Choosing an ecommerce solution

[Saleem Beg]

I agree with @antropy having delivered ecommerce solutions for over ten years. I wouldn't suggest bespoke ecommerce solutions even for enterprises. There are certain market needs that are covered by a number of solutions, e.g. Magento for ecommerce, Salesforce for CRM, Xero/Sage for accounting, etc. It would be unnecessary and extremely expensive to reinvent the wheel, and you would have no chance of competing with those products.

Over the years as your customer's business needs grow, they would require you to add new functionality and feature and each iteration will cost them lots of time and money, which could be saved if you had deployed Magento which would very likely have the addons/modules you are looking for. The trick is always to stand on the shoulder of giants.

A client recently asked us to create a sales/marketing workflow for them with machine learning integrated. I directed them to MS Dynamics because it gives 90% of what they need. For their specific data needs (the rest 10%), we can create lightweight portals that hook into Dynamics and other platforms.

 

[antropy]

Great post.

The trick is always to stand on the shoulder of giants.

And yes, this is the key. Yes it's initially harder to pick up a library / platform / someone else's code, but often it has many hundreds or thousands of hours invested in it already that you cannot compete with.

I see new developers try to write everything from scratch - I advise them not to waste their time.

Paul

 

[netdesignr]

I'm a Senior Developer with 14 years commercial experience, spanning various London web agencies and have been head of web teams at FTSE 100 companies. I now employ several other developers. What's your background?

Good for you! I'm not here to talk about my background but the personal view. You were telling me that "That's the wrong way round" which I think it's not quite right. What's the problem if I have a different opinion? Having 14 years of experience it doesn't mean you know it all; maybe you haven't ever tried the other way round which I did.

So you're contradicting your previous points and expecting shop owners to spend their time becoming experienced developers and build their own shops?

Not at all, as long as they are aware of these things, hire the right people.

There's some sort of point here but in my experience an open source solution will have vulnerabilities patched far quicker than a custom one. We host ~100 OpenCart sites and any issues we've had are due to customers using weak passwords, not OpenCart itself.

Some sort of point? You underestimate the cybersecurity issues. My whole discussion was around in general, whereas you're talking about your customers rather than all other millions out there.

Wrong. Good code is flexible code and it should be easier, quicker, better to customise a good platform rather than re-write it all. There are loads of other problems with a custom solution, such as a client is often stuck with one developer - no one wants to pick up another developer's sloppy code.

I was not talking just about the code or cowboy code, I was talking about the existing features in the CMS. Unless is a custom build will never accommodate all the business requirements. The client will just have to accept whatever it's there and work the way that particular CMS built. Talking about sloppy code check this out w w w.techchattr. c o m/never-use-opencart (Sorry I can't use links in the post). Someone else's view, similar to yours about Magento and you will find one for any prebuilt solution.

Sounds like you used Magento and got stung.

And not only that.
Again, I'm not saying we should not use prebuilt ones, but you can't tell me that's the best solution because I can't agree. We're in 2018, and ten years ago I will have agreed with you entirely but now with the tools, patterns and technology out there I can't. I'm entirely against reinventing the wheel, but as I said, personally, I will go for a custom build. Not quite sure of what part of "Personally" you didn't get on my initial comment.

I will rather not continue this discussion because it's clear that we have different views about and it's nothing wrong about.

Thank you.

 

[antropy]

I'm not here to talk about my background

Yet you wanted to talk about mine:

@antropy you either don't have the skills or enough understanding about it

Having 14 years of experience it doesn't mean you know it all

Of course I don't but if someone tells me I don't know what I'm talking about then I'll correct them

You underestimate the cybersecurity issues.

I regularly write blog articles about how cybersecurity is becoming a bigger and bigger problem.

Unless is a custom build will never accommodate all the business requirements.

You're not getting my point. We've never been unable to develop a requirement. We've never been stopped by the platform. A simple platform like OpenCart it doesn't stop you doing anything at all. If it needs to be fully written it can be. You can even end up with something almost custom if you have to change it a lot, but then at that point, maybe it should have been custom to start with. But that is rare.

