osCommerce is one of the best open-source e-commerce packages available. The under lying code is extremely well written and constructed.

osCommerce over the years has become so popular that many forks have become available. Some of the most popular form of osCommerce are creLoaded and ZenCart, both of these packages use a modified core of osCommerce and have been upgraded to include extra features.

One of the biggest problems with osCommerce is the lack of active development. In fact, at the time of writing this, the current download Milestone 2 dates back to July 2003. This package has had security holes fixed but no additional features or design changes have been made.

Many third party developers and designers have now begun offering osCommerce services.

The power of osCommerce lies in its open source roots. Open source software is not only available for free but also customisable. How many pieces of software do you own, that don’t exactly fill your requirements? With open-source software your free to change the code to suit your needs.

The problem most people have with this approach is having to learn the complexity of a programming language just to make small changes. osCommerce is written in a programming language called PHP and uses a back end mySQL database, both of these products are themselves open source (and so is the Linux operating system they run on).

For some users the standard osCommerce installation will suffice, but if you want to get more out of your e-commerce site then you will need to get your hands dirty.

Open source is an excellent alternative to closed source software but one of the major drawbacks is a lack of dedicated support. osCommerce has a fantastic active community forum where users can request help, but this is not guaranteed support and because of country time differences waiting for a reply could take many days.

With the popularity of osCommerce grew many contributions that were made available to download for free. These contributions are an excellent source if your looking for added functionality for your site.

The problem with osCommerce contributions is quality and reliability. The majority of contributions are written by skilled developers for a specific site and then shared with the osCommerce community. These contributions are generally not tested on a fresh osCommerce installation and because of the many site variations aren’t guaranteed to work correctly.

Although most of the contributions are supplied with step by step instructions many can conflict with existing contributions and need modification to work correctly.

One of the most serious pitfalls of using an osCommerce contribution is the risk of using a badly coded script which may enable hackers to cause damage or use your site for illegal activity.

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