Item: X-Cart
Rating: 4
Author: Michael Levanduski

Digital.com’s Rating for X-Cart

Our Editor’s rated X-Cart 4 / 5 based on user ratings, pricing, and features offered.

X-Cart: Quick Overview

This X-Cart review (2022 update) will help you make the best-informed decision whether or not you should buy e-commerce software from X-Cart.

Do you know exactly what you want, and you want a PHP-based e-commerce solution? Then look no further than X-Cart.

X-Cart is a leading PHP shopping cart e-commerce software. More than 35,000 online stores around the world use and rely on X‑Cart as their e-commerce platform of choice.

Their self-hosted e-commerce software has a range of cutting-edge features that make it easy to start and run your online store. Known as one of the fastest e-commerce solutions on the market, that is extremely flexible and comes packed with many features.

Take advantage of X-Cart’s free 30-day trial – no credit card required and no commitment. X-Cart’s cheapest paid e-commerce software plan is 495.00 per month.

Try X-Cart. Get started now

About X-Cart

X-Cart is an open source PHP shopping cart e-commerce software platform that enables online merchants to process orders, track inventory, and manage every aspect of an online store. It was created more than one decade ago by serial entrepreneur Ruslan Fazlyev. At the time of writing this review, the company boasts a user base of 30,000+ online stores.

Currently, there are two versions of the X-Cart shopping cart software. X-Cart 5 offers several packages to choose from, including a free limited edition too:

Free
Business
Multivendor
Ultimate

Try X-Cart with a 30-day free trial.

195 Makarios III Avenue, Limassol, Cyprus, CY-3030
842 279 4038
Official website
Facebook
Twitter
Founded by Ruslan Fazlyev in 2001.

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X-Cart Features

X-Cart 5 is a self-hosted shopping cart.

Users are free to choose their own third-party hosting provider but they will have to buy and install an SSL certificate in order to offer secure checkouts.

Alternatively, X-Cart offers hosting services with either a shared or a dedicated SSL certificate depending on the chosen plan.

The following X-Cart overview will focus more on the shopping cart itself. So, if you’re searching for a shopping cart that can help you run a webshop, read on to find out if X-Cart is the right fit for your online business.

Try X-Cart for free with a 30-day trial period.

Add-Ons and Integrations With Third-Party E-Commerce Tools

Just like most digital shopping carts, X-Cart offers the ability to integrate your online store with additional add-on applications to expand functionality.

To get add-ons for your webshop, simply visit the X-Cart marketplace. There are many extensions for both X-Cart 4 and 5. Most of them are free but some require payment or a higher tier license.

With X-Cart’s add-on integration support, you can hook up your online store with tools that perform extra tasks. For instance, there are add-ons for processing online payments, email marketing, drop shipping, and more.

Payment Processing: What’s Available?

You can accept both credit/debit cards and e-payments on your online store when customers checkout out with X-Cart. This shopping cart integrates with more than 75 payment providers, including but not limited to PayPal, Skrill, Stripe, Authorize.net, FirstData, and Chase Paymentech.

X-Cart integrates with X-Payments, a PA DSS certified software that complies with PCI standards. X-Payments will provide an encrypted online form where customers can enter their credit card details or choose to checkout with another payment method on a secure page.

Once you’ve created a merchant account, all that’s left to do is select the preferred payment gateway(s) from the X-Cart admin area then the software will handle integration. Furthermore, customers can swipe PayPal Debit MasterCards at your brick-and-mortar store if you integrate your webshop with the PayPal Here chip and pin reader.

Templates and Design

When it comes to online store design templates, X-Cart is a bit limited compared to what most shopping cart providers offer. This shopping cart only features a dozen free CCS-based themes, 4 free color schemes, and about 35 paid design templates.

Responsive Templates for Mobile

All themes from X-Cart feature a responsive design. This means your online store will automatically adapt to the screen size of any device that’s used to access it, offering an optimal display for that device.

“Webmaster mode” allows you to quickly modify any template. After applying changes, you can view your store just as customers would see it by clicking a bar above the top-level navigation.

Business, Advanced, and Enterprise stores come with a filter extension that allows you to modify CSS and JavaScript in order to create a more customized layout for your webshop.

xcart template demo — Demo: You can interact with each X-Cart site template before purchasing it. Each template is open-source and fully customizable.

Looking to save big on a top e-commerce platform?

Click the link below for a 1-month free trial of BigCommerce.

BigCommerce

Downloadable apps available
Creative design tool
API driven

Visit BigCommerce Website

Marketing Tools and Services

You can utilize several marketing tools to promote your online store when using the X-Cart shopping cart.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tools

X-Cart 5 provides SEO tools to configure the basics:

Clean URLs
Meta tags
Rich snippets
An XML sitemap

These options will make your online store more search engine friendly.

