Recommend Good Simple eCommerce scripts

[Groovedude]

As the title says really, could you guys and ladys, recommend some eCommerce scripts/software to use on a website. (would like it to have the ability of paypal)

the ones i am aware of so far :

• Thelia
  
• OS Commerce
  
• Prestashop
  
• Magento
  
• Zen Cart
  

I have only tried Prestashop so far though.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

Megento is VERY good. We developped a new site with it, and are quite impressed thus far!

[Fourjays Veteran]

Avoid osCommerce like the plague. It is full of unfixed security holes and requires who knows how many mods to make it secure for use. Not to mention it just hasn't be updated in yeeeeaaaaaaaars so things that seem basic now (friendly URLs) require mods in osCommerce. I'd also be sceptical of its derivatives like ZenCart.

OpenCart is one I've come across recently that seems pretty decent.

I think pretty much all eCommerce scripts support Paypal out of the box.

[andrew_f]

I've always found Magento really frustrating, especially their templating system.

My current preference is "CartThrob" which is an addon for ExpressionEngine (which is the CMS we use at the agency I work at, so it flows nicely). It's very customisable (you can build a shop to look and behave how you want a lot easier than with other systems) but does lose some of the advanced functionality of Magento (for example tax brackets and shipping seems better on Magento).

[shifts]

+1 for x-cart which is relatively simple compared to magento and costs a lot less as well. Theres also some decent templates and modules out there.

[ZakO]

Avoid osCommerce like the plague. It is full of unfixed security holes and requires who knows how many mods to make it secure for use. Not to mention it just hasn't be updated in yeeeeaaaaaaaars so things that seem basic now (friendly URLs) require mods in osCommerce. I'd also be sceptical of its derivatives like ZenCart.

OpenCart is one I've come across recently that seems pretty decent.

I would do some careful research before using OpenCart. To be fair I haven't tested it for 12 months, it may have improved by now (although that's unlikely because the main developer has an attitude problem towards people who report security issues)... personally I would never touch it again:

http://blog.visionso...-vulnerability/

http://forum.opencar...?p=72582#p72642

http://blog.ericlamb...e-use-opencart/

http://news.softpedi...es-146352.shtml

http://www.websynn.c...-vulnerability/

[game_over]

Magento is the clear choice but it does have a learning curve.

OpenCart is amazing for free.. it lacks featuring beyond selling products.. what i mean is adding extra pages, blogs, contact forms, newsletters. Also development appears to have slowed down quite a lot.

I've been following this and it looks amazing: http://lemonstandapp.com

[Fourjays Veteran]

I would do some careful research before using OpenCart. To be fair I haven't tested it for 12 months, it may have improved by now (although that's unlikely because the main developer has an attitude problem towards people who report security issues)... personally I would never touch it again:

http://blog.visionso...-vulnerability/

http://forum.opencar...?p=72582#p72642

http://blog.ericlamb...e-use-opencart/

http://news.softpedi...es-146352.shtml

http://www.websynn.c...-vulnerability/

Thanks for the tip. Will look into it as I'm extremely paranoid where security is concerned. Not good to see a developer ignoring such issues either. :no: Out of curiosity, what are you using now?

[PNWDweller]

I have a customer on Prestashop. While it is good for importing CSV's (EASY to do), it does have some preference for France e-commerce instead of US based. With that said, it has not choked on close to 5k products being imported. We had to break them down a bit to reduce server timeouts, but otherwise, it did good. Imported the images direct from a URL which was a Major plus. With Prestashop however, you do have to pay some pretty heavy prices for most of the modules in their marketplace. The customer though that I have will be moving over to Tomatocart soon.

Tomatocart, is a very nice system but has had some issues with their authors, made in China, they have been very silent for a long time, a major concern security wise IMHO. But, they recently spoke up and seem to be moving again. As far as the admin backend, you will find it to be incredibly easy for your client if they like a desktop like Gui. You can even check your store's email inboxes and reply to them from the backend. The client is wanting to use Tomatocart for their admin gui. I also think it will simplify things for them in the long run.

I have tested Zeusecart as well but this time for my personal use and I must say that will be the one I will be using when I have a chance to get to put a store online. (As a hobby for myself and hopefully make some extra $$$ )

You might have to try the carts individually to find the one that works best for your needs. In my client's case, we had to upload 5k images and assign them to the product one-by-one. Was not an option time wise and found that Prestashop Excelled in that area when we pointed to the supplier's images. Tomatocart, failed in that area and in fact choked pretty bad when going into the image directory to browse for the proper image.

One word of note too - is if you have product descriptions which contain HTML in them, not a single one I have tried will import the product descriptions properly when using CSV importing. So, in the long run, even though we avoided going into the product to add the picture, we still had to go in to correct the description, so it took just as long (3 MONTHS with two people working on them about 4 hours a day).