we are nearing the end of our free trial period and generally like what we see with cs-cart.
we would like like some honest opinions regarding cs-cart and v2.08 or v2.10.
our site currently has about 5000 sku’s, and we are adding all the time.
we have followed the forums closely for the last number of weeks, and have seen what people think is the good and the bad, but as we near making a decision, we would like some honest answers/opinions, such as…
if you had to do it again, would you use cs-cart?
is it the right choice for a site with over 5000 sku’s, and growing?
is their support as bad as some seem to say?
if not cs-cart, what?
any, and all opinions wanted, and welcome…
btw…our current site uses SunShop, which we have been disappointed in, and is located at www.plumbing-deals.com
thanks in advance…
walter
You should have set this up as a Poll, would have been alot easier to reply to! 
[QUOTE]if you had to do it again, would you use cs-cart?[/QUOTE]
Yes, I would still go with CS-Cart if I were making the choice tommorrow.
I started with 1.3.5 and have been through all the recent upgrades to 2.0.10. Yes, there have been quite a few bumps in the road with the introduction of version 2, however, it should be viewed as growing pains which any successful business will go through at one point or another, it is inevitable! What really matters is how quickly they are able to get things back under control, and I have seen alot of positives lately.
[QUOTE]is it the right choice for a site with over 5000 sku’s, and growing?[/QUOTE] Yes, CS can definitely handle this. You may need to put extra thought into how you structure your categories and the category menu type, however, with this many products I think that would always be the case regardless of which shopping cart platform you choose.
[QUOTE]is their support as bad as some seem to say?[/QUOTE]
The majority tends to state that CS email based support system is quite good. I have only ever requested there support once, on the day I bought the license because of a corrupt download file, they responded by the next am, I was pleased. I wouldnt be surprised if support is lagging a bit currently, again, growing pains.
If you are looking for a PHP MySql shopping cart system, then dive in & make the plunge with CS-Cart, there is no better bang for the buck. I tested nearly all of the market leaders several months back, and still occasionally take another peek at them, and, like I said, I would still purchase another license for CS-Cart tommorrow if I were setting up another store!
Just Do It!
1.[quote]if you had to do it again, would you use cs-cart?[/quote]Absolutely. We are a new reseller of CS Cart and I have to say it’s really a fantastic shopping cart script. Over the last 2 years we have tried ans tested a huge number of ecommerce scripts, free and paid, but neither of them have a cost-effectiveness as the CS Cart.
- good price
- included features (by others must be paid for)
- big and HELPFUL forum community (e.g. Magento forum is a nightmare, 1000 questions but no usable answers)
2.[quote]is it the right choice for a site with over 5000 sku’s, and growing?[/quote]YES. Maybe you heard words like “it’s slow” and so. If people try to serve big sites on a shared server + the server is a “368 machine”
then on this server will be a site with a 5mb image slow too.
The speed depends on the number of products (database queries), hosting provider and hosting package (shared, VPS, dedicated). The CS Cart script is ok.
3.[quote]is their support as bad as some seem to say?[/quote]Where is it the Mr. “Someone”? I have never seen a business there all customers, employers, suppliers and others are 100% satisfied. I personaly don’t have any problems with.
4.[quote]if not cs-cart, what?[/quote]NO IDEA
Walter
I’ve been using CS-Cart since 2006 and I have been very happy. I have used a couple of other systems and this one seems to have the most features at a reasonable price.
If I had to do it over again I would definitely go with CS-Cart. The cart has had some issues here and there along the way, but I think this is true with any system.
As for CS-Cart support, I have found it to be very good every time I have used it. My biggest complaint is that they are 11 hours different than me so communication is kind of tough. The problems I have had would have been solved in a few hours if there wasn’t such a time difference, but instead have taken a day or more. It’s really not that big of deal though. My other complaint is the amount they charge for custom work. I’ve had a couple of things done and they seem high to me. Of course I don’t have a lot of experience with custom coding so they might be fine, I don’t know.
As for 5,000 products, I am sure that this is fine. I remember reading some posts a while back about one user having something like 30,000 products with CS-Cart. If he can do it than you should be able to also. Of course hosting will have a big part in this.
I hope this has helped your decision.
Brandon
[quote name=‘plumbingdeals’]if you had to do it again, would you use cs-cart?[/QUOTE]
Very definitely. I spent months checking out shopping carts and CS-Cart has all the features I needed at a more than reasonable price.
[QUOTE]is it the right choice for a site with over 5000 sku’s, and growing?[/QUOTE]
I have 43,500 products and am still adding. I do have a dedicated server but even before when I was on shared hosting my site was still extremely fast.
[QUOTE]is their support as bad as some seem to say?[/QUOTE]
I have never had a problem with their support but you do need to allow for the time difference. I have always found the CS-Cart support people to be helpful and, even though they do require payment if you have run out of support hours or points, they have made a couple of mods for me and their response time has been fine.
[QUOTE]if not cs-cart, what?[/QUOTE]
Goodness knows.
