Is Prestashop worth the time?

[BarraHome]

Everything in here is paid or SaaS. When i joined this community i planned to move a shop into PS. After looking the amount of money needed to have a decent platform i had to see anywhere else. Everything is full of big banners begging for money.

Maybe i'm too used to the old OSS model. Who knows, but the bloatware it's too much. Nothing in here is truly free.

[El Patron]

that is totally false, you get a functioning carts, front end rich admin tools....if you want extended features then you can buy paid solution.  What are you on the 'everything' is free scenario?  Do you not realize that developers should be able to put shoes on their kids feet?

You can build a perfectly base shop out of the box with PrestaShop, also you do not have a single question where community can help but generalize something you do not have a very good understanding of.  

If you cannot invest hard work and some money in your business then how to you plan for it to succeed?  

[BarraHome]

28 minutes ago, El Patron said:

If you cannot invest hard work and some money in your business then how to you plan for it to succeed?  

Spoken like a guy who doesn't understand OSS.

I get your point, you have a profit here and you do not like the comment. It doesn't change the reality, Watch Wordpress and see how everyone does a profit the same but they have a healthy ecosystem. 

So, is not false, it's a comment that you do not like.

[El Patron]

then go do wordpress....nobody stopping you, you have not made one single post asking for specific help but generalize how you cannot make it work while 1000's of shops running PS do very well...I'll not bother with talking you off the ledge, go ahead and jump.

[BarraHome]

11 minutes ago, El Patron said:

I'll not bother with talking you off the ledge, go ahead and jump

Because i do not agree with the current status of PS doesn't mean i won't use it now or in the future when is more stable. The difference is i will work on the flaws and i keep speaking my mind while doing so. 

And when i referenced Wordpress i was talking about the ecosystem, you can keep the white knighting going on, but you are not changing the facts.

Have a good day.

[BarraHome]

16 minutes ago, El Patron said:

you have not made one single post asking for specific help

I do not need you to sell my anything, i can fix the issues myself. If i will work it will be on the core.

Because i do not agree with the current status of PS doesn't mean i won't use it now or in the future when is more stable. The difference is i will work on the flaws and i keep speaking my mind while doing so. 

And when i referenced Wordpress i was talking about the ecosystem, you can keep the white knighting going on, but you are not changing the facts.

Have a good day.

[jetx]

PS is good and I wouldn't go back to a true open source cart like OS or Zen for the simple reason that those platforms all look dated as heck. Sure they're free and the devs are often really (actually) nice, dedicated people who don't allow 3rd party modules to be sold on their community site. And their communities are often friendly and really helpful. The problem is that there are not enough people willing to dedicate their time for nothing in developing modules and then maintaining them to the same sort level as people that get paid for their work do. And the platforms themselves are years behind because they don't have the financial backing needed to constantly create an amazing looking product. I don't particularly like the addons section of presta as it is geared towards making sales and has no proper review of product section to allow a buyer to make an informed decision but PS itself, in my opinion, is the best cart available right now.

[biowebshop]

I challenge anyone to show me one functioning Prestashop site with an out-of-the-box minimal configuration that is actually running and taking orders.  Bet ya can't.

Just sayin..

[El Patron]

On 5/19/2020 at 4:00 PM, biowebshop said:

I challenge anyone to show me one functioning Prestashop site with an out-of-the-box minimal configuration that is actually running and taking orders.  Bet ya can't.

Just sayin..

we do it all the time as do many others, I blame you....find something you are capable of working with, don't degrade what is beyond your expertise.

[biowebshop]

I'm sure its great once you know everything like everything else.  However it takes much longer to figure anything out on Prestashop than any other system and I've done sites on most of them.  Imagine just uploading a simple template and it breaks the smtp system with no real feedback on what is happening and where to look in the system.  Also every little feature costs money.  That is ridiculous.   However I don't give up easily. 

[El Patron]

21 minutes ago, biowebshop said:

I'm sure its great once you know everything like everything else.  However it takes much longer to figure anything out on Prestashop than any other system and I've done sites on most of them.  Imagine just uploading a simple template and it breaks the smtp system with no real feedback on what is happening and where to look in the system.  Also every little feature costs money.  That is ridiculous.   However I don't give up easily. 

