is Prestashop best open-source ecommerce? Or is something else superior?

[nero_77]

your answers will be of interest... what are your experiences?

I have heard horror stories about Actinic and you have to pay for that! Magento seems to get a bad review too.

I would not even touch osCommerce

Prestashop seems excellent if the program does what you need out of the box but if you need special requirements then it's not so great.

Still, I hold Prestashop in 1st place for open source CMS at present.

[nero_77]

anyone any thoughts?

[rocky]

PrestaShop recently won the award for the best open-source eCommerce software, so I think it is the best. See the "Open Source E-Commerce Applications" section here. OpenCart was second and TomatoCart was third.

[Scotty501]

I love Prestashop and would say it has the basis to be the best OS Project for E-Commerce out there by some distant - however, the lack of support is a concern for me.

If it was not for the extremely helpful moderators, the majority of the problems would remain unsolved. I have had to shelve a couple of projects due to no answers on problems, and if I browse the forums it seems to be a growing trend in recent months - including the bug tracker.

I do accept I have a lack of knowledge compared to many on here, but I have seen similar topics, and new topics completely ignored and if you have an online business the potential for down time is too great.

The team asked for our votes during the recent awards process, but we want the support in return.

Just my 2 cents.

[nero_77]

I have had to shelve a couple of projects due to no answers on problems

That must be very disappointing, I have had some tough requirements too from customers but fortunately managed to come through with them somehow

[Scotty501]

Indeed it was - real shame as it seems to be only recently the forums have lost their way. When I first used PS a while back it was a great resource to come in here.

[mytheory.]

Yea I would have to agree with most people on here, although slightly biased. Prestashop has been a great shopping cart for us, and I have used them on a couple of shops and its always my top recommendation to others. It's understandable that the program is growing and with 1.4 in its development stages its def. headed in the right direction. To shy away from the norm and to implement some other features that aren't included in default package takes a little bit of time... the program is def. capable of being used out of the box with great results, but you also have to flexibility to incorporate other features if you don't mind messing with some code.

However, I do have to agree with Scotty501 for the most part in terms of support from the PS team... if it wasn't for the moderators, specifically rocky, and other developers I wouldn't see much of a future for this program. But from my experience there has been a good amount of support from this community that has helped enormously. Sometimes its just worrisome to think what would happen if certain members of the community decided to nolonger support PS.... alot of us would be in a lot of trouble.

Anyways, 1.4 seems like its going to be a revolutionary update with some of the much needed features to stay ahead of the game... looking and waiting to upgrade. I, as well as, others are hoping this upgrade process won't be hell like some of the other versions. And yes the upgrade process needs a huge (and I mean huge) improvement!! (my only "real" complaint)

Overall, PS has been great and ahead of alot of the other (free) carts I've researched, and I will continue to use as long as great supporters like the Mods are still around. Would def. recommend!

[nero_77]

OpenCart was second and TomatoCart was third.

Just been having a look at opencart. In many ways it seems very similar to prestashop. I think I may give it a try for a project.

Feature's of open cart that are lacking in prestashop:-

"OpenCart has a guest checkout feature so that customers don't have to sign up for an account and can simply just enter the minimum amount of details required to process their order"

Seems to have some good payment gateways included:- Sagepay is included as standard

Modules - have only looked briefly but it appears the modules on offer for sale are MUCH more realistically priced than thos on prestashop add-ons..

I am trying to be totally unbiased and just thought a few comparisons would be interesting. At present, I have used Prestashop exclusively for all ecommerce projects.

[Floobynooby]

There is no perfect piece of software out there that does everything. But of what is available I think Prestashop would be pretty hard to beat for the average user. Magento is very complex and has a very steep learning curve and the others in my opinion aren't as good as Prestashop which out of the box without any add-ons can have you up and running in a very short space of time.

[ZenGraph]

Tomatocart is the Future of ecommerce !

I like prestashop .. but it seems that there is too many upgrades with bugs.. and the forum as well as bugtracker are having a lack of seriousness, not mention the communication of the presta team... just go to look at "sandrine.prestashop.com" topic to get a point of view.

too many topics without answers... and too many bugs not corrected BEFORE lunching the relases !

Crossed finguers for the future of prestashop ^^ but already looking through the window for tomatocart wich is totaly bluffing.