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Stand-alone shopping cart program or rented marketplace
Most of the companies in the ecommerce industry offer one (seldom both) of the two following options:
- Stand-alone shopping cart program for one-time fee (the software is installed on your shared or dedicated server).
- Rented marketplace for monthly fee (the software is hosted on another companies' server). Such companies are also known as ASPs (application service providers).
What are the differences? In the case of stand-alone shopping cart you have a full control over the store and have the ability to customize it to suit your needs, but at the same time you are responsible for maintaining it and keeping it running. In the case of rented marketplace you do not actually have an access to the program itself (and of course it applies a lot of limitations), any action is done through web-based admin interface. However, you do not have to worry about maintaining your software.
Here are some general notes regarding advantages and disadvantages of both options:
| Rented marketplace | Stand-alone program | |
|---|---|---|
| Advantages | They are basically easy-to-use and take a short time to be setup. Server monitoring and usually some other features are offered as a part of the service. Most of these services are good for beginners or people 'testing the water'. | First of all there are no ongoing fees. You have a total control over the store and have an ability to change the look and feel in any way. You can also alter the bahavior, add/remove features and change anything you want in the source code. You can choose any web-hosting company depending on your preferences. Good ecommerce shopping software solutions are more than just shopping carts and they are bundled with comprehensive toolset useful for all audiences: customers, merchants, and/or administrators. |
| Disadvantages | You have to pay a monthly or annual fee for the service. The store has poor features. You do not have full control over the appearance of your store. It is not possible to customize the behavior of the software. And sometimes ASPs collect customers' data for spamming purpose, so-called "hot email lists". | The greater initial outlay is required when starting new ecommerce project because some time is needed to be dedicate to install and configure the software. You are also responsible for maintaining the store and fixing the problems. |
X-Cart is a good example of a quality stand-alone program to install on your server just out of the box. Generally, it was designed for store owners and developers who wished to overcome the limited functionality of rented shopping carts and have a full-featured ecommerce solution for a reasonable price. X-Cart is also useful for web-hosting companies, who want to offer shopping cart software for their clients.
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