SEO add-ons include things like:

Site Structured Data: an easy way to add Structured Data Markup to your site (You could use Google Search Console for this though.)
SEO Health Check: performs a basic SEO audit on your site, flagging items to fix
Easy CDN integration: a CDN — or content delivery network — will speed up your site. Speed is directly correlated with conversions, so if you’re selling anything, you need to be concerned with site loading speed. Speed also impacts Google ranking.

They also offer SEO consulting services, which include:

An initial audit to detect problems with your website
Checking technical issues related to your web server setup and DNS (domain name server)
Analyzing your content for gaps, SEO problems, and solutions
Analyzing your site’s structure, which can have a significant impact on SEO. Making recommendations for improvements.
Analyzing your visitors’ behavior
Analyzing your competitors’ search performance
Assessment of local SEO factors like citation building and Google My Business performance
Developing a competitive SEO strategy
A results-based, money-back guarantee.

x-cart success stories — Success stories: the X-Cart site features testimonials of successful e-commerce store owners, like Standout, pictured above. Visiting the stores cited in the success stories is one of the best ways to get an idea of what’s possible with X-Cart.

More Marketing Tools

Here are a handful of the functionalities, apps, and integrations available. Note: Not all are free.

Mobile-only deals: target smartphone users based on device or location
Integration with Mail Chimp or other similar add-ons allows you to launch an email marketing campaign.
Google Experiment is an add-on that integrates with Google Analytics and allows you to run A/B testing. Simple A/B testing can significantly improve your conversion rate.
Google Customers Review integration allows your site to display Google reviews.
The “Hurry Up” integration notifies a visitor, in real time, when a product they are viewing is in low stock.
Criteo One-Tag is one of several advertising integrations. Note: You could accomplish the same easy integration by setting up Google Tag Manager.
And speaking of: there’s also an app for easily setting up Google Tag Manager
SendPulse integration: SendPulse is an AI platform that detects the best time to send email, SMS, and web push notifications, in order to optimize open rates.
Facebook E-Commerce app allows you to easily integrate your X-Cart site with Facebook and sell your products on the social platform as well.
Segment integration: You can think of Segment as data piping that can be used to connect any tools, with no coding required.
Abandoned Cart Reminder: This app sends an automatic email notification (that you draft) to a user who almost — but didn’t — check out. The reminder can offer a discount for checking out or some other persuasive offer.

Any Affiliate Marketing Options?

X-Cart 5 comes with an affiliate partner program, which enables other sellers to market your brand in exchange for commissions. This version also enables customers to leave reviews, allowing you to use the power of positive testimonials to promote your brand.

Need to Host an Online Auction?

Another unique marketing feature that X-Cart offers is the ability to host an auction.

There are options to set the entry price, auction duration, and minimum bid increments.

The auction function will come in handy if you sell collectibles or antique products.

Loyalty and Reward Programs

Through X-Cart’s loyalty reward program and discount coupons, you also have the power to keep customers coming back.

Looking for a Great X-Cart Alternative?

We think Shopify is a solid choice for most visitors.

Shopify

Library of ready-to-use templates
Built-in marketing tools
Manage your site from a single dashboard

Visit Shopify Website

SKU and Inventory Management

From e-goods to physical products to subscription services, you can sell virtually anything with the X-Cart shopping cart.

The number of products you can upload to your online store will only be limited by the storage space that your server provides.

However, product options have no limit so you have the choice to create unlimited variants based on size, color, weight, and other attributes.

The catalog editor can import CSV files, so it’s possible to move an existing product database to your X-Cart store. X-Cart offers inventory-tracking features as well, which let you monitor the number of products in stock.

Do You Need Graphic Design Services?

X-Cart can also help you with design needs, including:

Logo development
Brand collateral
Menus
Navigation buttons
Brochures
Forms
Business cards
Brochures
Background Textures
Ad banners
Custom icons

The video above provides an overview of product classes and attributes.

What Kind of Customer Support is Available?

X-Cart maintains an active community forum and provides plenty of help documentation on their online knowledgebase center and FAQ pages.

You can also contact the customer service desk via phone or fill a form on the “Contact Us” page then send your message as an email.

Alternatively, simply use the Live Chat service on the site to get in touch with a customer service rep.

Fees for Technical Support

It’s important to note that there are additional charges for technical support. Be sure to check what areas technical support doesn’t cover before buying a support ticket. Tip: Paying for technical support on a month-to-month basis compared to purchasing a single incident ticket is cheaper.

Summary

As mentioned earlier, X-Cart 5 offers multiple packages from which to choose.

X-Cart 5 offers a free trial even with the higher tier plans.

Before making any decisions, it’s prudent to try out all the X-Cart shopping versions while taking into account their differences in pricing and features.