eCommerce Getting Started Guide
Build your online store with ease. In this guide we will explore the top eCommerce website hosting solutions and popular shopping cart applications. If you are looking to sell products online, the first thing you’ll need to do is choose which cart software you would like to use. Three widely used online shopping cart applications are:
Each program can easily be installed within Fantastico with just a few clicks. While we don’t officially recommend one program over the other, we’ve gathered some basic information below to help you in your decision:
Prestashop
PrestaShop is an easy to use open source e-commerce program that is quickly becoming one of the best free solutions creating an online store. Support for international online stores, taxes, multiple shop and inventory management are only a few of its features. Discover more details on the PrestaShop ecommerce solution by visiting PrestaShop.
OsCommerce
osCommerce has attracted a large growing e-commerce community that consists of over 239,200 store owners and developers who support each other and extend osCommerce Online Merchant with add-ons being contributed on a daily basis. You can find more information about OsCommerce by visiting osCommerce.
Zen Cart
Zen Cart is a shopping cart that tries to put the merchants and shoppers requirements first. Zen Cart is being developed by a group of like-minded shop owners, programmers, designers, and consultants that think ecommerce web design could be and should be done differently. To learn more about Zen Cart, please visit Zen Cart.
Cube Cart
CubeCart is an “out of the box” ecommerce shopping cart software solution which has been written to run on servers that have PHP & MySQL support. With CubeCart you can quickly setup a powerful online store which can be used to sell digital or tangible products to new and existing customers all over the world. You can find more information for Cube Cart at Cube Cart.
OpenCart
OpenCart is a free open-source shopping cart solution that is robust, powerful and user friendly. For more information, please see our education channel on OpenCart.
Nice sharing!! I am reading your post and admire that you posted article which gives users useful information.
I’m trying to figure out the best cart to download for digital and hard copy sales.
Hello Antoinette,
The answer is not cut and dry. This is because almost all ecommerce programs can do as you ask, the difference will be in how easy you find the program to work with. This may take some trial and error to find the best one for you.
Kindest Regards,
Scott M
I’m trying to find a cart that will allow integration with Curbstone (payment software) with ease… I’m guessing there’s no such thing (at least not “with ease”), but thought I’d add a comment in case anyone can point me in the right direction?
Hello jbartlett,
Thank you for contacting us today. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any compatible e-commerce cart. I looked at Curbstone’s website and seems like they actually sell compatible software solution. You may want to contact them and see what solutions they recommend.
Most or all of the CMS’s listed above are easily compatible with PayPal, and Authorize.net, which are 2 of the most commonly used payment gateways. For ease of use, you may want to consider these alternate options.
If you have any further questions, feel free to post them below.
Thank you,
John-Paul
I wish there was a better comparison of the carts available. For example what does things natively? and what does it do natively? Does one version have robust free themes where another the best themes are going to cost you 100’s. Is one easier to modify than the other and what skill level do you need to be to work with the various platforms.
I think this article is extremely basic — which is great. However it is missing the concrete comparison so that any amateur who is trying to start an ecommerce site can make an informed decision.
The same way there is a comparison chart when you try to decide if you need an inmotion power package or a launch package it woudl be nice that existed here. I find myself fustrated and left wanting.
Hello Mrs. Guzman,
I apologize for the article missing more information. Meanwhile I can try to assist you in picking the perfect solution for you. What type of items do you want to sell? Are they digital or something you would have to ship? Do you want a software with many options or something pretty simple?
Best Regards,
TJ Edens
Hi Jeff. I am looking for a PHP based shopping cart. Is Avactis shopping cart any good? Please guide.
Hello Mave,
Thank you for your question. Unfortunately, I have never used Avactis for a shopping cart system. (I also asked around the office as well.)
Looking at their site it seems to be a commercial/privately owned product. Most of the options listed above are free and open-sourced, which usually results in helpful forums, and many sources for addons, such as Themes/plugins.
The most common shopping cart software I see is OpenCart, and PrestaShop, followed by VirtueMart.
If you have any further questions, feel free to post them below.
Thank you,
John-Paul