Zen Cart Reviews: Pricing & Software Features 2024

PROS: The developers are quite adept at coding, but as is with most open source carts they would rather code the cart than document the logic, processes and procedures properly. Fast and easy to Install, Plugins and modules are a breeze to install, and the shipping with UPS, USPS and FedEx modules actually work very well, albeit some are legacy and apply older functions than what the carriers have progressed into. Payment module for Paypal still utilizes Soap and remains very operational but not able to utilize some very nice, simple functionality such as PayPal's Pay Later blurb, which is an excellent "window shopper to buyer" conversion tool. Lay-Away features, another excellent conversion concept, Lay-By (Lay-Buys) won't work for your Lay-Away plan, but there are other Lay-away Module options you can check out. Not as nice and easy to work with as another Open Source cart's customer interface presentation, but they have free, working templates compared to the others buy and fail extensions. Support is a bit above typical, even though it's just another forum where you can only hope to get solutions to any of the many inadequately documented features and functions, I get the feeling so far the contributors really want to help solve problems and there doesn't seem to be many of those "contributors" you find on the other cart guys that are high on themselves and treat you disrespectfully and down right rudely, thinking they are a gift to you and want to make sure you're absolutely aware they're doing this free and only give a bit of information (Out of the kindness in their hearts) and if you want all of it to contact them with your payment information Over all, this is hands down the best Open Source cart I have researched thus far and I recommend it first.

CONS: Documentation is a shortcoming, much of it is nothing more than a reflection of the menu's you see in the admin panel, no added information or logic of the feature/function to help you determine the best selection for your use. There a places in the configs that it's extremely difficult to determine the intent for and no offer of the logic or what the feature option are....do you put in text, numbers a 1 a 0 a 2 ????? What would whatever the entry is, do? Some of those free templates will destroy your current site, make absolutely sure you copy the entire cart as a straight-forward backup before trying to install one. An expensive lesson learned by yours truly.