Zenfolio vs Hocoos: Comprehensive comparison guide for 2024

Final verdict

Zenfolio and Hocoos both offer unique features tailored to different user needs, but they cater to slightly different audiences.

• 
  Zenfolio (Overall Grade: 6.4/10)
  
  is a specialized platform designed for photographers and visual artists. It excels in providing tools for showcasing, sharing, and selling visual work online. With integrated e-commerce capabilities, customizable templates, and robust security features, Zenfolio is ideal for photographers looking to create a professional web presence. However, its focus on photography may limit its versatility for other types of websites.
• 
  Hocoos (Overall Grade: 5.6/10)
  
  is a user-friendly website builder that leverages AI to simplify the website creation process. It offers a wide range of customizable templates and features such as e-commerce integration, SEO optimization, and mobile responsiveness. Hocoos is perfect for individuals and businesses seeking an easy-to-use platform to quickly design and launch a professional-looking website. However, it may lack the depth of features required for more specialized needs like those of professional photographers.

Best for ecommerce

Verdict

: Zenfolio is tailored for photographers and visual artists, while Hocoos offers a more general ecommerce platform with AI-driven customization.

• 
  Zenfolio
  
  : Zenfolio is designed specifically for photographers and visual artists, providing integrated ecommerce features to sell prints, digital downloads, and other products. It offers customizable templates and essential online selling tools, making it a solid choice for creatives looking to monetize their work. However, in the Zenfolio vs Hocoos comparison, Zenfolio’s ecommerce capabilities are more niche and may not cater to a broader range of ecommerce needs.
• 
  Hocoos
  
  : Hocoos stands out with its AI-driven website creation and general ecommerce platform. It offers a range of features, including product management, order management, and marketing tools, making it suitable for a variety of online businesses. While it may not have the specialized focus of Zenfolio, Hocoos provides a more versatile and customizable ecommerce solution.

Best for informational & business websites

Verdict

: When it comes to creating informational and business websites, Hocoos has a slight edge over Zenfolio. Hocoos’s user-friendly interface and AI-driven features make it an excellent choice for users looking to build professional-looking websites without any coding knowledge. Zenfolio, while robust and feature-rich, is more tailored to photographers and visual artists, which may limit its versatility for general business use.

• 
  Zenfolio
  
  : Zenfolio is a specialized platform designed for photographers and visual artists. It offers a range of customizable templates and integrated e-commerce capabilities, making it ideal for showcasing and selling visual work. However, its focus on photography-specific needs may not provide the versatility required for broader business applications. Zenfolio scores 6.9 in this category, reflecting its niche appeal.
• 
  Hocoos
  
  : Hocoos stands out with its AI-driven website builder, which simplifies the creation process by generating custom websites based on user inputs. With a variety of templates and features like SEO optimization and mobile responsiveness, Hocoos is well-suited for a wide range of business needs. Scoring 7.4, Hocoos offers a more versatile and user-friendly solution for informational and business websites. When comparing Zenfolio vs Hocoos, Hocoos’s broader appeal and ease of use make it the better choice for most users.

Detailed comparison

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Winner: Hocoos.

If you’re looking for a platform that offers more creative control and a wide array of design features, Hocoos is the preferred choice.

Zenfolio offers a variety of customizable templates and features specifically tailored for photographers, with a focus on showcasing and selling their work. While it provides several customization options, including blocks for different layouts and styles, it may not offer as much versatility outside of photography-specific needs.

Zenfolio Themes

Compared to Zenfolio, Hocoos offers a wide variety of templates and designs for their website builder. With over 190 professionally designed templates to choose from, users can easily find a design that suits their needs and preferences. The templates are available for various industries and purposes, including business, ecommerce, portfolio, and more. Additionally, Hocoos regularly updates their template library to ensure that users have access to the latest design trends and styles. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced web designer, Hocoos provides a range of options to create a visually appealing and functional website.

🏆 Winner: Hocoos

. With a score of 8.1, Hocoos is recognized for its user-friendly interface and AI-driven features, making it easy for users with no coding or design experience to create and customize websites. Zenfolio, scoring 6.3, offers a specialized platform for photographers with a comprehensive suite of tools, but it might be overwhelming for those new to web design or the platform itself.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: Zenfolio

. Despite the lack of a large community, Zenfolio offers a set of tutorials and articles in their help center, providing users with a better understanding of the platform’s capabilities. Hocoos, on the other hand, lacks traditional learning resources, focusing more on simplicity and AI content generation.

