My Bottom Line Upfront
Dabbling with a business idea you are not sure is worth investing substantial time and money on, Volusion or Shopify? I’d go with Shopify.
Running a large business with multiple divisions and/or serving markets in several countries? Shopify is ideal in this context too.
Volusion only starts to emerge somewhat as a viable option when your business lies somewhere in the middle of these two extremes.
Even then, Volusion mostly falls short of Shopify’s affordability, scalability, expansive capabilities, greater flexibility and more granular features. Volusion is especially weighed down by limits on the number of products and on gross merchant value (GMV) imposed on each plan.
I explain these and the other reasons for choosing Shopify further down but here’s a brief snapshot of the main things I liked or didn’t like about either platform.
Shopify Strengths
- No maximum product limit on any plan
- No maximum GMV
- More affordable entry level plan ($5 per month) and a virtually free $1 for the first month
- Extensive multi-country customization options starting with the Basic plan including custom pricing by market
- Collaboration accounts that do not count toward staff account limits (suitable for contracted developers, designers and marketers)
- Sell products on multiple major online marketplaces and social media platforms
- Refund may be considered if cancellation within three days of subscription payment
- Large user base translates to extensive user-generated training and troubleshooting content/resources
Shopify Drawbacks
- Shorter free trial period
- Processing fees applied to products processed via Shopify Payments
- Higher transaction fees for third party payment providers (orders no processed via Shopify Payments)
- Questions posted on the official Shopify Community discussion forum often go unanswered
Volusion Strengths
- Longer free trial period
- No transaction fees for products processed via Volusion Payments
- Lower transaction fees for third party payment providers (orders no processed via Volusion Payments)
- Email support on all plans
Volusion Drawbacks
- Costlier entry level plan (starts at $35 a month)
- Limit on GMV transacted per plan. Automatic plan upgrade when GMV limit is exceeded but no downgrade when GMV drops.
- Maximum product limit on lower level (Personal and Professional) plans
- Volusion Payments is only available to US customers
- No refunds on cancellation
Shopify vs Volusion: Platforms Overview
Shopify and Volusion are both ecommerce website builders and online selling platforms. Shopify is the industry leader and far more popular – its 120 million monthly visits dwarfs Volusion’s 150,000.
And yet, widespread use does not always provide the nuanced picture of functionality that businesses need to understand the suitability of each platform in different scenarios.
Yes, Shopify wins the popularity contest. But if you want to make decisions based on more technical considerations, you need to dig a little deeper to find out which is the better option.
I did that and now present the interesting findings. But first, let’s take a look at pricing plans.
Pricing Plans
Here is a breakdown of the platforms’ plans as well as the major features available on each plan at no extra cost. I have provided a summary table of plans and respective features at the bottom of this review.
Shopify Pricing
- Starter – Starts at $5 per month ($1 on the first month); simple store with a contact page, product pages and Shopify checkout; one staff account; live chat support; 5% transaction fees for third party payment providers.
- Basic – Starts at $24 per month; one staff account; live chat support; 2% third party transaction fees; customize a single store for up to 3 cross-border markets.
- Shopify – Starts at $69 per month; best for micro and small businesses; up to five staff accounts; live chat support; 1% third party transaction fees; customize a single store for up to 3 cross-border markets.
- Advanced – Starts at $299 per month; best for startups and rapidly growing businesses; up to 15 staff accounts; enhanced live chat; 0.6% third party transaction fees; customize a single store for up to 3 cross-border markets then $59 extra per month per additional market.
- Plus – Starts at $2,300 per month; unlimited staff accounts; priority support via live chat or phone; 0.2% third party transaction fees (waived if Shopify Payments is primary gateway); customize a single store for up to 50 cross-border markets; access to up to 25 headless storefronts which works well with businesses serving multiple countries and/or with multiple business divisions.
Volusion
- Personal – Starts at $35 per month; one staff account; up to $50,000 GMV; 100 store products maximum; 1.25% transaction fees for third party payment providers.
- Professional – Starts at $79 per month; up to $100,000 GMV; up to 5 staff accounts; 5,000 store products maximum; 0.65% transaction fees for third party payment providers.
