magento v opencart?

[gibby]

I'm in the process of setting up 3 new ecommerce sites.
All will have around 1000 products, need to handle shipping rates by postcode and ideally run off 1 admin for all 3 stores.

We already have a cubecart store but need something that can handle better features.

Would value any feedback on magento and opencart.

 

[daisyrogers]

Well I think you should go with Magento. Its free and features are very good. Even you can run three store individually with 1 admin. Feature I like the most is that I can handle multiple sites even for different language.

 

[sbooks1000]

Yups i am agree with daisy

 

[Dellajone]

Magento provides professional online set up. So i suggest magento.

 

[transpacific]

OpenCart is suggested for following reason

1. Easy data migration from cubecart
2. Opencart easier to learn
3. Multi-store facility available
4. Plug-ins are relatively cheaper

TransPacific Software

 

[gibby]

Thanks for the replies.
Can I ask, when updates are released for both of these, can they be done automatically by the store.
Cubecart is a pain with updates as we usually pay someone to do them

 

[transpacific]

Updates are not automatically installed in any cart.

 

[Nexolutions]

Hi, we've looked at all the major shopping carts/CMS available and made a comparison chart with all of the features, hidden costs and standard costs.

If you like, if you PM'd me your e-mail I could e-mail this to you to help you.

Tom

 

[antropy]

Here's a comparison of OpenCart and Magento:
http://www.antropy.co.uk/blog/opencart-vs-magento/

(hint: go for OpenCart!)

 

[FlatRockTechnology]

You can check these articles. They might be helpful:

blog . flatrocktech . com/2013/03/21/magento-or-opencart-which-is-the-better-e-commerce-platform

blog . flatrocktech . com/2013/05/28/why-magento-a-review

 

[amac]

Both are pretty similar in terms of architecture right e.g mysql, linux, php. It depends on the features you need. I've used Magento on a test basis and my thoughts are it's pretty overkill for a startup or small retail operation.

 

[HTSOPELAS]

I am a web developer in Greece and i have build my web site with opencart! In past use vm but i see that open cart is more easy for me and my clients! Look my page (it is in greek language) to see.

 

[gibby]

Thanks for all the feedback. We are aiming to test both shortly.

Anyone used Open cart for mulit sites?
Can it be used to run stores on different domains?

The info I got back from OC was rather vague

M

 

[antropy]

Can it be used to run stores on different domains?

Yes it certainly can, you can see how on the demo:
http://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=demonstration/demonstration

Go to System > Settings > Insert (blue button top right) to add a store on a new domain.

 

[plymgary]

I haven't used Magneto but find Opencart a breeze to use. Easy to maintain and didn't take long to get a professional looking site at all.

 

[Holopainen]

I would also vote for OpenCart. In terms of functionality it is way better than Cubecart. In terms of usability it far more easier to handle than Magento.
As to data migration from Cubecart it can be seamlessly handled with Cart2Cart.

 

[gibby]

Thanks. So far open cart seems to be in favour.
Both are very impressive but open cart runs faster and seems easier to use.

We have to check a few more things but can anyone answer these?
Is opencat able to show uk vat correctly? We need it to show the price including the vat content for customers but also report it for sales figures?

Also is there a mod that allows us to surcharge x amount for products from a certain category?
We need to add 1 charge for frozen goods from a category and a second for chilled.

So much to take in.

Ta.
G

 

[greengecko]

Thanks. So far open cart seems to be in favour.
Both are very impressive but open cart runs faster and seems easier to use.

We have to check a few more things but can anyone answer these?
Is opencat able to show uk vat correctly? We need it to show the price including the vat content for customers but also report it for sales figures?

Also is there a mod that allows us to surcharge x amount for products from a certain category?
We need to add 1 charge for frozen goods from a category and a second for chilled.

So much to take in.

Ta.
G

There may well be a way to do such things with OpenCart, unfortunately as I haven't ever got beyond basic tasks I cannot comment. However from the feedback from others, as soon as you want to start doing complex ecommerce operations then magento is the best suited.

 

[antropy]

No problems with UK VAT.

Why would you want an extra charge for products from a certain category? Why wouldn't you just put the increased price on all products in that category to start with?

 

[gibby]

Thanks for the info on vat.
One of our stores will be selling food, and we need the store to automatically add 1 surcharge when frozen items are orderd and possibly a 2nd for chilled.

This is to cover the extra chilled/frozen packaging needed for these products.

