Shopify vs Volusion

Diffen › Business

Business owners wanting to set up an online store often turn to an e-commerce platform provider for help. Shopify and Volusion are both companies that offer web design, web marketing, and product inventory services for companies in one web-based product.

Major differences between Shopify and Volusion lie in the price of the services, design, complimentary services, and years of experience in developing e-commerce solutions. E-commerce experts say that Shopify is a better choice for small, local businesses because it's easier to set up, and Volusion's service is better suited for medium or larger businesses looking to sell on a national scale. However, both companies host websites for large, multinational corporations.

Comparison chart

Shopify versus Volusion comparison chart
	Shopify	Volusion
	current rating is 2.96/5 1 2 3 4 5 (50 ratings)	current rating is 3.44/5 1 2 3 4 5 (9 ratings)
Introduction	Shopify is an e-commerce platform that enables individuals and businesses to create online stores.	Volusion is one of the oldest e-commerce software development companies offering and amongst the first to provide an online "shopping cart."
Year founded	2004	1999
Services offered	Web development, marketing, web design, hosting, order management, 24/7 Shopify customer service	Web development, marketing, web design, hosting, order management, Volusion customer service
Entry level price	Basic $13/month	Mini $15/month
Premium Service Option	Yes, Enterprise Solutions for $249	Yes, Platinum for $195
Credit Card Fee Charge	For Basic plan, 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction	2.17% per transaction
Unlimited Bandwidth	Yes	No
Hosting	Rackspace	Volusion's own in-house data center
Design	6 free templates; more paid options from $80 to $180	Several free templates, options for paid premium templates
Contract Required	No	No
Mobile Commerce Option	Yes	Yes
Gift Cards Option	Yes	Yes
Expert Help Available	Yes	Yes
Customer Account Creation	Yes	Yes
Blogging	Yes	Yes
Customer Profiles	Yes	Yes
Location	Ottawa, Canada	Austin, Texas

Features

Each pricing plan for Shopify and Volusion offers different features. At any pricing level, both services offer an out-of-the-box e-commerce platform, including technical support, marketing, SEO, and payment processing. However, the more you pay, the more options you get included in those platforms.

Unlike Shopify, Volusion limits the number of products you can sell on your website. Shopify allows you to upload an unlimited number of products at any level.

Shopify pricing chart.

Volusion pricing chart.

Basic Plans

Some business owners may look to Shopify or Volusion for a quick, easy way to set up an online store. If cost is an issue, both services offer entry level plans for a small monthly fee - $29 per month for Shopify, and $15 for Volusion.

Volusion's “Mini” $15 plan includes online support, a Facebook store, a mobile website, and social media marketing tools; however, it only allows users to upload up to 100 products, and caps bandwidth at 1 GB.

Shopify's $29 Basic plan allows users to upload unlimited products, and includes unlimited bandwidth, 1 GB of storage space, and a service that creates discounts.

Premium Plans

The costliest and therefore most robust plans differ between Shopify and Volusion.

The $179 Unlimited Shopify plan offers everything their basic plan does, plus the ability to generate gift cards, advanced analytics reporting, real-time shipping rates, and abandoned cart recovery.

Volusion's $195 Platinum plan allows business owners to host an unlimited number of products, plus provides 40 GB of bandwidth, priority technical support, a dedicated account manager, integration with Amazon and Ebay, and the ability to generate daily deals and create customer reward programs.

This video gives a detailed comparison of Shopify against Volusion:

Design

Shopify offers around 20 free templates, and many more in its paid store for between $80 and $180.

Volusion advertises that it offers “dozens” of free templates, plus access to paid premium templates.

Pricing

Both Volusion and Shopify offer a range of e-commerce packages for a monthly subscription fee. Each provider also charges a separate fee for processing transactions from major credit card providers. Shopify's credit card fees, at 2.17%, are lower than Volusion's 2.9%. However, Shopify also charges 30 cents per transaction on top of that percentage.

However, the credit card fee percentage can be lower depending on which monthly plan you sign up for. Shopify's most basic plan costs $29 per month. The Professional plan costs $79 per month with a 2.5% credit card fee. The Unlimited plancosts $179 per month with a 2.25% credit card fee.

Volusion offers five different plans starting with the Mini at $15 per month. The Bronze and Silver plans cost $35 and $65 per month. The costliest plans are the Gold and Platinum plans at $125 and $195 per month, respectively.

Free Trial

Both companies offer a 14-day free trial to try out the product and get a feel for how they work. Neither service asks for your credit card information to begin the free trial, however you may not begin selling products until you select a paid monthly plan. Both services give you the option to cancel before being billed for the first month.

Apps

Shopify can boast of a fantastic collection of thousands of third-party apps in their "app store". Volusion, on the other hand, only has about 70 such apps in their "marketplace". Judging by the vibrancy of their app store, Shopify is by far the more dominant and popular of the two platforms.

The strength of a third-party ecosystem of apps and services on a platform is important. Just like apps in the iOS or Android app stores increase the utility for phone owners, apps and services for an e-commerce platform make it easier to use and feature-rich for store owners.

Shopify vs. Volusion