Creating an online store on Drupal. What to choose Commerce or Ubercart?
Back in Drupal 6, there weren’t many options for e-commerce — Ubercart was the most successful solution, with a huge ecosystem of modules. But for Drupal 7, a new module emerged: Commerce.
http://drupal.org/project/ubercart
http://drupal.org/project/commerce
Both platforms have ready-made distributions: UberDrupal and Commerce Kickstart, which you can download and explore:
Downloads:
- Commerce Kickstart
- UberDrupal (note: only available for Drupal 6)
Live Demos:
Ubercart or Commerce?
Both modules have their pros and cons. Here’s a comparison to help you decide:
| Ubercart | Commerce |
|---|---|
| + Fast performance | – Slower than Ubercart |
| + Has an Ajax cart module | + Has an Ajax cart module |
| + Custom fields in checkout forms | + Custom fields in checkout forms |
| + Fully pre-configured store out of the box | – Requires setup unless you use Commerce Kickstart |
| – Few payment/shipping modules for Drupal 7 | + Most new modules are now built for Commerce |
| – No complete installation profile | + Comes with Commerce Kickstart |
| – Theming requires some PHP knowledge | + Built with Views — almost all outputs are customizable via the UI |
| + User-friendly attribute system | + Variant switching by color, size, etc. directly on product pages |
Both Ubercart and Commerce have great documentation and a variety of modules. You can build a successful site on either platform. However, if online payment integration is a priority, Commerce is the better choice — it supports Robokassa, WebMoney, Yandex.Money, RBK Money, and more.
Also, note that Commerce allows dynamic product variant switching (e.g., changing images based on selected color), which Ubercart does not support out of the box.