Volusion vs Zoho Sites: Comprehensive comparison guide for 2024

Final verdict

In comparing Volusion and Zoho Sites, it’s clear that each platform serves distinct user needs with its own set of strengths.

• 
  Volusion (Overall Grade: 6.6/10)
  
  is tailored for users focusing on ecommerce, offering robust product management, secure payment processing, and specialized ecommerce features. It’s best suited for businesses that prioritize online store functionality and are looking for a platform with a strong focus on sales and marketing tools. However, it may fall short for those seeking extensive design customization or a wide array of integrations.
• 
  Zoho Sites (Overall Grade: 7.6/10)
  
  shines with its user-friendly design capabilities and a wide range of templates, making it ideal for users who value creative control and ease of use. It offers a comprehensive set of features for website building, including blogging, SEO, and marketing tools, and benefits from seamless integration with other Zoho products. While it may not match Volusion’s depth in ecommerce features, it provides a versatile platform for a variety of website types beyond online stores.

	Overall grade: 6.6	Overall grade: 7.6
Design functionalities & templates	6.1	7.4
Ease of use	6.9	7.0
Ecommerce	7.1	7.4
Website Editors	7.1	7.5
Product testing options	7.6	8.8
Price	7.6	8.6
Hosting quality	7.0	8.0
Website speed optimization	7.1	7.1
Plugins and integrations	6.8	7.3
Marketing features	6.9	7.6
Customer support	7.0	8.3
Security	8.7	8.1
AI capabilities	0.0	7.5
User Management	7.7	7.3
Overall	6.6	7.6

Best for ecommerce

7.1

7.4

Verdict

: With closely matched scores, Zoho Sites slightly edges out Volusion in ecommerce, primarily due to its broader marketing features and slightly higher ecommerce score.

• 
  Volusion
  
  : Offers a solid all-in-one ecommerce solution with a focus on product management and secure payment processing. It’s designed for businesses looking to manage and expand their online stores with a range of customizable templates and tools for marketing and SEO.
• 
  Zoho Sites
  
  : While primarily a general-purpose website builder, Zoho Sites integrates with Zoho Commerce to provide ecommerce functionality. It stands out for its user-friendly platform and a comprehensive set of marketing features, making it slightly more favorable for businesses prioritizing marketing and promotions alongside ecommerce.

Best for informational & business websites

7.2

7.9

• 
  Volusion
  
  : Primarily an ecommerce platform, Volusion offers a solid foundation for business websites with its comprehensive product management system and secure payment processing. However, its focus on online stores may limit its appeal for purely informational sites.
• 
  Zoho Sites
  
  : Excelling in user-friendly design and customization, Zoho Sites is ideal for businesses looking to create engaging informational websites. With a higher score in this category and a wide range of templates and features, it stands out as the more versatile option for non-ecommerce sites.

Detailed comparison

6.1

7.4

🏆

Winner: Zoho Sites.

Zoho Sites offers a more diverse collection of templates and greater customization flexibility, making it the preferred choice for users who want more creative control over their website design.

Volusion offers a variety of design templates tailored to meet the diverse needs of online stores and businesses. The platform provides users with over 30 professionally designed, responsive templates. These templates are crafted to cater to a wide range of industries, ensuring that businesses of all types can find a design that aligns with their brand identity and goals.

Volusion Themes

On the other hand, Zoho Sites offers a diverse collection of over 150 templates, thoughtfully categorized into industries like Restaurants, Architecture, Health, and more. Each template provides a pre-designed layout with responsive design for various screen sizes. Customization options include visual elements such as colors, fonts, and images, as well as the ability to modify layouts and content using the visual editor.

Zoho Sites Themes

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6.9

7.0

🏆 Winner: Zoho Sites

. With a score of 7.0, Zoho Sites edges out Volusion, which scored 6.9. Zoho Sites offers a clean interface and logical workflows, making it suitable for those with basic needs and some technical knowledge. Volusion, while user-friendly, may require a steeper learning curve for more advanced functionalities.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: Zoho Sites

. Both platforms offer solid learning resources, but Zoho Sites provides a wider range of high-quality learning resources for both beginners and advanced users, including a detailed beginner’s guide, comprehensive user guides, video tutorials, blogs, FAQs, community forums, and webinars.

7.1

7.4

Volusion and Zoho Sites both offer a range of ecommerce features, but they cater to different needs. Volusion is an all-in-one ecommerce solution with a comprehensive product management system, secure payment processing, and tools for marketing and SEO. Zoho Sites, on the other hand, is a general-purpose website builder that integrates with Zoho Commerce for ecommerce functionality.

