Having an unplanned website without keeping a solid maintenance budget for the coming time an affect your business functions in a long time, whereas we know that most of the CMS today is open-source and easily maintainable.

Why should need Content Management System?

According to tech reports, “The top 2 content management systems are accountable for more than 75% website based out on CMS on the web.”

In this writing, you can easily learn about the different types of content management systems available to use with different features.

Developers use these CMS according to the client’s requirements and the type of website they need to have for their business such as eCommerce.

Why choose Open Source/ Free Content Management System (CMS)?

If we consider the benefits we get by using CMS while developing a website in a short span of time, why it is necessary to ask it for free?

Open and Free source CMS facilitates the companies for saving big and creating web pages in the easiest ways.

It is always beneficial to develop websites based on such tools. It is like having a web identity in the minimal cost that every business desires.

Blogger, Writers, Creative Artists, eCommerce business owners, Start-ups and many others who are related from the same fields have realized that there is no need to invest a big amount in developing their personal content platform, instead they like to rely on the open source tools that are well developed, established and get supported by community of millions professionals.

There is a long list of CMS is available to use for development but which one is really better? What are the top 10 open source CMS system in 2025 on the web, a brief analysis is here to describe which one you have to use to develop your website for a better content management?

What are the top 10 open source CMS system in 2025?

1. WordPress
2. Strapi
3. Keystone 6
4. Apostrophe
5. Joomla!
6. Drupal
7. Magento
8. Blogger
9. Bynder
10. Shopify
11. TYPO3
12. Squarespace
13. Mambo

WordPress

A well known and one of the best use CMS of today’s web era facilitating millions of websites for managing the contents in the easiest way.

Websites of different sizes depending on the WordPress to organize, manage and publish content of wide variety stories, blogs, articles, videos, photos, tutorials and much more.

It is not just an easy to learn platform but also very flexible to manage the content even by beginners can do it alike experienced users.

The free to use plugins are more than 40k available to download, while the free to use or public WordPress Themes have over 2100 styles to select from.

It has become the standard for a site that is both pleasant and functional to search. Mobile applications and start-ups have long shifted to this technology for their web place requirements, not just due to the wide range of styles and themes available to use but also easy to maintain and provide the flexibility to work with.

It is very pleasant, reliable and secure to work with. It allows users to build websites on the different niche such as non-profit, eCommerce, business, community, creative and etc.

For better solutions, you can hire WordPress development company to get the best outcomes to meet your business needs.

Drupal

Drupal initial release in 15 January 2000 and since currently 2.3% wordwide website using. Many developers, webmasters and engineers have adapted to Drupal as their essential content management system.

It provides more than 30k extendable modules to convey your website to a unique level, unique themes as well as more than 2000 individual that will assist you to develop the website that you have always desired to develop.

A large number of people participate in daily forum discussions. It means that if any problem occurred while development then you can easily get the support.

But the question still remains is that for you really need any assistance, or a lot number of resources are accessible that is available to solve your problems without going to any forum.

Joomla

Joomla the CMS Trusted By Millions for their Websites

It is beneficial to those who are seeking to have little bit challenges, at least if it is a matter of coding.

In different ways, the developers built Joomla! With small, medium to big sized websites in mind.

The code base of Joomla! is much more sophisticated if we compare it with WordPress, but it provides more back-end integration and scalability.

Many of the developers and end users who are using Joomla are very attached to features a native integration of multiple languages, content management flexibility, and native front-end content editing which makes the content of the website all the more friendly towards guests of remote nature.

Magento

It will not be big deal if I say that eCommerce is a big marketplace in itself, Millions of people visit various eCommerce website to buy or sell something whenever is needed.

It is vital that we understand that for a portion of our eCommerce functions, maybe the best decision is to select an autonomous eCommerce platform altogether and one such stage is Magento.

Whether it is a matter of developing a professional enterprise eCommerce solution or you need a small business solution in a way where no one can catch your requirements than Magento is the best choice to consider and remove any further disappointment. Organizations such as Cort, Gant, and Nike are some of the brands using Magento based eCommerce platform.

Hire the best Magento development company to get better management of your website.

Bynder

Bynder CMS is a great tool for publishing content online clearly enough, but at the same time, they’re gold tidy with regards to working together on content across teams. This CMS is a good marketing platform that lets brands work, use, find and create content effortlessly.

