osCommerce

osCommerce osCommerce is often referred to as a shopping cart but it is more than that. It does have a built in shopping cart but it is actually a full-featured e-commerce website. Installing osCommerce on your website hosting space results in a complete e-commerce front end complete with database and administration functions.

The osCommerce website says: "osCommerce has attracted a large growing e-commerce community that consists of over 183,600 store owners and developers who support each other and extend osCommerce Online Merchant with add-ons being contributed on a daily basis. To date there are over 4,800 add-ons that are available for free to customize osCommerce Online Merchant online stores and to help increase sales.

osCommerce Online Merchant is an Open Source online shop e-commerce solution that is available for free under the GNU General Public License. It features a rich set of out-of-the-box online shopping cart functionality that allows store owners to setup, run, and maintain online stores with minimum effort and with no costs, fees, or limitations involved.

With over 8 years of operation, osCommerce has built a showcase of over 14,000 online shops that have been voluntarily added to the live shops section, and powers many thousands of more online shops worldwide."

osCommerce, and it's many derivitives (X-Cart, Zen Cart, CRE Loaded, etc.), is not a simple program to use. Initial setup is relatively easy though it may be beyond what the average Internet user can accomplish. Customizing the site is more difficult and may take a skilled coder. There are people who specialize in installing and customizing osCommerce, and other similar packages, and the novice may wish to consult one of them before tackling on osCommerce installation on their own.

osCommerce does offer an impressive all-in-one package that is a good, comprehensive, solution for many e-tailers.