Thread

Guys,

I would like to add a fully functional webshop (commerce) solution to my EE 2.40 site, so that I can manage products, stock and payments etc from CP.

There seems to be two front runners:-

1 - Carthrob
2 - Exp:resso

They are both 150 bucks, so nothing in the price, so I would like to know which one people prefer and why!

Simplicity is key for me, I have used Magento in the past and it was a killer to set up and configure all the products, taxes, postage and weights etc. 

Quick to set up, easy to expose via Channels and Templates and easy to manage.

So over to you guys - what do you think!!!!

Appreciate your time to answer this.

Cheers, Mark.

I’ve used both so here’s my take…

The big difference is in how product data is added. Cartthrob uses standard EE custom fields for things like prices (eg normal price, sale price) and options (eg small/medium/large), whereas Exp:resso has it’s own single custom fieldtype for prices and options etc.

If I’m comparing, what I’ve found is that Carthrob is better suited when you have a lot of product data, variations etc that affect purchasing, but Exp:resso scores when you have “straightforward” product needs such as just price and a few product options, though Cartthrob handles straightforward products just as well!

For configuration both are pretty similar in terms of setting up taxes, shipping etc, Carthrob may have the edge on flexibility because it’s had more development time, but Exp:resso seems a bit easier to set up.

For templates Exp:resso is very easy, Cartthrob can get a bit complicated if you have complex products otherwise is fairly easy.

Having used both I’d say look at what you need to sell your products. If you just need a quick way of selling with easy setup then Exp:resso is worth looking at, if your products are complex you’d probably need Cartthrob.

Both are excellent addons and get the job done!

Bluedreamer,

Thanks for this, it is really helpful.  From your description, it seems that Exp:resso may be the best option as I am only going to be selling simple products and want to be up and running quickly.

I am also looking at BrilliantRetail as well, as this seems to be another package that looks easy to implement and get up and running quickly.

Need to do some serious product comparison analysis!!!

Cheers, Mark.

In Terms of out of the box - fast launch, there is another front runner: BrilliantRetail - it cant keep up with the zillions of product options you can create with Cartthrob, but if you want fast to launch its a real great thing. And they have awesome support. Worth a look.

Hi,

I settled for Exp:resso Shop in the end, as I wanted a very quick turn around on getting a limited shop set up and working, and largely this was achieved in just over a day. 

The big plus points for Exp:resso Shop that I have found from an intensive 2 day development and launch weekend are:-

- Installation is a breeze and uses the standard Module for EE2.x method, and was working in 10 minutes.  Although I didn’t follow the instructions properly and ended up with a half working environment.  That was my fault, but follow the instructions and it’s easy.

- The tutorial documentation is pretty light in content, which is a little frustrating when you want to get going quickly, but, a new template group is installed as part of the installation with sample templates.  Lifting the code from the sample templates was very simple indeed, I spent half a day integrating the sample pages core code into my templates and it was straight forward.

- The integration with PayPal was very simple, and a test mode is supplied, which when used with the PayPal Sandbox environment made testing very easy and no brainer.

- Stock levels are simple to set up.

- Shipping rules are easy to set up, and in my case I used weight as the overall prime calculation point, where I have eight postage bands accordant to weight.  This works perfectly well, and you can also define multiple postage types with independent rules for shipping.  It’s pretty flexible, but needs careful setting or it can go wrong (as I found out to my expense), but take your time and should be fine.

- Built in reports and dashboard is pretty good and built directly into CP which is nice so we manage from only one place.

- Products are Channel based which if you have experience of EE you will find very easy to follow.  I had my product channel set up within 10 minutes and published my first product a minute later.  Products can be split into variants on a single SKU which is easy (i.e. size/colour/weight etc).

- I found support via their forum to be quite good and responsive, even at the weekend.

Ok, now for the stuff which was not so simple.

- The sample templates come with their own set of style sheets, of which some of which is required for the various dynamic elements of the pages to work.  Some of the CSS clashed with my global template style sheet and caused a number of effects.  This is not really a criticism of Exp:resso, but it is something you will need to consider if you use the standard stock template code!  It took a while to unpick the CSS changes!

- The documentation is a little light, but I am sure this will improve over time.

- Does not come with templates as comprehensive as others I have seen, such as dynamically build product menus etc.  This can all be achieved in code, but it would be nice to have had some pre-canned code.

Overall, I would say that I am reasonably happy with Exp:resso Shop - and have got a simple commerce solution running very quickly.

Hope this helps you and the community.

Cheers, Mark.

Thanks for the write-up Mark, glad you got there in the end!

bluedreamer,

No problems.  As I always do a search on here for information for anything ExpressEngine related, having a bit more detail posted back to the site from my experiences can only help people in the future.

Exp:resso, like the other major cart providers is a considered purchase at $150, so the more assurance a new user can get that it works as expected, and the various bumps they can expect along the way, the better and more informed decision can be made!

That is what is so good about this forum, the open and collaborative way in which we all assist each other!

Cheers, Mark.

Thanks for the brief review of “Store”. I’m about to try it out on an existing EE site and this was really helpful.

Cheers

Jules