A Shopify store on the Basic plan has a fixed cost of about $32 per month, which is almost $380 per year, even before you add transaction fees and payment gateway fees outside of Shopify Payments. On the other hand, a store that grew out of a WooCommerce plugin on a regular WordPress increasingly crams something onto a single hosting account that needs a separate, dedicated e-commerce platform. PrestaShop is an open source online store platform with a product catalog, variants, shopping cart, payments, and shipping methods all in one place, which you set up on your own Box. The installation is fully automatic, without manually going through the wizard in the browser. Below is a step-by-step guide on how to set up PrestaShop on Saplo.
Why PrestaShop instead of Shopify or WooCommerce
Both popular solutions have their price, just hidden differently:
- Shopify Basic plan is a fixed monthly subscription plus a commission on each transaction if you don't use their own payment gateway, so the more you sell, the more you give back,
- WooCommerce as a WordPress plugin works well for a small catalog, but a growing store with thousands of products and variants starts to burden an engine originally built for a blog, not e-commerce,
- In both cases, customer, order and product data resides on someone else's infrastructure or in a configuration you don't fully control.
PrestaShop runs as a Docker container on your Box, the engine sets up an empty database for it, generates a random administrator password and launches a full automatic installation, without clicking through a wizard, and the total cost is the cost of the Box itself, without a monthly subscription and without sales commission.
Requirements
To set up PrestaShop on Saplo, you need:
- A Box with Docker running (the engine automatically enables it during installation from the catalog, container nesting is required, which Saplo has by default),
- A minimum of 1 GB of free RAM on the Box and 5 GB of disk space, which means the Box S plan for $29 per year is sufficient,
- A domain or subdomain
*.saploapp.plincluded in the price of each plan, where your store will be located, - You do NOT set up a separate database manually; PrestaShop gets its own empty database in Saplo's shared MySQL, and the engine automatically provides access data.
You can find a full description of the application and its place in the catalog on the PrestaShop on Saplo page.
Step-by-step installation
- In the Saplo panel, go to App catalog and select PrestaShop (under the "Websites" category).
- Select a Box with at least 1 GB of free RAM, where the store will be hosted, and the domain or subdomain where it will operate.
- Choose the store's language, Polish or English. The engine will also adapt the default installation country to your choice.
- Confirm the installation. The engine deploys a container from the official
prestashop/prestashopimage, sets up an empty database, runs a fully automated installation (without a browser-based wizard), and connects everything to nginx, which serves the store under the specified domain with free SSL. - After the installer finishes, the engine verifies via HTTP whether the store is responding before considering the installation complete.
- Administrator login details are stored in the
PRESTASHOP-SETUP.txtfile in the application directory.
First configuration
- Log in to the administration panel at your domain address with the addition of
/admin, for examplesklep.saploapp.pl/admin, using the data fromPRESTASHOP-SETUP.txt. - Change the administrator password immediately after the first login, in the Your profile tab in the administration panel.
- Complete company data, currency, and payment methods in the Shops section before adding your first products.
- Add categories and your first products with variants (size, color, capacity). PrestaShop supports them natively, without an additional plugin.
- Configure shipping methods and costs in the Shipping section, tailored to the delivery zones you actually trade in.
PrestaShop on Saplo vs. Shopify and WooCommerce
| Shopify (Basic) | WooCommerce | PrestaShop on Saplo | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly subscription | Yes, about $32 | None (hosting cost only) | None (Box cost only) |
| Transaction fees | Yes, outside of Shopify Payments | No | No |
| Engine designed for e-commerce | Yes | No, it's a WordPress plugin | Yes |
| Where data is stored | On Shopify servers | Usually on shared hosting | On your Box |
| Annual cost (estimated) | About $380 plus commissions | WordPress hosting cost | $29 (Box S) |
FAQ
Does installing PrestaShop on Saplo require going through a browser wizard? No, the engine performs a fully automated installation when the container starts. The store is ready to log into immediately after the installation is complete.
Where can I find the administrator password?
In the PRESTASHOP-SETUP.txt file in the application directory on Box, along with the admin panel address and account email address.
Do I need to create a database myself? No, the engine creates an empty database in Saplo's shared MySQL and automatically passes access data to the container.
Is it possible to migrate an existing store from Shopify or WooCommerce? Yes, PrestaShop has a built-in module for importing products, customers, and orders from a CSV file, which you can use to populate a new installation with data from your previous platform.
Which plan is sufficient to start? Box S, with the minimum recipe requirements (1 GB RAM, 5 GB disk), is the cheapest plan that will handle PrestaShop, for $29 per year.
Server parameters for the store, Box prices, and package contents are collected on the PrestaShop hosting page.
If today you pay a monthly subscription and sales commission on Shopify or your WooCommerce store has outgrown a regular WordPress, write to us, we will help you choose a Box and migrate your product catalog.
- #E-commerce
- #Guide
- #PrestaShop
- #Online store
