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I posted a question earlier about creating shopping cart from scratch(they've closed the question) but i think i must reframe the question because i left something important in the question.

I know shopping carts like "Magento Community Edition(very big software)", "OpenCart", "Prestashop", etc, are opensource and maybe huge to develop by one programmer.

What about hosted shopping carts like "shopify", "BigCommerce", "3dCart", etc.. are these carts too huge for a one programmer to develop them within 0-2yrs?

Are there huge differences between the opensource carts and the hosted carts?

Thanks for your answer.

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I've built few frameworks on my own and while there's not too much work to get something working i've learned that most time should be put on planning instead of coding (while badly planned code starts growing it becomes impossible for one man to manage). However, if planned well and you know what you are doing then go ahead. I still recommend using something that is already proven. – Sampo Sarrala Jun 26 '12 at 21:00

closed as not constructive by Su', John Conde♦ Jun 27 '12 at 14:25

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1 Answer

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With enough time, one man can do anything.

Hosted carts exist to make things simple enough for someone that doesn't understand the nitty-gritty technical side of things to get things done. There are comparable amounts of time required to develop either an open source cart or a 'hosted'/turkney solution as you describe - realistcally, the part that allows people to sign up for their own webshop is fairly straightforward.

Finally, I'd like to discourage you from attempting to write your own shopping cart. It has been done before (a lot) and there is more to consider than you can even imagine - security being paramount. Can you honestly do a better job on your own than multi-million dollar companies who make it tens/hundred's of expert developer's jobs to continue improving their already-established software?

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Thanks for your reply. I appreciate it. Will using existing PHP-Framework(Symphony, Yii, CakePHP etc..) not make it easier? For example in the area of security these frameworks i presume have built in security so i think it won't be a problem. OR? – Eddy Freeman Jun 22 '12 at 8:23
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I'm working for a company where the main developer decided to build our own shopping cart. Believe me, do not bother trying to reinvent the wheel. You may be better off "hacking" or modifying an existing shopping cart to learn how it works. – mickburkejnr Jun 22 '12 at 10:56

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