Drupal vs Opencart, which is the best content management system you can choose for your eCommerce website? If you are looking for an answer to this question then you landed on the right page. Follow this guide till the end to find out the most suitable option for you.
Did you know!
According to a recent development stat, in 2021, eCommerce sales are expected to be 18.1 percent of worldwide retail sales. This figure clearly shows how eCommerce is becoming a more vital part of global commerce.
It is growing so rapidly that worldwide retail sales are expected to increase by 22.0 percent by 2023.
When it comes to CMS a lot of options can be found. Always remember, a content management system should be chosen based on business and project requirements.
Through this piece of article, I will compare the two most popular eCommerce platforms Drupal and Opencart on the basis of their features, pricing, and support.
Let’s get started.
Drupal Vs. Opencart: An Overview
Drupal
Drupal is an open-source content management system and is used to create and manage websites. Originally launched in 2000, Drupal has a 2.3% share of all websites and a 4.6% share of the CMS market.
Drupal- Facts and Stats
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Drupal has around 1 million users.
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4.7% of websites worldwide use Drupal.
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Drupal.org generates 1.5 million unique visitors and 300,00 downloads every month.
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Drupal 8 has around 17 external JS libraries & 27 external PHP libraries.
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100,000+ sites were made in 6 months under Drupal 7.
Drupal: Key Features You Should Know
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Supports multiple content types.
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Offers Granular User Management.
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Standards compliant Templating and Theming.
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Flexible classification and menu structures.
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Search Engine Optimized Platform.
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Built-in search engine.
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WYSIWYG Content Editing.
Opencart
Opencart is open-source and perfect for developing a customized e-commerce website. It is easy to install, cost-effective, and moreover, gives you complete control over your e-commerce business website
Now learn more about how this platform allows online entrepreneurs to build a leading business.
Opencart - Facts and Stats
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During the last 6 years, Opencart exports have grown to 10X.
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318,317 commercial websites are built on Opencart.
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Opencart imports decreased by 3 times in 2016 compared to 2013.
Key Features of Opencart
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User-friendly administrative dashboard.
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Opencart is based on the Model View Controller (MVC) pattern.
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Supports automatic image resizing and is a completely SEO-optimized platform.
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Has one admin interface & supports multiple stores, languages, ​​and currencies.
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Opencart has virtual file structures: VQMOD & OCMOD.
Drupal vs Opencart: A Detailed Comparison
Here’s a side-by-side comparison of both platforms. Take an in-depth look at them.
#1 User-friendliness
Opencart
OpenCart is a rather user-friendly and effective platform and it comes with a highly intuitive and well-designed interface.
A quick setup process and a responsive interface make the platform an easy tool for non-technical users as well. The platform allows you to easily add products, edit or change a store even with limited technical knowledge. To create a customized opencart website for your estore you can also hire opencart developers in India at minimal cost yet save your time and efforts too.
Drupal
It is important that all users, including non-technical marketers and business owners, are able to work with a website easily. When it comes to Drupal, it makes great progress towards being more user-friendly, which is one of the key priorities and benefits of Drupal 8.
You can customize and recreate any part of the administrator to meet your business requirements. Drupal continues to develop and frequently releases new modules.
There are many modules available for all users so that you can use them to improve your business website and add extensible features. Also, to make your site more attractive, you can contact any Drupal development company in India to help with your website.
#2 SEO Compatibility
Opencart
SEO can be one of the most influential factors for the success of an organization or business. Did you know that 93% of online experiences start with search engines and 51% of all website traffic is attributed to organic searches?
When it comes to SEO, OpenCart has all the essential SEO features you'd expect from a high-level eCommerce solution. OpenCart makes it possible to get your store to the top of the SERP very quickly.
Store owners can assign meta keywords and descriptions to all product and category pages, titles, and header tags. Besides, OpenCart copes well with creating great SEO URLs.
Drupal
We all know Drupal as this robust, flexible, and reliable CMS platform, but many people do not realize its capabilities when it comes to SEO.
Ideally, Drupal SEO is about making your website easy to understand for both your visitors and search engine crawlers. Thus, your SEO strategy starts long before the creation of your Drupal website.
With an effective long-term approach, its amazing collection of Drupal SEO modules, its flexibility, and customization options and not to forget, the community working towards the betterment of the open-source platform, Drupal top the CMS chart.
#3 Themes and Design
Opencart
OpenCart offers lots of professionally designed and responsive themes. Both free and paid templates are available at the official marketplace.
That said, you will need some basic HTML, CSS, and JavaScript knowledge to properly apply it to your store. This makes template management a bit more complex.
In addition, there are a lot of additional templates available on third-party resources. If you are unsure which one to choose, I recommend you try the demo versions before making a purchase.
Drupal
Drupal 8 includes a new theming engine called Twig, which is PHP-based, flexible, fast, and secure.
It is very easy to create a beautiful and more functional Drupal website using Twig because its templates are written in a syntax that is less complex than one PHP template or other while being more secure.
At its official directory, Drupal lists:
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39,000+ modules
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2,500+ themes
#4 Drupal vs Opencart: Price
Opencart
When it comes to open-source platforms, the term "free" seems a bit tricky. Of course, OpenCart is free to download, use, and even upgrade. However, this does not mean that you will run your store at no extra cost
To begin, you are responsible for the hosting and security of your store. Therefore, basic expenses would include a domain name, hosting provider, and SSL certificate. Also, you will have to purchase various extensions
If you are willing to try OpenCart without downloading, the company offers two free demos. The former shows what a storefront looks like. The other provides access to the admin panel.
Drupal
Drupal, is a developer-oriented proposition where the technical cost of entry is free. But the cost to develop and maintain an excellent and secure eCommerce server can be thousands of dollars or more, depending on the scope and scale
The cost of your Drupal Commerce project will increase proportionately to your need for specific functional architecture, custom theme styling, inter-module data integration, analytics systems, and other benefits for the backend user.
#5 Community Support
Opencart
The official website provides merchants with extensive documentation, video tutorials, and blog. Luckily, the OpenCart forums are very functional.
So, you will easily find a developer or shopping cart representative ready to answer your questions. In addition, it is possible to reach company representatives via phone or submit a web ticket module.
Drupal
Whenever you face a technical problem or anything like that, you will never feel lonely, because you can get support for the Drupal community by a simple web search
Many common issues and problems have already been described and resolved, so you can easily find solutions in the documentation.
Bottom line
In the comparison between Drupal vs Opencart, we must accept that they have plenty of the same and different surprising features. If you want to find your perfect match, be sure to consider all your business needs and requirements
This is your only decision on which platform you should go for according to your business. If you still feel confused, you can reach out to the top software development company in India.
They will not only help you identify the best eCommerce platform but will also help you build one. Do not rush, if possible test the platform and then make a carefully planned decision.
Good Luck!