10 kick ass Open source E-commerce platforms reviewed
With e-commerce webdesign really starting to take off, its never been more important to choose a platform which suits you as a developer (i.e. one that you can support) and one that will provide your clients with the features that they need to run a successful online shop.
There are a number of ways of getting a shop online, and we’ve focused primarily on open source e-commerce platforms here.
OsCommerce
OsCommerce has a number of store owners on its books, notable customers include TruffleShuffle and LinuxUk.
So what features do you get with OsCommerce? There are multiple payment Gateway’s to choose from including (but not limited to) – 2Checkout.com, Authorize.Net, ChronoPay, iPayment, PayNova, Paypal, PSIGate, SecPay and TrustCommerce.
As expected from a platform such as this its jam-packed with features
Notable Features
- Supports unlimited products and categories
- Multicurrency support
- Support for physical (shippable) and virtual (downloadable) products
- Object oriented PHP backend
- Web Browser Install and Plugin support
Problems – front end of OsCommerce is not developed using CSS, therefore skinning and reskinning is a bit of a nightmare, that said installation is a breeze – and if you are more comfortable with tables then OsCommerce is probably for you.
You can however always add on one of the popular template systems plugins and save some time -but its not supported out of the box. The code base is also overly complex which makes extending more difficult.
OsCommerce is widely popular and thus has a larger support base, and forum if you need help.
ZenCart
Zencart’s website doesn’t do justice to the professionalism of the end product, and although it doesn’t not offer as many payment processing options as OsCommerce and other e-commerce platforms it is a more mature product, with OsCommerce often taking quite a long time to release fixes for important issues such as security. ZenCart is a fork of OsCommerce so you can expect very similar sorts of features, its also easier for the newbie developer to get into than Osc. Payment gateways include LinkPoint, Authorize.Net and Paypal.
Notable Features
- User frontend is validated to XHTML 1.0 Transitional
- Any PHP coding changes can be protected during upgrades by using the built-in override protection system
- Integrate with phpBB
- Meta Tags keywords and descriptions can be controlled at the per-product level
VirtueMart
VirtueMart is an Open Source E-Commerce solution designed to be used with Joomla! (but also works with Mambo). Joomla and VirtueMart are written in PHP and made for easy use in a PHP / MySQL environment.
Notable Features
- Stock Level Control for Products and Item
- Ajax-powered Product Overview allows to quickly add Products to the cart
- Product Attributes (like Size or Color) can be added to Product
- Manage different Currencies, Countries & States
- Product Availability: show how fast a Customer can expect delivery
Payment Gateways supported include Authorize.net, PayPal, 2Checkout, eWay, Worldpay, PayMate and NoChex. If you have an existing Joomla based site, integration is particularly easy <5 minutes (if you have a working installation of Joomla, <10 minutes otherwise. Virtuemart uses Joomla’s admin interface for store administration, and because it is implemented inside an already rich CMS, administration will come very easily to Joomla users. Given that Joomla is (probably) one of the best CMS systems out there, it may easily give OsCommerce and others a run for their money.
Magento
http://www.magentocommerce.com
Varien, a Los Angeles web development firm is the brainchild behind Magento, and my what a fantastic job they have done on this product. It’s by far one of the more exciting e-commerce platforms available for free on the market today. Dripping with features, they really have thought of everything. Wishlists, shop by price and category, item comparison – all the things we’ve come to expect from professional web stores. Its software as good as this that really keeps licensed software on their toes..
Just some of the features, for a full list download the pdf
Notable Features
- Integrated with Google Analytics
- Multiple Images with Zoom
- Add to Wishlist
- Send to a Friend
- Batch Import and Export of Catalog
- One Page Checkout
- Multi Lingual
DashCommerce
If you are a advocate of all things Microsoft this wont be the first time you’ve come a cropper with finding open source software. One of the only Open source .NET e-commerce platforms on the market we could lay claim to was Dashcommerce (formerly the Microsoft Commerce Starter Kit) at its present status can only provide us with Paypal support for payment integration, and its lead developer has recently announced that the Roadmap for the product appears to be going in a more commerce route. If you need one of the other payment vendors listed above, you are going to have to rip the source code apart and tackle it yourself. Some sites which have been built using Dash include Grossi Wines and GoWheelChair.
Notable Features
- Single Page Checkout
- Partial Refunds
- Configurable Shipping Rates
- Drop-In Themes / Skinning
CubeCart
Cubecart have released two different versions of their product. Cubecart 3 is their free version, Cubecart 4 is their inexpensive commercial version. The pricing structure for Cubecart can been seen below.
| Cost | ||
| Copyright Removal Key (Optional) | $89.95 | $89.95 |
| Installation Service (Optional) | $59.95 | $59.95 |
| Upgrade Eligibility | All Releases of v3 | All Releases of v4 |
One of Cubecart’s main strength’s lies with its variety of different payment merchant vendor, including but not limited to the following for the free version:
2Checkout, AsianPay, Authorize AIM / SIM , BluePay, ccAvenue, ccNow, ChronoPay, PayPal Pro Direct Payment (US), PayPal Express Checkout, HSBC (API), Linkpoint Connect, Mals-E, Moneybookers, Nochex (Basic & APC), PayJunction, PayMate, PayOffline, PayPal Standard & IPN, Print Order Form, Protx (VPS Form), psiGate, SECPay, Verisign, WorldPay Junior
Notable Features
- Professionally Security Audited
- 100% Template Driven
- Customer Order History
- Multi Currency Support
- Tell a Friend
X-Cart
Whilst not free, X-Cart costs $229.00 for the Gold version (see features here) and $575.00 for the professional version (see features here). X-Cart is well thought of piece of software amongst the developer community. X-Cart is an easy-to-use cart, although many customers say that its learning curve is too difficult for beginners. A knowledge of the templating engine that it uses (Smarty) would be a major advantage if you do decide to use it, and would make the learning curve that bit easier. X-Cart has a relative ease of self-maintenance, and your clients will find it easier to use than LiteCommerce.
