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radar/spree_vs_magento.md

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  1. radar revised this gist Sep 6, 2013. 1 changed file with 108 additions and 26 deletions.
    134 changes: 108 additions & 26 deletions spree_vs_magento.md
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    ## Spree (vs. Magento)

    > - Spree does not offer media management as a CMS function
    - One page checkout is available on Magento, but not Spree
    - Spree does not allow product Q & A functionality
    - Magento provides extensive SEO capabilities, while Spree does not
    - Spree does not have an RSS feed of products like Magento
    - Magento offers product tagging and enables customers to search by tagging
    - Spree does not support gift certificates
    - Users cannot save their shopping cart in Spree
    - Magento offers sales management tools; Spree does not
    - Merchants can customize store appearance at the category or browsing level in Magento, but not in Spree
    - Spree does not support multiple currencies
    This is true, but we do have some extensions such as [spree_static_content](https://github.com/spree/spree_static_content) that do provide the ability to create extra pages for your site.

    > - One page checkout is available on Magento, but not Spree
    Assuming you mean the fields are all on one page: This is not provided by default, but it is relatively easy to customize Spree to do this. It's pretty commonly requested, and so it might be a good idea for us to provide a guide on how to do this.

    Assuming you mean a JS backend: We've got an [experimental frontend for Spree](https://github.com/radar/spree-marionette) written using Backbone.Marionette on top of our already excellent API. There's no reason why you couldn't gain inspiration from this and write your own.

    > - Spree does not allow product Q & A functionality
    Not by default because not all stores need it. There may be an extension out there to add this, or you may have to write your own. I am not sure.

    > - Magento provides extensive SEO capabilities, while Spree does not
    I am not sure what SEO capabilities in particular you're talking about.

    > - Spree does not have an RSS feed of products like Magento
    This is a very easy to add feature.

    > - Magento offers product tagging and enables customers to search by tagging
    Spree groups products by Taxons which are one of the ways that people can use to search for products in Spree. These taxons are also navigatable in the default sidebar of Spree.

    > - Spree does not support gift certificates
    We call them "coupon promotions", and yes we do. We're currently refactoring that part of Spree to make it easier to understand and therefore customize if the need arises.

    > - Users cannot save their shopping cart in Spree
    The shopping cart is automatically tied to the User account in the default Spree setup. The user does not need to hit a "save" button to save their cart. If a user is logged in and adds items to their cart and then comes back and logs in again, they'll be able to see their cart.

    > - Magento offers sales management tools; Spree does not
    This is another one of those vague points. What business value do these sales management tools actually provide?

    > - Merchants can customize store appearance at the category or browsing level in Magento, but not in Spree
    It's possible to do this, but it is not supported by default.

    > - Spree does not support multiple currencies
    Spree supports having a default currency for the entire store, with the possiblity of multiple currencies supported. We have experimented at offering multiple currency support and found it's possible, but have since ceased working on that due to there being higher demand features of Spree.

    Spree can compete with a large number of Magento capabilities, but not in the core offering of the product. The following features are available with Magento, but are only available through extensions for Spree:
    - Product reviews/ratings
    - Configurable product search
    - Recently viewed products
    - Product comparison
    - Related items
    - Wishlist
    - Share product with a friend via email
    - Blogging functionality
    - Contact us form
    - Real-time shipping rate lookup (UPS, USPS, FedEx)
    - Free shipping
    - Google Checkout
    - PayPal Express
    - Batch import/export of products
    - Multi-store, single admin support
    - System-wide SEO

    > - Product reviews/ratings
    The 'spree_reviews' extension offers this.

    > - Configurable product search
    Searching within any application is difficult. We'd recommend investigating Elastic Search, Thinking Sphinx and Solr and seeing which of those suit your searching needs.

    > - Recently viewed products
    [spree_recently_viewed](https://github.com/spree/spree_recently_viewed) supports this functionality, although I don't know of anyone using that extension. There's a high chance that the extension would need to be upgraded to the latest version of Spree.

    > - Related items
    [spree_related_products](https://github.com/spree/spree_related_products) supports this functionality.

    > - Wishlist
    [spree_wishlist](https://github.com/spree/spree_wishlist) supports this.

    > - Share product with a friend via email
    [spree_email_to_friend](https://github.com/spree/spree_email_to_friend) supports this.

    > - Blogging functionality
    I would recommend looking into a different gem to provide this, maybe there's a blogging Rails engine that you could use?

    > - Contact us form
    [spree_contact_us](https://github.com/spree/spree_contact_us) supports this.

    > - Real-time shipping rate lookup (UPS, USPS, FedEx)
    [spree_active_shipping](https://github.com/spree/spree_active_shipping) supports this.

    > - Free shipping
    The promotions system in Spree supports this.

    > - Google Checkout
    *Possibly* supported by an extension, but I cannot find it right now.

    > - PayPal Express
    Supported by my extension: [better_spree_paypal_express](https://github.com/radar/better_spree_paypal_express)

    > - Batch import/export of products
    The [datashift](https://github.com/autotelik/datashift) library is the best for this.

    > - Multi-store, single admin support
    Currently not supported in Spree. Possible to do, but may have some medium difficulties about it.

    > - System-wide SEO
    This is pretty vague, so I don't know.

    > - Product comparison
    I don't know of any extension which offers this support. That's not to say there's nothing out there.
  2. radar renamed this gist Sep 5, 2013. 1 changed file with 3 additions and 2 deletions.
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    Spree (vs. Magento)
    - Spree does not offer media management as a CMS function
    ## Spree (vs. Magento)

    > - Spree does not offer media management as a CMS function
    - One page checkout is available on Magento, but not Spree
    - Spree does not allow product Q & A functionality
    - Magento provides extensive SEO capabilities, while Spree does not
  3. @jamespeerless jamespeerless created this gist Sep 5, 2013.
    30 changes: 30 additions & 0 deletions gistfile1.txt
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    Spree (vs. Magento)
    - Spree does not offer media management as a CMS function
    - One page checkout is available on Magento, but not Spree
    - Spree does not allow product Q & A functionality
    - Magento provides extensive SEO capabilities, while Spree does not
    - Spree does not have an RSS feed of products like Magento
    - Magento offers product tagging and enables customers to search by tagging
    - Spree does not support gift certificates
    - Users cannot save their shopping cart in Spree
    - Magento offers sales management tools; Spree does not
    - Merchants can customize store appearance at the category or browsing level in Magento, but not in Spree
    - Spree does not support multiple currencies

    Spree can compete with a large number of Magento capabilities, but not in the core offering of the product. The following features are available with Magento, but are only available through extensions for Spree:
    - Product reviews/ratings
    - Configurable product search
    - Recently viewed products
    - Product comparison
    - Related items
    - Wishlist
    - Share product with a friend via email
    - Blogging functionality
    - Contact us form
    - Real-time shipping rate lookup (UPS, USPS, FedEx)
    - Free shipping
    - Google Checkout
    - PayPal Express
    - Batch import/export of products
    - Multi-store, single admin support
    - System-wide SEO