Cubecart vs. Oscommerce - any real input

[EthosPaul]

I have been a committed Osc user/designer/contributor for about 10 years now, loving the community, querks and all. I know how the community responds to third-party carts (those we hate...) Hopefully this post will be met with open minds.

 

Earlier this year, I purchased a Pro version of Cubecart and tested it. I have some comments on it (good and bad), but find myself ditching the cart and coming back to my Osc testing and improvements....lol, the Prodigal Son returns. But I cannot help but return with a knowledge set that bothers me - there are some great things about the cart that osc desperately needs.

 

Will the community be willing to frankly discuss the differences of the two carts? I liked some of the speed factors and the buttoned down security (no one can deny this), but absolutely couldn't deal with their back doors into my site. Whenever their server had a problem and couldn't verify my license, admin just wouldn't work. Trying to catch up with someone in the UK from the US was a little tough - no phone support understandably.

 

Likes:

Security - max. review and commitment to security oversight...

SEO friendly operations

Speed

Secure login button on login of admin

Thumbnail creation on the fly (landscape and portrait)

Deep-seated language options that rewrite presentation of site details in various languages, customizabe

Database functions right from admin (optimize, etc, nice = limits having to login mysql)

 

Dislikes:

Ioncube buttoned down internals

Logging into their servers everytime I logged in

Copyright banner stays at bottom unless pay an addition large $ amount on top of $139 fee.

They are mod driven, virtually no mods exist for free in the marketplace (unlike osc), its all driven by mod creators (like "Convict" etc) at their cubecart forums.

Any posts of free mods are tweaks are removed...

Extememly difficult to print orders

No batch print functions

Very limited export options (unless you pay more for strictly designed mods)

Limited whos online presentation

Can't keep any customer notes or generate an email within cart (strange...)

 

Overall, its just too controlled - once osc influenced - one could be corrupted for life. The scalability and customizations of osc are fantastic. But with regards to security and SEO, tightness seems to be needed with osc.

 

I'd love to contribute more - anyone else?

 

Paul

[♥toyicebear]

You can get all your likes mentioned above with osCommerce too simply by adding relevant contributions.

[dmnalven]

"no phone support understandably."

 

So someone is going to hang their financial well-being on a product sold to them from a company that can not be reached by phone for support? The software has a back door regularly accessed from "home" and you consider it secure? You have the privilege of paying for this, and then need to make additional payments for every customization to your solution?

 

No thanks. I'll stick with free/libre software, http://fsf.org .

 

I'd be very interested to read their eula (end user license agreement).

[carryG]

In all fairness to the original post, you cannot get what is in Cubecart or other securely audited platforms by just downloading and installing mods. In fact, the opposite is true - you may be walking into a much worse scenario. :blink:

 

IMO installing mods blindly is worse than hiring someone who does have a good product (not free osc, but good and stable). Hanging ones financial well-being on improperly coded mods is much, much more dangerous than using Cubecart or stripped down osc.

 

I think we are avoiding the true conversation here. The core engineers of Osc love open source - so do we. But some commercial carts have and as a result of being profit-driven, do have more securely audited and finely tuned carts. I use Cubecart and maintain them for customers, but have always personally used Osc modded beyond return - there could be no cart that compares to mine, for me. :blush:

 

Let's not confuse security with mods (add-ons), that in my opinion is the biggest fault of the osc community.

[brooky]

Hi Paul,

 

One of our customers pointed this thread out to me. I'm the CEO of Devellion Ltd who owns CubeCart. Thanks for your comments its great to have some feedback.

 

I just wanted to correct you on one thing.

 

Logging into their servers everytime I logged in

 

CubeCart stores report home once every two weeks. This is the only way we can control the software as it is commercial, it also allows us to take down stores bought on stolen credit cards and provide a 30 day full version trial. The company is profitable and we have full time support staff and developers in the office every day. If you compare our prices to competitors you will see that it is pretty competitive.

 

Thats all I have to say really. Have a great weekend all! :)

[dmnalven]

This discussion about 'security' is a red herring. No distinction is being made between "securely audited" and auditing for security. A very important piece of the picture. The other part being that the average user has no idea what auditing for security entails, and doesn't really care. As long as no customers complain of apparently hijacked credit card numbers and the store site is relatively immune to corruption and defacement there is no problem. This is also, in large measure, part of the function of the hosting service and software ancillary to osC. "Securely audited" is meaningless unless some sort of validation is posted of the service doing the auditing, the code involved and the results. Self-auditing counts only to the extent that the consumer believes the company's product marketing.

 

That there is no warranty "express or implied" with the use of oss is a given. This wording is also included in the eula of CubeCart.

 

Someone implementing an oss solution expects to have (or will quickly become aware of) possibly significant hands on editing to meet a goal. That this is possible at no cost is a very strong draw, especially for the self-reliant types. Of course some modifications will actually decrease any inherent security of an unmodified version, but to those knowledgeable and concerned this is checked for. Caveat emptor.

 

There will always be a market for proprietary software as there are also those who wish the hand-holding and other support of a paid solution and (mistakenly) believe that a product that has a monetary cost is inherently better than something that is free.

 

That being said, I wish CubeCart the best of fortune. Part of the free/libre software ideology is that anybody should be able to earn compensation for their time within the limits of any other author's stated licensing, including the setup and maintenance of a software application. I do.

[♥GLWalker]

WOW! No one has deleted this thread yet

[Jan Zonjee]

WOW! No one has deleted this thread yet

Yet is the correct term. Personally I don't mind discussing pro and cons of osC versus other carts (although the rules forbid that) but CubeCart directors explaining what they do with their software here crosses a line for me.

 

Any thoughts on that from other members?

[spax]

The more sceptical might think of this as being suspiciously like a CubeCart PR thread.

[carryG]

lol, i doubt the first post was a PR post...typical community response to what could otherwise have been a healthy conversation....

 

guards up fellas

 

caveat : bravo dan...