup, but charge a small transaction fee for all sales, to make up for the work required to create and maintain the free ecommerce software that they have provided. Others run ads through your online store to make up for the cost of creating the free shopping cart. Very few "free carts" are 100% free, so you should learn what hidden costs there are before moving forward.	No hidden fees,100% free (including hosting)	Must find a hosting company to work with, otherwise 100% free	Must find a hosting company to work with, otherwise 100% free	Must find a hosting company to work with, otherwise 100% free	Displays CubeCart logo unless you pay ~$60 to get it removed	No extra fees,but the free version only hosts electronic products & doesn't provide checkout through the cart	Daily sale limit, must pay for more than 30 sales per day and to get logo removed	5% Transaction fees, product limits, bandwidth limits	Must find a hosting company to work with, otherwise 100% free	Must find a hosting company to work with, and free version has limitations. Paid version available.
Monthly Bandwidth	Unlimited	Depends on Server	Depends on Server	Depends on Server	Depends on Server	Unlimited	Depends on Server	2 GB	Depends on Server	Depends on Server
Number of Products	Unlimited	Depends on Server	Depends on Server	Depends on Server	Depends on Server	10	50 digital products, unlimited physical	15	Depends on Server	Depends on Server
Full Feature List	View	View	View	View	View	View	View	View	View	View
Customer Reviews	View	View	View	View	View	View	View	View	View	View
Expert Review	Review	Review	Review	Review	Review	Review	Review	Review	Review	Review
Free Cart Look & Feel

Merchant Interface: Click to View ↓

Free Shopping Cart	Vendio	Magento	osCommerce	Zen Cart	CubeCart	Highwire Commerce	Mal's	Shopster	CRE Loaded	WP e-Commerce
Easy Install Wizard Installing a free shopping cart script is not always the easiest thing to do. If you are not schooled in PHP, you should consider a free cart that provides an easy install wizard, which will walk you through the step by step process of installing your free ecommerce software.
Customize Look & Feel Customization is very important to many merchants. If it is for you, then consider a free shopping cart that is easy to customize when doing your shopping cart comparison.
WYSIWYG Editor WYSIWYG stands for What You See is What You Get. A WYSIWYG editor lets merchants edit their storefront design with ease by using a simple tool that lets you write content, add images, change font, colors, and more with a few simple clicks.
Free Store Templates If you want to get an online store up and running fast, it's best to choose a free ecommerce solution that comes with design templates to choose from. That way, you can choose a template that matches the design you want, and easily customize the template further if you see fit.
Access HTML & CSS Some free carts provide a simple online admin panel that doesn't allow you to view and edit your own code. While it's important to find a free shopping cart that is easy to work with, it's just as important to have full control over your code, so a free cart that lets you access HTML and CSS is a must.
Online Admin Panel Available A lot of free shopping carts only let you make changes to your online store from your desktop, but the best of the best actually provide an online admin tool that lets you customize and manage your storefront anywhere you can get online. This is a great feature to have and a must for merchants expecting to drive success.
Shopping Cart on Your Own Domain Sometimes, a big catch with a free shopping cart platform is that you have to host your online store on the domain of that free cart service. This makes it hard to brand your online store and even harder to ever move your storefront to another ecommerce solution, so it's important to consider this when searching for the best free shopping cart software.							You can place "buy" buttons on your domian, but can't host the entire store.
Search Engine Friendly If you want your shopping cart to show up on search engines, you will need one that is search engine friendly, which means they take SEO (Search Engine Optimization) into account.
Accept Offline Payments Accept checks, money orders, phone payments, and more.
Supports Multiple Payment Gateways Many free shopping carts don't come with the support necessary to take credit cards directly. Because of this, many merchants look for a free ecommerce solution that supports multiple payment gateways including PayPal and Google Checkout. Make sure your solution supports payment gateways so that you can securely take payments through your free shopping cart.
PCI/PA-DSS Compliant Credit card companies have very strict requirements for taking online payments and are starting to fine merchants that use a non PCI/PA-DSS compliant shopping cart solution. Luckily, even the free carts are hopping on the bandwagon and working hard to meet the stringent guidelines for PCI/PA-DSS compliance. Make sure you choose a free ecommerce solution that has this feature available if you want to accept direct credit card payments rather than just using payment gateways.
HTTPS/SSL Certification Included (Secure Payment) SSL is the standard protocol for any online credit card payment system. This allows secure information to be sent over the internet by encrypting it to keep the information safe. If your shopping cart checkout URL begins with "http://" then a customer might be discouraged from making a purchase on your site. Instead, this URL should have "https://" That "s" makes a big difference because it stands for secure, which will make you and your customers more comfortable.
Daily Backups & Restores If your shopping cart is being hosted by the software company that you downloaded it from, then they should keep backups of your free cart. This allows them to restore your ecommerce store instantly in case anything goes wrong.		Depends on Server	Depends on Server	Depends on Server	Depends on Server				Depends on Server	Depends on Server
Tech Support Because many free carts are open source, finding support when in need can be hard. It is rare that you will find phone or email support from the actual creator of the free shopping cart, so set your expectations accordingly when determining what kind of tech support you need for your online store.	Email support, training, and forums for community support	Community forum, Megento user guide, Magento design guide, community wiki	Online Community Forums and guides	Online community forums and guides	Online community forums and guides	Email and Ticket system and forums for community support	Support forums	Daily tips, help docs, videos and webinars	Community support only, additional support at a cost	Online resource section, video tutorials, and support forum
Hosting Free As Well Most free shopping carts require you to pay for hosting through a server that you find yourself, but some free carts actually include free hosting as well.
Google Analytics Integration										Must Use All-In-One SEO Plugin
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Customer Management & Marketing: Click to View ↓

