However, we know that in this difficult economic climate there are many who are thinking about starting a Online Ecommerce Business, but are perhaps deterred by the cost and commitment required. That’s why we’ve decided to lower the entry bar for Start-Up businesses.

Having just upgraded web space and bandwidth on both our single-site Starter and Business hosting packages we have also now instituted a system of quarterly payments. Previously, for these two packages, there was only an annual payment option. You can now get your eCommerce site online for just £11.99 (plus vat) per quarter.

You still get a free domain (all common domain types – see our site for full details), and a free install of an eCommerce shopping cart website (Zen Cart, Magento, Prestashop, osCommerce).

For those that want a Full SSL Certificate, rather than use our Shared SSL Certificate, we’ve also lowered the cost of purchasing Full SSL for your website.

It doesn’t get easier than this to get your dream business online!

Read below for comparison or if you have have experience with either cart, leave a comment about the good and bad bits.

Magento

Magento (community edition) is a free open source shopping cart started by Varien in 2007. Magento impresses with its extensive feature list. Most functions which need to be added on with other carts come as standard. It’s ideally suited for companies who need a professional online shop presence.

• highly flexible coupon and pricing functions
• comprehensive filter functionality (filter products by)
• multi-store as standard
• ability to create and edit orders in admin
• large number of high quality modules via Magento Connect
• no need to hack core code
• impressive template system

Magento sometimes gets a bad press for being too complex and server resource-intensive. Both are fair comments, but should not put you off considering Magento. With the right developers on board and a high-end hosting environment, Magento can provide extensive functionality at open source level.

Zen Cart

Zen Cart is an open source project started in 2003, based originally on osCommerce. Zen Cart impresses with its realiability, solid feature list and ease of use, making it ideal for shop owners who intend to handle development themselves.

• highly reliable
• includes all standard features to sell online
• easy to understand templating and PHP structure
• suitable for coders beginning with PHP
• light footprint making it very accessible for shared hosting environments
• friendly forum
• active development team

That Zen Cart has been around since 2003 however shows in its PHP coding structure. However this downside is exactly what makes it accessible to beginners in PHP and makes it an ideal first cart for new coders.

ReadyCart

ReadyCart is based on osCommerce and available under licence from TerraNetwork. It was developed in-house to address the needs of businesses for a reliable cart with commercial support. ReadyCart is now discontinued as we have decided to focus on Magento and Zen Cart development instead.

Why only these three carts?

We’re not attempting to compare all carts – that would simply be impractical. Other carts exist and have their own merits. For example there’s PrestaShop, developed in France and well worth a look. Or for a simpler shop, maybe WordPress with a plug-in would suit.

Cart Comparison tables

Essentials

Both Magento and Zen Cart run on the LAMP environment (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP). Zen Cart is quick to install and is kind to shared hosting environments. Magento is more demanding and requires a high-end hosting enviroment. Zen Cart is usually quick to learn by simply “going in and playing around” whereas for Magento a guide or read on the wiki will help you to get your bearings.

	Magento	Zen Cart	ReadyCart
Requirements	PHP5.2 MySQL4.1.20+, InnoDB, cURL	PHP4.0+ MySQL4.1.14+	PHP4.0+ MySQL4.1.14+
Open Source?
Unlimited products?
Fee?	none	none	£295 +VAT
SSL support	full SSL	full or shared SSL	full or shared SSL
Knowledge level for coding?	advanced	intermediate	intermediate
Ease of use?	intermediate	easy	easy

Site Management

Magento has multi-shop as standard, a feature very rarely seen with other carts and a comprehensive templating system. WYSIWYG editor is missing but easily added. Zen Cart is a reliable cart with all features necessary to sell online.

	Magento	Zen Cart	ReadyCart
Multi-store
Multi-Lingual			add-on
Support for Multiple Currencies
Tax Rate support
iPhone optimised
Template system		limited
WYSIWYG?	add-on
Page content management		limited	limited
Email template management
Administration Permission System Roles and Users		add-on	add-on
One-click installs of modules

Catalog Management

Magento impresses with the product filters whilst Zen Cart makes it easy for new shops to get started quickly.

	Magento	Zen Cart	ReadyCart
Batch Import and Export of catalog		add-on	add-on
Google Base Integration		add-on	add-on
Downloadable/Digital Products
Layered / Faceted Navigation for filtering of products		limited
Product comparisons
Product reviews

Product Management

Bundled products and stock control for attributes stand out with Magento. Zen Cart however has some good features if you want customers to call for price or only use it as brochure-type site.

	Magento	Zen Cart	ReadyCart
Multiple Images Per Product
Reports		limited
Bundled products (show several products on one page)
Up-sells in Shopping Cart
Stock Control		limited	limited
Products can be marked as free or Call for Price	add-on		add-on
Min or max quantities and units	add-on		add-on

Marketing, Sales and SEO

Probably the most important section for online shops these days. Magento has created an comprehensive discount functionality making it very easy to run campaigns. Gift Certificates however are not included in Magento, but they are with Zen Cart.

	Magento	Zen Cart	ReadyCart
Google Site Map		add-on	add-on
URL Rewrites		add-on	add-on
Meta-information for products and categories			automated
Discount Coupons		limited	limited
Catalog Promotional Pricing
Multi-tier pricing			add-on
Customer groups each with its own pricing structure		add-on	add-on
Wishlist
Newsletter
Gift Certificates

Checkout

Getting the checkout right is crucial for sales conversions. Magento recognises this by offering one-page checkout and the ability to buy without having to open an account (guest checkout). It also comes with Google checkout and PayPal as standard. Zen Cart on the the other hand offers a solid standard checkout.

	Magento	Zen Cart	ReadyCart
Delivery / Billling address
One-Page Checkout		add-on	add-on
Checkout without account/Guest Checkout		add-on	add-on
Shipping to multiple addresses in one order
Integrated with Google Checkout (Level 2)		add-on	add-on

Order Management

Creating orders in admin is often required e.g. for orders taken by phone and Magento offers this as standard. Zen Cart does make order management simpler though by allowing you to create your own order statuses.

	Magento	Zen Cart	ReadyCart
Manage orders from admin
create, edit orders from admin panel.		add-on	add-on
Create one or multiple invoices, shipments and credit memos per order to allow for split fulfillment
Order statuses	preset only

Comments welcome!

Have you used Magento or ZenCart? If yes, what are your experiences? Let us know by sending a comment below!