Cre-Loaded, Loaded 7 advice wanted

[cazza]

Hi Everyone
I'm a newbie just after a little advice. We have had a Creloaded website for approx 8 years and have been considering moving recently, after doing a little research on what other platforms are out there, and the problems in moving our website over, i've felt a little out of my depth.

Creloaded seems to have gone downhill and is outdated, the forum is not very helpful, but after doing a little research i now know why! They are now developing Loaded 7 and the advice i'm after, is do i stay with Creloaded and hope that the new development takes off and i can stay with a platform we are familiar with or is it time to move on.

Thank you for taking the time to read my thread

 

[edmondscommerce]

It is hard to say

CRELoaded - now LoadedCommerce - is really just a highly customised version of osCommerce.

That said it has continued development where osCommerce core development waned off. It remains the osCommerce version we would most recommend.

Looking at the product page for loaded 7 I can see that this is a totally new platform based upon the object oriented osCommerce 3 code. That means that you can regard 7 as a completely separate platform and I would be surprised if there is an easy upgrade path. You can also expect it to be quite seriously different from what you are used to.

With this in mind you would be sensible to look at all of the available carts as well as evaluating this one. The modern crop of open source carts you should look at include Magento, OpenCart and Prestashop.

They each have their strengths and weaknesses so it is definitely worth looking at them all.

I am interested in seeing osCommerce version 3 finding its way into a production ready cart. For the more technical readers you could check out this github page which is hosting the current alpha version.

 

[Websitehandyman]

I have been using creloaded for longer then you, I started moving my site over to cs-cart. But I'm also following the development of the new software very keenly. If I didn't have spacific problem with my site I would hold on for the new version as it's been a very good cart for me.

While test endless carts to move to I came to apricate the ease of use creloaded gives and it's very hard to give up. I've not seen any cart come anywhere near as easy to maintain and update from a shop owners point of view.

Sure you'll find plenty nice looking options and loads that give nice features and interact with ebay and amazon but hour for hour you'll pay for it in terms of adding products, producing invoices and reports etc.

I would stick with creloaded if you can for a while and perhaps get in touch with one of the decent developers to help. I know I should have done that but I'm now fully invested in cs-cart, which is great but a real mountain to learn for an average shop owner.

 

[edmondscommerce]

Yes it is a great platform and we still have a few clients (some surprisingly big) that are running on osCommerce, CRELoaded and Zen Cart sites.

Often the larger clients are running a site that has so many modifications and optimisations done to them that they are arguably bespoke.

If OP or anyone does want osCommerce based work doing we would be happy to help, definitely got the skills and experience required.

 

[cazza]

Thank you both for your comments, it's nice to get other opinions when you find yourself going round and round in circles ,

We have no major problems and having run the store with no added extras from day dot, i feel maybe just a little tlc, freshen up/facelift and and any issues sorted may be the best option for now and at the same time keep an eye out for the development of loaded 7.

 

[edmondscommerce]

One thing I would suggest is that you get your store PHP 5.3 compatible for security and performance improvements

http://www.edmondscommerce.co.uk/os...rade-you-really-should-get-onto-php-5-3-asap/

 

[cazza]

Thanx for that, we were aware of that and had the necessary work completed

 

[Holopainen]

Hello,
I agree with Webitehandyman, Loaded Commerce is actually a very good platform to work with. It may lack some features but if it works for you and gives positive results you better think twice before moving to another cart.
Anyway if you decide to switch to another platform there is always a Cart2Cart. It will help you to move necessary data like orders, customers, products, manufacturers, etc. between two carts automatically.

 

[Websitehandyman]

New news - to promote the new version they are giving away two versions of the current shopping cart. Here's the link, all you do is click the link and register to download - http://www.loadedcommerce.com/april-fools-download-page-pg-423.html?CDpath=0_299

 

[Metalfrogboss]

IMO, bin CRE-Loaded and look at OpenCart or Magento.
More flexible, search engine friendly and full of support and modular add-ons with a live community to boot.
Cheers
Chris