AbanteCart
AbanteCart is a free, open-source eCommerce platform founded in 2010, built on PHP8/MySQL with a RESTful API, serving SMBs, developers, and enterprises globally through a 43,000+ live-site installed base and a marketplace of 200+ extensions.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2010
- HeadquartersEdgewater, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What AbanteCart does
AbanteCart is a free, open-source eCommerce platform founded in 2010 and operated through Belavier Commerce LLC in Edgewater, New Jersey. The platform provides a complete shopping cart solution for online retailers, including product catalog management, order and customer management, multi-store and multi-language support, integrated shipping with real-time rates from USPS, UPS, and FedEx, payment processing via Stripe, PayPal Commerce, and other gateways, sales tax automation through Avalara AvaTax, and built-in SEO and PCI compliance alignment. Its underlying technology stack is PHP8, HTML5, Bootstrap 5, jQuery, AJAX, MVC architecture, and a RESTful JSON API, and the v1.4 codebase is described as 16,000+ lines of code across 3,000+ files representing 45,000 man-hours of development.
The product portfolio includes the core free platform, the AbanteCart Charged (v2.0) distributed enterprise edition for customized eCommerce at scale, an official Docker container, and a marketplace of 126+ themes and 200+ extensions. The business model is freemium and multi-stream: the core software generates no licensing or subscription revenue, while monetization comes from (1) marketplace commissions on third-party extensions and themes, (2) tiered managed services priced at $129/month and $339/month plus $75/hour service requests and a $149 installation service, (3) hosting partner referrals (notably Scalahosting), and (4) voluntary donations. Distribution is entirely self-serve and global - direct download from abantecart.com, GitHub, Docker Hub, and partner hosting channels - with a community of 189,540+ forum members providing peer support and a 43,000+ live-site installed base.
AbanteCart firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- AbanteCart
- Legal name
- AbanteCart
- Website
- https://abantecart.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2010
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- AbanteCart is a free, open-source eCommerce platform founded in 2010, built on PHP8/MySQL with a RESTful API, serving SMBs, developers, and enterprises globally through a 43,000+ live-site installed base and a marketplace of 200+ extensions.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Where AbanteCart is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Edgewater
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
AbanteCart business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Others
Revenue model
- Open Source Software (Free): Core AbanteCart shopping cart software is free to download and use with no startup, licensing, subscription, or transaction fees
- Marketplace Extensions and Themes: Third-party developers sell extensions and themes through AbanteCart marketplace, with AbanteCart likely earning commission on sales
- Managed Services: Professional support services including installation, configuration, monitoring, incident resolution, and custom development. Priced at $75/hour service requests, $129-339/month managed plans, and $149 installation service
- Donations and Contributions: Users can make voluntary contributions to support ongoing development and feature additions
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Others | Free Open Source Software |
| Usage-based | Pay-as-you-go | Service Request |
| Subscription | Monthly | Managed Service - Monthly |
| Subscription | Monthly | Managed Service Pro |
| One time/ perpetual license | Pay-as-you-go | Installation and Setup Service |
| Other | Pay-as-you-go | Customization Services |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels7 records
AbanteCart product offering
Product offeringCore offering
AbanteCart provides a free, open-source PHP-based ecommerce shopping cart platform that lets merchants build, run, and customize online stores with multi-store, multi-language, and multi-currency support. The platform is complemented by the "AbanteCart Charged" distributed enterprise edition, a marketplace for third-party extensions and themes, and a paid managed services offering that covers installation, configuration, monitoring, and custom development.
Product overview
AbanteCart is a free open source ecommerce platform with a platform-plus-modules architecture. The core AbanteCart platform provides comprehensive shopping cart functionality built on PHP8, HTML5, Bootstrap 5, and RESTful JSON API. It is complemented by AbanteCart Charged, a distributed enterprise edition for scalable custom solutions. The ecosystem includes the AbanteCart Marketplace offering 126+ themes and 200+ extensions for marketing, design, payments, and shipping. Managed services are available through managed.abantecart.com with tiered support plans. Additional offerings include Docker containers for deployment, official documentation portal, and a drag-and-drop Page Builder extension. The platform supports Google integration (Analytics, Maps, Places autocomplete), major shipping carriers (USPS, UPS, FedEx), and payment processors (Stripe, PayPal, Avalara).
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- AbanteCart Core Platform Free, open-source PHP ecommerce shopping cart platform built on PHP8, HTML5, Bootstrap 5, jQuery, AJAX, MVC, and RESTful JSON API. Provides product catalog management, order and customer management, multi-store, multi-language and multi-currency support, payment integrations (Stripe, PayPal), real-time shipping (USPS, UPS, FedEx), SEO optimization, mobile-responsive storefront, and PCI-compliant security for businesses running online stores.
- AbanteCart Charged Distributed enterprise edition of AbanteCart built for customized ecommerce at any scale, integrating complex business processes and workflows into storefront or backend operations. Targeted at large and growing businesses that need scalable, customizable ecommerce with complex workflows.
- AbanteCart Marketplace Official marketplace at marketplace.abantecart.com where third-party developers list and sell extensions, themes, templates, payment gateways, shipping modules, marketing tools, and language packs that extend the AbanteCart platform. Merchants browse and purchase add-ons to extend platform functionality.
- AbanteCart Managed Services Professional managed ecommerce services for AbanteCart merchants, including installation, configuration, monitoring, incident resolution, priority support, and custom development. Delivered via Service Request ($75/hour), Managed Service ($129/month), Managed Service Pro ($339/month), Installation and Setup Service ($149 one-time), and Customization Services (quote-based).
