OSCommerce or ZenCart? Deciding on software for a new store.

I am starting a new store on-line and am looking at ZenCart and OSCommerce.

The 2 features I need most are:

1. An easily updated store using a CSV datafeed. An automatic complete refresh is critical. I will have around 300,000 products and services.

2. The imiages to be remotely hosted and displayed by links instead of uploading to my server. The CSV already has the link in it.

Optional but very imporant: Automatic export feeds for Google, Yahoo and other stores.

Thank you in adance for your comments. I really need to know if these items are included in the base package or if they are add-ons are they free or will i need to purchase them.

Thanx again.

Current version of zencart doesn't support either of those option.

but there is an add on called easy populate that allow you upload CSV file to your store database .
300.000 ? :ohmy: you may have to upload in smaller file size , without any problem from your MYSQL server.

as for remote image , zen cart doesn't do that either.

you can look at free addon to see what are avalible to install with your zencart..

after all , both zencart and OSC are free , so do install them and work with them and see which one would suite you best.

THanx. I think I will do that.

Note that ZC is a fork of OSC, so OSC also need some modification to work with your 2 requirements as well. Not something too hard to do, but definitely not out-of-the-box

Thank you. I was not aware of that.

ByondF1:

Thank you. I was not aware of that.

You are welcome. Between the 2 I would go for Zen, since it's still being developed, while osc has not had any significant upgrade in years. OSC certainly has its own appeal, however, since it's been around much longer it does have many nice modules Zen does not have, but those modules can be ported to Zen if you really need them (and willing to do that or get commercial help for that).
Anyhow, the "core" of the software is much more important, and the fact that Zen is still being supported and developed by an active team is very important.

I was not aware of that either. Thank you very much. You have been a great help.

I went through nearly the same process 2 years ago. Knowing that at the time that both products were quite similar it made the decision tough to say the least.

Some of the things that caused me to centralize my development on Zen-Cart were:

1. Support Site Design and Navigation (I am a firm believer that a messy site reflects a messy backend)
2. Ease of finding the add-on mods and programs, templates, etc. (since them OSC has come a long way and the site, in a few areas, is better than this one.)
3. User Testimonials and Comments on developer forums.
4. Quality of support response on the Zen Support forums.
5. At that time dev on osc was nearly dead in the water.
6. DrByte, Kim, Aajeh, Blindside and the rest of the team.Thanks Guys
   JOhn ><>

Thanx. Very useful linformation. I think I have decided to go with Zen. I have already installed it now. Just waiting for my domain to transfer so i can finish setting it up.

Thank you all for your input.

Welcome to Zen Cart. There's help in the tutorials/FAQ and on the forum when you're ready. :smile:

I am not familliar with osc but I had paid a company to get my first website built which they used Zen cart as the shopping cart platform. I then decided to explore zen cart, 8 months later I can say that I enjoy playing with the design and the function of the site more than anything else.

The shopping cart is forgiving to newbies and the support team is unbelievable.
Regarding your requirements.
1- You can upload products to your Zen store using Easy Populate. The free version in the Download area didn't do exactly what I wanted so I invested $65 in the EP 3.01 Now I can add thousands of products in one click (actually 2000 at a time)
2- Why would someone wants to host images on another server? Its your products and you should host it on your website.

I am assuming you are dropshipping the products. If thats the case you can download all the images from the dropshipping company and upload them to your server using any ftp software. Once you have the images on the server you will only insert the image name related to the product you are uploading in the Excel sheet, once you import the table into your database the image will be displayed on the product page.