According to BuiltWith’s current technology data, OpenCart is detected on more than 225,000 live websites worldwide. In India, the number is around 2,500. These figures are technology detections, so they should not be treated as an official customer count, but they give us a useful picture of how widely the platform is still being used.
So, who is using OpenCart?
There isn’t one particular type of business behind all those stores.
OpenCart can be found on online shops selling consumer products, specialist products, electronics, fashion, home products, industrial goods and other categories. Some are small independent stores. Others have much larger catalogues and more complicated requirements.
That is probably one of the more interesting things about OpenCart. It has never really depended on being the newest or most fashionable eCommerce platform. Its appeal has always been fairly straightforward: install it on your own server, build the store around your requirements and add the functionality you need.
Why are businesses still using it?
For some businesses, control matters more than having everything managed for them.
OpenCart is open source. The software can be downloaded and installed on your own hosting, which gives the store owner and developer direct access to the website files, database and server environment.
That can be useful when a business needs something outside the standard setup.
A developer can modify the store, connect it to another system, add a payment gateway, change shipping rules, build a custom product option or integrate the store with an existing business application.
OpenCart also has a large extension marketplace. The official marketplace currently lists more than 13,000 modules and themes covering payments, shipping, marketing, accounting, reporting, design and other eCommerce functions.
OpenCart in India
India still has a noticeable OpenCart user base.
BuiltWith currently detects 2,546 Indian websites using OpenCart. Its list includes online stores from different parts of the country and businesses operating in very different fields.
That makes OpenCart worth looking at if you are running an Indian eCommerce business and want something you can host and customise yourself.
Of course, the platform alone doesn’t solve the practical problems of running an online store. Payment gateways, GST requirements, shipping, inventory, order management, website speed and mobile experience still have to be handled properly.
What about large product catalogues?
This is another area where OpenCart can make sense.
If your store has hundreds or thousands of products, you need more than a nice-looking homepage. You need proper category management, product options, stock control, customer accounts, discounts, order management and a checkout that works reliably.
OpenCart provides these basic eCommerce functions, while extensions can be added when the standard system isn’t enough.
The important part is how the store is configured. A badly configured OpenCart website can be slow and difficult to maintain, just as a badly configured WooCommerce or Shopify store can have its own problems.
And yes, OpenCart can run multiple stores
OpenCart has built-in support for multi-store setups.
That means a business can run more than one storefront from a single OpenCart installation. This can be useful when different brands, markets or product ranges need separate storefronts but the business doesn’t want to maintain completely separate systems.
Whether this is the right approach depends on how the stores are structured and what needs to be shared between them.
Is OpenCart still being developed?
Yes.
The platform is still maintained and its ecosystem is still active. OpenCart now also offers OpenCart Cloud for businesses that don’t want to manage their own hosting.
The important point is that OpenCart hasn’t simply been left behind while newer platforms took over the market. There are still developers building extensions, businesses running stores and customers shopping on those stores.
Should you choose OpenCart for a new store?
That depends on what you actually need.
If you want a completely managed eCommerce service and don’t want to deal with hosting or server maintenance, a hosted platform may be more convenient.
If your business already runs on WordPress, WooCommerce may fit more naturally.
If you need a highly customised enterprise commerce system, there are other options worth considering.
But if you want an open-source eCommerce platform, want control over your hosting and have a developer who can customise and maintain it, OpenCart is still a perfectly reasonable option in 2026.
What matters more than the platform
We’ve worked on enough websites to know that choosing the platform is only the beginning.
A store can be built with an excellent eCommerce platform and still perform badly if the hosting is poor, the images are huge, the checkout is confusing or the website doesn’t work properly on a phone.
The opposite is also true. A well-planned store with sensible hosting, good product photography, fast pages, a clean checkout and properly configured payment and shipping systems can work very well without using the newest technology available.
So the question isn’t really whether OpenCart is still popular.
It is.
The more useful question is whether it fits your business.
Already running an OpenCart store?
If you already have an OpenCart website, you don’t necessarily need to start over just because newer platforms are getting more attention.
Sometimes the better approach is to improve what you already have.
At Mitrang, we can work on existing OpenCart websites, including design updates, custom development, performance improvements, SEO, integrations and migration planning when moving to another platform actually makes sense.
If your OpenCart store is working for your business, there is no reason to replace it simply because another platform is currently more fashionable.