Talking about sloppy code check this out w w w.techchattr. c o m/never-use-opencart (Sorry I can't use links in the post). Someone else's view, similar to yours about Magento and you will find one for any prebuilt solution.

Yeah that's old news we've all seen that years ago, I'm sure I've even commented on it. The guy is just a troll / young inexperienced but arrogant programmer who thinks he knows something but he doesn't.

I'm entirely against reinventing the wheel, but as I said, personally, I will go for a custom build. Not quite sure of what part of "Personally" you didn't get on my initial comment.

Well it depends on the requirement doesn't it, not your personal opinion. If the requirement is fully covered by an existing solution then it should be used.

I will rather not continue this discussion because it's clear that we have different views about and it's nothing wrong about.

Maybe you should just admit that you're wrong here.

Paul

 

[netdesignr]

Maybe you should just admit that you're wrong here.

Maybe not

 

[Steven001]

I'm a Senior Developer with 14 years commercial experience, spanning various London web agencies and have been head of web teams at FTSE 100 companies. I now employ several other developers. What's your background?


So you're contradicting your previous points and expecting shop owners to spend their time becoming experienced developers and build their own shops?


There's some sort of point here but in my experience an open source solution will have vulnerabilities patched far quicker than a custom one. We host ~100 OpenCart sites and any issues we've had are due to customers using weak passwords, not OpenCart itself.


So you write everything from scratch because you don't want to trust anything pre-built? Why not go back to writing assembly? Ever heard the term "standing on the shoulders of giants"?


You're right, plugins can be a weakness.


Wrong. Good code is flexible code and it should be easier, quicker, better to customise a good platform rather than re-write it all. There are loads of other problems with a custom solution, such as a client is often stuck with one developer - no one wants to pick up another developer's sloppy code.


WordPress and Magento are not great. My detailed technical views on Magento here:
http://www.antropy.co.uk/blog/the-lure-of-magento


Sounds like you used Magento and got stung.


As above.

Paul

If you are a senior developer, presumably with major experience in common web languages like HTML, PHP, JavaScript why on Earth would you be promoting inferior pre-built one-click-solutions when you have the ability to create something unique, fast and secure?

You mentioned you have a team of developers under your wing, if it were me, I'd be instructing them to create tailored solutions for businesses, not tweaking an existing framework built by people who you have no affiliation or trust.

IMO if you are a developer and use these one-click-solutions you are either being lazy or you really don't have the skills to build your own solution.

As for good code. Good code does exactly what it's designed to do, nothing else. It should be insular, fast and secure.

 

[fisicx]

If you are a senior developer, presumably with major experience in common web languages like HTML, PHP, JavaScript why on Earth would you be promoting inferior pre-built one-click-solutions when you have the ability to create something unique, fast and secure?

Because there is a huge support network for these platforms. There are plugins and extensions and a huge repository of scripts and solutions. There is a place for bespoke but most businesses don't have the funds to pay for this. Which is why many developers prefer to go where the money is. Rather than reinvent the wheel, it's more cost effective to use something that is already popular and known to work.

And stop calling is a one-click-solution. It's shows a lack of knowledge on how these platforms work. Yes, you can use a one-click installer but professionals don't.

 

[Steven001]

Because there is a huge support network for these platforms. There are plugins and extensions and a huge repository of scripts and solutions. There is a place for bespoke but most businesses don't have the funds to pay for this. Which is why many developers prefer to go where the money is. Rather than reinvent the wheel, it's more cost effective to use something that is already popular and known to work.

And stop calling is a one-click-solution. It's shows a lack of knowledge on how these platforms work. Yes, you can use a one-click installer but professionals don't.

The support network you speak of consists of various people with varying levels of technical proficiency and different approaches to problem solving. This variation is what creates incompatibility issues within a software platform.

Yes, there is a place for bespoke and that place resides with every serious business who aims to project their brand into the ether. I don't see any major companies using pre-built one-click-solutions, they use a custom design, hire a team of dedicated talented professionals to produce a tailored solution to exactly their business requirements.