Notable Features
- Unlimited product options
- Variety of payment gateways
- Import/export all types of X-Cart
- Real-time USPS, FedEx and UPS shipping calculation
- Support for E-goods
- Membership levels and membership-based pricing
- Add-To-Cart buttons for existing websites
LiteCommerce
LiteCommerce is developed by the same people as X-Cart, and is a cut down version of the product. It really lends itself towards smaller stores, and if you are needing a quick version, with easier code maintainance that works then LiteCommerce is for you. It also has a few features such as the bulk shopping add on option which X-Cart doesn’t have. LiteCommerce has 97% of its source code open – whilst X-Cart has 100%, but for some developers this stipulation wont factor much. LiteCommerce also uses the FLEXY template engine, whereas X-Cart uses Smarty.
Notable Features
- 27 Payment Gateways
- Gentler learning curve than X-Cart
- FLEXY template Engine
- No programming required to Setup -Windows Program
- Control Panel for Windows
But if you clients budget doesn’t stretch that far, and you would be happy to integrate a shop with a hosted solution you wont go far wrong with Shopify, see below:
Shopify
Shopify – built on Ruby on Rails technology is a full-stack hosted e-commerce package, which basically means everything you need is right there at your fingertips. You shop will be Standards-compliant, fully customizable and requires very little technical skill to get going. Best of all setting up a store is free Creating a store is free. Shopify takes a 3.75% commission on all sales, which can take the fear of setting a shop up away for some clients who want to test the water.
Notable Features
- Faster and Easier to setup than any other solution
- SEO Build in! Shopify has been designed by SEO experts and every default theme is carefully crafted with SEO in mind
- Discount codes with fine-grained options
- XML Sitemap automatically generated for search engine indexing
- A full featured Asset system which lets you use and re-use your stock photography, logos or product pdf’s wherever you need them.
- New order notifications via email, RSS, and on your mobile phone with SMS messaging
TomatoCart
TomatoCart is an innovative open source ecommerce solution, branched from osCommerce. Aiming at creating the best online shopping platform, TomatoCart is devoted to blending all flexible functionalities for users even with the basic software knowledge. Notably, innovation can be found in our admin panel, which is based on Rich Internet Applications combined with Ajax, contributing to our creative web desktop, one of central means by which we provide easy management of your store and intuitive interface. Various payment processing options are available, including Authorize. Net, Ogone, PayPal, Saferpay, Wire Card and Google Checkout.
Notable Features
- RIA based Administration Pane
- Search Engine Optimisation
- Web Analytics (Piwik)
- Lightweight Framework
- Content Management System
- Email System
linky
posted:May 3, 2008 8:29 pm
As a note, there are several versions of most of the opensource carts you’ve listed that are heavily modified from the originals. Our own firm offers a rewrite of osCommerce to produce tableless XHTML / CSS designs without the use of templates, for instance. Although ours and others are ‘for pay’, they are sometimes a good alternative to spending hours and hours developing what somebody else already has.
Just a thought.
Sean Rice
linky
posted:May 5, 2008 12:07 am
Shopify sounds like a neat app… but the pricing you listed is wrong (maybe they’ve changed it recently?); the plans all have monthly fees, from $24 to $299/month.
Rob Whelan
linky
posted:May 5, 2008 8:54 am
Thanks Rob, you are right, it had been a while since I checked the pricing structure.
Paul Anthony
linky
posted:May 5, 2008 12:18 pm
To my knowledge, Shopify is not open source. However at least two components of Shopify, ActiveMerchant and Liquid, are open source.
Erik
linky
posted:May 5, 2008 12:26 pm
@Erik,
Thanks for that. I didn’t realise that parts of the system are in the public domain.
I only included Shopify in here, due to the fact that it is a good low budget solution, and for developers the tendancy to use O.S. is primarily due to the price tag.
Thanks for the feedback,
Paul.
Paul Anthony
linky
posted:May 5, 2008 3:37 pm
Don´t forget http://iompi.com
Easy and fast!
Martín
linky
posted:May 5, 2008 4:34 pm
CS Cart is very similar to X-Cart and may be owned by the same company. Based out of the Ukraine, I believe.
You can download a demo of each of these, but the source code is encrypted. Once you purchase the software, you get the actual source code files. That’s what I did for a project I was working on, and it was only then that I discovered the use of Smarty templates. They are a pain when it comes to customization. For me, it added an additional layer of complication to deal with.
I had a custom install that required tweaks from the programmers in Russia. They were great. Recommended (if you’re down with Smarty)
Scott B
linky
posted:May 5, 2008 5:14 pm
2 pretty good ones you left off Ubercart http://www.ubercart.org/ and Prestashop http://www.prestashop.com/
Both are free and Opensource
Zoid
linky
posted:May 5, 2008 7:20 pm
I’m very much looking forward to the Magento cart that was recently released. None of the other open source solutions out there really did it for me, but Magento looks promising.
