E-commerce application comparison: osCommerce vs CRE Loaded

In this article we will list the most important pros and cons of osCommerce and CRE Loaded Standard. Hopefully, this will help you in your choice of a free shopping cart application.

* CRE Loaded:

pros:

- very easy to use;

- the standard installation includes a lot of extra modules;

- well-organized admin area;

- better templates and template management;

- easy to upgrade;

cons:

- some of the default modules are rarely used;

- on the other hand, some useful modules are part of the paid CRE Loaded package;

* osCommerce:

pros:

- easy installation;

- a lot of additional contributions which greatly expand the application’s functionality;

- sufficient documentation and forum support;

cons:

- the installation of most contributions requires changes in the application’s code and this may lead to problems;

- new versions and upgrades are released very rarely;

- older versions do not work properly with MySQL 5;

- the installation of a new template is actually a complete new osCommerce installation;

- upgrading osCommerce is not an easy task;