Hi everyone, I've been looking into a free eCommerce Content Managment Systems and am really struggling to pick one over the other. All the Demo's look and work great and all of them seem to have a variety of themes and customisations. I'm leaning towards PrestaShop, but thats only because I found the demo easy to use, I have no idea how 'Spam' proof these CMS' really are... I require a eCommerce CMS shop that is free, stable, doesn't get a lot of spam or bugs, integrates well with payment options and very secure against hackers and breaches. Some help on 'the best free eCommerce CMS' out there (in your opinion) and WHY, would be very much apprecaited. Many thanks, Andy.
LOL, only one vote I voted for WP + Plugin but if I had two options to choose, I'd also add Actinic - it is for profs and it is not free but in my opinion one of the best ecommerce platforms ever made.
Thanks for the replies. Can someone give some examples of Wordpress + plugin sites then? Also can someone please explain why blogging software is better than a CMS especially designed for eCommerce?? Cheers, Andy
I haven't used all of them but my vote goes to OS Commerce...It's pretty easy to configure and there are some really cool themes out there for it. Of course, if you don't mind a little more manual labor I have seem some amazing eCommerce stuff done with Joomla and some plugins. Also, ZenCart would probably be my second or third highest vote!
Because WP is one of the most SEO-friendly pieces of software ever created. If you're serious about selling stuff, you will need various types of content: articles, features, img galleries, videos... and of course products. WP gives you freedom of posting any sort of data plus make it interactive from a single admin panel. Sorry I cannot give you my link (must not ) but just give it a go, test the latest WP installation with the eShop plugin, add some gallery, video etc etc. plugins and play with it. I bet you'll love it!
Magento if you have a fast server and have a lot of time to figure everything out. Prestashop was good to me except for their payment options... so if the new version is easy to set up, I would go with that.
I tried OS commerce and Zen Cart , extensively.. They're just not up to date. I have to install over 10 extensions and pray that they don't messup my other extensions just to get it up to speed with a default magento installation. Yes, the support in Magento forums is horrible , but if you read enough books and buy an account at experts-exchange.com you can get your site on it's feet.
WP isn't really blogging software anymore. It has the capability of doing what those ecommerce CMSs can do, except you don't have to be a programmer to tweak/modify it to include other functions.
I would vote for Magento then WP if you use as e commerce, if cms then wordpress is definitely in no.1
Wow, I've been lurking on the eCommerce section for a while and many people write that zeuscart is the way to go. I see many saying Magento is complex and hard, yet here its taking 50 percent of the poll. I personally have also tried Magento, and haven't had any real issues with it. Looking for the free Magento eBook guide floating around online if you want to learn step by step.
Magento is certainly a very powerful solution and I voted here saying it was the best (which it is of the options listed). The problems are that it requires a good quality server and most of the features won't actually be used by the majority of people looking to start an ecommerce site. If you are sure you need the majority of features that it offers then you should go for it. Otherwise I would be tempted to use another option (although not necessarily any of the options listed above).
I usually use Magento, Presta Shop and Wordpress. Wordpress is definitely my favourite one with small ecommerce websites.
What about Drupal with Ubercart? The project page of Ubercart at Drupal.org: drupal.org/project/ubercart The homepage of Ubercart: ubercart.org (Im not allowed yet to post links )