Ecommerce themes and templates	6.5	6.5
Product page customization	7.0	7.0
Payment processing and commissions	7.5	6.8
POS capabilities	7.0	5.5
Payment gateways	7.5	7.2
Product numbers	6.0	6.0
Additional ecommerce features	7.0	7.3

Volusion ecommerce features:

• Ecommerce Product listings
• Payment Gateways
• Multiple Currencies support
• Shipping options
• SEO tools
• Social Media Integration

Zoho Sites ecommerce features:

• Product and Inventory management
• Order management
• Payment Processing
• Marketing and Promotions
• SEO and Analytics
• Security

Ecommerce themes & templates

Volusion offers 14 free themes and 38 paid themes, each costing $180. These templates are mobile responsive, ensuring that your online store is accessible and user-friendly across all devices. While the selection might not be as extensive as some other platforms, Volusion’s themes are customizable, allowing merchants to adjust the look and feel of their store.

Zoho Sites offers a range of eCommerce website templates and themes designed to cater to various industries and business needs. These templates are customizable, allowing businesses to tailor their online stores to their brand and product offerings. Zoho Commerce, in particular, provides beautiful and highly customizable eCommerce store themes, aiming to enhance the online shopping experience.

Product page customization

Volusion offers a range of ecommerce product page customization options to enhance the shopping experience. Users can modify product descriptions, images, and videos to showcase their items effectively. The platform allows for the customization of options and variants, such as size and color, to provide a more detailed and user-friendly product selection process.

Zoho offers extensive product page customization options, allowing users to tailor the display of their products. This includes features like image galleries, sliders, and video integration, enabling businesses to present their products in a visually appealing manner. Additionally, Zoho facilitates the configuration of product variants like size and color options, as well as efficient inventory management directly from the product pages.

Payment processing

Volusion offers a comprehensive eCommerce platform that supports various payment gateways, including PayPal, Stripe, and its own solution, Volusion Payments, tailored for U.S.-based merchants. The platform is distinctive for its low transaction fees, which vary based on the subscription plan. Additionally, Volusion provides POS capabilities, enabling seamless sales both online and in physical locations.

Zoho Sites, in conjunction with Zoho Commerce, offers robust payment processing capabilities and supports integration with multiple payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, and Square, facilitating secure online transactions. While direct POS system integration and commission management might require leveraging additional Zoho tools or custom solutions, the Zoho ecosystem provides a comprehensive suite for businesses to manage both online and in-store sales efficiently. This integration ensures flexibility and security for businesses aiming to provide a seamless shopping experience across multiple channels.

7.1

7.5

🏆

Winner: Zoho Sites

. Zoho Sites, with a score of 7.5, offers a user-friendly website builder that enables both businesses and individuals to create professional, responsive websites without coding skills, through its drag-and-drop interface. It offers customizable templates, SEO tools, social media integration, and ecommerce features, along with connectivity to other Zoho applications for enhanced functionality.

Volusion’s website builder editor, scoring 7.1, is designed for ease of use, catering to both beginners and experienced users. It offers a drag-and-drop interface, allowing users to easily add, remove, or modify elements on their website without needing to code. Users can customize their site’s layout, adjust colors, fonts, and images, and even integrate various functionalities like social media links, shopping carts, and payment gateways.

Mobile editor/app

4.5

5.5

🏆

Winner: Zoho Sites

. Both Volusion and Zoho Sites do not have a dedicated mobile editor app. However, they allow some level of editing on mobile devices. Volusion’s mobile editing experience might not be optimal due to the smaller screen size, and navigating through the admin dashboard could be difficult.

Zoho Sites, on the other hand, allows you to edit the visual aspects of the mobile version of your website, such as font size, color, background, and shadow. However, you cannot change the content through the mobile interface. Despite these limitations, Zoho Sites scores slightly higher than Volusion in this category, possibly due to its ability to edit visual aspects of the mobile version of the website.

7.6

8.8

Overall Result

:

Zoho Sites Wins

. Zoho Sites scores 8.8, outperforming Volusion which scores 7.6. Zoho Sites offers a free version and a 15-day free trial during which all features of each plan can be tested. They also provide a 30-day money-back guarantee for monthly subscriptions and a 45-day window for annual subscriptions. On the other hand, Volusion offers a 14-day free trial for testing premium features but does not provide a money-back guarantee.

Free Plan	No	Yes
Trial Duration	14 days	15 days
Testing Premium Features	During free trial period	All features of each plan during trial
Money Back Guarantee	No	30 days for monthly, 45 days for annual

7.6

8.6

Zoho Sites offers more affordable options, but Volusion’s features are more refined, especially for larger-scale ecommerce operations.

