Volusion vs Shopify (2023) – Ecommerce Platform Comparison

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Volusion and Shopify are two of the best ecommerce platforms on the market today. These state-of-the-art SaaS solutions give business owners access to easy web-based platforms where they can sell and market unique products. While Shopify focuses on sales functionality, Volusion shines with excellent data and analytics tools.

Looking for a sensational ecommerce platform?

If so, then youโ€™ve probably already heard of Shopify and Volusion.

Both of these products stand out as some of the most popular tools on the market for companies that want to develop a powerful web presence for their brands.

Like many SaaS ecommerce services, Volusion and Shopify have a number of important features in common, like the ability to integrate with social media pages, deliver security through an SSL certificate and take payments via credit card and other digital transaction services.

However, despite their similarities, there are a lot of crucial differences between Volusion and Shopify too.

Today, weโ€™re going to give you the overview that you need to understand exactly how Volusion and Shopify can help you to build the website thatโ€™s perfect for your company. Weโ€™ve compiled all the relevant information that we could think of on each product, to give you an in-depth comparison of each service.

Letโ€™s get started.

Volusion vs Shopify: Table of Contents

About Volusion and Shopify

Letโ€™s start with the basics.

What is Volusion?

Volusion is an ecommerce product that started life in 1999. In the last couple of decades, the company has grown to become a digital powerhouse, supporting thousands of sites around the globe. The great thing about Volusion is that it appeals to a wide range of companies, delivering in-depth analytics, metrics, and insights to help you design a more effective site.

What is Shopify?

Shopify, on the other hand, stands out as one of the most searched-for ecommerce platforms on Google. With a robust app store full of extensions, and excellent customer support, Shopify brings thousands of companies to life every year. This Canada-based ecommerce solution specializes in helping you to make the best possible sales, with everything from abandoned cart features, to integrations with Amazon. Shopify even has its own integrated payment processor called Shopify Payments.

Volusion vs Shopify Pros and Cons

Volusion Pros and Cons

Pros ๐Ÿ‘

  • Various payment gateways to choose from
  • Strong analytics and reporting features
  • Sensational mobile app
  • Easy-to-use interface
  • Customizable to suit a range of companies

Shopify Pros and Cons

Pros ๐Ÿ‘

  • Excellent for sales and ecommerce
  • Large app store full of extensions
  • Amazing customer support
  • Fantastic custom shopping cart
  • Integration with dropshipping features
  • Robust community

Volusion vs Shopify: Pricing

While thereโ€™s more to picking the ideal ecommerce system than getting the pricing right, we all have budgets to think about.

The good news is that the pricing plans for both Volusion and Shopify are often considered to be quite competitive. Shopifyโ€™s packages start at around $9 per month and go all the way up to $299 per month depending on the functionality and support that you might need.

Shopify Pricing Plans

Monthly fees โ€“ Shopify offers four different plans with monthly fees ranging from $9 to $299 as follows:

One of the major issues that makes Shopify slightly less attractive than Volusion is the fact that it still charges transaction fees. The only way to waive the transaction costs is if you sign up for the in-house payment processing that Shopify offers to US customers โ€“ Shopify Payments. If youโ€™re not using that functionality, then the transaction fees look like this:

On the plus side, there is a free trial available with Shopify to help you get started. Both Volusion and Shopify will offer a 14 day free trial, and there are no set-up fees to worry about either.

Volusion Pricing Plans

Volusion offers four plans, with monthly fees ranging from $14 to $135, as listed below:

Start a free Volusion trial by clicking here.

Volusion is an appealing option pricing wise because you can use the service without having to worry about transaction fees, depending on the plan youโ€™re using. However, itโ€™s worth keeping in mind that all ecommerce tools do come with gateway fees to think about, as well as extra costs, like premium shopping cart add-ons, and point of sale systems.

Both Volusion and Shopify also give you unlimited bandwidth and products on every plan, which means that each service is a good option for a business that wants something thatโ€™s going to grow with it. Still, if youโ€™re looking for affordability over anything else, itโ€™s worth remembering that the ecommerce solution is still $100 cheaper from Volusion on the highest tier than Shopifyโ€™s service.

Further reading:

Volusion vs Shopify: Ease of Use

As mentioned earlier in this review, Shopify and Volusion are both fairly powerful and easy to use ecommerce store building platforms. Both come with a user interface that is well-designed and thought-out, making it as easy as it can get for any user to get up and running with an online store in minimum time.

