CS-Cart Multi-Vendor vs. Podia

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
CS-Cart Multi-Vendor
Score 8.6 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
CS-Cart Multi-Vendor is an eCommerce marketplace software for SMBs available in cloud (No-Code) and self-hosted (On-Premises) versions. It allows users to open an online marketplace, where the user is the admin, and all the others—invited sellers. Each seller has his or her own micro-store with a customizable storefront, categories, filters, and search. Just like in Amazon. In the CS-Cart Multi-Vendor marketplace platform, managing vendors is designed to be simple:…
$1,250
per year
Podia
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
Podia in New York offers their ecommerce platform for managing memberships and selling courses online.
$39
per month
Pricing
CS-Cart Multi-VendorPodia
Editions & Modules
Standard
$1,250
per year
Plus
$3,150
per year
Ultimate
$6,950
per year
Ultimate Lifetime
Contact Sales
one-time fee
Mover
$39.00
per month
Shaker
$79.00
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
CS-Cart Multi-VendorPodia
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Features
CS-Cart Multi-VendorPodia
Online Storefront
Comparison of Online Storefront features of Product A and Product B
CS-Cart Multi-Vendor
8.6
10 Ratings
11% above category average
Podia
7.9
1 Ratings
3% above category average
Product catalog & listings8.810 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Product management8.910 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Bulk product upload8.39 Ratings00 Ratings
Branding8.710 Ratings6.01 Ratings
Mobile storefront8.08 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Product variations8.59 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Website integration8.69 Ratings5.01 Ratings
Visual customization8.710 Ratings8.01 Ratings
CMS8.810 Ratings4.01 Ratings
Online Shopping Cart
Comparison of Online Shopping Cart features of Product A and Product B
CS-Cart Multi-Vendor
8.4
10 Ratings
10% above category average
Podia
10.0
1 Ratings
28% above category average
Abandoned cart recovery8.29 Ratings00 Ratings
Checkout user experience8.510 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Online Payment System
Comparison of Online Payment System features of Product A and Product B
CS-Cart Multi-Vendor
8.9
9 Ratings
7% above category average
Podia
10.0
1 Ratings
18% above category average
eCommerce security8.99 Ratings10.01 Ratings
eCommerce Marketing
Comparison of eCommerce Marketing features of Product A and Product B
CS-Cart Multi-Vendor
8.4
9 Ratings
12% above category average
Podia
8.5
1 Ratings
13% above category average
Promotions & discounts8.89 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Personalized recommendations8.09 Ratings00 Ratings
SEO8.49 Ratings7.01 Ratings
eCommerce Business Management
Comparison of eCommerce Business Management features of Product A and Product B
CS-Cart Multi-Vendor
8.0
10 Ratings
2% above category average
Podia
-
Ratings
Multi-site management8.78 Ratings00 Ratings
Order processing8.510 Ratings00 Ratings
Inventory management6.510 Ratings00 Ratings
Shipping7.39 Ratings00 Ratings
Custom functionality8.99 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
CS-Cart Multi-VendorPodia
Small Businesses
Ecwid by Lightspeed
Ecwid by Lightspeed
Score 10.0 out of 10
Ecwid by Lightspeed
Ecwid by Lightspeed
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
IBM Digital Commerce
IBM Digital Commerce
Score 9.0 out of 10
IBM Digital Commerce
IBM Digital Commerce
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
IBM Digital Commerce
IBM Digital Commerce
Score 9.0 out of 10
IBM Digital Commerce
IBM Digital Commerce
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
CS-Cart Multi-VendorPodia
Likelihood to Recommend
8.6
(10 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
8.3
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.2
(7 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
CS-Cart Multi-VendorPodia
Likelihood to Recommend
CS-Cart
For quickly setting up a most intuitive online marketplace, CS-Cart Multi-Vendor is the best one. The software is very well suited for those who have some basic knowledge about backend customization, installation, server setup, proper server configuration etc. Though I'm sure the support team will get you up and running. Only few third-party service providers are very professional, provide honest service and will help you to run your business smoothly. I would highly recommend to use CS-Cart Multi-Vendor.
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Podia
In my experience, Podia has been well suited in every way! I am a small company with a couple of independent contractors, and I don't know how to build my own website. I am not very techy. I get lots of compliments on how my website looks! I have had some people support me with setting up my group emails for my email list and setting up automations, and these techy people complained that they needed to do more customization in the email formatting and programming, so I switched to Mailchimp for those needs. Otherwise, I have been very happy with Podia and I am grateful to have a platform that offers so many services/features. It's affordable and user friendly. My clients and students are happy using it, too