- AbanteCart Page Builder Drag-and-drop page builder plugin for creating website pages and content within AbanteCart storefronts. Includes live preview, HTML import, custom CSS/JS blocks, undo functionality, auto-save, and layout presets; requires AbanteCart 1.4.1+ with the Novator or default template. Sold as a separate extension on the AbanteCart Marketplace.
Quantifiable outcome
- 43k+ live sites powered by AbanteCart
- +1 more outcomes
Companies that use AbanteCart
Customer profileNamed customers3 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
AbanteCart technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration13 records
Feature10 records
AbanteCart partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Six partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- ScalahostingcoreScalahosting is a recommended hosting partner providing AbanteCart-optimized hosting with 99.9% uptime guarantee and 24/7 support. Special offers are available for AbanteCart users through affiliate links on the website.
- StripecoreStripe is integrated as a payment processing extension, updated in v1.4.4 with newer SDK and improved payment handling for more dependable payment flow and better order tracking.
- AvalaracoreAvalara provides sales tax automation integration through their AvaTax extension, helping merchants automate sales tax calculation and compliance.
- PayPalcorePayPal Commerce platform integration updated in v1.4.4 with more flexible checkout experience, improved buttons, more funding sources, and stronger handling for card payments.
- USPScoreNew USPS shipping extension in v1.4.4 built for current USPS API supporting live domestic and international shipping rates, account connection testing, and label generation.
- GooglecoreGoogle Places address autocomplete for faster checkout, Google Analytics integration, Google Maps integration, and Google reCAPTCHA for security.
Scale indicators8 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
AbanteCart competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- osCommerce: osCommerce is one of the original open-source PHP ecommerce platforms, with a similar self-hosted model and extension marketplace structure. It competes directly with AbanteCart in the free open-source ecommerce space, particularly for cost-sensitive merchants.
- OpenCart: OpenCart is an open-source PHP ecommerce platform with a marketplace of extensions, very similar in technology, business model, and target customer to AbanteCart. Both serve SMBs with free core software monetized through extensions and themes.
- Zen Cart: Zen Cart is an open-source PHP-based ecommerce platform with a community-driven model and free core offering, directly comparable to AbanteCart's positioning. Both target small merchants seeking free, customizable shopping cart solutions.
- WooCommerce: WooCommerce is the leading open-source ecommerce plugin for WordPress, sharing AbanteCart's open-source, self-hosted model and SMB target market. Both compete to provide free shopping cart solutions for small and medium businesses, though WooCommerce benefits from the massive WordPress ecosystem.
- PrestaShop: PrestaShop is a PHP-based open-source ecommerce platform with a marketplace of modules and themes, directly comparable to AbanteCart in technology stack, business model, and SMB focus. Both target merchants seeking free, self-hosted ecommerce solutions with paid extensions and themes.
Broad incumbents
- BigCommerce: BigCommerce is a leading SaaS ecommerce platform competing with AbanteCart for SMB and mid-market merchants. While it offers a hosted proprietary solution versus AbanteCart's self-hosted open-source approach, both target the same customer segment with feature-rich online store solutions.
- Shopify: Shopify is the dominant SaaS ecommerce platform serving SMBs and enterprises, competing with AbanteCart for the same merchant segment. While Shopify is a proprietary hosted solution (vs. AbanteCart's self-hosted open-source model), both target first-time online merchants with similar feature sets.
- Wix eCommerce: Wix is a broad website builder with integrated ecommerce capabilities, competing with AbanteCart for SMB merchants seeking easy-to-use online store solutions. Wix offers a hosted, proprietary alternative to AbanteCart's self-hosted open-source model, with significantly more marketing reach.
- Magento (Adobe Commerce): Magento is an enterprise-grade open-source PHP ecommerce platform that, like AbanteCart, is built on PHP and follows an open-source model with paid extensions. However, it targets larger merchants with substantially more complex and expensive offerings, positioning it as a broader incumbent in the same technology category.
Emerging players
- Sylius: Sylius is a modern open-source ecommerce framework built on Symfony/PHP, similar to AbanteCart in its open-source approach but with a more developer-focused, headless architecture. It targets developers and agencies building custom ecommerce solutions, partially overlapping with AbanteCart's developer segment.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
AbanteCart social profiles
Digital presenceAbanteCart compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance1 record
AbanteCart financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
AbanteCart leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
AbanteCart funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
AbanteCart M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about AbanteCart
What does AbanteCart do?
AbanteCart provides a free, open-source PHP-based ecommerce shopping cart platform that lets merchants build, run, and customize online stores with multi-store, multi-language, and multi-currency support. The platform is complemented by the "AbanteCart Charged" distributed enterprise edition, a marketplace for third-party extensions and themes, and a paid managed services offering that covers installation, configuration, monitoring, and custom development.
Is AbanteCart a public or private company?
AbanteCart is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was AbanteCart founded?
AbanteCart was founded in 2010. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is AbanteCart based?
AbanteCart is headquartered in Edgewater, United States, in the North America region.
How does AbanteCart make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Open Source Software (Free) is the primary driver. The others are marketplace Extensions and Themes, managed Services and donations and Contributions.
Who are AbanteCart's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are osCommerce, OpenCart, Zen Cart, WooCommerce and PrestaShop. Broad incumbents are BigCommerce, Shopify, Wix eCommerce and Magento (Adobe Commerce). Sylius is listed as an emerging player.
Does AbanteCart have an API?
Yes. AbanteCart provides a RESTful JSON API for both Storefront and Admin interfaces, enabling external integrations and third-party connectivity. The platform supports API-based connections and has a dedicated Storefront API documentation. Developer documentation is at docs.abantecart.com/pages/developer/architecture.html.