CS-Cart vs Zen Cart vs osCommerce

Has anyone done any comparisons between these - thanks!



Note many of the CS-Cart modules are also free with these other carts

OSCommerce is pretty complex to set up… at least in my opinion… I liked how easy CS-Cart was to navigate, even compared to Zen Cart. I tried many until I decided on CS-Cart

I’ve used Zen Cart on a number of sites and you are correct that in that a lot of the features that come with CS Cart can be added to Zencart for free but the problem with that is that you need to install these modules on top of getting Zencart installed.



Some of them aren’t easy to install while others are but can cause other modules to stop working. To get a Zencart install close to the feature set of CS Cart would require the addition of many, many mods all from different developers with different levels of support and you would need to install each one separately, test the store, perform a backup of your site and database and then repeat for each one.



With CS Cart you pay your money, install it and that’s you more or less good to go. The other thing with CS Cart is you get access to the Helpdesk when you purchase CS Cart so you have help if you need it. They are also happy to help you make even small design changes as well.



I’m not even going to mention OSComnerce is I just dislike everything about it but that’s just a personal opinion.



Zencart is a great programme and I still use it on one of my sites and if you are happy with the included functions with Zencart then it is a good option as it costs nothing. Just make sure you follow ALL the advice in the Security and Patching section of the Zencart forum as the current download does have a number of security vulnerabilities that you MUST patch.



Out of all the free Ecommerce software out there I would still choose Zencart. Choosing between CS Cart and Zencart is something each individual would need to do as there are a number of factors to consider.

[quote name=‘ibaker’]Has anyone done any comparisons between these - thanks!



Note many of the CS-Cart modules are also free with these other carts[/quote]



You can have a look on this site built with Zen-Cart 1 year ago:



http://www.spystore.ie



Now we do use CS-Cart and believe me if I should compare ZC vs CSC then it is 1:100.

I totally agree with both utilityempire and indy. We switched from Zen to CS around 9 months ago.



Zen was a great open source solution for us, and a lot of required features are available through modules. But, as utilityempire suggested, there can be a fair bit of tinkering with different modules to find the best ones, and also to sort out potential conflicts etc. Another problem is that the modules are designed for particular versions, and (we found, anyway) can break on upgrade (until the author releases an updated version, which, if at all, can take some time). I think if you are relying on contributed modules for business critical features, and if you want to keep your cart patched (mind you, Zen releases a lot less updates than CS), you do need to be careful.



I think when comparing carts it’s very important to establish what particular features (shipping, payment, wholesale etc.) you specifically require for your business. And CS does have great features (certainly the ones we need) out-of-the-box.



Staying on top of upgrades can be a bit painful, and, although we’ve had a few issues with CS upgrades, I’d personally prefer to minimise my reliance on contributed modules for this reason.



Never used OS, I’m sorry, but I do recall that we decided years ago that Zen was better for us than OS (can’t remember why).



Cheers

Zen Cart is a modified OS Commerce. I would say OS Commerce has more customers and is more popular because of his age, but Zen Cart is better. Zen Cart has a huge number of useful free 3rd party modules and a good community like CS-Cart. If I would compare Zen with CS, then it’s a huge techically and handling jump. Zen Cart has a complicated backend and for a newbie it can be a nightmare to configurate it right. The configuration steps are not good described and the users have to find it out by themself. CS-Cart has a huge number of functions which are missing in other Open Source scripts. But the best recommendation is: try it out and you will see.

I was so turned off with the navigation on both OScommerce and Zen Cart it was heaven when I found CS-Cart! Granted, there’s a lot to learn on CS-Cart but with the navigation at least it’s straight forward.

I think within all free open source, Zencart is the best. Yes, It took at least 2 months to understand all functions. But unfortunately, There is no builtin affiliate program in Zencart.



CSCart? within all paid open source, I would give 5 stars. The integrated affiliate module is very usefull, beside the modern looking. The price is affordable.