No one is reinventing the wheel, rather the companies who offer one-click-solution software are the ones who are trying to reinvent the wheel as they assume people will standardize to their platform and forget about the individuality of design which has stood the test of time in generating profit for businesses.

The money is not in developing on existing frameworks, it's in creating unique, tailored solutions which work.

Ok, I'll stop calling it a one-click-solution when these software's are removed from every Softalicious app installer on every cPanel on every web host, until then...

 

[fisicx]

No one is reinventing the wheel, rather the companies who offer one-click-solution software are the ones who are trying to reinvent the wheel as they assume people will standardize to their platform and forget about the individuality of design which has stood the test of time in generating profit for businesses.

You are mistaken. Nobody is being forced to standardise anything. The only thing the platform does is provide a proven framework onto which to build a design.

 

[antropy]

If you are a senior developer, presumably with major experience in common web languages like HTML, PHP, JavaScript why on Earth would you be promoting inferior pre-built one-click-solutions when you have the ability to create something unique, fast and secure?

I'll explain simply: a platform like OpenCart has tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of developer hours invested in it. No developer can create a solution as good in say 1% of the time. If we're concerned about the end-goal - providing a very good ecommerce solution to the client at a reasonable cost - then customising an existing solution saves time and money, gives a higher quality end result, and will have been extensively bug tested.

You mentioned you have a team of developers under your wing, if it were me, I'd be instructing them to create tailored solutions for businesses, not tweaking an existing framework built by people who you have no affiliation or trust.

1. We became an OpenCart Partner after we decided it was the best solution out there.
2. As above it takes hundreds of thousands of hours. That would mean investing all my guy's time for a couple of years in to a platform that may never make any money. Do you know how much developer salaries are? I'd have invested a massive amount of money for a very uncertain return.
3. Why re-invent something that has already been done, what a waste of time. We spend our time customising it for each particular business.

IMO if you are a developer and use these one-click-solutions you are either being lazy or you really don't have the skills to build your own solution.

You think that because you really don't understand software development. It's like saying if you really are a good mechanic, why did you buy a car from BMW rather than build your own?

As for good code. Good code does exactly what it's designed to do, nothing else. It should be insular, fast and secure.

Insular? lol Haven't heard that one before in relation to code.

Paul

 

[Steven001]

I'll explain simply: a platform like OpenCart has tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of developer hours invested in it. No developer can create a solution as good in say 1% of the time.

Thanks for explaining it simply.
Hundreds of thousands of developer hours to create this? https://demo.opencart.com/ Madness.
OpenCart offers nothing new, just like;

• WordPress
• AbanteCart
• PrestaShop
• Magento
• Open Real Estate

and all the other one-click 'solutions' available for free through cPanel.
All these software's are for non-technical people to point, click and install and then become indivisible from their competitors unless they spend 1000's on a licensed developer who turns their one-click-install into something approaching unique. A pointless escapade when they can get a decent developer from the start to make them something unique which is specifically tailored to their business.
Seeing as you haven't mentioned the time it took to develop OpenCart, your statement that no developer can make anything as good in 1% of the time is merely empty rhetoric.

If we're concerned about the end-goal - providing a very good ecommerce solution to the client at a reasonable cost - then customising an existing solution saves time and money, gives a higher quality end result, and will have been extensively bug tested.

Customizing an existing 'solution' (solution to what by the way? every business is different) as you put it would only ever save time if you were the developer of that existing solution or you knew the software inside and out, otherwise it will be a minefield. Why would you think that this would provide a higher quality end result and than what? Are you working on the premise that every independent developer or non one-click developer teams have poor coding standards? Surely you are being facetious.
I have always found all one-click-software's to be of low quality, slow, buggy and not secure but hey, it's free!

