Zen Cart Templates branched from osCommerce Templates as a separate project. Beyond some aesthetic changes, the major differences between the two systems come from Zen Cart's architectural changes(e.g. a template system) and additional included features in the core. Among the modules already included are a Gift Certificate/Voucher module which allows to create, send and manage the digital coupons. A module to sell downloads(pdf or other media files) is included as well.
Most of the other versions of Zen Cart Template System is an enhanced version of osCommerce Templates system. They increased a lot of features, but most do have the basic code from osCommerce Templates. Zen Cart's code is based on osCommerce, but not only just add new features, but also to give the codes more flexible and innovative. Zen Cart is fully compatible with the register_globals_off. Business and interface logi can be independent of the template. The template can be covered, which makes the code update reduce from few days or even weeks to a few hours.