- Business – Starts at $299 per month; up to $400,000 GMV; up to 15 staff accounts; unlimited products; 0.35% transaction fees for third party payment providers.
- Prime – Custom pricing depending on GMV; unlimited staff accounts; unlimited products; negotiable transaction fees for third party payment providers.
Defining Entry Level Plans
A comparison is most accurate when you take a look at what is available on both ends at the same level, especially the entry-level plans.
For Volusion, we pick the Personal plan.
But when it comes to Shopify, it’s a little more complicated. While the Starter plan is the cheapest, it might not be a true representation of Shopify’s entry level plan.
In fact, the Starter plan is listed separately from other plans on the Shopify site, all the indication you need to know that the Basic plan is where the platform expects most non-experimenting businesses to start off.
Remember, Shopify’s Starter plan is primarily meant for people dabbling with a business idea but have not really fleshed it out. Volusion has no equivalent option.
Therefore, Volusion’s Personal and Shopify’s Basic are what I’d consider comparable entry level plans.
Basic Features
Volusion’s basics include a custom domain, free web hosting, site building tools, free mobile-first themes, unlimited bandwidth, SSL certification, analytics and native checkout solution.
Shopify’s are a custom domain, free web hosting, SSL certification, analytics, inventory tracking at 10 or more locations, customer segmentation, Shopify POS Lite (for in-person selling) and multi-language translation.
Next, I will go into the most comparable features the average business will be basing their choice of platform on.
Comparable Features
Free Trial and Lowest Priced Plans
A free trial lets you test out the platform for yourself and see how it performs against your expectations. It is the best way to confirm you are committing to the better option. Both platforms have a free trial. Neither requires you to provide a credit card to sign up.
At 14 days, Volusion’s is significantly longer than Shopify’s 3 days. But Shopify does compensate for the shorter trial window with a lower cost entry plan and a rock bottom $1 subscription for the first month.
Shopify’s Starter plan costs just $5 a month while Volusion’s Personal plan goes for $35 monthly. Further, you pay $1 during the first month of Shopify use. That’s somewhat of a token payment that more than makes up for the shorter free trial compared to Volusion.
So while Shopify’s free trial is shorter, I would categorize the $1 fee for the first month as free in all but name. That makes it the better platform if you are testing the waters and do not want to commit until you are sure it’s right for you.
Cancellation Refunds
Neither platform has a money back guarantee. There are no refunds of any kind when you cancel a Volusion plan – sales are final.
Shopify may consider issuing a refund in some cases if cancellation is done within three days of subscription payment.
However, this is not guaranteed and is evaluated on a case by case basis.
Transaction Limit
Volusion’s plans are delineated by GMV and that’s a bit of a problem. Once your GMV exceeds the ceiling for the Volusion plan you are on, you are automatically upgraded to the next pricing tier.
Seems inflexible at best and dubious at worst. It robs you of the autonomy of determining how much you are willing to spend on a subscription and does not really take into account seasonal spikes in sales volume.
Worse, there is no similarly automatic downgrade when your GMV falls to a lower tier – to get a downgrade when that happens, you have to reach out to support and request the change.
On the other hand, Shopify plans do not have a transaction ceiling. Instead, plans are marked by differences in maximum number of user accounts as well customization options to serve multiple markets and business divisions.
Processing and Transaction Fees
Transaction fees is where Volusion’s higher pricing would probably seem to make sense. If you choose to use Volusion Payments (a service powered by Stripe), there are no transaction fees.
Unfortunately, this service is only available to US customers – I’d say a significant shortcoming to what would otherwise have been a decisive advantage.
In case you don’t sign up for Volusion Payments and instead opt for a third party supported gateway, fees are dependent on the subscription plan you are on.
That is, 1.25% for the Personal plan, 0.65% for Professional, 0.35% for Business and a negotiable rate for Prime. This is separate from credit card transaction fees that the third party will charge based on their own rate.
All Shopify plans come with Shopify Payments by default. Unlike Volusion Payments’, there is an extra cost. Depending on the plan you choose, Shopify Payments’ credit card payment fees range from 2.4% to 2.9% of a transaction’s value plus a flat $0.30 transaction fee.
