Possible Duplicate: How to decide between using an existing eCommerce solution a
ID: 650929 • Letter: P
Question
Possible Duplicate:
How to decide between using an existing eCommerce solution and building your own?
I am starting a ecomm business and my site idea is pretty similar in functionality to ETSY. I am sure that I could build it in wordpress (or drupal or magento) and just use plugins to get all the functions i want - but is there risk in being dependent on an outside technology rather than just building something out myself (I do not know web development, yet, but am learning) from scratch like in ruby or something?
Explanation / Answer
It depends on your goal.
If the goal is to learn, then do as much as you can from scratch. Everything you do will teach you about the issues and solutions involved - how the web works, integrating Javascript, using AJAX, browser compatibility etc...
If your goal is to build a working website that will start earning as soon as possible, use as much prebuilt software as possible, in particular pieces that are known to work well together.
In reality, you will end up somewhere in the middle - some software from scratch, some using existing pieces, all held together by some more of your own software. How much from scratch and how much existing will depend on how comfortable you are with either side.