[QUOTE]any, and all opinions wanted, and welcome…[/QUOTE]
I am still on version 1.3.5 and have no plans to upgrade any time soon until the bugs have been ironed out of version 2. However, from reading the forum, it seems that any new installation of the version 2 seems to go OK and I am sure there are many people out there who have successfully implemented version 2 … we just seem to hear about the ones who have trouble. I wouldn’t hesitate to go with CS-Cart.
The support on the forum is fantastic also.
Good luck with your decision.
[quote name=‘Lyn’]
I am still on version 1.3.5 and have no plans to upgrade any time soon until the bugs have been ironed out of version 2. [/quote]
sounds good knowing that my competition is going to stay back 
@ Plumbingdeals;
I’m managing a store pulling 7 figures; 2.0.10 is the way to go.
[quote name=‘JesseLeeStringer’]sounds good knowing that my competition is going to stay back
[/QUOTE]
Ah … I didn’t say I was going to stay back forever! Too busy keeping up with sales to be bothered trying to negotiate my way around a cart with bugs! If it ain’t broke … why try and fix it.
[quote name=‘plumbingdeals’]we are nearing the end of our free trial period and generally like what we see with cs-cart.
we would like like some honest opinions regarding cs-cart and v2.08 or v2.10.
our site currently has about 5000 sku’s, and we are adding all the time.
we have followed the forums closely for the last number of weeks, and have seen what people think is the good and the bad, but as we near making a decision, we would like some honest answers/opinions, such as…
if you had to do it again, would you use cs-cart?
is it the right choice for a site with over 5000 sku’s, and growing?
is their support as bad as some seem to say?
if not cs-cart, what?
any, and all opinions wanted, and welcome…
btw…our current site uses SunShop, which we have been disappointed in, and is located at www.plumbing-deals.com
thanks in advance…
walter[/QUOTE]
I like CS-Cart. However, lately I have a negative outlook on the whole product. Hopefully this will change soon. Each version i’ve had to date has some type of bugs. I had a shipping issue with 2.0.6 that no one could solve. Today I found out the shipping problem got better after the last upgrade but still isn’t completely bug free. a customer from Portugal was denied to checkout on my 2.0.8 cart. when creating new products in 2.0.8 manually its super slow and adding pictures is worse. (basically it says loading but if you refresh in a few seconds its done then you have to find the product you just added.) when updating the site from .6 to .8 the links change unexpectedly. (traffic went down a bit for a few weeks) I also had to move my site from Godaddy to Cyberlnc to increase speed… ( I don’t regret the move at all and I love Cyberlnc, but honestly CS-Cart should be fast with all hosting companies.)
I feel like a beta tester sometimes with CS-Cart. I think the only true stable verision was 1.3.5. However, compared to Virtuemart / Joomla (what I had previously) I’m really happy with CS-Cart.
Currently CSCART is having a slight hiccup, but I have been with them since 2005 and apart from a one moment I wouldn’t use anything else!!! DO IT!!!
I like CS cart and think that they have lots of features for the price although I use almost none of them.
The bugs in the shopping cart and poor communication by CS cart is simply sad. They seem to have different ideas about what good service is or do not care.
They can be quite rude and arrogant in their support responses and very slow.
In an emergency they took days to respond…
I wish them good luck and hope that they get their act together.
[quote name=‘Traveler’]I like CS cart and think that they have lots of features for the price although I use almost none of them.
The bugs in the shopping cart and poor communication by CS cart is simply sad. They have seem to have different ideas about what good service is or do not care.
They can be quite rude and arrogant in their support responses and very slow.
In an emergency they took days to respond…
I wish them good luck and hope that they get their act together.[/QUOTE]
SAY it ALL I think!!! :rolleyes:
I am new to CS-Cart. Before that I was with CandyPress. I had been with them for almost 10 years.
I spent months looking for a new shopping cart that had an active community, more customer service minded company, and an active group of developers for the shopping cart.
Despite all of the downsides, which there are for all companies, I am very happy with the switch. I feel that CS-Cart has better speed, options, community, and support than any of the 40 different shopping carts that I reviewed.
One thing that I really like about CS-Cart is that if you want to have them change the software for you, they are willing to do it, for a fee of course.
One of the other options for me as Interspire and feature for feature they are very similar and Interspire has had a very rocky road lately. They are also very expensive in comparison and you don’t get anything for the price difference.
Hope that helps.
Adam
I’ve also tried several shopping carts before deciding for Cs-Cart and I have to say that, in my opinion, is the best shopping cart out there, this of course, taking into acount that there is no perfect e-commerce software, all of them have it’s faults.
I would buy it again, no doubt. But I’m not thinking of upgrading because my version works fine, so, don’t see a logical reazon to get frustrated with bugs when I’m perfectly satisfied as I am.
If not Cs-cart, I would go with Magento, just dind’t went with it because of hosting issues, it need’s a “special” host. The most of Magento, besides all of it’s features, is the open-source community where you have your support for free. The down side, people say, it’s the speed.
