| We have in the past had some clients get a little disgruntled about the regularity of Cubecart updates, here are a few points I would like to raise in response to those complaints.
1. You should remember is that if you were to have a custom shopping cart built with anywhere near the functionality of Cubecart you would be looking at spending somewhere in the region of $2000 to $3000 just for development of the script. Then you would have to employ testers, a designer and a programmer to keep it running, and the upgrades would cost you a darn site more than the few bucks we charge you for installing, you would have to pay for the upgrades to be written. Not to mention the fact a program like Cubecart has been YEARS in development. Weigh that against the price 2001 web charged you for a full unique store. The price we charge for a full store is less than a custom design normally costs on its own.
2. Another thing to consider is just how complicated a program like Cubecart is, it is written in php to give you all the functionality, bells and whistles and ease of use you enjoy. While it looks simple to you cube cart has hundreds of pages that all have to talk to each other, on top of that the php has to communicate with the database which is run by another program MYSQL. Php and MYSQL like any other programs are constantly evolving and getting better. If php or mysql release a new version then of course Cubecart has to be updated to keep up with the new programming.
3. Unless you have purchased a licence from Cubecart you have never paid them a single penny for use of their program and the years of work they have put into it. All they get out of it is a little link at the bottom of your store. When you paid for your site you paid for us to install it and design it for you at a fraction of the cost other companies charge.
4. The programmers at Cubecart are constantly monitoring the program for security weaknesses and fixing them in a very timely manner , for which they charge you NOTHING. The cost you pay for updates is merely for the time it takes us to perform/install the upgrades for you, which we do at our per minute rates with no silly minimum one hour charges. You do of course always have the option of studying and learning to do these yourself. As much as we love you we aren't prepared to work for your business free of charge.
5. Most Cubecart upgrades are for security purposes to prevent hackers attacking your business, again I repeat that Cubecart charge you nothing for that. It is easy to say something like "Well why don't they just make it secure once and for all?" Sorry it isn't that easy people, it is an ongoing game of cat and mouse with hackers. These destructive idiots are constantly coming up with new attacks and exploits to either defraud you or simply ruin your business for the hell of it. I personally think we should all be grateful that the team at Cubecart stay on top of this for us. They just had a professional company audit the script which cost them thousands, again did they bill you for that??
Yes there are other open source e-commerce programs out there we have tried nearly all of them. Most of them are overly complicated, not as easy to use and not as easy to modify, we chose Cubecart for that reason. Those scripts also regularly release updates. Maybe not as regular as Cubecart, but ask yourself a question, would you rather have a slow or a fast development team protecting your site?
In closing internet businesses are much cheaper to run than the traditional kind, no gas, no electricity no business rates no garbage collection. However you are still running a business, businesses always have expenses. Try looking at these updates as a positive, you are paying a very small amount to make sure that your online store is bang up to date and secure, to give you and your clients the best possible shopping experience.
2001 webs services are not expensive and we don't hammer you for $50 hosting every month like the store fronts available on the net. We don't charge you listing fees or commissions on sales. What it boils down to is businesses need maintaining and we should all be prepared for that.
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