OpenCart is an open-source eCommerce platform that is completely free to use. It offers powerful features, and a collection of responsive themes, and gives complete control in designing an online store as per your needs.
Since it is an open-source platform, you’ll have to take care of all its technical requirements, including hosting server and security, to ensure smooth functioning.
This is where you need an OpenCart hosting provider that ensures maximum uptime for your site, enables secure access, ease of transferring information, quick caching of data, and other essential features.
To aid you in finding the perfect hosting service for your OpenCart store, here’s the curated list of the best OpenCart hosting providers available in the market.
1. FastComet
FastComet provides an optimized OpenCart hosting provider, which ensures speed and scalability. It adds a layer of performance boost by offering the latest PHP/ MySql version and transmits the static content at rocket speed without any friction.
FastComet has 11 data center locations across the globe, including Chicago, Toronto, London, Singapore, Tokyo, etc. An added advantage is that you need not run short of resources as it displays how much data is being utilized to reduce unnecessary costs.
Pros –
- Free domain transfer and Cloudflare CDN.
- Outstanding 24×7 priority support.
- Free managed migrations from experts, including files, databases, and emails.
- Daily optimization reports and excellent security features.
Cons –
- Optimized performance features like RocketBoost are available on higher plans.
- Pricing plans are a bit expensive.
- The RAM availability is pretty low as the maximum storage offered is 6GB only.
Pricing Plans – FastComet offers a single website installation, free website, and domain transfer with 15 GB SSD at just $2.95/month. However, if you have multiple websites and want a super-fast website loading speed, the FastCloud Extra plan at $19.95/month would be the right pick.
2. TMDHosting
With 10+ years of experience, TMD Hosting is a fully managed OpenCart hosting provider with powerful features. By combining three layers of cache on top of solid-state drives, your site will be 16 times faster, which will strongly impact your business growth.
It offers live malware protection, which potentially shields your OpenCart website from dangerous threats. Best of all, you can install OpenCart plugins like integration with Square payment processor, quick checkout, image manager plugin, etc., and other 100+ extensions absolutely for free.
Pros –
- Enables free OpenCart installation by an expert.
- 60-day money-back guarantee.
- Free daily backups.
- 24x7x365 premium support.
- Servers are fully optimized to support different OpenCart versions.
Cons –
- Offers only basic caching in its Starter plan.
Pricing Plans – TMD Hosting costs start at $2.95/month for a single site and go up to $7.95/month/ All the plans come with unlimited SSD space and bandwidth, free domain, cPanel, and more features, along with a 60-day money-back guarantee.
3. Cloudways
Cloudways is an enterprise-ready hosting provider that is perfectly compatible with OpenCart. It is fast, reliable, offers 10x hosting speed, and a powerful CDN that delivers superior performance and cutting-edge response times. This ensures that your site is open to high scalability which readily maximizes your overall presence.
You can go live in minutes by choosing the PHP application and server requirements like size, and location, and installing OpenCart. Besides, you can select either automated or on-demand backups stored at off-site locations that can be restored in one click.
Pros –
- Top-notch customer support with various options
- Auto-healing of sites to bounce back immediately from crashes
- More than 60 data centers
- Offers multiple integrations and various add-ons
Cons –
- Requires technical expertise to build a store
- Absence of CPanel.
- Once you choose to upgrade RAM and move to a higher plan, you cannot downgrade the RAM size within the same server.
Pricing Plans – Cloudways pricing plan starts at $10/month with DigitalOcean and goes over $1,000/month for large websites.
4. A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting is the officially recommended hosting provider by OpenCart. The best part of using A2 hosting is that it uses turbo servers for ensuring 20x faster page loads. This results in high site performance and contributes to a rich online experience for your customers.
Another benefit that A2 hosting offers is that it allows for free migration. It means if you already use an existing hosting service and want to migrate, then OpenCart’s team will do it for you. With its auto-configuration, all the technical aspects will be handled quickly, which leads to increased efficiency.
Pros –
- Excellent customer support. Options include submitting tickets, chat, call, and email. Included in all the plans
- Guaranteed 99.9% uptime for fast performance
- Offers excellent security features like virus scanning, reinforced DDoS protection, brute force defense, etc.
Cons –
- Does not offer a free domain.
- Incurs higher renewal costs.
- You can get 20x faster servers by only upgrading to its Turbo plan.
Pricing Plans – A2 Hosting pricing plan starts at $2.99/month and goes up to $12.09/month with the Turbo Max Plan. The Turbo Max plan includes powerful caching and acceleration, which results in 20 times faster page load time.
5. GreenGeeks
GreenGeeks is an eco-friendly hosting service provider that shows excellent compatibility with the OpenCart platform. It offers hundreds of features at an affordable price. It provides an easy-to-use dashboard for quick navigation and an advanced control panel that gives you access to all types of tools and features for higher convenience.
It uses an industry-leading web server that ensures 50 times lightning speed and amplifies your site performance. In addition to this, it offers free shopping cart installation and premium SSL certificates for adding an extra layer of security to your OpenCart website.
Pros –
- Free CDN Integration and SSL certificate.
- AI-powered advanced firewall protection.
- Excellent customer support via live chat, telephone, and email tickets.
- Eco-friendly web hosting service.
- 30-day money-back guarantee.
Cons –
- Their phone support is not available 24×7.
Pricing Plans – GreenGeeks Hosting is an environment-friendly hosting platform which makes it comparatively expensive to other hosting services on the list. Its basic plan starts at $10.99/month, along with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
6. SiteGround
Another premium hosting partner of OpenCart is SiteGround. It offers top-notch web hosting services with high performance, security, and excellent customer support. It has data centers across three continents that empower more than 2M domains.
With SiteGround hosting, you can enjoy a free SSL certificate, daily backups, built-in caching, PCI-compliant servers, etc. Besides, it offers an automated app installer that helps you launch your OpenCart store with a hassle-free experience.
Pros –
- Offers a free shopping cart installation to set up a fully functional online store.
- Provides a set of user-friendly tools that enables easy site management.
- A good choice for ensuring scalability.
- Helpful and active customer support is available 24×7.
Cons –
- Their pricing plans come with fixed storage.
- Sometimes the websites tend to be slow on shared hosting.
Pricing Plans – Siteground’s basic plan starts at $4.99/month and goes up to $14.99/month. All the plans include free SSL, daily backups, unmetered traffic, free CDN, and unlimited databases, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Wrapping Up
Starting an online store has been very easy with platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and others. However, if you want complete flexibility in building a custom store with unique features, OpenCart is the best eCommerce platform.
However, with OpenCart, it is all up to you to ensure the security and safety of your site. Fortunately, OpenCart is supported by the most trusted hosting providers globally that let you stay carefree about your server management.
So, now it is your turn to pick a hosting provider and start building your eCommerce site with OpenCart. Also, most of the listed hosting providers offer a money-back guarantee, so feel free to try and request a refund if you are not satisfied with their services.
Finally, once you have picked your hosting provider, you should check our list of the best OpenCart themes to find the perfect theme for your store.
