Most popular OSC programs of 2012: OpenCart popularity quadrupled in the last twelve months to emerge as this year’s winner of the popularity prize. Only two other programs my study have ever tracked have shown this kind of growth: Magento soared in popularity to peak in July 2011, ending 2012 down about 15% from a year earlier. In 2011 PrestaShop grew nearly fivefold, while in 2012 it has held steady throughout the year, and continues to be at its highest popularity level. VirtueMart, an open source e-commerce plug-in for Joomla, surged to a peak in February 2012 a few months after introduction of its new Version 2.
Most Surprising Renaissance: osCommerce, the grand-daddy of all OSC programs, had been steadily decreasing in popularity every year until mid-2011, when it enjoyed a temporary resurgence due to the release of a developers’ version 3.0 in August 2011. However this past year osCommerce popularity again declined steadily, dropping to half of its opening level.