Denver Web Design
linky
posted:May 5, 2008 9:37 pm
@Zoid,
Good man. Those two look pretty sweet as well. Thanks for the links.
Paul Anthony
linky
posted:May 6, 2008 4:10 am
Thank you. I was just about to buy an expensive commercial one. I’m telling my partner! Very useful.
business
linky
posted:May 6, 2008 4:39 am
You forgot xt-commerce. it’s the most used software in europe. and maybe asia. ;) www.xt-commerce.com
ifromer
linky
posted:May 6, 2008 6:53 am
@all
Thanks for the additional links guys, wasn’t aware of some of those.
Paul Anthony
linky
posted:May 6, 2008 12:34 pm
Hi
Good links about e-commerce platforms.
In elojas.com.pt ( portuguese site about e-commerce) I have related some applications you have write in your Blog.
Quick.Cart is also a good solution for small shops. Prestashop is a interesting new application.
elojas
linky
posted:May 6, 2008 4:23 pm
Why not consider Freeway as well. It is much more powerful than any of the systems you have mentioned. www.openfreeway.org
Damian Hickey
linky
posted:May 6, 2008 4:27 pm
some stores are also new for me. it’s difficult to find the best for personal needs.
http://www.fwpshop.org is also on a good way. from germany ;)
ifromer
linky
posted:May 6, 2008 5:10 pm
Might want to consider OpenEdit (openedit.org) which is an open source ECM with eCommerce. OE is rated by users as best eCommerce on cmsmatrix.org and includes support for physical (shippable) and virtual (downloadable) products.
Joel Halse
linky
posted:May 6, 2008 11:06 pm
FYI the Copyright Removal Key for CubeCart V4 is not the price of purchasing the software. It is an additional, optional cost to remove the “Powered by CubeCart” notices from your store once you’ve purchased a license.
Mike
linky
posted:May 12, 2008 12:03 am
Hi Paul Anthony
Barry here from IrishDev.com – saw your post on carts – just wanted to add that Patrick Collinson of Auctomatic http://auctomatic.com is presenting at the Irish Open Source Technology Conference in June – http://iotc.firstport.ie
Best
Barry
Barry Alistair
linky
posted:May 12, 2008 8:09 am
Hi Barry,
Patrick looks like an interesting speaker. Thanks for that.
Paul.
Paul Anthony
linky
posted:May 12, 2008 10:52 am
Anyone know what the best eCommerce system is regardless if it is paid or not? Im just looking for the best solution overall. It is very hard to find reviews of all software that are not affiliated to someone. This article was great though for free ones. Thanks!
Duncan
linky
posted:May 15, 2008 5:41 pm
Sorry but Freeway doesn’t in any way compare to Magento Commerce. None of these systems do. The first few times you install Magento and play around with the features.. the first thing that you’ll mutter is “damn”!!!
I was a Miva Merchant.. then an OsCommerce fanatic.. but these systems pale in comparison to what Magento comes with right out of the box. THe SEO abilities of Magento alone blows away most of these offerings.
If you’re looking for a truly modern cart that can operate on an “Amazon scale”… you should be looking at Magento.
Universal Indie Records
linky
posted:May 29, 2008 8:41 pm
We sell digital content subscriptions to proprietary content.Only a few products, but we need to track affiliate sales, do SEO and send out our content via Newsletters.
We are building a joomla site.
ANy suggestions that will meet our needs from opensource platform? So far lots of kudos on magento, have been recommended openfreeway.org [anyone know of them..]
Hard to separate truth from “product placement” kudos…a shortcoming of this web culture..
thanks
steve
linky
posted:June 12, 2008 1:20 am
How is it that no one has mentioned CubeCart?
http://www.cubecart.com
I have just checked out most of those mentioned here and it stacks up very well. There is certainly loads of support for it both in terms of forum info and plug ins.
Sam Shields
linky
posted:June 24, 2008 10:21 am
Hi,
For those of us that still love plain asp:
I have had good experience with www.comersus.com it has a free version, and it is asp (!).
The professional version is even more fantastic.
Also if you need to make a “build to order” function that enables the customer to assemble his own products (such as a PC) you can use www.earlyimpact.com but that is not freeware…
David Bachmann
linky
posted:June 28, 2008 11:48 am
you forgot www.xt-commerce.com (which is 100 % free, the pricing there is only for their support)
Magento looks VERY great to me, BUT i found a lot of articles/comments about the bad performance + dedicated high class server is recommended which makes it to an only beta version at the moment.
If they will release a hardly performance optimized version it will be THE one for me.
+ it will support Joomlaintegration in the future
I am searching for days now and seems shoptodate and xt:commerce seems to be the best.
Virtuemart is cool cause of the 100% joomla integration, but have a look at their demolivesites..all look crappy and cheap
Andi
linky
posted:July 17, 2008 7:01 am
Is there anything that will let me run multiple stores with only one management headache?
I’ve used OSC in the past … but it’s tough to make it ‘blend into’ a WordPress blog unless you’re either a coding guru or well-heeled. I am neither.
In my fantasy world, both would at least use the same header images. But, I ask too much.
BillinDetroit
linky
posted:July 24, 2008 4:47 pm
My osCommerce is reskinnable… I spent hours stripping out all the tables and reconfiguring it .. here’s my first table-less osCommerce store. http://www.seductivestuff.com
Let me know if you’re interested in the css version!
