Used by thousands of business entrepreneurs, PrestaShop is definitely one of the most popular platforms for online starters. In this PrestaShop review, LitExtension – #1 The World Shopping Cart Migration Expert will look at its eCommerce features, pricing, ease of use, and much more. Hope this article can help you to answer the burning questions you have about this solution by fully analyzing:
Let’s stick around for a full and detailed PrestaShop review!
PrestaShop Review: Overview
1. What is PrestaShop?
PrestaShop is a user-friendly, feature-rich open-source eCommerce platform. So, how does PrestaShop work?
Basically, you can download and modify PrestaShop in any way you wish. However, that does not mean that PrestaShop is a zero-expense eCommerce solution. If you choose to download the software, you’ll have to pay for other maintenance fees, which we will look into thoroughly in this PrestaShop review.
It is important to keep your store up-to-date to ensure everything goes smoothly. Don't forget to perform the PrestaShop upgrade to a newer version to get the latest features. Besides, if you want to move to PrestaShop to fully exploit its potential, you can consider performing a PrestaShop migration.
2. How popular is PrestaShop?
First started in 2007 and located in France with offices around the world, PrestaShop has proudly become one of the most famous shopping cart solutions. As of January 2024, this platform has more than 230,000 live websites using PrestaShop.
3. Pros and cons of PrestaShop
If you're in a hurry, don't worry! For this PrestaShop review, we have compiled a list of PrestaShop pros and cons to help you quickly grasp everything about this platform.
PrestaShop itself doesn't have an official release note for the Hosted version. However, in the help docs, we found some notes about the PrestaShop Hosted version since November 2023.
Hosted comes at a quite reasonable price at €29 for a monthly range (€24 for annually paid), which is around $32 (or $27 annually paid). Hosted is based on PrestaShop version 8 with a hosting plan available, automatic VAT calculation, comprehensive analytics tool, and more. With this release, PrestaShop aims to provide a more straightforward way to eCommerce digital presence.
Note: For the rest of this PrestaShop review, we only refer to PrestaShop as the open-source version.
2. Open-source
Is PrestaShop free? Yes, but PrestaShop open-source is only free to download. As mentioned before, it isn’t actually a zero-expense eCommerce solution and requires you to buy some hosting and modules to launch your store. You’ll end up paying for:
Between $35 and ~$6000: Several add-ons and modules you want to tack onto your store experience.
4$ – $14 per month: Hosting services and an SSL Certificate with a great deal of PrestaShop hosting partners such as IONOS or A2 hosting.
So, the initial cost of building a PrestaShop website may start around $300. For more details, don't forget that we have a full PrestaShop pricing analysis for your concern.
PrestaShop Ease of Use
1. Build time
PrestaShop is written in the PHP language and runs on Smarty Template Engine, which is compatible with Unix, Linux, and Windows operating systems. With this platform, you do not need much technical skill when launching a basic online store.
But if you're non-techies, PrestaShop installment may take some of your time. You can get a developer to do this for you, or you can make it on your own following our instructions in this video below.
For more detailed information, here is a step-by-step PrestaShop tutorial for you to successfully launch a new store.
2. User-friendliness
As said, PrestaShop has a demo online, so you can try it out without going through all the hassles of downloading and implementing the software. Here’s the dashboard you’ll be able to access once you’ve run the software.
PrestaShop main dashboard
Once you’ve got your site up, daily operations are quite simple. You can list a product’s description, categories, quantities, and SEO features in your store simultaneously with the products.
Add a product to the PrestaShop store
The main product page allows you to do many tasks, such as adding title and description as well as quantity and price. However, it is worth working through the tabs at the top of the page to make sure that your product listing is the best it can be.
Next, let's together discover impressive PrestaShop features.
Templates & Store Design
Because of its open-source nature, PrestaShop offers endless possibilities for customization, which means you can freely customize your stores as you wish. In the competitive world of eCommerce, building a memorable brand is key to your long-term success.
Luckily, you can easily find more than 2000 templates and a vast collection of customizable themes in the PrestaShop Marketplace with 15 different categories. You can apply filters to search results to find ones that suit your business’s features.
PrestaShop theme store
However, none of these themes are free. The price can vary from $99.99 to $322.99 depending on the quality. Or else, there are many providers that have free PrestaShop themes.
Besides, LitExtension does have a collection of “Best PrestaShop themes” for you to find the most suitable look for your website.
For page editing, it's also rather straightforward to configure to the layout you wish.
Configure PrestaShop page design
What's more, you can edit the underlying code of the PrestaShop store by accessing CSS, HTML, and JavaScript files. That's why some coding skills will definitely come in handy.
In terms of customizable themes, Shopify, an alternative to PrestaShop, also offers store owners a plentiful of stunning designs. Check out PrestaShop vs Shopify: Which One Suits You More? to see the details.
eCommerce Features
Because PrestaShop is an open-source platform, it can help build anything, from a small online shop to a full-on shopping cart solution. With a massive add-on market and a package of built-in features, PrestaShop presents a quick fix for eCommerce merchants.
1. Catalog management
When it comes to product management, PrestaShop boards a number of impressive built-in features to help you manage the store all the way.
To organize your products, you can now have the chance to try and test the category system which makes it easy to organize them into main and sub-categories.
Product management dashboard of PrestaShop
Below, we list some of the other key functions that PrestaShop supports:
Update Stock with Supplier
Import stock from any different file locations or any format from your supplier. With a completely automated process, it can track all sync history and check results without worrying about raw data adjustments.
Sync with Third-Party Systems
Update customers, orders, and items from any files you have from outside systems or export mailing lists, sales, and any other database for further use.
Restock Inventory Smartly
Keep an eye on the out-of-stock items, bestsellers, and hot items in your store.
Sync with Sales channels and Accounting
Get all sales in one place to keep full control over the system when selling things on Amazon and eBay and integrate with QuickBooks.
Analyze Sales and Stock Level
Make a real analysis of your sales activities, PrestaShop stock level, and incoming. Merchants can use “take an action” reports that say what they need to do, which is way better than simply checking silent statistics.
2. Order management & shipping
In this PrestaShop review, we want to say that order management is just a piece of cake with PrestaShop. You can add, edit orders and apply discounts from the admin panel.
Order management dashboard of PrestaShop
You are also able to contact your customers via email from the orders page. If you already have your store well set up at the beginning, you should be all right handling it in the future.
With the shipping setting, the story becomes much easier.
PrestaShop shipping setting
You can simply configure the PrestaShop shipping setting with:
Handling (free shipping or coupons).
Carrier options (Your shop's default carrier, Price or Order).
3. Payment gateways
Having a store with full functionality will come with tons of extra add-on features. That's why you need to fully optimize the payment methods of your online store.
Payment methods
For payments, you’ll have hundreds of options which are from the third-party processor or a merchant account with the PrestaShop Checkout Gateways. Your customers will stay on single page when processing their checkout process as well as be fully compliant with all adjustments, especially GDPR.
PrestaShop Checkout also has an extra service collaborating with PayPal called PayPal Module. It provides access to various checkout options, including American Express, Mastercard, and many others.
PrestaShop Modules
In their marketplace, PrestaShop has more than 4,000 modules that help merchants customize online shops, increase traffic, improve conversion rates, and build customer loyalty. Some modules are free, while others are available through a one-time purchase.
PrestaShop module
The fact is that adding integrations can cost a pretty penny to boost your site. Those modules will range from $27.58 – $3,195.99, depending on your needs. However, once your sales reach the potential amount, you can come out on top with PrestaShop.
One more thing you should bear in mind is that those modules are made by hundreds of developers from all over the world. Accordingly, there’s no guarantee that everything will work exactly as expected. You will need to be careful about what you add to avoid a glitchy and slow-performing website.
SEO & Marketing
1. SEO
PrestaShop comes with pretty solid built-in SEO features. Here, you are able to control how your pages appear in Google searches, including SEO title, meta description, and permalink. You can also set up page redirects if necessary.
PrestaShop SEO & URL
The fact is that making your store conspicuous on search engines to get traffic is everyone’s desire. For this, the solution is to be amongst the first results on search pages. Luckily, PrestaShop has more than 170+ modules to let your store be indexed, which can save you precious time.
SEO modules of PrestaShop
Actually, when mentioning the marketing and promotions of PrestaShop, we can say one word: “robust.” By partnering with Google and other largest social media and marketing platforms like Facebook or Klaviyo, PrestaShop eases the marketing effort of merchants.
Marketing modules on PrestaShop market
Here are the top features of PrestaShop Marketing:
Product health check: Improve data feed quality and helps to resolve data feed-related issues.
Competitor Analysis: Find your store’s top competitors across online marketing platforms
eCommerce Price comparison: Identify competitors’ prices and find out the competitive products, then focus on marketing strategies.
Multi-platform access: Use the same product data feed to advertise products on Google Shopping, Facebook, Instagram & Amazon.
What's more, PrestaShop Ads is a smart marketing tool advertising all products on relevant eCommerce websites. It allows merchants to advertise on Google Ads, Amazon Ads, Facebook, Instagram, and more. It also removes the complexity of setting up data feeds and conversion tracking.
Support & Security
While setting up an eCommerce store, you will need support from the platforms for a better experience. In this PrestaShop review, we will mention 2 main support types of PrestaShop.
Firstly, PrestaShop has plenty of free info sources such as guides, tutorials, FAQs, and training courses for users and developers. In case you cannot find your knotty problems, you surely want to join the PrestaShop forum to give and exchange experiences. This forum has over 1.2 million users where you can meet any acute cases or solve issue tips.
Secondly, Presta Technical Assistance is a unique service compared to other open-source platforms. Unlike other eCommerce solution providers, PrestaShop charges some fees for the support plans.
Currently, PrestaShop itself offers 5 support offers:
Technical support plan
Migration & Updates
SEO pack
Performance pack
Security pack.
Prestashop support offers
However, the price for this service is very expensive, ranging from $249 to $1399, depending on the support level.
Seeing that PrestaShop is open-source software, it is PCI compliance-ready which means that your store is well-secured. However, your PrestaShop store won’t be compliant on its own, you will need to purchase your SSL certificate and check up on any available security patches.
Yes, it is still being used. Being one of our top migrated-to carts in 2023, PrestaShop is not only popular in its birth country but also on a global scale, with more than 230,000 live websites.
PrestaShop is paid. As we mentioned above, PrestaShop is free to download but you still have to purchase hosting, domain name, and pay for the maintenance cost yourself.
PrestaShop has a intuitive dashboard, everything is arrange quite ease-to-the-eye. You can find any configuration on the dashboard and easily setup your store.
Yes, you should. PrestaShop is a great option for merchants who not only want to take advantage of the flexibility of the open-source nature but also appreciate the ease of use when it comes to store management, SEO, inventory, and so on.
Final Words – Should You Choose PrestaShop for 2024?
So, who is PrestaShop best for? Is PrestaShop worth it in 2024?
The answer is yes! PrestaShop is a great solution for businesses of all sizes, but it particularly suits small to medium-sized retailers and online merchants.
Apart from the customizability and hassle-free procedures, PrestaShop is outstanding in terms of thousands of add-on modules and ready-made themes. You can start with low investments and gradually build up your website without worrying about any maintenance at all.
I hope this PrestaShop review will help you get the answer for your own.
Will you migrate to PrestaShop to enjoy its robust features?
