PrestaShop is one of the many eCommerce platforms available on the market. What makes it stand out and what features distinguish this platform from the other online store engines? Read on the find out the best reasons to choose PrestaShop for an online store.  

Open-source eCommerce platform

The eCommerce platform was created in 2007 in France. And since it is open-source, this means not only that it is not only available for free but also that you can tweak the code any way you need. 

You get a powerful tool to start or expand your online business and provide the best experience for your customers – as PrestaShop is famous for its flexibility, user-friendliness, and reliability 

There are two types of PrestaShop – PrestaShop Cloud and self-hosted PrestaShop. With PrestaShop Cloud, you get a pre-installed engine and hosting. You can either connect your own domain name or use the provided sub-domain name. But with PrestaShop Cloud, you can only use official plugins and extensions and you will not have access to the source code and database. 

On the contrary, with a self-hosted PrestaShop, you can download the software, install it on your hosting, and connect to your domain name to create the online store. 

Easy to use

PrestaShop is very easy to use with multiple tools, features, and settings. It combines important instruments for eCommerce with a very intuitive and user-friendly interface. There is also the option to access the admin panel on a smartphone or tablet so you can make adjustments, edit your inventory or check the status of your orders on the go and from everywhere you are. 

If you want to see if PrestaShop is the best choice for you, you can first test the admin panel without the need to download and install the engine. 

Great functionality and features 

There are several great functionalities and features you get with PrestaShop. Some of these include: 

  • Responsive design so that the layout adapts to multiple mobile devices
  • Various languages to choose from – both for the admin panel and the front end 
  • A catalog mode with which customers can see the products but without the checkout option 
  • A multi-store option so that you can connect different stores and manage them from the same admin panel 
  • Extensive analytics to track average order value, real-time visitors, conversion rate, and other important KPIs 
  • Marketing tools such as social media integration, newsletters, and affiliate management. 
  • In-built SEO functionality for easy customization of meta titles and descriptions to create SEO-friendly URLs. 
  • Easy and complete store management including products, inventory, shipping, customers, payment, prices.

Low requirements

Unlike some of its competitors, PrestaShop has low requirements – there is no need for dedicated hosting or VPS. Check out the requirements first but a good shared hosting plan would be sufficient. And since you are getting an all-in-one solution, there is no need to worry about system requirements. 

Multiple themes and plugins

Being one of the most popular eCommerce platforms, there are a lot of themes and plugins available for PrestaShop. If you can not find what you are looking for in the official features, you can find a lot of PrestaShop approved themes and plugins, both free and paid. 

Active community and support

When you need an answer to a question or you are facing some issues you do not know how to tackle, you can rely on the PrestaShop community, support, and documentation. In the documentation, you will find archives for all the versions and tutorials for each one, with multiple guides. 

The community includes more than 800 000 users and developers who can help you find an answer to all your questions in the official community forum. 

The official PrestaShop support is paid with different plans and levels – Essential plan, Premium plan, Deluxe plan, Starter plan, and more.