You can assemble a capable online-store stack from open-source and free tools, but “free” usually describes the software—not the whole operation. Hosting, a domain, payment processing, backups, maintenance, and support can still cost money. The 35 tools below are grouped by the job they do, so you can choose a practical stack rather than install a pile of overlapping apps.
Start with the cost and operating model
Open-source software lets you inspect or modify source code, but setup and upkeep may require technical skills or developer help. Shopify’s 2026 guide describes that trade-off; OpenSourceGroups also notes that hosting, domains, and payment fees remain costs. A self-hosted store gives you more control and responsibility, while managed hosting can reduce operational work in exchange for recurring fees. A hybrid stack is another option.
Before choosing a tool, check its current license, release activity, security-update process, regional availability, support options, and any paid features. Project terms and integrations can change. The list below is a shortlist of candidates, not a claim that every named product has the same license, hosting model, or free scope.
1. Choose a commerce engine and storefront
These 15 platforms or commerce projects can form the core of a store. WooCommerce runs within WordPress, while Drupal Commerce pairs with Drupal. Headless projects expose commerce capabilities to a separate storefront, which offers flexibility but generally raises the technical bar.
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- WooCommerce: A WordPress-based commerce option. Consider it if you already know WordPress or want its page-editing and theme ecosystem alongside store functions.
- PrestaShop: A dedicated ecommerce platform to evaluate for a conventional catalog-and-orders store.
- OpenCart: A standalone cart option; compare its extensions and administration workflow with the alternatives before committing.
- Magento Open Source (Adobe Commerce): A commerce-engine candidate for a more configurable build. Distinguish the open-source edition from Adobe Commerce, which is a separate commercial offering.
- Shopware Community Edition: A community-edition commerce option. Verify the current edition boundaries and feature availability for your requirements.
- Sylius: A commerce framework to consider when a developer-led, customized build is acceptable.
- Spree Commerce: Its official product description presents a free, open-source, headless model with REST APIs, inventory, and multi-store management, and says it has no platform fees. Headless means the storefront can be built separately from the commerce back end.
- nopCommerce: A standalone ecommerce platform to compare for catalog, order, and extension needs.
- Drupal Commerce: A commerce layer for Drupal. It may suit organizations already using Drupal for content and willing to manage its technical setup.
- CubeCart: A cart option to assess against your needed extensions, payment methods, and maintenance capacity.
- osCommerce: A long-standing cart project to check carefully for current releases, security maintenance, and extension fit before using for a new store.
- Saleor: A commerce platform to investigate for API-led storefronts and developer-managed integrations.
- Medusa: A commerce-engine candidate for a headless or custom storefront architecture.
- Vendure: A commerce framework to evaluate if your team wants an API-oriented, developer-built store.
- Bagisto: A commerce platform to compare for its catalog, administration, and extension requirements.
How to narrow the platform list
- Already comfortable with WordPress: Start by evaluating WooCommerce and the cost of the hosting, extensions, and maintenance your store needs.
- Need a custom storefront or APIs: Compare Spree, Saleor, Medusa, Vendure, and Sylius. API access alone does not eliminate the work of building and maintaining a front end.
- Want a conventional, self-contained platform: Compare PrestaShop, OpenCart, nopCommerce, Shopware Community Edition, and the other standalone carts against your catalog and administration needs.
- Use Drupal for content: Evaluate Drupal Commerce before adding a separate content system.
2. Handle inventory and in-person sales
If you sell both online and in person, inventory synchronization matters: a sale at the counter should not leave your online catalog showing stock you no longer have. Offline operation, barcode scanning, returns, and staff permissions may also matter for a physical shop.
- RetailPOS: Its product documentation describes offline operation, barcode scanning, real-time stock, returns, reports, and role-based access. It also lists synchronization with Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento, Sylius, Wix, PrestaShop, and Squarespace. Confirm that your particular platform, hardware, and synchronization workflow are supported before relying on it.
