[thelist] x-cart vs zen-cart

[Hershel Robinson]

Based on advice from this list I chose x-cart for an e-store I recently 
built. The back-end seems to be very professional with all the (and even 
more) features than the average small e-store would ever need.

The front-end (produced HTML) however is, in a word, horrific. It's 
1999-era HTML coding IMHO.

Customizing the front end, however, I found to be actually fairly easy. 
Once I figured out how things work and found the correct files, 
customizing certain parts was a snap (knowing PHP helps of course).

I am looking at building another store now and I thought to ask again 
about zen-cart and people's experiences with it.

I understand the down-side to zen-cart is the lack of support 
(open-source, where you pay with your sanity) whereas the upside is the 
front-end code. I also imagine that the back-end code is not as mature 
as x-cart, which also is a negative.

With my (very) limited knowledge of these two options, I would say 
x-cart is probably overall a better choice, because when push comes to 
shove, if it doesn't work, it's not worth anything. x-cart works and if 
not, they have support, whereas zen-cart apparently may or may not work.

Anyone have anything more intelligent to share in comparing zen-cart vs 
x-cart?

Thanks,
Hershel