It gives a plenty of great work processes to assist marketers, brand managers and editors circulate, approve and produce new marketing content.

There is also the capacity to make a style guide that is shareable, so all content is reliable and meet the requirements of your company.

While it provides some handy functionality, it is a lot more costly than other offerings. The better idea to connect with a professional team for correct pricing, keep in mind that the prices can reach up to thousands of dollars per month.

All things considered, the tool is intended to take a decent deal of strain off your marketing cost by simplifying time-consuming tasks and many mundane.

Blogger

Blogger has evolved and showed its significance over the years. In any case, it keeps its legacy towards being a blogging system.

It is used by developers as a CMS in different ways than the single one. In recent years, significantly greater adaptability was introduced in the way Blogger websites can be designed and styled.

This implies that creative, foodies and photographers have more space to build a content platform for their needs.

It is a product of Google and provides a wide range of functional features such as customization options, custom styles, and custom domains.

TYPO3

The biggest question about other CMS platforms v/s TYPO3 is that TYPE 3 has been developed only to serve the websites of a considerably bigger magnitude, and in addition to being a native content management system.

It is a well-known tool amongst corporate websites. There is no need for plugins or extensions due to its integration features. All these are responsible to slow down the websites and also affects the performance of your website.

It is a very flexible tool. It is easy to enhance and increase it using new functions without writing a single line code.

Shopify

Another eCommerce platform that is more centered on small businesses and freelancers. Shopify supports big size businesses to require secure and reliable eCommerce services.

Shopify is respected as one of the best leading eCommerce Content Management System. It is always beneficial to hire professionals to get Shopify web development services in the most effective manner.

Shopify has a huge list of community members who actively use this platform to trade, buy and sell products.

It functions well with all types of devices. So, it is also very beneficial for those who don’t have enough budgets to spend on custom designs.

Other than that, Shopify offers a scope of designs which you can be easily optimized by yourself.

Squarespace

Squarespace is another CMS platform; it was begun at the same time as WordPress. But is not an open source platform- so you are not allowed to download the software in your server.

Instead, it is a hosting service, blogging platform, and an integrated website builder. The thing to do is that you need to register for a subscription and the tool makes it simple to develop a site from scratch, which is very easy to handle if you are an inexperienced person in web development.

Like WordPress it allows you to install various themes and develop a website using videos, images, and text.

Mambo

Mambo is used for small-scale websites to the big one. There are many plugins inside so it is very easy for users to manage their website.

Mambo has multimedia galleries, forums and eCommerce, tools for documents management, shopping carts and many more. It is also known as MOS (Mambo Open Source).

Other CMS platforms

• Frog CMS
• vBulletin
• Liferay
• HubSpot
• Wix
• Prestashop

A good content management system is not only responsible to make your website faster to maintain, but also makes the most of your thoughts and innovative ideas.

Make a great selection of CMS to have a great web place!

It helps you to organize your products, customize your storefront, access to your credit/ debit/ master-card payments track and respond to orders in few clicks of the buttons.

It helps a lot to small emerging business stores to get off the ground and grow into successful companies. It does this by creating great technology and by making it accessible to the business holder who was till now not able to afford it.

We have many eCommerce systems available on the market then why we should choose this one for that we will understand about its features also to its negative parts if it has any.

Pros of Shopify eCommerce System

1. Installation:

Shopify is a web-based eCommerce software system that means there is no installation required, and the main thing is that it works with all the operating system. It gets hosted on the server, so you don’t have to worry about the maintaining any server or web server and upgrading the server.

2. Currency:

It almost runs in all countries, so it includes almost all currency. The currency for the payment depends on the payment gateway which you will use.

3. Domain Name:

You can put the domain name whatever you purchase to use your store. Log in to Shopify, go to PREFERENCES ¬> DOMAINS & DNS in your store admin to register a domain.

4. Start Selling:

All you need is just put your products online and then need the credit card to make the payments.

5. Tons of Themes:

In Shopify lots of themes available that are used to give the great effect for your website, and that also attracts the user’s eyes that can help to increase the sale. So, if you thinking to make the application using Shopify ecommerce system then you don’t have to worry about the design of the website.

6. Adding products:

The simplicity the Shopify give in to its user you will never get with any other framework or tool on the market. You can add your product by using the CSV format or you just put the each and everything by following simple instruction.

7. Easy to make Changes:

If after adding your product you want to make the changes in that then it’s not a big deal with it, you just have to click on “Edit” then you can do whatever you want.