	Offerings	Offerings
$0-$10	No offering at this amount.	Starter ($8.00/month): Offers basic features suitable for small websites, including 5 pages, 500MB storage, 10GB bandwidth/month, SSL hosting, domain connection, ad-free experience, and more. Ideal for personal blogs or small business websites. Value for price: 6.5
$20-$30	No offering at this amount.	Pro ($23.00/month): Upgrades significantly on the Starter plan, offering 50 pages, 100GB storage, unmetered bandwidth, 50 forms, and advanced features like social share button, audio player, comment box, scheduled blog post, and dynamic content. Best suited for professional sites that require more resources and functionalities. Value for price: 8.0
$30-$40	Personal ($35/month): Suitable for small businesses, allowing up to 100 products, 1 staff account, and offers support via live chat and email. Supports stores with up to $50K in GMV/year. This plan allows to manage 1 website and there is no limitation of number of pages offered. Value for price: 6.5	Agency ($32.00/month): Tailored for agencies managing multiple sites, providing a bundle plan that offers significant savings and flexibility. Includes all Starter features with the option to add Pro features as needed. Value for price: 9.0
$70-$80	Professional ($79/month): Targets growing businesses with up to 5,000 products, 5 staff accounts, and additional features like newsletters, abandoned cart reports, and phone orders. Supports up to $100K in GMV/year. This plan allows to manage 1 website and there is no limitation of number of pages offered. Value for price: 7.5	No offering at this amount.
$200+	Business ($299/month): Designed for large stores, offering unlimited products, 15 staff accounts, priority support, and integrations with Amazon and eBay. Supports stores with up to $500K in GMV/year. This plan allows to manage 1 website and there is no limitation of number of pages offered. Value for price: 8.0	No offering at this amount.

7.0

8.0

Winner: Zoho Sites

. Zoho Sites offers efficient hosting with a focus on speed, demonstrated by a high Google PageSpeed Insights score. The platform supports different needs through its shared web hosting service, with storage and bandwidth varying by plan. While it’s scalable and integrates well with other Zoho apps, Zoho Sites may have limitations for users with high storage needs. On the other hand, Volusion offers unlimited storage and bandwidth across its plans but does not mention any backup features.

Do they offer hosting?	Yes, unlimited storage and bandwidth across its plans	Yes, Zoho Sites offers efficient hosting with a focus on speed, demonstrated by a high Google PageSpeed Insights score. The platform supports different needs through its shared web hosting service, with storage and bandwidth varying by plan.
Data Centers:	Volusion does not publicly disclose any information about their data centers	12 Globally: Canada(Montreal and Toronto), US(Quincy and Dallas), India(Mumbai and Chennai), Australia(Sydney and Melbourne), China(Beijing and Shanghai), Japan(Tokyo and Osaka)
Type of hosting:	Managed Cloud Hosting	Managed Hosting
Uptime:	99.9%	99.9%
Uptime Guarantee:	Yes, 99.9%	Yes, 99.9%

7.1

7.1

🏆 Winner: Tie

. Both Volusion and Zoho Sites have the same score when it comes to website speed optimization. They both implement various performance optimization techniques and have strategies in place to ensure their websites load quickly and efficiently.

Focus	CDN, Image optimization, Code minification, Regular Monitoring and Updates, SEO optimization	Regularly testing and implementing updates, Optimized code and libraries, Cache balancing
Performance Tools	Google Lighthouse, PageSpeed Insights	Google PageSpeed Insights Integration
Key Strategies	CDN, Image optimization, Code minification, Regular Monitoring and Updates, SEO optimization	Regularly testing and implementing updates, Optimized code and libraries, Cache balancing
Load Times	Varies widely, depending on the optimization, website complexity	Below 2-5 seconds average
Page Speed Scores Range	Varies widely, depending on the optimization, website complexity	70-80/100 average
Core Web Vitals Improvement	Implementing various performance optimization techniques	Implementing various performance optimization techniques

Volusion uses a variety of strategies for speed optimization, including CDN, image optimization, code minification, regular monitoring and updates, and SEO optimization. The load times and PageSpeed scores can vary widely, depending on the optimization and website complexity. They are also focused on improving Core Web Vitals by implementing various performance optimization techniques.

Zoho Sites, on the other hand, focuses on regularly testing and implementing updates, optimized code and libraries, and cache balancing for speed optimization. The average load times are below 2-5 seconds, and the average PageSpeed scores range from 70-80/100. Like Volusion, Zoho Sites is also focused on improving Core Web Vitals by implementing various performance optimization techniques.

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6.8

7.3

🏆 Winner: Zoho Sites.

Zoho Sites scores 7.3, slightly ahead of Volusion’s 6.8. Zoho Sites offers a diverse range of plugins and extensions, and integrates many extensions into their paid plans, providing users with access to more features as they upgrade. On the other hand, Volusion offers a marketplace with a variety of integrations to enhance its ecommerce platform. However, Zoho Sites’ approach of integrating many extensions into their paid plans gives it the edge in this comparison.