1. We became an OpenCart Partner after we decided it was the best solution out there.
2. As above it takes hundreds of thousands of hours. That would mean investing all my guy's time for a couple of years in to a platform that may never make any money. Do you know how much developer salaries are? I'd have invested a massive amount of money for a very uncertain return.
3. Why re-invent something that has already been done, what a waste of time. We spend our time customising it for each particular business.

1. You mean it's the best one-click-solution out there out of all the one-click-solutions.
2. Hundreds of hours to do what exactly? I can build an eCommerce system on my own from scratch in less than 100 hours. No, all you'd have to do is develop your own back end system with the minimal required functionality for payment processing and make sure it works like clockwork is fully secure. Then you can develop customized front ends for your customers so that their business solution is uniquely tailored to their business. This way it means writing a lot less code, better code, producing faster processing times, a more responsive website and you end up with a better solution than any bloated one-click-software could even hope to offer. Of course if I was wrong about that, every developer would be working on the existing platforms you mention but we both know that isn't the case.
3. No one's re-inventing anything. We develop new code to suit specific needs. Rather one-click-solutions are trying to reinvent web development so that people restrain themselves to use their software and why use someone else's creation and then spend lots of money on a licensed developer to try to make it look like the thing you wanted in the first place? It would make more sense to start with a good independent developer who can build you exactly what you need.

You think that because you really don't understand software development. It's like saying if you really are a good mechanic, why did you buy a car from BMW rather than build your own?

Seeing as I am a software developer, I certainly do understand software development. Unfortunately you have resigned yourself to mediocrity by restricting your potential to develop outside the box of someone else's pre-built platform!
Your car analogy doesn't work, the question you are posing is why should I develop something unique when I can just use something someone else has already built. If we all thought like that we wouldn't have progressed as a species.

 

[antropy]

Thanks for explaining it simply.
Hundreds of thousands of developer hours to create this? https://demo.opencart.com/ Madness.

To me, that comment alone shows you don't really understand very much about software development. You can't judge what features are in a platform by looking at the front-end.

A pointless escapade when they can get a decent developer from the start to make them something unique which is specifically tailored to their business.

That would take significantly longer, cost significantly more, be significantly harder to add features to such as new payment gateways. Any experienced developer would agree with that.

I have always found all one-click-software's to be of low quality, slow, buggy and not secure but hey, it's free!

One-click-software? Did you make up that term? It's called open source and it runs most of the world.

Hundreds of hours to do what exactly? I can build an eCommerce system on my own from scratch in less than 100 hours.

So let's assume a very low hourly rate of £50+VAT. That's £5k of budget gone, and now you're at the same point you'd be if you just used OpenCart. Great, what a waste. Except you're not at that point because the client is tied to you, and has no app store or community.

all you'd have to do ... make sure it works like clockwork is fully secure.

Have you ever written a line of code in your life?

Of course if I was wrong about that, every developer would be working on the existing platforms you mention but we both know that isn't the case.

Well you must be wrong because very few developers build a custom solution every time.

Seeing as I am a software developer, I certainly do understand software development.

What's your background?

Unfortunately you have resigned yourself to mediocrity by restricting your potential to develop outside the box of someone else's pre-built platform!

It's an interesting perspective, but my opinion remains as above about the investment required to develop one's own platform.

Your car analogy doesn't work, the question you are posing is why should I develop something unique when I can just use something someone else has already built. If we all thought like that we wouldn't have progressed as a species.

It works perfectly, but you're saying be Tesla rather than a good independent workshop. Well sure, who wouldn't rather be Tesla? But it's not so easy.

Are you Tesla? Have you developed your own ecommerce platform that's way better than OpenCart, that you re-sell and make a fortune from?

Paul

 

[fisicx]

Of course if I was wrong about that, every developer would be working on the existing platforms you mention....

There are far more developers working with existing platforms than there are building bespoke solutions for each client.

 

[Steven001]

To me, that comment alone shows you don't really understand very much about software development. You can't judge what features are in a platform by looking at the front-end.

I never said I was judging the back end, I was looking at the front end and your claim that "tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of developer hours" have been spent on developing OpenCart as a platform is clearly unsubstantiated.