8. API Document and Online Support:

As the developer this really impressive part using Shopify eCommerce system, it has really well-written documentation for API section. Even its Online Support replies all the query or question’s answer in very minimum time compare BigCommerce and others.

Cons of Shopify eCommerce System

1. Transaction charges:

The transaction charges of the Shopify ecommerce system depend on the plan you buy from the Shopify. Suppose if you buy the basic plan of $29 then the transaction charges will be 2% of total transaction and if you buy professional $79 plan then the transaction fee will be 1%.

So, these plans are not like buy the merchants that’s the reason that before making the eCommerce store, they think to use the Shopify. This is the main disadvantage of it.

2. Blogging System:

As we all know that in the technology market the WordPress is most used to make the blog, so if you are habitual of using the WordPress blogs then you have to spend more time to get habituate to this Shopify blog because it has its own UI and its functionality.

3. Limited Features:

It mainly suffering from its lag of features. BigCommerce frameworks have features like recommended products or tell friends, contact forms, last viewed the product, upsell, cross-sell, product review etc. but Shopify doesn’t have inbuilt features like this.

4. Costly Apps or Plugins:

This is really disappointing part of Shopify because it has very basis inbuilt features compare other eCommerce System like CS-Cart, Magento, PrestaShop etc. Yes, you can get require feature installing apps from Shopify app centre but most of the apps are available on monthly basis charges, so you have spent 100 – 1000 USD per month for system and apps.

5. Exporting Problem:

In case you try to move the whole data from the Shopify ecommerce system then you first have to export it in CSV format and then importing in another project but the many developers facing the problem with Shopify while importing on another web address.

6. Limited Customization option:

If you applied any template on the website and if you didn’t like that and you want to change the design in your way when you first keep in mind that you will not gate the design exactly what you want like the other eCommerce frameworks.

Helpful Links:

1. Shopify App Store
2. Shopify Themes
3. Shopify Discussion Forum
4. Shopify Online Chat

Important Helpline No.:

1. North America: 1-888-746-7439
2. United Kingdom: 0800-808-5233
3. Australia: 03-8400-4750
4. New Zealand: 07-788-6026
5. India: 000-800-100-5786
6. Malaysia: 1800-80-6678
7. Singapore: 800-181-1121
8. Indonesia: 007-803-651-0008

In the Last Word:

By taking so many things in the mind one thing is clear that if you want to make the small business online store then Shopify ecommerce system is the best option for you and if you want to make the big online store then Shopify is not for you.

Shopify does not provide a large number of customizations so before making any store you first clear all the things that which design, and which product should be placed at which place so you have to keep many things, and a lot of understanding is required for that.

But as we all know that in today’s current technological market no language or framework can be same as the other one.

So, same fight is also going on with the Shopify and Magento and in that fight as per my usage of these two tools, the winners are Magento because many things are there which I don’t like of the Shopify and Magento is having much more features than the Shopify. So what’s the reason that I hate Shopify (Magento vs Shopify comparison) listed below?

1. The first and foremost important thing why I hate Shopify is because it gives only basic things and configurations to the e-commerce portal not as big as which currently Magento providing.
2. Magento is a downloadable product and we can make the changes in that and according to our view we can create the store and then we can host the site but Shopify is a hosted shopping cart i.e. it’s just a template based online store solution that can only provide you with the configurations to set up any type of store on which you can just choose from the given templates that are like the templates of WordPress you can’t make your own UI design and deploy on Shopify.
3. Shopify comes with the monthly package that means package charges are ongoing and can end up being steep. If you want to keep the website for long term, the highest package i.e. unlimited which comes at the cost of $179.99 monthly (Click to view Shopify Pricing), and on another hand Magento (Magento community edition) does not have any package to make the eCommerce applications so it saves a lot of money.
4. Another major aspect on why I prefer more Magento is that you can manage the Magento websites on your server inspite of other server because if you look towards the Shopify you have to manage the store on their server and also you can access only your files not the configuration files means if you want to make the changes in the size of pictures or video then you can’t make the changes in that and in magento that you run on your server you can make the configurations according to your need and requirements which I think everyone look for.
5. If you look as per the store owners view then in magento you can set multiple languages, multiple currencies even multiple stores all in one admin panel and magento is designed in such a way that you can grow its designed structure, easily can change things by using the admin panel but in Shopify store if you want the multiple stores then you have to take the two different stores and at the start only you have to look what the different languages it can give you because once purchased you can’t add your own need languages in that.
6. Magento provides the bunch of free plugins or one time buy fee but in Shopify most of the good plugins available on monthly basis.  It creates the extra cost burden on client’s pocket to run Shopify store long-term.

