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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-28T04:18:33+00:00

I’m about to launch a few online stores and I would like to share

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I’m about to launch a few online stores and I would like to share my thoughts so everyone can benefit and also was wondering about your opinion related to the question: open-source eCommerce vs custom built.

I’ve been exploring some the existing solutions (Magento, OpenCart, OSCommerce, Xcart).

Advantages and cons:

Existing solutions:

Advantages:

  • You don’t maintenance the code.
  • Plug and Play extensions.
  • Support.
  • Less code hours (not so sure about that anymore).

Cons:

  • Hard to custmoize: custom templates, plugins, special needs has to be implented over an heavy code already (not a MVC fan).
  • Too many features (could reduce performance).

Custom built:

Advantages:

  • Easy theme customization (no limits).
  • Lightweight.
  • More secure (questionable: Minimal is more secure, though existing solutions has more pen-testers == Users/Coders).
  • Easy work-around.

Cons:

  • Hours, a lot of them.
  • Lack of plugins, you need to craft everything yourself.

More things to consider:

  1. If I’m going for the custom built – which PHP framework would help me the must?
  2. Do you know any existing solution which is lightweight, has good plugins database, and is easy to customize?

at the moment I have to ‘like’ custom built more, since i’m going to built a network of stores and would like to get a customized solution, though wondering if I might be wrong.

Please, share from your experience and your thoughts related,

Thanks in advance, your help is appreciated.

Sagi.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    a few things to consider, in addition to what you stated.

    Developing a new eCommerce solution requires not only manpower, but also knowledge. Many topics require dedicated knowledge. Some examples:

    • Integration of payment systems requires knowledge about federal laws, about the regulations for VISA and Mastercard
    • Integration of customer systems requires knowledge of encryption systems, of federal regulations for personified data, of opt-in and opt-out customer relation systems
    • Integration of interfaces to other solutions (ERP, CRM) requires knowledge of secure transactions and channels, secure authentication, transport layer security

    Many of the solutions available on the market already have most of this down. If not, they usually don’t gain a competitive market share. Some swipe these requirements under someone elses carpet, Magento is known for redistributing it to writers of plugins.

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