Volusion vs. Magento

Looking for ecommerce software? Here's how Volusion and Magento stack up.

Matthew Taylor
Daniel Adams

Matthew Taylor and Daniel Adams

Last updated 2o July 2020


Volusion

4.4  Stackupp rating


Pricing from

$ 29.00 / month

Free Plan?

Trial


Best for

Small businesses expecting to scale that are looking for a feature-rich platform.

Magento

3.8  Stackupp rating


Pricing from

$ 2200.00 / month

Free Plan?

Yes


Best for

Magento “Open Source” requires development knowledge and is suitable for large enterprises. “Magento Commerce”, a fully-hosted version of Magento Open Source, available on a range of plans, catering retailers from mom-and-pop stores to global enterprises.

Volusion or Magento: Which is best?

Can't decide between Volusion and Magento?

Find the best platform for you with our side by side comparison of Volusion and Magento. See how each platform stacks up across ease of use, design, support and value for money.

Let the comparison begin. Don't worry, we'll guide you.

Is Volusion right for you?

Volusion is a fully-hosted ecommerce platform with a loyal user-base and a wide selection of features. While the platform is suitable for businesses of all sizes, the intuitive user interface, high-quality customer support, and extensive feature-set make it an attractive choice for small and medium-sized retailers that are looking to scale.

Four pricing plans are available, beginning at $29/month and running all the way up to a custom option with VIP support. It is important for retailers to ensure that all the features they need are included with the package they select, as some features aren’t offered in lower-tier plans, like integration with third-party payment gateways and reviews and ratings functionality.

Advantages

  • Easy to get up and running with a good selection of templates.
  • An extensive set of features which make Volusion ideal for fast-growing stores.
  • 24/7 customer support with access to design and marketing specialists.

Drawbacks

  • Features that some retailers may consider essential are not included at lower price-points.
  • Themes can be pricey, usually costing $180 for paid options.
  • There are some hidden costs.

Use Volusion if you’re starting out or if you’re looking to scale and need access to a comprehensive set of ecommerce features. Larger stores that prefer to use a fully-hosted solution and wish to make a switch will also find a lot to like in Volusion.

Is Magento right for you?

Magento is an open-source ecommerce platform owned by Adobe which is offered in a range of formats. The best-known option is a completely free, open-source version called “Magento Open Source”. Retailers that want to use the platform while taking advantage of cloud hosting, customer support, and additional functionality, can opt for one of the paid options under the “Magento Commerce” banner.

Because of its extensive feature-set, scalability, high customizability, and popularity among developers, Magento is particularly suitable for retailers running larger stores. Medium-sized retailers that need a comprehensive and feature-rich solution will also be drawn to Magento.

For smaller retailers without any development experience, however, a more user-friendly and streamlined solution will probably be preferable.

Advantages

  • Open source version is free.
  • Powerful, feature-rich solution that scales easily.
  • Completely customizable.

Drawbacks

  • Paid plans are expensive.
  • Open-source version will be virtually impossible to use for retailers without in-house coding expertise.
  • Extensions are expensive.

If you’re a large retailer that needs a customizable, powerful solution through which you can manage multiple sites in different countries. Remember to take care of hosting, security, and troubleshooting yourself if you opt for the open source version.

Ease of Use

Our first comparison criteria, ease of use. Why? Because it’s the most important.

Think about it. You don’t want to invest a lot of your precious time setting up an online store and tweaking the design only to find out that it’s a pain in the butt to manage day to day.

We take a look at how simple the Volusion and Magento platforms are to run.

How easy is Volusion to use?

Rated 5/5 for Ease of Use

Volusion is incredibly intuitive and easy to use. Users have access to a store builder, making it possible to design storefronts without any coding knowledge. Adding product listings, managing inventory and shipping, and setting up payment gateways, are all straightforward processes. What’s more, store-owners have 24/7 access to a variety of specialists.

What Volusion customers are saying...

“Always an awesome experience!”
“The online "chat" techs have been absolutely great. Solved my problems and are going to help me with a special "tweak" that I need done on my site. Should be ready to publish shortly.”
“Tech support is top of the list for all V2 owners. They are there for you to help you out for better ecommerce service.”

How easy is Magento to use?

Rated 3.5/5 for Ease of Use

While advanced development knowledge is required to run the open-source and paid enterprise version of Magento, the management dashboard itself is pretty intuitive. That said, Magento does have a very large feature-set, so there’s a learning curve for new users.

The small business version has a page-builder for ease-of-use and assistance is available for getting set up. Smaller retailers interested in Magento should try the free trial to see if it fits with their needs.

What Magento customers are saying...

"Powerful e-commerce platform - if you are willing to get your hands dirty.”
“It's a great and versatile eCommerce platform, which gives plenty of flexibility and has support for a vast amount of features and products.”
“I like the security features that Magento offers. It is one of the more secure options out there. The support community is very large so if you need help or have questions, you can usually find an answer quick.”
Volusion is our winner for ease of use

Design

Powerful features are great, but we all know first impressions count. So, do Volusion and Magento templates actually look any good? See for yourself. We outline each platforms design options, plus showcase a few real life examples.

How good are Volusion's themes?