- ERPNext: An ERP option to evaluate when inventory and broader business operations need to work together. Check its accounting, tax, localization, and ecommerce integration fit for your region.
- Odoo Community: A community-edition business-management option to assess for inventory and operational workflows. Confirm which functions you need are available in the edition you plan to run.
- Dolibarr: A business-management candidate for evaluating inventory, invoicing, and operational needs in one system.
- Kizō: Its product description presents local-first POS, ordering, inventory, accounting, and analytics under an MIT license. Local-first operation can be relevant where internet reliability matters; test the exact offline and synchronization behavior for your setup.
- uniCenta POS: A point-of-sale candidate for a physical store. Verify current maintenance, device compatibility, and how it connects to your online catalog.
A USB barcode scanner can speed up product lookup and checkout when the POS supports barcode scanning. Check the scanner’s compatibility with your device and POS software before buying; support for barcode scanning does not guarantee support for every scanner.
3. Measure traffic and store performance
Analytics can help you see which pages attract visitors and where shoppers leave, but compare data collection, privacy requirements, hosting, and the current license before choosing a measurement tool.
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- Matomo: An analytics candidate to evaluate for the reports and data-control approach your store requires.
- Plausible Community Edition: Check the current license and self-hosting requirements for the community edition; do not assume its hosted and self-hosted offerings have identical terms.
- Open Web Analytics: Another analytics candidate. Verify its release activity, security status, and compatibility before deploying it.
Kizō and ERP systems may also include analytics or operational reporting, which can reduce the number of separate dashboards you need. Compare those reports with your actual questions rather than adding a standalone analytics service by default.
4. Build email marketing and customer records
Newsletter delivery, campaign automation, and customer relationship management are related but different jobs. A newsletter tool may be enough for basic subscriber communications; a CRM is more appropriate when you need structured contact records and sales or service workflows.
- Listmonk: Open Business Network lists it as an AGPL-3.0 self-hosted newsletter manager in Marketing & CRM. Account for hosting, email delivery, and administration.
- Mautic: A marketing-automation candidate. Check current edition and hosting terms, and make sure you can operate the workflows you configure.
- SuiteCRM: A CRM candidate for managing customer records and related business processes; assess its maintenance and integration needs.
- EspoCRM: Another CRM option to compare for the contact, workflow, and integration features your store actually needs.
Commerce platforms may already store customer data or provide extensions for customer communications. Avoid importing customer information into extra systems unless you have a clear use for it and can manage access, consent, and retention appropriately.
Rank #3
- CONVENIENT: This iOS POS software requires no installation, all you need is an idle tablet to get started. It supports iOS Mac Pad. There’s no need to purchase an expensive POS cash register—saving both money and space
- SOFTWARE: Once purchased, you can enjoy 30 days of remote support and iCloud service. No contract or mandatory fees. We provide free software updates and professional customer service
- MULTIFUNCTION: This POS system offers a variety of features, including customizable receipts, order taking, calculation of different tax rates, multi-language support, integration with multiple food delivery platforms, promotional settings, QR code ordering and so on. It can meet all your needs
- MOBILE APP: With the mobile app, you can take advantage of cloud backup and mobile reporting services. Check on your store anytime, anywhere—the interface is clear, and the app is simple, convenient, and easy to use
- EASY to USE: This point-of-sale software is compatible with a variety of point-of-sale devices, such as printers, barcode scanners, and cash drawers. It supports cloud printing with no distance restrictions, allowing you to print store receipts from anywhere
5. Cover invoicing and accounting
Accounting requirements depend on location and business structure. Before adopting a tool, verify tax handling, localization, inventory integration, export formats, and whether your accountant can work with the records it produces.
- Akaunting: An accounting candidate to check for the functions and regional support your business needs.
- InvoicePlane: An invoicing candidate to evaluate if you need to create and track invoices. Confirm whether it covers your accounting needs or would need to sit alongside another system.