Best of luck deciding
I just want to say thank you to all of you for your responses…
Like must of you, we have looked at dozens of carts…who knew there were so many choices!!!
A word on Magento…something we have looked at closely, but as has been said…speed and host requirements are an issue, also the learning curve. It is a great cart, but unless you are a programmer or hire someone to set it up, I just don’t think it’s worth it.
Anyway, as I said, thanks for the input, and while a final decision is still pending, I think Cs-cart will be the choice. I will report back.
Walter
[quote name=‘E.Qi.Librium’]I’ve also tried several shopping carts before deciding for Cs-Cart and I have to say that, in my opinion, is the best shopping cart out there, this of course, taking into acount that there is no perfect e-commerce software, all of them have it’s faults.
I would buy it again, no doubt. But I’m not thinking of upgrading because my version works fine, so, don’t see a logical reazon to get frustrated with bugs when I’m perfectly satisfied as I am.
[/QUOTE]
This is how I feel. Miva Merchant was my original cart for more than 5 years. It is a pretty solid cart but I needed some features it didn’t have so that’s why I needed to move on. I tried x-cart, cubecart, interspire, jshop, digishop… looked at dozens of others, but those were the ones I installed and tried to set up.
If you have the typical products with parent and child structure and therefore plan to create the shopping cart with parent products and child options as shared unique products and related features and meantime you want to use the the product configurator as well, cs-cart currently may not be the base choice. I doubt if there are any near future plans either .
[quote name=‘dustundag’]If you have the typical products with parent and child structure and therefore plan to create the shopping cart with parent products and child options as shared unique products and related features and meantime you want to use the the product configurator as well, cs-cart currently may not be the base choice. I doubt if there are any near future plans either .[/quote]
I think 2.0.10 can does it.
[quote name=‘dustundag’]If you have the typical products with parent and child structure and therefore plan to create the shopping cart with parent products and child options as shared unique products and related features and meantime you want to use the the product configurator as well, cs-cart currently may not be the base choice. I doubt if there are any near future plans either .[/QUOTE]
Not sure I follow you…
We have products, a faucet for example, that would be listed in several categories, and would come in a choice of finishes, also some may have a choice of handles. Are you saying cs-cart could not handle this? In testing, it has not seemed to be a problem.
Perhaps you could explain better what you mean?
Thanks,
Walter
You may also use the category as parent and product under that category as child (options) depending on the type of products.
But if you have typical product say a plumbing valve starting from 1" to 12" then you have basically difference size, weight and price difference and it is not user friendly to clone the product per size difference under the category. Then the best method is most probabably to use non-category type parent-child structure. (similar to cs-cart product with options)
With current version of cs-cart, you can create options per products. But the options does not have capability of supporting or linking to the existing child products available in the database.
This also true for the add on “Required products” which does not support the
product with options.
This is also true for product configurator. Product configurator does not support product options available
on the database.
I have have only tested two shopping carts in the past. they are Virtuemart and Magento
- Virtuemart has nice display configuration feature for the parent - child structure (without the use of category as parent product)
- Magento has also product -child structure. Each child product is actually a product.
. You can also appoint a feature to each child product (say size feature 1" upto 12"). you will then a short display for the seperate products as options.
If you are not going to plan to use product configurator or required product and also alot of typical product with large number of product options at the same time,. you will not be disappointed with cs-cart.
I am not in position to recommend you other product and I am sure that cs-cart currently is one of the best choice for overall and price. But this may not be the case for me if I find a suitable alternative cart with typical better organized parent child type configurable product and also product configurator and I am ready to start from the scratch.
[quote name=‘dustundag’]You may also use the category as parent and product under that category as child (options) depending on the type of products.
But if you have typical product say a plumbing valve starting from 1" to 12" then you have basically difference size, weight and price difference and it is not user friendly to clone the product per size difference under the category. Then the best method is most probabably to use non-category type parent-child structure. (similar to cs-cart product with options)
With current version of cs-cart, you can create options per products. But the options does not have capability of supporting or linking to the existing child products available in the database.
This also true for the add on “Required products” which does not support the
product with options.
This is also true for product configurator. Product configurator does not support product options available
on the database.
I have have only tested two shopping carts in the past. they are Virtuemart and Magento
- Virtuemart has nice display configuration feature for the parent - child structure (without the use of category as parent product)
- Magento has also product -child structure. Each child product is actually a product.
. You can also appoint a feature to each child product (say size feature 1" upto 12"). you will then a short display for the seperate products as options.
If you are not going to plan to use product configurator or required product and also alot of typical product with large number of product options at the same time,. you will not be disappointed with cs-cart.
I am not in position to recommend you other product and I am sure that cs-cart currently is one of the best choice for overall and price. But this may not be the case for me if I find a suitable alternative cart with typical better organized parent child type configurable product and also product configurator and I am ready to start from the scratch.[/quote]
I would not compare Virtuemart with CS-Cart. Virtuemart is fine for those starting out, but once you move into a full time business it is time to use CS-Cart.
See this thread: [url]http://forum.cs-cart.com/showthread.php?t=9398[/url]