Valerie
linky
posted:August 4, 2008 9:14 pm
my experience is magento is nice out of the box. it’s a bit overly complex to get in and editing the site to make it look like you want, which could be a show-stopper.
that said, setting it up default ain’t too shabby.
celsius
linky
posted:August 7, 2008 2:46 pm
Magento is getting better, but IMHO it’s beta-quality code to be generous. Check out the bug reports on it, and there are some real show stopping bugs, including security flaws. There are numerous and serious problems dealing with products. I’ve personally, in playing with it, run into serious/obvious bugs. Now, they are releasing patches, so I think they’ll get this under control, but I don’t recommend anyone who is sane go with it for production right now. It’s not 1.0 quality yet.
Another problem is the seriously inaccurate and absent documentation, and for a product this complex, it just makes Magento a no-go. If you read the paltry docs they have, just remember that much of them were written for the old beta and are no longer accurate. You better be good at reverse engineering one of the most complex e-commerce packages written.
Adam
linky
posted:August 25, 2008 1:16 pm
I have tried some of the carts mentioned, www.oscommerce.com is maybe the best open source exponent, but regarding simplicity and easy installation, Comersus www.comersus.com Cart – developed in asp, includes the database file, just upload and use – is my choice.
Jim Kopkins
linky
posted:September 1, 2008 5:25 am
Nice list of open source ecommerce platforms. We have an ecommerce platform based on the Oscommerce platform as well (Digistore), it is released under the GPL Lisence.
Http://www.digistore.co.nz/
Nice post. :)
Open Source Ecommerce
linky
posted:September 11, 2008 9:11 pm
Great list of resources.
Anyone know of a open source platform that allows products to be bought on future dates?
Say for instance, a florist wanting to sell flowers and people being able to buy them for dates in the future?
I can’t seem to find one. :(
Steve
linky
posted:September 14, 2008 1:08 pm
Nice job Paul.
We recently released JadaSite 1.03 that is a open source content management and e-commerce system.
www.jadasite.com
Our philosophy is to ensure JadaSite is feature-rich, easy to use and maintain, and does not require an I.T. Team for support and to make constant changes to the system.
Notable Features
* Free open source software.
* Can be installed “out of the box” without customization.
* Easy to use web interface.
* Runs on Java technology, a mature, highly scalable platform with excellent options for integration.
* Multi-site supports.
* Plug and play template.
* Customer self service center.
* Runs on Java technology, a mature, highly scalable platform with excellent options for integration.
Phil
linky
posted:November 20, 2008 3:21 am
Regarding Steve’s post, we have very similar needs – did anyone have any suggestions? We also need the auto responder capability/integration and what works well with recommended OS platforms?
Thanks!
Terri
steve
May 29th 2008
We sell digital content subscriptions to proprietary content.Only a few products, but we need to track affiliate sales, do SEO and send out our content via Newsletters.
We are building a joomla site.
ANy suggestions that will meet our needs from opensource platform? So far lots of kudos on magento, have been recommended openfreeway.org [anyone know of them..]
terri
linky
posted:November 22, 2008 10:53 pm
Virtuemart has some serious problems. I have customers who type in their bill/ship info and when they click “Continue” to go to the next step in the checkout process, some other customer’s info appears on the order instead of what they had entered!
Taki
linky
posted:November 23, 2008 12:49 am
Thanks for the info, I am still going through to decide which one to select. I have a few questions-
1. I am looking for ecommerce + membership management in one package, any good ones for this?
2. Do all of these work with linux/LAMP hosted solutions on GoDaddy hosting (I know, I know :))?
3. If I have to go with two different packages for ecommerce and membership management, any pointers for membership management opensource stuff?
TIA,
-aj-
aj
linky
posted:December 1, 2008 8:12 pm
I am planing to dig as much as I can to catalogue all the .Net open source projects out there.
You post serves a really great start to list a comparison projects in other development platforms.
thanks.
sarmaad
sarmaad
linky
posted:December 18, 2008 4:00 pm
Hi Paul,
I am looking to create an e-shop for my products. The requirement is I have a list of products which I want to make available through internet and was looking for open-source E-Commerce solution.
I am new to e-commerce and do not the technical details of these solutions. I need your suggestion in selecting one e-commerce product and run my e-store, in a simple way.
Your Help will be highly appreciated.
Best Regards;
Ranjan MR
India
Ranjan MR
linky
posted:December 21, 2008 1:55 pm
Hello All, very informative stuff, thanks.
Since you all seem to have more experience than myself in the field, I will need your advice here urgently!
I actually have a good business idea (I wish I could say the same for capital) and want to start my online business on a shoestring.
However, the problem is that I’m totally technologically challenged (unfamiliar with programming, coding, & all that technical stuff that goes with it)…
I spent the last few days reading & familiarizing myself with these ecommerce platforms, but find it very very hard to decide which would do the trick for somone like me.
This is where I need your professional opinion.
Which of these platforms you think will allow me to build my website all by myself (plug n play, easy to install & run, no coding required, themes available, easy to maintain, etc), or you think there is no hope for someone like me but to seek professional help (and hence spend all his modest startup capital on design)?
Thanks
Vic
linky
posted:December 30, 2008 10:02 pm
PrestaShop looks great there is also some nice free themes to download for it as well, not sure how hard it is to style it your self will have a gander.
http://www.prestathemes.com/freethemes.html
Andrew Jones
linky
posted:January 19, 2009 9:54 pm
First, Valerie – your table-less osCommerce store is dead. It just gives a mySQL error.
I read through the article and looked at the different applications. Unfortunately, most of them are more than I need.
I am searching for a fairly simple Open Source application which I can put on my website to accomplish digital downloads of some eBooks. With a payment gateway for PayPal, 2Checkout, or something similar.
