Hosted Shopping Cart or DIY Cart?
Hosted Cart Solutions vs. Do-It- Yourself (DIY) Shopping Carts
If you planning on launching an online store, you’ll need a shopping cart. When it comes to shopping cart solutions, you basically have two choices; a hosted shopping cart solution or using a do-it-yourself solution. How do you decide which type of solution to use for your online store? Here’s some pointers.
Hosted cart solutions provided you with everything you need to open an online store (minus a merchant account). This includes hosting, software, updated and security. Examples of hosted shopping carts include the following:
Yahoo! Stores
Volusion
MonsterCommerce
3dCart
InstanteStore
Modular Merchant
ProStores
Do-it-yourself shopping cart solutions are typically open source or paid software. All you get is software or an application. It’s up to you to find hosting, install the software, apply updates and administer security. Examples of do-it-yourself cart solutions include:
osCommerce
CubeCart
XCart
Zen Cart
Selecting which type of shopping cart is largely dependent upon your level of technical skill and resources. DYI solutions require a greater amount of Web technology knowledge to setup and maintain. Hosted shopping carts cost more but are easier to launch and maintain. Plus, with hosted carts, you don’t have to worry about finding a host, applying updates or worry so much about security.
DIY are typically easy to move though. If you’re hosting company doesn’t cut the mustard, you can pack up and move to another host with relative ease. If you’re having issues with your hosted shopping cart, you’re pretty much married to them. Divorces are never painless. You'll have to find a new host and set up a new store from scratch. Plus, your URLs will likely change as a result of the move and you’ll suffer a dip in the search engines (until your new URLs are re-indexed).
Only you really knows which type of cart solution will work best for your business. Access your skills and weigh the pros and cons of each type of solution.
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Having gone the OsCommerce route, I would have to say that unless you know PHP (or are eager to learn it), and have a lot of time on your hands, it's probably not the best option.
I spent a year developing my site, and while it looks good, the thought of upgrading it and all of the add-on modules, is enough to make me go for a hosted shopping cart next time around (specifically 3dCart).
Great first hand feedback! Thanks!
I feel the same way. Why do all the heavy lifting when a hosted cart will do most of it for you? Merchants have enough to worry about as it is. Who needs the added burden of programming, development and added security risks? Not this merchant...
Sometimes the programming and development is necessary for the business model, so I wouldn't completely rule it out. Hiring an experienced developer to customize an open source solution is a viable option for some businesses. What you would spend on custom services from the hosted shopping cart solution could probably get you a completely customized solution from scratch, so it really depends on the situation.
However, security is a big concern, so in my opinion, anyone going the DIY route should not even entertain the thought of storing credit cards in their database. I'm amazed when I see sites that clearly use an open source shopping cart solution, and don't even use SSL for their checkout pages. Sometimes, I really think they just don't know any better, but it's sad because it just shows the lack of research and thought that went into their business.