Shopping Cart Systems Comparison

by Erin Banister

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A detailed comparison of different carts were available on the Zen Cart site:

Free Carts

1. Ecommerce Shopping Cart Software - This one was different. They use a windows executable to set up the store on your local machine, then they upload all the files to your ftp for you with your saved config settings. The admin panel only works in IE and probably Mozilla (no opera). Right away you will notice it is osCommerce based, with its own admin menu system and the front end is totally different looking, but the settings tables are osCommerce based.
ScreenShots (bottom of page)

2. CubeCart - Well, these guys have the right idea, but not in the right way. I think the problem here is understaffing, but v2’s biggest problem is that it would put the entire site under SSL mode if you enabled it, which is bad for those with Shared SSL servers being bogged down with all that traffic. Now in v3 that was just released, they essentially lock you out of your own admin panel if you enable SSL. They use PHP_Serialize to put the secure info into the database, but if you made one mistake when submitting, you screwed yourself from ever getting back in because the database is basically encrypted. You need PHP_Unserialize to read that data back and after 3 hours of struggling you realize that v3 just doesn’t work with SharedSSL at all. The cart however is nicely done, with a lot of nice features, there are some contribs that are useful, but the overall stability and versatility of the store needs to improve. Its still got a ways to go to catch up to even osCommerce, it needs a lot more to reach Zen level!
Store Demo

3. Enterprise Cart, another osCommerce based shop, with nothing much more impressive aside from a slightly redesigned store front, looks a lots like the ecommerce one above, not very nicely organized, side boxes seem askew.
Store Demo

4. QuickCart - QuickCart is probably the smallest, simplistic cart. No bells and whistles, however it can be greatly customized into any site quite easily. There are many websites they show using it on their sample sites page, and none of them look alike. Great for someone who wants to sell simple items without the frills of the full ecommerce power.
Example Site 1 | Example Site 2

5. CastleKart - Another osCommerce store, nothing really special. The Installer is their own, but buggy (checks if the config is 777, even if its not, it still attempts to install then gets hung in the install and loops the same questions). The Admin panel has a slight upgrade too, but same functions as normal osCommerce.

Pay Carts

1. X-Cart - This was the first one that got my attention. It is probably one of the best pay carts I’ve tested, having almost all of the Zen-Cart features, plus a few more like the ability to set some customer accounts as wholesalers or affiliate accounts, therefore allowing you to give discounted rates automatically to wholesalers, but still charge full price for the rest of the customer base (a feature I’d like to see in zen-cart). The backend of it was designed much like the front end of most CMS/shops, with the categories in side boxes.Good way to organize, but nothing fancy that grabs you. On the bad side, the forums there are weak, lots of “users” but no “contributors” so the turn out rate of useful tools was whenever the devs felt like releasing something. I guess it’s to be expected of pay carts though. Not very friendly with Shared SSL either, as it assumes that if you are using SSL, then all it does is add an “s” to your http:// prefix, and it auto applies it to the admin panel too, so I locked myself out of my admin panel (need to fix in phpmyadmin)
Store & Admin Demo

2. Volusion - was really impressive, they even have a video tour right on their main page. Unfortunately they don’t give you an admin demo, but the store front looks nice. Unfortunately this store is part of their hosting plan so its a monthly fee to have this store. There is a 14day free trial, but you basically have to sign your life away to get it. Its also asp based (which if you are just starting to learn more php like me, you basically have to start over)

3. SunShop - This cart caught my eye right away due to its creative graphic based admin panel, the store front also has an original side tabbed menu that I liked. Problem here was you had to request each module from the devs, it didn’t come standard (it will in their new version tho). One good thing here though, they also offered to create requested modules for users, bad thing was they charged an arm and a leg. Still, one of the better carts I’ve seen out there. SSL was not a problem for this cart, it supported Shared and True SSL and it worked properly. They also included a template editor, and really good help for the admin commands. MouseOver to see the help info for each and then they had a huge knowledge base on their site. If I had to pay, this is probably the cart I would go for.
Store & Admin Demo

4. ViArt Shop - This shop looked promising, but after downloading their free evaluation version, and installing it twice, I still could not get the shop to work, there was some obscure php error and I got no response from their staff. Couldn’t find an admin pass
Store Demo
ScreenShots

5. ESMI Studio Cart - Well, first thing you will notice is they mispelled their own company name in their < title > tag, but this is a nice little cart, but it only has core payment code for Paypal only. Its feature rich, and pretty cheap, ($34.99) for the full version which you have the right to modify all you like. Rather nice for those using only Paypal or money orders as their payment methods.
Store Demo
Admin Demo - login/pass

6. Shopping Cart Software - This is a windows based program that uploads the files for you after you have created them within the program. Everything is windows form based, enter in your info, price, product, quantity, coupons, and images, and when you are done, click the Upload to server button and it will upload the changes for you. The store is decent, however you can’t easily customize and support for some of the more popular gateways like Authorize.net aren’t there yet, so you have to use the standard cgi call for it, which is somewhat unprofessional in my mind. However, they do also offer their own secure server for acting as a virtual terminal to the customer, but in reality it emails you the information with an encrypted CC number. simply copy the text of the email into your program to unencrypt. Potentially not very safe for your customers, but it acts as a free automated gateway for you to enter manually in your Virtual Terminal for your gateway company. Themes are also super easy to change, just apply them with the program and upload. I’ve been playing with this one for a while lately, but there is a lot of work that needs to go into this before it reaches the Zen equivalent level.
Store Demo

7. eziMerchant - This store is similar to the Shopping Cart Software above, its Windows based, you do everything within Application windows and when you are ready you can upload the changes to your ftp server. Same cons, no easy customization and severely overpriced.
No Demo

8. 3DCart - This was a nice looking cart, usually what you see on most webhosting sites. Those looking to be your new webhost always seem to have a shiny 3d looking cart, and this is it.
Admin Panel admin/admin
Store Demo

9 - ComDev - This is a decent original store. Customizable, simple admin panel. Not as feature rich as Zen-Cart though, but much of the same features but doesn’t seem to support any SSL features. Even their knowledge base has no info on “SSL” and “Secure”
Store Demo
Admin Demo - demo/demo

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And then there’s 1ShoppingCart, which is one of the most popular shopping cart systems I know of.

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