Having said that, it should be noted that Shopify has a wizard mode that allows even novice users to setup their stores very easily while Volusion is lacking in this feature.

When youโ€™re comparing Shopify vs Volusion, itโ€™s also important to think about how easy it is to use the respective back-ends on each products.

Both of these tools are relatively well-known for your usability. The Shopify backend is clean and easy to use, with plenty of modules and segments to explore. Adding products to your system and implementing Shopify apps takes virtually no time whatsoever. You can even add your own discounts to certain purchases depending on your requirements.

Similarly, Volusion also provides an easy-to-use backend with 99,9% uptime and plenty of intuitive features. Thereโ€™s a strong focus on usability, with drag-and-drop components, and the colorful icons on the interface make it easy to find your way around.

If youโ€™re an absolute beginner with your ecommerce website, then you might find that Volusion is a little more appealing. The app seems to hold your hand through every component of setting up your store, which is nice when you might otherwise find the process confusing.

However, in the same way, some people with a lot of experience in the ecommerce market could consider the hand-holding aspect of Volusion to be a little condescending. If youโ€™re very familiar with using ecommerce software, then the process of being guided through each step individually can make everything seem a lot slower.

Volusion vs Shopify: Sales Features

The best ecommerce software for your company will always be the one that can deliver the robust selection of sales features that you need, for a price that you can afford. Volusion can be a little trickier to use than Shopify, particularly if you want to speed through the process, but it does come with a lot of superb tools.

Probably the main thing that separates Shopify and Volusion is that Volusion focuses heavily on analytics tools, whereas Shopify is more about direct sales.

The search term analysis function in Volusion means that you can figure out what people are looking for on Google when they happen across your website. On the downside, youโ€™ll need to get a separate set of marketing tools if you want to put that search function to good use.

The Volusion solution doesnโ€™t come with a blogging feature, so youโ€™ll need to implement something like WordPress instead.

Alternatively, Shopify keeps things relatively basic when it comes to analytics and reporting. However, you can always add in extra integrations that will update your reports, like Google analytics. You can also upgrade to higher-tier pricing plans for more features too.

While Volusion is for data-focused companies that want to scale quickly, Shopify is for design and sales-passionate business leaders who want an easy experience.

Features of both software options include:

  • Basic online store functionality โ€“ both Shopify and Volusion offer basic store functionalities that are fairly powerful yet easy to setup, use and maintain over a period of time.
  • Inventory management โ€“ All Shopify plans allow an unlimited number of items to be added to and sold via your store, while Volusion has a tiered structure, offering unlimited products only on their top-of-the-line plan ($135/mo.).
  • Calculation of shipping charges โ€“ both platforms allow flexible and powerful options for calculation of shipping charges which is one of the most basic and essential aspects of selling physical goods via an ecommerce storefront.
  • Provision for coupons and discount codes โ€“ Shopify, a bit of an underdog here, does not offer this feature on their Lite plan, while it is available on all other plans. All plans at Volusion allow discount code creation and calculation functionalities.
  • Payment gateway options โ€“ Shopify has a major edge here, with support for 70 payment gateways while Volusion is relatively at a disadvantage with support for only 30+ gateways.
  • Multi-lingual capabilities โ€“ Shopify does not offer full multi-lingual capabilities directly. For creating fully multi-lingual stores, third-party/paid apps are available for Shopify. Another option available at Shopify is to custom code your theme/templates with a simple as well as an advanced level interface. On the one hand, Volusion is at an advantage here, with more in-built multi-lingual support. On the other hand, it has a disadvantage in that the custom coding capabilities it offers are only under the advanced โ€“ raw-code-edit mode.
  • SEO capabilities โ€“ while both platforms offer extensive SEO capabilities in order to help you drive more organic traffic to your store via search engines, it should be noted here that the SEO features and benefits of Shopify are more powerful as compared to those of Volusion, as extensively described my article on how to choose the best ecommerce platform for SEO.
  • Customization capabilities โ€“ both platforms offer robust customization capabilities, via an advanced interface that allows you to edit the raw HTML/CSS code directly to give you total control over the design and the look-and-feel of your store. Shopify scores better here by providing a simple, menu driven method to change the basic attributes of your store such as fonts, colors etc. very easily.

