Is osCommerce Shopping Cart Software Really free?
by Jason
Ciment
osCommerce vs WebCart - An Ecommerce Platform Shopping Cart Software
Comparion Review
Over the past few years, the osCommerce shopping cart
system has been an extremely popular choice for online businesses looking to
power an ecommerce web site. To those who love free (open source) software,
osCommerce (as well as the many other freeware type of cart solutions) is and
has been a dream come true. Given the choice, uneducated eCommerce store owners
will usually opt for a free cart vs. one which will cost money.
osCommerce is a freeware shopping cart platform built in php and MySQL
with many hundreds of programmers supplying addons and plugins either for free
or for an additional charge. Some might say that the system is really free, but
others who calculate the cost of the time spent configuring the system might
disagree.
The question is whether one takes into account the cost of
setting up and administering the osCommerce powered web site. For many beginners
technical support is critical for setting up a presence on the web. With
osCommerce there is no easy phone or email support. The primary method of
installing their php shopping cart solution is by reading the online
documention, and posting questions in the forum. For more information you can
visit http://www.oscommerce.info/docs/english/c_installation_and_upgrades.html.
Because of all the hours one has to spend configuring the cart, it
really does end up costing a lot of money to set up an osCommerce powered web
store. As an alternative, a webmaster can look for a paid solution like WebCart
(http://www.webcart.net) which is not a free
solution and in fact is not even a cheap solution. It isn't terribly expensive
but it is extremely function rich. In fact, WebCart has recently introduced its
osCommerce Transition package to move web sites powered by osCommerce to WebCart
in a seamless and frictionless manner.
We are not suggesting that
osCommerce has a faulty product nor is our intent to convince anyone of this.
However, there are some fundamental complaints about osCommerce, that are
floating around message boards and therefore we've written this article so that
frustrated users of osCommerce can discover that there are easy and flexible
alternatives.
WebCart by the way is developed by Mountain Network
Systems who has developers in Russia, Israel and the USA. WebCart does not even
offer an installation document because they install WebCart for every customer.
"After talking to clients who were previous users of osCommerce, I can tell you
that most of them, who were intermediate web users, had an extremely difficult
time going through the installation documentation", says Michael Moshkovich from
WebCart. A simple Google search for "osCommerce installation help" will produce
a wealth of websites trying to sell you an installation service.
If you
have questions about osCommerce or about WebCart, post your comments directly in
this forum at http://forums.webcart.net.
Stay tuned for
more news on this latest development of the osCommerce Transition Upgrade
package from WebCart. If you are want to upgrade from a free online storefront
and/or you are analyzing specific criteria for developing a new ecommerce
powered Shopping Cart software platform, please contact the developers of
WebCart at http://www.webcart.net.
Jason Ciment
http://www.webcart.net
1-866-667-2278
About The Author
Jason Ciment
If you are want to upgrade from a free online storefront and/or you are
analyzing specific criteria for developing a new ecommerce powered Shopping Cart
software platform, please contact the developers of WebCart at http://www.webcart.net. |
