OpenCart is an online management store system, that is PHP based, using HTML and MySQL database components. The system generally provides support for different currencies and languages. What more? It is freely available under the General Public License.

Brief History

By history, OpenaCart was developed originally by Christopher G. Mann in 1988 for Walnut Creek CDROM. The product was developed in Perl and was first publicly released on May 11, 1999. Although it was released to the public in 1999, the project didn’t hit immediate popularity as a result of low activity and its progress eventually stalled in 2000.

The domain eventually expired in February 2005 before a UK-based developer, Daniel Kerr, used the product as a basis for developing his own e-commerce software, which was also written in PHP. In February 2009, the first stable version of the software was launched onto Google Code.

Kerr claimed in 2014 that OpenCart was the highest ranked e-commerce software supplier in China and in 2017, he again stated that OpenCart was more than Shopify and Magento in terms of live sites.

Subsequent versions of the software were released, with version 2.2.0.0 released in March 2016

Features

Ease Of Usage: OpenCart offers a very friendly administrative dashboard, with menus that are user-friendly and very straightforward.

• It Has Virtual File Structures
• It offers ready to use templates
• It is easy and fast to make your site multi-lingual
• There are thousands of extensions and modules.

Setting Up OpenCart – Tips For Selecting A Great Web Host

When setting up an OpenCart powered software or any other software, lots of important decisions exist that the developer has to be careful in making. One such important decision is the choice of web host. Your choice of web host can make or mar your software, depending on how great and experienced the host you decide to choose is.

As a developer that is starting out with the launch of an OpenCart application, you will be faced with a difficult task of making a choice of the web host that will suit your OpenCart application needs.

The number of web hosts that are available today are quite much and can cause confusion even to the most technically savvy developers. Here are a few tips that should help point you in the right direction, if you must pick a host that will be best for your OpenCart application.

Look Out For Quality Customer Support

Launching an OpenCart powered software can involve a process that can get technical and as such may require a bit of hand-holding at some critical stages of getting things up and running. Your choice of web host can be a turning point in ensuring that you are walked through certain difficult process during the runtime of your OpenCart software.

You are therefore encouraged during the process of making a hosting choice to look out for the support channels that are available for each host, putting the efficiency rate of each into strong consideration, so that your choice will eventually be one that will resonate with your need.

All applications that are launched on the OpenCart server require enough and sufficient technical knowledge of the whole working process of the server and as such requires web technicians that are technologically savvy to run it.

Having a web host that guarantees technical support can help you cross the hurdles that unplanned technical issues that may arise will bring, helping your app survive issues that would have caused its death.

Know Your Upgrade Options

When starting out with any OpenCart powered software, it is often expected that you launch on a shared Hosting before eventually upgrading in the long run. Shared hosts are relatively cheap, easier to set up and supports the basic needs of beginners.

As the software increases in usage and functionality, you will discover a renewed need for a broader bandwidth, email storage, and other resources. This is a major reason why you should look out for only a web host that supports growth and eventual upgrades.

Research Prices

Price is an important aspect of any project, especially as a starter and should be looked out for. Been in need of a host means that you are probably just starting and as a starter, you will not want to go for a host that will charge what your budget can’t cover.

A major recommendation, however, is that you do not compromise quality on the basis of low price, you should seek a host that offers quality hosting services at a relatively affordable price.

Speed

This is one of the most important factors that should be put into consideration if you are to pick a web host that will guarantee the efficiency of your OpenCart application. We are in a time when speed adds up to hold customers in your application.

Slow app connections can be frustrating to even the most loyal Customers and can drive them away from your app. Speed particularly relates to load time and is essential, with quite a number of researchers already showing that more than 40% of app users will abandon an app if it takes more than a few seconds to load. You will not want your application abandoned by loyal users because of slowness during load and run times.

Server Reliability

Another important tip that should be put into consideration is how reliable the web host is. Having a very reliable web host that operates at all times will help guarantee that your growing community of app visitors do not get disappointed in the long run as a result of unnecessary downtimes that are caused by the poor server of the web host.

Security

The security of your OpenCart application is essential if it must drive the number of users that you expect in the long run. Sensitive information is often transmitted on the app by users and such information requires that the users are guaranteed security from unnecessary online security bridges. Picking a host that is secured enough will help you to ease the overall process that’s involved providing secured services with your app.

Following these simple tips when making a choice of web host for your OpenCart application will guarantee that your application gets only the best setup.

Read: How to Install OpenCart on SiteGround