Volusion vs Shopify: Design and Templates

Letโ€™s take a closer look at some of the kinds of websites that you can build with both Volusion and Shopify. When it comes to web design, Shopify often takes the cake, thanks to a wide range of customization features that donโ€™t require much coding knowledge, and plenty of eye-catching templates.

The great thing about Shopify is that the templates and themes youโ€™ll find on the platform are easy to implement and edit. Shopifyโ€™s WSIWYG drag-and-drop editor makes it much easier to transform your website without coding knowledge.

On the other hand, Volusion has a much smaller choice when it comes to themes, with only a handful available.

On the plus side, the themes that you do get can be edited directly with CSS, and they look pretty professional. The WYSIWYG content editor allows you to directly edit content on your site, but you wonโ€™t be able to do as much with Volusion as you could with Shopify without code.

While Shopify definitely has a lot to offer for website building and customization, Shopify is easily the better choice for beginners who want a practical way to design a custom website.

The good news is that no matter which service you choose, you can rest assured that every template will be responsive for mobile devices. You can also expect that every template you find will be made to the highest professional standards.

Whether you opt for a free or a premium theme, youโ€™re sure to find something that helps you to demonstrate the unique style and professional nature of your business.

Volusion vs Shopify: Payment Gateways and Apps

Letโ€™s face it, thereโ€™s more to designing a great ecommerce website than just creating something that looks good. You need everything from marketing tools, to a range of payment systems to ensure that youโ€™re actually making money from your site.

The good news is that both Shopify and Volusion are pretty impressive when it comes to making money for your business. Both Shopify and Volusion can integrate with a host of payment gateways, allowing you to access transactions from PayPal and Stripe. Thereโ€™s more than 100 gateways available with Shopify, compared to around 34 for Volusion.

Notably, Volusionโ€™s payment gateway options will differ depending on where youโ€™re accessing the software. For instance, in the United States, you can tap into around 30 different payment gateways. However, if you want to take gift cards and payments in Europe, you only have 8 options to choose from.

A unique thing about the ecommerce software from Volusion and Shopify is that they both come with their own proprietary payment solution too. Shopify Payments is available for merchants across 11 countries, and it comes without any transaction fees. Volusion payments, on the other hand, are only available in the United States.

Additionally, unlike with Shopify Payments, you need to pay a monthly fee to use Volusion Payments. Thereโ€™s even a pesky application process to think about, which can take up to 7 business days โ€“ which is quite annoying.

This means that payments wise, Shopify definitely stands out as a hands-down winner.

If you want to extend the functionality of your website beyond simply accepting payments, then you can also add Shopify app and Volusion app options to your ecommerce store too. Apps and integrations allow you to tap into everything from third-party tools like WordPress, to abandoned cart recovery and gift cards.

While both Shopify and Volusion have app stores for your ecommerce website, Shopify does provide a much wider range of apps. There are literally thousands of tools to choose from with Shopify, and only a small handful with Volusion. On the plus side, Shopify does cover the basics, like accounting packages โ€“ but you wonโ€™t get tools like Xero or Freshbooks, like you do with Shopify.

Additionally, most of the apps that you can access with Volusion are premium, which means that you need to pay extra to integrate them into your website.

Volusion vs Shopify: POS

So, what if you want to take your payments offline?

After all, thereโ€™s always a chance that youโ€™ll want to be able to connect your online checkout to your small business pop-up shops or mini sales locations. Fortunately, both Shopify and Volusion come with Point of Sale solutions for the real world.

You can buy POS hardware for your store directly from Shopify to build your point of sale, including a barcode scanner, till, receipt printer, and more. Thereโ€™s also the option to sync all of your data directly with your business back-end, so you know exactly whatโ€™s going on with your inventory.

Another nice touch is the fact that you can use your POS checkout on any Shopify plan, provided that youโ€™re using a card reader and app that integrates with Shopify. However, if you want to access the full range of POS functionality, with staff pins, registration, and higher numbers of sales locations, you need to be in the โ€œShopifyโ€ tier or higher.

Volusion is happy to help with your POS functionality too. You can use a range of UPC scanners, receipt printers and card readers with this tool, giving you plenty of ways to build your small business presence to suit you. The inventory information syncs in real-time, but you may need to spend more time tweaking configuration settings with Volusion.

Further reading:

Volusion vs Shopify: Blogging

Whether youโ€™re building a website with BigCommerce, Magento, or any other software you can think of, youโ€™re usually going to want a blogging service built-in. Thatโ€™s because blogs are important in building the sales potential of your website.

