ActiveCampaign is presented as an AI-first marketing platform for marketers, agencies, and entrepreneurs. It uses Active Intelligence for goal-aware automation and personalized experiences across email, SMS, and WhatsApp. ActiveCampaign integrates with 950+ apps and generates insights to optimize every workflow.
$15
per month (billed annually)
Agentforce Marketing
Score 7.7 out of 10
N/A
Marketing Cloud is a cloud-based digital marketing platform, used by marketers can segment their audience, deliver personalized messages, track campaign performance, engage leads and accounts, and optimize strategies based on real-time insights.
$1,250
per month
Unifyr
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
Zift Solutions Through Partner Marketing Automation Platform is a suite of applications meant to streamline interactions with channel partners, amplify demand, and ease cooperation on co-branded campaigns.
Mailchimp simply did not have all the features we were looking for, particularly with regard to list segmenting and automation. ActiveCampaign is more expensive, but it's a big step up for us. I think that Mailchimp is excellent for beginners and those who don't need all the …
ActiveCampaign feels like the professional, empowered and much more fully set up version of MailChimp. I was using MailChimp when I first started my business, but was then introduced to AC, and it's a million times better.
I used Mautic/Acquia for 4 years. It was more expensive for less features than ActiveCampaign. Also, I find ActiveCampaign is more intuitive and easier to use. The support system is more helpful. The pages are easy to navigate and the menu and submenus are well laid out. …
MailChimp, Mailer Lite, Constant Contact: ActiveCampaign is much better and much more versatile with automations, tags, and options for customizable lists and forms.
Salesforce is a beast! The learning involved to use the system is prohibitive. Mailerlite is limited in functionality but ConvertKit is a solid alternative. Both are easy to use but clunky to navigate, while ActiveCampaign is logical. Mailchimp is great for small businesses …
You'll be able to accomplish everything you need to with ActiveCampaign. A lot of these platforms distinguish themselves with bells and whistles. If a certain 'luxury' is important to you, then go with the platform that offers it. Generally speaking, they can all get the job …
It's simply intuitive! You know what to do and what you can do by just looking at it. So it goes very fast into a natural usage where You don't need to think too long. You can execute faster and build amazing funnels, because the functions are so easy and come with a great …
We selected Active Campaign several years ago due to its competitive cost and ability to integrate well with other software that we were using. With recent pricing changes, however, we will likely be shopping for alternatives.
In my opinion, not easy to use. Very limited in regards with features. I think the forms you integrate in webpages are ugly and not fully customizable. for almost the same price I have more features with ActiveCampaign.
I feel more confortable using ActiveCampaign since it is …
The level of sophistication and detail of the automations and segmentation is much higher with ActiveCampaign vs. Mailchimp resulting in much more targeted campaigns. Also, the user experience is so much more intuitive and easier to navigate with ActiveCampaign.
I don't like MailerLite and Flodesk because they only offer segments, no tags. I like to add many tags to my contacts depending on the products they purchase, and this gets too cluttered when there's only segments. They also don't have clear insights on the home page of people …
I used to use the free version of Mailchimp, but it did not allow me to construct automated email marketing campaigns the way I wanted to do it. So I decided to migrate all my list to ActiveCampaign. The migration process was easy enough. I am happy I did it.
The only other product we’re currently evaluating is on the Veeva side — Veeva Campaign. It’s a relatively new product that Veeva has released; it’s only been about six or seven months since it went into general availability. So time will tell whether it can compete with …
Apart from Marketing Cloud we have one reach that we have used and to tell you the good stuff is like now we are getting rid of One Reach and we are moving all our text stuff as well to the marketing cloud. So that much we have confidence in Marketing Cloud and that much we are …
I have worked with all three providers across different businesses and seen the benefit of each one in different ways. It is good that Salesforce Marketing Cloud connects well with salesforce as a sales management CRM. Hubspot is a lot. more user friendly of an interface and …
I find the data stored in the database is very much cleansed and hence the overall decision making process improves. Also the customised emails, digital marketing features stacks the Salesforce Marketing Cloud way above others
We use Salesforce Marketing Cloud for lead management, generating reports, tracking customer and dealer information, inputting orders, and more. I prefer HubSpot for email marketing and automation because it is easier to use and the emails are designed much better. We …
I used Marketo for years and found it to be robust yet also fairly intuitive to navigate. When I joined my current role, they had just implemented Salesforce Marketing Cloud. I was initially not a fan, but since using the tool and navigating some complexities, I see the true …
I think that all of the marketing platforms I have evaluated and used in the past serve different markets and purposes. Salesforce Marketing Cloud was more palatable to our team because of our existing tech stack where we had Salesforce CRM already deployed and in use. Compared …
Hubspot is more user friendly, more intuitive, and has functionality built in from the start that allows you to get things off the ground faster than SFMC. I use SFMC because that is the current platform at my employer.
