Compare X-Cart 4 Classic and X-Cart 5
X-Cart 4 and X-Cart 5 eCommerce platforms are both feature-rich and customizable, providing extensive opportunities for high-performing online stores. Neither of them has limitations in the catalog size, orders, payment transactions, staff and user accounts, etc. Both are fast and can handle thousands of visitors per day on an average VPS server. However, they differ significantly. Here are the main differences.
Installing New Apps and Upgrades
X-Cart Classic (or X-Cart 4) is a developer-friendly environment, for sure, but it’s rather hostile for an average user. We made sure to both improve the admin navigation and simplify the store setup in X-Cart 5, while keeping its extensive customization potential.
Besides, X-Cart 5 is easier to upgrade due to its modular architecture. While with X-Cart 4 the upgrade process is basically a series of patches you need to apply, with X-Cart 5, it takes just a couple of clicks, and the process is fully automated.
Besides, X-Cart 5 is easier to upgrade due to its modular architecture. While with X-Cart 4 the upgrade process is basically a series of patches you need to apply, with X-Cart 5, it takes just a couple of clicks, and the process is fully automated.
Another benefit of the modular structure is the ability to install the add-ons and integrations with a couple of clicks from the built-in App Store right in the backend.
Customization Opportunities
As a matter of fact, it’s easier to customize X-Cart 4 as it’s possible to edit any part of the code manually. However, these customizations make already tricky upgrades even more complicated.
X-Cart 5, on the other hand, offers virtually unlimited extensibility and customizability due to the advanced technologies it’s based on. Customizations imply a bit more coding, as each of them is implemented as an addon. But it’s worth it, as such an approach keeps upgrades simple. What’s more, the custom add-ons don’t interfere with the work of other add-ons or the core functionality.
Design and Layout
X-Cart 5 comes with a far more user-friendly Webmaster mode than X-Cart 4. It allows picking and editing templates, updating text labels, customizing CSS/JS and moving layout blocks right on the storefront. It gives you the flexibility to personalize your storefront as you like. And if you have more specific requirements, our team is always here to integrate your mockup or design one from scratch!
Marketing, Sales, and SEO
In contrast with X-Cart 4, X-Cart 5 keeps pace with the latest marketing trends and tricks, constantly expanding its toolkit to boost your sales. Of course, if you’re a developer, you can code your own tool or integration, if it is missing. However, with X-Cart 5 it’s easier to achieve. Say, its API functionality greatly simplifies the integration of any 3rd party services into your website.
X-Cart 5 has got a more convenient interface for managing SEO settings as they are located in a separate section in the store backend. Also, in comparison with X-Cart 4, it has a better structure of product URLs, which helps the search engines categorize your content better and your website rank higher. Besides, you can always keep an eye on your website’s positions with the SEO Health Check functionality.
X-Cart 5 has got a more convenient interface for managing SEO settings as they are located in a separate section in the store backend. Also, in comparison with X-Cart 4, it has a better structure of product URLs, which helps the search engines categorize your content better and your website rank higher. Besides, you can always keep an eye on your website’s positions with the SEO Health Check functionality.
Mobile-Friendliness
Both X-Cart 4 and X-Cart 5 are mobile-responsive. However, while X-Cart Classic was trimmed to become responsive, X-Cart 5 was built mobile-ready from the very beginning. Unlike X-Cart Classic, it doesn’t matter if you use the standard skin or anything from the App Store or even a custom design – your website will adapt to any device by default. Besides, it doesn’t require a paid add-on or a customization for your website to be responsive.
Platform Maintenance and Development
We keep maintaining X-Cart Classic and will do it as long as our customers need it. However, it’s X-Cart 5 that can boast modern technologies, rapid growth, and a huge variety of emerging add-ons and integrations by the X-Cart team and our partners. While new X-Cart Classic versions come out mainly as bug-fixes and security updates, major X-Cart 5 releases are also replete with new technologies, tools, and integrations.
