I Hate To Ask But, What Is The Absolute BEST Shopping Cart Avaliable?

[Devious]

What is the most versatile and expandable shopping cart with the biggest userbase, most add-ons, hacks, templates, etc...?

I don't care about free. I want the best shopping cart.

[Ted S]

Do you have a price range for this cart?

[Devious]

No, not at all.

[Devious]

hello?

[Luke Redpath]

"Best" is an entirely subjective term and it depends entirely on what you are trying to do. Can you be more specific? What are your requirements?

[shadowbox]

Yep, without a requirements and budget range, no one can answer you on this as there are many leaders in all price ranges and each one tends to do better in different areas.

[beley]

Yep... that's like saying, "What's the best way to advertise?"

It totally depends on what you are selling, who you are selling to, your feature and technical requirements, budget, maintenance needs, etc.

[Devious]

What's the best forum? vBulletin.
Logo design? Illustrator.
Best Browser? Firefox.


This is not the DMV.

[Sagewing]

Sounds like you've got it all worked out.

[Luke Redpath]

What's the best forum? vBulletin.
Logo design? Illustrator.
Best Browser? Firefox.

If only it was a black and white as that.

There's no need for the sarcasm.

Whats the best forum? vBulletin, if you need all the bells and whistles, have a large community and can afford the license. If you want something free that does a great job without all the bells and whistles I would recommend punBB instead.

Best browser? Firefox. Can't really argue with that but web browsing isn't quite the same as an e-commerce solution.

Logo design. Illustrator may be an industry standard but I'm sure if you ask around you'll find people who prefer Fireworks or Freehand.

The bottom line is, there is no such thing as "the best e-commerce/shopping cart" solution. There are hundreds, probably thousands of scripts out there with prices ranging from free to thousands (or tens of thousands) of dollars, with different levels of functionality, written in different languages designed for different platforms.

Asking what is the best shopping cart will get you nowhere.

Be more specific about your needs and people will be able to give you recommendations, but you will still need to try out several for yourself.

[sknydave]

If it were so clear cut and simple I'm sure you would have found your answer by now.

[simonsez2]

We like OScommerce with the Netbilling payment module. Both are a great combination.

[CardinalCentinel]

What is the most versatile and expandable shopping cart with the biggest userbase, most add-ons, hacks, templates, etc...?

I don't care about free. I want the best shopping cart.

BVCommerce Enterprise

[seeds]

The best would probably mean 100% uptime and 100% secure (?) the rest I'd leave to a good project manager and a custom build or at least an open source in a popular language.

[gains]

Im looking for recommended shopping carts.

1. It can be open source or commerical (willing to spend up to $200).
2. run on php/mysql
3. Be able to change templates
4. easy to mod

All i hear about shopping carts is that they are hard to mod...and even harder to change the templates.

thanks

[Ted S]

What's the best forum? vBulletin.
Logo design? Illustrator.
Best Browser? Firefox.

This is not the DMV.

Thyrium,
Please understand... there is tremendous diversity in shopping carts. I currently work on a project where our e-commerce platform is in the mid/high six-figure range. Conversely there are carts in the $200-500 range. Clearly one can not be looking at both.

The same is true of platform and functions. If you have a lot SKUs the features you need will be much different from someone with few items but a very unique shopping experience. If your site runs on

So going back to your analogy... vbulletin is great, if you aren't running a forum that has to integrate with a legacy system. Illustrator is fantastic, if you can afford the price. And Firefox is nice if you aren't doing a mainstream user acceptance test.

Yes there are some established leaders but some range of criteria is necessary. After all, you can't tell me what the best place is to buy stuff if I don't at least tell you what I'm looking to buy.

[scottmason]

Thyrium

I here what you are saying, i just posted the exact same question on another forum, but have not been met by the same negative responses as you have,

here was my question:

Ok, I know this has been discussed many times on this forum but which one is THE best - if money was no object.

I'm a designer with some php, mysql knowledge and have used osCommerce on a couple of sites but now I have a client with money to burn and they want the best!

I'm a designer primarily and use Dreamweaver and Photoshop on a MAC so it must be Mac compatable. I need a system that is going to feature rich, user friendly and most importantly flexible in terms of Design, oh and it must use PHP and MySQL.

I don't mind getting under the bonnet so to speak and getting my hands a little bit dirty but I don't want to be bogged down with code either.

