Does OsCommerce offer magento like modules?

[JEYLA]

Our current website uses oscommerce and we have been happy with the settings and the modules so far.

 

After being introduced to magento however and some of the capabilities it has, I am very tempted to have the website switched over. I am just wondering if I am switching for nothing though as I am not sure if oscommerce has the same capabilities.

 

Here are some of the new features I am looking to add

 

1. Shipping calculator

2. Different pricing tiers for regular customers and wholesalers

3. A reward points system

4. an incorporated blog

5. product image zoom capability

 

Any thoughts or suggestions or is it time for the switch?

[multimixer]

Take a look at the addon's section, and search for the features you need.

 

All what you mention exist, and not to forget, for free.

[JEYLA]

Take a look at the addon's section, and search for the features you need.

 

All what you mention exist, and not to forget, for free.

 

I looked through the modules before I posted this but these are the ones that I did not see. Can you send me links to the ones you know of?

[multimixer]

points and rewards module

 

Separate Pricing Per Customer

 

Search for "zoom" or "flash zoomer" there will appear something for sure among many image contributions

 

I never got interested in a blog, but you could take a look at nabble

 

What do you mean exactly with "shipping calculator" what do you need to be done?

[JEYLA]

points and rewards module

 

Separate Pricing Per Customer

 

Search for "zoom" or "flash zoomer" there will appear something for sure among many image contributions

 

I never got interested in a blog, but you could take a look at nabble

 

What do you mean exactly with "shipping calculator" what do you need to be done?

 

I want people to be able to see how much the shipping would be for their cart at the time. They would be able to choose shipping method and put in zipcode, which would give them the shipping charge immediately without entering all info and going through checkout

[npn2531]

You can get OScommerce to do just about anything you can imagine. There are plenty of contributions to add, certainly to do the things you mentioned. If you know a little php and html you can make your own modifications. The advantage to to OScommerce is that the php programming looks familiar or normal to us amateurs who have learned some php but not a lot. And you can make programming modifications to individual pages without screwing up the entire site. I spent two weeks with Magento, and jeebus, is that complicated. Magento has over 6,000 files, and their empty database weighs in at over 20mb and has 200 tables.

 

Yes, the stock OScommerce site is spare and looks pitiful, but you can change that. It's frustrating at first. Magento seems really cool at first but when you get into trying to makes changes, you begin realize just how much you are going to have to learn. Magento, moreover, has a fatal flaw that you, or Magento, is never going to fix: It is painfully slow. Flip around on the showcase sites on Magento. It's frustrating, and eventually you get to where you are leary of clicking on a link because you know you are going to have to pause a moment or two. You will lose customers on a site like that. OSCommerce is blazing fast, and with a good internet connection, you'll have page changes before you can get you finger off the return key.

[JEYLA]

You can get OScommerce to do just about anything you can imagine. There are plenty of contributions to add, certainly to do the things you mentioned. If you know a little php and html you can make your own modifications. The advantage to to OScommerce is that the php programming looks familiar or normal to us amateurs who have learned some php but not a lot. And you can make programming modifications to individual pages without screwing up the entire site. I spent two weeks with Magento, and jeebus, is that complicated. Magento has over 6,000 files, and their empty database weighs in at over 20mb and has 200 tables.

 

Yes, the stock OScommerce site is spare and looks pitiful, but you can change that. It's frustrating at first. Magento seems really cool at first but when you get into trying to makes changes, you begin realize just how much you are going to have to learn. Magento, moreover, has a fatal flaw that you, or Magento, is never going to fix: It is painfully slow. Flip around on the showcase sites on Magento. It's frustrating, and eventually you get to where you are leary of clicking on a link because you know you are going to have to pause a moment or two. You will lose customers on a site like that. OSCommerce is blazing fast, and with a good internet connection, you'll have page changes before you can get you finger off the return key.

 

Thank you for your help. A few questions

 

1. I realize magento is slower but doesn't that depend on the server as well. I realize that I will have to pay for a better server than I am currently using to get the same speed but the overall appearance of their sites seem to be more refined

 

2. I have added many modules to the site over time but always had to use a programmer from GAF or somewhere for it as I do not know any php myself and only a little html. The amount of work involved might increase the cost but is it just me or seems like the magento community is expanding a lot faster than oscommerce. Especially when you look at recent activity..any thoughts on why that is. Seems like oscommerce still have a lot more room to expand but seems like less and less modules are being added to the main site

[multimixer]

I don't think that somebody here will tell you that magento is better in any way, same as nobody in the magento forums will tell you about osCommerce being better.

 

Personally I'm here, at osCommerce, because I think it is the best e-commerce solution that exist. Each one make this decission for him self. People are here, at osCommerce, because they believe it's the best for them. They already did their decision. Some are coming, some others are leaving, but for the time they are here they are for osCommerce.

 

If you want to do a serious research and comparison, then I would suggest to do it out of the forums of each solution. There are many places around where people express their opinion and experience with different e-commerce solutions.

 

I just found a recent interesting read in our forum here

[npn2531]

Magento is very complicated. A talented amateur can do wonders with OSCommerce, but you are going to need a dedicated pro to deal with Magento. Yes, it looks far better off the shelf, and has way, way more features installed. But it has some really odd quirks. For example you can't delete an order. Also Magento uses it own version of php and xml, and if you don't know that stuff, you are going to pay someone an awful lot of money to learn it and handle your site. Again Magento is slow. It is slow because it is huge. You can get super charged dedicated servers and people who know how to tweak them, but you are still only going to manage to make it less slow. OScommerce runs blazing fast on a $6.95/month shared host website. Remember Magento is 6,000 files of unique php and odd looking xml.

[JEYLA]

Magento is very complicated. A talented amateur can do wonders with OSCommerce, but you are going to need a dedicated pro to deal with Magento. Yes, it looks far better off the shelf, and has way, way more features installed. But it has some really odd quirks. For example you can't delete an order. Also Magento uses it own version of php and xml, and if you don't know that stuff, you are going to pay someone an awful lot of money to learn it and handle your site. Again Magento is slow. It is slow because it is huge. You can get super charged dedicated servers and people who know how to tweak them, but you are still only going to manage to make it less slow. OScommerce runs blazing fast on a $6.95/month shared host website. Remember Magento is 6,000 files of unique php and odd looking xml.

 

 

How hard is it to move an existing site to a new layout especially if I purchase a template? I dont think I will be able to do it but any idea on how much I should expect to pay to have it done?

[multimixer]

How hard is it to move an existing site to a new layout especially if I purchase a template? I dont think I will be able to do it but any idea on how much I should expect to pay to have it done?

 

Do you talk amout magento or osCommerce now?

[JEYLA]

Do you talk amout magento or osCommerce now?

 

I was talking about integrating a magento template/layout to the oscommerce site.

 

Also...

 

Any suggestions on a module that will have a shipping calculator so people can see the shipping charge without having to go through the checkout

 

I am also looking for one that will enable to have a live online help chat program

 

Thanks for all the help

[npn2531]

No one in their right mind would attempt to adapt a magento template to an oscommerce shop or vice versa. It would be easier to just duplicate the layout or the look of the template on the cart from 'scratch'.

 

Magento, nor OScommerce has a fully integrated blog, however, this module is pretty close. http://addons.oscommerce.com/info/1709

It is beautifully written and completed integrated content manager, that you can comment on individual articles, with a great search function. If this contribution was tweaked so that when someone commented on a article, the comment appeared below the article, instead of on a separate page, you would basically have a blog. Their would be no difference, really between an article or a post.