Review by (Zee) on 2009-07-04 20:47:21

Zee’s comments: I have mixed feelings about it. It's good for free and great if you dont want to customize it much. However, it is complex to customize and even harder to debug when things go wrong. I concur with the previous poster. I have spent many hours (many, many hours) debugging different issus and customizations. That time could be better spent elsewhere.

Review by (Krisp) on 2009-03-28 15:39:48

Krisp’s comments: I agree with grundyl. Unless you have a background or extensive knowledge of coding, programming and web design, AND familiarity with Zen Cart (takes a while) you will be frustrated and spend a ton of time in the user forums trying to figure out how to make the simplest adjustments. Not at all for an average user, not intuitive at all, the language and descriptions in the backend are poorly written so therefore very confusing. And whenever you want to do something in the backend that would seem like a standard for an ecommerce store - like managing inventory by product attribute- you have to install and add-on program. Add-ons are buggy and not easily installed. Bottom line: Not for a store manager who doesn't have a technical background.

Review by (DarkRaider) on 2008-12-20 12:00:02

DarkRaider’s comments: Zen cart is planning a new 2.0 version which revamps the whole thing. it will be built forPHP 5.2 and MySQL 4.1, minimum requirements. it supposed blow the previous 1.3 version away, so Im waiting for its expected release in January 2009.

Review by (Chris B) on 2008-12-08 17:38:46

Chris B’s comments: Thanks for the heads up on http://www.zenmagick.org! Zen Cart is very feature rich, however, a recent project where I tried to create a different front end layout from the standard one, highlighted all the need for something like Zen Magick might become. It was a nightmare, I never realized how complicated it could be!Also, it's not all that great for the client to have a cart that's free, but has no real support. The paid book is good, but overall the architecture is pretty intense, and not all that beautiful. There are some funny things about this software. It's not bad, it's overall good, but … Er … *complicated!*It strength is all the plugins people have been developing for it, but it certainly can't be the world's most elegant software.

Review by (DerManoMann) on 2008-12-05 08:47:24

DerManoMann’s comments: zen-cart is a good cart with lots of options. However, the other side of the medal is that it is also quite complex and takes some time getting used to.Template customization can be tricky, especially since not all HTML is customizable without modifying core files.ZenMagick (http://www.zenmagick.org) is trying to solve this problem by providing a simpler templating system, build on an object-oriented database API and MVC framework.

Review by (grundyl) on 2008-02-06 09:25:32

grundyl’s comments: Free but just no longer on par with too many other solutions. My time is valuable an I'd rather pay a few bucks for an easier solution. movin on..