Old Hat System May Be Getting Facelift
May 19, 2021
Old Hat System May Be Getting Facelift
Score 2 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with 3dcart
One of the clients we signed on about 3 or 4 years ago came on board with this as their ecommerce website. We suggested a move to a different platform we were more familiar with, but they were very married to 3DCart, so we learned how to use that platform. The learning curve was a bit high, as 3DCart's infrastructure is a bit old-hat (think ASP.net platforms of the early 2000s). But, in the end we got pretty comfortable with making changes. That being said, the site structure and the places in which to make those changes were very complicated. Also, adding any functionality to the base platforms requires additional plug-ins (which aren't as plentiful as something like Wordpress); and many of those cost money in both licenses and integration development.
- eCommerce platform for relatively cheap
- Since being purchased by Shift4, some updates have been added
- Page structure is all over the place. It can be difficult to find where to go to make page edits.
- Base platform isn't very robust and requires multiple add-ons in order to add CRM, Taxes, and other capabilities
- Reporting isn't very strong, necessitating outside analytics
- File system is also pretty wonky and feels very primitive
- Customer service and technical help leaves MUCH to be desired.
- Not as many supported add-ons/plug-ins as other platforms, and many of them cost additional fees. Many of them also don't seamlessly integrate, meaning you'll need to dev the integration yourself.
- In general, what you see in the WYSIWYG is not what you get.
- Order System is not very intuitive for the modern era
- For the subscription license of the base product, the cost isn't bad.
- The development time is heavy, which outweighs the cost of the license
- Small, everyday changes and updates are a lengthy affair, which means more labor hours.
- Additional software is needed (labor + licensing) to compete with modern site platforms (CRM, Accounting, Shipping, Taxes, marketing, Abandoned cart, etc.)
I would put 3dcart (now Shift4Shop) on the same level of AspDotNetStorefront. Its primitive, old hat, but still works. Lightspeed and Pinnacle cart are a little better, as they are a little more polished but also not as fine-tuned as an Enterprise System. Squarespace and WooCommerce are very simple to use, but also require some additional integrations to make fully functional. BigCommerce has most of the functionality built in for an ecommerce site, but comes with an enterprise price. If you're on a budget, you're better with going off something widely supported, but budget-minded.
Do you think Shift4Shop delivers good value for the price?
No
Are you happy with Shift4Shop's feature set?
No
Did Shift4Shop live up to sales and marketing promises?
I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process
Did implementation of Shift4Shop go as expected?
No
Would you buy Shift4Shop again?
No