I recommend shopify for clients that want something easy out of the box.  you lose customization but I think they got it down fairly well.  standalone cms has so many moving parts...it's really not for everyone and then you will never be very successful until you get experts to take to next level, most should just build catalog and hire out theme etc...that's how you make money in ecms....getting people who know what you didn't know you didn't now.

[Knowband Plugins]

We have lot of clients on various ecommerce platforms including Shopify and PrestaShop. Restrictions with Shopify is that if you do not have out of box feature/app which suits your requirements, then you have to work around a lot of restrictions to achieve the same. But with platforms like PrestaShop, once you have put in all hard work and understand the system better, it is much easier to implement customized requirements. Shopify Plus clients do get some assistance like free shopify script, shopify plus free support etc, but for becoming Shopify plus customer you have to spend a lot every month.

We would vouch for PrestaShop rather then finding way out of closed system like Shopify.

[El Patron]

7 hours ago, Knowband Plugins said:

We have lot of clients on various ecommerce platforms including Shopify and PrestaShop. Restrictions with Shopify is that if you do not have out of box feature/app which suits your requirements, then you have to work around a lot of restrictions to achieve the same. But with platforms like PrestaShop, once you have put in all hard work and understand the system better, it is much easier to implement customized requirements. Shopify Plus clients do get some assistance like free shopify script, shopify plus free support etc, but for becoming Shopify plus customer you have to spend a lot every month.

We would vouch for PrestaShop rather then finding way out of closed system like Shopify.

..we do services....and PS is not always the best solution this is based on catalog and other factors.  We don't just push PS because it's all were comfortable with.  but perfectly get your point, the problem we have is that theme/modules are not us centric or keep up with best current practices...so we hope that devs in addons' get rid of dated stuff, one page checkout for example was ok few years ago but not anymore so we have to do them ourselves but we get a lot of money for them per client.

happy selling

[puffdade]

This is from a users perspective I have no ties to Prestashop what so ever and really just posting this for anyone new that is thinking Prestashop

You need a bit of sticky tape and a few band aids from time to time,  but 6 or so years down the line and a 1/4 of a million sales now and its still working,

Hell I have had some problems along the line and for a non programmer it threw up a few headaches but I got them resolved with the help of the guys on this forum and Google, I tried other cart software and failed miserably, in fact I'm using CS Cart at the moment for another business as it came highly recommended, however i'm so used to Presta now i'm actually considering changing back for that business as well, CS Cart just looks pants on the front end and for non programmer its very limited, after using CS for a year I have realised Presta is actually not that bad, if we all had millions in the bank as startups  it would be easy we could all employ full time programmers and have the best site since sliced bread however that just doesn't happen..

 

What my findings are over the years

Standard theme all day long,  all my problems seem to come from purchased themes, adapted and added to the standard theme to suit my requirements, im guessing most of my past issues have been modules designed around the default them didnt like the purchased theme. 

Buying new modules for specific tasks,  you are always pointed to Presta's own modules on the market place when there are better available sure you can search and find your own but you cannot read ALL of the reviews ( The reviews were selected by the developer of this product according to the satisfaction expressed by the customers)  this has cost me a few quid over the years, so the novice like me gets sucked in and wastes money, this is bad practice the end user should be able to see them all not a few selected good ones, 

Support for modules made by independent programmers seems to be far better than the ones pushed by Presta  this is my opinion  im not speaking for others  

To Summarise as a non programmer I haven't found anything as easy, it has its issues and to be fair not found cart software that doesn't but most are easy fixes and the answers easy to come by and the guys on this forum have been more than helpful over the years some have even gone out of there way and fixed the issue for me,  I think the review systems on marketplace needs to be changed to reflect the true feelings of the end user I know there is a star rating but reading the bad points is often more important that reading the good points

Its Free Its far from perfect but its more than workable

 

 

Paul 

Puff Dad E Vaping Supplies 

 

 

 

 

[Tribble]

On 5/19/2020 at 10:00 PM, biowebshop said:

I challenge anyone to show me one functioning Prestashop site with an out-of-the-box minimal configuration that is actually running and taking orders.  Bet ya can't.

Just sayin..

Ours is.

