title: An existing eCommerce solution VS Custom built
body: <p>I'm about to launch a few online stores and I would like to share my thoughts so everyone can benefit and also was wondering about your opinion related to the question: open-source eCommerce vs custom built.</p>
  
  <p>I've been exploring some the existing solutions (Magento, OpenCart, OSCommerce, Xcart).</p>
  
  <p>Advantages and cons:</p>
  
  <p><strong>Existing solutions:</strong></p>
  
  <p><em>Advantages:</em></p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>You don't maintenance the code.</li>
  <li>Plug and Play extensions.</li>
  <li>Support.</li>
  <li>Less code hours (not so sure about that anymore).</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p><em>Cons:</em></p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Hard to custmoize: custom templates, plugins, special needs has to be implented over an heavy code already (not a MVC fan).</li>
  <li>Too many features (could reduce performance).</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p><strong>Custom built:</strong></p>
  
  <p><em>Advantages:</em></p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Easy theme customization (no limits).</li>
  <li>Lightweight.</li>
  <li>More secure (questionable: Minimal is more secure, though existing solutions has more pen-testers == Users/Coders).</li>
  <li>Easy work-around.</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p><em>Cons:</em></p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Hours, a lot of them.</li>
  <li>Lack of plugins, you need to craft everything yourself.</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>More things to consider:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>If I'm going for the custom built - which PHP framework would help me the must?</li>
  <li>Do you know any existing solution which is lightweight, has good plugins database, and is easy to customize?</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>at the moment I have to 'like' custom built more, since i'm going to built a network of stores and would like to get a customized solution, though wondering if I might be wrong.</p>
  
  <p>Please, share from your experience and your thoughts related,</p>
  
  <p>Thanks in advance, your help is appreciated.</p>
  
  <p>Sagi.</p>