Volusion Pricing Review | Is It Actually Good Value? (2023)
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Selling online is a fine art. So is choosing the right pricing plan for your store. Our in-depth Volusion pricing review will help you find the perfect plan – because, while you need to spend money to make money, you don’t want to be spending too much.
Volusion is an ecommerce platform that helps people create their very own online store, regardless of their coding abilities. All you need is an idea, your products, and an internet connection – Volusion provides the rest, from responsive themes to marketing tools.
So how much does Volusion cost? There are four price plans for you to choose from:
- Personal: $29/month
- Professional: $79/month
- Business: $299/month
- Prime: Custom
In our research Volusion came second to last for value for money, scoring just 2.4 stars out of 5. So where does it fall down? And which plan will give you best value? You’ll find all this out and more in our review.
You have four price plans to choose from, ranging from the $29 per month Personal plan up to the custom-priced Prime Custom plan. You can try Volusion risk free with its 14-day free trial – you don’t need a credit card or signature in blood to sign up, just an email and phone number!
This article will weigh Volusion’s prices against the features on offer. We’ll break each plan down, compare Volusion to its competitors, and uncover if there are any extra costs you should know about. In short, we’ll show you just how much Volusion really costs, and work out if it’s right for you.
1 How Much Does Volusion Cost?
Volusion has four price plans: the $29 per month Personal plan, the $79 per month Professional plan, the $299 per month Business plan, and the Prime Custom plan. These prices reflect the monthly subscription – you save 10% on all plans if you choose to pay annually instead.
| Plan | Monthly Price (Rolling Contract) | Monthly Price (Paid Annually) |
|---|---|---|
| Personal | $29 | $26.10 |
| Professional | $79 | $71.10 |
| Business | $299 | $269.10 |
| Prime | Custom | Custom |
The table above shows how much you can save by paying the upfront annual subscription, rather than a month to month fee – it’s definitely worth considering if you want a long-term plan!
Now you know exactly how much you’ll be paying, let’s take a closer look at what you’re paying for with each plan…
2 Personal Plan
$29 per month, or $26.10 per month (paid annually)
The Personal plan costs $29 per month, which comes with unlimited bandwidth, social media integration, and 0% transaction fees. You can list up to 100 products on the Personal plan. You won’t get abandoned cart reports, but you’ll get most of the essential features for a small store.
The Personal plan is the cheapest of Volusion’s price plans, at $29 per month. For that, you get all the essential features, from secure payments to social media integrations.
The Personal plan is best for small online stores that are just starting out. Perhaps you want to make money out of your hobby, or sell handmade goods. You can’t have more than 100 products listed on your store at a time, so if you’re earning more than $50,000 in online sales per year, this isn’t the ideal plan for you.
Features
You get a whole range of features on the Personal plan. All plans come with 0% transaction fees and unlimited bandwidth, but amongst other features, you also get built-in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tools to help you get found in search engine results. You can check out the full list below:
- 0% transaction fees
- Up to 100 products listed in store
- Unlimited bandwidth
- One staff account
- Built-in SEO tools
- Social media integration
- Secure checkout
- Securely accept payments
You don’t get abandoned cart reports, newsletter tools, or ratings and reviews on the Personal plan. For more advanced features like these, you’ll need the next plan up.
Help and Support
You have access to online support with the Personal plan. This includes the Volusion Help Center, where you’ll find a variety of articles and advice covering a wide range of topics. There’s also a live chat feature, which you can use for more tailored results.
3 Professional Plan
$79 per month, or $71.10 per month (paid annually)
The Professional plan costs $79 per month. For that, you can list up to 5,000 products, create newsletters, and unlock abandoned cart reports. The Professional plan also lets you have ratings and reviews on your site, as well as allowing phone orders.
The Professional plan may sound like quite a jump up from the Personal plan, but you get a big hike in features to make your $79 per month go far.
This plan is best for regular-sized stores looking for growth, as it comes with more advanced features to fuel your store’s success and make your life easier as you run your business. If you need newsletters for your customers, or a review section to boost trust in your products, the Professional plan is for you.
Features
Not only do you get everything from the Personal plan, you also increase your product limit to 5,000 instead of a mere 100. You also get features such as:
- Five staff accounts
- Ratings and reviews
- Newsletters
- Import/export function
- Abandoned cart reports
- Phone orders and CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
These features are designed to give your customers a more professional service, and set your store up for growth. Abandoned cart reports, for example, give you data on how many people are abandoning their carts, and can even send a handy email encouraging customers to return and finish their shop. Considering 88% of online orders were abandoned last year, this is an important feature!
The Professional plan is designed to support stores earning up to $100,000 in online sales per year.
Help and Support
Do you prefer the good old fashioned method of picking up the phone and talking to a real person? The Professional plan gives you this luxury, with phone support as well as online resources like the live chat.