I've read some good things about actinic and Web Assist extensions for DW but has anybody used them, I know osCommerce and Zen cart has lots of features but it can be a pain to incorporate decent designs.

I know sometimes the best is not neccessarily the most expensive but like I say, for once money is no object.

So which one is the best, the one that you would use yourself if - like I say - you've got money to burn.

If anybody can highly recommend a certain product with good reason then I'm all ears

[shadowbox]

I here what you are saying, i just posted the exact same question on another forum, but have not been met by the same negative responses as you have,

Ok, I know this has been discussed many times on this forum but which one is THE best - if money was no object.

We're not being negative - if you want our help, simply give us the info we need. Just saying 'What's the BEST!!!????' is a ridiculously vague question - give us specific technical requirements for both front end and backend. What is your client looking for etc? Are they selling digital goods or tangible goods, or both? Do they need something with built in traffic analysis and reporting? Do they need courier tracking? Do they have distributers who need direct dispatch emails sent automatically? How much content management is required? Do they require support contracts from the software creators? Affiliate systems? What type of customer account system do they need? What kind of checkout system do they prefer?

I could go one for hours (and do when I'm being paid to consult on this stuff). I'm not trying to be awkward, I'm trying to answer questions, but it makes it really hard when people just want 'the best' and give little or no info about the situation the software is to be used in. And the fact that you use Dreamweaver on a Mac really has no bearing whatsoever on choosing the right ecommerce solution for your client.

[scottmason]

I take your point, to a degree, but if you don't want to recommend any product, then please save your ramblings for someone who is willing to pay for it.

[scottmason]

Thyrium,

For your info I got a number of positive replies from my post on another forum all recommending jshop

heres' what one poerson said:

I can highly recommend jshop server (http://www.jshop.co.uk/). It's mysql and php driven but uses html templates too. It's super easy to use and has stacks of facilities too. Starting from £300 and going to £900

As it uses templates for the pages it generates, you can slap the html code of the templates into Dreamweaver, mod them as much as you want, alter the CSS for them and then reupload it. I've also found that any issues you have can be answered via the forums or by email. Generally you'll get better response from the forum and people are very helpful (http://forums.jshopecommerce.com/)

I've tried using Zen and OS and think they're great for free but a nightmare for various bits and bobs.


Here's the features of JSS
http://www.jshop.co.uk/features_jss.php

It's superb and also very quick!

Hope that helps!?

Scott

[shadowbox]

I take your point, to a degree, but if you don't want to recommend any product, then please save your ramblings for someone who is willing to pay for it.

LOL, - perhaps you should talk to my alter-ego at the JShop forum, becuase when I'm not here, I'm helping people over there and am actually quite active in the ongoing development of that product. But I wouldn't recommend JShop to anyone until they actually told me what their requirements were, because JShop still lacks in certain departments while excelling in others.

It's funny, people like you want help, yet seem unwilling to actually give up the information people like me need to help you. Then when I try to request the information from you, you ignore that request, get on your soap box and try to demean me by suggesting I'm some rambling mercinary, even though it is you who is tying my hands and stopping me from helping you. Really sorry for the inconvience, mate. Best of luck.

[scottmason]

mate,

I think all the guy wanted was some recommendations, it wouldn't have been that difficult for you to suggest jshop so maybe he could take a look for himself and figure out what functions he needed. Simple really!

Oh and you ever really requested any info from me, I did actually offer some info of what I wanted out of my shopping cart in my original post, but if that wasn't enough info or the wrong kind for your liking then that's unfortunate.

[cinnamon9691]

Thyrium,

There are really thousands of shopping carts out there that have a myriad of different features. You will find many to be good solid solutions, but not really the 'best'. The 'best' will be totally subjective dependant on the needs of you or your client.

If you want recommendations on 'good' (possibly best) shopping carts, you might want to check out my list below.

JShop
X-cart
OScommerce
Cube Cart
Mal's Ecommerce
Volusion
Monster commerce
Modular Merchant (shameless plug)
1shoppingcart

I can go on, but this forum isn't big enough. I guess my point is that all the carts listed above will have happy customers and some will feel their cart solution is 'best'.

[Devious]

I asked on another forum and 9/10 people agreed on X-Cart.

Is X-cart the "vBulletin" of shopping carts?

[Devious]

mate,

I think all the guy wanted was some recommendations, it wouldn't have been that difficult for you to suggest jshop so maybe he could take a look for himself and figure out what functions he needed. Simple really!

lol... so true.