PrestaShop
Open-source e-commerce platform of French origin: free Classic edition to install yourself, or a hosted offer managed by the vendor. Marketplace of modules and themes, built-in payments (PrestaShop Checkout, Stripe, Alma, Klarna, Viva.com, Click to Pay). The vendor claims more than 250,000 merchants, a vendor figure; prices of the hosted offer and of modules are not recorded here.
For a small catalogue, a custom shop (product pages, cart, payment through Stripe) is a realistic project, and PrestaShop itself is open source: the code can be read, modified and self-hosted. The real cost is not the licence, which is free, but hosting, security updates, paid modules and configuration time. Building your own means taking on VAT by country, shipping costs, returns and the legal notices of distance selling yourself.
What you lose
- The marketplace of modules and themes, with thousands of options.
- Payments and VAT by country already configured.
- Security updates tracked by the vendor.
- Experts and partners to help you.
Existing alternatives to PrestaShop
- WooCommerceOpen source
Shop extension for WordPress, allowing pages, blog, portfolio and online selling without platform fees.
What a home-built tool costs once it exists
- Hosting and database: a server cost, and automatic backups you actually test.
- Security and GDPR: dependency updates, an HTTPS certificate, protection of your customers’ data.
- Upkeep time: who fixes the tool on a Saturday night in the middle of service if the server goes down?
The prompt to build it yourself
Build a small custom online shop, replacing an e-commerce platform. Context: about 30 products, selling in France only, card payment. To do: - A catalogue with photos, variants (size, colour), stock and VAT-inclusive prices. - A cart and a 3-step checkout: address, delivery, payment. - Payment through Stripe Checkout (keys in .env), with confirmation by webhook and an order email. - A back-office: orders, shipping status, tracking number, refunds through Stripe. - The mandatory pages: legal notice, terms of sale, privacy policy, right of withdrawal. Out of scope: multi-country and VAT by country, marketplace, loyalty programme. Stack: Next.js, PostgreSQL. README: how to run, backup, updating dependencies, and a reminder that card payment stays with Stripe.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does PrestaShop cost, and what do you really pay for?
- Listed price: free. What the subscription covers and is hard to maintain yourself: The marketplace of modules and themes, with thousands of options.; Payments and VAT by country already configured.; Security updates tracked by the vendor.; Experts and partners to help you..
- What free or open-source alternatives to PrestaShop exist?
- WooCommerce (open source). Options to compare before committing to a custom build.
- Where do you start to build an equivalent of PrestaShop?
- Copy this page’s prompt into Claude, Codex or Cursor to get a first prototype. Then plan for hosting, data backups and GDPR compliance: that is what costs the most to maintain over time.
How are our verdicts established? Read our detailed methodology ↗
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