BigCommerce vs Volusion: Which Platform is Best?

bigcommerce vs volusion

Should You Be Using Volusion or BigCommerce for Ecommerce?

Both platforms give you the tools you need to build an attractive website, sell products online, and unlock new growth opportunities. However, BigCommerce is more user-friendly, offers more features on every plan, and gives companies more integration options via its app marketplace.

After testing both platforms, I’d recommend:

  • BigCommerce: If you’re looking for ease of use, flexibility, more advanced themes, and excellent scalability for your online business.
  • Volusion: If you’re a smaller business looking for a built-in point of sale system, an excellent mobile app, and access to a wide range of payment gateways.

Volusion vs BigCommerce: Quick Overview

Sure! Here is a table comparing BigCommerce and Volusion across various features and aspects:

Feature/AspectBigCommerceVolusion
Ease of UseUser-friendly interface, easy setupIntuitive but slightly dated interface
PricingPlans start at $29.95/monthPlans start at $29/month
TemplatesWide range of modern, responsive templatesLimited number of templates, some outdated
CustomizationHighly customizable with HTML/CSS accessCustomizable, but with some limitations
Payment OptionsSupports numerous payment gatewaysSupports multiple payment gateways
Mobile OptimizationFully mobile-optimizedMobile-optimized, but less robust
SEO FeaturesStrong SEO tools and featuresDecent SEO capabilities
Customer Support24/7 support via phone, chat, email24/7 support via phone, chat, email
App MarketplaceExtensive app marketplaceSmaller app marketplace
Inventory ManagementAdvanced inventory management toolsBasic inventory management
Multi-Channel SellingSupports multi-channel selling (eBay, Amazon)Limited multi-channel selling
Reporting/AnalyticsComprehensive reporting and analyticsBasic reporting and analytics
SecurityPCI compliant, SSL certificates includedPCI compliant, SSL certificates available
Shipping OptionsIntegrated shipping solutionsBasic shipping options
ScalabilityHighly scalable for large businessesSuitable for small to medium businesses
Free Trial15-day free trial14-day free trial

If you need more detailed information on any specific aspect, feel free to ask!

BigCommerce vs Volusion: The Pros and Cons

BigCommerce Pros and Cons:

Pros:

  • Highly scalable solution with options for larger companies
  • Excellent themes with plenty of customization options
  • Omnichannel selling capabilities
  • Built-in blogging, SEO tools, and marketing solutions
  • Powerful security features
  • Ease of use for beginners

Cons:

  • Limitations on sales for most plans
  • No native POS features

Volusion Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Support for various payment gateways
  • Useful mobile app for store management
  • Zapier connection for API integrations
  • Wide feature set including built-in POS features
  • Intuitive tools for selling physical products
  • Excellent security capabilities

Cons:

  • Significant learning curve
  • No support for digital products
  • No blogging functionality built-in

BigCommerce vs Volusion: Pricing and Fees

Although BigCommerce and Volusion give users very different website building and selling experiences, they have a lot of similarities. For instance, the pricing packages offered by both companies are pretty similar.

The major issue with both companies is that they place limitations on how much you can sell on each plan. However, BigCommerce offers more features overall on each plan than Volusion. Plus, you can sell more products on all of BigCommerce’s plans.

BigCommerce Pricing

bigcommerce pricing

BigCommerce offers four plans, a 15-day free trial, and discounts on annual subscriptions (something Volusion doesn’t offer):

  • Standard: $39 per month: Maximum sales of $50k per year, no transaction fees, unlimited staff accounts, website building tools, omnichannel selling, product ratings and reviews, real-time shipping quotes, and gift cards.
  • Plus: $105 per month: Maximum sales of $180k per year, special credit card rates, customer groups and segmentation, stored credit cards, abandoned cart saver, persistent cart, and more.
  • Pro: $399 per month: Maximum sales of $400k per year, faceted search, custom SSL solutions, and even lower credit cart rates.
  • Enterprise: custom pricing with unlimited sales, API calls, custom facets, price lists, express routing, priority support, and more.

Volusion Pricing

volusion pricing

Volusion offers four plans, and a 14-day free trial:

  • Personal: $35 per month: Maximum sales of 50k per year, maximum product cap of 100, 1 staff account, live chat and email support, and store building features. You also get unlimited bandwidth, a custom domain, and an integrated checkout.
  • Professional: $79 per month: Maximum sales of $100k per year, and a product cap of 5,000, 5 staff accounts, CRM features, importing and exporting tools, email newsletters, abandoned cart reports, and ratings/reviews.
  • Business: $299 per month: Maximum sales of $400k per year, unlimited products, 15 staff accounts, batch order processing, customer loyalty plans, and API access.
  • Prime: Custom pricing for unlimited sales, products, and staff accounts, advanced customer support, lower rates on additional services, a client success manager, and early access to new features.

Read more:

Volusion vs BigCommerce: The Core Features

Again, Volusion and BigCommerce offer a lot of similar features, such as website design tools, one-page checkout options and payment processing. However, BigCommerce also offers features for selling digital products, and has a built-in blog system. Whereas with Volusion, you’ll need third-party apps to access these capabilities.

