Apache Web Server (Apache HTTP Server) is an open source HTTP web server for modern operating systems including UNIX and Windows.
N/A
Cin7 Omni
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
Cin7, headqduartered in Auckland, aims to make complex retail and wholesale simple with all-in-one cloud inventory, POS, EDI and 3PL. Cin7 allows users to manage sales channels, inventory, point of sale and supply chain in one central, cloud-based software. Cin7 offers integrations using third party logistics (3PL) interface and electronic data interchange (EDI), catering for businesses increasing trend to sell globally.
$295
per month
InterSystems Ensemble (legacy product)
Score 9.5 out of 10
N/A
Ensemble from global company InterSystems was a middleware and application infrastructure offering. It is a legacy product, now replaced by InterSystems IRIS.
As I mentioned earlier, the Apache HTTP Server has a small disadvantage compared to the competition (NGINX) in terms of performance. If you run websites that really have a lot of visitors, NGINX might be the better alternative.
On the other hand, the Apache HTTP Server is open source and free. Further functionalities can be activated via modules. The documentation is really excellent.
Cin7 is great because a business can set up quickly without having to invest in hardware/servers, and the business does not need to be concerned about backing up data. Cin7 software is easy and intuitive to use. The pricing was competitive for cloud-based software that can be customized to each business. The software is constantly updated so a business does not have to worry about paying for updates or paying a large lump sum to purchase new updated software. However, Cin7 is able to increase its fees at any time. We experienced a significant price increase after 1 year. With purchased software, a business would not have to worry about unexpected pricing changes. Cin7 offers a useful integration with BigCommerce. Unfortunately, their own B2B website is lacking in features and ultimately not useful to our company. Cin7 does not provide the most useful customer service, as they only offer paid access to phone support. Most of our issue with the software were caused by updates in the software that were not announced, and they could only be fixed via email or tickets the next day.
Street Cred: Apache Web Server is the Founder for all of Apache Foundation's other projects. Without the Web Server, Apache Foundation would look very different. That being said, they have done a good job of maintaining the code base, and keeping a lot of what makes Apache so special
Stability: Apache is rock-solid. While no software is perfect, Apache can parse your web sources quickly and cleanly.
Flexibility: Need to startup your own Webpage? Done. Wordpress? Yup. REST Endpoint? Check. Honeypot? Absolutely.
Easy to use: The simplicity of its programming language allows fast learning. Visual environment to generate complex code.
Robust: A fall of the system will not be a problem. Never again will information of the transactions in progress be lost. Never more messages lost.
Connect to the world: The most popular connection is possible to implement quickly. FTP, File folder, TCP, SMPT, REST.... all method are ready to use. Only define "where" and "how"
The default configurations which comes with Apache server needs to get optimized for performance and security with every new installation as these defaults are not recommended to push on the production environment directly.
Security options and advanced configurations are not easy to set up and require an additional level of expertise.
Admin frontend GUI could be improved to a great extent to match with other enterprise tools available to serve similar requirements.
Onboarding could be improved. We worked with a programmer who was not as familiar with our business needs. Additionally, the person in charge of our onboarding was initially difficult to schedule time with until we reached out to a manager.
Cin7 occasionally makes updates to the software that causes the software to not work properly. For example, we would experience new errors on a CVS file import for products that had worked previously to the update. Additionally, our custom field implementations would be reverted to original and require set up again.
We experienced semi-frequent outages of the software. The software would not be accessible for up to 1 hour at a time. I believe they took steps to address this and reduce down time.
Given that Ensemble and Cache are one of if not the only true fully object orientated database/development technologies for massive transactional data systems its customizability is extensive and it just comes down to the creativity of the developer to get the products to pretty much do whatever they want to do with it. However, this is not necessarily obvious to newcomers to the technology.
The developer community could do with greater participation from the software developers/application specialists and engineers within InterSystems.
More extensive documentation and greater access to proven working solutions particularly in the realm of some of the lesser known or new and upcoming technologies.
I give this rating because there is so much Apache documentation and information on the web that you can literally do anything. This has to do with the fact that there is a huge Open Source community that is beyond mature and perhaps one of the most helpful to be found. The only thing that should hold anyone back from anything is that they can not read. RTFM, my friend. And I must say that the manual is excellent.
The Cin7 support team has never let us down, even if they weren't able to completely solve our problem. They are willing to have conference calls, video chats, whatever works to help fix your issue.
I have yet to raise an issue with InterSystems WRC that they have been unable to resolve to my satisfaction in the 20+ years that I have worked with their products.
I has a lot more features, except that IIS is more integrated in a Windows environment. But now with .net core also possible from Apache it would work anywhere really. Only in a full Windows environment where full integration is needed I would chose to go for IIS. Otherwise Apache it is.
As a wholesale focused business, we found Vend to be tailored to retail businesses. TradeGecko was well suited for our wholesale business, however, lacked the full range of capabilities that Cin7 offered (B2B website, POS). Fishbowl had many features that we would not need. OMS Office Master System offered the wholesale capabilities we needed, however, the software could use an update. Cin7 was a perfect balance in terms of features and pricing for our company.
Mirth is another integration platform that we have used but its development, in Java, made us always create new methods every time a new product was integrated. Every connection process had to be developed from the beginning and it was not easy to reuse code. Nor did it allow us to have an extensive catalog of HL7 messaging, having to perform the validation of each and every one of its fields manually.
We have integrated 5 laboratories in a treatment monitoring system in less than a month of development. Being able to integrate the following in a period no longer than a week.
