Zenfolio vs Zoho Sites: Comprehensive comparison guide for 2024

Final verdict

Zenfolio and Zoho Sites both offer unique strengths, catering to different user needs and preferences.

• 
  Zenfolio (Overall Grade: 6.4/10)
  
  is a specialized platform designed for photographers and visual artists. It provides elegant, mobile-friendly templates and integrated e-commerce capabilities tailored for selling prints and digital downloads. While it excels in offering tools for marketing, client proofing, and secure photo storage, it may not be as versatile for users outside the photography niche. Zenfolio’s ease of use and design flexibility are somewhat limited, making it less ideal for those seeking extensive customization.
• 
  Zoho Sites (Overall Grade: 7.6/10)
  
  stands out with its user-friendly interface, diverse template collection, and greater customization flexibility. It is suitable for a wide range of website needs, from blogging to business sites. Zoho Sites offers robust hosting quality, advanced SEO tools, and seamless integration with other Zoho applications, making it a comprehensive solution for small to medium-sized businesses. Its higher ease of use score and extensive learning resources make it accessible for users with varying technical skills.

Best for ecommerce

Verdict

: Zenfolio is tailored for photographers and visual artists, while Zoho Sites offers more comprehensive ecommerce capabilities for a broader range of businesses.

• 
  Zenfolio
  
  : Zenfolio is designed specifically for photographers and visual artists, offering integrated ecommerce features to sell prints, digital downloads, and other products. It provides customizable templates and essential tools for managing a photography business online. However, when comparing Zenfolio vs Zoho Sites, Zenfolio’s ecommerce capabilities are more niche and may not cater to broader business needs.
  
  Score: 6.3
  
• 
  Zoho Sites
  
  : Zoho Sites, in conjunction with Zoho Commerce, provides a flexible and scalable ecommerce solution suitable for various business types. It offers extensive product and inventory management, payment processing, and marketing tools. This makes it a more versatile option for businesses looking to grow their online presence.
  
  Score: 7.4
  

Best for informational & business websites

Verdict

: Zoho Sites is the superior choice for creating informational business websites, offering a more diverse range of templates, greater customization flexibility, and a user-friendly experience. Zenfolio, while excellent for photographers, may not provide the same level of versatility for general informational sites.

• 
  Zenfolio
  
  : Zenfolio is tailored specifically for photographers and visual artists, providing elegant, mobile-friendly templates and integrated e-commerce capabilities. However, its design flexibility and customization options are somewhat limited outside of photography-specific needs, making it less ideal for general informational business websites. Zenfolio scores 6.9 in this category.
• 
  Zoho Sites
  
  : Zoho Sites excels with a diverse collection of over 150 customizable templates suitable for various industries. Its user-friendly interface, logical workflows, and comprehensive learning resources make it an excellent choice for creating professional, responsive informational websites. Zoho Sites scores 7.9, making it the preferred platform for informational business websites in the Zenfolio vs Zoho Sites comparison.

Detailed comparison

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Winner: Zoho Sites.

Zoho Sites offers a more diverse collection of templates and greater customization flexibility, making it the preferred choice for users seeking a balance between simplicity and depth in design.

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, it may not offer as much versatility outside of photography-specific needs.

Zenfolio 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

🏆 Winner: Zoho Sites

. Scoring a 7.0, Zoho Sites offers a user-friendly experience with a clean interface, logical workflows, and helpful guides, making it suitable for those with basic needs and some technical knowledge. Zenfolio, with a score of 6.3, offers a specialized platform for photographers but has limitations in design flexibility and might not fully cater to those seeking extensive customization.

Learning Resources

🏆 Winner: Zoho Sites

. Zoho Sites provides a wide 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. Zenfolio offers a set of tutorials and articles in their help center but users have expressed a desire for more comprehensive learning resources.

Zenfolio and Zoho Sites offer different ecommerce capabilities tailored to their target users. Zenfolio, designed for photographers and visual artists, provides integrated ecommerce features for selling prints, digital downloads, and other products directly from their websites. Zoho Sites, while lacking built-in ecommerce features, integrates seamlessly with Zoho Commerce, providing flexibility and scalability for businesses of various sizes.

Zenfolio ecommerce features:

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

Zoho Sites ecommerce features:

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

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. On the other hand, 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.

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, allowing sellers to cater to various needs effectively. 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.

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. 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.

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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.

Zoho Sites, scoring 7.5, is 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. Integrated within the Zoho ecosystem, it offers customizable templates, SEO tools, social media integration, and ecommerce features, along with connectivity to other Zoho applications for enhanced functionality. Designed for users of all sizes, from freelancers to large organizations, Zoho Sites simplifies the process of creating and managing a secure and engaging online presence.

