PrestaShop, WooCommerce, Magento, OpenCart, Sylius — Which to Choose in 2026? Data, Charts, Facts
A comprehensive comparison of 5 leading open-source e-commerce platforms. Market share, GitHub metrics, performance benchmarks, TCO analysis and pros/cons tables — all backed by hard data.
When building or migrating an online store, choosing the right e-commerce platform is one of the most critical technical decisions. The open-source market offers several mature solutions — but they differ dramatically in philosophy, ecosystem, cost and target audience.
This article skips opinions and examines hard data: market share, GitHub repository activity, Core Web Vitals, extension counts and real deployment costs.
compared
globally
plugins
commits
🌍 Market Share — Who Dominates Globally?
According to W3Techs (Q1 2026) data analysing the top 10 million websites:
E-commerce platform market share
⭐ GitHub Activity — Project Health
GitHub Stars — 2026
Commits in the last 12 months
| Platform | GitHub Stars | Forks | Contributors | Latest release | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WooCommerce | 9 700 | 10 800 | 850+ | 2025-03 | GPLv3 |
| PrestaShop | 8 200 | 5 000 | 680+ | 2025-04 | OSL 3.0 + AFL |
| Magento 2 | 11 300 | 9 200 | 1 200+ | 2025-02 | OSL 3.0 |
| OpenCart | 7 300 | 4 600 | 290+ | 2025-01 | GPLv3 |
| Sylius | 7 800 | 2 100 | 430+ | 2025-03 | MIT |
⚡ Performance — Core Web Vitals
Google research shows every 100ms page delay can reduce sales by 1%. Tests on identical hosting (4 vCPU, 8GB RAM, 1,000 products):
Homepage load time (LCP median, ms)
| Platform | TTFB (ms) | LCP median (ms) | CLS | Built-in cache | Redis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| WooCommerce | 380 | 3 200 | 0.08 | ✗ | ✓ |
| PrestaShop | 220 | 2 800 | 0.04 | ✓ | ✓ |
| Magento 2 | 650 | 4 100 | 0.12 | ✓ (FPC) | ✓ |
| OpenCart | 180 | 2 100 | 0.03 | ⚠ partial | ✗ |
| Sylius | 290 | 3 500 | 0.06 | ✓ | ✓ |
🔌 Plugin & Module Ecosystem
Number of available extensions / modules
💰 Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) — Year 1
Real cost of launching a mid-market B2C store (~500 SKU, 10k monthly visitors):
TCO Year 1 — estimated cost (EUR)
| Item | WooCommerce | PrestaShop | Magento 2 | OpenCart | Sylius |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hosting/year | €600 | €600 | €2 400 | €400 | €1 200 |
| Development | €3 000 | €2 500 | €12 000 | €1 500 | €15 000 |
| Plugin licences/year | €1 200 | €800 | €3 000 | €400 | €0 |
| Maintenance/year | €1 800 | €1 200 | €4 800 | €600 | €3 600 |
| TOTAL | €6 600 | €5 100 | €22 200 | €2 900 | €19 800 |
🏆 Verdict — Which Platform for Whom?
Small shops, content-first
Already on WordPress? WooCommerce is a natural extension. Huge community. Not for B2B or large catalogs.
SME e-commerce, EU market
Best balance of cost vs features. Strong EU integrations: local payment gateways, shipping carriers, VAT. Built-in multistore.
Enterprise, B2B, large catalogs
Powerful but expensive. Needs €20k+ budget. Ideal for retailers with 100k+ SKUs and complex B2B workflows.
Smallest shops, MVP
Simplest deployment, lowest TCO. Lacks advanced features — good for hobby or test stores.
Custom, API-first, Symfony devs
E-commerce framework for PHP/Symfony developers. Build exactly what you need — high custom dev cost.
📊 Google Trends — What's Growing, What's Declining?
Google Trends — global interest (last 5 years)
✅ Summary
- Budget — OpenCart & WooCommerce up to €5k; PrestaShop up to €10k; Magento/Sylius €20k+
- Scale — small shops → WooCommerce/OpenCart; mid-market → PrestaShop; enterprise → Magento
- EU/CEE market — PrestaShop has the richest local ecosystem (local payments, carriers, VAT)
- Dev team — WordPress devs → WooCommerce; PHP/Symfony devs → PrestaShop or Sylius