Recommended Opencart version in 2022

Recommended Opencart version in 2022

At October 4 of 2022 year, Opencart 3.1.1.0 was released although there is Opencart 4.0.1.1 about few months. It looks versy confusing so we decided to share our thoughts on what Opencart version is a good choice at this moment.

There might be different situations but let us separate two major cases: 

Case 1. If you wish to start the store as soon as possible and want to make sales within a month then Opencart 3.0.3.8 is the best choice right now. We do not recommend to use Opencart 3.1.1.0 because it does not provide significant improvements but its code inside makes many available Opencart modules incompatible with that version. On the other hand, Opencart 4.0.1.1. might still contain some bugs and moreover it does not have a lot of modules available because developers need time to make changes for a new platform. 

Case 2.If you know that your store needs time-consuming modifications and most likely you will not start it within the first half of the next year then you should probably start with Opencart 4.0.1.1.x because that platform is the next Opencart generation. Most likely you will have to upgrade Opencart 4.0.1.1 to some newer version released at that momemnt but an upgrade within the same major brach should go smoother than an upgrade from Opencart 3.0.x.x.

We do not recommend to use Opencart 3.1.1.0, but if you wish, you can do it. It is not harmful. The Opencart 3.1.1.0 is based on a stable 3.0.x.x branch but be prepared that some existing 3rd party modules will require some adaptation.