title: Zen Cart
text: # Zen Cart
  
  Zen Cart is an online store management system. It is PHP-based, using a MySQL database and HTML components. Support is provided for numerous languages and currencies, and it is freely available under the GNU General Public License.
  
  ## History
  
  Zen Cart is a software fork that branched from osCommerce in 2003. Beyond some aesthetic changes, the major differences between the two systems come from Zen Cart's architectural changes (for example, a template system) and additional included features in the core. The release of the 1.3.x series further differentiated Zen Cart by moving the template system from its historic tables-based layout approach to one that is largely CSS-based.
  
  ## Plugins
  
  As support for Zen Cart dropped in recent years, many third party companies are creating Zencart plugins and modules that can help users solve problems like installing reCAPTCHA v3
  
  