Ecommerce software consists of more than just a shopping cart for your business website. There are at least two types of e-commerce software.  In this article we explain the difference in ecommerce software and how ecommerce software pertains to web hosting and stand alone softwares.

Ecommerce software can refer to at least two different types of software. On the one hand, it can refer to boxed or downloaded software which contains an application that the purchaser installs on his or her computer and uses—either through coding, drag-and-drop arrangement, a template, or a combination of methods—to create a website, which is then uploaded to a server, either the creator’s own or that of a web hosting company. But the applications, scripts, plug-ins, themes, and add-ons of any other kind of code that is provided through website builders or the installation of software on the server where the website resides, and accessed through a browser interface, rather than having an existence on your desktop.

There are some key differences between these two types of software.

• Software installed on your desktop—whether from a box or a download—is more likely to be operating-system specific, capable of being used only on Mac or PC and only on certain versions of the Mac or Windows software. Software used through a browser may possibly be both a) specific to the operating system on the server and b) specific to certain browsers.

• Software installed on your desktop, no matter what the source, is almost always software you paid for and that you will pay for again if you wish to have the upgrades that keep you current and give you access to new features and bug fixes. Software that you access through your browser may be free or paid, but a lot of it is free, open-source software. In that case, some of the plug-ins, themes, or add-ons may be paid.

Ecommerce software may the content of the hosting package, as it is in GoDaddy’s Economy, Deluxe, and Premium Quick Shopping Cart web hosting packages, for example. In this set-up, you choose a design (template), add products, and open for business.

To do something similar with free-standing software, you would have to sign-up for a web hosting package and do more of the set-up work yourself, in terms of finding templates or software that met your needs. However, taking the second route would also give you more control. For example, you could start with a content management system (CMS) like WordPress, Mambo, Joomla!, or Drupal site and add ecommerce functionality. Or, you could start with Agora Cart, Cube Cart, Zen Cart, OS Commerce Cart, Tomato Cart, Magento, or any other free, open-source or paid shopping cart software that can be run on the servers provided by your web host and start from there.

Your choice may rest on a number of factors, including the limitations in an integrated store/hosting package like GoDaddy’s (you’re limited to a certain number of products, a certain disk space, and a certain amount of bandwidth) or the price – probably more than signing up for a hosting package and using free, open source software to “do-it-yourself, either through a content management system and its add-ons, plug-ins, or themes, or through shopping cart software.