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 5.6 or 7. CS-Cart supports SAPI mod_php, FPM, FastCGI. We recommend:

  • PHP 5.6 for CS-Cart/Multi-Vendor 4.3.1 – 4.3.6.
  • PHP 7.0 for CS-Cart/Multi-Vendor 4.3.6 – 4.5.2. Earlier versions don’t support PHP 7.
  • PHP 7.1 for CS-Cart/Multi-Vendor 4.6.1 and newer versions. In earlier versions, errors occurred on PHP 7.1.

  We recommend not to move your store to PHP 5.6, if you used PHP 7.0 and newer versions. This could lead to users not being able to sign in.

  Note

  CS-Cart/Multi-Vendor 4.3.x – 4.8.x also support PHP 5.3.6 – 5.5, even though we don’t recommend these versions. PHP 7.2 is supported starting with CS-Cart/Multi-Vendor 4.7.2.

• 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.

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.

• magic_quotes_gpc, magic_quotes_runtime, magic_quotes_sybase PHP directives should be disabled in PHP 5.3 (ignore this if you have PHP 5.4 or higher).

• 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	mysql_pconnect
  eva	system	exec	shell_exec	passthru
  escapeshellarg	escapeshellcmd	set_time_limit

• Either Imagick or GD PHP extension must be installed. These extensions are used for image manipulation, such as creating thumbnails, applying watermarks, etc. 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.

• cURL support should be enabled. You need this PHP extension to ensure support of secure connections, some payment systems such as PayPal and Authorize.Net, and real-time shipping rate calculators for FedEx and DHL/Airborne.

• mbstring extension should be enabled, especially if you plan to use a language with non-Latin alphabet. This extension allows CS-Cart to work properly with multi-byte strings (for example, strings that contain Cyrillic symbols).

• Phar extension should be enabled (built into PHP since v5.3.0).

• ZipArchive extension should be enabled (built into PHP since v5.2.0).

• If you use Apache as your web server:

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

  • mod_headers should be enabled (for CORS and widget mode 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.

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: