Prestashop was introduced in 2007, it has gained popularity along with fully fledged Prestashop Ecommerce development solutions over the past decade. At this moment of time Prestashop has managed to provide an e-commerce platform for 1.25 lakh stores word-wide. What make Prestashop stand apart from competitors are reliable online shopping solutions and amazing user experience.

Of course, not all e-commerce solutions are perfect and will have some demerits or flaws along with impressive features and so is the case of Prestashop. Here let us have a look at the most important pros and cons of Prestashop E commerce development.

1. Easy to install

The installation of the software is a very simple process. You just need to download the file on your gadget from their official website. Setting up a fully functional online store is just a few steps away. Deploying PrestaShop is not a big deal for even users that have only a slow internet connection as it is light with less than 6MB in size. Since the file itself is so small there won’t even be a question about slowing down of website and as a result, users can benefit from faster search options.

2. Open source platform

Prestashop is an open source shopping cart website that can be owned free of cost. Unlike its counterparts, there is no need for a license fee to establish an e-store. This is a great option for merchants looking to start up a new online venture with minimal investments. A pretty decent store can be set up without giving a thought about transaction or monthly fees with this web based e-commerce solution.

3. Easy to use and maintain

There is no technical brilliance needed to operate an e-store using this shopping solution. It is easy to understand, with a simple design and has a convenient back end interface. A user with minimal technical know-how can handle the website with ease, so maintaining the website is most of the time hassle free. The overall convenience to operate throughout the store is always an upfront giving way for only negligible technical jargon.

4. User friendly interface

The convenience of handling the store with a user friendly interface is the key advantage of Prestashop shopping solution. This is really helpful in effortless management and maintenance of the store. The quicker processing and easy navigation throughout the website has added to its amazing user experience. The availability of 25000+ plugins plays the key part in building a fully functional store with ease.

5. Customization friendly

Depending on the varying business needs, the shopping cart website using Prestashop can be easily customized. You can add or delete features of the store to make it suitable for your business type. Personalizing particular areas of your store can be done with complete flexibility during Prestashop website development Service.

6. Demographic assistance

The support for multiple languages and currencies has made its localisation process simple. With enough demographic assistance, the stores using Prestashop are running successfully across USA, UK, India, Canada, China, Germany, and Japan. Even when the complete support is available for only English and French, the website can be easily translated to around 40 to 45 languages.

7. Minimal system requirements

Running the store on your device doesn’t require much system requirements. All you need is a stable shared hosting plan. The store runs efficiently with just a stable operation system such as Linux, UNIX or Windows and PHP 5.2, MySQL 5. And operating from PrestaShop Cloud is a lot convenient in comparison to self hosting.

8. Secure payment

Reliable and user friendly payment gateways are another important attractive feature of using Prestashop shopping cart solution. There is nothing to worry about fraud or time delay when using their payment options such as PayPal and Google Checkout. Moreover, secure transactions are assured through SSL protocol system. Above all, Prestashop’s one-page checkout process considerably speeds up the product purchase.

9. Economic choice

With the need of only minimal investment and a fewer resources, you can set up an online store in a minimal time frame. The base version itself offers all the features of a fully functional store. The store can run on a shared hosting web service making it a great option for those merchants looking to start a new venture with budget constraints.

In addition to all these significant options, Prestashop is also designed to offer some out of the box features. This includes free promotional tools including coupons and vouchers, automation of Email follow-up and user convenient features such as ‘recently viewed products’, returns management and order tracking. Also you can have more in the store with its latest upgrade to Prestashop 1.7 that features enhanced product configuration and improved back office navigation.

Not all shopping solutions are built to perfection and have disadvantages or limitations when compared to counterparts. Here let us have a look at the pros of Prestashop website development that should be taken into consideration before going for it.

10. Limited scalability

This shopping website is a great solution for small to medium sized stores but not so great when your business is looking to expand. This free software for online store can be an asset to improve the online exposure of your business with multi-vendor support but with limited benefits for large or complex projects. Its lack of multi-store feature is a major drawback when setting up a full-scale project.

 11. Unprofessional design

Prestashop comes with a pretty decent design to run a start up or low budget store but not good enough for large scale stores. The design lacks a professional touch even when it serves the basic functions. Some users also complain about a poorly designed statistics system and about upgrading issues. And it has only limited options for cross sell products.

12. Paid functionality

Many of the features that come built in with its counterparts are not available with this open source platform. This free version is actually a basic solution with only standard features to run a medium sized store but not with advanced functionalities. You will have to buy additional modules to meet your advanced needs but need to spend a pretty sum.

13. No official support team

Unlike other shopping solutions that has official support teams to deal with any mishaps; no official team is there to help you out with Prestashop. However, many of the Prestashop users are not considering this as a drawback as there is an active user community with over 700,000 members who are always out with a hand of assistance. The support pages on Facebook and Twitter, as well as the rich documentation with FAQs and user guide, are good enough to keep the system updated.

When you are planning to set up an online store for your business, you have to take a deeper dig into its pros and cons. If you are on a low budget and looking to have a standard online store with some decent features to give an online exposure for your business, Prestashop E commerce development has proved a good choice. On the other hand, if you prefer a fully-fledged store with advanced features for a large scale project, you can have a look at other alternatives.  You can also have a trial version before signing up to the original version for most of the platforms. After all, a wise decision is not to go after a platform with a higher rating but to choose the one that suits your exact business purpose.