Zen Cart or OSCommerce

**Hylo** · 12-08-2005, 06:29 AM

In the past I've built e-commerce stores for clients from scratch myself but I really don't want to have to keep developing plug-ins and contributions for every little addition I want for my own planned stores so I decided to go with OSCommerce because of the great amount of user support and Contributions available. That was until I seen Zen Cart and how much more you get "straight out of the box" with it and especially it's template system.

Has anyone any reasons why one would be better than the other or is it better to stick with the more recognised OScommerce release than the less widely used offshoot Zen Cart?

**MarkB** · 12-08-2005, 07:35 AM

I've used both for clients - both are pains to customise, but osCommerce has a larger user community (naturally). I won't be using Zen Cart again.

**Hylo** · 12-08-2005, 09:00 AM

Originally Posted by MarkB

I won't be using Zen Cart again.

Any particular reason or just too much hassle useability(sp?) wise overall?

**Chris** · 12-08-2005, 10:06 AM

Have you seen this:

http://creloaded.com/

Its OSC but optimized with many popular contributions pre-installed.

**MarkB** · 12-08-2005, 10:17 AM

Hylo: mainly because it was no easier to customise than OsC (both clients required substantial customisation), and OsC has a lot more contributions available for it that you don't need to play with to get working with ZC

**Hylo** · 12-08-2005, 11:41 AM

Chris: I actually seen creloaded in a comparison review with Zen on some random site earlier and it seemed to come off quite well with some great added features. Maybe worth a closer look.

Mark: It was the amount and variety of Contributions available for OSC that had got me interested in it in the first place but from the Zen site it looked like it was easier to template and customise. If, as you say, they are as bad as each other then maybe I should let the contributions aspect of OSC swing it. Decisions, decisions!

**MarkB** · 12-08-2005, 11:47 AM

It comes down to personal choice in the end

I saw nothing that showed Zen being easier to template, but then I know my way around OsC a lot better having worked with it more.

**Chris** · 12-08-2005, 01:26 PM

there is also a templating contribution for OSC that supposedly makes it much easier to template.

**MarkB** · 12-08-2005, 01:28 PM

I wonder if it's the one OscMax uses (which is the distribution I tend to use).

I don't think I'll be happy until I have my own version stripped down completely, which I can then style however I want.

**agua** · 12-08-2005, 05:55 PM

I had a Zen cart skinned and working within one day (no longer online) - although if I remember - I felt I was limited in what I could acheive design wise. The forum is helpful and most of the useful contributions you would want from OSC have been ported across to Zen.

OScommerce took a little longer to get to grips with. I used quite a few contributions (you can find one for virtually anything you want to do) - the template system I used was STS - heres the url of the site:

mbjewellery.com/jewellery/index.php

I found the OSC fourms an absolute nightmare to use - the search facility is useless and a lot of replies to my posts basically said use the search facility

- the information is all there - but very hard to find.

I was warned that using too many contributions to the core structure of OSC could hinder any future upgrades - not sure if this applies to zen - but could be a problem.

Bear in mind that these assements are coming from a certified php dummy - I'd say there is no difference between the 2 other than OSC has more contributions and zen has a better forum.

**MaxS** · 03-04-2006, 09:16 PM

Originally Posted by Chris

Have you seen this:

http://creloaded.com/

Its OSC but optimized with many popular contributions pre-installed.

Yes, definitely check out creloaded. I installed it the other day to take a look, it's a pretty decent improvement. Although, I'd go with CubeCart than creloaded.

**Excite** · 03-04-2006, 09:34 PM

osCommerce and Zend (a fork of osc) are great out of the box. But if you want to customize just about anything ... it's a nightmare. My PHP programmer calls it "Some of the ugliest code in the world".

Here are some horror stories. http://books.slashdot.org/article.pl.../03/03/1435239

I only mention this because there are other alternatives out there that do a much better job. Free is great, but if it takes you $500-$1000 to make changes ... then what did you gain?

Just an opinion ... from a former OSC user.

**cyanide** · 03-06-2006, 08:48 PM

I used to be a huge promoter of oscommerce, but like you got a bit tired of constantly updating, tweaking etc....

I've used creloaded, it's not bad

**beley** · 03-07-2006, 03:48 PM

I'm not partial to either, personally. They both have the same basic code structure and are both messy, though ZenCart is much better than OSC.

There's really not a great open source cart out there... then again there's not a great commercial one either.

**martin_w** · 09-29-2008, 07:19 AM

Hello

Zen Cart or OSCommerce ...

In any case to you will be necessary Store Manager for osCommerce
http://www.oscommerce-manager.com/

or Store Manager for Zen Cart
http://www.zencart-manager.com/