May 11, 1999
OpenCart first released
Christopher G. Mann published the first public OpenCart release on May 11, 1999 — a PerlPractical Extraction and Report Language — a scripting language that dominated early web CGI and sysadmin.-based open-source shopping cart.
What it was for
OpenCart later moved to PHP and became a popular self-hosted e-commerce platform — lightweight compared to MagentoAn open-source e-commerce platform — storefronts, catalogs, and checkout for online retailers., with extensions for payments and shipping. It competes with WooCommerce and PrestaShopAn open-source e-commerce platform — PHP-based online store builder popular in Europe. for small-to-mid merchants who want to own their store code.
Why it's here
OpenCart is one of the longest-running open-source e-commerce projects.
Why it mattered
It gave merchants a free alternative to hosted storefronts before Shopify dominated SMB retail.
What it solved
Small retailers needed affordable cart software without enterprise licensing fees.
Media
ImageOpenCartHigimo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Related
- PrestaShop releasedAugust 2007
- Magento 1.0 releasedMarch 31, 2008
- WooCommerce releasedSeptember 27, 2011