osCommerce vs. Joomla with Virtuemart: Pros and Cons

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osCommerce and Joomla with Virtuemart are both easy to administrate from each others’ respective admin interfaces.

osCommerce comes close in functionality, but from the developer’s perspective, the code could really benefit from a reorganization and some general TLC. Better comments, cleaner code layout, and a more thought out class structure would definitely boost osCommerce’s standing among developers.

If Joomla continues to grow as (probably) the best web CMS out there, Virtuemart could give osCommerce a run for its money. Having the advantage of being fully integrated into a very rich CMS, managing Virtuemart becomes almost trivial.

 

Joomla with Virtuemart Pros:

• Fast and easy installation and configuration.
• Easy to customize and extend.
• Shopper groups (vendors, guests, whatever your heart desires. Product prices and descriptions can vary from group to group).
• Small codebase, easy to develop for. (it’s just a Joomla module)
• Easy to administrate.

osCommerce Pros:

• Fast and easy installation and configuration.
• Vetted. Though still a development release, it is widely popular and thus has a larger support base.
• Lots of plug-ins. Chances are, any feature you need, has already been written by someone else.
• Supports most e-commerce standard features out-of-box.

Joomla with Virtuemart Cons:

• Still quite a bit on the CVS to-do list. (some functionality could require development if needed immediately)
• Not stand-alone. Requires Joomla to function.
• Must learn Joomla framework (or at least how to write Joomla modules and templates) to develop custom functionality.

osCommerce Cons:

• Large and overly complex code base. Difficult to extend or modify.

In summary, both products support alot of the same features:

Customizable products, carts, shopper account administration, reports, etc…

Joomla with Virtuemart definitely benefits over osCommerce when it comes to extensibility. If you are familiar with Joomla’s framework and templating system, then the sky’s the limit when it comes to extending virtuemart. osCommerce, while certainly popular, is difficult for the developer wade through, lacking meaningful comments and a having a code structure that is haphazard at best.