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Yes, its true. Fantastico is insanely popular. In fact, its the top selling 3rd party site administration tool. And what makes it so great? Well, its got a group of top notch scripts that it can automatically install without issue. But does it merit $90? Hardly. After all, the scripts included are all free. These are things you can download and spend a few minutes installing on your own. Beyond that, many of the programs included overlap, without giving you any indication as to which program should be used for which circumstance. But what's the biggest problem? Fantastico, though updated "often" is not as fast as the site where their programs originate. So if you want the most recent version, you can't neccisarilly rely on Fantastico to have it. What is special about Fantastico then? Well it includes the useless Soho Launch, which is rarely used by Fantastico owners. Cubecart, a pay service is included, so you can't get that free, but who cares? osCommerce and Zen Cart, both of which are better, can be added for free in its stead. In fact, they're also in Fantastico. The only advantage is that it includes the exclusive Site Template set. But who cares? As has been pointed out in other threads, free templates are readily available.
So I say, screw Fantastico. Its $90 too much. If its included free with your hosting package, then take advantage of it, as long as you've made sure it has the most up to date version of said software. If not, install the scripts yourself. Who knows? You might learn a thing or two.
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