What is the best way to build an online marketplace?
In this article we consider Dittofi’s no code marketplace solution as an alternative to CS-Cart’s multi-vendor marketplace solution.
We start by looking at what CS-Cart is, who it is for and how much it costs.
What is CS-Cart?
CS-Cart is an Open Source marketplace technology. This means that CS-Cart allows you to download a collection of prebuilt frontend and backend code that you can leverage to build a two-sided peer to peer marketplace.
Who is CS-Cart for?
CS-Cart is for small sized businesses who want to jumpstart the development of a multi-vendor, peer to peer marketplace.
The type of business that this solution appeals to is one that values the ability to customize their solution, who have time and technical resources to commit marketplace development and who understand the importance of owning the underlying source code.
CS-Cart cost and pricing
When you start using CS-Cart, you need to first of all download the source code (written in HTML, CSS, JavaScript and PHP) for the platform.
There is a one time fee that you must pay to download the code. The price of the code is based on the number of features you choose to download. The more features, the higher the price. To get a quote on this, you need to contact CS-Cart directly.
Notice that CS-Cart does not offer a marketplace hosting solution. Therefore, you will need to self-host your two sided marketplace. This means you will need to commit additional time and resources to building and maintaining your marketplace.
Dittofi vs CS-Cart: A comparison
In this section we directly compare Dittofi as a CS-Cart alternative.
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|---|---|---|
| Dedicated marketplace solution |
Yes - build product, service and rental marketplaces.
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Yes - build product, service and rental marketplaces.
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| Access your marketplace source code and IP |
Yes - full source code access.
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Yes - full source code access.
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| Setup time for version 1 |
10 hours – build and launch your marketplace fast, without coding.
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6 - 8 weeks – customize your marketplace by editing the source code directly.
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| Technical skill set required |
Use Dittofi's visual development studio – Quickly add new features to your marketplace in an entirely visual way or by editing the code.
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Full stack developer – add new features to your marketplace by editing the code directly.
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| Marketplace Hosting |
Option to self host, host with Dittofi or export Dittofi's hosting model in one click.
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Must build your own marketplace hosting.
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| Technology stack |
Modern, high performance technology stack of React and Google Go.
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Older and less performant technology running on PHP.
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Dittofi as a CS-Cart Alternative
To start thinking about Dittofi as a CS-Cart alternative, let’s begin by looking at the similarities between Dittofi and CS-Cart.
Similarities between Dittofi and CS-Cart
Both Dittofi and CS-Cart are technologies that can be used to build various types of ecommerce and multi-vendor marketplace solutions. Both platforms:
- Offer feature rich peer to peer, or multi-vendor marketplace templates that you can install, customize and launch faster than coding from scratch
- Allow you to build either product, service and rental marketplaces.
- Allow you to access the source code for your marketplace to build entirely bespoke solutions
- Give you the option to own the source code for your marketplace
Key differences between Dittofi and CS-Cart
Although there are some similarities between Dittofi and CS-Cart, there are also some quite major differences when it comes to the setup time for your marketplace, the technical skill sets required to customize your marketplace, options for hosted vs self hosted solutions and the underlying technology stack.
Let’s take a look at each of these points now.
Setup time for version 1 of your marketplace
Dittofi comes with a simple onboarding that allows you to build and launch a product, service or rental marketplace in a matter of hours and without writing any code.
In contrast, CS-Cart requires you to do custom development work to prepare your marketplace for launch. This involves updating the source code that you’ve downloaded, as well as creating a marketplace hosting model for your solution. This normally takes 6 – 8 weeks (or longer).
Technical skill set required
Dittofi is a hybrid no code platform. This means that you can build and launch your marketplace without coding. However, you can also use Dittofi’s visual design studio to add new features to your marketplace 10x faster than traditional coding. This allows you to rapidly incorporate client feedback into your marketplace, empowering you to be more responsive to customer requests, retain customers and reduce churn.
In contrast, launching your marketplace with CS-Cart requires a developer. This is more time consuming and resource intensive when compared to using a no code platform like Dittofi.
CS-Cart will argue that getting access to the underlying source code is important because it allows you to build an entirely bespoke solution. This is completely true. However, Dittofi’s unique hybrid approach to no code also allows you to access and customize the underlying code, either through our visual builder or by touching the code directly.
Marketplace hosting
CS-Cart does not come with marketplace hosting. This means that you need to build your hosting model manually before you can launch.
Developing a secure and robust hosting model might seem easy however, to do this, you need to hire an engineer that specializes in infrastructure development. This type of developer is extremely difficult to find and also expensive to employ. Therefore, if you’re developing your marketplace with CS-Cart, you should expect to invest more time and resources into the development of your own marketplace hosting model.
By contrast, Dittofi comes with a prebuilt marketplace hosting model called Dittofi Cloud. This allows you to launch your marketplace in a single click saving you time and money.
When you first launch your marketplace, we recommend that you host directly inside Dittofi’s fully managed cloud. This saves you setup time and maintenance. However, as you scale there are certain benefits that you can get by running a self-hosted model. As such, Dittofi also allows you to export the entire infrastructure model directly into your own self-hosted environment using Dittofi’s Automated Devops Solution (ADS). This can quite literally save you millions of dollars in custom infrastructure development.
Technology stack
The last major difference between Dittofi vs CS-Cart is the technology stack that is used to power the marketplace.
CS-Cart uses a slightly dated technology stack that includes: frontend code HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Smarty and backend code written in PHP. Notice, CS-Cart does not include a database or any infrastructure to host your application on.
By contrast Dittofi uses a modern, high performance technology stack that includes: frontend code in React, backend code in Google Go and a fully serverless infrastructure setup that uses the latest in cloud technologies.
Dittofi’s choice of technology has several benefits when compared to CS-Cart. For example, Dittofi’s more modern tech stack attracts better developer talent, scales in a more cost effective way, is faster to onboard onto and easier and quicker to edit (either using Dittofi’s visual builder or by accessing the code directly).
Conclusion: How to choose your marketplace technology
Building a multi-vendor marketplace is complex. However, specialist marketplace software such as Dittofi and CS-Cart can be used to make the development process significantly easier.
Both Dittofi and CS-Cart are tried and tested marketplace technologies that will allow you to build an entirely bespoke multi-vendor marketplace. However, each solution will get you there in a different way. Therefore, when considering the best path to building a marketplace, you need to consider what your priorities and access to resources are.
Are you a developer who prefers to work with code? Do you want to design your own custom hosting model? Do you prefer a technology stack of PHP vs Google Go? If so, you should consider using CS-Cart.
Alternatively, if you value speed and time to market? Quick iterations? Reduced reliance on software and infrastructure engineers? Building your marketplace on a modern technology stack? If so, you should consider using Dittofi’s hybrid no code marketplace solution.
Since Dittofi offers a 14 day free trial, we recommend signing up, installing one of the marketplace templates and seeing if this meets your needs. You’ll be able to tell pretty quickly if this is something that you want to continue with.
Other tools that you might also wish to consider as a CS-Cart alternative are Booqable (for SMEs looking to build rental marketplaces) or Sharetribe.
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