So far, I have tried ZenCart, which ran me in circles because of the overwhelming non-responsive answers to questions, and Joomla, which appears to need VirtueMart as a Shopping Cart.
Thanks.
Ande
linky
posted:January 19, 2009 10:30 pm
@Ande – thanks for dropping by.
Take a look at www.ejunkie.com – I’m planning on using them to sell my own digital products in the next version of this site. Either that or WP E-commerce.
Paul Anthony
linky
posted:February 10, 2009 5:27 pm
A very useful list of e-commerce reviews can be found at: http://www.itwebexperts.com/oscommerce_zencart_xcart_comparison.php
He covers:
Magento
Oscommerce
CRE Loaded
Zen Cart
X-Cart
OSC Max
Joomla & Virtuemart (For CMS & Shopping Cart Combined)
And has a great E-commerce Shopping Cart Feature Comparison Chart.
For the very small, simple store, I’d recommend, of course, the obvious Yahoo paypal store, or WordPress using WP e-commerce plugin or the new ShoppPlugin. Also, 1Shoppingcart is a possibility.
Angela
linky
posted:February 10, 2009 5:31 pm
For Ande, definitely WordPress http://www.wordpress.org (which serves as a great CMS and blogging tool) along with the WP e-commerce or ShoppPlugin is all that you need. Very simple to implement, great for digital downloads, and integrates with Paypal. WP e-commerce works with the Nextgen Gallery plugin for artists wishing to sell their digital images easily online. Everything is open source and free, of course, with lots of documentation and user forums.
Angela
linky
posted:February 19, 2009 11:21 pm
Interesting comments here. I have been checking various ecommerce packages for some time and all fail in one aspect or other.
My advice for newbies looking for a package is to consider
A – what payment gateways are available
B- Do you require stock control by attributes?
C- Is it easily setup and managed
D-How easy is it to change the templates and create your own look.
I tried the latest version of Magento and there were too many bugs to bothered with it.
Prestashop is looking best, but lacks themes and payment gateways.
Zen cart worked well but is a pain to modify the templates to even get a flash file to play.
OsCommerce I found to be heavy going for newbies and “bloated”. Maybe a stripped down and simpler version could be written.
I found the best way to check any package is to look at the support forums. Any forum that has 1000′s of questions etc must have problems which you would have to consider.
In time, one system will win out and be truely versatile but at the moment, it is too early to declare any to be right for everone.
Dave
linky
posted:February 19, 2009 11:22 pm
BTW, there is another package called FreewebShop which is looking quite good.
Dave
linky
posted:February 20, 2009 9:54 pm
Hey Everybody,
Thanks for the cool article, much appreciated.
I had been working with oscommerce for a long time, then I used creloaded to create some sites. Now that I am considering some of these newer carts for my next projects, I found the following:
My biggest complaint about oscommerce, is that the admin section loads slow. I think that the lack of modular design creates problems with oscommerce, zencart and creloaded. Loading new modules can really easily interfere with one another.
I think that I will use either ubercart because of its integration with drupal, prestashop, or magneto cart. I think that magneto and prestashop are using the most current methods and frameworks for their development. The admin section on both of these arts is really nice and much easier to use than the oscommerce family. Although having the ability to integrate ubercart into drupal gives the ability to include really dynamic modules into the cart (social networking, blogs, forums, etc…). And SEO!
ajai
linky
posted:February 25, 2009 5:33 pm
I must add this simple, totally free, with a lot of payment gateways to choose from: NOPERCART.
http://ereimer.net/nopercart.htm
vanja
linky
posted:March 10, 2009 11:10 am
There’s only one ASP.NET based site in your list.
You forgot the most popular ASP.NET e-commerce system today http://www.nopCommerce.com/
Alex
linky
posted:March 10, 2009 11:14 am
Hi Alex. I didn’t forget. I just left it out. (in this particular article).
nopCommerce is mentioned over here.
http://blog.webdistortion.com/2009/03/06/12-open-source-projects-for-net-you-probably-didn%e2%80%99t-know-about/
Paul Anthony
linky
posted:March 24, 2009 3:53 pm
Paul – you mentioned MODx (proper spelling by the way) in your CMS list, but here you failed to mention foxycart.com for eCommerce.
Folks: you’re missing a heckuva lot of good stuff without considering FoxyCart. It’s completely separate from your website, so you don’t have to worry about integrating it with your current site.
And if you do your stuff in MODx, you will be amazed by the power of MODx+Foxycart. FC continues to get better and better, adding more features as time allows. Further, FC was born out of frustration with VirtueMart. I do not miss absolutely anything from my days, weeks and months of hunting down elusive code buried deep in VM.
Now I can get an eCommerce site up in DAYS, have it customized to look and feel in HOURS, and set up the eCommerce part in MINUTES!
PeterB
linky
posted:March 24, 2009 6:32 pm
Hi Peter,
Thanks for your comments.
Unfortunately the focus of this article was open source e-commerce, and thus Foxy didn’t make the cut.
Paul.
Paul Anthony
linky
posted:March 26, 2009 9:52 pm
Is there anything that would be suitable for a government or government agency? Thanks for a great list and comments.
marc
linky
posted:April 14, 2009 5:14 pm
Hi,
I’ll come across your website and found it more interesting in E commerce. I learn more, thanks for the information you share, i’ll come back often.
