Shopping Cart Software Compared

Xcart, ZenCart and Oscommerce compared

I realised the other day that I had produced sites using all manner of shopping cart solutions over the years and so am in a good position to compare them. This article compares Xcart, ZenCart and Oscommerce.

Firstly x-cart costs a hundred dollars or so while the other two are free. This made me think it would be a better solution for a large client. In some respects this was true, with stability being very high. However we have been continually frustrated with the poor coupon and discounting support.

Oscommerce is free and has a long pedigree with a massive and enthusiastic user base. However, the difficulty that irks me most is the lack of templating. What this means is that when a client wants to change the look and feel you either have to edit the original files (with all the risks of stuffing up their site) or reinstall the whole shop. This was precisely one of the problems that zencart was built to address and so I do find it an altogether better product.

Zen-cart is losely based on the oscommerce core and so can be extended by anyone competent in php. It uses a mysql database and I found installation easy. There are lots of sales and discounting features and plenty of simple to install add ons. The XHTML template system is seo friendly.

The largest gripe is with the shipping and payment options which really could be made easier to set up. Aside from this, Zen cart is the option I favour.

So, in short I recommend that when you want to build an online shop you should get some cheap reliable server space (I use the 1and1 business package) and install a free copy of zen-cart.

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