Countless companies depend on content marketing to attract customers today. However, while Volusion offers plenty of features, including free themes and SSL certificates, itโ€™s missing the ability to blog. That means that you need to find an external integration with something like WordPress instead.

While some business owners wonโ€™t mind linking to a third-party blog tool, itโ€™s worth noting that this does require you to do a lot more work when building your website. Youโ€™ll need to mess with your DNS settings until everything looks perfect, and you might need a higher level of coding knowledge than you have now. If youโ€™re going to be using WordPress as your blogging platform, it might seem more natural to use something like WooCommerce for selling, instead of Volusion.

Shopifyโ€™s built-in blogging tool allows you to keep all of your content marketing and website building services in the same place โ€“ which is a helpful touch. That being said, it is worth noting that Shopifyโ€™s tools are a little basic. You canโ€™t do things like advanced tagging and categorization โ€“ which is common for things like WordPress.

On the plus side, you can integrate your blog and your website with plugins for things like email marketing and lead nurturing with Shopify. This means that youโ€™ve got plenty of tools to develop an all-in-one promotional experience.

Volusion vs Shopify: Dropshipping

Although there are a lot of different ways that you can build your business in the digital environment, one of the most popular options today is to work with a dropshipping supplier.

Dropshipping allows you to sell products without keeping items in stock in a local warehouse. Instead, you take an order and redirect that order to a supplier, who can fulfil the purchase on your behalf. A lot of people love this way of selling, because it means that you donโ€™t need to put a lot of cash into building your website and business straight away.

While both Volusion and Shopify do give you options for dropshipping functionality, you get much more of an extensive selection of plugins for Shopify. Most importantly, Shopify is the only location where youโ€™ll find one of the worldโ€™s favorite dropshipping tools โ€“ Oberlo.

Volusion, on the other hand, only gives you two options for dropshipping: Kole Import, or Doba. While this isnโ€™t a problem if youโ€™re already comfortable with those tools , it might not be enough for people who are searching for the best dropshipping solution from the ground up.

Further reading:

Volusion vs Shopify: Customer Support

Whenever youโ€™re using a new technology for your business, thereโ€™s a good chance that youโ€™re going to end up with some questions or concerns that you need to address. Thatโ€™s why itโ€™s always important to ensure that youโ€™re going to get the right level of customer service from your software supplier.

While some companies try to push you into doing everything for yourself, others give you the comfort of knowing that thereโ€™s always someone there to help when you need it. The good news is that both Volusion and Shopify are pretty impressive when it comes to customer support.

Shopify delivers live chat and 24/7 phone help, as well as guidance through social media and email. Additionally, if you upgrade to the Plus level plan, youโ€™ll get a dedicated agent who is there to give you guidance every step of the way.

Volusion also offers phone support, but itโ€™s only available between 7am and 10pm CST. Thereโ€™s no email guidance either, because Volusion believes that giving you phone support means that youโ€™ll get a stronger experience.

Although itโ€™s relatively easy to get any questions answered about your experience from Volusion, youโ€™re going to have a better customer service experience with Shopify overall. Itโ€™s very difficult to match the kind of support that comes from Shopify, particularly on higher-priced tiers.

Volusion Prime vs Shopify Plus

Speaking of Shopify Plus, it may be worth taking a look at what you can get from the higher tier options from both of these companies.

Volusionโ€™s custom pricing tier is called โ€œPrimeโ€, and it comes with third-party gateways, shipping, an advanced report builder, API access, and batch order processing. You can use Volusion Prime to tap into ratings and reviews, Amazon and eBay integrations, social media buttons, built-in SEO tools, and abandoned cart reports. Additionally, thereโ€™s plenty of advanced inventory management options too, with support for phone orders, and even CRM technology thrown in.

Itโ€™s at the Prime level where youโ€™ll find the highest level of VIP support from Volusion, which matches Shopifyโ€™s approach with Shopify Plus.

Both Shopify Plus and Volusion Prime are intended for large businesses and enterprises, and the packages can be customized to suit your needs.

With Shopify Plus, you donโ€™t have to worry about any limits on your sales volume or the number of products that you can sell. Whatโ€™s more, Shopify Plus can handle as many as 500k in hits every minute โ€“ which is very reassuring. Shopify also doesnโ€™t charge itโ€™s customers higher monthly fees once they surpass a certain number of orders on the Plus package. This sets the company apart from other competitors like BigCommerce. You get the same flat fee no matter how much you grow.

