Hi everyone, i am somewhat new to web design... i've worked with it good 10 years ago, back when it was nothing more then strait HTML with some JavaScript...

In any case, i am helping some of my family with a website they want to set up for small jewelry business... needless to say i am spending most of my time reading up on what's all the new cool kids on the block are using for their websites...

Which brings me to my question... what's the best shopping cart (preferably free) out there right now... i think Zen Cart is what some have suggested to me, anyone here had any experience with it?

Thanks

Hey,

If you're looking for a free online shopping cart, check out SnapJar (http://snapjar.com). It's simple to get all your stuff up. ZenCart takes a bit more to setup. If you just want to upload your product images and set prices snapjar is worth a look. (Supports paypal and google checkout)

In my opinion, X-Cart (http://www.x-cart.com) is another option worth considering. It's quite feature-rich and, at the same, time flexible for integration with your existing design or website. Their support and community forums are very friendly. I'd really like to try their latest release, 4.2, which introduces some interesting new features.

Thanks guys, really appreciate the feedback... as i type i am looking at a nice size manual for zen cart (good 400 pages) and to be honest, i am not sure that it's worth sinking few weeks of my free time into learning the basics of it...

i'll give a try to both of your suggested carts... sounds like i'll be saving myself some major play time if i'll go with one of your suggestions...

Hello,

I've always recommend CubeCart to anyone setting up a shopping cart website. Over the years using many many different shopping carts I always went back to CubeCart. Its simple, professional and easy for any Average Joe to operate. If you have a web hosting that has Fantastico you can install a shopping cart by a simple click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantastico_(web_hosting) Best of luck.

thanks ~Pixel Queen~... now i have 4 shopping carts to look over... does anyone here has any experience using more then one of the ones mentioned... go give me an idea of differences between them?

so far i have:
Zen Cart: downside: huge time sink upfront to learn the thing...
SnapJar: simple
X-Cart: eature-rich and and flexible for integration with existing design. Their support and community forums are very friendly.
CubeCart: Its simple, professional and easy for any Average Joe to operate.

did i miss anything? are all of them free?

At this time php based shopping cart is using by mostly people. So I can suggest you best php based shopping cart with custom features.