E-Commerce Solutions.

Which ones are you guys using and how satisfied are you with your program?

 

I would definately recommend having a look at http://virtuemart.com
It has just about anything you can imagine (except handling affiliates). It is integrated into Joomla CMS very well. I use it on 5 sites, and could not be happier..

VirtueMart is free.

 

i use zencart. Its amazing and free

 

Hey Mike,

Over the last couple years I've tested quite a few cart setups.

Choosing the best one really depends on what *you* want to do with it...but overall I'd say that going with open source programming and tweaking as needed seems to work well for most folks. Several of my clients use OScommerce and do well with it, although I personally don't care for it. Zencart is a better version of OSC in my opinion. It's not hard to find someone to customize an open source program on Scriptlance or other places.


Here are some others I looked at (with notes I took on what others folks were using/recommending)...

1. OS Commerce
The general favorites of folks who can deal with ongoing mod tweaks. Not really recommended if you want a quick easy setup. Lots of hosts offer it through the Fantastico installer, but apparently you can't do the appropriate edits to make it seo friendly this way.

2. Zen-cart...based off OSC with a less complex setup.

3. X-cart and Lite Commerce
Lots of positive reviews on different boards. SEO friendly. If you can afford to drop over $300 I'd recommend Lite Commerce. The code is open so you can still tweak it, but they also offer a lot of cool plugins, and tech support too.

4. Mals-e
Probably one of easiest solutions and totally free [or super cheap]. Easy to optimize because you just plug your 'buy button' into whatever page you create. Not what I'd recommend for a power user though, it doesn't have enough automation features. RomanCart is a similiar setup.

5. Ecommercetemplates.com
This is a template/cart setup. Affordable and easy to deal with, more features than other cheap carts, with an option to use seo friendly static pages. Their templates are very basic, but you can build your own from scratch, plug in a few code lines, and then install the whole deal onto whatever host you feel like using. They offer both asp and php options, plus easy online tutorials and a forums board. They got good tech support reviews on WHT.


Monster Commerce is a hosted solution that's mentioned quite often on different boards, but I think it's way overpriced with too many limitations on the types of files you can use.

I also have clients using CartIt and there's even a cart plugin someone created for Wordpress, although I have yet to test this.


For more info I recommend spending some time on Webhostingtalk.com. You can search by product/company name. Lots of reviews and input there.

 

Awesome, thank you!

 

I just came over an extremely simple cart called HS.Cart
I needed it for a client of mine that is selling only 5 products. Have a look at what I wrote about it at Webshopadvisor. I will also put up a few screenshots of it in a day or two.

Be careful when you go to their site though. They have some nasty scripts running at their site. When I get around to it, I will make this script available at my site.

I think this must be the easiest shopping cart script I have ever seen. And it's free

 

Another vote for ecommercetemplates. I like to use them, not only because of all the built-in features, but also as because the code is understandable enough to implement my own modifications. I also ripped apart their base template and have it almost 100% table-less

Trying to do anything like that with other carts just gave me a headache.

 

Yea. I was able to pull EcommerceT into an existing design without much work at all. Although it's not as full featured as more expensive programs my client loves it because she can work on it as well and she really doesn't know much about design or programming. Their online tutorials are the best I've come across..very simple and in easy to understand terms.

 

eShox: http://www.eshox.com

We liked it so much we bought their hosting company last year! Works great, robust, and easily customizable. Runs on just about anything, including OSX!!!

They sell it, we host it. I love it! </end biased comments>

 

I say have one custom developed. For example, I do drop shipping so I have a custom cart to elp track that

 

We have taken the base OSCommerce cart and modified the cart with many features available and a number which we have written ourselves. This is I believe the best solution take a free products and adapt it to your own requirements.