This is the 2nd Part of a 4 Part Series on Ministry eCommerce Solutions.

Looking for the other parts of the Series?

1. Hosted Services and Carts
2. Free Self-Hosted Solutions
3. Self-Hosted Solutions for Purchase
4. WordPress eCommerce Solutions

“Free” Self-Hosted Solutions

Self-hosted solutions are a great way to get your ecommerce needs met, especially if you have an IT team and the administrative resources to manage the site.  It can also give you complete ownership over your entire site.  You’ll have to have (among a number of things) your own server, databases, and staff to assist in the development and admin.  You’ll also have to install these yourself.

So, even though the software if free, the time to develop, install, and administrate (which you’d have to do in Hosted Solutions) is not.  Keep that in mind!  In addition, many of these are also Open Source, which I really really like…!

1. CubeCart – CubeCart offers version 3 of their software for free, but charges for version 4 after a free 30 day trial.  Offers bulk upload, inventory management, shipping modules and everything else you would expect from a fully operational online store.
2. Ecommerce Shopping Cart Software – A fairly new free shopping cart that puts a heavy emphasis on not having to know how to code, run databases or anything else.
3. IdeaCart – A free cart still in its Alpha phase, features fraud detection, newsletter support and more.
4. JadaSite – JadaSite is a bit unusual in that it’s Java based, as well as fully integrated with a content management system.
5. Magento – Launched in 2008, Magento is one the newest open source shopping carts on the market.
6. OpenCart – An open source PHP shopping cart.  It’s been a while since it has been updated, but everything appears to still be up and running.
7. osCommerce – One of the best known shopping carts out there, this open source cart enjoys a large community of plugin creators.  It has been quite a while since their last major release, v2.2 RC 2a, but they are in active development of version 3.0, which promises some major administration upgrades.
8. PrestaShop – An extremely new open source shopping cart that already seems fairly full-featured, and promises more to come with an area for expansion modules to be opened in the near future.
9. Quick.Cart.Lite – Quick.Cart.Lite is the free version of the Quick.Cart software and will allow you to build a simple online store.  Offers two more robust levels of the same program with more features.
10. Satchmo – Built on the Django framework, Satchmo offers highly customizable shop building with a long list of built in features such as Google Analytics incorporation, PDF invoice generation and more.
11. Ubercart – Ubercart is a full-featured shopping cart that also integrates with a Drupal site so that you can build a community around your store or featured products.
12. VirtueMart – A shopping cart built specifically for integration with the Joomla! and Mambo content management system.
13. Zen Cart – Zen Cart is an off branch of osCommerce that comes with several of the most popular modules built into it.

Stay tune for Part 3 as we explore Self-Hosted Solutions that you have to pay for.

Did I miss any?