Zen Cart
August 9, 2009 by: admin
Zen Cart is a PHP/MySQL open source shopping cart. It is completely free, and comes with source code which you can freely modify. The software is developed by a community effort. The code is based on the popular osCommerce shopping cart. The goal of the Zen Cart project is essentially to make an easier to use version of osCommerce which can be installed more quickly, modified more easily and have a more usable configuration out of the box. Being a community effort, many of its users are very passionate about this cart, and are constantly developing add on modules.
Price: Free
Latest Version: 1.3.8
Featured Sites:
Floracopeia
Moissanite Co
Isabel Harris
Contact Zencart: Zencart Community Forum
Zencart Website: Click Here
Personally I prefer OS Commerce to Zen Cart. Zen Cart is build on the OS Commerce and the community as well as the number of add-on is way greater there.
If you want to go in a more professional way with your ecommerce features, you have to opt for the Interspire Shopping Cart which is the best I have come across so far.
Now, although this one is going to set you back almost U$2,000 for the Ultimate version, it’s well worth it and that investment will soon be recovered through the numerous ways this system can increase your sales volume conversion.
Zen cart is qute reliable software and it’s been on the market for quite a while. Many users wouldn’t change it to anything else. For those who know that zen cart is the best choice for them – here’s a little tip. You may switch to zen cart with web service cart2cart. It automates migration process.
You can visit http://www.shopping-cart-migration.com for details.
I have tried OsCommerce and they are very similar overall. Zencart was spun off from OsCommerce and I actually went by a friend’s advice on using that system over OsCommerce back then. I probably would say to go with Interspire if people had the money, but if they were on a budget, stick with the Open source systems.
This is one powerful system, with a very flexible templating system and a very helpful and responsive support forum. It does require some investment in time to learn how it work, but once over the initial learning curve, there really isn’t much that can’t be done with this package.
I decided to try Zen Cart, so far I’ve been fighting to get every single URL beautiful, so I’ve been modding quite a bit. It’s taking a while to learn the template, but I think in the end it will be worth it since you really can do anything with Zen Cart.
I am not a developer. I hired someone three years ago to develop a shopping cart web site and she selected ZEN Cart. I suspect because free. Since then I have learned a bit more about shopping carts. When I first tried and began to understand Zen Cart, my first impression was WHAT ARE YOU SERIOUS? Are all shopping carts this difficult to understand and just plan “messy”? Overrides folders, template (is actually multiple files scattered all 0ver the place). Being in IT for 15 years I had never single template of multiple files from multiple folders. And, then to add additional functionality, i,e, Grid layout (instead of a laborious single product line layout which is consumer “Abandonment rates” best friend), RSS feeds, Site Maps, limited hosting services for their promoted gateway service (linkpoint), horrible documentation, etc, etc. And of course as already mentioned several times in this review section, often a nightmare to try and edit colors and layout of the template. So I am beginning to consider moving to a new Shopping cart and Pray I can export the SQL DB. I also learned that FREE Open Source ALSO means a product developed by multiple, unmanaged, inconsistent and non-conforming techies,, and of course the usually result is well, a mess. Not really what I consider FREE if it takes 5 times more to manage and troubleshoot.
“If you’re looking for a simple, free and practical way to get an online store up and running then Zen Cart will do the trick. The admin interface is clunky so if you have a large number of items to list, you’ll need to use the addons or look elsewhere. If looks are important then you might also want to look elsewhere, I think this cart is best suited to Wholesalers wanting to get an online presence on the cheap. For a slick and polished store you’ll have to look somewhere elsewhere. We’ve been very happy with the results we’ve acheived and found it relatively simple, with a bit of tech know how to customise delivery and payment options to our special needs.”
We uses Zen Cart and happy with the features so far. It has great forum support from developers and users alike.