There are many costs involved with creating an online store. Buying a domain name, finding web hosting, buying inventory, and advertising the site can be cost prohibitive. When searching for ecommerce solutions, new businesses sometimes come across free shopping cart software. While this may sound like a great deal, as a 1ShoppingCart specialist we can tell you, 1ShoppingCart is actually a more flexible, and cost effective solution for an online store.

Open source program is free to all users or available for a donation to the programmer. There are many different open source and free solutions on the market today for ecommerce. Zen Cart, Magento, osCommerce, and Presta Shop are just some of the more popular open source shopping cart programs avaialbe on the market. Many claim to be comparable to commercial software solutions; however, there are some areas where users may run into problems.

First, these open source shopping cart programs are not always free. Often they are free when the user purchases a webhosting package. These webhosting packages aren’t free and may not be with a host the company wants to use. It is not always advisable to go with a host simply because of the free software they offer.

Another possible issue that businesses run into with open source shopping carts is the freedom to alter the templates. Some programs aren’t 100% customizable, and may not integrate well with an existing website. This may leave customers with a disjointed website that doesn’t have the look and feel of the rest of the site.

The number of templates these sites offer may be limited as well. One open source program boasts that it offers 5 templates and 20 color schemes. Compared to commercial software solutions, such as 1ShoppingCart, that really isn’t very much. Commercial software usually offers hundreds of templates, and each one can be altered to create the design the user wants. Company name, logo, and brand colors can be added to these templates as well, creating a seamless, professional online store.

Security is often an issue with these free solutions as well. While they offer the ability to integrate with different payment systems, such as PayPal or Google, the shopping cart itself may not be secure. If the site is hacked and customer information is stolen, the company may never recover from the bad reputation it will receive as customers leave the site for competitors.

Saving money and looking for cost effective services is an important aspect of any business. When looking at free solutions however, consider the possible problems that may occur. Being locked into a particular web-hosting package, security breaches and limited customization may make open source software an expensive solution. 1ShoppingCart offers several different subscriptions to suit the needs of small and large businesses. Moreover, its customization, security, tools, and applications will enable a company to sustain and grow its customer base. That is a better investment in the long run.

Visit our 1ShoppingCart page to see great examples of what a 1ShoppingCart specialist can do for you.