When it comes to ecommerce, both Zenfolio and Hocoos offer a range of features to support online businesses. Zenfolio, with its focus on photographers and visual artists, provides an integrated ecommerce platform for selling prints, digital downloads, and other items directly from their online stores. Hocoos, on the other hand, offers a more general ecommerce platform, allowing users to set up online stores, including online payment systems, product pages, and promotions.

Zenfolio ecommerce features:

• Multiple Currency Support
• Discount Coupons
• Order management
• Gift Certificates
• Tax management

Hocoos ecommerce features:

• Product management
• Order management
• Payment processing
• Shipping and Logistics
• Marketing and SEO
• Analytics and reporting
• Customizability and Integrations

Ecommerce themes & templates

Zenfolio provides customizable website templates with integrated e-commerce features for photographers, designed to showcase and sell their work across various genres. These templates include essential online selling tools such as secure payment options, product management, and marketing integrations. In contrast, Hocoos does not rely on traditional templates for website creation, including ecommerce sites. Instead, it utilizes AI technology to generate unique and customized websites based on the user’s specific inputs.

Product page customization

Zenfolio allows users to detail their product pages with descriptions, images, and options such as size or color. This allows for each product page to be adjusted to clearly display its unique attributes. Placing products in specific galleries or categories helps organize the site and improve navigation. On the other hand, Hocoos enables the creation and editing of professional-looking product pages, tailored to enhance the appeal of your products to your target audience. It also allows for easy setup of product variations, including different sizes, colors, or attributes.

Payment processing

Zenfolio supports Stripe and PayPal for payment processing, integrating them seamlessly into its platform. The platform charges a commerce fee of 7% per order (excluding tax and shipping) and a payment processing fee for transactions through Stripe or PayPal. Hocoos, on the other hand, integrates payment methods like PayPal and Stripe for seamless management of transactions and inventory. It simplifies website creation through AI-driven features, offering customizable websites tailored to user preferences.

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Winner: Hocoos

. Hocoos, with a score of 7.7, is an AI-driven website builder that simplifies the creation of personalized websites through a unique process that requires users to answer eight simple questions. This platform utilizes advanced AI algorithms to automatically generate a custom website tailored to the user’s business needs, including design, content, and images. It features an easy-to-use editor for further customization and offers AI-powered tools for content creation, logo design, and more, making it accessible to users of all technical skill levels.

Zenfolio’s editor, scoring 7.6, offers an intuitive, no-coding-required website builder tailored for photographers, featuring drag-and-drop customization, a wide array of templates, and a powerful Custom Layout block for personalized designs. Its integrated eCommerce capabilities enable selling both digital and physical photography products, supported by comprehensive security features for protecting photographers’ work. Additionally, Zenfolio provides tools for SEO, marketing, photo and video hosting, client booking, and management, backed by award-winning customer support.

Mobile editor/app

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Winner: Zenfolio

. Zenfolio and Hocoos both offer robust website builders, but when it comes to mobile editing, Zenfolio takes the lead. Zenfolio provides a mobile editor app that allows users to manage their websites and galleries directly from their mobile devices. The app includes features for receiving notifications, managing galleries, handling sales-related tasks, and showcasing photos through a client presentation mode. Additionally, the app supports uploading and editing photos, as well as accessing various tools for reports, CRM, bookings, and blog management.

On the other hand, Hocoos does not have a dedicated mobile app, which puts it at a disadvantage in this category. Therefore, Zenfolio is the clear winner when it comes to mobile editing capabilities.

Overall Result

:

Zenfolio wins

. Zenfolio scores 8.4 in product testing options, slightly higher than Hocoos’ 7.5. Zenfolio offers a 14-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee, allowing users to test the platform and its premium features. On the other hand, Hocoos offers a free version and a 14-day money-back guarantee, with some premium features available for testing.

Zenfolio and Hocoos offer competitive pricing, but Zenfolio provides more specialized features for photographers and visual artists.

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Winner: Zenfolio

Zenfolio offers cloud hosting with storage ranging from 15GB to unlimited, and the ability to manually backup website content. Hocoos also offers hosting, with unlimited image uploads for premium users, but lacks explicit details on bandwidth limitations and automatic data backups. Neither platform provides information on uptime statistics or data center locations, but Zenfolio’s more detailed hosting features give it a higher rating.

🏆 Winner: Hocoos

Both Zenfolio and Hocoos prioritize website performance and speed, but Hocoos has a slightly higher website speed optimization score.

