Software Foundation

Why OpenCart for Marketplace Software?

Prospects who talk to us often ask why we chose OpenCart as the base for our marketplace software. Here is the full story.

17+ Years of Experience
7.3M Product Test
%20 Core Code
OpenCart Core
%20
Softomi Enhancements
%80

Why Did We Choose the OpenCart Foundation?

Thanks to years of development, OpenCart’s core code now accounts for only about 20% of our marketplace platform.

Performance-Focused Engineering

Deep optimization on top of OpenCart’s default architecture

Dozens of Extra Features

Modules built specifically for the marketplace business model

A Distinct Product

A unique platform, not a stock OpenCart site

7.3 Million Products & 5,000 Concurrent Visitors

Before pitching the platform to customers, we tested it ourselves. We loaded 7.3 million products—a volume only a handful of sites worldwide ever reach.

2
Senior Developers
4
Months of Development
150K
TRY Invested
10K
TRY/mo Servers
Softomi marketplace e-commerce software — 7 million products and 5,000 concurrent visitor test
Watch the test

Unlimited Scalability

For higher traffic you can add load-balancing servers and CDN. Product capacity can comfortably double by adding more servers.

1

Security

17+

Battle-Tested Worldwide

For 17 years, OpenCart has been among the most widely used e-commerce stacks globally, processing millions of orders.

OpenCart-Based Software

  • Tested against thousands of attack patterns
  • Vulnerabilities found and patched
  • Ongoing security updates
  • Large global community support
VS

Fully Custom-Built Software

  • Not yet exposed to enough real-world attacks
  • Unknown vulnerabilities may remain
  • So unfixed issues can persist
  • Limited security test coverage
2

Why Rewrite Something That Already Exists?

United Kingdom United States India Russia China +50 countries

For 17 years, OpenCart has been open source—meaning extensible—co-developed by thousands of engineers around the world.

The Softomi Philosophy

At Softomi we believe it is more effective to extend and improve proven software than to reinvent it from scratch, and to invest in new marketplace-specific capabilities.

Because we focus solely on marketplace software, we have shipped dozens more features than typical marketplace vendors in Turkey.

Features you only get with Softomi
3

How Is Softomi Different from Stock OpenCart?

We have evolved the OpenCart stack since 2013
For 4+ years we have focused purely on marketplace software

Softomi features you will not find in vanilla OpenCart

One-click product import from N11
Excel/XML format converters
Trendyol-style color/size combinations
Shipping integrations across Turkey
Advanced marketplace reporting
Affiliate (partner) program
Synonym/option merging
Paraşüt accounting integration
iOS and Android apps
Smart shipping cost allocation
Bulk commission rate rules
Cross-border shipping & collection integrations

To explore Turkey’s most feature-rich marketplace platform

Request a demo
4

Answering Competitors’ Misleading Claims

Investors sometimes repeat talking points they heard from other vendors. Those who understand software rightly see such smear tactics as unethical and end the conversation.

"Competition brings out both the best products and the worst in people..."
— David Sarnoff
Claim

"OpenCart is open source, so it is insecure and easy to hack."

Reality

Open source means the code is open to improvement. Once deployed, nobody on the internet can read your server’s private codebase—otherwise hundreds of thousands of OpenCart stores could not operate safely.

Claim

"OpenCart is free, so anyone can just install and run it."

Reality

Core OpenCart is free; advanced modules are paid. We purchased and integrated nearly a hundred modules, yet they represent only about 20% of our marketplace stack. Most cost is engineering time.

7.3M product test: 150,000 TRY N11 API integration: 3 months Excel/XML converters: 6–7 months
Claim

"OpenCart is foreign; if OpenCart shuts down, your site dies."

Reality

That contradicts the first myth. Whether opencart.com stays online has nothing to do with your store continuing to run on the OpenCart-based stack you host.

Claim

"After 10k products on OpenCart, performance collapses and you cannot sell."

Reality

That may be true for stock OpenCart. A heavily customized build that already holds 7.3 million products is not the same scenario.

7.3M products = 730× more headroom

In short, after we shipped dozens of features they could not match—at better value—some competitors fell behind our pace and resorted to unethical tactics to protect demand.

We encourage competitors to invest in their products instead of smear campaigns and to compete within ethical boundaries.

Thank you for taking the time to read this in-depth article.

Want a Closer Look at Our Marketplace Platform?

Discover Turkey’s most advanced marketplace software—built for 7.3 million products—with a free demo.

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