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Pros
CS-Cart
  • Quick and easy set up of a multi-vendor marketplace
  • Very easy-to-use page designer
  • Huge marketplace of add-ons to cover pretty much anything you need
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Podia
  • Web Builder
  • Storefront
  • Digital course creator
  • Bundling workshops/programs
  • easy to update and add to my website
  • customer service is awesome
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Cons
CS-Cart
  • The high cost of the platform itself and plugins.
  • Unavailability of the mobile application in the basic version of the platform.
  • Relatively difficult process of installing updates if you are new to IT.
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Podia
  • I sometimes wish there was more that I could customize on my website and digital programs
  • I wish their email service (for broadcasts/group emails) had more features and customization
  • I would like to use my brand font
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Usability
CS-Cart
The software consists of most of all e-commerce related features. Also, there are plenty of third party addons are available in the market which can improve our business. There are a lot of powerful themes available in the cs cart market which improve the look and feel on the front store. If CS-cart adjusted the price on their software license cost, controlling the third party addon cost and provide more freelancers with cheaper hourly rate for the customization on the cs-cart multi vendor software, the cs-cart company can be a master among other e-commerce software companies in the world.
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Podia
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
CS-Cart
inside of the support subscription, they give me all the time a fast answer and you can ask in a community forum also other users. But i miss a free support/chat like other solutions.
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Podia
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
CS-Cart
Mostly extremely easy to implement, both back-end logic as well as styling. Great addon marketplace helped, particularly around payment options.
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Podia
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
CS-Cart
It's a one-time payment and the entire CMS is in your control, can list unlimited products and vendors. no need to depend on an e-commerce platform to pay huge commissions. promote your own brand globally. change the looks of your listing with multiple themes, there are vast add on and page themes to enhance look and controls.
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Podia
Kajabi had lots of features all in one place. I liked their digital course creator program. I liked the ease of their their membership site program/host, too. It had an app for my clients to use. There were some problems with not being able to customize the look of pages, but they allowed coding/programming if you had training, so I sometimes hired someone to do that for me. I couldn't figure out how to use their website builder, so I didn't do much there. When it came down to it, I could use Podia and it was cheaper and easier to use. GoDaddy was my website host for a few years. I did a lot on there. It was my website builder and host and I liked it. It was easy to use. My website looked great. It had more features than Podia with blogging and connecting to social media. I had a storefront but it wasn't great for selling digital products. Back then, it wanted to show my inventory and shipping options, which don't apply for services and digital products. I did a little with my digital courses on there, but in the end, I liked other sites better for this. It didn't work out. Weebly was just a starting point for me when I create my first digital course. I liked how it looked and it was easy to build, but there are better options for this sort of thing now.
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Return on Investment
CS-Cart
  • Positive impact in learning to set up a shopping cart
  • ROI is questionable, as we are still building our business model
  • Positive impact on our business model and direction
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Podia
  • Increased sales by $8000 from January to June (Added 2 more programs quickly and easily)
  • Saved almost a thousand dollars in the first year in costs by switching to Podia
  • Improved customer satisfaction by using 1 site instead of 4
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ScreenShots

CS-Cart Multi-Vendor Screenshots

Screenshot of Multi-Vendor marketplace storefrontScreenshot of Multi-Vendor marketplace product pageScreenshot of