Shopify Vs ModX

Just wanted to share my experiences here regarding MODX Vs Shopify.

I had to use Shopify recently to build a simple eCommerce site. I wanted to use MODX but as I'm new to eCommerce, Shopify got the gig and the client liked the screenshots and the shopify website propaganda.

The actual number of products was approx 15 so the site outside the ecommerce functionality (basket, orders, payment processing) is very, very straightforward.

I'm not here to bash Shopify but I couldn't believe how unecessarily complex it was to build even simple pages,menus and templates. I couldn't get Shopify to do the same things I normally whizz through in MODX without lots of complex coding.

At the end of the project, I realised that the only thing Shopify was doing that I liked was the back-end order management and tracking which it does beautifully in a well designed, friendly and usable interface.

Such a shame you can't use MODX to build the site and have Shopify just handle the order tracking, management and payment processing stuff :-/

Just my 2 cent.

You might want to take a look at http://en.oostdesign.nl/modx-revolution-cms/modx-extras/simplecart-webshop/

It's a dilemma.

I’ve built 2 shops recently; for one I used PrestaShop and the other Magento.

In both cases I used MODX for the front of the site and the shops in folder /shop. I themed the shops to look identical, which was painful.

It’s hard to understand how Magento is so successful and almost the defacto standard. I guess it must be hype and the lack of a real alternative. I’ve just spent 2 days trying to edit a packing slip style and finally gave up and bought a module. Things that should be standard/simple are a nightmare.

This is what I like about MODX; it’s elegant. You can tell by the way the features work that the MODX designers have worked in the real web world and done whatever it takes to build the system to work in that real world. With Magento the designers are also in the real world but the system feels like it’s been built at speed to get a long feature list in the shortest time and if the end result means implementers have to be hacking obscure .phtml nested 20 folders deep, then so be it.