Mobile editor/app

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Winner: Zenfolio

. Zenfolio and Zoho Sites both offer mobile editing capabilities, but Zenfolio provides a more comprehensive solution. Zenfolio has a dedicated mobile 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. 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, Zoho Sites does not have a dedicated website editor app. Users can edit the visual aspects of the mobile version of their website, such as font size, color, background, and shadow, but they cannot change the content through the mobile interface. Therefore, Zenfolio offers a more robust mobile editing experience, making it the winner in this category.

Overall Result

:

Zoho Sites Wins

. Zoho Sites scores 8.8, slightly higher than Zenfolio’s 8.4. Both platforms offer a free trial, but Zoho Sites extends its trial period by one day and allows testing of all features of each plan during the trial. Additionally, Zoho Sites offers a free version, which Zenfolio does not.

Zoho Sites and Zenfolio both offer competitive pricing, but Zoho Sites has a slightly higher price score.

Winner: Zoho Sites

. Zoho Sites offers managed hosting with a focus on speed and efficiency, backed by a 99.9% uptime guarantee and a network of 12 global data centers. Zenfolio, while offering cloud hosting with storage options ranging from 15GB to unlimited, does not disclose its uptime statistics or data center locations, which may concern users prioritizing reliability and performance.

🏆 Winner: Zoho Sites

Both Zenfolio and Zoho Sites prioritize website performance and speed, but Zoho Sites takes the lead with its regular testing, optimized code and libraries, and cache balancing strategies.

Zoho Sites focuses on regular testing and implementing updates to ensure optimal website performance. It uses optimized code and libraries and balances cache to maintain fast load times. The platform’s load times are typically below 2-5 seconds on average, and its PageSpeed scores average between 70 and 80 out of 100. Zoho Sites also works on improving its Core Web Vitals by implementing various performance optimization techniques.

On the other hand, Zenfolio’s main strategy for speed optimization is its mobile responsive design. However, the platform does not provide specific information on its performance tools or Core Web Vitals improvements. Its load times and PageSpeed scores vary widely depending on optimization and website complexity.

🏆 Winner: Zoho Sites.

Zoho Sites scores 7.3, offering a diverse range of plugins and extensions that span various categories like marketing, design, social media, SEO, payments, and more. Zenfolio, with a score of 6.5, offers a focused set of plugins and integrations specifically designed for photographers. While Zenfolio’s plugins are more specialized, Zoho Sites’ broader range of plugins and integrations gives it the edge in this category.

Zoho Sites Applications

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Overall Winner: Zoho Sites

. Zoho Sites offers a more comprehensive set of marketing features, including advanced SEO tools, extensive social media integration, and robust analytics and reporting capabilities. Zenfolio, while offering a decent set of marketing tools, falls short in comparison, particularly in its limited SEO capabilities and basic analytics tools.

🏆 Winner: Zoho Sites

. In the comparison of Zenfolio vs Zoho Sites, Zoho Sites takes the lead with a higher customer support score of 8.3. Zoho Sites offers 24/7 support through live chat, email, and phone, ensuring that users can get assistance at any time. Additionally, Zoho Sites provides a comprehensive knowledge base and community forum, making it easier for users to find answers to common questions and interact with other users.

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

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Winner: Zoho Sites

. Zoho Sites slightly edges out Zenfolio with a security score of 8.1 compared to Zenfolio’s 8.0. Zoho Sites offers secure private data storage and protection through advanced encryption and access controls. The platform uses SSL encryption to protect data transmission and offers two-factor authentication for added security. Regular software updates are also part of Zoho Sites’ commitment to security.

Zenfolio also prioritizes security, especially for photographers and visual artists who need a secure platform to display their work. Zenfolio provides SSL encryption for all its websites and offers features like watermarking and password-protected galleries for additional security. However, it falls slightly short of Zoho Sites in terms of overall security score.

🏆 Winner: Zoho Sites

. Zoho Sites, with a score of 7.5, offers a more comprehensive AI offering, including AI content generation, sales predictions, workflow automation, and customer service enhancements. Zenfolio, with a score of 2.4, has limited AI capabilities, mainly focusing on AI-driven eCommerce features for photographers.

🏆 Winner: Zoho Sites

. Zoho Sites offers more flexibility in user management compared to Zenfolio.

• Zenfolio allows only one user to edit and manage a website.
• 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.

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.

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.

FAQ