Shopping Cart comparison: pros and cons of the most popular shopping cart. See advantages and disadvantages and choose the most suitable shopping cart for you. Use Cart2Cart to migrate you store to the shopping cart of your dream. Cart2Cart is an online shopping cart migration service which helps you move data from your current shopping cart to a desirable one automatically.

1. Shopping Cart Types
Main features,
advantages and disadvantages
Prepared by Cart2Cart Team
November, 2012
http://www.shopping-cart-migration.com/

2. Plan
1. Shopping Cart Types
● Open Source Shopping Carts
● Hosted Shopping Carts
● CMS + eCommerce Plug-in
2. Shopping Cart Pros and Cons
3. Cart2Cart Migration Service

3. Shopping Cart Types

4. Shopping Cart Types
Shopping cart is software used in e-commerce to
assist people making purchases online.
Shopping Cart Types:
1. Open Source
○ Free
○ Paid
2. Hosted
3. CMS + eCommerce Plugin

5. Open Source Shopping Carts
1. Full access to source code
+ Customizable and flexible
- Difficult to manage without programming skills
2. Free
+ Low or even zero costs
+ Big variety of extensions, modules, templates
- Support is often available for extra money
- Known for issues with upgrades, bugs and data security
3. Paid
+ Support charges are already included
+ High data security
- Paid solutions may cost up to several thousands of US dollars
- Lack of extensions

6. Hosted Shopping Carts
Turnkey solution
+ No hosting and installation issues
+ Easy to use
+ Flexible design opportunities
+ Simple upgrade process, high stability
+ High data security
+ Professional Support
- Paid
- Less customizable
- Small number of extensions (most of them are paid)

7. CMS + eCommerce Plugin
Content Management System (CMS) is the application that
allows to manage, add and modify the website content.
+ Open Source
+ eCommerce plugin inherits all the
advantages of CMS (integration with
templates, SEO, admin panel,
integration with other extensions)
- Lack of top end features (multi-
store, separate admin zone for
vendors, affiliate programs, Social
Media Marketing tools, etc.)

8. Shopping Cart Pros and Cons
- Founded in 2008 by Varien (USA)
- Powers over 125 000 stores
- Open source (free and paid editions)
- Recently released own hosted solution Magento GO
Advantages Disadvantages
● Flexible and customizable ● Difficult to use (even for
● Fully loaded with features programmers)
(product management,
inventory, marketing,SEO,etc) ● Resource consuming (slow)
● Multiple storefronts, ● Buggy, full of errors
languages, currencies, taxes
● Numerous payment and ● Official support and some
shipment options features are available only
● Big community, huge number with paid editions
of extensions

9. Shopping Cart Pros and Cons
● Initial release 2007 (France)
● Downloaded more than 2 000 000 times
● Powers 125 000 Internet shops
● Open source (totally free)
Advantages Disadvantages
● Has all the same features as ● Not stable after major
Magento but much easier to upgrades, buggy
use
● Less resource consuming ● Some important extensions
and faster than Magento available only for additional
● Large number of extensions, costs (social media,
modules and addons mCommerce)
● Support available

10. Shopping Cart Pros and Cons
● Launched in 2001 (Russia)
● 25 000 online stores are using X-Cart
● Open source solution, offers both hosted and self-hosted
solutions (unlimited trial period)
Advantages Disadvantages
● Customizable (PHP and ● Advanced features available
WYSIWYG) with highly priced plans
● Fits any type of business (MailChimp, Google
● Security, shipment, payment Analytics, SMM)
● CMS capabilities ● Lack of top end features
● Almost no bugs, new editions (multi-store, multi-vendor,
are stable etc.)
● Requires some technical
expertize to set up

11. Shopping Cart Pros and Cons
● Started in 2004 (Russia)
● 30 000 users
● 30 days free trial
● Open source (only paid)
Advantages Disadvantages
● Fast due to use of AJAX technology
● Mobile commerce ● Lack of extensions
● Multi-Vendor Store
● Multiple storefronts ● No SMM options
● Block management
● Support main payment and shipment ● Closed Community
gateways Edition
● Reasonably priced, support and data
security

12. Shopping Cart Pros and Cons
● First released in 1999 (Germany)
● Joomla native
● Open source (free)
Advantages Disadvantages
● All the benefits of Joomla ● Lack of advanced
(advanced CMS, user-friendly, eCommerce features
SEO, etc.)
● Customizable ● No support
● Great localization options
● Feature-rich ● May not meet all the
● Big number of extensions demands of middle-large
● Payment/Shipment scale business
● Coupons and discounts

13. Shopping Cart Pros and Cons
● Founded in 1999 (USA)
● Powers 40 000 stores
● Hosted paid solution (14 days free trial)
Advantages Disadvantages
● Easy to use, intuitive ● Has less customization
● Feature rich (cross-sells, options than OS
discounts, SEO, etc.)
● eBay and Facebook integration ● No user-friendly template
● Free templates (120) editor (only HTML and CSS)
● Security and support
● Reasonable pricing ● Small number of extensions
● No extra fees

14. Shopping Cart Pros and Cons
● Date of inception 2005
● More than 30 000 stores
● Hosted paid solution 30 days free trial
Advantages Disadvantages
● 100+ free templates ● 1-2% extra fee for each
● Themes can be customized via transaction
user-friendly editor and
CSS/HTML files ● Lack of free extensions
● Feature rich
● CMS capabilities ● Less customizable than OS
● Mobile commerce
● Security and support

15. Shopping Cart Pros and Cons
● Started in 2009 (USA)
● Serves 25 000 shops in 65 countries
● Hosted paid solution (15 days free trial)
Advantages Disadvantages
● Intuitive and user-friendly ● Pricing
● One of the most feature-rich
hosted carts (SEO, marketing, ● Some advanced features are
product management, SMM, absent
mobile commerce, design, save
abandoned carts, etc.) ● Less customizable
● Security, support, extensions
● Stable, no bugs
● Built-in business analytics +
integration with Google Analytics

16. Cart2Cart Migration Service
● Automated shopping cart migration service
● Launched in 2009 (Ukraine)
● More than 11 000 of successful migrations
● http://www.shopping-cart-migration.com
Advantages Disadvantages
● User-friendly (no software to ● Do not migrate website
download, no programming skills) design
● Allows products, orders and clients
data transfer from and to 40+ ● Do not migrate customer
shopping carts testemonials, news and other
● Sell even during the migration site content
● Numerous additional options
● Reasonable pricing
● Free Demo Migration
● Total data security and free
support

17. Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_shopping_cart_software
http://www.shopping-cart-migration.com/
http://www.shopping-cart-migration.com/useful-articles/49-volusion/5365-
volusion-or-big-commerce-whats-the-right-way-to-success-
http://zippycart.com/
http://shopping-cart-review.toptenreviews.com/
http://andrewbleakley.com/blog/
http://www.ecommerce-platforms.com/
http://www.shopping-cart-migration.com/useful-articles/43-prestashop/5361-
battle-of-the-year-prestashop-vs-magento