Fan of Vendr

New Umbraco e-commerce platform

We have been using Umbraco as a content management system (CMS) for years to our full satisfaction. Umbraco is known for its simplicity, flexibility, security and user-friendliness. This is endorsed by our developers, but certainly also by many of our customers. Although Umbraco has more than proven itself as a CMS for creating websites, creating web shops with Umbraco has often turned out to be a difficult job. Our enthusiasm was therefore great when Vendr was launched at the beginning of this year: the e-commerce solution for Umbraco. Our developers took a closer look at the new platform.

The ambition expressed by Vendr based on principles such as simplicity, flexibility, standard Umbraco techniques and the extensive list of features is clear. With a one-time cost of € 1,500 for the license, Vendr is certainly not free, but if it delivers on its promises, it will be well worth the investment. To get a good idea of how Vendr works and what the possibilities are, we have done an internal test. We included the following points in our test case:

• set up and set up Umbraco environment with Vendr
• webshop and extensive content website in one
• create, fill and adjust shopping cart
• add discount codes to shopping cart
• create your own, customization, discount rule
• set up payment service provider

After the test, we still have a very positive image of the simplicity and possibilities of Vendr. In particular, the possibility to overwrite and / or supplement almost all functionalities makes the system very flexible.

Conclusion: very promising

Despite the fact that Vendr is still in its infancy, the platform is ready for use. We have a positive first impression and will certainly get started!

Pros

• all CMS options from Umbraco are available
• uses the standard Umbraco techniques
• easy to adapt and / or expand with the help of .NET MVC
• frontend is much easier and more decent to add than with many other e-commerce systems
• plenty of functionalities available
• a Vendr webshop is cheaper than Magento with a total price from € 9,500

Of course, each system also has its drawbacks. Most of Vendr's downsides are a result of its novelty. It is expected that these will naturally diminish over time.

Negatives

• it is bound to have bugs as it is in the launch phase
• the documentation is not (yet) complete
• little information can be found online in case of problems
• unknown to other parties such as e-fulfillment companies

Vendr is very promising. For each project we will consider whether we will go for the more extensive and complex Magento or the flexible and accessible Vendr. Anything but a choice of two evils.