[11' AW M3]

Hey guys, a friend of mine is in need of a good web developer/graphic designer as he is looking to have an online commerce site built. From everything that I have heard, Magento seems to be the new standard? Any other recommendations? What exactly makes magento better than OSCommerce? What are the downsides to just going with a template vs. a bottom up build (beside less customization obviously)? It is usually more cost effective to go that route, right?

I am sure there are a ton of web developers on here- please leave your e-mail and references if possible and I will forward your contact info to him. Please no PM's...

TIA!

[Chewy734]

Magento is more powerful and gives more options than OSCommerce, imo. That being said, it's more of a pain to install and configure payment options on it. I'm using Magento on my business site. Once you have it working, it's really nice though.

Send me a PM if you need more info.

[GregTheStig]

I'm kind of a n00b with web development, and I have no experience with Magento or anything. But I can tell you that those free templates don't always work the way you want them to. If you can find one that will totally work for you and work with what you want the site to be all about, then go for it. Just remember that things may not work the way you want it to, so sometimes building your own template works best. Besides it's easy with Dreamweaver

[.:bHd:.]

Originally Posted by GregTheStig

I'm kind of a n00b with web development, and I have no experience with Magento or anything. But I can tell you that those free templates don't always work the way you want them to. If you can find one that will totally work for you and work with what you want the site to be all about, then go for it. Just remember that things may not work the way you want it to, so sometimes building your own template works best. Besides it's easy with Dreamweaver

lol not what he wants. Basic layout building is easy but back end stuff is complicated as fawk

Few of my clients use volusion and they're happy with it. Easy to set up and configure

[GregTheStig]

Originally Posted by .:bHd:.

lol not what he wants. Basic layout building is easy but back end stuff is complicated as fawk

Few of my clients use volusion and they're happy with it. Easy to set up and configure

... told you I was a n00b

[Freakazoid]

Originally Posted by Chewy734

Magento is more powerful and gives more options than OSCommerce, imo. That being said, it's more of a pain to install and configure payment options on it. I'm using Magento on my business site. Once you have it working, it's really nice though.

Send me a PM if you need more info.

This, it largely depends on what he's trying to sell and how he's planning on going about it.

90% of the time, standard cut and paste templates and the simple approach will work. But if you're looking to make things a little more customizable and actually are making this a LARGE longterm project....go big or go home.

Your friend largely needs to figure out how much time he wants to put into this upfront.

[e46e92love]

I can give you my .02.......I would never go through a site like that. They product good stuff, but its way too expensive. You can get a great side built custom order for what they charge for their top packages, and then, you own it. No one can take it, no continuing costs each month except hosting it.

SEO is also very important, and what looks to be good to the naked eye, many times is built with subpar coding, which affects the ability to properly "on page" SEO the site.

Cheers,
e46e92