Zenfolio, a website builder designed for professional photographers and visual artists, focuses on mobile responsive design for speed optimization. However, it does not provide specific information on load times, PageSpeed score ranges, or Core Web Vital improvements.

On the other hand, Hocoos, an AI website builder and hosting platform, uses strategies such as CDN, minimization of HTTP requests, and caching for speed optimization. Like Zenfolio, Hocoos does not provide specific information on load times, PageSpeed score ranges, or Core Web Vital improvements. However, it does note that these factors can vary widely depending on the optimization and the user’s location. Despite the lack of specific data, Hocoos has a slightly higher website speed optimization score, making it the winner in this category.

🏆 Winner: Zenfolio.

Zenfolio scores 6.5, slightly higher than Hocoos’s 6.3. Zenfolio offers a focused set of plugins and integrations specifically designed for photographers, including WordPress plugins for embedding photos, a Lightroom Classic plugin for direct photo uploads and management, and the ability to embed forms via services like Jotform. On the other hand, Hocoos offers a wide range of plugins and extensions to enhance the functionality of your website, including features such as contact forms, social media integration, ecommerce capabilities, and more. Both platforms offer a range of plugins and integrations to enhance the functionality of the websites, but Zenfolio’s specific focus on photographers gives it a slight edge.

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Overall Winner: Hocoos

. Hocoos stands out for its comprehensive SEO features, including keyword research tools and on-page optimization suggestions. Zenfolio, while offering a range of marketing tools, has limited SEO capabilities and its email marketing features are only available on higher plans.

🏆 Winner: Zenfolio

. In the comparison of Zenfolio vs Hocoos, Zenfolio takes the lead with a customer support score of 6.7, compared to Hocoos’ score of 3.0. Zenfolio offers a comprehensive support system that includes email support available 365 days a year, LiveChat from Monday to Thursday, and phone support for Advanced plan subscribers. Additionally, Zenfolio provides a rich Support Center with self-help resources such as articles and video tutorials, ensuring users have access to the assistance they need.

Hocoos, on the other hand, emphasizes that their customer support is 100% human, but lacks detailed information about the types of support, hours, and availability. While this indicates a commitment to personal assistance, the lack of specifics and lower support score suggest that Hocoos may not be as robust in this area as Zenfolio.

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Winner: Zenfolio

. Zenfolio’s commitment to security is evident in its robust measures, including SSL encryption, watermarking, password-protected galleries, and cloud backup. These features, combined with its adherence to data protection rights and strict control over third-party access to personal data, make Zenfolio a secure choice for photographers and visual artists.

Although Hocoos emphasizes security through advanced encryption protocols and regular updates, it provides less information about its specific security measures. This lack of transparency, combined with its lower security score, makes it less competitive in this category compared to Zenfolio.

🏆 Winner: Hocoos

. Hocoos, with a score of 7.3, offers a wider range of AI capabilities compared to Zenfolio. It has an AI website builder, AI content generation features, and AI ecommerce features. It also enhances website creation with additional AI-powered features.

Zenfolio, with a score of 2.4, does not have an AI website builder and does not offer AI content generation features. However, it does offer AI-driven eCommerce features aimed at enhancing the online selling experience for photographers.

🏆 Winner: Zenfolio

. Both Zenfolio and Hocoos do not support multiple users for editing a website. However, Zenfolio scores slightly higher in user management compared to Hocoos.

• Zenfolio allows only one user to edit and manage a website.
• Hocoos does not allow to have multiple users for editing your website.

Neither Zenfolio nor Hocoos provide user roles and access levels for their websites.

Additional Features

User Feedback

Users appreciate Zenfolio for its elegant and affordable site/portfolio designs, highlighting the platform’s suitability for photographers looking to showcase and sell their work online. The Starter plan is praised for its value, though some users express a desire to upgrade to the Pro plan for its enhanced client interaction features and customizable marketing tools. Criticisms include dissatisfaction with the platform’s handling of photo albums and a desire for more privacy and faster loading times. Overall, Zenfolio is valued for its ability to organize and share professional photographs and files, despite some navigational and performance issues.

Hocoos, on the other hand, does not have any reviews on G2. This lack of user feedback makes it challenging to gauge user satisfaction and experiences. However, its user-friendly design and range of features, such as ecommerce integration and SEO optimization, suggest it aims to provide a comprehensive website building solution for a variety of users.

FAQ