That would take significantly longer, cost significantly more, be significantly harder to add features to such as new payment gateways. Any experienced developer would agree with that.

No it wouldn't if you have devs who know what they're doing and work well together they can develop a high quality working solution within a relatively short time scale at a similar cost.

One-click-software? Did you make up that term? It's called open source and it runs most of the world.

I'm talking of course about the Sofalicious apps installer available on all cPanel enabled websites where things like OpenCart can be one-click-installed for free!

So let's assume a very low hourly rate of £50+VAT. That's £5k of budget gone, and now you're at the same point you'd be if you just used OpenCart. Great, what a waste. Except you're not at that point because the client is tied to you, and has no app store or community.

You seem to think it's a waste of time developing custom solutions but guess what would happen if the millions of web developers out there all decided to no longer develop their own code and merely use these platforms you are so resigned to? You would be saturated with so much competition you wouldn't make enough money to buy a tin of beans at the end of the week! You should be thankful that less businesses use one-click-software rather than bespoke designs.

Have you ever written a line of code in your life?

it's pleasurable to speak to you too!

What's your background?

PHP, MYSQL, HTML, CSS, MAXScript, digital art, polygon modelling, 2d texturing, 3ds max, Photoshop, Premiere Pro.
You?

It's an interesting perspective, but my opinion remains as above about the investment required to develop one's own platform.

Fair enough. We will agree to disagree.

 

[antropy]

I never said I was judging the back end, I was looking at the front end

But we're talking about developing an ecommerce platform so of course we're talking about the back-end. The front-end is just a skin.

and your claim that "tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of developer hours" have been spent on developing OpenCart as a platform is clearly unsubstantiated.

No. It's based on knowing the main developer Daniel, the history of the project and github.

No it wouldn't if you have devs who know what they're doing and work well together they can develop a high quality working solution within a relatively short time scale at a similar cost.

Mine are extremely good but you're waaay off.

I'm talking of course about the Sofalicious apps installer available on all cPanel enabled websites where things like OpenCart can be one-click-installed for free!

Right, so just because a piece of software is in Softaculous doesn't say anything about its quality.

You seem to think it's a waste of time developing custom solutions but guess what would happen if the millions of web developers out there all decided to no longer develop their own code and merely use these platforms you are so resigned to?

It is a waste if many good pieces of software exist to do that task already.

You would be saturated with so much competition you wouldn't make enough money to buy a tin of beans at the end of the week! You should be thankful that less businesses use one-click-software rather than bespoke designs.

You can still make bespoke designs for the front-end.

it's pleasurable to speak to you too!

Genuine question: have you ever worked as a software developer for a proper company as part of a team of developers?

PHP, MYSQL, HTML, CSS, MAXScript, digital art, polygon modelling, 2d texturing, 3ds max, Photoshop, Premiere Pro.

That's a load of acronyms and software names. What I'm asking is where and what did you study and/or what companies have you worked for?

You?

I've posted this a few messages back.

Fair enough. We will agree to disagree.

It's not even a case of disagreeing, it's a case of you have no experience and no idea what you're talking about yet you're trying to argue with someone who's worked in the industry commercially for over a decade and runs a software company.

Paul

 

[fisicx]

I never said I was judging the back end, I was looking at the front end and your claim that "tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of developer hours" have been spent on developing OpenCart as a platform is clearly unsubstantiated.

The front end is just a skin/theme/template. The default skin for opencart isn't very exciting I agree but that's not where all the hours were put in.

I can build a WordPress theme from scratch in about 10 hours. The WordPress platform however has got hundreds of thousands of hours of development from (probably) thousands of developers. You can't correlate the front end to the back end. They ain't the same animal.

If you were to just judge from the front end I'd put your site down for about 5 hours of work not the 100 you say it has taken.

 

[Steven001]

But we're talking about developing an ecommerce platform so of course we're talking about the back-end. The front-end is just a skin.

I can't see the back end, can I? No one can, thankfully, otherwise we'd all be in deep trouble security wise.

No. It's based on knowing the main developer Daniel, the history of the project and github.

