You took the decision to start a classifieds website so you go online and start searching for a classifieds software that would save you the time and effort of developing the whole thing from scratch. You stumble upon many scripts but you don’t know which script would most suit your needs and that is powerful enough to get your idea to succeed. By answering the next questions you will be able to know if the script you chose is good for you or not:
Does it offer responsive themes? (mobile friendly)
We’ve all heard how important mobile browsing has become. And trust me, it’s not going to change anytime soon, so you have to have your website ready for browsing on mobile devices.
how to find out: Make sure that you find the keywords “responsive” or “mobile ready” at the classifieds script’s website.
Is the script customizable?
You wont appreciate this until a later stage with your website, you might need to change a feature or an option then you get blocked by an encoded script. Try to go for Open Source scripts as they will be customizable with 100% freedom, you would simply hire a developer or do the change yourself.
how to find out: check the classifieds script website for the phrases “open” “open source” “source code is available”
Is it affordable?
If money is an issue then you might be able to find a very suitable script that you can afford. However, try to make sure that the script covers all other points and then compare the prices.
how to find out: classifieds scripts have different pricing plans, some of them might give you a turnkey solution while others might be just selling themes. Try going to the market or pricing tabs at any classifieds script homepage.
Is it social media friendly?
I don’t think I have to tell you how important it is to have your classifieds website compatible with social media in regards to log in and sharing on social networks. If a script doesn’t support social log in then my advice is just ditch that script and look for other options.
how to find out: Go to the features page of the software and try to look for phrases like “social login”, “facebook login” or “social sharing” remember that sharing and login are two separate features.
Can you create content with it?
Content creation is the new marketing weapon now and it’s something you should not neglect, just as Quikr is now blogging effectively so should you! But if you choose a script that doesn’t support blogging or FAQs then you will end up paying for customization or even create a blog on a separate domain which is not recommended at all.
how to find out: This is very simple, you just need to find “blog creation” or “FAQ creation” in the features page of the script.
Does it require minimal technical knowledge?
A great classifieds script is worth nothing unless you are able to use it and learn your way around it easily, which is why you need to be very careful before proceeding with any classifieds script. Take into consideration your level of knowledge and compare it with the required level to use the classifieds software.
how to find out: Normally you would know this from the FAQs and the documentation offered by the classifieds script.
Is it Using latest technology?
Why would this matter to you? well you’re planning on starting a long term project, so it would be much better for you to go with a new technology that gets updated frequently rather than getting an old technology that might not help you in the future.
how to find out: Check the classifieds script latest release date and see how recent it is. Also try to see if it supports latest versions of Bootstrap, MySQL, PHP or any other technology that might concern you.
Of course there are many other factors that you might consider but I picked the ones that I find the most important. Do you have any other questions that must be answered before choosing a classifieds script? please share them at the comment section below.
Although it was not intentional but actually Open Classifieds answers “Yes” to all of the above questions.
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