You can’t just ring Volusion directly anytime, but you can schedule a call for Volusion to ring you at a specific time.
4 Business Plan
$299 per month, or $269.10 per month (paid annually)
The Business plan is designed for large stores, costing $299 per month. This allows you to sell an unlimited number of products, integrate with Amazon and eBay, and unlock third party calculated shipping rates. You also unlock a better level of customer service where you can jump the queue with Priority Phone Support.
If you mean serious business, then you’ll need the Business plan! Able to support stores earning $500,000 in online sales per year, and with the power to sell an unlimited number of products, this is for stores looking to bring in the big bucks.
You can see why the Business plan comes in at over double the price of the Professional plan. You’ll need $299 per month to fund this plan, but it’s worth it if you have a well-established store you’re looking to take to the next level.
Features
You’re waist deep in advanced features with the Business plan. You get everything from the Professional plan, plus a whole lot more! Get ready for:
- 15 staff accounts
- Unlimited products to sell
- Amazon and eBay integrations
- API access and batch order processing
- Deal of the day and customer loyalty plan
- Advanced report builder
- Third party shipping calculated rates
- Third party gateways
- One on one setup
It’s clear that these features can put much more weight behind your business. With third party integrations, more tailored support for you and your team, plus rewards for regular customers, you can offer a much more sophisticated service for your visitors.
Help and Support
When you sign up to the Business plan, you unlock a whole new level of customer support. Say hello to priority support, which means you can ring for phone support without scheduling a call.
As a Business plan customer, if you do want to schedule a call, then you have more slots available than lower tier customers. You even get priority response on the live chat, so no matter which support option you prefer, you can count on a quick response.
This priority support is especially valuable if you have a large store that will lose a lot of money if there’s a problem with the site. When time is money, speedy support is priceless.
5 Prime Plan
Prime Plan: Custom Pricing
The Prime plan is the most advanced Volusion plan. There’s no set price – instead, you request a personalized quote, so the price depends on your unique business. Pricing is based on GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) on a 12-month trailing basis. The Prime plan gives you a higher level of service, with multiple experts and VIP support, as well as unlimited staff accounts, and much more.
The Prime plan is Volusion’s custom level of pricing, and is the most advanced plan you can get. This plan throws the word “unlimited” around like a baseball during practise, and you pay for the privilege.
If you need some real oomph to power your store, then the Prime plan is your best bet. There’s no specific pricing – you submit a request for a tailored quote, and can enter up to $5 million+ for your business revenue.
Features
You might expect to see an endless list of fancy features here, but the truth is, you’re paying for a quality, custom service rather than a ton of extra tools. You get everything included on the Business plan, plus:
- Unlimited staff accounts
- Unlimited restores
- Dedicated Account Manager
- Sandbox
- Semi-dedicated server resources
These features support your store as it grows and performs. Having a Sandbox lets you test changes before publishing them, and having the server resources to maintain site speeds during busy periods is essential for success.
Help and Support
They say two pairs of hands are better than one, and you can access many more than that with VIP support. You can contact multiple experts, from marketing and design to finance and beyond, until you find the result you need. You even get a private Slack channel to connect with Volusion’s top experts for the highest level of support.
The Prime plan is the only plan that offers VIP support, so if you’re all about that exclusive life, this is the plan for you.
6 Additional Volusion Costs
Now you know the exact cost of each plan, and just what you get for your money. You know there are no hidden transaction fees or bandwidth costs. But is that really all there is to Volusion? We’re diving deeper into Volusion’s costs, so you know exactly what to expect.
Credit Card Processing Fees
Despite having no transaction fees, you’ll still have to pay credit card processing fees. This isn’t charged by Volusion itself – it’s a fee charged by the payment gateway on each transaction. Think of it like a toll charge, or a service fee.
Rates can vary between providers, so you want to make sure you’re getting a fair deal. Volusion supports tons of different payment gateways across the globe, so you should find one that suits your needs.
If you want to keep things simple, you can choose to use Volusion Payments. This is Volusion’s in-house payment gateway, and promises some of the industry’s lowest rates.
Volusion Payments has a 2.15% transaction rate, with no setup fees, and low monthly prices. It’s only available in the US, and you need to apply to find out if you’re eligible.
SSL Certificates
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) security is essential for any website. Not only does it show visitors your site is trustworthy, but it’s also a ranking factor for Google.
SSL certificates are even more essential for online stores, because they keep sensitive data safe when passing through your site. Without that encryption, your customers’ card details are vulnerable to all sorts of online nasties.
Most ecommerce platforms throw in an SSL certificate for free, but Volusion does things a bit differently. Call it cheeky, but you only get your SSL certificate for free after you’ve paid an initial amount. Only Prime customers can claim a free SSL certificate.