Well you just proved my point when I mentioned previously if you know the mind of the original developer and have an understanding of how their software works then it's an advantage, otherwise you are left in the dark as most devs would be when working on someone else's software platform.

Mine are extremely good but you're waaay off.

I'm not saying there are or they aren't, I don't know them and I'm not asking.
Rather I am on point by suggesting that good dev teams can work well to produce unique software, it happens all the time in multiple different arenas, not just web design. Strange that you're not aware of this!

Right, so just because a piece of software is in Softaculous doesn't say anything about its quality.

I haven't found any worthy eCommerce platforms from Softaculous and I've tried all of them but they're free and I kind of expected to be unimpressed.

It is a waste if many good pieces of software exist to do that task already.

Developing new software is not a waste, it's evolution.

You can still make bespoke designs for the front-end.

With a lot more difficulty but you should know as well as I do that the front end and the back end work together so whatever you create on a pre-existing platform is limited by that platform. The one-click-solution software vendors try to remedy this by building in all sorts of scenarios and that's when we get into the territory of bloatware.

Genuine question: have you ever worked as a software developer for a proper company as part of a team of developers?

Yes, it's my current job and I've worked with other developers as well as liaised with dev companies on behalf of businesses to create new web designs but this isn't about me, it's about you asserting that editing someone else's platform is a superior solution to the individuality of design and you're wrong on that.

That's a load of acronyms and software names. What I'm asking is where and what did you study and/or what companies have you worked for?

I'm not here to prove myself to you, it's none of your business who I work for now or who I have worked for in the past.

It's not even a case of disagreeing, it's a case of you have no experience and no idea what you're talking about yet you're trying to argue with someone who's worked in the industry commercially for over a decade and runs a software company.

Clearly you are monumentally mistaken. I have plenty of experience, at least as much as you and unlike you, I don't persist in pushing the idea that one particular one-click-solution software available for free from cPanel is somehow more worthy than a custom built, tailored solution produced by experienced developers. It isn't, not by a long-shot.

Like I said, we agree to disagree.

 

[Steven001]

The front end is just a skin/theme/template. The default skin for opencart isn't very exciting I agree but that's not where all the hours were put in.

I can build a WordPress theme from scratch in about 10 hours. The WordPress platform however has got hundreds of thousands of hours of development from (probably) thousands of developers. You can't correlate the front end to the back end. They ain't the same animal.

If you were to just judge from the front end I'd put your site down for about 5 hours of work not the 100 you say it has taken.

That's part of the problem with pre-built platforms, so many different developers working on it that you get software conflicts/bugs and it becomes bloated. If you were able to put the best of these people in a room together and have them all work to the same standard and use the same coding principles and style you could come up with a flawless solution.

 

[antropy]

I can't see the back end, can I?

It's open source and right there on github.

I haven't found any worthy eCommerce platforms from Softaculous and I've tried all of them but they're free and I kind of expected to be unimpressed.

Let me guess, the depth of your "research" included clicking once, browsing, then deciding you could do better?

Paul

 

[Richard Patey]

I've only ever used shopify but have a friend who has a woocommerce agency who argues well about self-hosted

 

[marcus_bond]

We went bespoke... but redevelopment is just as expensive as building again... as no one fully understands the code... employees move on. :-( We tried off the shelf, but you just sell the same way as everybody else, which is a problem, then there is the back end... the bespoke development pretty much runs the company, and does so in a way that makes us unique. There is nothing out there which does really does what we want. Existing solutions all want to force us to work the way they want. They get their hooks into you, then sell out, or upgrade the software, leaving all your add-on bells and whistles broken.

Our dream is to slowly move databases to googles cloud, and develop a basic back end in-house using googles database tools. Then give the website developer the task of creating the front end, with data moving back and forth between the cloud and their front end.

 

[Samiara SIngh]

There are ample platforms, many website development tools to make you through to bringing to life your working web address. It depends on a number of factors overall as aptly described above. Many choices to make from start to end in this entire process of making websites!