Free Shopping Cart	Vendio	Magento	osCommerce	Zen Cart	CubeCart	Highwire Commerce	Mal's	Shopster	CRE Loaded	WP e-Commerce
Sell Directly on Facebook
Email Marketing and/or Newsletters As online shopping continues to grow in popularity, it's important to build a relationship with customers virtually, and email marketing is a great way to do this. Some free shopping carts make it easy to market to your customers even when they aren't visiting your store through email marketing tools, customized HTML emails, and newsletters.										Can Use a WP Plugin For This
Search Bar / Store Browse Is there a tool within your shopping cart software that allows a user to search and browse your product offerings?
Gift Certificates Do you sell a product that your customers will want to give to their friends and family? Then you will definitely want to offer Gift Certificates in your store. This is made easier with a shopping cart that comes with gift certificates as part of its basic feature set.
Upsell & Cross Sell Tools This is a very common feature in the world of eCommerce. Having upsell and cross sell tools allows you to get the most out of every customer by showing them other product suggestions, either through a "customers who bought this also purchased" frame on your page, or offering a list of featured products that pair well with what they are looking at.
Coupon Codes From time to time, you may want to run a special promotion on a partner site. To do this, you may consider giving coupon codes out to visitors from that site. If this is you, then a free shopping cart solution with coupon codes is an important feature to consider during your shopping cart comparison.
Automatic Email Order Confirmation If you are a busy merchant, then you can save time by automatically sending an order confirmation email to your customers. Many shopping carts come with this already, but its always important to make sure this is an option.
Payment Accepted In Any Currency
Tell a Friend A great tool for marketing your products online is to allow your customers the chance to sell it for you. Having a "Tell a Friend" feature available in your online store allows your customers to email your products to friends and brings you even more sales
Automatic Tax Calculation Tax is different state by state. This shopping cart feature allows your customers to see the tax they owe instantly by using a geo specific tax table, without you having to guess at a flat rate.
Set Discount and Sale Rules Many merchants want to take their online store to the next level by setting up special sales and discounts throughout their storefront. This can be a little time consuming with some free shopping carts, so it's important to find one that ranks this as a top feature, because that means that it is easy to implement these rules.
Customer Accounts / Memberships Letting frequent customers "join" your online store is a great way to keep them loyal to your brand. Customer accounts or memberships give customers the opportunity to save their order history, their carts, billing information and more. This also allows you the chance to give special discounts to valued customers.
Wish Lists Often, a customer will come to your site in search of one specific product. While honing in on that product, they may see something that they also want, but haven't yet budgeted for it. Giving them the option of a "wish list" lets them save that product and will remind them to purchase when they have the money.
iPhone / Mobile Optimized Storefront The iPhone has taken ecommerce to a new level called mobile commerce or mcommerce. Because so many customers are using their smartphones to shop, having a mobile optimized storefront is a huge plus for merchants. It is likely that 3% of your customers will come from a smartphone device, so make sure that they can buy from you with an iPhone or mobile optimized storefront.
1 Page Checkout As more and more people move online to shop, they expect the checkout process to be fast and efficient. Because of this, a simple 1 page checkout process is in high demand and helps reduce shopping cart abandonment.
Identity Theft / Fraud Protection In many states, there are laws setup that protect consumers from identity theft, but at the merchant's expense. If a merchant accepts a fraudulant payment, they are sometimes required to pay back the credit card company. To avoid this, look for a shopping cart that has Identity Theft Protection features that require the CVV2 code from the consumer.
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Product Management & Shipping: Click to View ↓