Mailchimp is great for simple email use. It's straightforward and great for beginners in the email space. It does not offer nearly as much in the way of complexity as Salesforce Marketing Cloud does, so is limited with what it can do. Salesforce Marketing Cloud is much more …
It has more features and a fuller capacity for all things marketing. Pardot was clunky and lacked a good email builder. It wasn't my choice to select this software, but I see its value, and the team has benefitted from it. We hope they continue to improve functionality and …
Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a more comprehensive product than HubSpot Marketing Cloud. It integrates better with multiple channels, is a powerful audience builder, and is an efficient AI. However, Salesforce Marketing Cloud is also more expensive and requires Salesforce.com …
Salesforce Marketing Cloud stands out for its comprehensive features, scalability, and seamless integration capabilities. Compared to other platforms, its unified suite of tools for email, social media, mobile, and advertising enables streamlined cross-channel campaign …
Not to sound like I am completely against Salesforce Marketing Cloud, I believe HubSpot has worked alot on their marketing platform to simplify the interface along with keeping the rich functions a marketing platform would want. Campaign monitor is a bit more basic, but perfect …
My previous organization used Pardot and also Mailchimp. Salesforce Marketing Cloud is more powerful than both of those tools and integrates more deeply with Salesforce CRM.
Overall, 80 percent of the features and boiler plate and standard across all these tools. Salesforce leads in integrations and global scalability. But lacks in User interface and ease of use.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud offers many opportunities for personalization and supports big data integration. It features powerful tools like SQL for data and AMPscript for email creation. If someone wants to master the platform, it might require some initial learning, which I …
We use these both in conjunction together now rather than rivals as the data that can be held in both does differ slightly and one platform email maker is slightly better so we do a lot of the creative in one platform and then have it link in and have all the data flow into the …
We were also testing the HubSpot Marketing Hub platform at the same time I began utilizing ZiftONE. ZiftONE's data is more reliable than HubSpot, thus we've decided to use it as a backup for systems that need content syndication. However, GetResponse's sales funnel is easier to …
At the same time that I started using ZiftONE, we worked in a test mode with the GetResponse platform. We select ZiftONE as support on platforms that require content syndication since the information it provides us is more accurate than that of GetResponse. However, GetResponse …
Zift is much easier to use than other products we've used. With Zift you have more options and features that are much more beneficial. It also keeps all your information organized and ready to go at any time. Other products don't do this as well. Also, customer care is much …
Honestly, we used Zift because it was free to us for the network we are a part of. However, we will still use it even without that network because of the ease of using it and the price. I Feel it gets everything done that we need it to. Great program.
SFDC - What can be said, SFDC is an industry leader in so many ways and it's add-on and plug-ins can connect to most anything. Even though my company uses SFDC, the biggest reasons were a) cost of adding users to the front end, and b) flexibility without jumping head first into …
I've been using ActiveCampaign since around 2018-2019 and I've always been satisfied with the software. It's simple to use, connects with the other tools I use and makes it easy for me to duplicate automations, email templates and workflows as I need to. On top of that, any time I've had an issue (which I think is around twice in the past 5/6 years), the customer service has always been super helpful and my issue has been resolved quickly.
I rated this a seven because I love Salesforce, and it is excellent on the sales side. However, the marketing side has some pros and cons. It is terrific for keeping track of lead, customer, and dealer information, but it is not easy to automate workflows, integrate other software, or create well-designed emails. It is also straightforward to generate reports, which is very helpful in keeping track of lead progression to better market those leads and turn them into customers.
Overall Relayware is a great product. It's many features in a single package lend itself well for working with partners be that channel partners, direct sales, VARs, indirect sales, or most any other type of partner. With the flexible construction and licensing you can activate the parts of Relayware you want and then easily grow the functionality as your partner management needs grow. This is a very nice solution versus adding additional SaaS systems and spending considerables hours building API connectors. That said, Relayware does have a robust API should you need to connect to other systems. There is native support for SSO connectivity, SFDC (Salesforce.com) and a handful of other third party products. Where you might not want to use Relayware is if it's too big for your organization, so like any SaaS, do your research, talk to Relayware, and evaluate the product. The many features and ability to handle lots of partners definitely adds complexity and comes with a decent, but fair, price tag. So, if you're a small organization just starting out with a few partners, or you have very simple partner management needs, Relayware might not be for you. Then again, it may, since I've found it easy to use several of the product's features beyond just working with partners. So again, evaluate, and draw your own conclusions.
