MonsterCommerce is one of the best-known hosted shopping cart solutions. It means that you'll receive completely pre-setup hosted ecommerce system with ready hosting solution and turn-key installation.

However, such approach may cause many problems. Hosted software for online business is less configurable, has more strict capacity and customization limitations. Theres also a very high monthly fee. Instead,  ViArt, requires only one-time license fee and it can be hosted on any hosting companies that offers PHP or at your own compatible hosting space. Thus you are not tied to the platform and hosting provider. Besides, you do not have to publish ViArt labels and advertisements on your storefront.

Features

MonsterCommerce

ViArt Enterprise

License fee

  99.00 USD activation fee

  299.00 USD

Multi-site

No

Yes

Trial period

No

Free version with restriction

Technical support

Authorized technical support service, forums, FAQ, online manual, free unlimited support

Installation service

Turn-key system hosted only at MonsterCommerce web-space

Installation service 50.00 USD. Free installation service for paid hosted clients.

Design & development
services

Web design service

Comes with  20 pre-define templates plus 97% of source code, Custom development service and web design service

Store Operation Features

Support for downloadable
egoods

Yes

Yes

Affiliate system

Only third-party affiliate programs

Yes

Real time shipping rates calculation

UPS, FedEx & USPS calculations

Fedex, UPS, USPS V3, Customizable shipping modules and methods

Moderated product reviews
and ratings

Not available

Yes

 Statistics tools

Search terms analysis, traffic
reports, total sales by payment
type, total shipping charges

General statistics and shop summary, Shop statistics, Top Paths Through Site, Top Pages Views, Shopping Cart Conversion Funnel, Visitors environment statistics, Search statistics. customized reports available.

 Taxes

Tax calculation by state or country, free shipping, ship by price or
weight

Ability to set tax by state, country, product type, advanced tax structures including VAT.

 Orders management

Inventory control, backorders and partial shipments allowed

Order status system, automated order notifications, automated and manual credit card processing, order search and filtering, possibility to export/import all and filtered orders, support of recurring orders, PDF invoices and packing slips

 Inventory tracking

Live order tracking, order history, automated confirmation emails, bestsellers

Reports for number of orders, number of products,  options, product /category views sorted by date period, bestsellers, Out of stock messages, number of products/options in stock for every item.

 Security

Full HTTPS/SSL support
All data is stored in database

Full HTTPS/SSL support
Encrypted customer data (Blowfish encryption)
PGP-encrypted e-mail notifications
Customer/admin access restriction by IP

For complete details

Catalog & Storefront

Number of products in
catalogue

Up to 60 000

Unlimited

Storefront customization

Customizable template system
Built-in text editor
Several layout schema to choose from

100% template-based storefront
100% CSS-based
Customizable menus
Customizable logo and
templates layout from browser
Built-in text editor

Multi-language support

Not available

Store interface, messages
completely multi-lingual

Extended product
specifications

Product options and variants

Extra custom fields, product options and components, dependant options, filters for products.

Marketing & Promotion

SEO Tools

Keywords in page titles, custom HTML sections, spider friendly
URLs

Catalog, title and meta tags definition, URLs, site map generator

Marketing and promotion
tools

Coupon codes, Gift Certificates, Featured & upselling products

Merchant Module, Rewards and Bonus Points Functionalities, Call Centre modules, 

Added Features

 HelpDesk Modular

No built-in components

Included

 Forum Modular

No built-in components

Included

 Classified Ads

No built-in components

Included