 

[billybob99]

Hundreds of thousands of developer hours to create this? https://demo.opencart.com/ Madness.

I used OpenCart 10+ years ago, the demo looks the exact same as it did back then.

I am surprised it is still around.

Don't get me wrong, your website is pretty bad, not sure what is worse, your website or OpenCart.

 

[netdesignr]

I am surprised it is still around.

Ditto!

 

[Eugene Hill]

1.
Magento, Shopify, and Symfony are the top 3 e-commerce platforms that are widely used by eCommerce web development companies for the development of ecommerce web applications!

2.
Amazon sites run on AWS platforms which they "own" and had created.

3.
Flipkart (India based ecommerce website), Myntra and Jabong aren't using any of the ecommerce platform available there like woocommerce, shopify, symfony and magento.

But the technologies they use are,

Server: Flipkart uses nginx, whereas Myntra and Jabong use Apache

Frontend: Their mobile site is a progressive web app (PWA are websites that look like a mobile app), which is mainly built using the front end languages like HTML5, CSS and JQuery and frameworks like polymer and MDL.

Backend: Most of these eCommerce sites started with PHP and MySQL, but slowly migrated their high traffic API's to Node.JS and MongoDB.


So the conclusion in the nutshell is that it is not about the eCommerce platform that makes the difference! It is the utility science, and user experience that counts! Even if you are desparate to know about the most widely used platform then I have already mentioned you the names of the same - Magento, Shopify, and Symfony!

 

[hiennv]

After 7+ years working in ecommerce system, I've worked with OpenCart, PrestaShop, WooEcommerce and now Shopify. Honest to say Shopify is my best option now when I need to consultant the solution for my clients. It is stable, fast and easy for development, maintain.

 

[ukbf0001]

Thi sthread was started in 2014 and after 387 responses - dont we all think perhaps this thread is past it's usefulness ?

Times have moved on since 2014, nowadays people have their shops builtin to facebook, instagram posts, and numerous other sites at the same. ecwids is the #1 FB ecommerce app - closely followed by shopify. Buyer intent has also changed etc .

So maybe we should leave this thread as it is - and use other threads that are a bit more detailed and specific - perhaps ?

 

[website-designer]

Shopify is the one I'd recommend for most businesses.

 

[Usman Aslam]

This is a very good publication. You have categorized things perfectly. What is good is definitely an answer that depends on the situation. It depends on how many products and categories you need to maintain. According to my experience for hundreds of products, Magneto is a very good option. For larger websites, they should opt for a more personalized option and consult a technical person.

 

[Neha Chaudhary]

Good informational content. thanks for sharing.

 

[Aleksander_Gramm]

It is difficult question because so many men, so many minds. Usually the choice depends on needs, experience, knowledge and budget. And in huge cases peopletend to make the wrong choices.
Why? There is a lack of information, a lack of experience, a lack of time.
My choice is Magento 2 and Shopify.

 

[ValenDigital]

Thi sthread was started in 2014 and after 387 responses - dont we all think perhaps this thread is past it's usefulness ?

Times have moved on since 2014, nowadays people have their shops builtin to facebook, instagram posts, and numerous other sites at the same. ecwids is the #1 FB ecommerce app - closely followed by shopify. Buyer intent has also changed etc .

So maybe we should leave this thread as it is - and use other threads that are a bit more detailed and specific - perhaps ?

Yup, it took me ages to go through all the messages and was a bit of a read TBH. TBH am a bit surprised that this post hasn't been locked yet. Its too much of a read to get any useful information from it. As you said perhaps a new thread that's current would help those looking to get this question answered as it still pops up time and time again.

I guess the prime question is what are you trying to achieve? Is it to setup a quick ecommerce store that easy to setup and run? Then Shopify is probably your best bet. The simple integrations with FB and G ads makes it a no brainer really.

Looking for a long term choice? then Magento is definitely the way to go. Unlike any other ecommerce platform its multi store feature is one that makes it the No1 go too solution.

