Kryptronic Software Support Forum

Probably not the answer you want, but "it depends".

What's your budget? I'm sure there are better carts out there, but you're going to pay at *least* 3 times as much for them.

What's your comfort level with Perl? The great thing about CCP is that it's not compiled canned software, so really sky's the limit in terms of customization.

What's your HTML experience? IMO, you cannot just take the default look of CCP and sell it to a client -- I'm sure they are going to expect a full customized look. While that's not a problem with CCP, if you're completely changing things around it does take a good knowledge of HTML (as would any customizable cart).

Other than that, CCP has been everything it was sold as, if not more. Almost all of my questions regarding making certain things work have been answered by a quick search of the forums. I haven't even had the *need* to request personal support, so I can't answer that one.

Pretty steep learning curve (if you want to delve)...but its by far the best cart I've worked with and I've worked with most of them.

As for the price....you can't argue with that either!

Support forums here are always an active place for .....well....support!

Version 6 Zuma looks like it's going to beat the pants off any other cart out there.

Moans....none really. Can be a little slow if not using SQL.


BRAINS

Hello Tim.  No such chart exists, but extensive module documentation is part of the CCP6 project.  Read more in the CCP6 development forum...

Dear Tim,

I hate it.
If you don't know perl, it's very hard to make it work.
Hubby has been trying to make it work for almost 2 months now, but he's no perl expert.
Mark wrote to hubby and to me, and after the last email from me, I've not heard from him again.

The reason we bought it is because it's supposed to be customizable.

I suppose if you have a lot of money, you could hire someone to make it work for you. We've written several places and it's usually $325 and above, or they won't work with 3rd party perl, or they just don't reply.

If I had it to do over, I would not have bought it. I would have junked the secure cert we have [3 years worth, so I'm already in deep moneywise] and gone with MAL's shopping cart.

The help here has been non-existent for us.

If anyone is interested, we need this cart to work in 4 areas; local taxes, postage, taking checks online, which we already DO, I print them out using Versacheck software, and taking credit cards. I use Propay, which means I collect the info in a db and manually input it into propay.com.

Otherwise, I'm going to be $480 in the hole, $300 for 3 yr sec cert and $180 for this.

Janine Phariss

Dear Tim,

I hate it.
If you don't know perl, it's very hard to make it work.
Hubby has been trying to make it work for almost 2 months now, but he's no perl expert.
Mark wrote to hubby and to me, and after the last email from me, I've not heard from him again.

The reason we bought it is because it's supposed to be customizable.

I suppose if you have a lot of money, you could hire someone to make it work for you. We've written several places and it's usually $325 and above, or they won't work with 3rd party perl, or they just don't reply.

If I had it to do over, I would not have bought it. I would have junked the secure cert we have [3 years worth, so I'm already in deep moneywise] and gone with MAL's shopping cart.

The help here has been non-existent for us.

If anyone is interested, we need this cart to work in 4 areas; local taxes, postage, taking checks online, which we already DO, I print them out using Versacheck software, and taking credit cards. I use Propay, which means I collect the info in a db and manually input it into propay.com.

Otherwise, I'm going to be $480 in the hole, $300 for 3 yr sec cert and $180 for this.

Janine Phariss

I sypathise with you completely on EVERY point you made! ... I have almost $1000. invested so far in this script including the "mods" and "custom codings" that I paid for and still I cannot even use my shipper of choice (DHL) or accept online checks through checkout. I always get told "get a quote" and when I do the quote is outrageous, or not even replied to. I started out loving this script because like you, I THOUGHT it could be customized. But unless you have very deep pockets, it cannot be...

I am always replied to with "wait and buy Zuma" or "get a quote from XXX" which is like buying a new car, having it break down a month later, and then when you complain to the dealer he tells you "just buy a new one, it will run better then the old one".

I'm sorry, but frustration makes me awnry.

I gave up a long time ago on the "perfect cart."  I have spent years being forced to make business and logistical decisions that were dictated by the current cart that we were using at the time.  I have wasted thousands of dollars on the higher profile systems like Miva and xCart and find it funny that I settled on a cart that cost me less than $200 and fits most of my needs.

You could probably spend a grand or so on a cart and not ever hope to get it to do what you want, basically bowing to the creators of the software hoping that they implement your feature (someday).  I am glad that Clickcart allows me to never feel that way again.

I see Clickcart as a framework to an internet commerce engine that is mine and will someday do everything I need it too.  I was stunned at how much that "beginning framework" worked so damn well .  If you know Perl, it's fully customizable - if you don't know Perl, it's still fully customizable and you won't find many carts that offer that.

Cornweb-

CCP has always been a pay-per-license program.  The SEO module is expensive due to the fact that it takes ATS typically 45 minutes to 1 hour to install on each site.  As we all know, time is money.

If you post a URL to your store (in another thread), I'm sure the community can provide insights as to why your sales are not where you expect them.

BigDave-

It does not take deep pockets to run CCP.  Most users run it out of the box without modifications and never talk to support, post to the forum or need custom development.  In your case, CCP did not fill all your requirements out of the box - hence the custom support you required.

