3dcart.com is a Florida-based hosted eCommerce solutions company. In business for more than 12 years, 3dcart offers shopping cart software, eCommerce shared web hosting, dedicated servers, eCommerce marketing services, SSL certificates and web design. 3dcart uses data centers in the United States, including RackSpace, SoftLayer, ThePlanet, Peer1, and LiquidWeb.
Review
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Sales
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Pre-sales questions can be taken to the 3dcart team by live chat, telephone or email. I hooked up with 3dcart by phone and live chat. Both calls were answered quickly and the reps I spent time with were able to explain services to me and get me setup with a free 15-day trial. Perfect!
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Setup
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3dcart offers a 15-day free trial. Unlike most free trials, 3dcart’s free hosting plan offer requires no credit card. Sign up takes place online and users need only input their name, email address and website name to setup an eCommerce shop. A welcome letter arrives by email shortly after sign up, and the letter contains support information, login details and a coupon offer for a special hosting deal. Smooth, intuitive and easy!
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Billing
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All major credit cards are accepted by 3dcart, and the billing department is available for assistance by telephone, live chat and email. I was always properly billed and was able to easily cancel my hosting account.
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Pricing
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3dcart offers three eCommerce hosting plans. The smallest plan, Mini Plan, includes enough space for 100 products, more than 50 promotion and marketing tools, built-in search engine optimization tools, 50 free store templates, a free domain name, and the ability to accept Google Checkout, PayPal and Amazon payments. The Mini Plan runs $19.99/month. By contrast, the largest hosting plan, called Professional Plus Plan, costs $99.99/month and has enough space to host unlimited products. Discounts are given for signing longer term contracts, though some plans come with a setup fee and live chat support is only available on plans costing more than $49/month. 3dcart’s plan prices are good, but the setup fees for quick activation and the fact that live chat support is only available on limited plans seems a dated concept.
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Reliability
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My hosting server hardware was 100% reliable.
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Help & Support
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Customer support is available by live chat, telephone, email/ticket system. Wait times for live chat support were less than five minutes and phone support was quick to answer, but most email/tickets submitted took nearly a day to be answered. Also, support seemed to disappear on weekends altogether. Many of the tickets I submitted on a Friday were not addressed until the following Monday. Support, when available, is excellent. However, agents need to be a bit more pro-active.
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Uptime
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My uptime monitor indicated that 3dcart maintained a 99.999% uptime rating.
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Guarantee
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No-risk 30-day money back guarantee.
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99.9% uptime guarantee.
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Terms of Service
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30-day cancellation notice required for all clients.
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Overage fees will be charged for excessive space and bandwidth usage.
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Spamming forbidden.
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Customer credits for downtime must be requested manually.
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Bottom Line
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Advantages
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Excellent uptime and server speeds.
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15-day free trial, no credit card required.
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Super simple control panel and store setup.
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Easy website migration.
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PCI compliant.
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Free store templates.
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Free domain name.
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Disadvantages
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Slow ticket/email support responses.
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Limited weekend support.
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Some plans come with setup fee.
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