That means you’ll need to purchase an SSL certificate for your online store. The good news is, you can easily buy yours directly from Volusion, which offers a range of options. These SSL certificates vary in type, brand, and price – the cheapest available is $89, while the most expensive is as much as $995 (for one year).
Once you’ve paid the upfront fee, you won’t have to pay anything more – it’s free after the initial purchase, meaning it’ll automatically renew each year for the grand sum of $0! So you won’t have to pay $89 every year, just that first payment.
This seems like a rather strange method, and it’s a shame Volusion doesn’t include even a basic free SSL with its ecommerce plans. It’s also worth knowing that if you’ve purchased an SSL certificate elsewhere and want to use it on your Volusion site, you’ll need to pay $99 to install it.
Apps
If you want to add extra power or snazzy functions to your store, you’ll need the App Marketplace.
Whether it’s adding PayPal Express Checkout or a live chat, it’s easy to boost your business with pretty cool features. There are nearly 80 apps in Volusion’s App Market.
But what does it cost?
For a small selection of apps, the answer is nothing at all. There are currently 10 free apps in the Volusion App Marketplace. The premium apps vary in price, so depending on what you choose, you could pay anything from $0.88 to $199 per month – or even more!
Some apps have special pricing offers, while others have their own pricing tiers within the app. It’s just about finding one that works for your store and your budget.
Fraud Protection
Want to protect yourself and your store from credit card fraudsters? Volusion has something to help you sleep at night – but you’ll need to pay for the protection. You can add Volusion Fraud Score to your plan, to help detect any suspicious orders.
There are three Fraud Score plans: Basic at $12.95 per month, Standard at $29.95 per month, and Deluxe at $49.95 per month. This price will sit on top of your regular Volusion plan, so make sure to allow room in your budget if this is an important feature for your store.
7 Volusion Pricing vs Competitor Pricing
Volusion is one of the best ecommerce platforms on the market, but it’s not the best. How does it compare to its competitors in terms of price? Take a look at the table below to compare Volusion with our top rated ecommerce platforms: Shopify, Wix eCommerce, and BigCommerce.
Please note that all prices shown are monthly prices – with Wix, you may not get the whole range of features unless you sign up to a yearly subscription.
| Basic | Pro | Advanced | Prime | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wix eCommerce | $28 | $33 | $56 | Custom |
| Volusion | $29 | $79 | $299 | Custom |
| Shopify | $29 | $79 | $299 | Custom |
| BigCommerce | $29.95 | $79.95 | $249.95 | Custom |
As you can see, Volusion has stuck pretty closely to Shopify’s pricing structure, sneaking in just under BigCommerce’s prices. Wix eCommerce remains the cheapest out of these top dogs, with a starting price of just $25 per month.
In our research, Volusion couldn’t compete with these top three ecommerce platforms. It scored poorly for sales features, help and support, and website features – it also received the second worst customer score from our users!
So, while its prices aren’t much higher, Volusion offers less value for money than its competitors. It offers less features on its cheapest plan, witholding key tools such as SSL, unlimited products, abandoned cart reports, and Amazon integrations – all things Shopify includes on its $29 per month plan!
Further Information
- Shopify offers better value for money than Volusion – find out why in our Shopify Pricing.
- Wix has the cheapest ecommerce plans, but is still a better builder than Volusion. See what you can get for your money in our Wix Pricing.
- BigCommerce is the most scalable ecommerce platform. Our BigCommerce Pricing tells you all you need to know about its plans and prices.
Volusion Pricing: Final Thoughts
This article has taken a close-up look at Volusion’s price plans, their features, who each plan is best for, and more. We’ve even given you an insight into any extra costs you should expect to budget for with Volusion, and compared its price plans to its top competitors.
Volusion’s pricing sits in a happy middle-ground on the market. It’s neither the cheapest nor the most pricey around – you’re paying for a dedicated ecommerce platform that comes with a good range of features, apps, and extras to help your store succeed.
However, while its prices are reasonable, it doesn’t offer good value for momey. It also comes with some cheeky add-ons – for example, having to pay for your SSL certificate. That said, Volusion has done well to remove transaction fees and bandwidth charges.
Is Volusion on the same level as its top competitors? Not at all. Can you get more for your money with a different platform, such as Shopify or BigCommerce? Yes, definitely. Volusion sits rather in the no-man’s land of the ecommerce world, but has increased its prices to match the best of the best.
If Volusion is definitely the right ecommerce builder for you, then spending $29 per month on your store is alright. If you’re unsure though, we’d recommend putting your money in Shopify’s pocket instead, as it’s the all-around better builder for building – and growing – online stores of all sizes.
At the end of they day, you don’t have to make your decision based purely on what we say. Both Volusion and Shopify (and most other ecommerce platforms) have free trials, so you can test out as many as you need to find the perfect match for your business.
Volusion and Shopify both have 14-day free trials – get testing today, so you can start selling tomorrow!
Volusion Pricing: FAQs
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