Rest assured with the release of version 6, payment processor functionality (like echeck acceptance) and shipper functionality (like a DHL interface) will be made available.

I’ve been using CCP since last fall and overall I am very satisfied.  Let me start off by saying that I am in no way a programmer and hardly know HTML so Perl is a complete mystery to me.  It’s been a huge learning curve but the forum has been my life saver.  There are plenty of customizable scripts/mods on the forum that are easy to implement as long as someone takes the time to tell me which file to change, etc.

I approach my websites from a business perspective and know that one program can’t be all to everyone.  The only extra money I’ve spent is for the Froogle module and $25 for a new skin to change the look of my website.  Do I love the way it looks, not really but it’s easy to use, looks professional, and generates sales.  I’ve learned to work around a few of the short comings of CCP but really there aren’t many. 

If I had to say the one area that the program is lacking is the lack of a search engine module.  I’ve worked around this for the time being until 6.0 is ready. That been said, I’ve recommended the program to several people because the overall value is exceptional.

I started out using CCP51 as a complete newbie to web design, with no experience or knowledge in Perl, or even HTML, and yet with only my intuition, knowledge I scrounged up from the internet, and this forum, I have found this software to be  easy to use given its relative level of functionality - which is very high. I think, however, you have to be a bit of a bulldog to make this approach work and have some basic background in computers et al.

Before I purchased CCP51 I  spent about six weeks researching the competition, of which there is a plethora. In my view CCP51, feature for feature, blows the rest away hands down. Certainly it is not perfect, it's most glaring and well criticized shortcoming being its lack of documentation. However, once you get the basic concepts down it is extremely intuitive and very powerful stuff for the price. I think, however, that if you come into it with no knowledge of Perl whatsoever and expect you can do anything you please, you'll be disappointed. But I don't think the advertising should lead you to believe the opposite. At a low level of tech skill, such as mine, it is customizable to a very great degree...if you are a Perl programmer I would think the sky is the limit. Nonetheless, for the money, you can't beat it.

As for tech support, it may be a little slow in coming sometimes, but come it does. Of course, for most of my issues I have merely browsed the archives of this forum  and found a solution to my problem. And given that the forum is FREE, I'd say it is a very good deal... Remember, when you buy a piece of software such as MicrosoftWord, or any number of other Shopping Cart packages out there, much of the cost is going to cover the developers staff, many of whom are tech support people. CCP51 avoids this by use of the forum, and I find it to be an excellent solution.

Anyhow, that's my two cents. I love it and think it was a great investment.
Andrew

We have been using CCP5.1 (tiki) for one of our clients for several years now. We have added the SEO mod, and two custom mods, the first to give volume purchase discounts only to customers who establish accounts and login when purchasing, and the second to allow the purchase of gift certificates. These have all worked fine, but the site has grown with our site advertising and SEO optimization. The site now has about 500 products listed, and it has doubled visitor traffic in the last three months - due we think to our having created a full site map for all search engines with resulting 'natural" search engine (especially Google) improvements to first page position for all of our important key words. We are experiencing about 600 visits per day. We have been using the default-as-installed CSV data mode since launch.

All seemed to be going well. Then our hosting company (we use shared LINUX hosting with a respected provider) experienced our site demanding huge gulps of server CPU - and we noticed the site response was tremendously slowing down. The host had to disable our CGI script (cp-app.cgi) taking the entire cart down. We went into crisis mode along with our client and changed over from CSV data to MySQL data for the major items. Working with our hosting team, we got them convinced this would reduce the load on the CPU. They agreed, tested the site offline, and then un-embargoed the CGI script they had disabled. The site is running much faster now, and we hope the issue is resolved.

During this crisis, we called ClickCartPro with the urgent request to contact us. We backed the call up with an email. We got no response. This has happened before - three weeks ago when we tried to get service (and emphasizing we were willing to pay for it). Trying to contact ClickCartPro is similar to flying into a black hole. It is as if the owner and the staff all have "day jobs" and they just don't have the capacity or the will to support those who buy the product. If it were not for this forum, there appears to be no support at all, especially in a crisis.

If we were to respond to our clients this way, we would have none. Keep this in mind when considering this product. Yes, it is a good value at the outset (compared to others) and it has worked well for us until it started taxing the hosting server CPU while running CSV mode data. If your ever need fast help however, what we've found is that you are totally on your own (except for the online aids, which may take some experience to use and then understand).

We think Nick Hendler and his company have the best of intentions - but "intentions" don't get the job done when things hit the fan. This lack of response, of course, could happen with any software provider. We urge anyone to fully explore the ability of a software provider to give rapid response BEFORE purchasing their product. Never assume you will get hands-on help when you really need it. Also, we recommend that you establish a relationship with a separate programming firm that knows the software - before you buy it. We have found the firm Cart-Mod answers its phone and seems dedicated to service. Since ClickCartPro seems "unreachable" - this makes for a "must" strategy if you need help fast.

W. Thompson