Startup on a bootstrap, couldn't afford to pay for a website, I invested the time in working it out myself, so far have paid zero for addons, and we have an excellent website on the default theme that launched to immediate success and is now 2.5yrs old. All the free modules I've got just work. Now looking into paying for some better stuff which I'm happy to do, we'd have spent like £560 on Shopify monthly fees to date so to drop £100 on addons seems more than reasonable. Just saying

[Tribble]

On 5/24/2020 at 10:18 AM, puffdade said:

Buying new modules for specific tasks,  you are always pointed to Presta's own modules on the market place when there are better available sure you can search and find your own but you cannot read ALL of the reviews ( The reviews were selected by the developer of this product according to the satisfaction expressed by the customers)  this has cost me a few quid over the years, so the novice like me gets sucked in and wastes money, this is bad practice the end user should be able to see them all not a few selected good one

 

-----------------------

 

Can't seem to nest my comment so:

 

Hey Paul, thanks for this. I'm about to look into paying for a Reviews module, not paid for anything before, are there any tips you can give regarding your experience on some bad spends? Any way to suss it out ? I agree, the reviews thing seems iffy, more transparency would be much better,.

 

 

 

Edited June 12, 2020 by Tribble (see edit history)

[El Patron]

39 minutes ago, Tribble said:

Hey Paul, thanks for this. I'm about to look into paying for a Reviews module, not paid for anything before, are there any tips you can give regarding your experience on some bad spends? Any way to suss it out ? I agree, the reviews thing seems iffy, more transparency would be much better,.

 

my advice is before purchase write the developer with question about their module and see how fast they respond.  

[Tribble]

50 minutes ago, El Patron said:

my advice is before purchase write the developer with question about their module and see how fast they respond.  

Thanks, good advice

[puffdade]

On 6/12/2020 at 1:09 PM, Tribble said:

Hey Paul, thanks for this. I'm about to look into paying for a Reviews module, not paid for anything before, are there any tips you can give regarding your experience on some bad spends? Any way to suss it out ? I agree, the reviews thing seems iffy, more transparency would be much better,.

I use the free  Yotpo reviews  it works ok  i have plenty of reviews but never really rely on it  i'm quite old school and like to think our superb  customer service and speed of delivery is key to returning customers, my only gripe is the constant contact from the company to subscribe to the paid version which is ridiculously expensive

Some other good mods I have used are 

Change the default combination when it goes to zero v1.0.2 - by SFWEB  I love this mod  it saves me bundles of time and eliminates those  products that sell out being greyed out as it drops in the next available product variation from the category colour size with available quantities etc,  10/10  for me

Custom popup notification v2.3.0 - by PrestaCraft  Customize and display a responsive popup window for chosen page(s).  this one is free from this forum I have found this extremely useful and very easy to use and during this Covid period it has helped me keep in touch with my customers and keep them informed of changes.

UK Counties Pack v1.0.3 - by Teapot Creative  Adds and sets UK postal zones and counties, another brilliant add on  simple yet effective  adds uk counties regions to shipping so i can have different charges for different parts of the UK  like Scottish Highlands  islands and isle of Man  extremely important for a UK mail order company  I installed this 3 years ago and have never had to touch it

Revolution slider  absolutely banging right out of the box if you are artistic and like to play with images and banners  this is about as good as it gets,  my design skills are limited  but i made a few nice banners, cheap too for what it does

Mods that I have not liked and have failed to get to work

Presta Worldpay module installed by themselves  although a few years back just didn't work  found a workaround though  so all is good

My easy Erp  Firstly my experience with ERP  is limited I needed some software that helped me in control of my stock  I needed to know what was sold from my large catalogue and be notified of what I should be purchasing based on sales and stock in hand  and i thought thats what its supposed to do it was a hell of a lot of money i tried it 2 or 3 times  had help from the team and it just point blank didnt want to work for me,  and the comments i got were do you understand ERP  well I don't and never will understand with that module as all the help and videos are in French,  Modules of this value need to have a full blown manual in all languages modules are supposed to aid in the operation of a shopping cart and not cause frustration and errors,  maybe its all working as it should now  maybe even working right from day one  but not understanding French killed it off for me  

I could go on all day really I think some of my failings are my lack of understanding I also think that a lot are due to programmers thinking they are talking to programmers when most end users are exactly that end users  that just want to install and go

 

Hope that helps Tribble

Edited June 15, 2020 by puffdade
wasnt finished (see edit history)