Joomla, Presta shop or Open cart which is best?

ctbfashion

Hi,

i am getting a small ecommerce website done up and the developer has told me he can build it in three different formats Joomla, Presta shop or Open cart.

Can anyone tell me which is the best and easiest for me to update.

thanks

Of the three, I'd probably go for PrestaShop. Be aware that the prestashop base is free but most of the addons cost, so check what functionality you need and compare this with the core features. I'm not a fan of opencart.

Joomla is a generic content management system so the developer would be adding an ecommerce module which probably won't be as fully featured as the standalone ecommerce applications.

In other words, if the core function of the website is to sell, use a dedicated ecommerce app. If the ecommerce is an aside, something like Joomla will have better content management facilities that an ecommerce app, and the ecommerce module will probably do all you need.

Available payment gateways will need to be considered too. For example not all platforms have Realex support.

ctbfashion

thanks for the information i dont know much about websites as in back end stuff. i want a basic ecommerce site to sell products with drop down sizes etc nothing fancy but has to be easy to use. i will also be using paypal through the site for payments.

so presta shop you reckon ye.

thanks

nicol

Just out of curiousity how much are you being quoted? I have a sister who's setting up a small ecommerce site. She is in the process of getting quotes but I'd like to compare to the price you were quoted. Sounds very similar in terms of requirements etc.

ctbfashion

Hi

I the best quotes i have gotten so far is around 800 thats from somebody i know also. like yourself im not sure if this is very good or not but compared to some seems decent. what about the quotes your sister has got.

Just be sure that you are comparing like with like when you are getting quotes. Ask to see examples of sites done for a similar budget. Look at them carefully in terms of looks and functionality, and ensure they match your expectations.

Think about the process flow for making a purchase and make sure the software can work how your business works. A lot of people buy a vanilla ecommerce implementation and find that they need to change the way they work to match how the system does things. Obviously the system should be set up to work the way you do.

I'm working on a very big e-commerce project at the moment, and the devil really is in the details. Seemingly tiny things can potentially become showstoppers.

Eoin

A couple of alternatives, unless you're dead set on hosting the site yourself:

http://www.ecwid.com - eCommerce widgits that are dead easy to install on an existing website.

http://www.shopify.com - hosted eCommerce store

To add to what SBS said, if you get your own customised version of a eCommerce package, see if you can get a way for customers to check out without creating an account. The only real difference is that you don't have to enter a password, but apparently having to create an account turns away a lot of potential customers.