First, a few definitions. A proprietary shopping cart for the sake of this article will be defined as one that is owned one company and that company maintains the rights to alter or develop the software. An open source shopping cart is one that is not owned by any particular company and thus is developed by users and developers throughout the world.

Many people new to e-commerce will automatically assume that proprietary software is the better choice. After all, a company should, in theory, put out a better product that volunteers. Likewise, one could assume that the support will be better and the product will continue to function well into the future.

An open source solution to a novice might sound scary. How do you know the product is secure and stable? Will it continue to exist in the future? How can it exist is there is no profit motive?

Many experienced web developers and designers, however, readily use open source solutions and find that proprietary software is more buggy, less well supported, and, in the end, very expensive. Experienced web developers know that some of the most popular software online such as server operating systems, blogs and shopping carts are all run by open source software. In fact, one could probably argue that without open source software the internet would not exist in the form it is today.

The problem with proprietary shopping carts for web stores is that they are controlled solely by one company. If that company goes bankrupt--many do--the users of that software are without support, bug fixes or upgrades. Another issue that is true with most proprietary shopping cart systems is that upgrades are almost always at an additional fee, and in some of the more draconian schemes, previous versions cease to function if the user do not upgrade.

Proprietary systems are often less stable and robust than open source software. The reason is simple: a company may have a few or tens of programmers working on a piece of software. The programmers may be under very real financial or time constraints, and, as a result might not put out a product that is as stable as it should be.

In contrast, open source software is usually developed by hundreds, if not thousands of programmers around the world. The checks and balances that come from so many people working on a project results in software that has been well-tested and reviewed. Many will argue that open source software is more secure because of this.

In conclusion, open source software is often the best choice for shopping carts because it is more stable, secure and less costly (usually free). It is also more likely to be updated and supported due to the sheer volume of users and developers.