CubeCart V3 and V4 Absolute End Of Life Imminent

Back in the first decade of this century, a system called CubeCart was developed that was pretty revolutionary at the time.  It worked really well for those wanting to build a simple-to-use but comprehensive eCommerce website.  Over the years it grew and changed, with V3 being the first popular CubeCart version.  It is now up to V6.

But if you are still running a V3 or V4 CubeCart site, I have bad news.  It is about to die.

The Technical Reason Why CubeCart V3 or V4 Won’t Work Soon


You see, CubeCart, like a lot of website systems, is built using a programming language called php.  This language changes and evolves over the years, and web hosting companies will update the version of php they use on their servers.  Sometimes some parts of the older versions of php are changed, and will no longer work.  What this means is that if your website has some of these older-format instructions in the coding, and your web hosting company updates to a newer version of php, their computers will no longer be able to process the older-format instructions.  And your website will no longer function.

What has happened fairly recently is that php has removed support for a set of instructions that your CubeCart V3 or V4 system uses to access the database, which is where all the information that gets displayed on your website is stored.  This is effective from version 7 of php.  So if your website was built with CubeCart V3 or V4, and your web hosting company upgrades to php version 7, all of a sudden your website will stop working.

It is not a simple matter to “fix” the programming code so that your old website will work again.  I am a very experienced programmer, and I have already spent 8 to 10 hours trying to do just this for a client.  After that amount of time and expense, we decided that the best solution was to stop using CubeCart, and to upgrade to a WordPress site.

I have been warning people for some time to upgrade to WordPress, and now the proverbial is about to hit the fan big time.

Why WordPress?

CubeCart to WordPress ConversionsThe advantages of using WordPress are numerous.  Since around 27% of all websites on the Internet today are run on WordPress, it is not hard to find someone to help you with it, or teach you how to use it, or work on it.  Also, any web hosting company that decides to do something that means that WordPress sites won’t run on their hosting, will be out of business really really fast, so they make sure their systems are WordPress-compatible.

Another big advantage of WordPress is that it is a LOT more secure than CubeCart.  Sure, because they are so popular, WordPress sites are a magnet for hackers, but if your WordPress site is built by someone who truly knows WordPress Security, your site will be very secure indeed.

Another massive advantage WordPress has over CubeCart V3 and V4 is that your products are more likely to be found by Google, as the SEO (that is, features that make Google like one website more than another) is done MUCH better on WordPress than on CubeCart.  So, you get more sales 😉

There are a lot more reasons why WordPress is a much better choice than CubeCart, and I will get to that in more detail shortly.  But if you want to know more about WordPress, click this link for a list of WordPress features.

What About Upgrading CubeCart?

Sure, that’s an option.  If you are technically-inclined, here are the instructions for upgrading from V3 of CubeCart to V6, and here are the instructions for upgrading from V4 of CubeCart to V6.

If you are not technically inclined, but want to do it anyway, Contact Us for a quote on doing it for you (note that pricing starts at $US4000 per site).

Note also that if you have any extensions installed on your CubeCart, these will also need to be upgraded.  In some cases, an upgrade will be provided by the original extension provider.  But in most cases, you will either need to buy a new version of the extension that is V6-compatible, or you will have to do without that functionality.

If you have a CubeCart site built by us, these are not able to be upgraded to V6, because the CubeCart systems we built are based on a massively modified version of V3, with a lot of custom-built extensions.  Well, yes, we could upgrade your site for you, but it would take a very long time (and therefore a lot of money) and so we strongly recommend a CubeCart-to-WordPress conversion instead.

How to Convert CubeCart to WordPress?

You have two options.  One is to start from scratch with a completely new WordPress site.  If the data on your old site is out-of-date, this might be a good option.  You can then enter all new information , including all your latest products, and get off to a great new start.

Or, you can hire a specialist (like us!) to do the conversion for you, transferring all your data over to the shiny new site.

Upgrade Your CubeCart Site Now

Are you ready to move on with either an upgrade to CubeCart V6 or (better choice) a conversion to WordPress?  Great!

Click here to find out more

I look forward to helping your business grow!