Open source E-commerce

Open source e-Commerce is a free of charge platform that doesn’t imply licenses fee. Furthermore, open source users are also responsible for installing, maintaining, securing and configuring the software on their own servers. In order to set up an open source platform, basic technical expertise is required in the areas of web design and development. Software products that are distributed as open source are generally free, and users can access and modify the source code.

Interfaced E-commerce

In interfaced E-commerce, the software solution is installed on top of the back-end system. This means that the connection between the business logic and database of a back-end system is setup manually. Information that is available in the back-end system is being duplicated into the E-commerce software. An interfaced E-commerce software product thus has their own database and business logic that are being synchronized constantly through a connection to a certain back-end system. Interfaced E-commerce is mostly used in a B2C scenario. An example of an interfacing E-commerce software is Magento.

On-premises e-commerce

On-premises e-commerce software usually requires initial one time purchase investment in terms of licensing fees. Also, it implies extra costs related to hardware and installation services as well as data migration and on-going maintenance fees that are usually charged on a yearly basis for software updates and support. Some examples of typical on premises E-commerce platforms are