Volusion Vs. Magento

Are you running a Volusion website? 

Wondering if you have outgrown the platform, and which eCommerce storefront might be right for you? We’re here to help.

In this guide, we’re going to discuss Volusion vs. Magento, talk about which one might be right for your business, and help you understand the benefits of switching to Magento from Volusion.

Let’s get started! 

Pricing

Volusion costs a minimum of $15/month, with its costliest plan running $135/month. The bandwidth, number of products, features, and support vary depending on the tier of service you choose. You can save 10% if you purchase a yearly plan. 

In contrast, Magento Commerce keeps things simple. Rather than paying a monthly fee, you’ll simply pay a percentage of your gross merchandise volume (GMV). The amount you’ll pay depends on how much you sell. If you run a large eCommerce store and are running into problems and limitations with Volusion, Magento is a much better choice.

Themes & Customization

Magento has over 120 different free themes on the Magento Theme Marketplace, with thousands of others available for an additional fee, usually ranging from $50-$150. That means there are many more options for your store. 

You can even hire a Magento agency to create a custom theme for your store. Some of the biggest brands in the world, like Coca-Cola, use custom-built Magento themes to set their stores apart from the competition. 

In contrast, Volusion gives you access to 28 free themes and 88 paid themes, which are very difficult to customize. Making minor tweaks and changes is harder with Volusion than it is with Magento. In addition, many updates and upgrades to the Volusion platform break customizations – causing even more issues with your eCommerce site. 

Overall, Magento is the superior platform when it comes to theme customizability, particularly if you want to set your brand apart from the competition.

Out-of-the-Box Features & Functionality

Magento has a ton of front-end features and functionality out-of-the-box, including:

• Cross-sells, up-sells and related products
• Quantity discount options
• Wish lists
• Newsletter management
• Gift messages
• Customer account dashboards
• Product reviews
• Zoomable images
• Saved shopping cart features

That’s just the tip of the iceberg.

You can see a detailed list of features in this PDF.

In contrast, Volusion has a more limited front end. At the lowest $15/month tier, you get:

• Responsive page templates
• Mobile-friendly design
• A suite of social media tools
• Automatic tax rates

However, to get additional tools like API access, Amazon and eBay integration, customer ratings & reviews, and customer relationship management (CRM) tools you’ll need to pay for a higher-priced plan. 

It’s unfortunate that many of these useful features are paywalled and require an expensive plan.

SEO & Marketing Tools

Volusion has a few basic SEO optimization tools, and lets you modify things like:

• Photo alt tags
• Meta title tags
• URL text
• Meta tag keywords

However, doing any kind of serious SEO optimization with Volusion is pretty much impossible. It’s just not as customizable a platform as Magento.

Volusion has some other marketing tools like Facebook and Twitter integration, a newsletter feature with a decent set of analytics tools, and several built-in promotion options like “Daily Deals.” But again, it’s very limited. It has poor integration with third-party marketing and social media applications and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, which can really hamstring your eCommerce store as you continue to grow and bring in more customers.

In contrast, Magento has far more SEO and marketing features. 

When it comes to SEO, Magento provides:

• Automatic Google sitemap
• Search engine-friendly URLs
• Full support for the Google API for Shopping

As far as social media and newsletters go, Magento can be integrated with the MailChimp API and has multiple available apps that connect with Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms.

Its built-in promotion options are also better. They include:

• Promotional pricing with customizable restrictions (time, quantity, etc.)
• Flexible native coupon support
• Multi-tier pricing
• Bulk discounts
• Free shipping
• Product bundling
• Different pricing for customer groups
• Support for landing pages

Overall, Magento Commerce is the one to use for SEO and marketing. 

With its extensive third-party API support, huge number of default, built-in SEO and marketing features, and unparalleled extensibility, it’s a much better choice for eCommerce retailers. 

Extensions

The Volusion app store is still in its infancy. 

As of publishing this guide, it only has 21 add-ons that you can use to modify your store and extend its functionality. This will surely increase in the future – but for now, it’s pretty limited.

In contrast, the Magento Marketplace has over 5000 thousand extensions – which offer support for third-party programs and APIs, add more functionality to your store, and accomplish many more tasks that just can’t be done with the Volusion app store. Some apps on the Magento Extension Store are free, while others require a one-time payment or a recurring payment plan. 

Data Security & Hosting

Since it’s an all-in-one platform for eCommerce, Volusion allows you to easily secure and protect your private data. It’s PCI-certified, and it offers 128-bit encryption SSL certificates. It also has useful hosting tools – you can purchase and set up a domain right from the Volusion website, and it comes with a free CDN to ensure good performance for your store.

However, Magento Commerce is superior to Volusion when it comes to hosting your website and managing your data security. For security, Magento Commerce provides features, including:

• Server environment isolation, ensuring your website is separated from other customers.
• SSL/HTTPS encryption.
• PCI compliance through the Magento Commerce Level 1 Solution Provider certification.
• Read-only file systems, which help prevent potential cyberattack vectors.
• Full support for third-party plugins and APIs to help manage Magento security.

In addition, you’ll benefit from a wide variety of tools that will make your website fast, ensure maximum uptime, and provide a better overall customer experience – such as proactive server monitoring and scaling, NewRelic Application Performance Management (APM) tools, multiple integration environments, and a built-in high-performance Content Delivery Network (CDN).

24/7 Support 

Volusion provides 24/7 dedicated support, starting with its $35/month plan. You can get phone support from a Volusion representative at any time. With its most expensive plan, you can get online support as well as a dedicated account manager, which may be helpful for basic troubleshooting.

However, Magento’s support is better. Not only do you get 24/7 phone and internet support, but all Magento Commerce customers get access to a Technical Account Manager (TAM). A TAM is your single point of contact at Magento, and will work with your technical team to design, customize, and plan your Magento store.

What’s Better For Me? 

If you are a growth-oriented eCommerce merchant, Magento is the clear choice. 

If you’re just getting started in eCommerce and you’re getting your business off the ground, Volusion may seem more appealing due to its ease-of-use, great support, and simple overall design. 

However, Volusion does not scale efficiently – and as your business continues to grow, it will begin to limit your ability to increase revenue and market your products effectively. It’s also lagging in market adoption compared to Magento, which can make it harder to update and manage your website.

If you’re looking for a stable, open-source, and flexible eCommerce platform that’s scalable, and can grow with your eCommerce business, you won’t beat Magento Commerce. 

Magento is more customizable, has better features, and is powerful enough to grow with your business, whether you do $100,000 in sales or $10 million. 

Ready to get started with Magento?  121ecommerce can help. We specialize in Magento development for clients of all sizes – no project is too big, or too small. Contact us now, and find out why Magento is the best choice for your eCommerce platform.