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Feature Comparisons

The difficulty in comparing features is that there are many ways to "support" or "define" any given feature, and it is easy to get into a war between different or best way to support a feature. What seems intuitive to one person is totally foreign to another. The main target audiences for this comparison are the users of the SonicWebTech program which includes: Web Designers, Developers, and Do-It-Yourself Merchants. We have a range of consultation, installation and support packages if you need help, or just want a expert to get it done right the first time.

We readily confess that the following comparison chart is biased and reflects one view of these features. We have spent over 30 hours reviewing each of the shopping carts, feature by feature. Each feature was tested to at least a basic degree.

The Rating Criteria

The Score: Each feature will be given a score from 1 to 5. The exact basis on this score for each feature will be outlined below the table for each category, Generally the score will reflect the degree of support, or "ease of use" for that feature. If we had to spend a lot of time searching or wondering how it worked then that would downgrade that score even though it "appears" that the feature is supported. SonicWebTech is a strong supporter of Web Standards so that influences our ratings especially in the SEO and customization features.

Important Caution: Keep in mind that each cart may impliment a given feature differently, and it may not be in the way you might expect, therefore assume nothing. These charts and reviews are ONLY a guide to help you compare general features. It is expected that you need to do your own due diligence and check those features that you require and confirm their suitability to your needs.

  Presta OpenC ZenC OsCom Chromium
Easy Install Module 5 5 3 3 5
SEO and W3C Compliance 5 5 5 0(19) 5
Ease of Customization - Admin 4 4 3 3 4
Ease of Customization - CSS 5 4 3 2 5
Multiple Gateway Support 1 3 5 5 3
Active Community 5 5 5 5 5
Pricing Options 4 3 4 3 3
Discount Options 4 4 4 3 3
Maintenance Features 5 3 1 2 3
Specials and Featured Products 4 0 5 3 4
Search Options 1 4 2 4 4
CMS - Static Page Builder 3 3 4 0 3
Shipping Options (See Chart) 5 3 5 3 3
Product Reviews 4 4 5 5 4
Inventory Management Features 5 3 5 4 3
Multiple Language Support 4 4 4 4 4
Multiple Currency Support (count) 3 2 3 3 2
Customer Survey, Satisfaction, Testimonal 4 1 4 4 1

 

Easy Install Module

All of the reviewed shopping carts have an install module that does the vast majority of the configuration work for you. The rating score reflects whether you end up with a usable shopping cart at that point (what is called "out of the box") or whether you will find yourself doing some or a LOT more configuration work after the install. This may not be a bad thing if your are a programmer, having it installed for you, or have a dedicated server of which you have complete control. The rating makes an effort to reflect the point of view of a non-techie merchant.

SEO and W3C Compliance

There can be little serious SEO without W3C compliance as a foundation. To get a (5) on this feature the "out of the box" website must pass the W3C validator with NO errors. Two or three minor errors would rate a (3) or (4) and more than that could rate as low as (0).

Ease of Customization - Admin

All of the shopping carts can customize certain parts of the cart by both using various settings in the Admin module or by altering the CSS style sheet. Generally at the Admin level this involves turning sections off/on and changing the order, titles and placement of sections. Some of the carts allow for the creation of "Themes" that may be CSS based, this is covered in the next feature category. Therefore this section only covers changes that do not involve CSS coding. This score reflects how "non-technical" you can be and still customize your shopping cart. A score of (5), here, is very unlikely, low scores reflect either missing features or overly complex implementations of that feature.

Ease of Customization - CSS

(Warning: This feature will require HTML/CSS knowledge) The most common way to give your cart a complete "facelift" is by using cascading style sheets (CSS). Some carts call these "themes" (which may include other components besides just the style sheet). The highest scores will go to those carts that use W3C standards in their layouts with CSS oriented layouts. The lowest scores will go to table based layouts with poor support for W3C standards. Complexity of implementing the customization also plays a factor. Click the feature title for a more detailed explanation of the ratings.

Multiple Payment Gateway Support

Though the minimal Payment Gateway support is PayPal Website Payment Standard (WPS) in this category, if that is the only supported gateway, that would rate only a (1) . Those carts that have a good set of "in the box" configurations (4 or more) would rate at least a (4). Those that also have third party modules might also add one to their base rating. Comparison details here.

Active Community

Basically a shopping cart would not be reviewed here unless it had a (5). In the open source world, the viability and foundation of a project is determine by the community. If you don't see a LOT of posting on their forums, seriously reconsider that project.

Pricing Options

Pricing is in the eye of the beholder. Basically there are more ways to configure pricing that you might imagine. Hopefully this chart will help highlight the features that might be important for the business in question.

Warning: Each cart may impliment a given feature differently, and it may not be in the way you might expect. These charts are only a guide to help you compare general features.

  Presta OpenC ZenC OsCom Chromium
Quantity Pricing     X   X
Group Pricing     X    
Special Pricing     X   X
In/Out of Stock X X X X X
Min/Max Order     X   X
Call for Price     X    
Taxable flag X X X X X
Available flag X X   X X

To much complexity or hard to understand options would get downgraded by a point. Remember you may need that complexity so keep this in mind. For you needs a (3) might be better than a (4). This category can give one a headache.

