AbanteCart
Hosting
Install AbanteCart in one click on our fast, reliable UK web hosting. Fully managed with free SSL, daily backups, and dedicated expert support.
What is AbanteCart?
AbanteCart is a free, open-source ecommerce platform written in PHP, licensed under the Open Software License and aimed at small and medium independent retailers running their own self-hosted shops. The codebase has been actively maintained by its developer community since 2011, with regular point releases and security updates.
The admin panel handles products, orders, customers, inventory, taxes, and shipping rules. Multi-currency and multi-language support are built in. SEO controls, discount coupons, and product reviews are core features rather than paid add-ons, and storefronts are responsive by default.
The platform extends through themes and a paid marketplace, and the source is fully open for developers who need to modify it directly. It runs on a standard LAMP or LEMP stack and integrates with most common UK payment gateways.
365i’s editorial review of AbanteCart
AbanteCart is one of the open-source ecommerce platforms I find genuinely interesting, even if it lives in the shadow of WooCommerce and OpenCart in most conversations. The vendor description above covers what it is on paper. What it actually feels like, in production, is a quieter, friendlier piece of software than its peers.
I tend to see it picked by people who have already been bruised once. Either they tried OpenCart and found the extension situation overwhelming, or they tried WooCommerce on shared hosting and watched it grind every time they ran a stock import. AbanteCart sits in the middle. The catalogue manager is the cleanest in this category I have used in years, and the install footprint is small enough that it runs comfortably on our standard web hosting plan.
"It is the cleanest small-shop ecommerce admin I have used in years. The theme story is its biggest weakness, and you should plan for that on day one rather than after launch."
Mark McNeece, Founder, 365i Hosting
Where it shines: catalogue management, multi-currency out of the box, role-based admin access, and a built-in CMS that lets you write your About and Delivery pages without bolting on another plugin. The default tax handling is sane for UK shops, which is a small thing but a real one.
Where it is annoying: the default theme looks dated. The extension marketplace is a fraction of the size of WooCommerce or PrestaShop, so if you need a niche payment gateway or a particular shipping integration, check it exists before you commit. Upgrades have historically been a careful affair, and we always take a fresh backup before running them.
If you are running a tight catalogue, want a clean admin, and are happy to invest a day in theming, AbanteCart is a good fit. If you have grand expansion plans or you live and die by a specific marketplace plugin, look at WooCommerce on a small managed cloud server instead.
Why Host AbanteCart with 365i?
Our web hosting is built for PHP applications like AbanteCart. Every plan includes everything you need to launch and grow.
One-Click Installation
Install AbanteCart with a single click from your control panel. No manual configuration, no FTP uploads, no database setup.
Free SSL Certificate
Every site gets a free SSL certificate, automatically configured and renewed. Keep your AbanteCart installation secure from day one.
99.9% Uptime Guarantee
Enterprise-grade data centres in the UK, US & Asia with redundant power, cooling, and network connectivity. Backed by our uptime SLA.
Daily Backups
Automatic daily backups with easy one-click restore. Your AbanteCart data is always safe and recoverable.
7-Day Expert Support
UK-based hosting specialists available 7 days a week including evenings, weekends, and bank holidays. Real people, real help.
SSD Storage
All plans run on fast SSD storage for snappy page loads and responsive admin panels. AbanteCart performs at its best.
Where AbanteCart Fits
Best for
Small to medium UK independents with a tight catalogue, roughly under 1,000 SKUs, who want a clean admin without the extension overload of OpenCart or the heavier hosting footprint of PrestaShop. Multi-currency shops handling VAT-compliant sales get particular value from the sane default tax handling. Runs comfortably on our standard web hosting plan with PHP memory raised to 512 MB.
Watch for
The default theme looks dated and will need theming work before launch, so budget at least a day of design effort up front rather than after go-live. The extension marketplace is roughly a tenth the size of WooCommerce, so check that any niche payment gateway or shipping integration you need actually exists before you commit. Upgrades have historically been a careful affair, and we always take a fresh backup before running them.
Web Hosting for AbanteCart
Get AbanteCart up and running in minutes with our fast, reliable web hosting. Every plan includes one-click installation, free SSL, UK, US & Asia data centres, and dedicated expert support.
