Hy,
In your opinion, what is the best e-commerce plugin I can use if I want to develop a complex e-commerce site (Mall or Shopaholic, …)?
Thanks
Hi @ridha82
The best is the one plugin that answers your requirements.
Can you say more about them so we can help you?
To me, none actually
Mall : Can be good for small shop, but have lot of design problems IMHO (partial update that rely on specific classes, that kind of things that don’t make it really full extensible without big efforts).
Shopaholic : Terrible backend ux (IMHO again) + some weird product design decision (rely on it’s own pagination system etc… instead of using octobercms standard).
To me, ecommerce with october is not enought professionnal actually to be seriously used, you should wait for official ecommerce plugin or see a solution elsewhere
Yes, it depends on the requirements. We can invite you to the eCommerce beta; however, it doesn’t support complex variants yet.
Obviously, my recommendation is the eCommerce solution once it has been piloted and released.
thanks for you reponses.
@daft Yes, absolutely! I’m interested in joining the beta version of your e-commerce solution. How can I get started?
Thanks
Honestly, I wouldn’t write off Shopaholic that quick.
Yeah, it’s different from Mall, but it’s built for flexibility and scale.
We’ve been using it since 2019, and it’s been solid and reliable.
It’s easy to hook into events, extend models, and build custom plugins - the architecture was clearly made with developers in mind. LOVATA knew what they were doing; this isn’t their first eCommerce project.
We actually migrated from Bitrix eCommerce, and it was a total breath of fresh air - way cleaner and lighter. Things like 1C integrations, XML import/export, Multiple price types for products/variations just work without hacking stuff together.
It uses its own caching layer (from lovata.toolbox) - that’s why pagination isn’t the default October one. Everything runs through cached collections, so you’re not hitting the DB every time you filter or sort. Once you get that, it makes total sense - and it’s fast.
Also, multisite and multilanguage work out of the box, and the same goes for currencies and price types. Did I mention caching? 
It’s super snappy.
We’re running around 500 products and ~6000 variations on a low-end server, and it’s smooth.
The backend uses standard OctoberCMS fields/lists, so it feels native.
Docs are great - clean, practical, and most examples are literally copy-paste ready: Documentation for Shopaholic plugins
There are already solid themes and add-ons for filters, discounts, reviews, payments, and logistics, so you’re not starting from zero. Documentation for Shopaholic plugins
So yeah - it’s not “perfect,” but for complex or large stores, Shopaholic is flexible, stable, and genuinely production-ready.
2 Likes
hi @roulendz
Thank you for sharing your experience. I’ve used Mall before, but not Shopaholic; it seems interesting. I’ll give it a try.
Thanks