Regards,
Dux Marketing
Dux Marketing
linky
posted:April 15, 2009 8:22 pm
Great piece, thanks for this. I’ve used OSC before a couple of times but wondered if there were better alternatives … are there? Your original post (and subsequent comments and additions) doesn’t really cover the major positive and negatives for each system.
David Hopkins
linky
posted:April 20, 2009 5:27 pm
I have tried almost all ecommerce software listed above,
The best is magento, followed by zen cart, both have got plugins and support community. I like open cart
For its simplicity but thumbs down to support and plugin support, joomla virtuecart is good but lacks community support, the new version downst allow adding custom shipping.
Fawad
linky
posted:April 28, 2009 1:39 pm
I am not sure whether shopify should be considered as opensource app and compared with osCommerce, Zen Cart and VirtueMart. All these three are free and open source. Customers can download the codes and host it on their server. On the other hand, shopify.com hosts e-commerce site, where developers or shop owners have nothing to do with codes. You host your catalogue and pay a lot to shopify.com. It has registered trademark, run by a company – not a community, and it’s licensing terms are not clear. On the website of shopify.com or in FAQs I could not get the licensing terms.
Therefore, I think shopify.com should not be compared with osCommerce, Zen Cart and VirtueMart.
Suhreed Sarkar
linky
posted:April 28, 2009 1:49 pm
Suhreed,
ActiveMerchant and Liquid, are open source- two major components of Shopify.. Whilst it isn’t open-source it is free to open a shop, and for that reason I think it is worthy to include in a list. In my opinion – its inclusion still ads value within the context of low cost e-commerce.
Paul.
Paul Anthony
linky
posted:May 22, 2009 2:47 am
De beeg praablum, maan, wid di Maa-gentoo, eez de impaateya-shun uv dee produck vaary ahh-balls ya nuu.
Do-won ged me staarr ted maan.
Maan iz poolin owd di hair ya nuw. Arm tinkin uv de Zen Cyart ya nuw.
grahamp
linky
posted:June 5, 2009 4:58 pm
Nice review. More of them is constantly appear on the market and we face the problem of constantly switching to other platforms. Here’s a tip – you may try web service cart2cart. It automates data migration and it helps (http://www.shopping-cart-migration.com)
Lesya
linky
posted:June 15, 2009 5:02 pm
And where is Prestashop ?
Joel
linky
posted:June 15, 2009 5:33 pm
Hi Joel.
Word on the street is its over here. http://www.prestashop.com/
Paul.
Paul Anthony
linky
posted:August 25, 2009 9:09 am
I have tried quite a few platforms and I can say without a doubt Magento wins hands down – as long as you can tick the following boxes-
1. You have a good host – forget using a cheap shared server it will run like a 3 legged dog.
2. You have a fair knowledge of PHP
3. You can manage server back-ups / test enviroments for upgrading purposes – Magento Upgrades are not for the faint hearted, I’ve killed sites by being lazy during the upgrade process, when they say “ALWAYS MAKE A BACK UP” in magento’s case its vital.
The back end in magento is a mile better than any other free solution thats a fact!
GadgetViper
linky
posted:August 29, 2009 4:01 am
What about www.opencart.com?
Didi
linky
posted:September 16, 2009 2:19 am
Really good list of site you have, an excellent review. I like cube cart
but litecommerce offers more but they have loads of extras, everything is optional
and they are all the things you need.
ETA BETA
linky
posted:September 16, 2009 5:30 am
Pretashop is a good E-commerce platform,too
magento
linky
posted:September 18, 2009 9:15 am
Hi Folks,
my family has chaotic carpets business with so much stock which becomes mostly waste, lot of dept, credits, .. very bad situation.
They need inventory management system together with very functional online-shop like http://www.benuta.com/Artikel/29/38/Sisal_Sisal_rug_Natura.htm#top
Site first language should be Arabic.
We do not want to invest lot on of money on this. I am not a web-programmer, but still i want to find out, if I can do it my self, using some tutorials, informal support, ..
Where to start?
Wael
linky
posted:September 22, 2009 12:30 pm
My favorite shopping cart is Avactis. It is easy to skin and I can integrate it to any existing web design fast and easy. Very customizable solution.
metadesign
linky
posted:September 22, 2009 8:05 pm
Why are there no dates on these comments, i dont know how old these are, and therefore am unsure of their accuracy. You should output dates on the comments.
tom
linky
posted:September 22, 2009 8:38 pm
Dear Tom.
Why is the “accuracy” affected by the date? That makes no sense. This is a custom WordPress theme, and I’ve purposely chosen not to.
I don’t turn up at McDonalds and tell you how to do your job. Don’t show up here and tell me what I *should* and shouldn’t do with my site. Here’s how your comment should read:
Hi Paul,
Just a small note – I found it difficult to judge when other’s people have commented. It’d be really cool if you could add in dates to the comments, it might help your readers follow the comment stream.
See the difference?
Paul Anthony
linky
posted:October 5, 2009 8:05 pm
thanks so interesting review .)
I discover CScart today ..
wonderful software .)
seriously …
ade syaffree
linky
posted:October 9, 2009 4:52 pm
Dates would be good.
P.S.: you’re too touchy :-)
Sorgfelt
linky
posted:October 19, 2009 11:34 pm
There is a new open source ecommerce platform called ShopIgniter that looks promising:
http://www.shopigniter.com
It’s based on the CodeIgniter framework and will integrate Facebook and Twitter with ecommerce.
