Question 1

What is shopping cart software?

Accepted Answer

Shopping cart software is the e-commerce technology that lets customers select products, review their cart, and complete a purchase on a website. It also handles order management, tax calculation, and payment processing on the backend.

Question 2

How much does shopping cart software cost?

Accepted Answer

Prices range from free open-source platforms (which require paid hosting and development) to hosted SaaS plans starting around $29/month and scaling past $2,000/month for enterprise tiers. Most providers also charge payment processing fees per transaction.

Question 3

What is the difference between hosted and self-hosted shopping carts?

Accepted Answer

Hosted carts (Shopify, BigCommerce) run on the vendor's infrastructure and include hosting, security, and support in the monthly fee. Self-hosted carts (WooCommerce, Magento Open Source) are installed on your own server, giving more control and lower software costs but requiring you to manage hosting, updates, and security.