i have used Magento and to be honest i found it really complicated. I ended up making a bit of mess with the back end.

I have used Magento for my site. It's good, but can slow down your site loading speed. It's written in Java, and it's quite complex for the ones who are having little or no knowledge of websites.

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to let you know about Magento Go. My partner is a freelance web designer and he has been using Magento for about 3 years. He showed me Magento Go and I think it's great. It's hosted by Magento so the server speed is fine and I have no 'slow' issues. The Magento Go version is scaleable so I only pay for stuff I need.

My site has been live for 3 weeks now and I am ranked 21st in Google organics, I think this is down to Magento Go being SEO friendly (it does help having a partner who is a web designer!)

I have to disagree with it being complicated to use. Like anything new, it takes a little while to get used to, but I am so glad that I have moved over to Magneto Go, the order process is simply intuitive.

My site, Wholesale Jewellery UK - Costume Jewellery Wholesale by Miss Milly also has different pricing structure for wholesale customers which was so important for me; and it works great.

Please check out Magento Go and if you need any advice get in touch, I process orders everyday and my partner may be able to help too with the design and training.

Good luck
Sarah :-)

I tried magento and gave up on it - too complicated even for me (I'm a former web designer and have had coded sites in the past). I switched to Opencart and never looked back. Opencart has many of the same features of magento but is a LOT less complicated to set up. Plus opencart is free and can handle multiple stores from 1 backend (I have 30+ stores running on it).

I’ve used Magento quite extensively over the last several years and it’s certainly up there with the best ecommerce systems however it does have some major drawbacks that have been a constant annoyance for me personally.

Speed as mentioned is a major issue – you need a decent virtual dedicated server or dedicated server in order to run it quickly – if you have a good technical team behind you then you can get various server config’s set up to improve the speed (such as APC).

Extending magento to do more than what comes in the box is very difficult, it’s written like computer software and has a very complex object orientated design – if you’re not a decent PHP developer then you’re going to have a tough time doing anything that isn’t built in or already has an extension for…

Theming also becomes more difficult because of this as well, everything is modular and built upon XML layout files and so on. Again, if you have a good technical team or someone who can use PHP well then you should be fine however if you’re a beginner then I’d avoid the community version if you’re attempting it yourself.

However, you can pick up very well made themes fairly cheaply and just change a few colours/logos, etc and have a decent store in very little time.

Despite having a few big drawbacks, the backend system of Magento is great, it’s very friendly for non-technical users and allows you to do quite a lot. A lot of the built in “architecture” is SEO friendly and doesn’t require too much to get it spot on. There are also quite a few backend training videos out there (just search on youtube for magento basics, etc).

In short: if you want a proper ecommerce system and will invest in getting it right then Magento is the best choice out there.

Check out Wholesale Ladies Clothing - Dresses, Hats, Swimwear & More or Swimwear & Beachwear For Women From South Beach for examples of Magento stores. They both run through the same backend and are very snappy.

I think being open source is great it gives you the flexibility if you need it. I have used a lot of different platforms but never Magento. I have studied it some, it looks pretty good. My programmers say it is good but takes a lot of resources so you definitely need a good hosting company to go with. Some others to look at would be Xcart or you might look at something that is more closed and updates are done for you like Volusion or Big Commerce. Really it seems like many shopping carts have ups and downs. Find one that fits your budget and needs.

I think it is a liitle too difficult to use. Why not just go with zencart or maybe wordpress?