Trying out different storefronts

Hi all,

I've been looking at different hosting solutions, storefronts, carts... for a while and have finally concluded that the only way to find the right one for me is to try out a few and see which one works best for my needs.

My only concern is spending a lot of time entering product info and images for a representative group of individual products and then losing or not being able to transfer that data to my chosen solution.

What do I need to know or do so that I can take my data with me once I decide on a provider or even if I decide to change providers after say a year or two?

I know there's probably an easy answer to this, but I think my brain is on overload from spending another 4 hours today trying to compare all the option.

Thanks much for any help you can offer.

i beleive that its like trial software you download the trial, test it out then if you purchase it you put the key in and your all set, nothing is lost

Unfortunately most if not all carts are database driven and it is rare to be able to simply transfer one cart's database to another system. It is fairly simple to transfer the same system's database between hosts and using phpMyAdmin you can easily download a database as a sql file and upload it to a new location. In other words you cannot easily use a Zen Cart database, for instance, with Cube Cart unless someone has provided a migration script that will allow it but you can use a saved Zen Cart database with another instance of Zen Cart on another server.

im sorry, i didnt reat that properly.

roban is correct.