Online Store CMS - episode 2

After the previous post about an online CMS store, i took some time to search for the best existing software i could use. Here are the best 3 i’ve found, not necessarily in the posted order, with the pros and the cons. And you can read the conclusions at the end.

Joomla + Virtuemart (link)

Joomla has gone a lot better since the last time i wanted to use it, in 2006. This combination allows you to make something more than just a store, as with the help of the various components developed by 3rd parties, you can put together a site with almost everything you want: forum, news section, galleries, community, shop, etc. The code is a lot cleaner, there are fewer bugs, it is a little easier to customize (although you still need to get familiar with its specific coding) and you can find great premium themes for a fee from here or here.

Pros:

• decent code, not so hard to customize
• cheap (the backbone is free, but some of the good components and plugins are not)
• has an affiliate component
• you can find great themes for it
• tons of components for almost everything you need

Cons

• there still are a couple of bugs
• making the site bullet-proof from the SEO point of view requires hard coding
• does not have a multiple shops solution like the one i want (there are some tries, but i can’t seem to make them work as needed)

Magento Commerce (link)

Magento seems to be the thing right now. It’s a pretty new eCommerce dedicated solution with great looks, functionality and standard compliant code. But unfortunatelly, being new makes it lack some critical features i need.

Pros

• new solution with an emerging community
• clean code, nice template system that allows you to fully customize you front-end
• lots of useful features, like multi-shops and filters for your products
• free and Open Source

Cons

• Severe duplicate problem. Developers say they will look into it, but they don’t say when
• lack of working critical modules: content integration, affiliates, multiple shops with multiple owners, etc
• because the platform it’s new, if you need specific plugins doing specific things, you will have to develop them yourself. Thus, Advanced PHP+SQL knowledge is required
• few quality themes available, but you can still make your own theme pretty easy

x-Cart (link)

xCart is the professional eCommerce solution that comes with everything i need. From the short time i spent with their demo, they seem to have all the modules required, thus allowing me to set up the shop i want. But…

Pros

• it’s simple: has everything i need

Cons

• it’s pricey. A full solution will set me up around $1000 per license. That’s $1000 for every shop, and since i want a couple of shops, that’s a little too expensive for me, unfortunately
• not the best looking and modern admin interface
• no content integration plugins
• not really satisfied with the premium themes available for it. And developing a custom theme for each shop would once again set me up lots of bucks

Well, that’s about it. I deliberately left osCommerce out of the box because i tried to use it a couple of years ago and got so messed up with its stupid coding that i said i will never again use that thing once more…

In the end, the conclusions are simple: none of the existing CMS are perfect, everyone comes with it’s pros and cons. In the end, perhaps the best solution for having what i want is to fins someone develop me a custom solution for me… But, i already knew that from the start

Oh, and here are a couple of the projects i’m working on lately: a local site about trains (in Romanian) and a Black Friday sales site i’m experiencing with. And one of a friend, about Dacia SUV.

Tags: CMS, online store