AbanteCart vs Alokai
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted e-commerce platforms options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
AbanteCart
Free PHP shopping cart for small businesses
VS
Alokai
Frontend platform for headless commerce stores
| Feature | AbanteCart | Alokai |
|---|---|---|
| Category | E-commerce Platforms | E-commerce Platforms |
| License | OSL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | PHP | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 151 | ★ 10,937 |
| First released | 2011 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Shopify, OpenCart | Shopify Hydrogen, BigCommerce |
Why pick each one
Frequently asked questions
Is AbanteCart or Alokai better?
Neither is universally better. Alokai has the larger community, while AbanteCart is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are AbanteCart and Alokai free and open-source?
Yes. AbanteCart is licensed under OSL-3.0 and Alokai under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run AbanteCart and Alokai with Docker?
AbanteCart: check the project docs for container support. Alokai: yes.