Visualsoft vs Shopify
Visualsoft is currently behind 954 ecommerce stores, while there are 2.3 million live stores running on the Shopify platform, so Visualsoft is more of a niche platform.
In terms of brands using the Visualsoft platform, there’s HMV, Sofas by Saxon and FitKit. Some of the brands you might know on Shopify include Gymshark, Huel and Tropic Skincare.
So how do the Visualsoft and Shopify platforms compare? We’ve taken a look at several different areas including content, SEO, marketing and support to help give you an idea of the two ecommerce platforms’ pros and cons.
Visualsoft: Third Party Integrations and Apps
Compared to Shopify’s 8,000 apps in the Shopify App Store, covering marketing, merchandising, discounts, customer service and other categories, Visualsoft also has an app store - while the selection is a lot smaller, it still has enough apps to cover a lot of basic functionality extension.
Customisation
Similar to Shopify, Visualsoft has themes to use as starting points for your ecommerce store, but customisation is more complex than Shopify. The complexity does mean that you’re able to create unique and bespoke stores that express your brand, but it’s likely you’ll need support (and have to pay) for design support from the Visualsoft team.
So it’s a good option if you go in aware of the extra time, money and effort that will be required to customise your store.
Security
Shopify comes with free SSL certificates and takes care of all security for merchants on the platform, including payment security and fraud analysis tools so you can assess any orders that the platform flags as fraudulent.
Visualsoft also includes SSL certificates and is PCI DSS compliant like Shopify when it comes to handling customer payments.
So it’s a tick in the box for both platforms when it comes to security for you and your customers.
Visualsoft Pricing
Visualsoft has a 3 tier pricing structure:
Build (£300 per month, from 2% + 25p credit card rate)
This plan gets you an ecommerce website.
Grow (£500 per month, from 1.6% + 25p credit card rate)
This includes marketing tools and connected marketplaces like Amazon and eBay
Scale (£900 per month, from 1.4% + 25p credit card rate)
This top-tier bolts on analytics, B2B and international routes to market
Slightly confusingly, as well as the 3 tiers above, there seem to be 4 options available when selecting the platform:
Visualsoft Sell: Streamline your online shopping journey and offer the best user experience to turn visitors into customers with the Visualsoft platform.
Visualsoft Manage: Get everything you need for effective store operations in one powerful yet beautifully simple platform. You can easily manage products, monitor customer order information and track payments from one central place, simplifying your online store management.
Visualsoft Market: Reach customers at every stage of their journey with a suite of integrated marketing tools designed to boost conversions and loyalty.
Visualsoft Optimise: View live performance data and marketing reports to help you make strategic decisions and reduce guesswork.
So how does this all of this compare to Shopify?
Shopify starts at a lower monthly cost but is more expensive for the enterprise plan (Shopify Plus):
Basic (£19 per month, from 2% + 25p card rate)
For solo entrepreneurs
Shopify (£49 per month, from 1.7% + 25p card rate)
For small teams
Advanced (£259 per month, from 1.5% + 25p card rate)
As your business scales
Plus (Starting at £2,000 per month with ‘competitive’ card rates)
For more complex businesses
Every Shopify plan gets you a website, access to 8,000 apps, analytics, multiple sales channels and in-person selling.
Visualsoft Marketing
Visualsoft can provide digital strategy using a cross-channel approach. This is outside of the platform itself and falls under the banner of agency services, and as such it’s an additional cost. Under the banner of digital strategy, a number of tactics are available (we’ve not been able to verify if it’s a pick and mix suite of tactics but that would make sense).
The following tactics are available. Digital strategy, comprising affiliate marketing, SEO, email marketing, paid social, CRO, marketplaces, paid search and creative media.
Visualsoft Ease of Use
Shopify is designed so that somebody running a micro-business should be able to create, populate and launch their new ecommerce store in a day or two. It’s also evolved hugely over the years to become more user-friendly. (You can see how regularly they release improvements to the platform in the Shopify Changelog.)
Visualsoft can also be used by non-technical people (it’s not like platforms like Adobe Commerce that are more suitable for developers) but it's not as intuitive as Shopify. You can manage everything you’d expect like products, blogs and order fulfilment.
Visualsoft for SEO
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is absolutely critical for ecommerce stores. Shopify is renowned for how you’re able to manage SEO on the platform, both natively and through apps. Many SEO options come as standard, so you can optimise your store for search performance, including customisable title tags, 301 redirects, automatic sitemap generation, meta descriptions, meta titles and more.
Visualsoft has SEO services available as an optional add-on, not as native built-in SEO features on the platform, but through a named contact who undertakes SEO audits, roadmaps and reporting.
Visualsoft Reviews
There are 505 reviews for Visualsoft on Trustpilot, with an overall score of 4.6.
(It’s worth noting that the reviews predominantly relate to the customer service and implementations team, rather than the platform itself.)
Visualsoft API
It is possible to transfer data to and from your Visualsoft store through a standard web service (SOAP) which your EPOS system or other integration software can connect to.
It is possible to:
Create and update products
Update product stock
Retrieve product information
Retrieve order information
Visualsoft will provide an XML Schema Definition (XSD) and full documentation for each service to ensure a smooth integration with your system and reduce the possibility of data errors. If product image uploads are required, they will provide an FTP location to upload image files to. Image names for product data can either be located in this FTP location or from an Internet URL.
Visualsoft Support
While Shopify has 24/7 customer support through phone, email and live chat, plus a huge resource in articles, guides and videos, Visualsoft provides phone and email support, plus help via a ticketing system. They also have resources available to help with technical or functionality queries.
‘Visualsoft to Shopify’ Migration Agency
Here at Radiant, we’ve undertaken many successful Visualsoft migrations to Shopify over the years, so if you’re considering switching to the Shopify platform from Visualsoft, drop us a line for a no-obligation discussion about how we could approach your project.
Even if you’re not migrating, but have considered both platforms and have decided that Shopify is the one for you, we specialise in Shopify web design and development so get in touch for a chat with our business team.
Visualsoft FAQs
Q. How much does Visualsoft cost?
A. Visualsoft has a 3 tier pricing structure - ‘Build’ at £300 per month, ‘Scale’ at £500 and ‘Grow’ coming in at £900.
Q. Can you cancel your Visualsoft contract?
A. You sign up to a 24 month ‘initial term’. At the end of that period, the contract renews for a further 24 months (‘extended term’), and will continue in this way unless 90 days’ notice is given PRIOR to the end of the initial or any subsequent extended term.
If you cancel mid-term, all remaining fees are immediately payable, so if you cancel in month 12, you’ll owe a further 1 months’ fees.
Q. What marketing support can you get with Visualsoft?
A. Cross-channel marketing support is available with Visualsoft but it’s not part of the platform itself - it’s an additional tier of paid services. The following tactics are available: digital strategy comprising affiliate marketing, SEO, email marketing, paid social, CRO, marketplaces, paid search and creative media.
Q. What support is available from Visualsoft?
A. The website states that merchants on the platform will have ‘dedicated support and enhanced security’. It covers telephone, email and a ticketing system.