Partner tracking and communication - Relayware allows a holistic view of a partner. Since the tool tracks everything a user does, you can easily see when the partner has sent or received emails, participated in trainings, download files, etc. You can also see how and when back-office users such as admins, partner managers, etc. have communicated with partners, updated dashboards, downloaded reports, and much more. The granularity of the history and tracking is exception for seeing how you and a partner are engaging. It's also very helpful for companies who require an audit trail for activities.
Training/eLearning/onboarding - I've worked with a number of eLearning/LMS platforms over the years and I'm stunned by the learning system built into Relayware. It's hands down far and above many existing standalone products and if Relayware was smart, they would offer this as a standalone item. The system supports the typical eLearning/LMS basics- SCORM support, grading, training by module, etc. but it also allows for custom training paths based on learning modules which can be SCORM, video, HTML, files, and any combination of these. The grading system is separated from the training content which allows for highly flexible user cases. You can created quizzes, tests, and certifications based on individual content modules or a full learning path.
Since the LMS is part of the overall Relayware system which is intended for partner management, you can create a range of onboarding processes/paths which are customized to particular types of partners. The system can support both online and offline activities so you can require xxx to be done online, followed by in-person training, etc. It really is an impressive system. I liked it so much, I decomissioned my instance of a Moodle LMS and I now use the Relayware LMS to serve as both partner eLearning and general customer eLearning through a separate portal.
Flexibility - It's hard to believe the Relayware can do so much in a single SaaS. The system allows for connection to SFDC so working leads and opportunities is simple. A manager or admin can add, edit, and remove web pages with ease. Data can be placed on any webpage using a number of "Relayware tags" which are special HTML tags to pull data from the system and use on a page. Customizable workflows for most any part of the system can be handled via a workflow engine. This could be onboarding, partner signup and registration, lead/deal/opportunity management and routing to appropriate users, Legal and Export compliance checking of documents and files, and on and on.
The only real drawback is that the system is so flexible, it helps to have good training and support so you don't get lost. Luckily this is only an issue for those who administer the system and Relayware is keen to provide good support for their product.
Licensing & cost - My observation is that Relayware has several good options for licensing and overall cost. They break the system down into several key modules so if you don't need something, you can remove it and not pay for it. However, that also makes it easy for the product to grow as your needs do. One of their license modules is by back-office users, not front-office. The benefit of this is when coupled with SFDC, you only need a single SFDC license for all of your field personnel and front end users. Since one of the Relayware models is to not charge by the number of front end users, you can save thousands in SFDC licenses. Ie: A user works through Relayware to report/edit/manage leads, deals, and opportunities. The system uses a single SFDC license to connect to SFDC so rather than every front end user needing an SFDC license, you only need one. Depending on the size of your organization, this alone could easily pay for the Relayware system.
The email designing part could be easier to use. There are certain simple shortcuts that don't work, for example, adding links is more complicated than it should be, moving blocks around is hard, etc.
There's no good way to filter by 'active' and 'inactive' subscribers when editing en-mass.
I am committed at the moment. Rebuilding the automations I have would be a huge time drain. Plus the cost of learning a new system and the risk to deliverability of porting a 6,000 person list to a new platform. Also, AC offers everything I need ast a reasonable (but a little high) price. So, why not a 10? Because, early 2023, AC dropped a massive 2x price hike on long-term customers. They knew few would shift, so this feels like a cynical cash grab and left a bad taste, If they do something like this again, this camel will have a broken back.
We are happy with Pardot. It has made our jobs easier and installed some reporting functions that have increased our ROI with the company. We have worked hard to set-up the functions in Pardot and it has taken time, but paid off.
ActiveCampaign has been the easiest marketing automation software we have ever used. They provide tips throughout the entire process of anything you are building. Their support team through LIVE CHAT has been extremely fast and helpful. The monthly meetings provided with the enablement team has helped us through several large and urgent needs.
You won't find another solution that has as many features as Salesforce Marketing Cloud Interaction Studio. We all know Salesforce, we all know how big they are and it's not for nothing... Their tools do most of the things you want, need and even imagine. Using it is complicated, but the usability is infinite.
I haven't experienced application errors or unplanned outages at all. Active Campaign is ultra reliable and I would not be using them if that were the case. Also, the helpful emails they send are welcomed and informative, and present very practical tips and guidance for using the platform. They're always demonstrating new features and I'm thankful for that.
Upgrades and timing of the upgrades were communicated well and planned during off hours for our work. If we did have a campaign scheduled during that time, it would kick-off after the system was back active. There were a few unplanned system down times, but it was a rare occurrence and those times were also short in duration.
Oh my gosh, Active Campaign's performance gets an A+++ in my book. The pages load quickly and so do the reports. I haven't noticed any slowdowns when it's integrating with other programs and it performs excellently on all levels.
Though the make up of MA apps is not built this way today, it would be nice to see them become more real-time. The integration between Salesforce and Pardot is not a true real-time integration. If I modify something in Salesforce, those changes are not automatically reflected in Pardot immediately. There is a delay of about 15 minutes before the systems sync. This delay, although not long, is less than ideal We would love the systems to be integrated real time such that changes are propagated from one system to the other immediately.
This might be the best part. The chat support lady offered to make a video to help me solve my problem. I worked in customer service for years and I've never done that, lol. So, if they're offering things like that, I can only imagine that they'd be able to handle most any issue you throw at them.
They are really responsive and more than not solve the problem or give you insight to how you can manage the solution yourself. I do find however sometimes a long delay on the more complex issues when they need to loop in other departments. but overall a good experience with support
Training program is not very well established. There is very little documentations. More often than not it's in-person training. I wish there were more video tutorials so that somebody can learn the system quickly. Their documentation is very much like an RFP. Long and very technichal. They should definitly improve on this area.
Pardot's online training touches on all topics briefly and vaguely without much indepth exploration into how a final outcome could look, such as Nurturing Campaigns, Email templates, landing page templates, etc... The only true way to uncover Pardot's full capabilities is to have Front End design and coding experience. Without this key skill set, I would not recommend Pardot to another business.
Very satisfied with our implementation in our professional medical practice, allowing us to be on top of client service, and not miss out on crucial information and insights. Marketing is often neglected in professional practices and ActiveCampaign solved this problem with aplomb.
From an IT perspective, once you set up the Javascript beacon and start collecting data there is a waiting game. During this time you can start labeling your site actions which can be labor intensive for a single person, but you don't really have the final end-users on the platform yet. We did a lot of training so users were experienced, but it wasn't until they had their first tasks to accomplish that they started using the system and had questions. I'd recommend setting up some immediate goals for an end-user to start segmenting for the purpose of displaying message campaigns so you can jump start end-user action.
I transitioned from Mailchimp to ActiveCampaign because it was so much more user friendly and allowed me to do a lot more in regards to lead magnets than Mailchimp can. For example, ActiveCampaign allows users to sign up for a lead magnet as many times as they like to keep receiving it (in case they've lost or deleted the email with access to the lead magnet). Mailchimp was unable to do this. And the categorization of users and the trigger email sequencing was a lot easier in ActiveCampaign.
The only other product we’re currently evaluating is on the Veeva side — Veeva Campaign. It’s a relatively new product that Veeva has released; it’s only been about six or seven months since it went into general availability. So time will tell whether it can compete with Salesforce Marketing Cloud or not.
We were also testing the HubSpot Marketing Hub platform at the same time I began utilizing ZiftONE. ZiftONE's data is more reliable than HubSpot, thus we've decided to use it as a backup for systems that need content syndication. However, GetResponse's sales funnel is easier to use for those who are new to a software of this kind. ZiftONE ensures that our campaigns are being managed with the right information and that our products and services are being promoted to the right audience. This medium is useful for spreading your brand's name around and may even yield a few leads.
My web designer told me about Active Campaign and although I don't recall which platform I had before, I LOVE Active Campaign and its user friendliness. The transition was seamless and I've never had a problem with functionality or server failure.
Active Campaign provides so many features, and makes it easy for non-techies to maneuver around the site with ease. They capture information and put it in an easy-to-read format.
At this point, I don't think I'd ever use any other platform!
Prior to this, we had no solution and literally were doing things on paper in a world where technology is outpacing paper. Having this process optimized has made it easier for the sales and marketing people to change information. From the training perspective, it has allowed us to see holes in where we could create additional support training, so the ROI here has been a lot more than just the optimization of a process.
