I'm sure most long time zenners have these thoughts at times, myself included.
Now, I'm not going to try to convince you over the benefits and pitfalls of one eCommerce system over another (none are perfect, and some are better suited to some needs than others), but I think I have a rather 'unique' perspective in that I've developed/ported the same shipping module (ozpost) for over half a dozen different eCommerce systems, so I've had plenty of opportunity to see how they compare from both the front end, the backend, and the coding perspective.
Our main eCommerce site is still running ZenCart, and so far, none of the others have offered me any benefits worth considering to make me change.
Some of the other systems may look prettier 'out of the box' than zencart (Well, most of them actually), and some appear to function better than zencart, but I don't think any have a function that zencart *doesn't* have.
Most of them look great until after you've used them for a few weeks to find all the things zencart can do but they can't.
Some of them have weekly updates (some folk can't even cope with a yearly zencart update), and although these updates *may* be easier to apply than ZenCart (with some systems), there are pretty much only needed to fix bugs and security issues that have already been taken care of in the zencart code *years* ago. This is a 'nice' way of saying that jumping ship to newer offerings is another way of saying a voyage on the titanic may seem like a good idea. :-)
Seriously, ZenCart is far from perfect, but it is stable, reliable, secure with support that I've never seen elsewhere for any Software (not just eCommerce). By all means, feel free to investigate other systems. You could well find one more suited to *your* specific needs 'out of the box' (tip: WooCommerce for Wordpress is rapidly growing in support and popularity, and although for many years I would never recommend WP due to its ongoing security issues, it has now reached the stage where although there are still a lot of issues (due to the nature of the system) it has evolved to the stage where it can now keeps itself securely updated.
Woo doesn't have all the functionality of ZenCart (by a long shot) but it does suit the needs of a lot of merchants with only a small number of products to sell, and this system has jumped from nowhere in my list of 'recommended systems' way up to #2 (with ZenCart being #1).
As a hosting provider we carefully evaluate the customers needs before recommending Zen vs Woo. The others don't even get a mention as they seem to fall somewhere in between what Zencart has to offer and what Woo has to offer - Yes, we do host/support the other systems, but only at the clients specific request. To *me* ZenCart is for *serious* merchants with many products to sell. Woo is more for the hobby/owner that sells just a few products, runs a blog and is socially orientated.
The others, as I suggest, sit somewhere in between.
Just my perspective.
Cheers
RodG
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