osCommerce combines open source solutions to provide a free and open e-commerce platform, which includes the powerful PHP web scripting language, the stable Apache web server, and the fast MySQL database server.

With no restrictions or special requirements, osCommerce is able to run on any PHP3 or PHP4 enabled web server, on any environment that PHP and MySQL supports, which includes Linux, Solaris, BSD, and Microsoft Windows environments.

• Customer accounts
• Customer address books (other shipping destinations)
• Order history
• Temporary (not logged on) and permanent (logged on) shopping carts
• Search catalog for products or manufacturers
• Product reviews by customers
• E-mail notifications
• Forseen checkout procedure
• Secure transactions with SSL
• Number of products in each category are shown
• Bestseller lists
• Display what other customers have purchased (relating to the current product displayed)

Administrative Functionality, as of Preview Release 2.1

• New design for user-friendliness
• Add/Edit/Remove categories, products, manufacturers, customers, and reviews
• Categories-to-categories structure
• Statistics for products and customers
• Dynamic product attributes
• Tax zones, classes, and rates
• Configuration parameters in database for remote editing
• Not tied together with the catalog module (admin module can be installed on another server)
• Payment and shipping modules
• Connection to oanda.com's currency exchange rate servers for multi-currency shops
• Decide what to display (and the order) in the product listings
• Backup tool

General Functionality, as of Preview Release 2.1

• PHP3/PHP4 compatible
• Out-of-the-box functionality
• Becoming modular
• Localization: English, German, and Spanish; plus contributions