X-Cart forums

[mcinque]

Originally Posted by cflsystems

If the goal is to convert all these existing XC4 stores to XC5 stores - it is not going to happen with these new terms for sure. What it will happen is 90% from what's left will jump ship.

^THIS

[kevinrm]

If XC4 owners hadn't already jumped to XC5 by this late stage of the game, they never would have anyway. I've been using XC for almost 20 years now, used to do all the file updating, etc, and I'm kind of surprised people still use XC4.x in 2020 but to each their own...

[ITVV]

Originally Posted by kevinrm

If XC4 owners hadn't already jumped to XC5 by this late stage of the game, they never would have anyway. I've been using XC for almost 20 years now, used to do all the file updating, etc, and I'm kind of surprised people still use XC4.x in 2020 but to each their own...

If I recall correctly you had loads of issues Kevin and at one point wished you had not jumped to XC5

XC4 is an amazing platform; fast, responsive, easy to adapt. Plus if you add on PhilJ's amazing reBOOT skin you have a first class platform.

Q/ What does XC5 do that XC4 does not

As you rightly say "...each their own..." Agreed

Kind regards

ITVV

[mcinque]

Originally Posted by kevinrm

If XC4 owners hadn't already jumped to XC5 by this late stage of the game, they never would have anyway. I've been using XC for almost 20 years now, used to do all the file updating, etc, and I'm kind of surprised people still use XC4.x in 2020 but to each their own...

NOPE.

XC4 is still ok and does things that XC5 does not, and quite good. There is no reason to jump in XC5 if all works well and money is coming from orders.

Of course it's complicated to update, that's why XC5 came out. But it's far to be useless and has still features that XC5 does not have (I wonder why).


It's incredibly fast and less resource hungry and works still perfectly even in stores with hundreds of orders per day.


If not for a specific reason, my clients or anyone else should never switch to XC5 or any different platform.

I've made at least 2 clients of mine migrate to XC5 because they need a complete restyling and update, and doing in XC4 would be too expensive, the license exchange offer was a money saver.

Of course NOW I am forced to use other platforms, there is no place for me if I should add a 1,900 USD annual fee.

[kevinrm]

Originally Posted by ITVV

If I recall correctly you had loads of issues Kevin and at one point wished you had not jumped to XC5


ITVV

Yes, this is true - 3 or 4 years ago on XC5.1 I had terrible issues. However, we're now on XC5.4.1.21 and I haven't had a single update fail in probably 2 years now. I'm having zero performance issues, the thing absolutely flies on my dedicated server.

[ITVV]

Originally Posted by kevinrm

Yes, this is true - 3 or 4 years ago on XC5.1 I had terrible issues. However, we're now on XC5.4.1.21 and I haven't had a single update fail in probably 2 years now. I'm having zero performance issues, the thing absolutely flies on my dedicated server.

Hi @kevinrm,

Pleased to hear that your issues are solved.

I have not had any issues upgrading XC4 in the past 14 years or so. I also have zero performance issues and our sites fly on our own dedicated server.

I have asked this questions so many times but nobody ever gives me an answer: -

Q/ What does XC5 do that XC4 does not

Wishing you and yours the compliments of the season

ITVV

[mcinque]

Originally Posted by ITVV

Hi @kevinrm,
Q/ What does XC5 do that XC4 does not

nothing more, in fact it does even less.

XC5 was not born to continue XC4 or for us.

If it was born to continue XC4 it would have all its basic functionalities and logic, while instead it seems to have been born from scratch and from people who did not even know the XC4 team.

XC5 was born to make life easier for Qualiteam: XC4 had simply become too complex to update when highly customized.

Nothing impossible to do of course, but no longer commercially viable with many stores in need of updates.

[kevinrm]

Originally Posted by ITVV

Hi @kevinrm,


I have asked this questions so many times but nobody ever gives me an answer: -

Q/ What does XC5 do that XC4 does not

ITVV

It saves days of my life not having to jack around with cutting and pasting code every time there is an update, mostly.

About the only thing I like less about XC5 is the backup module - it used to upload the store backup to dropbox automatically, this one doesn't do that. I miss that (hint hint XC).

[cflsystems]

XC4 and XC5 share the name but are 2 different platforms.
Keep in mind XC4 was initially developed in 2003 I believe. While it has been constantly updated through the years at its core it stayed in 2003. And because over all these years there was a patch over patch over patch... its code got really bloated.
There is nothing wrong with XC4 and yes it works way faster compare to XC5. But when you have clients still using XC 4.1.x and do not want to upgrade because "orders are coming in", asking to support modern browsers and latest technology at the same time, saving CC info in database and manually processing orders that's not good.
XC4 code could have been optimized and half of it stripped out resulting in way better admin and customers experience. QT decided to go another way though and simply started from scratch. And keep in mind that XC4 may have more functionality from XC5 however half of that is simply something that was "cool" years ago and just left in the code. Some stores may use it but most don't. XC5 cleaned that up. And still playing catch up.
When QT started on XC5 I always thought it will be more like a framework, a core skeleton and you just add the modules you need. Basically when installed there is no storefront only admin. You want to sell physical products - you add products module, you have only one products - no need of categories module. Having modular structure and being able to simple add/remove without touching any code is a big advantage. Not ideal for those who know XC4 and how to make simple changes though. Not to mention the price tag we have now.
But lets also keep in mind - XC4 is subscription based too. Everyone using 4.6.x and up (I think it started with 4.6) is supposed to pay annual fee in order to get new updates. QT simply has no way of enforcing this. One more reason for them to phase out XC4.
And let's keep in mind XC5 started as subscription based cloud only cart. There are still articles from 6-7 years ago online which refer to XC5 as cloud based cart. QT made it downloadable because of the pressure they had from the forum and because XC4 users were the only potential customers for XC5 at the time. Now this is not the case anymore. As Kevin said "If XC4 owners hadn't already jumped to XC5 by this late stage of the game, they never would have anyway". QT/SL does not count on XC4 users anymore to make XC5 platform usable.

One way I think QT/SL may benefit of XC4 is to release it under "community" license and make it a community supported cart. That way they get it off of their hands and XC4 continues to live. Anyone using it will assume responsibility and that there is not one central place for support/maintenance or new features.

Giving the way everybody is moving to the cloud nowdays, consolidating different services into very few, making everything subscription based, etc no wonder XC5 is moving the same direction too. It's just that I think they could have done it better instead of completely cutting off everybody already using the platform.

[ITVV]

@cflsystems

Hi Steve,

Excellent post - thank you.

Some of the reasons I have never considered XC5: -

1/ If you want to make one small change you have to create modules / decorate etc
2/ Next to no development documentation
3/ Over the years next to no forum support for XC5
4/ Performance issues
5/ Hit and miss upgrades
6/ Constant changes to how to own XC5 / pricing
7/ XC4 owners shunted to one side in favour of XC5 owners / subscribers

I had tried XC5 in the past and had issues. Asked here in the forums for help and did not even get an response from QT. I gave up and focused on dev for my sites on XC4.

I fully accept that QT / SL needs to generate cash as a business and that XC4 has limited opportunities. But to marginalise customers by limiting the past forum posts does not make users feel very valued.

Thanks again for a great post.

Kind regards

ITVV