AgoraCart or osCommerce?

Hey all,

I have to make another e-commerce website for someone and last time I used AgoraCart, but now I'm wondering if I should use os Commerce for this one. What are you opinions? How easy/difficult is it to set up? I know that OsCommerce needs a MySQL database, and Agoracart doesn't, but other thn that, I don't see alot of differences as far as functionality goes. OsCommerce seems to look more professional, though.

Anyway, I'm interested to know what you all prefer.

Thanks!

I've heard and once used: OSCommerance i find it one of the best online shopping scripts.
Theres also some addons in Fantastico which is in cPanel, which are great.

Hope that helps...

David.

osCommerce, no question!

I've used it with several clients, and they're all extremely happ with the results - and it can be customized beyond your wildest dreams

What about complex shipping? This client wants all sorts of weird shipping options with different weights and different carriers and everything. Is it easy to edit? I've never used it and don't want to have to use alot of time learning everything.

You can add multiple shippers...

One problem I'm facing at the moment with a client, is that he has a REALLY funky shipping setup...

Some of his "products" are live (reptiles & live insect feeders), which MUST be shipped overnight.

Some of his products are merely "product", which can be shipped regular ground.

In order to only allow overnight shipping when a live organism is placed in the cart, he must currently have two stores.

One for live, with overnight shipping only, and one for product, which offers the full range from ground to overnight.

Both sites offer their particular methods with 4 different shipping companies (USPS, UPS, FedEx, Airborne Express).

Thanks Axe, you're awesome! I'll be donating some points to ya, even though I don't know if you use them or not.

Hey thanks

If you need any help with osCommerce, feel free to post, and I'll be happy to do what I can

It really is a great system.. It can take a while to get really into it, especially if you're not too good with PHP yet, but once you do get into it, you'll love it

yeah, I'll probably be asking you lots of stuff, no worries about that! Thanks again!

i was going to post the same questions sometime lmao!!! lol
thanks angel lol

well, i was going to make a website to sell premade gaming clan templates

and i had the choice of osCommerce, Agoracart and Interchange Shopping Cart

now i would like to have it set up with a paypal account or something lol, something so i can have them buy the template, then allow then to download it automaticly...
i am guessing osCommernce..

just gotta install it and play around i guess

yeah I've been meaning to ask for about a week now... glad I wasn't the only one with the question! You're welcome!

Personally I find AgoraCart better for most ecommerce situations.

it too is flexible beyond your "wildest dreams" plus it is more secure. oscommerce seems to be more for lemmings. It does have it's strengths, however for smaller stores (under 3,000 items) it is a better application, atleast until they produce it in mySQL or another similar database platform. AgoraCart has a steeper lerning curve, but for those that can wade thru it, it's better in most cases than oscommerce.

I migrated from oscommerce to AgoraCart for the majority of my customers as I found numerous security flaws with oscommerce, but that lends itself mostly to php applications on common server setups.

just my two cents in the shopping cart arena.

BubbaGum

where are the osCommerce insecurities you mentioned? Have you announced them anywhere? stating the problems and potential solutions?

nope. I just moved on as I was not interested in fixing it or running/porting it in a "cgi" to make it more secure. Discussing a program's vulnerabilities in the open is not something I like to do as the so called "security sites" latch upon such things and post it primarily for cracking communities/networks to run out and exploit without users having a chance to "fix".

All I will say is this: know your customer and double check orders. That is sound advice for any company though, no matter the ecommerce and/or payment system you use.

Anyway, just wanted to make sure AgoraCart had a fair shot in such a discussion as I have used both intensively. I have seen many experienced users migrating over to AgoraCart, unless they prefer coding in php primarily (or don't understand perl/cgi and it's full capabilities for the less informed), or just don't have the time to learn. But not looking to get into that discussion (old hat) ... all coding languages have their strengths and weaknesses.

But I know the keeper of the code of the AgoraCart project is working on taking AgoraCart from a more advanced user level to a more "newbie" friendly level. I think that is the primary weakness in AgoraCart... it has a steep learning curve and is not for users that just want to launch a site instantly or with little effort or initiative (nor for those users needing more than say 3,000 items in a store)

BubbaGum

Yes, and the so-called "osCommerce Development Team" can fix the holes and apply patches

They're not Micro$oft. They don't have an army of staff to bug-test. It's OpenSource, and just like any OpenSource project, it relies upon those using it to contribute to it, and help improve it.

yeah, I went through the learning curve w/ agoracart, and I am doing it again w/ oscommerce... oh well, just gotta keep plugging away I guess.