Rated 4/5 for Design

Volusion is an excellent choice for users with limited design abilities that want to create a professional site. The site builder utilizes drag-and-drop content blocks (for reviews, images, testimonials, etc.), an editor for tweaking page elements, and also offers a variety of out-of-the-box features like search functionality.

On the downside, Volusion only offers forty-five themes, which is lower than some competitors. Only eleven themes are free. The remaining paid options each cost $180. Users should take advantage of the free trial to see if the templates and website builder are a fit for their store. It’s also worth reiterating that all customers have access to design specialists if they want to make changes or tweaks that require coding knowledge.

Volusion Examples

  • Fitness Finders
    Fitness Finders
Item 1 of 3

How good are Magento's themes?

Rated 4.5/5 for Design

Magento is arguably the most customizable ecommerce platform on the market. But there’s a big caveat. To make design changes to the open-source and enterprise solutions, development skills are a must.

Magento only comes with one built-in storefront theme but a range of third-party templates are available. The downside is that these can be very expensive.

Small and medium retailers that want access to a user-friendly site-builder and library of free templates will likely prefer solutions like Shopify, Squarespace, Weebly and Wix.

If, as a small retailer, you’re drawn to Magento because of its wide array of features, “implementation plans” are available.

Magento Examples

  • Kurt Geiger
    Kurt Geiger
Item 1 of 3
Magento is our winner for design

How much do they cost?

Everyone’s favourite topic - pricing. Let's dive in to see if Volusion or Magento offers better value for money.

How much does Volusion cost?

Rated 4/5 for Pricing

Volusion is fairly competitive on the pricing front. Even on the basic plan, users have access to a broad array of features, including checkout, inventory management, access to templates, and so on.

There are a few things to watch out for, however.

First, some features that might be considered essential, like ratings and reviews, third-party payment gateway integrations, and omnichannel store management, are only available on higher-tier plans.

Second, there are some hidden costs involved. All store-owners must purchase an SSL certificate, for example, and customer support is only available via the web on the entry-level plan.

How much does Magento cost?

Rated 3.5/5 for Pricing

It’s always difficult to fault a free solution. What’s more, Magento comes with an extensive feature-set that would cost a significant amount of money on a similar plan from another provider. Open-source features include support for multiple languages, promotional tools, content management, order and shipping processing, customer service, and more.

But there are a few important points to keep in mind. For larger enterprises, the cost of maintaining secure servers and the need for an in-house development team will be high. And extensions often cost hundreds of dollars. Pricing for fully-hosted Magento plans is not published. The enterprise-level options, however, are reported to cost tens of thousands of dollars every month. Small business plans are advertised as “affordable”.

Volusion is our winner for cost

Help and Support

If things go wrong (and they often do) you need to know someone’s there to help get you back on track. So, how does Volusion's and Magento's support measure up?

How good is Volusion support?

Rated 4.5/5 for Help and Support

Volusion excels in customer support. A 24/7 service is available and provides access to technical, design, and marketing specialists. As web chat is only available on the beginner plan, you will need to upgrade to the next package for phone support. More extensive support packages, such as “homepage optimization” or Google Analytics training, are available for an extra cost.

How good is Magento support?

Rated 3.5/5 for Help and Support

Technical support is limited on all plans on Magento. Users that have subscribed to a paid plan can submit support tickets. Additional support options - such as the “implementation package” for small businesses and “Magento Services” for enterprises - can be purchased for an additional cost.

If you decide to run Magento Open Source, you will need in-house IT support or an outsourced solution with an agency.

Volusion is our winner for support

The Bottom Line

The final say. Let's wrap up our thoughts on each platform.

Volusion: Our Verdict

Volusion has a great package of features, competitive pricing, and outstanding customer support. Retailers that require access to a team of technical, design, and marketing specialists should consider Volusion. Anybody without coding skills looking for a way to build and manage a store will feel at home with Volusion’s easy-to-use and intuitive dashboard.

The platform isn’t perfect, however. There are some hidden costs, like the requirement to buy or transfer an SSL certificate. Many features that might be considered essential, like omnichannel store management, coupon creation, and reviews and ratings functionality on product pages, are not included in the basic plan. Furthermore, third-party payment gateways are only available on the “Business” or “Prime” package.

Retailers should carefully check the features on offer to make sure they’ll have what they need with the plan they can afford.

In short, Volusion is an excellent platform for the right retailers. If you’re a small or medium-sized business looking for a platform that can scale as you grow, take advantage of the 14-day free trial to see if it’s a fit.

Magento: Our Verdict

Magento has an exhaustive of features. Enterprise-level stores should definitely consider it as a solution. Medium-sized retailers will also find Magento to be an excellent choice that scales as their store grows. The virtually unlimited scope for customization is another big plus.

Retail companies that don’t want to take care of hosting in-house can also opt for one of Magento’s paid plans. Just keep in mind that development knowledge is a must and that the cost of extensions and additional support packages can quickly add up.

For smaller retailers, there is a plan that provides full access to Magento’s features at a lower price. A free trial is available and well worth checking out. Just remember that simpler entry-level solutions - which are easier to use for people without any coding skills or access to developers - may be more viable.

Overall, we found Volusion to be the better ecommerce platform.

Stackupp is reader supported. If you buy through links on our site we may earn an affiliate commission.

stackupp.com © 2021 | Privacy Policy