Magento, is it really the best?

[dalex]

We have used over 10 different shopping carts over the years including Zen Cart, OSC Max, Os Commerce, Presta Shop, Virtue Mart and many others and Magenta is by far the best and most up to date shopping cart, it may lack some features however they are most likely provided in the community. Yes, it is open source and free, there is a corporate edition for about $7k however I doubt you need that edition. We do however, recommend a reliable web hosting provider that allows a good amount of database storage, some say you need dedicated servers however this is not really the case anymore. Magenta is by far the best and we have been a user since their first month of launching.

We would rate Presta Shop up there as well especially for those on a small web hosting budget.

Cons: Eats a lot of resources "somewhat true", this is more a matter of opinion as too what is a lot, however the Magento team has worked behind the scenes to speed it up as the project progressed, they have a blog including speed testing and keeping on top of your site. Learning how to design for Magento can take some time and can be daunting or confusing.

Pros: Easy to use for your customers and the backend administration is a joy working with, designing is a breeze once learned. A wide array of extensions in the download directory, free and paid.

Magenta is used by several large companies include Homedics!

list can be seen below
http://www.magentocommerce.com/blog/...ento-spotting/

[youngmoneyblog]

as long as you have a good host, you'll be fine with the speed. Like i mentioned before, use one of the host they suggest in the Magento site. My current provide is ~ $30/month and its fast.