Freeway is an advanced Open Source eCommerce platform which can sell using methods only previously available in enterprise class or niche bespoke systems. Without having to purchase a commercial system and then paying a developer to build a custom installation, Freeway does what you need out of the box. Of course Freeway is great for selling products but it also sells events AND services AND subscriptions.
From appointments and time based bookings to event ticketing and subscriptions Freeway is the eCommerce platform for how we want to sell. Here are some examples to of just some of the interesting things you can do in Freeway. Manage your store using web-based administration interface. Built-in SEO tools will help attracting more visitors from search engines and increase your sales. Freeway is scalable, it will grow with your internet business so you can sell how you want to sell adding new functionality with ease.
Magento
http://www.magentocommerce.com
Varien, a Los Angeles web development firm is the brainchild behind Magento, and my what a fantastic job they have done on this product. It’s by far one of the more exciting e-commerce platforms available for free on the market today. Dripping with features, they really have thought of everything. Wishlists, shop by price and category, item comparison - all the things we’ve come to expect from professional web stores. Its software as good as this that really keeps licensed software on their toes..
Just some of the features, for a full list download the pdf
Notable Features
- Integrated with Google Analytics
- Multiple Images with Zoom
- Add to Wishlist
- Send to a Friend
- Batch Import and Export of Catalog
- One Page Checkout
- Multi Lingual
DashCommerce
If you are a advocate of all things Microsoft this wont be the first time you’ve come a cropper with finding open source software. One of the only Open source .NET e-commerce platforms on the market we could lay claim to was Dashcommerce (formerly the Microsoft Commerce Starter Kit) at its present status can only provide us with Paypal support for payment integration, and its lead developer has recently announced that the Roadmap for the product appears to be going in a more commerce route. If you need one of the other payment vendors listed above, you are going to have to rip the source code apart and tackle it yourself. Some sites which have been built using Dash include Grossi Wines and GoWheelChair.
Notable Features
- Single Page Checkout
- Partial Refunds
- Configurable Shipping Rates
- Drop-In Themes / Skinning
CubeCart
Cubecart have released two different versions of their product. Cubecart 3 is their free version, Cubecart 4 is their inexpensive commercial version. The pricing structure for Cubecart can been seen below.
| Cost | ||
| Copyright Removal Key (Optional) | $89.95 | $89.95 |
| Installation Service (Optional) | $59.95 | $59.95 |
| Upgrade Eligibility | All Releases of v3 | All Releases of v4 |
One of Cubecart’s main strength’s lies with its variety of different payment merchant vendor, including but not limited to the following for the free version:
2Checkout, AsianPay, Authorize AIM / SIM , BluePay, ccAvenue, ccNow, ChronoPay, PayPal Pro Direct Payment (US), PayPal Express Checkout, HSBC (API), Linkpoint Connect, Mals-E, Moneybookers, Nochex (Basic & APC), PayJunction, PayMate, PayOffline, PayPal Standard & IPN, Print Order Form, Protx (VPS Form), psiGate, SECPay, Verisign, WorldPay Junior
Notable Features
- Professionally Security Audited
- 100% Template Driven
- Customer Order History
- Multi Currency Support
- Tell a Friend
X-Cart
Whilst not free, X-Cart costs $229.00 for the Gold version (see features here) and $575.00 for the professional version (see features here). X-Cart is well thought of piece of software amongst the developer community. X-Cart is an easy-to-use cart, although many customers say that its learning curve is too difficult for beginners. A knowledge of the templating engine that it uses (Smarty) would be a major advantage if you do decide to use it, and would make the learning curve that bit easier.
Notable Features
- Unlimited product options
- Variety of payment gateways
- Import/export all types of X-Cart
- Real-time USPS, FedEx and UPS shipping calculation
- Support for E-goods
- Membership levels and membership-based pricing
- Add-To-Cart buttons for existing websites
LiteCommerce
LiteCommerce is developed by the same people as X-Cart, and is a cut down version of the product. It really lends itself towards smaller stores, and if you are needing a quick version, with easier code maintainance that works then LiteCommerce is for you. It also has a few features such as the bulk shopping add on option which X-Cart doesn’t have. LiteCommerce has 97% of its source code open - whilst X-Cart has 100%, but for some developers this stipulation wont factor much. LiteCommerce also uses the FLEXY template engine, whereas X-Cart uses Smarty.