It is difficult question because so many men, so many minds. Usually the choice depends on needs, experience, knowledge and budget. And in huge cases peopletend to make the wrong choices.
Why? There is a lack of information, a lack of experience, a lack of time.
My choice is Magento 2 and Shopify.

Love Magento but Magento 2 doesn't quite hit the mark yet. Quite a few benchmarks put it slower than Magento 1 and if you are thinking of migrating to 2 then its not straight forward. Pretty complicated to get it right for existing users of version 1.x.x and for the small business owner its who is on v1.x.x. then the migration is simply not feasible. Yes they could initially have used a different solution and then move over too Magento 2 later BUT which business would want to have double the cost?

 

[Aleksander_Gramm]

Magento 2 is solution for large stores and big money.

 

[Aleksander_Gramm]

Love Magento but Magento 2 doesn't quite hit the mark yet. Quite a few benchmarks put it slower than Magento 1 and if you are thinking of migrating to 2 then its not straight forward. Pretty complicated to get it right for existing users of version 1.x.x and for the small business owner its who is on v1.x.x. then the migration is simply not feasible. Yes they could initially have used a different solution and then move over too Magento 2 later BUT which business would want to have double the cost?

I totally agree.

 

[kev598]

Love Magento but Magento 2 doesn't quite hit the mark yet. Quite a few benchmarks put it slower than Magento 1 and if you are thinking of migrating to 2 then its not straight forward. Pretty complicated to get it right for existing users of version 1.x.x and for the small business owner its who is on v1.x.x. then the migration is simply not feasible. Yes they could initially have used a different solution and then move over too Magento 2 later BUT which business would want to have double the cost?

Honestly, I think Magento 2 is better regarding the usability of admin and default features. Yeah, it is not the fastest solution, but I think among other similar platforms it is the best option. For sure this is not a good option for the beginners and small businesses, however, if you want to grow your store, it has a lot of benefits, plus big community support and lots of innovative solutions.
As for the small shops, I think basic Shopify or WooCommerce or even Squarespace will be a better option.

 

[Aleksander_Gramm]

If you have adequate budget, you can use Magento 2. But, if your business fail, you will lose big money. So, if you win, it will double win, because you can scale and improve your e-store whithout problem (LOL, of couse not).
In the other hand, if you choose Shopify and to win, you can't scale up the e-store.

Unfortunately perfect things live in the perfect world.

 

[ValenDigital]

Honestly, I think Magento 2 is better regarding the usability of admin and default features. Yeah, it is not the fastest solution, but I think among other similar platforms it is the best option. For sure this is not a good option for the beginners and small businesses, however, if you want to grow your store, it has a lot of benefits, plus big community support and lots of innovative solutions.
As for the small shops, I think basic Shopify or WooCommerce or even Squarespace will be a better option.

Yup 100% agree with you there. Its definitely faster on the admin end. Looks better with the new GUI too. Not much has changed on the front-end though. Granted there have been some big changes to the back-end code which now solves a lot of plugin/module compatibility issues BUT I still prefer v1.

There is simply not enough of an impact in v2 that's makes it worthwhile to migrate an existing running v1 shop to v2.

We deploy new site on v2 as it just makes sense but existing shops.. nope. Keep them where they are and optimise the hell out of them!

I think Magento is a good option for small businesses. It will allow them to grow when they need to. the problem with these newer ecommerce solutions like Shopify (yes its not that new) is when you want to grow your stuck! then trying to migrate to another solution is damn near impossible. A small business will need to weigh up the pros and cons very carefully if they plan on running an ecommerce business long term s to which solution they should choose. My recommendation 99.99% of the time is Magento more often than not simply because of the multi store functionality.

 

[hikebranding]

I generally suggest eCommerce platform according to client's requirement. I want my customer to grow so always recommend the best platform.

 

[dcart]

The best solution for an online shop is Opencart. It is super fast and easy to use.

 

[fisicx]

The best solution for an online shop is Opencart. It is super fast and easy to use.

It may be the best solution for some but that doesn’t mean it’s the best for everybody.