FAQ

  1. 1. Why is Ecwid free? Where’s the catch ?

    In order to provide Ecwid for free, we had to make it very resource-effective. This keeps our costs down. We have also designed Ecwid to require little to none technical support. We made version upgrades seamless. Our design efforts made free Ecwid possible. These same efforts make Ecwid a great platform to base your store on: easy launch, with little to zero maintenance costs!

    Of course, Ecwid is a business platform so we have paid accounts with additional premium features.
    You can compare our free and paid plans here: www.ecwid.com/compare-plans.html

    However, a free version of Ecwid will always be available. We like the fact that with Ecwid you can get your store up and running without paying anything. And we’ll keep it this way, we guarantee.

  2. 2. Where is my data stored physically ?

    We rely on Amazon EC2 to store Ecwid data and applications.

  3. 3. How can I change the looks of my Ecwid store ?

    The CSS editor in the Ecwid admin interface allows you to customize the looks.
    You will find more useful information about Ecwid custom CSS in this article.

  4. 4. Ecwid is AJAX-based. That’s good for customers, but is it good for search engines ?

    Most AJAX applications do have problems with search engine optimization.
    We take SEO seriously, that’s why Ecwid has three ways to solve this issue: Inline SEO Catalog, Mobile Catalog and Site Pages. All these ways allow getting your store indexed and accessible for search engines.

  5. 5. What if my client is using mobile phone or an older browser that does not support javascript ?

    Ecwid has a dedicated catalog for mobile devices. It uses plain HTML and is compatible with any web
    browser in the world.

  6. 6. Can I extend Ecwid with my code? Is there an API?

    Yes, Ecwid has an API, so feel free to use it. Developers are welcome to extend Ecwid functionality by modules and submit them to our “Connect” directory.

  7. 7. Ecwid a production name for that long-promised X-Cart v5, right ?

    No. Ecwid is a SaaS solution that integrates with your existing site. Ecwid is written in Java and its code is hosted on our servers. X-Cart is a commercial open source PHP storebuilder software. Current X-Cart version is 4.4 X-Cart 5 is still in development.

  8. 8. Does Ecwid comply with PCI/PA DSS standards ?

    It does not have to.These standards apply to systems that transmit, process or store credit card information.
    We rely on third party payment systems to process credit cards: Google Wallet, Paypal, Authorize.NET, and 2CheckOut.
    We use PCI DSS compliant providers only.

  9. 9. What if I need a custom feature added to Ecwid?

    Please submit it on the Ideas page. We will pick the most popular ideas and then implement them.

  10. 10. How do I report a bug?

    Please submit it to Ecwid Bugtracker.

  11. 11. Where can I find user manual for Ecwid ?

    There is no manual, nor will there be one in the future. We believe that if a product requires a user manual, then it’s not user-friendly enough already. We want Ecwid to be obvious to the user. So if you have found something complicated and need information, please ask a question on the Community Forums or search our Knowledge Base.
    Our objective is constant refinement – taking your feedback and improving our product so that you can use it effectively without having to refer to any books or manuals.

  12. 12. Does Ecwid support Polls? Newsletters? Does it have a CMS built in ?

    No. We use an approach completely different from X-Cart / LiteCommerce. Instead of trying to put all possible site features into one product, we made a product that would be absolutely the best at just one thing: it’s the best shopping cart software available. And as Ecwid can be added to any web site, you can use it with any CMS system you like, use whatever newsletter management software or service you think is the best, and so on. It gives you the flexibility to use it as one great component among many.

  13. 13. I have a question about my payment

    First of all please refer to our Billing FAQ. If you still have some questions, feel free to contact us at billing@ecwid.com

  14. 14. I have not found an answer to my question here. What should I do ?

    First search our Knowledge base for an answer. Also you can ask the Ecwid community for help on our Forums.

    If you want Ecwid to do something it cannot do at the moment, that’s not a problem at all!
    Just submit your idea on the Ideas page or vote for existing idea submitted by other users.

    We think of the Ideas page as our “to-do” list. We always strive to improve Ecwid and we will add those features which the community asks us for.