thoughts on zen-cart

[PixelPaul]

I have been playing around with zen cart for the last few days, and so far I like it. Looking for comments from others who have tried it or are currently using it. What would you consider it's stong points, and what doesn't it do well?

[mattyj]

I've been tossing up between X-Cart and Zen Cart because both claim to have the main requirements I am after - that of extensive functionality with ease of use/setup and operation. I'm in a similar spot to you and can't really offer advice, and am divided about X-Cart - their demo looks great and the features strong, but I'm not keen on their support subscription - ie having to pay a large amount per month to get questions answered etc. They say they'll answer any incoming questions regardless of whether you have payed them the support fee but it also gives them a right to reject your questioning on the grounds that you have not 'upgraded'.

Their forums are also closed to users only and this to me is a sign that they're not too keen on outsiders viewing relevant posts on their product - if it's a good product they should be attempting to endorse it to the public via their forum. The product itself (the cart) is relatively inexpensive that's no problem, but I've also heard that its a 'base' product that really needs to be upgraded to obtain desirable functionality.? Correct me if I'm wrong - if it's a good base product, bug free and doesn't absolutely require changes then I'll probably get it. Also what's the story of X-carts heavy reliance on Perl for a php product, it's either php or Perl - I want php. I like the idea of buying it and that's it, although I wouldn't mind paying a bit for some custom mods but don't know what is required to mod, or how far it would need to go. I'm on a small mans budget.

Zen Cart is open source obviously and so appeals, but is it in the beta stage or something - is it ready to go? Would Zen be as easy to pick up and use as X-cart or would there be a lot of reading, inserting of patches, and customising - I don't know. I guess the best thing is to dive in and experience it, hopefully without taking too much time. At least if it's open source if the modifications and customising needs to get out of hand you're not forking away dollars.

[Shem]

I set up Zen Cart for the first time a few months ago and had a fully operational store within maybe 90 minutes or so. I just came back to it and did it again the day before yesterday. I would highly recommend it.

[mattyj]

What are the chances of a little bit of the old peek-a-boo, Shem? Are these your clients proj's.

This Zen is sounding very 'byte-feng', a well rounded, circular garden

[frezno]

i don't know either of those to provide a opinion.
mattyj's description of X-Cart how they handle the forum etc. appears pretty sound.

One thing to bear in mind.
On an open source project you always have to possibility to add/change things to fit your requirements.
If you know to code even better.
For commercial products you usually have to pay for individual changes.

It's a matter of time (and knowledge) whether it pays for you to use an open source or a commercial product.