D Money
linky
posted:October 20, 2009 2:40 pm
I like http://www.avactis.com shopping cart, it is simple to customize
Jeff
linky
posted:November 14, 2009 4:07 pm
I am using WP e-Commerce http://www.instinct.co.nz/e-commerce/ right now and is doing quite well but I am also considering VirtueMart for Joomla, they are both open source and with quite good support.
Roberto Ciccolella
linky
posted:November 25, 2009 6:48 pm
Paul,
Tom (@ 70) may not have pointed it out very ‘politely’ but his comment about date does have a point. ‘Accuracy’ do get affected by dates. E.g. if I comment, “Magento has a lot of bugs & drains server resources” —– It would be ‘accurate’ if my comment date was Nov 2008. But, it would be ‘inaccurate’ if the comment date was Nov 2009 — because ver 1.3.2.1 of Magneto that was released in June, 2009 has relatively very few bugs & loads faster than earlier versions.
Your blog is very useful; it will be much more useful (in my opinion), if you add date feature.
Commented on: 26 Nov, 2009 :-)
Raj Singh
linky
posted:December 1, 2009 12:07 pm
its a shame this blog is so out of date now, some carts either dont exist or are not around anymore
darren
linky
posted:January 23, 2010 12:00 am
add dates m8, stop crying, just add them.
I tell at Mc Donalds I want without pickels, so get on with it
Dave = nuts
linky
posted:January 23, 2010 11:28 am
Okay Okay. The people have spoken. I’ll get dates onto comments ASAP. Thanks for the feedback, and I apologise for being cranky.
Paul Anthony
linky
posted:January 28, 2010 6:38 pm
it is January 2010 I have just finished testing the latest Magento on my Ubuntu Server ( dual core ) with 10 products load time is up to 1 minute through a 108 Mbps router. While Magento is extremely feature rich it’s load time is enough for me to say I am looking for something else while I wait for some code streamlining.
CS_Swan
linky
posted:January 29, 2010 5:51 pm
I agree, magento is too heavy, especially the core..
I recommend Avactis shopping cart and Avactis eCommerce hosting for all webmasters http://www.avactis.com/
Jeff
linky
posted:February 20, 2010 7:01 pm
Hi Everyone!
I am looking for a platform for selling products from many users – so would need a multi-access system where by many accounts could be created with access only to upload listings – so much like a free mart style of site, but without any cost to the user for placing a listing.
Is there anything out there that anyone knows about that I can take a look at?
It will need a basic shopping cart, paypal accepted.
If anyoe can help, I would much appreciate it.
Darren
Darren
linky
posted:March 11, 2010 3:13 am
Excellent reviews as a pointer to where to begin looking.
thank you to who ever put the dates on the posts as they make no contextual sense until you realize that they are relevant versions that are being referred to. You can’t use old versions of e-commerce sites as you may as well hang a sign out saying “fraudsters welcome – hack me please”.
I’d love to see this article translated onto wikipedia (there is one but the comments and not the features listed are far more helpful IMHO and wikipedia in its impartiality only has features listed). Knowing that Magento is gods gift to oscommerce so long as you have a rolls royce computer dedicated to it lets me know that it is inappropriate for my needs and the descriptions of the skinning/templating are life savers (well they save me time as I hate smarty and know that I wouldn’t bother with a cms that used it again). .
Thanks
Great work…
March 10 2010
Lawrence
linky
posted:March 11, 2010 10:49 am
Hi Darren,
yes there are 2-3 platforms i can thnk off which do exactly that.
What price were you looking for.
Jon from jonhos.com
“Helping business with eCommerce Platform Selection”
Jon Hos
linky
posted:March 11, 2010 11:19 am
Jon,
The concept is to start a free page site for a specialist niche and what I would like is anyone who wants to list to be able to upload and set a price for the item, and the page automatically set a paypal button in place to go to our account and not the seller.
Once the item has been delivered and signed for, only then would the funds be released to the seller – this removing or attracting too much fraud.
It focused on the “car, van and bike” industry.
The shopping basket would not be an issue if the direct paypal button could be installed – which would obviously mean that maybe a basic php classified site with some script for the paypal auto generation.
Only guessing here, but would it be fair to say that this would be a none standard script/template or would a standard one be easily modified for the small additional button?
Thanks for coming back to me, and look forward to your thoughts.
Regards
Darren
Darren
linky
posted:March 16, 2010 6:14 pm
Forget Magento. I’ve been around computing for a long time, and worked with many hardware platforms, languages and database packages.
The concept of Magento looks wonderful, and some of the sites that are selling templates and the like look good too. The problem comes with the detail. I had a client that loved one specific template, so they went for it. Then we discovered that it would not work with their current “stable” version. That’s a joke, it’s so darn stable it goes nowhere, as it’s almost impossible to install on a shared server.
The documentation sucks, their chargeable user guide doesn’t match the version that was released around the same time
Their web site is massively spammed with porn ads, medication ads and the like, and there’s almost no visible presence from the developers, so hundreds, literally, of questions are unanswered.
The install routines don’t work cleanly on shared hosting.
The checker programs that are supposed to indicate that the package will or will not work on a specific server are incomplete, so give wrong results.
Many of the connect addon packages are not compatible with the most recent release of the community version, and in some cases, will not be upgraded.
I spent a good few evenings over a 3 week period trying to get this monster to work, without any worthwhile success, and the client is not prepare to wait any longer for a demonstration on their products, and I can’t blame them, I’m sick of not getting any support, and all the other things I’ve mentioned above.
Magento appears to have started well, but they’ve now gone down the road of becoming a very expensive enterprise solution supplier, and community open source seems to no longer be on their radar.
