Right For You?
Note: Creo Commerce has a one time $99 license fee, and can be installed on any of the hosting packages we offer. Installation within 24 hours of purchase. You can add Creo Commerce during your hosting signup, or any time afterwards.
We love Creo Commerce and have a financial stake in offering support and keeping our customers happy, so you can be sure we’ll be here to answer questions and stay responsive to our clients needs.
It’s a great entry-level website management system that offers basic features and a gentle learning curve so you can be up and running quickly. But it’s not perfect for everyone. And we’d rather you pick the right cart system for you and be happy and successful than we would try to sell you something that isn’t quite right for your needs.
So, here are some situations where other carts might work better for you, followed by some in which we think Creo Commerce is perfect!
When might an open source system be the best choice for you?
Here are some situations in which osCommerce, Zen Cart, etc might be a better choice.
- You like tinkering with code, understand HTML, have a basic grasp of PHP, and are willing to invest a fair amount of time into getting the cart to do what you want.
- You have very specific advanced needs such as interfacing with a drop-ship distributor for automatic product updates or a brick and mortar store inventory system.
- You need multiple language or multiple currency support. Creo Commerce is limited to English.
- You have an extremely specific tax setup that requires multiple levels of taxation on only some products (you will likely need to hire a custom programmer to set this up, and have them integrate it with an open source cart).
- You have a fantastic designer that you can rely on to provide continuous support for the cart, you have the budget to afford it, and you want to spend your budget that way.
When might another paid cart be a better choice for you?
Here are some situations where another paid cart might be a better choice for you.
- If you are selling only downloadable products I recommend www.e-junkie.com Creo Commerce is not designed for downloadable products.
- If you are setting up a congo or shopping mall type website and need to have access levels per user, payment splitting, and advanced shipping options, take a look at something like www.HyenaCart.com (check the “Congo” offering there), www.X-Cart.com (but notice you’ll need some extra modules and pay attention to the way support credits for purchase work there) or www.CongoCart.com. Be sure to know what features you want when comparing these solutions.
So, when is Creo Commerce the right solution?
- If you’re looking to step up from using Mal’s buttons or PayPal buttons to a cart that manages your inventory and gives you an easier way to manage your site.
- If you have tried osCommerce or Zen Cart and found it to be too complicated with too many complex options and just want something simpler so you can spend less time trying to figure out your website and more time running your business and with your family.
- If you are just getting started and want to be able to use a powerful site management system, but only have basic HTML knowledge and you want to customize your cart yourself (so learning php or finding 10 different files to edit is out of the question right now).
- If you want a site management system with a gentle learning curve and included support.
- If you just want to be able to update and manage your own website, but have a designer handle the graphics and layout at an affordable price (check out our designers page for some suggestions of both custom and ready to go templates that work perfectly with Creo Commerce).
