Zenfolio vs Strikingly: Comprehensive comparison guide for 2024

Final verdict

Zenfolio and Strikingly both offer unique strengths, catering to different user needs.

• 
  Zenfolio (Overall Grade: 6.4/10)
  
  is tailored for professional photographers and visual artists, offering specialized tools for showcasing and selling their work. It provides elegant, mobile-friendly templates and integrated e-commerce capabilities, making it a versatile platform for managing a photography business. However, its complexity and limited customization options outside of photography-specific needs may not appeal to all users. When comparing Zenfolio vs Strikingly, Zenfolio is ideal for photographers seeking a comprehensive solution for their online portfolio and sales.
• 
  Strikingly (Overall Grade: 6.6/10)
  
  excels in user-friendliness and design flexibility, making it suitable for individuals and businesses looking to create professional websites quickly. Its drag-and-drop interface, modern templates, and comprehensive support resources make it accessible for beginners. Strikingly also offers a range of features, including e-commerce integration, blogging tools, and SEO optimization, making it a versatile platform for various website needs. Considering Zenfolio vs Strikingly, Strikingly is a great choice for users who prioritize ease of use and design versatility.

Best for ecommerce

Verdict

: Strikingly is better suited for general ecommerce needs with a higher score, while Zenfolio is tailored for photographers and visual artists.

• 
  Zenfolio
  
  : Zenfolio is designed specifically for photographers and visual artists, offering integrated ecommerce capabilities for selling prints, digital downloads, and other products. It provides customizable templates and essential online selling tools such as secure payment options, product management, and marketing integrations. However, when comparing Zenfolio vs Strikingly, Zenfolio’s ecommerce features are more niche and may not cater to a broader range of ecommerce needs.
• 
  Strikingly
  
  : Strikingly offers a more general approach to ecommerce, with features like product listings, inventory management, and social media integration. Its user-friendly interface and customizable templates make it suitable for a variety of ecommerce ventures. Strikingly’s higher score in ecommerce capabilities indicates its versatility and effectiveness in handling diverse ecommerce requirements.

Best for informational & business websites

Verdict

: Strikingly is the better choice for creating informational and business websites due to its user-friendly interface and versatile design options. Zenfolio, while excellent for photographers, may not offer the same level of flexibility for general business needs.

• 
  Zenfolio
  
  : Zenfolio is tailored for photographers and visual artists, offering elegant, mobile-friendly templates and integrated e-commerce capabilities. However, its focus on photography-specific features may limit its versatility for broader business applications. With a score of 6.9, it provides a solid platform for showcasing and selling visual work but may not be the best fit for general informational websites.
• 
  Strikingly
  
  : Strikingly excels in creating professional-looking websites with ease, thanks to its drag-and-drop interface and customizable templates. Scoring 7.4, it offers a range of features such as e-commerce integration, blogging tools, and SEO optimization, making it a versatile platform for various business needs. When comparing Zenfolio vs Strikingly, Strikingly stands out for its broader applicability and ease of use, making it ideal for informational and business websites.

Detailed comparison

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Winner: Strikingly.

Strikingly offers a wider variety of templates and designs, more customization flexibility, and more creative design possibilities than Zenfolio.

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

On the other hand, Strikingly offers a wide variety of templates and designs for its website builder. With over 60 unique templates to choose from, users can find a design that suits their needs and preferences. The templates are modern, visually appealing, and customizable, allowing users to personalize their websites.

Strikingly Themes

🏆 Winner: Strikingly

. With a score of 8.1, Strikingly is more user-friendly than Zenfolio, which scored 6.3. Strikingly’s intuitive drag-and-drop interface and modern templates make it accessible for beginners, while Zenfolio’s platform, though comprehensive, can be complex and overwhelming for those new to web design.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: Strikingly

. Strikingly offers a comprehensive support center with written and video resources, as well as direct customer support via live chat or tickets. Zenfolio, on the other hand, has a more limited set of tutorials and articles, and users have expressed a desire for more comprehensive learning resources.

Zenfolio and Strikingly both offer ecommerce capabilities, but they cater to different needs. Zenfolio is designed specifically for photographers and visual artists, offering integrated ecommerce capabilities for selling prints, digital downloads, and other products. Strikingly, on the other hand, is a more general website builder that offers ecommerce integration for selling a variety of products and services.

Zenfolio ecommerce features:

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

Strikingly ecommerce features:

• Product Listings
• Inventory Management
• Coupons and Discounts
• SEO tools
• Analytics
• Social Media Integration

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. Strikingly offers a variety of eCommerce website templates tailored to meet various website building needs. These templates are designed by a world-class team of website designers and developers, focusing on modern trends and best practices to ensure your eCommerce site stands out.

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. The platform also supports customization in pricing and shipping settings. Strikingly, on the other hand, allows for showcasing your products with high-quality images in the “Portfolio” or “Product Catalog” section, emphasizing a premium feel to attract buyers. Adding products is streamlined through the “Simple Store” section, where you can detail product types, names, descriptions, and manage inventory and pricing.

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. Strikingly supports secure payment processing through Stripe, Square, and other gateways like PayPal, offering a range of options for ecommerce sites. The transaction fees for using these services vary depending on the payment gateway and user location, with specific plans possibly incurring additional Strikingly fees, except for VIP users.

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Winner: Zenfolio

. Zenfolio, with a score of 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.

Strikingly’s editor, scoring 7.5, is designed to help individuals and businesses create professional websites quickly and easily, without the need for coding knowledge. It features a drag-and-drop interface for easy customization of website elements, such as text, images, and videos. Users can choose from a variety of templates that can be personalized to fit their brand, making it possible to launch a unique online presence swiftly. Strikingly also emphasizes mobile responsiveness, ensuring websites look great on any device, and offers SEO tools and social media integration to enhance online visibility and engagement.

