Can anyone recommend an e-commerce platform that they like, somewhere I can sell both physical and virtual goods, isn’t too expensive, allows some degree of design customization, isn’t too hard to use, and (gasp) is even open source? The last part is probably asking too much.
I currently sell ebooks on Gumroad, which has actually been pretty good, but they lack customization options and the ability (as far as I can tell) to do something like a blog (although they do have a mailing list which is something I definitely need!).
There is an old Wordpress.ORG site I have that was made by someone else who is no longer able to update it, and is something of a black box to a clueless oldster like myself. I’ve heard enough negative things about Wordpress that led me first to Ghost.org, which, as far as I can tell, is really just for blogs and nothing else, and then Webflow, which may have too many deisgn option (as well as fuzzy pricing), and finally back to WordPress.COM which was very pushy about me upgrading (and then upgrading again) before I could even try out their Woo Commerce plugin (also their site just plain doesn’t work; if I watch their tutorials and then try to follow them, I’ll end up on screens that have buttons and drop down menus that appear in the videos but not on the site itself!).
So anyway, I’m in search of recommendations. I need something that can sell physical and virtual items, has a blog, a mailing list, monthly billing, at least some ability to customize, and, if at all possible, is open source. Would be much obliged for any suggestions.
EDIT: Anyone tried Thirty Bees?
I have been working with PrestaShop since version 1.2. The current stable version is 8.1. PrestaShop offers a lot of features. You should give it a try (for free).
it’s nice and faster than woocommerce, main issue is that almost every extra feature is provided by a plugin that needs a subscription and i hate subscriptions, i prefer to get a permanent license and pay extra for a new version only if and when it’s actually updated
I tried WooCommerce. I am not a fan. A lot of plugins are free but you have to pay if you want the advanced features.
Ok, good to know, thank you, I’ll bump woo to the end of my list.
@[email protected], is the situation with Prestashop similar to the one that I keep hearing about with WP.org? Namely that’s it’s heavily reliant on third-party plugins which frequently break after updates or are themselves not consistently updated?
EDIT: it might be nice to have something that has the features I want already integrated and not just available as plugins–blog, mailing list, shopping cart, etc. 🤔
I feel that’s even worse than Woocommerce in that regard. There was a reason it was forked as thirty bees: v1.7 broke almost all the plugins and had a very slow adoption rate, and plugin developers continued to target 1.6 as it was more popular. The situation stalled for years
Edit: but as a e-commerce is faster than Woocommerce
Maybe, a good alternative that offers everything while also being fast is odoo. But you need to pay for their service, as the free version is very difficult to install and maintain
Sorry, I’m a bit confused; which platform are you referring to there? Prestashop?
Will have a look at odoo. Really struggling with this, so your suggestions are very much appreciated.
Yes, prestashop is faster than Woocommerce. I manage two e-commerce with both. But while with Woocommerce all I needed extra was a $15/lifetime stock synchronization plugin, with prestashop I would need $100/month of plugins to have feature parity. So I keep prestashop basic as an simpler store under a different domain that doesn’t need stock synchronization or mass import or blog.
Odoo, I loved it at first sight when I tried the 30 day trial 5 years ago. So much snappier than Woocommerce, and with so many features. Its main problem was price and complexity. Official hosted version required a subscription for every single feature. Invoices? That’s $19/month. List of clients? Another $19/month. Blog? Add $19/month. For the tiniest extra feature, needed a subscription. In the end the full package was completely unaffordable and the bare minimum was unusable. The free self hosted version is the most complex install that I had to do in my life. I installed a third party plugin and I broke it beyond recovery. Because it’s in python it requires a dedicated server and not a normal hosting. Unless you’re a Linux guru you have to pay for their hosting service. Luckily recently they realized that their pricing was unaffordable for everyone except huge corporations, so now the full package is around $20 per month.