We have tried in the past to let customers add these but no matter how we explain it they miss it, causing the need for extra emails and calls.

G

 

[smo]

I run magento with multiple stores, so far we have 3 running in 1 admin panel, all completely seperate and unrelated but they have potential to share all sorts such as products if we wished.

 

[JonathanSEO]

Magento is far better than Open Cart.

I find Open Cart cheap, unintuitive and pretty bad for SEO with the way it does things.

+1 for Magento. Viva!

 

[Dellajone]

I too prefer magento. Here is the list which i suggest for others.

uniecommerce
shopify
magento
bigcommerce
xcart

 

[joshgeake]

I've launched sites with both and here's my opinion...

Magento is like the bigger brother of Opencart. I'd say that whilst Opencart's a Lotus (nimble, adaptive, fast but awkward), Magento's more of a BMW M5 (more expensive, big, heavy but at times more practical and capable).

If you wanted to buy a ~$50 theme and adapt it to your needs then I'd choose Opencart, it will work just fine and you'll be able to dive in and dabble however you wish. It's lightweight and unless you install a load of extensions, fast on a small vps.

In contrast Magento's more set in its ways and needs significant power to get it running quickly. The default setup is superb if you want to sell more complicated products e.g. multiple varient t-shirts with a standard stamp (Colour, Fit and Size). Opencart's more awkward in this scenario. Magento will crack whatever nut you throw at it, the question is whether you need its sledgehammer.

It depends on the circumstances as to whether Opencart's any better or worse than Magento. Both are building audiences and I can see them happily coexisting. One's owned by PayPal, the other's run from a small office in Hong Kong. For them to be competing is quite an achievement really!

Not many people need all of Magento's bells and whistles and for the ones they do then a little code tweak here and there within Opencart will do it.

The other thing I've found with Magento is it's far more commercialised. Developers rarely help a customer with their modules however with Opencart I've generally found them to be fantastic.

 

[joshgeake]

VAT's fine with Opencart and Magento btw, you create tax rates, tax classes and then attach them to a product.

So you could have e.g. a toy (20% VAT) and a book (0% VAT) and it will work out the totals fine.

 

[antropy]

Magento's more of a BMW M5

Wow, really? The BMW M5 is one of the most beautifully engineered cars that has ever been built.

Magento is more like a big American muscle car - it doesn't handle particularly well, uses a lot more resources than it should, but people tend to like it anyway because it looks cool.

OpenCart is more like an Ariel Atom - light, fast, easily customisable, you can get at all the parts when you need to, and it can out-handle and out-pace the big boys.

 

[joshgeake]

I was being polite!

Besides, I would probably choose Magento in certain circumstances where as I'd never, ever buy an American car.

 

[antropy]

Hahaha well that's very admirable.

I'd be interested to hear of any compelling, specific reasons to use Magento instead of OpenCart. I.e. this customer needs x which isn't possible with OpenCart, even with an extension...

 

[ProjectOcto]

One thing that hasn't been raised here - what does your BUSINESS need?

Magento, OpenCart and other high profile platforms are great at doing all the essentials well, and at a cheap cost. (you can build it yourself or get a designer/integrator to help).

Bu add-ons aside, you may hit limitations with the site's evolution. Magento etc were initially built as 'one size fits all' platforms to get people going. Then add-ons were created by a variety of companies to make it 'many sizes fits many'.

I believe the most important thing is your relationship with your developer (if outsourcing the build, or using add-ons etc to evolve). If your site doesn't handle shipping/product attributes/images/notifications exactly the way YOU want it to, you have to either ask your developer to modify things, or put up with it. Your developer's (or your!) capability to evolve the system then becomes crucial.

 

[ShallWeStart]

If your business requires ebay integration then i'd go with Magento, they have an excellent and free ebay modeule (by M2E Pro).

If you have no specific business requirements and are just looking for a bog-standard solution which looks good then OpenCart is better: it's lightweight, easy to learn and cheaper.

If you've not had experience customising magento then it's a bit of a learning curve.

 

[ronnie7272]

One thing that hasn't been raised here - what does your BUSINESS need?

Well said.

 

[joshgeake]

If your business requires ebay integration then i'd go with Magento, they have an excellent and free ebay modeule (by M2E Pro).

...but the eBay API is already integrated within Opencart 1.5.6!

Opencart and Magento really do seem to be converging to pretty much the same product. Frankly, I still prefer the simplicity that's integral to Opencart over the 'tick every possible box' mentality of Magento.