Steve
Steve
linky
posted:March 23, 2010 9:38 pm
You also might have a look at oxid esales community edition:
http://www.oxid-esales.com/de/produkte/community-edition
nice list btw.
thanks
ironMIKE
linky
posted:March 30, 2010 1:22 pm
Don’t forget www.oscmax.com – an excellent osCommerce derivative with all the best modules installed – makes it a breeze to setup – Up and running in no time.
Excellent templating system, secure and fast with good documentation and forum support.
Giles
linky
posted:April 12, 2010 3:31 pm
If you like osCommerce then take a look at the I-Metrics CMS, an open source content management system based on the MS2.2 osC framework. It’s gnu/gpl available from sourceforge.net expanding the possibilities of the original framework into new areas.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/i-metrics-cms/
It is extremely light, very easy to learn and it is expandable, suitable for both novice and advanced web-developers. Additional functionality can be achieved from the plugins manager that operates separately from the main core. Only a handful of files control the layout of website front, making template integration trivial. Multi-site administration is integrated and the package can accommodate dynamically active scripting via the jQuery.
Mark
linky
posted:April 17, 2010 6:20 am
A useful review.
I want php, css, and linux. I need a middle of the road application that does 80% of possible features. I don’t need the 80% complexity to get the 20% extras. That rules out Magento and osCommerce types.
I’ve narrowed my choice down to Virtuemart and Presto Shop. Some reviews say these are limited to about 200 items. I need about 500. Is anyone running these applications with 500+ items???
It’s difficult to figure out whether Virtuemart is better than Prestoshop. I currently favour Virtuemart because it’s free.
Dazz
linky
posted:April 29, 2010 2:11 pm
www.solucart.com is a new shopping cart solution based on the latest Github versionofn the popular osCommerce.
Solucart is has an XHTML and CSS customer end and is compatible with all the free oscommerce solutions
Mark Staves
linky
posted:May 21, 2010 7:09 am
Hi!
I would like to inform you that the new LiteCommerce v3 (right now it is in alpha) is free (OSL 3.0) and can be connected to Drupal. When connected, LC v3 transparently integrates its pages and storefront blocks into Drupal so that they look like other “regular” Drupal pages and blocks. You can see how it looks like on the LiteCommerce’s official website (it is build on Drupal integrated with LC v3).
Thanks!
Vyacheslav Petrov
LC3 team
Vyacheslav
linky
posted:July 7, 2010 3:55 pm
I used www.freewebstore.org, its free to 15 items, you get support free.
I could recommend it to all complete beginners, you will have the shop in 2 min.
unfortunately only english, but you can translate the whole store yourself within 20 min.
very easy to use, I am quite content, 150 items you pay something like 15 $ a month
takes paypal and other stuff, missing moneybooker for europe
john
linky
posted:August 2, 2010 2:24 am
Nice collection, and i would like to share it on my social networks, such as Facebook, Linkedin and etc. It will be great, if these links can be provided.
Thank you, Paul.
BTW, I have followed you on twitter.(@cynthia30360)
Cynthia
linky
posted:August 30, 2010 1:41 pm
Hi,
I am a java developer, i found Shopizer www.shopizer.com to be a great java based e-commerce framework to work with. It is built with recent java technologies. The software also does online invoicing.
java guy
linky
posted:October 23, 2010 9:49 pm
Shopify is not open source when it all resides on their server and you have to be hosted by them. They use Liquid which is open source but Shopify in NOT totally open source.
Alta
linky
posted:November 1, 2010 6:26 am
Hi,
Thanks for sharing TomatoCart and TomatoCart V1.1.1 is available now. And I think it is much powerful. You can join TomatoCart FB page( www.facebook.com/tomatocart) and get the latest information of the project.
Angela
linky
posted:November 24, 2010 1:01 pm
Welcome, very interesting blog. I am also leading one’s and I know how hard it is. Your contents are great, although not always I agree with that waht your write, but in spite of that I will visit your blog more often. I wish you the success and the perseverance in running the site, Ann
katalogi stron
linky
posted:November 30, 2010 9:58 am
Very nice post . I prefer Zeuscart which is the best open source free gpl shopping cart software. http://www.zeuscart.com
robertflorish
linky
posted:March 28, 2011 9:29 am
Hi,
Thanks for sharing Mangeto and TomatoCart V1.1.1 is available now. And I think it is much powerful.
Terry
linky
posted:April 9, 2011 2:00 pm
You missed osCmax.com off your list … probably one of the best osCommerce based products. Truely open source as well … They are about to launch v2.5 … Release candidate is out now …
Giles
linky
posted:July 19, 2011 10:25 am
How about the ecommerce plug-ins for wordpress or joomla? are they any good? I use OS commerce though, but I would love another alternative from either WP or joomla.
steph
linky
posted:August 18, 2011 6:28 pm
Thank you for this.
Is there a shop system for selling only services (no merchandise) in Europe and the USA?
Thank you
Toto
linky
posted:September 5, 2011 6:00 pm
I have moved to Joomla VM from oscommerce. I think VM is almost perfect ;-)
Webáruház Készítés
linky
posted:January 23, 2012 9:07 pm
Great post, informative even though its from 2008, I’m writing a post similar to this, but with specific focus on how well they these e-commerce platforms match up to the needs of wholesalers.
Sundeep Gupta
linky
posted:February 1, 2012 5:01 pm
I really admire the simplistic approach ZenCart uses to establish themselves in the online market.
Ben