Conclusion: Overall in magento vs shopify comparison, I will recommend you to use Magento website if you are looking to build a business website that should affect the business for the lifelong time and through that, you can also get the maximum benefits with minimum maintenance cost and with best features.

Here are some best open source and hosted eCommerce platforms which are very popular in 2025 for small and enterprises business requirement.

Best Open Source eCommerce System

Magento (Community Edition – CE)

Magento is one of the most famous open source system developed by Varien Inc. Nearly by 25% top website developed in Magento System.

Magento is based on Zend Framework (PHP) therefore it has the large number of plugins, extension, modules and online code references/ examples of problem-solving solution communities and forums. Which allows for the addition of new functionalities or features in your eCommerce platform.

Magento(CE) has community forum support.

Prestashop

Prestashop is a PHP open source e-commerce platform. Prestashop uses Smarty template engine which helps to change web page design and improve compile speed of 30-40%. According to W3Techs report 0.5% of all websites using PrestaShop. It has 270,000 Stores in 195 Countries.

Prestashop provides 24/7 technical support by email and phone support on +44 .2 036.971.999.

X-Cart

X-Cart is a Saas Solution commercial open source system. X-cart is the world’s first PHP e-commerce system released in 2000 by Ruslan Fazlyev.

X-Cart has some amazing features like Mobile Friendly Admin Panel, Multilingual catalog, Call for price, Auction available, Support major payment gateways, multiple transactions per order, HHVM Support, Integration with Drupal 7.x etc.

X-Cart provides the community forum, contact form, community forum, helpdesk ticket and phone support in the USA:1-800-657-7957, UK:44-207-043-4988, International:7-842-279-4038

OpenCart

OpenCart eCommerce platform is mainly made for search engine friendly, rich features and easy to use by the end user. OpenCart is developed for especially shop system and has major features which require running e-commerce portal.

OpenCart provides the community forum, contact form, and phone support on +852 24990996.

WooCommerce (WordPress)

WooCommerce is one of Best WordPress e-commerce plugin, which has all the features available which require eCommerce Platform.

As per WooCommerce website, 24% of all website (more than 663,153 websites) use WooCommerce Platform.

WooCommerce provides helpdesk ticket and community forum support.

Ubercart (Drupal)

Ubercart is a well known open source e-commerce system for Drupal CMS. Ubercart provides:

1. Single Page Checkout
2. Backend/ Admin Order Create, Edit, and Processing
3. Flexible Production Creation and Attribute Setting
4. Simple, Configurable and Download Product Catalog
5. Payment Gateway Integration
6. XML data import/export
7. User Activity Logging

Ubercart provides community forum and contact form support.

ZenCart

Zen Cart origin from osCommerce as the separate platform in 2003 has great features like Easy Payment Gateway Integration, Easy to understand the structure and templating (easy to PHP beginner) and highly reliable etc.

Zen Cart provides community forum support.

osCommerce

osCommerce is one of oldest open source eCommerce platform in PHP started by March 2000. Currently, osCommerce has 7000+ free Add-ons to help its customization and improvement functionalities.

osCommerce provides live chat, community forum, and commercial (hire developers) support.

Pimcore

Pimcore is developed in Zend MVC Framework (PHP) based Open Source Content Management System for manage Website Content, Product Information, Publishing, eCommerce and Marketing specific solution.

Its biggest feature is provide integrating Java bridge (PHP-Java-Bridge) to integrate Java-based application and systems.

Pimcore provides community forum, email at info[at]pimcore[dot]com and phone support on +43 662 876 60 62 30

CubeCart

CubeCart is open source e-commerce system, provide rich unique e-commerce feature like 100% Smarty Template Driven Responsive Skin, Image Resize/Cropper Tool, Editable Languages, Multiple Currency Support, Mailing List Management, Catalog Only Mode, Staff Order Builder, Server Request Logging, Catalog Search with Advanced Search, Product Clone, Product Attributes and Alternate Checkout Support etc.

CubeCart provides live chat, helpdesk ticket, community forum and contact form support.