Volusion Applications

Zoho Sites Applications

6.9

7.6

🏆

Overall Winner: Zoho Sites

. Zoho Sites offers a more comprehensive set of marketing features, including blogging and more advanced email marketing, which are not available in Volusion.

SEO Tools
Email Marketing	✓ (through third-party integrations)
Blogging
Social Media Integration
Analytics and Reporting
Ads and Promotions	Limited

7.0

8.3

🏆 Winner: Zoho Sites

. Zoho Sites takes the lead in this category with a customer support score of 8.3. They offer 24/7 customer support through various channels including live chat, email, and phone. Their comprehensive knowledge base and community forum are also valuable resources for users to find answers to common questions and interact with other users.

Volusion, on the other hand, provides customer support to merchants on their Business Plan and Prime Plan. The support is available via phone during business hours and 24/7 chat support is available through the Merchant Center dashboard for all users. Despite these offerings, Volusion falls behind Zoho Sites with a customer support score of 7.0.

8.7

8.1

🏆

Winner: Volusion

. Volusion’s security measures are comprehensive, offering robust protection with SSL certificates, PCI compliance, and regular updates to safeguard against threats. This is especially vital for ecommerce sites dealing with sensitive customer data. Volusion’s infrastructure is designed to provide high-level security, giving store owners and customers peace of mind.

Although Zoho Sites also provides a secure environment for website creation and management, with SSL encryption and two-factor authentication, it does not offer the same level of specialized ecommerce security features as Volusion.

0.0

7.5

Personalized Design
SEO Optimization
Customer Behavior Analysis		AI-backed product recommendations based on customer interactions
Sales Predictions		AI-powered sales predictions
Inventory Management
Content Generation		AI assistance in creating engaging and optimized site content

🏆 Winner: Zoho Sites

. Zoho Sites, with a score of 7.5, leverages its AI assistant, Zia, for content generation and e-commerce features. Zia helps in creating engaging and conversion-optimized content for landing pages by offering intelligent, contextual suggestions for headlines and paragraphs. Additionally, Zia provides unique and targeted product recommendations based on customer interactions and purchase history, and offers sales predictions, workflow automation, and customer service enhancements.

Volusion, on the other hand, does not have any AI capabilities. It lacks built-in AI content generation tools and does not offer third-party integrations with AI capabilities. This lack of AI features results in a score of 0.0 for Volusion in this category.

7.7

7.3

🏆 Winner: Volusion

. Both Volusion and Zoho Sites offer customizable user account management with various roles and permissions. However, Volusion’s user management score is slightly higher than Zoho Sites.

• Volusion offers customizable user account management with various roles and permissions tailored for efficient online store operation. These roles, including Administrator, Editor/Manager, Customer Service, and Marketing, provide different access levels for tasks like site design, order processing, and analytics. Subscription plans determine the number of staff accounts available: 1 in the Personal Plan, 5 in the Professional Plan, 15 in the Business Plan, and unlimited in the Prime Plan. This range ensures scalability and flexibility to meet the needs of businesses of all sizes, enabling effective management and operation of eCommerce teams across different business scales.
• The number of users who can edit a Zoho Sites website and their access levels depend on the chosen plan. The Free Plan allows only the owner to edit, while paid plans like Pro, Business, and Enterprise offer access for up to 10, 25, and 50 users respectively. Zoho Sites provides four access levels: Admin, with full editing rights and user management; Contributor, who can edit content and create pages but not manage collaborators; and Author, limited to editing text content without access to settings or user management.

Unfortunately, there is no information available about the specific user roles and access levels for both platforms.

Additional Features

SSL Certificate
Custom Domain
Free Custom Domain Included
International Domains
Mobile Responsive
Page Speed
Website Builder Mobile App
Convert a Website To An App
Website Analytics
Multilingual Sites
Multiple Users

User Feedback

Volusion

65 reviews

3.2 out of 5 stars

Zoho Sites

111 reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars

Users generally appreciate Volusion’s affordability compared to competitors like Shopify, finding its simplified user interface suitable for non-tech users. However, there are concerns about its limited integrations and frequent technical issues, such as crashes and slow support responses. Some users feel that Volusion lacks the advanced features and customization options offered by competitors like Shopify, making it less competitive in the market. Despite these drawbacks, Volusion remains a feasible option for small to medium-sized businesses seeking a budget-friendly solution for establishing an online store.

Zoho Sites receives mixed reviews, with users praising its user-friendly interface, extensive template library, and seamless integration with other Zoho products, which simplifies website development and management for small businesses. However, some users express dissatisfaction with its limited design flexibility and the inability to create custom features. Overall, Zoho Sites addresses the need for cost-effective website solutions, particularly for those without coding knowledge, offering a one-stop-shop for building and managing websites with varying degrees of customization and integration with other business tools.

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