Payment Gateways

A gateway is an online credit card processing system, such as PayPal. Each product supports different gateways, although they all support PayPal.

AspDotNetStorefront has built-in support for Authorize.net, 2Checkout, CentralPayments, eProcesssingNetwork, EFSNET, JetPay, ITransact, Linkpoint, NetBilling, Paymentech, PayFuse, PayJunction, PayPal, PlugNPay, QuickBooks Merchant Services Gateway, Transaction Central, Verisign Payflo Pro, Worldpay Junior, and YourPay. Additionally, support for recurring payments is built-in.

DotNetCart includes an optional add-on called DotNetCharge, which provides over 40 different gateways including many of the popular ones — too many to list here. Also, you can set up a recurring payment system through an optional add-on called DotNetPayment.

CommerceStarterKit's forté is PayPal; however, it supports several other gateways as well. CommerceStarterKit received support from various companies to help get it going, including PayPal, as well as Authorize.net, which means the software handles both gateways fine. That doesn't mean it's easy. I did have a bit of trouble discovering what all features were available in this product, including what all gateways the product supports. You'll have to check out the forums on the CommerceStarterKit Web site.

Databases

If your application must communicate with an existing database, you may be constrained to use a shopping cart with native support. Certainly, SQL Server is the most important to .NET developers, although many small shops use other database systems, such as MySQL or Microsoft Access.

• AspDotNetStorefront supports SQL Server and Access; however, it only supports SQL Server for production environments. It also has built-in support for Oracle versions 9i and 10g.
• DotNetCart includes generic support for using most databases such as Access, as well as native support for SQL Server.
• CommerceStartKit supports both Access and SQL Server. However, since you have code, you're certainly able to make use of any .NET data provider you wish to.