ZenCart is an open source program that can considerably spruce up your website. If you want to offer your customers more than just a simple shopping cart button, ZenCart may be the perfect option for you. There are three reasons for a webmaster to consider this program:

If you have a lot of products in your catalogue, you can use the program to arrange them in various categories;

The program will lend your website a more sophisticated design that will compliment the visual aspects of your site;

You can incorporate pictures and detailed information about your products through the use of this program.

People often wonder about the appropriate hosting plan for an eCommerce rich site that uses ZenCart. Actually, you should be able to install ZenCart on any hosting plan that supports MySQL, Linux and PHP. You will need an FTP connection in order to upload the software and a visit to the control panel to create a database. There are several hosting providers that specialise in hosting sites that use ZenCart; then there are also hosting plans that include basic configuration assistance. Some hosting providers are also offering preinstalled ZenCart as an option.

While choosing an ecommerce hosting provider, the primary consideration should be client convenience; your visitors should have no trouble when making a purchase. That being said, this objective can either be achieved on your own or through a high-end ecommerce hosting plan. If you choose a DIY hosting plan, the hosting company will only provide the necessary amenities while you will be responsible for the technical aspects and putting it all together. Let's call this option, 'self ecommerce hosting'. A more convenient albeit expensive option is to choose hosted ecommerce; this is where the hosting provider does all the work for you.

The pros and cons of DIY ecommerce hosting

Pros: It isconsiderably cheaper and all the necessary amenities will be provided. Since it is an affordable choice, DIY ecommerce hosting is more suitable for budding entrepreneurs who may be short on cash. Most of these hosting plans offer an open source shopping cart system that includes agora cart, Zen Cart etc. You will only have to install the cart on your website and embellish it as per your requirements. If you look hard, you may find a web hosting provider who will help with this step as a goodwill gesture. You can tie up with Paypal if you are trying to be frugal.

Cons: You will need to spend a considerable amount of time to get your cart up and running. You will also need to have some amount of programming knowledge to ensure the smooth working of the system.

The pros and cons of hosted ecommerce:

Pros: If you can afford the charges, hosted ecommerce can produce amazing results. When you choose this option, you get the entire shopping cart system complete with all the extras. You will simply have to upload your products and start selling them. This approach can help you to save a lot of time and you will not need programming knowledge to make things work.

Cons: You will have to pay significantly more than what you would spend for DIY ecommerce hosting.

Pricing, programming knowledge and the amount of time that you can spend are the three important factors that should be considered while choosing a hosting plan for ZenCart.