Commerce Kickstart — three generations
Drupal Commerce (by Centarro) is Drupal's e-commerce framework, and Commerce Kickstart is its ready-to-run distribution. BOA carries three generations of it side by side — which is the point: a shop built in the Drupal 7 era and a shop started this year can live on the same server, and the older one has a migration runway to the newer.
CK3 — Commerce Kickstart, current
The current generation, rebuilt from Centarro's upstream Composer template
as BOA releases ship — at the time of writing the 5.x line on Drupal 11.4.
Standard Composer layout with a web/ docroot. Create a site, pick the
commerce_kickstart profile, and you land on a working storefront skeleton —
this is the one to choose for any new shop.
CK2 — Commerce v.2, for existing estates
A pinned build of the Commerce 2 base distribution on the Drupal 10.1
core line. It installs and serves exactly as tested, but it is not refreshed
against upstream — it exists for shops already on Commerce 2 that want BOA's
panel workflow while they plan their move. For a new build, use CK3.
CK1 — Commerce Kickstart v.1, Drupal 7 legacy
The classic Drupal 7 Kickstart (2.x), assembled on BOA's maintained, security-patched Drupal 7 core. One precondition: it needs an older PHP generation on the server — current servers ship modern PHP only, so if this platform won't build or install for you, ask your host to enable the legacy PHP package for it. That's a quick server-side switch, not a limitation of your account.
The runway
The three generations together are a continuity path, not just a list: a CK1
shop keeps trading on Drupal 7 today, and when you're ready, the move to a
current Kickstart happens with the same panel tools you already use — clone
first, rebuild on the new platform, cut over when it's proven. The golden rule
from Cloning and migrating
applies double for shops: change one thing at a time.
Where to go next
- Choosing and managing platforms — getting the Commerce keywords into your platform list.
- Backups and restores — worth reading before any shop migration.