4 ms·

Ask HN: Hacker-friendly, simple e-commerce solution?

15 points by _1tan 7y ago

Shopify is questionable, eBay not ideal, Magento too heavy. What do you recommend? Use case: Selling a few, simple physical products online. Ideally with some sort of subscription support.

reacharavindh 7y ago
I would love to know what other choices HN recommends as well. I'm at the stage of choosing such a service as well. I would add woocommerce to that list.
clintonb 7y ago
Why is Shopify questionable?
- jazoom 7y ago
  I don't know about OP but they did lie to me to get me to sign up to a paid plan, then told me what I was asking for was actually not supported.
- _1tan 7y ago
  I'd like to avoid vendor lock-in. Additionally the way Shopify caters to audiences like dropshipping entrepreneurs is putting me off.
gatto 7y ago
https://commercelayer.io https://commercelayer.io
tomcam 7y ago
What problems does Shopify pose?
winrid 7y ago
Big Commerce. I wrote a lot of custom themes/scripts for it when I started freelancing.
10729287 7y ago
Prestashop could be what you are looking for.
villgax 7y ago
You can start with GumRoad https://help.gumroad.com/article/85-physical-products https://help.gumroad.com/article/85-physical-products
pryelluw 7y ago
Woocommerce. It just works. Dont over think it. Tome deciding is time not selling.
- codegeek 7y ago
  This. WooCommerce is very well designed and has an excellent plugin ecosystem as well. Yes it is WordPress but if you are looking for something open source and self hosted, it is the easiest to get started with and has great documentation. For subscriptions, they have a paid plugin but it is totally worth it (used it for many years and works like a charm
  - pryelluw 7y ago
    Yup. Made good money from it and have helped others as well.
- Nextgrid 7y ago
  Time dealing with security vulnerabilities, hacks or performance issues is also time not selling. I would recommend everyone steer well clear of Wordpress.
dr_faustus 7y ago
Scipio ERP is very hackable and free. https://www.scipioerp.com https://www.scipioerp.com
tnolet 7y ago
Used Shoop in the past. A Django based magento like system. Pretty flexible and saw some good development.
- Nextgrid 7y ago
  You mean https://github.com/shuup/shuup https://github.com/shuup/shuup ? It does seem nice, been looking for an e-commerce app that isn't written in PHP for ages. Thanks!
  - tnolet 7y ago
    Correct! Shuup, was a couple of years ago.

15 points by _1tan 7y ago

Shopify is questionable, eBay not ideal, Magento too heavy. What do you recommend? Use case: Selling a few, simple physical products online. Ideally with some sort of subscription support.

reacharavindh 7y ago

I would love to know what other choices HN recommends as well. I'm at the stage of choosing such a service as well. I would add woocommerce to that list.

clintonb 7y ago

Why is Shopify questionable?

jazoom 7y ago
I don't know about OP but they did lie to me to get me to sign up to a paid plan, then told me what I was asking for was actually not supported.
_1tan 7y ago
I'd like to avoid vendor lock-in. Additionally the way Shopify caters to audiences like dropshipping entrepreneurs is putting me off.

gatto 7y ago

https://commercelayer.io https://commercelayer.io

tomcam 7y ago

What problems does Shopify pose?

winrid 7y ago

Big Commerce. I wrote a lot of custom themes/scripts for it when I started freelancing.

10729287 7y ago

Prestashop could be what you are looking for.

villgax 7y ago

You can start with GumRoad https://help.gumroad.com/article/85-physical-products https://help.gumroad.com/article/85-physical-products

pryelluw 7y ago

Woocommerce. It just works. Dont over think it. Tome deciding is time not selling.

codegeek 7y ago
This. WooCommerce is very well designed and has an excellent plugin ecosystem as well. Yes it is WordPress but if you are looking for something open source and self hosted, it is the easiest to get started with and has great documentation. For subscriptions, they have a paid plugin but it is totally worth it (used it for many years and works like a charm
- pryelluw 7y ago
  Yup. Made good money from it and have helped others as well.
Nextgrid 7y ago
Time dealing with security vulnerabilities, hacks or performance issues is also time not selling. I would recommend everyone steer well clear of Wordpress.

dr_faustus 7y ago

Scipio ERP is very hackable and free. https://www.scipioerp.com https://www.scipioerp.com

tnolet 7y ago

Used Shoop in the past. A Django based magento like system. Pretty flexible and saw some good development.

Nextgrid 7y ago
You mean https://github.com/shuup/shuup https://github.com/shuup/shuup ? It does seem nice, been looking for an e-commerce app that isn't written in PHP for ages. Thanks!
- tnolet 7y ago
  Correct! Shuup, was a couple of years ago.