CS-Cart System Requirements¶

Web Server Environment¶

CS-Cart is developed to meet most server configurations, ranging from shared hosting accounts to dedicated servers.

There are two core requirements for your host to run CS-Cart:

• PHP version 7.1. CS-Cart supports SAPI mod_php, FPM, FastCGI.

  • PHP 7.1 is supported starting with CS-Cart/Multi-Vendor 4.6.1.
  • PHP 7.2 is supported starting with CS-Cart/Multi-Vendor 4.7.2.
  • PHP 7.3 is supported starting with CS-Cart/Multi-Vendor 4.11.1.
  • PHP 7.4 is supported starting with CS-Cart/Multi-Vendor 4.12.1.
  • PHP 8.0 is supported starting with CS-Cart/Multi-Vendor 4.15.1.
  • PHP 8.1 is supported starting with CS-Cart/Multi-Vendor 4.17.1.

  We recommend not to move your store to early PHP versions, if you used PHP 7.1 and newer versions. This could lead to users not being able to sign in.

• MySQL version 4.1 or higher (MySQLi or pdo_mysql should be supported). CS-Cart also supports MariaDB 5.5 or higher, and PerconaServer 5.5 or higher.

We recommend a Unix-like operating system for your server, such as FreeBSD, Linux, or OS X. These systems are scalable, more secure, and offer better performance. Both 64-bit and 32-bit operating systems are supported, but we recommend 64-bit systems: they don’t limit the maximum amount of RAM to 4 gigabytes, among other advantages.

There is also a requirement to the version of the operating system. If you are using Ubuntu as a Linux distribution, then it should be Ubuntu 18.04 or higher.

Server Configuration Requirements¶

• SELinux and AppArmor should be disabled (on Linux servers).
• safe_mode PHP directive should be disabled.
• file_uploads, allow_url_fopen PHP directives should be enabled.

• The following PHP commands should be enabled:

  ini_set	ftp_exec	ftp_connect	ftp_login	ftp_get
  ftp_put	ftp_nb_fput	ftp_raw	ftp_rawlist
  eval	system	exec	shell_exec	passthru
  escapeshellarg	escapeshellcmd	set_time_limit

• The following PHP extensions should be installed (required extensions are marked with *):

  MySQL support*	Required for storing the data of your store in a database.	mysqli OR pdo_mysql
  Network requests support*	Required for proper functioning of several payment gateways (such as PayPal, Authorize Net, etc.) and real-time shipping services (FedEx, UPS, DHL), for sending e-mails via SMTP, and for upgrading your store.	curl, sockets
  Graphics library*	Required for creating smaller versions (thumbnails) of product images. If you don’t have a graphics library, you won’t be able to upload images for products.	imagick OR gd
  EXIF support*	Required for making sure that the thumbnails generated from images shot in landscape mode will be rotated correctly.	exif
  JSON support*	Required for proper functioning of CS-Cart and Multi-Vendor; even some aspects of core functionality rely on JSON.	json
  XML support*	Required for proper functioning of CS-Cart and Multi-Vendor; even some aspects of core functionality rely on XML.	xml, libxml, SimpleXML, dom, xmlreader, xmlwriter
  SOAP support*	Required for proper functioning of several real-time shipping services (for example, Temando).	soap
  Multibyte string support*	Required for proper handling of multibyte strings (for example, strings that contain Cyrillic symbols).	mbstring, iconv
  Character type checking support*	Required for proper checking whether a character or string falls into a certain character class according to the current locale.	ctype
  GZIP archives support*	Required for unpacking TAR and GZIP archives. Otherwise you won’t be able to install add-ons and themes from such archives.	Phar
  ZIP archives support*	Required for unpacking ZIP archives. Otherwise you won’t be able to upgrade your store and install add-ons and themes from such archives.	zip
  File information support*	Required for proper detection of the file type.	fileinfo
  Cryptography support*	Required for proper functioning of several payment gateways (such as Servired and SagePay) and for interacting with third-party services (such as Facebook).	openssl
  FTP support	Required for setting correct file and directory permissions during the installation and upgrades of the store, and during the installation of add-ons and themes. An FTP server must be installed on your server.	ftp
  Cache and session backend	Required for storing cache and PHP sessions in a high-performance storage rather than on the disk.	redis OR sqlite3 OR xcache OR apcu OR apc

  Notes:

  • GD is available almost at any hosting. But we recommend Imagick, because it offers better performance and quality of the processed images.

    Imagick is a PECL extension. The official PHP documentation has detailed installation instructions for Imagick. ImageMagick version 6.5.3-10+ and PHP 5.4.0+ must be installed on your server.

    Important

    We strongly recommend using at least ImageMagick 6.9.3-10 or higher, as it includes a critical vulnerability fix. ImageMagick 7 is only supported starting with CS-Cart/Multi-Vendor 4.7.2.

    GD is included in PHP, however PHP should be compiled with the --with-gd flag. The official PHP documentation has detailed installation instructions for GD. Please make sure your GD configuration includes the FreeType font library.

• If you use Apache as your web server:

  • mod_rewrite should be enabled (for SEO to work);

  • mod_headers should be enabled (for CORS to work);

  • mod_ssl should be enabled (for SSL to work);

  • mod_security should be disabled; if you don’t want to disable it fully, configure it to work with CS-Cart as described in this file;

  • the .htaccess file should allow the following directives:

    DirectoryIndex	Deny	Allow	Options	Order
    AddHandler	RewriteEngine	RewriteBase	RewriteCond	RewriteRule

• If PHP was compiled with the Suhosin extension, then configure it in the php.ini file as follows:

  suhosin.memory_limit = 0
  suhosin.post.max_vars = 3000
  suhosin.get.max_totalname_length = 3000
  suhosin.session.encrypt = Off
  suhosin.session.cryptua = Off
  suhosin.cookie.cryptdocroot = Off
  suhosin.session.cryptdocroot = Off
  

  Note

  Suhosin is a PHP extension intended for protection. However, it can cause various issues with CS-Cart/Multi-Vendor.

CS-Cart Architects Team Recommends This¶

• Use a virtual or dedicated private server instead of a shared hosting; this allows for smoother upgrades.

• Install and enable Openssl PHP extension to generate more secure session keys.

• Install Redis or APCu and set it as a CS-Cart cache backend.

• Install OPcache.

• Install the mod_deflate Apache mod.

• Disable MultiViews on the server.

  Enabled MultiViews option may cause unexpected results, if an URL (for example, an URL of a SEO name) matches the structure of folders in the root directory of the store.

Compatible Hosting Providers¶

As you can see, the requirements for the web server environment are quite typical. Thousands of hosting providers meet them. But if you can’t decide on the hosting for your web store, please consider a compatible hosting provider from our compatible hosting list.

Server Hardware Requirements¶

Requirements to server hardware depend on multiple factors. The more products, customers, and functionality your store has, the higher-performing server you’ll need.

Here’s an example of the server hardware sufficient for 50 visitors per hour: