| Article Index |
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| Owned vs Hosted eCommerce Solutions |
| And The Best Solution Is? |
| Our Recommendation |
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There are a surprisingly large number of eCommerce solutions (shopping carts) available today. Some are well known. Some are not so well known. Each of them offering its own set of features and reasons to use them instead of the other. All of them capable of offering you the means to sell online. Yet, when it comes to paying for eCommerce solutions or shopping carts, you don't always get what you pay for.
When shopping eCommerce solutions, it's important to be familiar with available features and functionality of an eCommerce site so you can properly compare one solution with another. [you can review common features here]
Besides features, however, there is another crucial difference among many eCommerce solutions that needs to be discussed in order for you to make an educated decision, and that is the difference between "Owned" and "Hosted" solutions.
Owned eCommerce Solutions:
It wasn't long ago that the only eCommerce solutions available were "owned" solutions. An "owned" solution is simply that, you purchase a license to the software and you own it. You download the software and then install it on your web server. This is something that your web designer or developer would handle for you.
An owned solution is typically a one-time purchase and usually includes minor updates (as opposed to major upgrades) and fixes for a specific amount of time. Most solutions will include email support, and may offer phone support for an additional fee.
Unfortunately, in our experience, we find mostly all of these solutions to be lacking, whether it's in features, performance, or support. And, please keep in mind that our web development fees are not determined by the eCommerce solution we use, so there's no bias on our part. We simply find that paid solutions offer more value and less hassle in the end.
Hosted eCommerce Solutions:
More recently, a new trend in the eCommerce world has emerged where software developers are offering their eCommerce shopping carts as a "hosted" solution. Instead of paying up-front for a license, you pay a monthly fee, allowing you access to their eCommerce system. As a result, you don't own the license, just the right to use the software.
Using a hosted solution, your website is developed and resides on their servers, so there's no installation involved. Your monthly fee does include web hosting, so there's no need to deal with a separate hosting company or fee.
Automatic Upgrades
If you opt to purchase a license and own the shopping cart, you own a particular version. If the developers release a new version, with new features, you would have to pay a fee to upgrade to the new version. With a hosted solution, you do not pay for upgrades. Instead, whenever the developers add new features or upgrades, you automatically have access to those features. Version upgrades and new features are included in the monthly fee you pay.
Price/Feature Levels
Another common feature of hosted solutions is how they price their services. Typically, they will offer a number of different levels, or tiers, at different prices. Each level can differ in terms of the features available for your store, the number of products allowed, the number of email accounts, and/or the amount of data transfer or storage available. Their reasoning is that not everyone needs every feature, and not everyone has hundreds or thousands of products to sell.
So, for example, a hosted solution's 1st level may cost $19.95/month and allow you up to 15 products to sell on your site. The 2nd tier may cost $29.95 and allow up to 50 products, and so on. Usually, the top tier will offer you an unlimited number of products, and possibly additional features, and the monthly fee can sometimes top $200/month.
The other reasoning for price levels is that it allows someone to open a store with few products and, as they succeed and grow, they can easily upgrade their price level to accommodate more product.
Try Before You Buy
Because of their pricing tiers, you can actually try a hosted solution with very little initial investment to see if it's something you like and are comfortable with. Hosted solutions differ from one another in the features they offer, their ease-of-use, design flexibility, and performance. By signing up for their first level, you can create a store, add product, and see how it performs with little up-front cost. If you decide to stay with the solution, and you have more product to sell, you can then easily upgrade your price plan to handle more product.
Some hosted eCommerce solutions are actually offshoots of owned (or paid-for) solutions, where you still have the option of either purchasing (and owning) a license or using their hosted solution. Instead of paying a hefty purchase price up-front, you can start with a hosted plan and then, if you're happy with the system, later buy a license and not continue with the monthly payments.