Packages and Services
All X-Cart 5 packages come with a set of services to ensure the holistic experience for online merchants that are already included in the price. Some of them are partly available for X-Cart 4 as paid services, but with a limited functionality for technical reasons. Among these services are:
- the real-time search and filtering engine, CloudSearch
- the PCI compliant payment system, X-Payments
- the secure VPS hosting with powerful servers tailored specifically for an X-Cart based website
- the in-app user manual, techsupport, and a 24/7/365 hotline
Comparison Table
Services |
X-Cart 5 | X-Cart 4 Classic |
|---|---|---|
Services |
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| VPS Hosting |  |
 |
| CloudSearch and Filters | |
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| X-Payments | |
|
| Premium Techsupport | |
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Product Catalog & Inventory |
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| Product Comparison / Feature Comparison | |
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| Amazon S3 Cloud Storage for Store Images | |
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| Product Filter / Refine Filter | |
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| Pricing in the Currency of the Customer | |
|
| Product Options and Attributes | |
|
| Price Modifiers for Product Options | |
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| Product Attributes as Textarea and Selectable Values | |
|
| Product Specification | |
|
| Product Variants | |
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| Adding and Updating Store Data via CSV Import and Export | |
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| Product Reviews and Rating | |
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| Product Tags | |
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| Product Tabs | |
|
| Gift Registry | |
|
| Gift Wrapping | |
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| Members-only Categories | |
|
| Members-only Pricing Options | |
|
| Manufacturers / Shop by Brand | |
|
| Catalog Mode (No Checkout) | |
|
| UPC/ISBN and Mnf#/Vendor# Fields in Admin and Customer Area | |
|
| Bulk Product Editing | |
|
| Downloadable Products | |
|
| Customer Files Uploads & Product Attachments | |
|
| Selling PIN Codes, Passwords, and Keys | |
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| Configurable Measurement Units, Date/Time Formats, and Currency Symbols | |
|
Orders Management |
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| PDF Invoices | |
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| Re-order Button for Customers | |
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| Custom Shipping Statuses | |
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| Advanced Order Managmenet: Create / Edit Orders on Behalf of Customers; Refunds, Order Notes | |
|
| Printable Invoices and Packing Slips | |
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| Order Messages & Disputes on Order Details Page | |
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| Payment and Fulfilment Order Statuses | |
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| Payment Transactions History | |
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| Order Changes History | |
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| Authorize and Capture Transactions Modes | |
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| Email Order Notifications | |
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| Adding and Updating Orders via CSV Import | |
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| Custom Payment Statuses | |
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| “Not Finished” Order Status | |
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Payments & Checkout |
||
| Supported Payment Gateways | 130+ | 120+ |
| Digital Wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay) | |
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| Buy Now Pay Later | |
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| One-step Checkout | |
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| Multi-step Checkout | |
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| Anonymous Checkout | |
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| Address Book | |
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| Off-line Payment Methods (like Check, COD, Phone Ordering) | |
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| Customer Login via Google or Facebook on Checkout | |
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| Merchant Account Providers for Online Payment Processing with CDG Commerce | |
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Shipping & Tax |
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| Real-time Sales Tax Calculation | |
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| Real-time Shipping Calculation | |
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| Fulfilment Statuses | |
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| Manually Pre-defined Shipping Fees Based on Client’s Location and Memebership | |
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| Order Tracking Number (Add & Send to Customers) | |
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| Ship-from Address Different from Company Address | |
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| Products with Free Shipping | |
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| Customers IP Geolocation Check for Pre-login Shipping Cost Estimation | |
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| Canadian Taxes (GST,PST,HST,QST) Calculation | |
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| Sales Tax | |
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| Australia GST | |
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| EU, UK VAT | |
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Marketing & Sales |
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| Clean SEO-friendly URLs | |
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| Make/Model/Year | |
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| Abandoned Cart Reminder | |
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| Add to Cart Popup with Product Recomendations | |
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| Bestsellers Block on the Storefront | |
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| Featured Products Block | |
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| Related Products Block for Upsell / Cross-sell | |
