Jason - no matter what you use you are going to have issues - regardless of whether it's Catalook or ASDNSF - no matter what anyone tells you - or feels strongly about, you are going to have something you need to have custom written it seems, so you have to ascertain what is important to you.
I can't see how people think that Catalook can't scale - not quite sure since I've been talking with people who want to run 250,000 products on the appliction - personally I think they need more understanding on the implementation of DNN which can be a bit greedy on resources, but with some work, can be quite fast.
You will find divides in expectations from developers and end users on what is going to be the best for them and you'll never get companies agreeing.
My real only concern when I read posts abou things like this is that ASPDSF has been trying for close on two years to get it right - that is a concern to me, and for 1500 US people are happy to part with this money on the promise that it's going to be ok eventually. I believe standalone it's a sterling product - and although not developed with it, have spoken to people and seen sites that run using this app and it's great... however, the implementation within the DNN infrastructure doesn't run as I would expect an install would, therefore, I have my doubts on it's viability. I have asked before if I could be a tester to do comparisons or see the differences between this and Catalook but not response, and I am not in a position to purchase and test it, just to give an opinion, so I can only offer hearsay, as I suspect, many others.
It seems that it just doesn't like integration with dnn, so perhaps you should be looking for store front solution, rather than a dnn one, and then implement dnn as seamlessly as possible for the rest of the site. There are now modules that allow you to register, synchronise and approve users - and they will access any other third party db (of course you need to read the details) to allow membership to a dnn portal.
It is my understanding (correct me if I"m wrong) that there is a very close relationship between the board and ASPDNSF - which concerns me to - nothing to do with the monetary agreements, but more that if the board is promoting and using this product, they know DNN better than anyone you would think, that after two years or close to it, as well as having genuine people willing to try, buy and test this product along the way, it's still not working.
The fact you raise the point that people say integration is expensive, crippling and inflexible would ring alarm bells for me and I could never move forward to promote this to my clients who pay me money to advise them on something that works. If that alone doesn't make you stop and think that - hey perhaps it needs another year or so - then I am not sure on what you are basing your decision making process, but I bet it's like many others, including me.
When I go to the ASPDNSF I see a great looking website, lots of information lots of colour, comparisons, things that make me have confidence in the product, and as a standalone solution, I'm sold, but I work in the DNN space, and need a solution that works in DNN - and that is where I have to step back and utilise the Catalook product.
What is interesting to notice is that over time, the Catalook product continues to improve, but at the end of the day - it's pretty seamless with DNN, has an upgrade path, is able to utilise other modules, and doesn't require core changes to the DNN build, and doesn't cripple the site and is not inflexible.
Is the code perfect? I don't code, I cannot say - but as i initially said - everyone has their own opinion.
For the last 20 months, I've been working with a completely compiled version of DNN, we run Catalook seamlessly, with shared modules, reduced touches to the db, but able to utilise all the dnn modules that don't require the app_code folder. It's fast, Catalook is fast, it works, that's the key thing I can tell you - out of the box - this application works. What people struggle with is probably the UI and methodology in which things are done, and partly I believe it was written that way because of the structure of DNN - it's not a separate appliction trying to be 'plugged in' - it started of as a dnn solution.
eCommerce is incredibly complex. I have read and heard many people think they can be better than someone else, but at the end of the day - you have to make a commercial decision to ensure you get a project finished. We struggle with Catalook sometimes when it comes to localisation and hiding some elements we don't want shown, but they are inconveniences, not showstoppers or website stoppers. But I get very concerned when I go and check out a design I've done for a client running ASPDNSF and after one year - maybe 18 months, it's still not running... I would hate to think how much time they have spent and what market share they have lost by being sold something that doesn't do what it says it does.
I've been through the bleeding edge so many times now that we analyse every project, ask lots of questions and then say NO to work that we think cannot be achieved with current, workable, stable releases. The days of using clients as guinea pigs to learn a project or product are way gone because you can't actually make a living worth mentioning as BAD projects will do your head in every time.
We're now working with someone in converting all his sysdata or sysnet store (I can't rememer I don't use it) to Catalook because he's outgrown what it does.
There is animosity because we're all human and some people get blinded by the light of others, whereas, I have this approach - nothing is perfect, evalauate it's needs, look at the support, look at the flexibility and make a decision based on that
That's my opinion on this - for what it's worth.
Nina Meiers
http://www.xd.com.au