[Tonka]

I am in the market to start-up an ecommerce site. I am all for making things easy so I would ultimately love to have a mac based ecommerce with a strong back end ( CC processing, shopping cart, inventory monitoring and reporting, etc). Also, with a store-front template is already (basically) created and in place, this is very import to me. I found MacDock and feel that the ecommerce system (iSell) would be perfect. I have contacted MacDock to ask a few pre-sale questions at least 4 times over the last week and have received no reply. Does anyone out there use iSell and are pleased with macDock? Am I going about this the wrong way? Can anyone point me to a an easy set-up ecommerce solution that is extremely mac-user friendly? Please let me know and thank you fro your input...

[maccrazy]

There are heaps of other e-commerce scripts out there (many free) which you may want to check out. The iSell script looks as though it is as well laid out as any other but by the time you factor in the monthly fee and higher than average hosting costs there may be better solutions out there.

[Tonka]

Thank you for replying and your insight. Could you possibly point me to the sites you are talking about. I would love see those "better solutions". Thanks so much i am pressed for time on this and need to make a decision shortly. All the best.

[maccrazy]

Here are a couple of alternatives:

http://www.cubecart.com/
http://www.oscommerce.com/
http://www.zen-cart.com/

I haven't used any of them but they are quite popular and most hosts offer them as a one click installation using Fantastico. That isn't to say you shouldn't use iSell if you think it is worth the extra money but I always think it is a good idea to look at all the alternatives before making a selection because most people find that specific billing systems suit them better than others. You could also take a look through the PHP scripts listed at Hot Scripts.

As far as hosts go, I always recommend TJR Networks and Myacen (may not suit you because I don't think they are accepting new signups until the beginning of February).

[Tonka]

Thanks so much for the input. I will know search and conquer!

[madmacgames]

I think you have to host iSell with MacDock, and well, if they won't even answer pre-sale questions, do you really want someone like that as your web host, let alone your businesses web host? You will never be able to move to someone else (you'd have to change shopping cart programs).

There is nothing wrong with commercial solutions, but I'd say at least look for one that gives you a license and will let you host with whatever host you want to.

Being strictly tied into one particular vendor for that much of your ebusiness, in IMO, not really a smart move. At least with licensed applications, you can change web host vendors and take your application(s) with you.