Forum Moderators: buckworks
I have my biases but it would be great to see what everyone is thinking.
So here are the solutions that I would like to discuss.
1.Os commerce
2.Miva
3.Ablecommerce
4.Storefront.net
5.bvcommerce
The target user would be someone with some knowledge of html and database queries.
Store would be any common goods store, nothing out of ordinary.
Thanks, looking forward to your comments
I am game. I can comment on Miva and Cartweaver.
-ABertone
1. Customization options/Scalability
2. Ease of Use/management
3. Stability/security
4. SEO friendliness
5. Overall comments
1.Os commerce
Good scalability, tough to customize, big drawback is that i don't know of any os commmerce or zencart that stands out in design. Basically they all look similar/the same. If i am doing a custom solution for a client i want my creation to be original/stand out
Ease of Use/Management is ok but only for basic functions
SEO friendliness, not sure there
Overall: Unless you like a "cookie-cutter" look not recommended
2.Miva
Poor scalability, limited customization, propitiatory miva script tough to master. Database hard to manage if not impossible
Stability and security are both questionable. Unless you have a host that is totally geared to serving miva, it will be veeery slow especially with large amount of traffic.
Hard to manage orders, products. Checkout is confusing for users.
SEO is terrible, Google will index but forget about Yahoo, MSN unless you create good static pages
3.Ablecommerce (my pick)
Stable, scalable environment, choice of cfm, asp.net. You can take it anywhere you want and customization is limitless.
It uses ms-SQL and MySQL which is very convenient/super fast/stable.
If you have a good ISP running good Windows servers it will be very fast, you don’t have to worry about traffic, etc.
Very SEO friendly, no limits there, msn especially will love anything with asp.net.
Over all my favorite pick due to customization options, stability, and use of common asp.net, cfm environment
Support here is expensive and a bit hard to reach but they have an extensive library of self –help tools, great manuals and support groups. I wish they would not charge for additional 2k for the dll source code .
4.Storefront.net
Storefront also uses asp.net, its easy to setup a basic store and very fast. It can even be customized in dream weaver or Front Page as the solution has plug ins for both. Problems come with how the code is written , basically not commented, confusing structure and hard to customize unless you are really good in asp.net. Its definitely scalable they will even supply you with visual studio .net project files which is nice.
Their support is flawless, very knowledgeable and support forum as awesome.
There are also lots of third party plug-in support companies. One of my favorites is sfaddons.com
5.bvcommerce
co comment here, not familiar enough
As far as design goes, they can be cookie cutter if you don't take the time to customize them, but if you do the possibilities are limitless.
--Tony
They dont list their fees (that I could find)
Require a ICQ address or you cant register (!)
The address is on a very famous street in London - several Mail forwarding firms operate from the same street.
Has anyone tried webgenie? Optimisable and scalable produces static and fixed HTML sites and can be integrated with your current site.
One fee allows you to build as many sites as you wish.
And it's a strange mix of companies as well.
Moving round their site I receive warnings (in I.E.) about the page containing secure and non-secure items - looks like they know what they're doing!
I think I'll give them a miss.
CartWeaver
1. Pretty much as scalable as your programming skills can take you. Integrates with dreamweaver so if you work in that environment, it is almost the only option for that space.
2. Simple admin. Integrates easily with payment gateways. Even if you haven't mastered ASP or CF, the code is commented well enough that you can muttle through simple changes with a good reference book (in my experience). Also, a PHP version is underway.
3. Same as miva. I run on a dedicated server so it is stable and secure for me. I can't speak for something on a shared host as I have no experience
4. Google, Yahoo and MSN spider and index all pages fine.
5. Unlimited options for customization and working in dreamweaver is a plus. The licensing is great too. It's not free, but priced well and you can develop unlimited number of sites.
-ABertone
If you need some hand holding and a great cart, go with Shopsite. Been around for years. Integrates well with Stoneedge. Constant enhancements. Very full featured.
I can't believe how people who spend a year developing an ecommerce enterprise worry about saving a few bucks on the cart.
I guess they have their marketing right, although the other thing I find surprising is that no one asks about actinic.
His fees were also very good, try getting someone to do that with Actinic or Miva.
Hope this makes sense. I'm not really interested in starting from stratch and setting up my site again under the osCommerce just to have access to the above mentioned functions.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
As for OS Commerce I think they have been bugfixing the 2.x line since 2001. Nothing has really changed since then and I would be impressed to find any stores doing volume business on it. The backend interface was so bad and difficult to manage customers, options, etc. Reason why all the sites look the same is because you have to go into the PHP code to change the layout/look.
-Volusion
-X-Cart
-CRELoaded
-FinestShops (appears to use X-cart)
Does anyone have experience with any of these? Volusion looks to have the most features?