AgoraCart

AgoraCart is one of oldest Perl based Open Source eCommerce system. Agora provides flexible module structure which allows the developer to complete customization based on requirement.

AgoraCart (Free version) provides community forum and contact form support.

VirtueMart (Joomla)

VirtueMart is made for Joomla and Mamboo as an extension for the low-level traffic e-commerce website. VirtueMart provides major e-commerce functionalities which major e-commerce provides by due to Joomla Popularity it adopted by over 269,000 and more online retailers.

VirtueMart provides the contact form, helpdesk ticket, and community forum support.

Jigoshop (WordPress)

Jigoshop is famous WordPress Plugin which provides major e-commerce features in WordPress Platform.

Jigoshop provides community forum support.

SpreeCommerce

Spree is a Ruby on Rails based Open Source eCommerce System, developed by Schofield in 2007. It allows easily configure, modular platform and fully customizable platform.

Spree Commerce provides contact form and commercial support.

Zeuscart

Zeuscart is very easy to simple, easy to understand and powerful open source eCommerce platform developed in PHP.

It provides major e-commerce feature like Unlimited Store/Product Categories, Store/Product Subcategories, Bulk Image Upload, Custom SEO Tags, Built-in CMS (Content Management System) and Shipping Weight Calculator etc.

Zeuscart provides community forum and contact form support.

AbanteCart

AbanteCart is PHP based Open Source System, provide rich e-commerce feature along with responsive mobile friendly frontend and backend.

AbanteCart provides community forum and contact form support.

Oscar (Python)

Oscar is Python-based domain-driven e-commerce application, provides rich e-commerce features in Python Django Framework.

Oscar provide google group forum and email support on django-oscar[at]googlegroups[dot]com

TomatoCart

TomatoCart is ExtJS RIA framework based Open Source eCommerce system, provides rich e-commerce feature like one-page checkout, Template and module installation, Multilingual, Optimized static URLs, Multi-window operation and Web desktop applications.

TomatoCart has email and commercial support for installation, upgrading, customization.

Best Paid/ License/ Hosted eCommerce Platforms

CS-Cart

CS-Cart is one of the Best License based Rich eCommerce System in PHP provides major e-commerce features which require running best e-commerce portal.

CS-Cart has some great features Theme Visual Editor, Layout Manager, Widget mode, Powerful SEO tools, Mini-cart available on all pages, Built-in template editor, Full import and export of product/user/order/language databases in CSV format, Multivendor, Drop shipping, Full product stock control, and Wholesale trade etc.

CS-Cart provides support for community forum and helpdesk support ticket.

Shopify

Shopify has fully managed e-commerce system build in Ruby on Rails Framework and Liquid Template Language 2004 by Tobias Lutke.

It provides setup online e-commerce platform with rich built-in features in few clicks. As per Shopify official website 165,000 plus business power by Shopify.

Shopify provides the community forum, email, live chat and phone support on direct helpline no.

North America: 1-888-746-7439
United Kingdom: 0800-808-5233
Australia: 03-8400-4750
New Zealand: 07-788-6026
India: 000-800-100-5786
Malaysia: 1800-80-6678
Singapore: 800-181-1121
Indonesia: 007-803-651-0008

BigCommerce

BigCommerce is also providing full managed e-commerce system in PHP similar Shopify with 15 days free trial setup and 100+ features included.

BigCommerce provides live chat, community forum, email and phone support on US/CA: 1-888-699-8911, Australia: 1800 107 862 and International clients: +1-512-758-7588

3dCart

3dCart is easy to utilize and customize, rich features, search engine friendly and visa PCI-certified hosted e-commerce system. It provides the system based on your products with 15 days free trial.

3dCart have the good support system on the community forum, live chat, email and phone support on 1-800-828-6650

Volusion

Volusion is one of oldest hosted e-commerce system founded in 1999 provides rich e-commerce features like multi-channel selling, customer, product and order management, Advance reporting system, highly customizable, search engine friendly, built-in content management system etc.

Volusion provides live chat, expert support, email and phone support on 1-800-646-3517

PinnacleCart

PinnacleCart is Hosted eCommerce platform provides A free social media platform, Payment Tokenization, Marketing Tool, PA-DSS Certified PCI Compliant, QR Codes sale support, Easy integration with Facebook app and mobile stores.

PinnacleCart provides the community forum, email and phone support on 1-800-506-0398, 1-602-734-0244