Online store CMS - episode 3 (and hopefully the last one)

As you know from my previous episode about online stores CMS, i had to decide between Joomla + Virtuemart, Magento and x-Cart. After more than a month of testing them, i finally decided for the fourth one: Prestahop.

Prestashop is a new store CMS with its final realease being launched just this summer. But that doesn’t mean it ain’t as good as the others and even better on some aspects. So here’s why i chose this software.

Prestashop pro’s:

• it’s free
• it’s very easy to install and use, both for the buyer and the shop admin
• it has only the basic stuff and it displays all the info you need without oversaturating the layout
• it has a clean TABLE-less template and also, it has a very customizable template system, which allows you to make your own theme in just hours if your php, HTML and CSS skills are decent
• It has lots of intereting add-on modules that are really easy to use: newsletter, rss feed, Adsense and Analytics integration, latest products, last viewed products, featured products etc, etc
• it has a nice Ajax effect for the cart (yea, bling bling, but i like it)
• SEO friendly URL structure with proper tweaking
• and i could continue this list for a while…

Prestashop’s cons:

• it’s a simple online store CMS but i feel that there are some parts missing: related products and user reviews modules are the most important ones
• lacks advanced filters and mutiple shop administration, features that Magento has, but afterall, these aren’t even needed for a basic shop
• i think that’s about it

That being said, you can see why i chose to use this software. I’ll update the post later on, once i manage to finish my themes and set up the stores. I’m still working on that. In the meantime, if you too are in need of an online store CMS, give Prestashop a try. Here are the frontpage and admin (login info: Username : demo@prestashop.com Password : prestashop_demo ) demos.

Tags: CMS, online store