I am person that loves to get into new projects and there is the ongoing internal debate for me on building custom solutions for sites or just find a 3rd party solution. I my self am not a programmer, i have some experience with php and i can do html but that’s about. At this point I have done both paths and i will have to admit i lost allot of money when i went the custom solution path so here is my advice to you.
So what to do….. I tell everyone first search for a 3rd party solotuion or service provider. this will help you get up and running quickly and gives you a testing ground for your idea. The only issue is finding a solution that fits what your trying to do…in many cases you may have to not have some features you wish you could offfer your potential clients or site visitors. I can say that 3rd party has resulted in more succesfull ventures and projects.
It offered me support from a company, upgrades and i was up and running in no time.
Going custom is not bad either when there is no one that can provide you a solution BUT be prepared to wait a few months, spend some capital and possibly have development issue if your team or hired developer does not understand what your are trying to do.
Nowadays I go with 3rd party solutions either free or a fixed price and build from there. if the site starts to product revenue then i either consider custom solutions for the 3rd party software or then i go and build my own custom site. this way i know its working and there is revenue in place to jusitfy the site
so sites i recommend are
- bigcommerce.com(shopping cart)
- Volusion.com (shopping cart)
- Interspire.com (several programs)
- Agriya.com(several nice programs)