I am going to buy CSCart, but need something to make certain, about shipping module. I came from Indonesia, and here we have different shipping method. I still can’t find the shipping module for Indonesia. If there is any or somebody can make it, I have no doubt to switch to CSCart…

i think most people will have started working through from open source, to paid… personally i like the small restriction that comes with paid in that not every teenage pre-hacker can be bothered to spend £250 to get their hands on the code to then find holes to take advanatge of - free opensource is an easier target for them.



With paid, you also have a leg to stand on when something is not quite right! you get helpdesk and support even if you have to pay for it… the amount of small bugs i have found and they fix without fee is great though - opensource, you submit a bug and then stew till they update hoping they fix it!

[quote name=‘ymrz’]I think within all free open source, Zencart is the best. Yes, It took at least 2 months to understand all functions. But unfortunately, There is no builtin affiliate program in Zencart.



CSCart? within all paid open source, I would give 5 stars. The integrated affiliate module is very usefull, beside the modern looking. The price is affordable.



I am going to buy CSCart, but need something to make certain, about shipping module. I came from Indonesia, and here we have different shipping method. I still can’t find the shipping module for Indonesia. If there is any or somebody can make it, I have no doubt to switch to CSCart…[/quote]



The CS-Cart team offer a custom modification service. They will do it very well for you.

Many users are also satisfied with strong localisation CS Cart features and user-friendly administrative panel. For those who are interested in migration to CS Cart there is a fast and accurate service Cart2Cart, which can move all your products, categories and orders in a blink of an eye.

[url=“Migration to CS-Cart in 1 Hour [Guaranteed] ✅ Cart2Cart™”]http://www.shopping-cart-migration.com/supported-carts/120-cscart[/url]

Just like to chime in and say that we used cart2cart to migrate two zen cart stores to Cs Cart. The migration took a while, but it was great.



In regard to ZC, everyone above has pretty much said it; to customise ZC to the level of CS Cart would take ages and make the software impossible to upgrade. It was for this very reason that we switched to CS Cart.

[quote name='Scott' timestamp='1349680360' post='146593']

The problem with CS cart although its very good they seem to be moving towards a model i dont like, charge a small fee for the site then if you want additional features like mobile layout, social integration and soon to come ebay, you have to pay a monthly fee, there are a few things the delvelopers have completely overlooked or poorly implemented but all in all I find its the best system for a small business. albeit not perfect.



If they get the little tweaks right and steer away from this subscription based add ons issue it will no doubt be the most popular choice in the next 3-4 years

[/quote]

Yes I really dislike subscripion based addons. It would be much better to have a one time payment.

[quote name='jman2012' timestamp='1346869286' post='144362']

as a developer I can tell you that OS Commerce gets so many hack attacks. I've worked with 3 middle size companies…300k a month in online sales and all 3 were hacked because previous developers didn't set the right permissions on some directories.

[color=#3B5998][/color]

The cost of fixing the issue far out-weighed the freeness of OS Commerce.

[/quote]

Same here we got hacked twice on OSC so we switched to cs-cart.

[url=“Review & Compare PHP Shopping Cart, CS-Cart is the best! - Why CS-Cart - CS-Cart Community Forums”]Review & Compare PHP Shopping Cart, CS-Cart is the best! - Why CS-Cart - CS-Cart Community Forums

I am again having to reconsider my options in this area as again I am completely frustrated by CS-Cart. Here is my background:[list]

[]I purchased CS-Cart when it was first released many many years ago and thus have a lifetime license so I don't have to pay for any upgrades

[
]I have been in the IT industry for over 25 years and currently run several and very successful forum web sites which I have been doing for over 10 years now (e.g. www.recreationalflying.com) using Xenforo, vBulletin, megaBB and many others and performing extensive customisation to them

[]My current CS-Cart site is still using v2.2.5 (www.clearprop.com.au) and over the years have looked at upgrading it to more recent releases of CS-Cart but one thing led to another plus the continually ever growing lists of bugs and issue with every new release I haven't upgraded it however time is running out on it with database and php versions

[
]I have downloaded the latest CS-Cart version 4.1.2 and have tried to customise it to suit…WTF, I can't even change the size of the logo per standard css methods, I can't set a fixed width for the right column and set the main body fluid.

