According to my experience, mostly OpenCart is preferred by people with technical knowledge like Technical Stack of the Store.
They have some idea of languages, servers or they have worked for some time in their life, and now they are going to become store owners and planning to sell something as a side hustle.
For example, a developer with gardening as a hobby who wants to sell stuff related to gardening will prefer OpenCart because he finds it technically easy to install and maintain OpenCart. He can easily create extensions for specific requirements, can install and integrate themes and get more understanding as required through available tutorials.
Another example could be of a regular businessman, with a son or partner is a technical person, who decides to start selling their products online.
They might choose OpenCart as it is more convenient to soft-launch an e-commerce store with OpenCart without directly involving or getting dependent on any developer, as is the case with other e-commerce solutions. When they earn some profit, they can bear the expenses of hiring a developer for their website.
So basically OpenCart is very much friendly for slightly technical people, and its user interface, admin section and as well as frontend is very simple as compared to other e-commerce solutions, for example, Prestashop is graphically more technical and development intensive than OpenCart, and the same is the case with WooCommerce.
Another big reason is the variety of options available in WooCommerce as people get confused and feel like they can’t develop a store without the help of any developer. When they come to OpenCart they don’t find a lot of variety of options to choose from, so relatively it becomes easier to decide which theme or extension should be used.
People who are afraid of getting their stores unstable due to the regular coming updates of themes or extensions (as is the case with WooCommerce) also prefer to go with OpenCart as there are no frequent updates on OpenCart. When there are server related updates, they resolve any compatibility issues also. Generally, once you install OpenCart, you won’t have to update it unless you decide to switch to any latest version for getting benefit from its features.
OpenCart Versions are very stable, once installed there are no updates required unless any specific requirements are asked by your hosting providers, for example, they ask you to update your store version to match the latest PHP version available, as they have decided to stop providing support for previous PHP versions and update the hosting servers with the latest PHP version. For example, OpenCart Version 1.5.6 does not run with PHP 7, so people who had their stores on O.C Version 1.5.6 had to upgrade the store with the latest OpenCart versions that could work with PHP version 7.0, generally this type of case occur in 5 or 10 years or maybe a little more.
People who had their stores developed in 2012 still have their stores in operating condition and are getting sales
So basically 80-90% of people are those who fall under the above-mentioned group of people who know server stack and technology. Almost 10% of store owners are those who contacted any developer, who was in the early stages of learning development, and starting his career as a developer, these types developers recommend them to go with OpenCart because he also finds it convenient to maintain OpenCart, as it’s code side is very easy and it is very easy to provide updates in the code, as compared to that of Magento or WooCommerce.
In the end, a highly professional developer who understands the complete OpenCart Systems, recommends and prefers OpenCart for Low maintenance and development costs. If you have got some customization for your store you will find its developer at relatively lower costs as compared to Magento or WooCommerce.
Also, there are no strict protocols or standards to follow for its customization or changes, there are no strict validations, and the code must pass through several phases and levels of development before implementation. For this reason, its customization is very easy and quick, you get results quickly, you don’t need to read a lot of books to know, what is allowed and what is not for the development of OpenCart functions. It is built in basic PHP, everything is allowed and you have the liberty to customize it to any extent. So these are the reasons for which any professional sound person can recommend you to have your store built with OpenCart.
Once again we are taking the opportunity to summarize the reasons why we recommend you to go with OpenCart:
1. Low Development Cost
2. Low Maintenance Cost
3. Stability (No Updates create issues for your store)
4. Your Store is running for years and you don’t have to update your store unless you decide to upgrade your store to adopt any new designs, patterns, or features.