The Main Features of BigCommerce:

  • Robust website builder: BigCommerce has an intuitive website builder, with drag-and-drop capabilities, and a range of mobile responsive themes to choose from. It also allows users to customize CSS and HTML files, and choose from a range of color themes.
  • Payment processing: You can integrate BigCommerce with a range of payment gateway options, or take advantage of the company’s partnership with PayPal and Braintree for special credit card rates (which vary depending on your plan).
  • Marketing tools: BigCommerce features integrated email marketing solutions, with an abandoned cart saver, as well as a blogging feature (not included on Volusion). It’s also relatively SEO-friendly, with plenty of tools for boosting your ranking.
  • Analytics and reporting: With BigCommerce, you can access a range of reports and insights into your everyday sales, inventory, and more. The reports are intuitive and customizable, and you can even segment customers based on reports.
  • Inventory and product management: BigCommerce offers robust inventory management and product management tools, ideal for companies with complex inventories. You also get a range of shipping tools to help with order fulfillment, including a real-time rate calculator.
  • Integrations: BigCommerce allows companies to sell through a range of channels through integrations with POS systems, marketplaces, and social media apps. There’s also an app store where you can find integrations for marketing, customer service, and more.

BigCommerce also supports companies looking for things like headless commerce design, and provides access to a range of additional services, similar to Volusion.

The Core Features of Volusion

  • Website builder: Volusion also offers excellent mobile responsive themes to help you with website design, but designing your site is a lot more complicated. The templates are also very feature-specific, although you can change them at any time.
  • Inventory management: Volusion also has excellent inventory management tools, alongside some bonus features you don’t get elsewhere, such as a suggested products feature. Unfortunately, you’re unable to sell digital products with Volusion.
  • Marketing tools: Volusion allows companies to send marketing emails, and has some excellent SEO features, such as the ability to alter meta tags and descriptions on pages. However it has no built-in blogging functionality.
  • Payment processing: With Volusion, you can sell through a range of payment gateways including Stripe and PayPal, and create a convenient one-page checkout. Plus, like BigCommerce, it doesn’t charge any transaction fees, and there’s a built-in POS.
  • Integrations: Although Volusion offers fewer straightforward integrations than BigCommerce, it does connect with Zapier, which allows you to create custom integrations for all of the tools you’re using for business management.
  • Analytics: Like with BigCommerce, you can track ROI and other metrics with Volusion, although the reporting features aren’t as in-depth. You can get insights into things like CRM tickets and return merchandise authorizations, however.

BigCommerce vs Volusion: Ease of Use and Customer Support

From a simplicity perspective, both Volusion and BigCommerce are intended for smaller to mid-sized businesses with limited technical skills. They both give you themes and templates to help with website building, but I don’t think either option is as easy to use as Wix, Shopify, or Squarespace.

BigCommerce is definitely easier overall. Not only is its website builder more intuitive and convenient, but it makes it easier to find and access the tools you need to grow your business.

Navigating Volusion’s interface is a lot more complicated. Many of the features you need seem to be hidden out of sight, particularly when you’re building your website.

Although the company has attempted to upgrade its interface in recent years, it still has a much higher learning curve, which can be frustrating for many users. Even connecting your store to other business tools is more complicated, as you’ll need to use Zapier for most connections.

Customer support options vary on both BigCommerce and Volusion, depending on your plans. However, BigCommerce offers access to a wide range of community forums and self-help solutions. Volusion does have a help center, but I didn’t find the resources nearly as helpful as the ones available from BigCommerce.

Additionally, if you’re looking for help directly from the company, BigCommerce offers 24/7 live chat, phone, and email support. Volusion offers live chat and email, but reserves phone support for people using more expensive plans.

When to Use BigCommerce and When to Use Volusion

When to Use BigCommerce

I’d recommend choosing BigCommerce for:

  • Ease of use, despite a slight learning curve for absolute beginners.
  • More robust features on every plan.
  • Blogging capabilities for marketing
  • More integration options (without having to use Zapier)
  • Excellent customer service and support

When to Use Volusion

I’d suggest considering Volusion for:

  • Slightly more affordable pricing plans.
  • Integrated point of sale capabilities.
  • A convenient mobile app
  • Unique features like built-in POS solutions, and recommended products

Volusion vs BigCommerce: Final Thoughts

Ultimately, after testing both platforms, I think there’s a clear winner between BigCommerce and Volusion. Not only does BigCommerce give you more features overall, such as built-in blogging capabilities, and access to tools for selling digital products, but it’s much easier to use.

Volusion might be a little cheaper on the surface, but unless you upgrade to a higher-tier plan, you’re going to miss out on a lot of the features you need to grow your store. You’ll also have a much harder time scaling sales with Volusion in the long term. BigCommerce is more flexible, feature-rich, and convenient, despite its slightly higher price tag.

Furter reading:

BigCommerce vs Shopify

Shopify vs Elementor

Bogdan Rancea is the founder and lead curator of ecomm.design, a showcase of the best ecommerce websites. With over 12 years in the digital commerce space he has a wealth of knowledge and a keen eye for great online retail experiences. As an ecommerce tech explorer Bogdan tests and reviews various platforms and design tools like Shopify, Figma and Canva and provides practical advice for store owners and designers. His hands on experience with these tools and his knowledge of ecommerce design trends makes him a valuable resource for businesses looking to improve their online presence. On ecomm.design Bogdan writes about online stores, ecommerce design and tips for entrepreneurs and designers.

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