Prestashop
PrestaShop is one of the most popular online shopping cart scripts. Its community is very strong and it features many functionality improving plugins.
Decent efficiency, good functionalities list and rather simple modification make it one of the best scripts for programmers. You can view and download the script at www.PrestaShop.com
Advantages
Administration
When compared to systems like Magento, PrestaShop's administration panel is quite intuitive and easy to master. It's especially important for those who are just starting their Internet adventure.
Community
There's a large group of users contributing to a good support system in discussion boards and the like.
Installation and modification
The script is based on a popular template system called "Smarty". It's well known to many designers and programmers what will make graphics modifications easy for them. If you're not the programmer type you'll easily find one to do whatever you need to be done for you.
Functionalities
There are many functionalities built in PrestaShop. Many of them are no match for Magento, but in most cases they are sufficient for beginners and intermediate online shop owners. Many of the functionalities you would miss can be installed, they often are free. If you still can't find what you need, you can surely find a programmer who knows the system to add options you require.
Efficiency
PrestaShop is quite efficient and does not put high demands on server resources, especially when considering how much it has to offer. A built-in page indexation system is an advantage. It's not as efficient as Quick.Cart but works definitely faster than Magento. The script's efficiency to offered functionalities ratio is quite good.
Disadvantages
Large number of bug fixes
The script programmers release bug fixes and new options about twice a month. An update is requires especially when it comes to security issues. Unfortunately applying those fixes takes a considerable know-how. Releasing bug fixes makes it known to everybody what kind of vulnerabilites there are in older versions, so someone could use it on an older scripts. On the other hand frequent fix releases are a pain for the shop owners. This vicious circle could only be broken by automatic updates, which, as of yet, are not available in PrestaShop.
Paid functionalities
Built-in functionalities in other free scripts can often turn out to be payable in PrestaShop. That's why it's worth considering if the paid functionality you're after is really that necessary. If so, maybe another script could offer it for free?
Scalibility
Though the application aspires as a large shop base, it does not do as well as Magento. The script architecture can at some point hinder or even completely prevent a programmer from further developing the cart.
Conclusions
PrestaShop is good for start. The script works as well with medium and large number of products. If there are few products and a lot of traffic, other scripts like Quick.Cart would work better. PrestaShop's efficiency when there's a 100 products isn't any better than when there are 1000.
As we all know, the appetite grows with what it feeds on, but what PrestaShop lacks in built-in functionalities, can be made up with free or paid plugins. It's rare that an online shop owner is hang out to dry, since the PrestaShop programmers' community is ever growing.
menthol
2014-06-12 18:58
I started using PrestaShop 3 months ago. I was nervous because of reading some bad reviews regarding the code and service. I don't know who they talked to but the US office is actually really put together. I've talked to them multiple times. I love the forum, it use to be a big mess. Now there are many people who help. It's free and when created carefully, really works.
RainbowS
2014-07-23 02:03
I deeply regret choosing Prestashop. I decided to use this eCommerce software due to many options in the back-office. This software has many bugs (even considered "stable"), no support and the modules and themes are very pricey. I was shocked at how expensive Prestashop addons were. I figured if they were so expensive it may be worth it.
Darren
2014-08-02 18:15
I used it until I got a message from my hosting provider about too heavy server load. I had maybe 2000 visits a day and several hundred products. Then I started looking. I was considering OpenCart and Quick.Cart. I choose the second one because of that: http://opensolution.org/why-quick-cart.html. It's been a couple of months and I'm happy about it.
User
2014-10-02 18:39
These french coders seem to be learning as they go. In the past year it has been nothing but bugs and security holes. It's hard to get a response. When you buy a product like a module or a theme, god, you're done. It's a scam to make you buy the wrong versions so that they make you pay for upgrades the day after. Rude. Check them out on complaints on the BBB.org
dans
2014-11-19 16:22
just started to use this cart and find it a real pain to use. To add a product you will need to always enter the product name and save first before you can go into details like adding the quantity. and the category linking is very bad as in order to put the product in a sub-category, you first have to put it on the main category, save then only you can select the sub-category you want. I think just to read how its done is confusing enough. and not to forget when you save, a bug pops up so frequently saying the english link is missing and I will have to cut the product name and then paste on again and click save again. This cart really fails big time!
Robert
2015-06-05 15:46
Worst cart system I've ever used. Easy to install, easy to set up, hard to do anything after that. Many features are broken or have bugs that are very easy to replicate. The community powering the software doesn't seem too bright.
Martin
2016-01-29 13:02
Great free platform, but the paid support and technical know how required to make the advanced features work requires to collaborate with professionals in order to have fully working e-shop.
Katy
2017-04-03 00:15
Its free only one good aspect about this system. Import module is one of the worst i know. Modules are very expensive and not compatible with new versions for long time.