When, e – commerce solutions OS – Commerce and Zen Cart come to mind first is the name, and free open-source. They were, for a standard shopping cart and online store. However, like all others, and evolve over time to change things. One software platform e-commerce is the new standard for next generation e-mail almost no one mentioned – Magento has risen to become the.
At first glance there doesn’t seem to be a big difference between Magento and Zen-Cart. They are both FREE to download and use, they are highly functional, integrated, and customizable solutions. Both have sophisticated shopping carts, product catalogues, and pricing features. Both support multiple languages and currencies, secure payment gateway options, and newsletter marketing campaigns. So why choose a new software if Zen-Cart has been around for so long and made so many people happy?
Well, the truth is that Zen-Cart has not undergone a major change in recent years to make it user-friendlier and to modernize the interface. So other programmers have jumped in and created a similar software but with better features and more modern interface. Magento was designed to be much more intuitive when it comes to setting up your products and prices, etc. It allows for easy bulk upload of your products, something you have to do manually in Zen-Cart (or find a working plugin). That becomes a vital time saver when you have more than 20 products or are creating lots of new products each month. The Zen-Cart interface was designed to be highly functional, but you really gotta be careful what you are doing and without programming skills you’re almost doomed. Magento not only looks more modern, but the user interface is also much more user-friendly and easier to use.
There are other subtle differences that make Magento stand out from the crowd. First, you have more options in customizing your product search categories. Very important if you want to make it easy for people to find what they are looking for fast. Second, if you have a small business and need to integrate your data with say QuickBooks or your ERP Software, Magento will allow you to do that. Next, Magento’s one-page checkout beats Zen-Cart’s 3-page checkout any day. Finally, Magento has a built-in CMS (Content Management System) that lets you customize your static pages with ease. Sure, Zen-Cart has the “EZ Pages”, which are nice but you still have to put HTML code in there. With Magento you have a bult-in editor that allows you to style your page without having to write HTML code. All in all, it just seems like Magento is more up-to-date and uses technologically advanced features.
There are of cause downsides to it. Magento, being a relatively new software on the market, doesn’t have as many extensions and plugins as Zen-Cart has. To customize the software to your liking you might have to hire a programmer or web developer. Zen-Cart’s Banner Manager makes it easier for you to track your advertising campaigns on your site, and there is no current lightbox feature included in Magento, if you’re a big fan of lightboxes you should use Zen-Cart. But then you are probably a web designer and know what you are doing. Magento was designed for people who have little HTML or php knowledge, which of cause doesn’t mean web designers shouldn’t use it ☺
Whether Magento is the new standard for online stores remains to be seen. I've come to the web design for over 5 years and have seen many new things and go. And one thing is certain; Magento makes me excited and motivated! These guys have taken steps in the right direction and with more people begin to (spread the word!) And the development of open source extensions to this software I have no doubt that it will ultimately succeed. If nothing else, it is good to see that some people still believe that a good thing, and you can use their products for FREE. Just think of how many hours or tedious programming, debugging and testing, they have put into this software, just so you do not spend hundreds of dollars elsewhere. Is not that beautiful? Be thankful!