Notable Features
- 27 Payment Gateways
- Gentler learning curve than X-Cart
- FLEXY template Engine
- No programming required to Setup -Windows Program
- Control Panel for Windows
But if you clients budget doesn’t stretch that far, and you would be happy to integrate a shop with a hosted solution you wont go far wrong with Shopify, see below:
Shopify
Shopify - built on Ruby on Rails technology is a full-stack hosted e-commerce package, which basically means everything you need is right there at your fingertips. You shop will be Standards-compliant, fully customizable and requires very little technical skill to get going. Best of all setting up a store is free Creating a store is free. Shopify takes a 3.75% commission on all sales, which can take the fear of setting a shop up away for some clients who want to test the water.
Notable Features
- Faster and Easier to setup than any other solution
- SEO Build in! Shopify has been designed by SEO experts and every default theme is carefully crafted with SEO in mind
- Discount codes with fine-grained options
- XML Sitemap automatically generated for search engine indexing
- A full featured Asset system which lets you use and re-use your stock photography, logos or product pdf’s wherever you need them.
- New order notifications via email, RSS, and on your mobile phone with SMS messaging
With e-commerce webdesign really starting to take off, its never been more important to choose a platform which suits you as a developer (i.e. one that you can support) and one that will provide your clients with the features that they need to run a successful online shop.
There are a number of ways of getting a shop online, and we’ve focused primarily on open source e-commerce platforms here.
OsCommerce
OsCommerce has a number of store owners on its books, notable customers include TruffleShuffle and LinuxUk.
So what features do you get with OsCommerce? There are multiple payment Gateway’s to choose from including (but not limited to) - 2Checkout.com, Authorize.Net, ChronoPay, iPayment, PayNova, Paypal, PSIGate, SecPay and TrustCommerce.
As expected from a platform such as this its jam-packed with features
Notable Features
- Supports unlimited products and categories
- Multicurrency support
- Support for physical (shippable) and virtual (downloadable) products
- Object oriented PHP backend
- Web Browser Install and Plugin support
Problems - front end of OsCommerce is not developed using CSS, therefore skinning and reskinning is a bit of a nightmare, that said installation is a breeze - and if you are more comfortable with tables then OsCommerce is probably for you.
You can however always add on one of the popular template systems plugins and save some time -but its not supported out of the box. The code base is also overly complex which makes extending more difficult.
OsCommerce is widely popular and thus has a larger support base, and forum if you need help.
ZenCart
Zencart’s website doesn’t do justice to the professionalism of the end product, and although it doesn’t not offer as many payment processing options as OsCommerce and other e-commerce platforms it is a more mature product, with OsCommerce often taking quite a long time to release fixes for important issues such as security. ZenCart is a fork of OsCommerce so you can expect very similar sorts of features, its also easier for the newbie developer to get into than Osc. Payment gateways include LinkPoint, Authorize.Net and Paypal.
Notable Features
- User frontend is validated to XHTML 1.0 Transitional
- Any PHP coding changes can be protected during upgrades by using the built-in override protection system
- Integrate with phpBB
- Meta Tags keywords and descriptions can be controlled at the per-product level
VirtueMart
VirtueMart is an Open Source E-Commerce solution designed to be used with Joomla! (but also works with Mambo). Joomla and VirtueMart are written in PHP and made for easy use in a PHP / MySQL environment.
Notable Features
- Stock Level Control for Products and Item
- Ajax-powered Product Overview allows to quickly add Products to the cart
- Product Attributes (like Size or Color) can be added to Product
- Manage different Currencies, Countries & States
- Product Availability: show how fast a Customer can expect delivery
Payment Gateways supported include Authorize.net, PayPal, 2Checkout, eWay, Worldpay, PayMate and NoChex. If you have an existing Joomla based site, integration is particularly easy <5 face="monospace">
All Shopping cart reviews:
http://www.shopping-cart-reviews.com/all-shopping-carts.aspx
More information on shopping cart software solutions:
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