Mobile editor/app

🏆

Winner: Zenfolio

. Zenfolio and Strikingly both offer mobile capabilities, but Zenfolio clearly outperforms Strikingly in this category. Zenfolio provides a mobile editor app that allows users to manage their websites and galleries directly from their mobile devices. It includes features for receiving notifications, managing galleries, handling sales-related tasks, and showcasing photos through a client presentation mode.

On the other hand, Strikingly does not have a dedicated mobile app. While it is possible to edit a website using the mobile browser, the interface is inconvenient and not user-friendly. Therefore, Zenfolio is the clear winner in this category due to its comprehensive mobile editor app.

Overall Result

:

Zenfolio wins

. Zenfolio scores 8.4, while Strikingly scores 7.1 in product testing options. Zenfolio does not offer a free version, but it provides a 14-day free trial during which users can test premium features. Moreover, Zenfolio offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, which is not available with Strikingly. Strikingly, on the other hand, offers a free version and a 14-day free trial during which all features can be tested.

Zenfolio and Strikingly have similar pricing structures, but Zenfolio offers a slightly higher discount for annual billing.

Winner: Strikingly

. Strikingly offers managed hosting with a 99.9% uptime guarantee. Although it does not disclose the locations of its data centers, it uses multiple data centers to ensure a secure and highly available service. Zenfolio, on the other hand, offers cloud hosting but does not disclose any information about its uptime or the locations of its data centers. This lack of transparency gives Strikingly the edge in this category.

🏆 Winner: Strikingly

Both Zenfolio and Strikingly prioritize website performance and speed, but Strikingly has a more comprehensive approach to speed optimization, giving it an edge over Zenfolio.

Strikingly has a comprehensive approach to website speed optimization, including CDN, code minification, caching, optimized server response time, image optimization and compression, and responsive design. This results in an average PageSpeed score of 80-90/100. However, Strikingly does not disclose any information about Core Web Vitals improvements.

On the other hand, Zenfolio focuses on mobile responsive design for speed optimization. The load times and PageSpeed scores vary depending on optimization and website complexity. Zenfolio does not provide any information on their Core Web Vitals improvements.

🏆 Winner: Zenfolio.

Zenfolio, with a score of 6.5, offers a focused set of plugins and integrations specifically designed for photographers. These features enhance the functionality of Zenfolio websites by facilitating content integration from external sources, streamlining photo management workflows, and allowing for customized user interactions through forms. Strikingly, scoring 5.1, offers a wide range of plugins and extensions to enhance the functionality of your website. However, Zenfolio’s specific focus on photographers gives it an edge over Strikingly.

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Overall Winner: Strikingly

. Strikingly has a higher score in marketing features, offering a more comprehensive set of tools for SEO, email marketing, blogging, social media integration, analytics and reporting, and ads and promotions. Zenfolio, while offering similar features, has a lower score and is more focused on the needs of photographers and visual artists.

🏆 Winner: Strikingly

. In the comparison of Zenfolio vs Strikingly, Strikingly takes the lead with a higher customer support score of 7.2. Strikingly offers 24/7 customer support via email and live chat, ensuring users can get assistance at any time. Additionally, VIP users benefit from phone support, providing a more direct line of communication for urgent issues.

Zenfolio, on the other hand, provides customer support through email 365 days a year and LiveChat from Monday to Thursday during specific hours. Phone support is available only for Advanced plan subscribers. While Zenfolio has a rich Support Center with self-help resources, its limited live support hours and restricted phone support may not be as convenient for users needing immediate assistance.

Overall, Strikingly’s round-the-clock support and higher user satisfaction make it the better choice for those prioritizing customer service.

🏆

Winner: Zenfolio

. Zenfolio’s security measures are robust and tailored to the needs of photographers and visual artists. The platform provides SSL encryption for all its websites, watermarking to protect users’ work, password-protected galleries for controlled access, and cloud backup for additional data protection.

Strikingly also emphasizes the importance of website security with features like two-factor authentication and DDoS protection. However, Zenfolio’s specialized security features for photographers and visual artists give it an edge over Strikingly in this category.

🏆 Winner: Zenfolio

. Zenfolio, with a score of 2.4, offers AI-driven eCommerce features aimed at enhancing the online selling experience for photographers. This includes a tool called PhotoRefine.ai, which streamlines the process of sorting, grouping, and selecting photos.

Strikingly, with a score of 1.6, lacks a full AI website builder but integrates AI-powered features to aid website creation. This includes a visual editor for direct element editing and layout suggestions, as well as automatic image resizing for optimal display across devices. However, it does not offer any AI ecommerce features or AI content generation tools.

🏆 Winner: Strikingly

. Strikingly offers a more flexible user management system compared to Zenfolio.

• Zenfolio only allows one user to edit and manage a website.
• Strikingly allows up to 10 teammates to edit and manage your site. You can assign different roles to these teammates, such as Admin, Editor, Store Manager, Blogger, and Agent, each with specific levels of access and permissions.

Zenfolio User Roles and Access Levels:

Zenfolio does not provide specific user roles and access levels as it only allows one user to manage a website.

Strikingly User Roles and Access Levels:

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.

Users appreciate features like the ability to import data from LinkedIn, a variety of attractive templates, and responsive customer service. However, there are some reported issues, such as unexpected subscription renewals and limitations in customization options. Despite these drawbacks, Strikingly is valued for its ability to quickly create professional-looking websites, making it suitable for personal projects, startups, and small businesses. While pricing and customer service options may not appeal to everyone, those seeking an uncomplicated website building experience with diverse design choices may find Strikingly to be a suitable solution for their needs.

FAQ