If youโ€™re looking for the most premium solution available from Volusion and Shopify, then itโ€™s worth noting that you do get a little more from Shopify if you can upgrade to Plus. Even at the highest tiers on Volusion, youโ€™re still not going to get things like blogging, and recurring payment settings, and there are no options for upsells, cross-selling and other features too.

Further reading:

Shopify vs Volusion: Which One Wins?

So, in the battle of Volusion and Shopify, which one really comes out on top?

Ultimately, while Volusion definitely has a lot to offer, most people will find that Shopify is the go-to solution for their ecommerce needs. Shopify has a much better user interface to work with, as well as a wider range of templates to choose from. Whatโ€™s more, you can integrate a much larger number of apps into your store too.

There are no product or sales limits to worry about with Shopify, and youโ€™ll have more opportunities to unlock the benefits of dropshipping. Even the blogging and SEO features are better for Shopify out-of-the-box. If you want to set up an online store with very little prior knowledge, Shopify is the best choice.

Shopify also comes with point-of-sale functionality thatโ€™s a lot more comprehensive than what you might get from Volusion โ€“ which is great for people with brick and mortar store. Additionally, Shopify Payments comes without monthly fees, and abandoned cart functionality is built into a much cheaper plan on Shopify with Volusion.

Of course, there may still be reasons that you prefer to use Volusion over Shopify. The main one that we can think of at this point is that Volusion is much better for analytics and reporting. It can give you a really in-depth look at whatโ€™s going on in your business, and that makes it a lot easier to grow at a rapid pace. Additionally, there are no transaction fees on any plans with Volusion, which means that you might be able to save some money too.

Thereโ€™s a good chance that youโ€™ll find the various features built into Volusion easy-to-use and helpful too, from the CRM content, to the affiliate marketing programs and email tools.

Volusion vs Shopify – Conclusion

While both Shopify and Volusion are fairly powerful ecommerce hosting platforms, Shopify provides greater ease of use coupled with superior customization and SEO

In light of this as well as some of the points discussed above, Shopify comes out a winner as an ecommerce platform for building your online store with ease of use and powerful capabilities.

When it comes to getting the best online support for your business from the ground up, thereโ€™s really nothing quite like Shopify. However, that doesnโ€™t mean that itโ€™s not worth checking out some of the other leading ecommerce tools on the market too. Volusion is a very powerful tool for the right person, with superior analytics features and no transaction fees. Whatโ€™s more, like Shopify, it offers a range of features like a free SSL certificate, abandoned cart recovery, and various ecommerce tools.

However, while you might pay a little more for Shopify at first, youโ€™re also going to get a lot more value, complete with everything from superior customization, to basic blogging.

Shopify comes out a winner as an ecommerce platform for building your online store with ease of use and powerful capabilities.

However, if you still donโ€™t feel certain enough to make your decision, it might help to give both of the products a test run and see which one you feel most comfortable with. Remember, there is a free trial available for both Volusion and Shopify.

To get started with a free trial of Shopify, click here.

For starting a free trial with Volusion, click here.

Btw, did you check out my full Shopify review?

Joe Warnimont

Joe Warnimont is a Chicago-based writer who focuses on eCommerce tools, WordPress, and social media. When not fishing or practicing yoga, he's collecting stamps at national parks (even though that's mainly for children). Check out Joe's portfolio to contact him and view past work.

Comments 1 Response

  1. Juneau says:

    You’re so wrong about Volusion regarding bandwidth. They offer limited bandwidth on all of their plans with expensive overages per GB, though it takes a little digging on the website to reveal this:

    Feature
    Mini
    Plus
    Pro
    Premium
    Monthly Price
    $15 /mo
    $35 /mo
    $75 /mo
    $135 /mo
    Products
    100
    1,000
    10,000
    Unlimited
    Bandwidth
    1 GB
    3 GB
    10 GB
    35 GB

    Even on the most expensive plan, bandwidth maxes out at 35 GB.

    You’re also correct about Volusion being difficult to use. I started building a site over a year ago and never launched my business yet, partially due to the fact that Volusion’s interface is clunky and confusing. I really do need a “Wizard Mode” and most likely will check out Shopify.

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