ERPNext, Odoo Community, Dolibarr, and Kizō may also combine accounting or invoicing with operational features. A single system can reduce duplicate data entry, but only if its tax support, reports, and accountant access suit your business.
6. Connect tools and automate repetitive work
When systems do not share data natively, webhooks, REST APIs, and automation tools can connect events such as a new order, a stock change, or a customer signup. Spree documents Store and Admin APIs for storefront and back-office integrations. Test the complete workflow—including errors and duplicate events—before relying on automation for orders or payments.
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- n8n: An automation candidate to investigate for connecting services and triggering workflows. Check the current license, hosting requirements, and any feature or usage limits that apply.
- Huginn: An automation option to evaluate for event-driven tasks; confirm that it is actively maintained and that its integrations cover your workflow.
- Activepieces: Another integration and automation candidate. Check current deployment options, licensing, and connector availability.
7. Run and protect a self-hosted stack
Self-hosting transfers infrastructure duties to you or your developer. A commerce app is only one part of the system: deployment, web serving, databases, backups, monitoring, and security updates need owners and a recovery plan. Managed hosting trades some of that work for recurring fees.
- Docker: A containerization option for packaging and running services. Containers can make deployments more repeatable, but they do not replace updates, backups, or security configuration.
- Podman: Another container tool to evaluate for running services. Choose based on your team’s operating knowledge and deployment requirements.
A production stack may also need a web server such as Nginx or Caddy, a database such as MariaDB or PostgreSQL, object storage, uptime monitoring, and tested backups. These are infrastructure choices rather than substitutes for a maintained store platform. Keep a backup off the store server and test that you can restore it.
Payments and shipping are services, not just software
A payment connector may be free while accepting payments is not. Stripe, PayPal, Square, Mollie, Adyen, and native gateway modules are options to investigate by region and platform; processing fees, supported countries, currencies, and settlement terms depend on the provider and your account. RetailPOS lists Stripe, Square, and Worldpay integrations. Spwig lists Stripe, PayPal, Square, Revolut, Airwallex, SumUp, and Zettle.
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For shipping, look for carrier-rate calculation, label creation, tracking, and the carriers you use. Spwig lists FedEx, UPS, and USPS integrations. Confirm whether a required integration is available for your store edition and country, and whether labels or carrier services incur separate charges.
Choose a stack that fits your store
| Store profile | Starting point | Main trade-off to assess |
|---|---|---|
| Beginner with WordPress experience | WordPress with WooCommerce; add only the POS, analytics, email, and accounting tools you need. | Theme and extension costs, hosting, updates, and the work of maintaining a WordPress installation. |
| Developer building a custom storefront | Compare Spree, Saleor, Medusa, Vendure, or Sylius; plan the storefront and API integrations as part of the project. | Greater control comes with development, deployment, monitoring, and security responsibilities. |
| Brick-and-mortar seller adding online sales | Choose a commerce platform and test its connection to RetailPOS, Kizō, or another suitable POS before importing the full catalog. | Stock accuracy, offline behavior, barcode hardware, returns, and synchronization failure handling. |
| Larger operator needing broader operations | Evaluate ERPNext, Odoo Community, or Dolibarr alongside a commerce platform if multi-store or business-process controls are central. | Edition limits, localization, tax support, integrations, training, and the effort of administering a broader system. |
Estimate the full cost before launch
Make a simple annual budget that separates software from operation. A tool with no license charge can still require paid infrastructure or specialist time.
- Infrastructure: hosting, domain registration, storage, databases, monitoring, and email delivery.
- Transactions: payment processing, refunds, currency conversion, shipping labels, and carrier services where applicable.
- People and upkeep: setup, customization, security updates, backups, restore testing, troubleshooting, and support.
- Growth: paid extensions, additional users, integrations, or managed services as order volume and complexity increase.
For each candidate, check the license and current project activity directly with its maintainers, then test a small end-to-end workflow: product setup, checkout, payment, inventory update, shipping, refund, and backup restoration. That reveals costs and integration gaps before they affect live orders.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
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