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| New Arrivals, Coming Soon, Recently Viewed, Customers Also Bought | |
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| Basic Sales Statistics / Bestselling Products Statistics | |
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| Product Image Zoom | |
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| Saved Cart Sessions | |
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| XML Sitemap for Search Engines | |
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| Mailchimp | |
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| Social Integration: OpenGraph, Facebook Comments, Social Buttons | |
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| Banner System | |
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| Market / List Price Next to Your Product Price | |
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| Sale Discount / Special Sale Price | |
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| Newsletter Subscription Block | |
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| Embedding eCommerce Blocks into Existing WordPress Website | |
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| Disqus Comments on Product Pages | |
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| Percent or Fixed-amount Discount and Free Shipping Coupons | |
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| Percent and Fixed-fee Discounts Based on Order Total and Customer Membership Level | |
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| Minimum Purchase Quantity | |
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| Wholesale Prices | |
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| Wholesale Pricing for Product Variants | |
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| Facebook Dynamic Ads and Facebook Pixel | |
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| Product Card with Buy Button Embed Code | |
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| Special Offers | |
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| Google Shopping | |
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| Analytics and Reporting Built-in Tools & Integrations | |
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| eBay Integration | |
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| Surveys | |
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| Wishlist | |
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| Gift Certificates | |
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| Back in Stock, Price-drop, Low-stock Notifications | |
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| Affiliate Partner Program | |
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| Meta Elements for Product and Category Pages: Page Title, Meta Description, and Meta Keywords | |
|
| Request a Price and Hide Prices | |
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| Product Questions | |
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| Customer Satisfaction Survey | |
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| Product Stickers | |
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| Variants Table View | |
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| Product Carousel | |
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| Fractional and Fixed Quantities | |
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| Backorder / Preorder | |
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| Testimonials | |
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| Excel Import/Export | |
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| Color Swatches | |
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| Price Countdown | |
|
| Lookup Product Details by UPC and Name | |
|
| SEO Health Check | |
|
Content, Design, Navigation |
||
| Drag & Drop Layout Editing Mode | |
|
| Multilevel Primary Menu | |
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| Multicolumn Footer Menu | |
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| Configurable Product Listings View | |
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| Thumbnail Images for Categories | |
|
| HTML-enriched Product and Category Descriptions | |
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| Flyout Categories Menu | |
|
| Adding Custom Website Pages | |
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| Editing the Page Content via WYSIWYG | |
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| Editing Menus (No Coding) | |
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| Home Page & Category Page Banners Uploaded via Admin Back-end | |
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| Logo and Favicon Uploaded via Admin Back-end | |
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| Changing Color Schemes | |
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| Custom CSS/JavaScript | |
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| Customizing CSS on the Storefront | |
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| Editing Skin Files on the Storefront | |
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| Editing Text Labels on the Storefront | |
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| Editing Email Notifications View | |
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| Editing Invoice View | |
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| Managing Product Images Size | |
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| Uploading Custom Images via Admin Back-end | |
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| Contact Us Page | |
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| Categories and Static Pages Sitemap | |
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| Company News Block on the Homepage | |
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| Previous and Next Product Links on Product Details Page | |
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| CAPTCHA Verificaiton | |
|
Users |
||
| Email Account Activation | |
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| Two-factor Authentication | |
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| AMP – Accelerated Mobile Pages | |
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| Memberships for Customers | |
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| User Permissions Restricting Access to Backend Functions | |
|
| Operate as Customer Mode for Sales by Phone | |
|
| Staff and Customer Service Email Notifications | |
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| User Profile Custom Fields | |
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| GDPR | |
|
Featured Integrations and Partners