- 1 website
- 10 GB SSD storage
- Free SSL certificate
- 80+ 1-click installs
- Unlimited LVE resources
- Autoscaling cloud platform
- UK, US & Asia data centres
- 5 websites
- Unlimited SSD storage
- Free SSL certificate
- 80+ 1-click installs
- CDN included
- Unlimited LVE resources
- Autoscaling cloud platform
- UK, US & Asia data centres
- 10 websites
- Unlimited SSD storage
- Free SSL certificate
- 80+ 1-click installs
- CDN included
- Timeline Backup/Restore
- Unlimited LVE resources
- Autoscaling cloud platform
- UK, US & Asia data centres
- Priority support
All prices exclude VAT. No contract, cancel any time.
Need More Power for AbanteCart?
For high-traffic sites, large catalogues, or mission-critical deployments, our fully managed cloud servers give AbanteCart dedicated resources and enterprise-grade performance.
- Dedicated CPU, RAM & SSD storage
- 99.99% uptime SLA
- Fully managed by our team
- Choose 365i, AWS, or Google Cloud
Servers
Servers
Servers
An AbanteCart case from our books
A north-west independent retailer running about 800 SKUs came to us last year after their previous host throttled them through their first decent Black Friday. They were on AbanteCart already and did not want to migrate platforms during peak. We moved them onto our standard web hosting plan, tuned PHP memory to 512 MB, and turned on our optimisation panel. Average admin save time dropped from around four seconds to under one. The shop did roughly £18k across the four-day weekend without a single timeout.
What we would tell anyone in the same spot: do not try to fix a hosting problem by changing platforms in November. Move first, audit later.
Anonymised at the client's request. Industry, scale, and timeline preserved.
What we look for in ecommerce hosting
Hosting an ecommerce app well is rarely about raw CPU. It is about three things we end up tuning for almost every shop: PHP memory limits high enough to handle bulk product imports, a database engine sized for the read-heavy mix of catalogue browsing, and reliable cron plus SSL for whichever payment gateway the shop uses. We give all of that out of the box on our web hosting plans, but we will also tell you honestly when an app is ill-suited to shared hosting and a small managed cloud server would save everyone pain.
AbanteCart Hosting FAQ
Common questions we hear from people running AbanteCart on our hosting.
AbanteCart needs PHP 7.4 or higher (PHP 8.1+ recommended), MySQL 5.6 or MariaDB 10.x, and the standard PHP extensions for image manipulation, cURL, JSON, and ZIP. We host every plan on PHP 8.3 by default with the right extensions enabled, so you do not need to configure anything before installing.
AbanteCart is a one-click install on our web hosting plans. From the My365i control panel, open Software Installer, search for AbanteCart, choose the domain you want it on, and click Install. The installer creates the database, drops the files into place, and sets the file permissions in under a minute. You can then log into the AbanteCart admin and add your store details.
For most small and medium catalogues, our standard web hosting plan is fine. AbanteCart is lighter than WooCommerce and runs comfortably on shared hosting at typical traffic levels. If you are doing more than roughly 5,000 daily visitors, processing bulk product imports regularly, or running heavy promotional campaigns, a small managed cloud server gives you dedicated resources and predictable performance during peak. We can advise based on your actual traffic numbers.
Our support covers the hosting platform: server configuration, PHP and MySQL tuning, SSL certificates, backups, and migrations. For AbanteCart-specific questions (custom theme work, extension development, complex store configuration) we will help where we can but do not act as your AbanteCart developer. Most operational issues we see are hosting-side and we resolve those directly.
Yes, and we will do the migration for you free of charge on any of our hosting plans. We move the AbanteCart files, the database, the uploads directory, and any custom configuration. Most migrations finish within a working day with no downtime, and we test the site on a staging URL before pointing your domain across.
AbanteCart itself releases regular security updates, which you should apply when prompted. On the hosting side we provide free SSL certificates, automatic daily backups, brute-force protection on the admin login, and modern PHP versions with security patches. We also run our optimisation panel which can block known bad bots and reduce attack surface. Keeping the AbanteCart core and any extensions up to date is the most important thing you can do.
Ready to Host AbanteCart?
Get started with AbanteCart on our fast UK web hosting. One-click installation, free SSL, and dedicated expert support included.