Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Ecommerce Hosting & Discussion : alternatives to oscommerce?

[ALee]

so i've been looking around a bit for a merchant software.. and oscommerce seems great, especially since it's FREE!

but would any of have any other recommendations? i'm a short budget here so of course i'd prefer an open-source software. thanks in advance

[Rich]

Use CRELoaded, a derivative of OSCommerce. It's got more features and will save you a lot of trouble as far as modifying scripts for add-ons. It's also free, and IMHO, the best open source shopping cart out there.

[ALee]

Originally Posted by Rich

Use CRELoaded, a derivative of OSCommerce. It's got more features and will save you a lot of trouble as far as modifying scripts for add-ons. It's also free, and IMHO, the best open source shopping cart out there.

is CLE widely used? i've been meaning to use something popular, so that i could easily get coding jobs done for it.

[Rich]

I'd say a lot of people use it. Check out their forum, pretty popular. Anyway, I like it. There's also ZenCart, if you want to check that out.

[iNETFX - Ben]

I was going to suggest ZenCart too. CREloaded and osCommerce are good, but still completely rely on a tabular layout.

ZenCart is XHTML compliant so much easier to skin (IMHO).

[Website Rob]

I second the vote for ZenCart. Very secure and well maintained.

Also lots of people familiar with it so getting changes done shouldn't cost you an arm 'n leg.

No matter what Cart / Script you go with, best to have a few hundred or so on hand. Always some things that need to be changed or customized and, for good work, paying someone do what you cannot is your best option.

[signature16]

I dont know how big of store you have, but I am using Joomla with the VirtuCart module enabled.


It is always something to check out.

[AclassHost]

zencart is also very good, based on oscommerce but has more features and looks smarter

have you tried it?

[BonsaiRack]

I vote for zen-cart . My shop is <<snipped>>

[Landho]

another vote from me for Zen Cart... woot.

[cofcpologuy]

I have built sites using Agora Cart, Zen Cart, OSCommerce, and X-Cart (not opensource) for my clients. I prefer Zen Cart because it seems easier to maintain and has almost all addon modules you need. The only downside is that there is not a STABLE addon module to make the URLs search engine friendly. BUT the 4 e-commerce sites I've built using Zen Cart still have a page rank of 3+ so this really isn't an issue.

Hope this helps!

[DaKine]

I think ZenCart is probably the easiest Open Source cart that you can get started with. I feel you get better support from their support forums than the other open source carts mentioned here. This is a HUGE plus when you are just starting out.

If you can up your budget to around $100 (or better yet $150-$200) your choices will increase exponentially! Just a suggestion.

Dave

[krane_durn]

i have a question: if you offer ZenCart or OSCommerce or other opensource application carts, do your customers ask you why you charge fees when the cart is free? How do you justify it? Also, do you fear that the support will be problematic on specific problems because it is not paid support , but more "discussion" forum, which might be hit or miss?

[BonsaiRack]

Originally Posted by krane_durn

i have a question: if you offer ZenCart or OSCommerce or other opensource application carts, do your customers ask you why you charge fees when the cart is free? How do you justify it? Also, do you fear that the support will be problematic on specific problems because it is not paid support , but more "discussion" forum, which might be hit or miss?

I dont do install, but I have paid for a custom install. Sure, you cannot charge alot if you do a simple cart install. But if your client want a custom design with a fully integrated cart, then yes you can charge, and I would charge without being shy of charging.

As for support, once the cart runs, their is not really support you need to do.

You could want to upgrade, for security reasons or functionnaly addon. But, I have had no problem having support on zen-cart forum. The creator and main persons are very helpfull.

And sometimes, I had to pay a freelancer to fix some design flaw, but for functionnality, zen-cart is pretty stable.

[DaKine]

Open Source carts traditionally are supplied with most shared hosting accounts at little or no extra cost. They usually are supplied with a script that automates the installation. If one of our customers has an issue with an open source cart we will try and help them without spending too much time. But in the end the customer is going to have to seek out support from the developers if the issue isn't on the server side or isn't something simple that we can answer quickly and easily. I don't think it is unreasonable to charge a small fee for installation of open source software if a customer cannot install it themselves as well as offer other paid for services such as upgrades and modifications. Actually, good open source software that has active support forums usually has good turn around as far as getting answers is concerned. So it would greatly benefit anyone looking for open source software to checkout how active the support forums are.

Dave