Free Shopping Cart	Vendio	Magento	osCommerce	Zen Cart	CubeCart	Highwire Commerce	Mal's	Shopster	CRE Loaded	WP e-Commerce
Inventory Management Let your shopping cart take inventory for you while you kick back and relax. Inventory management includes tracking of product sales, returns, and overall count.
Sell Downloadable e-Products Sometimes you may want to sell a software package that can be downloaded by your customer and save on shipping costs. Other times, you may need to sell an important eBook or instruction manual. If this is you, then consider a shopping cart that has this feature.						Can ONLY sell electronic products	Limit of 50
Apply Shipping Location Permissions You may only want to ship within certain states, countries, etc. If this is true, when comparing shopping carts, look for software that allows you to apply shipping permissions.
Syndicate Product Feeds This tool lets you syndicate your product feeds to shopping engines like BizRate, Google Base, and more. This is a great way to increase sales and drive more customers to your online store.
Printable Shipping Labels To streamline the ordering process, many etailers look for a shopping cart with the Printable Shipping Label feature. This allows you to print out customized shipping labels from your desk each time an order is placed at your online store. Consider this time saving asset when comparing shopping carts.
Multiple Product Image Sizes The one downfall of buying a product online is that the customer cannot hold it before purchase. To make up for this, eCommerce solutions allow for multiple image sizes and angles so that a customer can get a better idea of what the product is and how they can use it.
UPS/USPS/FedEx Integration This ecommerce software feature lets your customers choose shipping rates in realtime, which allows them to find accurate rates for their location instead of estimated or flat rates determined by you.
Product Reviews Product reviews give customers the opportunity to get honest input about the products they are considering. This also fills your website with unique user generated content, which will help you in search results. Consider how moderated product reviews can help your online store when comparing shopping carts.	No, but code allows ability to integrate
Free Shipping Available
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Finding the Best Free Cart to Power Your Online Store
Using This Free Shopping Carts Comparison Chart

shopping cart comparison Finding the best free cart to power your online store can be a tough task for many, because there are a lot of free shopping carts out there, but few are easy to use and well supported. Above, we list the best free shopping carts available for today's merchant based on 45 different features. Every merchant has a different standard for what features they expect out of a free ecommerce solution, but the features listed above rival many paid solutions, which makes the price tag of a free cart very appealing. To remain competitive in your space, it is best to choose a free cart that has all large majority of the features listed above.

You will quickly see that these ecommerce solutions have a broad range of ecommerce features, with Vendio and Magento clearly providing the best feature sets out there. The main difference between Vendio and Magento is that Vendio provides a very easy to use free online store builder, which can have you up and selling in minutes. Magento, on the other hand, provides a limited PHP cart for someone interested in eventually upgrading to their paid solution, which costs over $2000 per month. This is why we have ranked Vendio number one of all our free shopping carts, because it is easy to use, filled with great features, and 100% free with no strings attached.

Some free carts don't seem to have many features at all, but this is because they aren't full blown ecommerce solutions, they are instead simple shopping cart scripts that you can plug into your website to start selling through a payment gateway like PayPal. Many merchants prefer this when they are just trying to sell one or two items. This is because, with a low inventory, having a full featured ecommerce solution isn't always necessary and simple is just easier. Visit our free shopping carts article to learn the difference between using a free online store versus a simple free cart script.

Finding the Best Free Cart For YOU

We understand that most merchants just starting out in the world of ecommerce often want to use a free shopping cart to power their online store while they get their feet wet. If this is you, then we suggest you choose a hosted free cart like Vendio, Highwire Commerce, CRE Loaded, or Shopster. These solutions are very easy to use and provide many of the great features you will need to get started. All provide very affordable upgrades as well, when you're ready to take your storefront to the next level.

One thing to consider when browsing free carts is how many products you want to sell. One of the limitations of using a free shopping cart is that some end up costing you in time and restrictions. If you want to host a large amount of products, visitors, and sales, then search for a free shopping cart that supports unlimited products and doesn't limit your daily sales or bandwidth.

If you have a background in development and have the time to invest in building and designing your online store, then Magento, osCommerce, and Zen Cart are all great PHP carts worth using. Each of these carts has a great deal of features and are community driven. This means that you can find support for your online store in a variety of forums. A further knowledge of PHP and MYSQL will really help you take one of these solutions to the next level and could result in a very powerful and successful online store.

If you are someone who likes to know that you can reach out to another person and get help running your online store, then your free cart options are limited. Review the tech support section in the chart above (under Merchant Interface) to see what kind of support you can expect from each free cart. Next, visit our free ecommerce software section to get customer reviews of each free shopping cart. These reviews will help you determine how well each solution's support forums, videos, and tutorials work. You will find that many open source PHP carts provide a community of people to garner support, but that getting a response from these community members is sometimes hard as they have their own online stores to manage. Free hosted shopping carts tend to be a better option for support, because there is always someone to call as these free carts are provided by an actually ecommerce company that wants to keep your business.

Once you have reviewed the features above, you can compare the best free shopping carts side by side, read expert reviews of each solution, read customer reviews, and view full feature lists of each solution in our free ecommerce software guide.