And if you go for a supported third party gateway instead (i.e. orders not processed through Shopify Payments, Shop Pay or PayPal Express), fees are based on your plan. At 5% per transaction, Shopify’s Starter plan has the steepest third party transaction fees on either platform at 5%.
In fact, Shopify’s plans have on average higher third party gateway fees overall. 2% for the Basic plan, 1% for Shopify, 0.6% for Advanced and 0.2% for Plus. This is separate from credit card transaction fees that the third party will charge based on their own rate.
This as well as the cost of using Shopify Payments can significantly cancel out the advantage of the lower subscription cost compared to Volusion.
Number of Products
All Shopify plans have no limit on the number of products you can have in your store. It’s an important feature given that, on the Volusion platform, that’s a privilege you can only access if you are with the Business or Prime plans.
Number of Staff Accounts
There is not much difference in the number of staff accounts you can create on Volusion and Shopify. In general, each platform has a progressively higher number of accounts with higher tiers and has no limit on the highest tier plan.
The point of departure is with Shopify’s collaboration accounts. Collaboration accounts are meant to grant limited access to the developers, designers and marketing experts you occasionally contract to help run and improve your store. These accounts do not count toward your plan’s staff account limits.
Customizability
Are you creating a store that will sell products to people in different countries and where you need to customize the store’s appearance and customer journey depending on buyer location?
Shopify performs considerably better in this regard. Starting with the Basic plan, you can customize your store for up to three cross-border markets at no additional cost. You can also set different prices for different markets.
On the premium Shopify Plus plan you not only qualify for up to 50 customized cross-border markets but you can also do as much as 25 headless Shopify store fronts. These options are ideal for businesses with multiple divisions and operating in multiple countries.
Integration Options
Volusion has integrations with more than 80 third party products including big names such as PayPal, Xero, Quickbooks, Constant Contact, Zapier, MailChimp, Google (Analytics, Merchant Center), Klaviyo, Norton and LiveChat.
Shopify has more – over 100 third party integrations. Not entirely unexpected for a platform that is so widely used.
We are talking Oracle Netsuite, SAP, PayPal, QuickBooks, Xero, Zendesk, Zapier, Katana, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Printful, Printify, ShipBob, Shippo as well as major online marketplaces (Amazon, eBay, Walmart).
Customer Support Channels
Both platforms provide live chat support on all plans and priority support for upper tier plans. Volusion has email support as well, a feature that Shopify lacks.
If you are on the upper tier Volusion plans (Business and Prime) you get access to phone support. Prime accounts have VIP Response too through a dedicated client success manager.
Customer Support Resources
Volusion’s website shares useful insights through blog posts, webinars, guides and a help center knowledge base.
A status page provides real time updates on whether Volusion services are up and running – you can subscribe for the updates so you do not need to keep coming back to the page and check for changes.
Shopify’s support resources are vast. An extensive and well-organized help center knowledge base systematically covers all key topics.
And before you get to a human customer support representative, an AI-powered help center virtual assistant provides important tips on the resources and answers you need.
There are webinars and video tutorials for persons that prefer an audiovisual explanation over text.
Like Volusion, Shopify has a platform and systems status page. You cannot subscribe for updates but you do get a more detailed and customized status update when you log in with your account.
Other than official support options and resources, Shopify’s large user base is an asset. In the event that you cannot find or understand the answer you are looking for from Shopify’s own resources, there’s a sea of content and discussions on Shopify community forums, third party websites and YouTube channels.
On the other hand, Volusion’s smaller footprint translates to a smaller user-generated knowledge base.
That said, Shopify’s community forum can be a bit of a hit or miss. For example, the majority of questions asked on the official Shopify discussion forum go unanswered.
My Verdict
With a detailed breakdown of what each platform brings to the table, you should find it easier to identify which one works for you.
For the average business though, Shopify does present a more compelling value proposition in my view. No limit on number of products, no limit on gross merchant value, cheaper entry level plan, collaboration accounts, multi-market/multi-country/multi-division customization options and a large user-generated knowledge base.
In aspects where Volusion has the edge – email support, longer free trial and lower transaction fees) – the advantage will not be meaningful enough for most businesses to tip the scales in its favor.
So if I had to choose between the two, I would go with Shopify.
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