Do you recommend Actinic

[RobMW]

I'm looking for an e-commerce platform to design and manage multiple shops. There is a great deal of choice out there but I'm mainly looking at ....... and Actinic.

I have read a lot of good and bad reviews about both platforms so I thought the best people to ask would be the users. Any comments would be much appreciated.

Mod Note: Competitive cart name removed.

[leehack]

I'd not advise the good/bad type reviews (very subjective), i think it's more important that you choose (before paying for it) a solution that will do all you want. If this means you have to sit down for 2 hours and list all you want your sites to be able to do, then so be it, rest assured it is time well spent. A fair amount of bad reviews are where a user has assumed that a platform can do something, bought it and then found out it cannot.

Actinic has some fantastic features, its backend is the best in the industry, particularly when coupled with the actinic payments solution. Its account system is rather dated but being upgraded to come up to modern day requirements in the next version due out in about 6 months i'd guess. Its front end is OK as standard, lacks a few things you might expect, but the good news is there are a number of addon/plugin companies and you can almost always do what you need some way.

In addition actinic has one of the best communities, with a host of free information and a boat load of users willing to help users. They've also been around for many years now, over 10 i believe, around 11,000 users so a very good base.

Study what you want to do on your site and take advantage of the free 30 day trial, you can't ask for anything better than that.

[Duncan Rounding]

On this forum you will hear mostly good news about Actinic. The system can do most things you might want. You can use completely bespoke designs and manage mutiple sites. It can also integrate tightly with most PSPs and especially so with Actinic Payments.

What specific requirements are you looking for?

[Keith@Brand]

Might be a good idea to look at the actinic customer examples http://www.actinic.co.uk/customer-examples.html

and version 10 site showcase
http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=47097

for an idea of what you can do with actinic. The standard themes you get arent great but do work well. The community is great for solutions and there is an advanced user guide for modifications submitted by the community

[RobMW]

Many thanks for such quick replies, and my apologies for breaking forum rules with my very first post! Not a good start

The two main features I'm looking for are not in Actinic, being gift certificates and "login to your account". I understand that accounts can be set up for favoured customers though.

I have had a good look at the trial version, and seen some truly stunning design work in the showcase.

What I cant get my head round is that other platforms seem to do more, but for free. They are all web based, which I don't like, and involve programming skills. Having said that, I'm sure Actinic requires coding skills if you don't want to use a template.

[leehack]

Many thanks for such quick replies, and my apologies for breaking forum rules with my very first post! Not a good start

The two main features I'm looking for are not in Actinic, being gift certificates and "login to your account". I understand that accounts can be set up for favoured customers though.

I have had a good look at the trial version, and seen some truly stunning design work in the showcase.

What I cant get my head round is that other platforms seem to do more, but for free. They are all web based, which I don't like, and involve programming skills. Having said that, I'm sure Actinic requires coding skills if you don't want to use a template.

If the two main features you require are not currently available in actinic and you have found other solutions for free that do more and presumably what you want, i'm not sure why you are on an actinic forum discussing actinic?

If actinic does not have the features you require, whether it is web based or desktop based is irrelevant isn't it? You can achieve many things with actinic, with the coding of almost every page available for full bespoke design (with knowledge or the use of a designer), but you will not be able to add the main features which it lacks that you require, so actinic on this occasion seems a non-starter i'd say, unless your timescales are loose and waiting for v11 is an option.

[guccij]

Has a post been deleted on this thread? Or am I losing the plot?

[leehack]

Has a post been deleted on this thread? Or am I losing the plot?

No deletion has occurred, just a competitors name has been removed from original post as per the guidelines etc.

[RobMW]

Has a post been deleted on this thread? Or am I losing the plot?

No your not losing the plot. My last post has not appeared on the site.

[guccij]

So how did Lee reply to it then?

[RobMW]

So how did Lee reply to it then?

Cos he's a moderator I guess.

[RobMW]

If the two main features you require are not currently available in actinic and you have found other solutions for free that do more and presumably what you want, i'm not sure why you are on an actinic forum discussing actinic?

Your expecting me to be logical!

I think the answer is I want a PC based system and Actinic is the best of those, but I also need to justify it over other options, hence chatting to you guys. There must be a reason why Actinic users chose this platform over the alternatives.

Anyway, one things for certain. Actinic has a great forum.

[leehack]

The missing post concundrum lol, i can see it, but i can see it is not numbered which is why you guys probably can't, i've included its contents into my reply to avoid any confusion. I think with you being a new user and mentioning a competitor solution, you've possibly been highlighted as an account that needs verifying. Don't take it personally though, we've had a huge amount of spam attacks lately and stricter rules have been put in place to help us combat it.

[guccij]

Thanks Lee for editing your post to put the OP's quote in. Alles klar.

[guccij]

There must be a reason why Actinic users chose this platform over the alternatives.

We chose Actinic because at its simplest level, it works out of the box. Pick a template, add in your products, set up shipping and a PSP and there you have it, an ecommerce site ready to go.

As time has gone on, we found, as do many users I imagine, that you want Actinic to do more. So we have installed add-ins from various suppliers, had a designer revamp the site, enhanced the back end with One Stop Order Processing from Mole End and upgraded from Catalog up to Business Plus.

Our site was successful before we moved to Actinic. It's 4 times as successful now