Joomla is a popular content management system, which provides tools for building and editing a website. It is possible to add a shopping cart and other eCommerce features to a Joomla website by installing addons. However, since these addons aren't part of the original software, you're faced with the issues of maintaining each part of your website individually with addons that may not work smoothly together. This also makes Joomla ineffective for a growing business, as it won't be long before the needs of your website outgrow the platform. It's also overall difficult to use unless you have website coding knowledge, and support is only available through community forums.

Magento is an extremely powerful eCommerce platform aimed at Enterprise businesses, although they do have a paid Small Business package available. Most Magento users are attracted to its free version, with the desire to quickly build a competitive online store. But Magento is heavy software that requires powerful hosting to run your site at a speed that won't inconvenience customers, not to mention the difficulty involved in customizing your storefront. The closer you look at Magento the more you realize it's only suitable for large enterprises with plenty of resources to spend on servers, expert coding and design, and security measures needed for PCI compliance.

ZenCart is a bare-bones eCommerce platform with a low feature count that you'll need to upgrade with extensions, many of which don't work well together. The software is difficult to install, use, and customize, and updates may break your store. Security is also an issue as some themes and modules cause problems that can cost your store its PCI compliance. Plus, there's no official support, and all the help you need will have to come from the community. You'll probably find yourself needing to hire an expert developer along with the costs of hosting and security.

PrestaShop may be free to use, but you'll need to pay a lot for support. Even the instruction manual costs $19.99, and access to support is based on an annual plan that defines how many hours per month you get to talk to someone who can help you. And you will need support — unless you already have a deep understanding of code. You're also going to need to use addons to expand on PrestaShop's limited capabilities, which carry an additional charge and can also cause problems with your website by incorrectly working together. PrestaShop takes a lot of work and far more money than the word "free" would suggest.

osCommerce is a first-generation open-source eCommerce platform, meaning it's been around a long time. Unfortunately it hasn't kept up with modern development, resulting in a bare-bones cart that's hard to use and gets dragged down by large numbers of products. Like all other open-source carts, you'll need to pay for web hosting and security. Worse, you're going to need a professional developer to keep your osCommerce website secure and up-to-date, since osCommerce carries a history of data breaches. It's also a difficult platform to use: outdated interface, lack of templates, support available only through the community forum, and heavy reliance on addons make everything about osCommerce a hassle.

OpenCart touts itself as a free solution, but the download does not come with many of the most crucial features you need for your online store. This is not an exaggeration: you need things like hosting for your website, and PCI-compliant security for your customers. OpenCart may not charge you to download their software, but they do charge for those necessities and more. On top of all that, their store builder is not user-friendly, meaning that hiring a developer is just one more cost for using this “free” platform.

Miva Merchant offers both a hosted and licensed eCommerce platform, and both versions fall under the same limitations: extremely high price, time-consuming setup, and difficult customization. Regardless of whether you're looking at the hosted or licensed version of Miva Merchant, it's easy to see this is an eCommerce platform intended for large businesses. A software license only comes with a year's worth of updates and costs just under $20k, and you'll need to pay full price again to access updates after your year is up. Even Miva's cheapest option, a hosted "starter" online store, costs $79.95/mo. and you can be boosted to a higher plan without your knowledge if your store starts doing well — plus, be charged for bandwidth and storage overages.

nopCommerce is a complex eCommerce platform not recommended for business owners that can't afford to have a developer on staff. The hidden costs mount up quickly with this platform, and you'll find yourself needing to spend much more than expected. Its features are fairly well-rounded, but it takes custom coding to get the most out of it, even if you purchase addons (which themselves can be quite expensive). Plus, support also has a fee, leaving you to turn to the community, which isn't always helpful. Store design is likewise difficult, with even the theme editor plugin coming at a cost — and it may not even work for the theme you want to use, so you're better off with custom design as well. Despite nopCommerce's software itself being free, it doesn't compare to Shift4Shop whatsoever.

AspDotNetStorefront is a relatively powerful and feature-rich eCommerce platform available in a licensed version and a hosted version. However, users report that it's confusing and expensive. It's not immediately clear what features are available unless you delve into the hundreds of pages of its online user manual, which you'll need to do to learn how to use the software. AspDotNetStorefront users also frequently report additional expenses — the licensed version already costs $5,500, but to get needed software upgrades and support you're required to sign up for $499 annual recurring billing, and many features are locked behind apps with additional costs. That, plus the costs of web hosting, security, design, and development customization makes AspDotNetStorefront a poor choice for most businesses.

ProductCart is a polished and powerful licensed eCommerce solution, but its features are limited and price is sky-high. While the initial license costs less than some other licensed shopping cart software, you'll be charged for everything afterward, including support ($395/yr. for the first 12 months, then $295/yr. afterward), software updates ($195), package upgrades ($995), and even addon updates that are required to continue using an addon after updating the main software. QuickBooks integration costs $495. A look at ProductCart's pricing makes it clear you'll be paying a huge price for everything.

Satchmo is an open source eCommerce platform written in Django. It contains a fair amount of built-in features, but expert programming knowledge is needed to use it. Online store owners wishing to use Satchmo will quickly discover the need to hire a full-time developer to handle store design and management. As for support, Satchmo's website hasn't been updated in years. It's clear Satchmo was designed by programmers, for programmers: not for a business owner wanting to open an easy-to-use online store.

SunShop offers a licensed version of their eCommerce software as well as a cloud-hosted version. While it includes many of the most important eCommerce features, SunShop falls short in nearly every category. PHP knowledge is essential to make the best use of the software, template design is lacking, and integrations are low in number. Plus, support comes with a price tag. Considering SunShop is known to be buggy, you'll have no choice but to pay for support or hire your own developer. SunShop is also limited in the number of expansions and integrations you can use.