E-Commerce is still an expanding industry with high growth rates. What is needed today fits into a software designed for this sector, including support. These possibilities, often designed in a modular principle, are available starting with free of charge through open source to the high-quality offers for larger shops and for all professional hosting requirements. In order to have an overview, you have to take a closer look at some offers. The most common e-commerce systems are listed below with their characteristics, advantages and disadvantages. Here you will find the right solution for you.
First of all, however, it should be said that open source offers should not give the impression that there are no investment costs to list your goods or services with a hosting provider. In order to set up a good shop on the Internet and to anchor necessities such as payment methods, discounts, presentation of products and individual specifications, a few working hours go into the country and also a few thousand Euros from the business till, even if one should stick with a free basic version. It's surprising that there is such a variety of shop system providers with this similar starting position. They are going quite quickly and fundamentally different ways in building and aligning their software hosting offers. Mostly they also have a certain target group in mind.
Shopware
The basic version Shopware 5 Communitiy has a responsive basic template and other features. But especially with Shopware it becomes clear how quickly the limits of an open source solution are reached: So-called subshops are possible and can be integrated, but not unconditionally: The user must already know a little bit about programming to make everything work properly. Additional costs must also be invested. Unfortunately, even 1,500 expansion options are no help. To get into the professional area with Shopware, additional hosting packages of the Shopware Professional Version cost from 1,600 to 6,000 Euros. But you don't get much more than the Shopware basic version. Of course, there is now an import/export function, but Shopware does not really give you the momentum you need to make money.
Magento
The basic version of the Magento system is on a par with shopware, because it also has default responsive design support. Also the extensions (14.000), modules and extensions) can be compared to Shopware. Setup in cross-national hosting integration, multilingualism or varying tax rates - all this is no problem for this system. And all this only with the free basic version. However, in order to be able to play in the high end area, you also have to use a paid Enterprise Edition with Magento. However, at a cost of around 13,500 euros per year, this is considerably less than the Enterprise Edition from Shopware. The Shopware product comes up to the 20.000 Euro limit per year. Magento has a small performance advantage in all versions, especially in multilingualism. Magento is from eBay and offers the possibility to synchronize all shop items directly with eBay and Amazon with a paid turnover-dependent plugin.
Presta Shop
He who can, can - even in small. This is how you could outline the hosting Presta Shop offer. This provider relies on small sellers who initially do well with a slimmed-down solution. All necessary basic functions are however included in the basic offer. Tidy backends make Prestashop a beginner's object for beginners in online sales and online shop Management. Templates and communities are much richer on other hosting platforms. In addition, many community forums operate mostly in the French language. Those who cannot speak French are not able to use the community support.
Oxide eSales
Here it is quite professional and pleasantly intuitive. The range of functions is wider again and the setup and handling is pleasantly uncomplicated. Some users are worried at first that they might lose track of their shop design in the end. Oxid eSales' pleasantly tidy layout front end protects against this.
As for example in the case of Magento, one can also add air upwards for a fee if needed: The basic module can be extended depending on the requirements, the scope of the service offers and payment options. One is already in the professional hosting area.
Unfortunately, there are also a few disadvantages:
- Backend too complex
- insufficient clarity
- too few templates compared to other top providers
However, if you, as a medium-sized business owner, know what you need, you can find a good compromise between sham and highly professional e-commerce hosting systems.
VirtueMart
This hosting shop system is a treat for all fans of the platform Joomla. It works in the Joomla environment like an internal add-on module. This is then all very easy, flexible and individual by the hand: Whether design, management and maintenance - who loves Joomla, which will welcome VirtueMart like an old friend. However, there are no SEO URLs and the whole thing only runs with Joomla 1.5x. So if you want to work with search engine optimization (don't you have to do that in any case with your online shop?), you'll cut a rather poor figure here.
osCommerce
This old warhorse in the field of shop hosting has already 10 years on the hump, he is lovingly called by some as a well-known and innovative dinosaur.
The advantage is a lot of experience in development, especially in the German-speaking countries. Therefore, constant further developments are the normal state of this system. But version no. 3 is already on the starting line.
Good functionality and a high degree of user-friendliness in the front-end and back-end make the offer a rock-solid alternative. Many beginners underestimate the positive dimension of a strong and active community: Here you can network intensively in German and English, exchange ideas and often find the solution for a specific problem. This is where 10 years of product loyalty and identification simply have a very positive effect.
Nevertheless, there is an additional "Knowledge Base" in German language, which offers help for questions and problems.
All this and the cost-effective use are plus points.
However, the disadvantages are perceived to be:
- Functional range too small after all
- missing templates
- necessary layout adjustments
- therefore much too high programming effort
xtcModified
This hosting shop system has evolved from the xt:commerce webshop software (our next and last example).
Here it is really free of charge. That means there are no fees for licensing and setup. Of course, the brave programmers are still happy about donations.
This brings us to the benefits:
- many free templates
- many additional modules
- easy customization
- therefore absolutely beginner-friendly
Of course, one has to lag behind the professional offers in terms of the scope of functions and the possible integration into existing software. Unfortunately, even for medium-sized companies this is usually not enough.
However, this system is often sufficient for individual or small entrepreneurs, start-ups and start-ups and effectively helps to keep the initial investment costs as low as possible. However, those who grow beyond this definitely need more and must invest in professional services.
Xt:Commerce
Here we come to our last shop hosting system: It is the big and paid sister of the last presented variant xtc Modified. First the user of this system has to make a donation of about 100 Euro. With this the shop operator acquires the basic access for a period of 12 months. This does not sound so attractive at first.
However, as a result, it is clear that this money is a useful investment in customer service, quality and support. But Xt:Commerce scores even more:
Pleasant are many pre-structured functions that are easy to handle. The high number of add-ons is also positive.
Here it is the backend that ultimately causes frowning: it is still too cumbersome. If you want to change your layouts here, you can't avoid complex programming. A pity, actually.
A small conclusion
As announced at the beginning: The offered systems all have their certain advantages and disadvantages, especially in the open source area. Those who are already in the Big Business he should immediately choose a variant that can be upgraded to a high-end level. For smaller companies, individual and personal preferences are sometimes the deciding factor for one system or another. If you want to test this, you should make your first experiences with an open source solution.