[*]I have spent hours and hours and hours trying to make it a good looking site and get nowhere.

[/list]

CS-Cart has become a nightmare to try and do anything to it. I paid for a payment gateway to be created, which it was, and then CS-Cart included it in the default package but then stopped including it and now I have to pay for it again. So if you pay them at their extremely high prices to create an addon you have to pay for it again and again and again every time they change their versions which breaks the addon that you paid them to create, use themselves until such time they don't want to use it anymore to make you pay for it again. I received a quote from them to create a bridge to my forums and they quoted my $1,500 as a starting point but they said it might cost more but pay that now and see how much more it will cost.



They have tried to bandaid the whole design/customisation area with bits and pieces like grids, smarty templates (don't get me started on that), visual editors etc etc etc and it has become more and more cumbersome to use. It is still an extremely slow and inefficient software application.



So, instead of paying another $150 for my payment gateway file to be updated I thought it was better to look around at alternatives yet again. Zencart seems to be a very worthwhile contender and it is free. I would still have to pay someone to create my payment gateway but that is seeming like a better investment in the long term. Modules/addons that Zencart have I am very use to with years of experience with forum software and their many different addons from 3rd party suppliers.



I have seen many many people come to CS-Cart over the years and posting in these forums and have seen so many of them leave once they begin to see the frustrations of using CS-Cart and trying to create decent sites with it. Why CS-Cart don't use a simple to use template/css system that is efficient and easy to use (like I posted HERE) I just don't know…if they did they would become a very worthwhile contender in the shopping cart software arena.



I have to decide today, do I stick with CS-Cart (which may end up placing me in the mental asylum) or make the jump to Zencart, I just don't know but what I do know is that I am, like so many others now, so darn bitter against CS-Cart especially that I supported them with all their own trials and tribulations when they were trying to get off the ground all those years ago.



(EDIT)…forgot to mention that Zencart have loads of skins that are all FREE including many Responsive Design ones and with all my web sites being responsive designed, and for some time now, plus a recent poll on my site shows that 50% of visitors to my sites use either a mobile phone or a tablet, this is really needed these days and any software developer would know this with the huge world wide use of mobile devices

I feel your pain Ian. I would caution moving to Zen Cart though. Admittedly, I haven't used it for a few years, but when we did, i had my site hacked and injected with viruses, mail server hijacked, and more general downtime than I've ever had with any other type of web-based software. Believe me, I DID take steps and followed the rules to secure the site, but with Zen Cart, you have to batten it down like Fort Knox to stop people getting in. I put it down to it being Opensource - I think its like a display home that every thief and street urchin has an open invitation to walk through and learn the layout.



In regard to custom coding, CS Cart are generally very expensive compared to 3rd party developers. I can highly recommend cscartrocks.com - they probably have the best knowledge for frontend/design/css development (and can handle backend stuff just fine too). Alt Team are also very good, but their specialty lies more in the programming/php/database.

Cs-cart it's release standards are certainly way below what we are used to with for example xenforo which fixes all bugs before adding anything new. I hope that the recent announcement indeed means that this will improve. I plan to have a xenforo integration coded btw.

The quotes I got for custom work by simbirsk was about twice the price that others give.

I am also looking at other solutions but so far I am not seeing any greener grass yet.

Maybe it's time for a xenforo crowd fund. At least then the platform is solid and bug free.

I have used Oscommerce, Globalwebcart, Xcart, ZenCart, Yahoo Store and a few more. I did well with both Oscommerce and Globalwebcart, but none of them compare to the features that CS Cart has. Every time I updated Oscommerce it was a complete nightmare updating any mods that I had installed.



ZenCart is free, download it and go through the features it comes with out of the box and then look for the mods that will turn your cart into CS Cart and see how easy it is to install.

What you guys think about Magento ?