Discount Options

Like pricing this was all over the map. Each cart had a slightly different way to configure this option. Also like pricing if it took to much work to figure it out, the rating dropped quickly. All of the carts had what appears to be decent coverage of the basics needed for most products. Coupons are also supported in some form in each cart. (May be called vouchers in some).

Warning: Each cart may impliment a given feature differently, and it may not be in the way you might expect. These charts are only a guide to help you compare general features.

  Presta OpenC ZenC OsCom Chromium
Quantity Discounts - Value X X X   X
Quantity Discounts - Percent X   X    
Discount expiry   X   X  
Special Pricing     X X X
Coupon/Vouchers X X X X X

 

Maintenance Features

Maintenance involves a number of possibilities: backup, maintenance or "down for service" pages, reports, and statistics. Listed are some of the features that would be very useful. None of the carts support all of these features "out-of-the-box" but many have add-ons and extensions that cover much of these features (Only the "out-of-the-box" is rated)

Warning: Each cart may impliment a given feature differently, and it may not be in the way you might expect. These charts are only a guide to help you compare general features.

  Presta OpenC ZenC OsCom Chromium
Visits and Visitors - Stats X        
Visitors Online X   X X X
Customer Accounts X X X X X
Registered Customer Info X X X X X
Customer Statistics X   X    
Products Viewed   X X X X
Products Purchased   X X X X
Visitors Origin X        
Pages Not Found X        
SEO Key Words - Per Page X   X   X
System Backup X X X X X

 

The most critical is the ability to backup your shopping cart. Next would be the ability to monitor your business, especially SEO type information, as that will give you feedback on how your marketing efforts are doing. Rating will be based on supporting most of these features, with backup and SEO reporting features given the greatest weight (i.e. missing and the rating drops rapidly toward (0))

Specials and Featured Products

Not all cart support these two features and there is a wide variety of ways to implement when it is available. Most have at least one if there is a rating greater than (0). From there the rating increases as the options increase. Zen Cart went so far as to have a Pricing Manager as well as a Featured listing and Specials. Basically it covered a lot of ground in this area. PrestaShop came next in how well it covered this feature.

Search Options

All of the carts provided basic search on the product catalog (minimum rating of (1)). Several of the carts provide advance search options: categories, manufacturers, price and date added. How many of these options determined the rating above (1).

CMS - Static Page Builder

A few of the carts provided some level of "Content Management" (CMS) features. This allows the creation of static pages that become part of the shopping cart system. These pages can be detailed product information, delivery options, terms and services notices, etc. The ratings ranged from (0) where there are not CMS functions and up depending on the features provided.

Shipping Options

The possibilities for shipping can fill a book. That said most of the carts have some of the following feature components. Since a chart says it best here is the breakout as best we could find.

Warning: Each cart may impliment a given feature differently, and it may not be in the way you might expect. These charts are only a guide to help you compare general features.

  Presta OpenC ZenC OsCom Chromium
General Handling Charges X        
Flat Rate   X X X X
Per Item X X X X X
Free Shipping Range Options X X X    
Carrier Options X   X X X
States, Countries & Zones Rates X   X X X
Price Range Options X   X X  
Weight Range Options X X X X  
Store Pickup X   X    
Packaging Options X   X    
Feature Rating 5 3 5 3 3

 

Product Reviews

This seems to be a standard feature that is well supported by all reviewed carts. Both Zen Cart and OSCommerce have a bit more extensive information requirements that may keep spammers from entertaining themselves at your shopping carts expense. Besides that, they all have good support for this feature.

Inventory Management

Inventory management can be as basic as a manual quanity that the system decrements for you as products are purchased, or as fancy as email alerts, controling orders on out of stock items..etc..

Warning: Each cart may impliment a given feature differently, and it may not be in the way you might expect. These charts are only a guide to help you compare general features.

  Presta OpenC ZenC OsCom Chromium
Basic Quantity field X X X X X
Out of Stock Notice to Customer X X X   X
Out of Stock - No Display     X X  
Out of Stock Alerts X        
Out of Stock - Deny Orders X X X X X
Inventory Report X   X X  
Additional Modules - free X   X X X
Addition Modules - $$$ $ $      
           
Feature Rating 5 3 5 4 3

Customer Survey, Satisfaction, Testimonal

A powerful marketing techniques is to keep track of what your customers are happy about and then use that information to direct your product or service selection or to market that satisfaction to perspective customers. The single large "X" indicate that it is part of the default install, the small "(x)" indicates it is an addon module. Addon modules may or may not cost extra. A $ is added if that is known at the time of this review.

  Presta OpenC ZenC OsCom Chromium
Testimonials     X X  
Wishlist X   X X  
Product Reviews/Rating X X X X X
Satisfaction Survey       X  
Polls (x)   X    
Loyalty Programs X        
Purchase Survey          
           
           
           
Feature Rating 4 1 4 4 1