ActiveCampaign vs GetResponse: A Hands-on Comparison (2021)

We reside in an age so saturated with merchandise, manufacturers, and promoting that the common person has realized to tune out all of the noise. In consequence, greater than ever earlier than, inbound advertising similar to electronic mail is essential.

The success of any electronic mail advertising marketing campaign depends on a variety of things. For one, it is advisable ship professional-looking emails. However you additionally must generate leads, schedule and automate campaigns, and analyze their efficiency. 

That’s rather a lot.

That is the place all-in-one electronic mail advertising options similar to ActiveCampaign and GetResponse shine. Each platforms present all the pieces it is advisable hit the bottom working with electronic mail advertising. 

So, on this article, we’re taking a detailed have a look at each instruments to offer you all the information it is advisable resolve if both service is best for you.

Execs and Cons of ActiveCampaign vs GetResponse

Earlier than getting began with the in-depth comparability, listed here are my high professionals and cons for each suppliers.

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is a buyer expertise automation platform that comes with numerous electronic mail advertising, CRM, and advertising automation instruments.

GetResponse

GetResponse is a well-liked inbound advertising platform with options similar to electronic mail advertising, touchdown web page and webinar creation, and extra.

About ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign has been round since 2003. Quick ahead to at this time, and over 50,000 companies depend on their service to fulfill their electronic mail advertising calls for.

Briefly, ActiveCampaign supplies all the pieces it is advisable improve the shopper journey at each buyer life cycle stage. Particularly, by empowering you to automate your entire advertising course of and optimize it to generate most earnings. 

That stated, ActiveCampaign isn’t the most affordable electronic mail advertising software in the marketplace. Nonetheless, it’s undoubtedly one of the crucial well-rounded. Its feature-rich plans go well with B2C, B2B, and eCommerce companies severe about their electronic mail advertising methods.

About GetResponse

GetResponse is one other holistic electronic mail advertising resolution. By this, I imply you possibly can construct touchdown pages and web sites and entry all the pieces it is advisable automate high-quality electronic mail advertising campaigns.

Slightly impressively, over 760 million emails are despatched each week, and over a million leads are generated every month utilizing GetResponse. So, it appears like they’re doing one thing proper!

Additionally, in contrast to ActiveCampaign, GetResponse lets you launch webinars as one other inbound advertising technique.

E mail Enhancing

The e-mail editor is a core function of any electronic mail advertising software. That is the place you’ll construct and design your emails prepared for sending. 

So let’s check out how ActiveCampaign and GetResponse’s electronic mail editors examine.

ActiveCampaign

Because of its drag-and-drop interface, ActiveCampaign’s electronic mail editor is pleasantly intuitive.

You’ll be able to kick-start the design course of by selecting a template and customizing it to fit your wants. There are over 125 electronic mail templates to select from, designed for each B2B and B2C audiences. These templates are organized by classes, together with newsletters, convention occasions, opinions, suggestions, holidays, customer support, and deserted cart emails.

All templates are responsive and could be edited utilizing HTML. When you’ve picked a template, you possibly can drag in every kind of content material blocks, together with pictures, movies, RSS feeds, merchandise, social hyperlinks, and extra. You may as well use HTML blocks to code content material from scratch.

There’s tons of design freedom. For instance, you possibly can alter settings similar to borders, background colours, margins, and paddings from the sidebar. There’s additionally a easy media library the place you possibly can retailer pictures and reuse them in later emails.

Earlier than transferring on, I additionally wish to discuss in regards to the predictive content material blocks obtainable with ActiveCampaign’s greater plans. These mean you can fine-tune electronic mail content material to higher enchantment to your prospects. Extra particularly, you possibly can create as much as 5 content material variations with completely different copies, hyperlinks, calls to motion, and many others. Then ActiveCampaign chooses which variation is most probably to interact with the shopper based mostly on their earlier interactions along with your emails.

You may as well add personalization tags that mechanically insert a buyer’s title, location, age, firm, and different particulars into your electronic mail. Plus, all content material blocks could be marked as conditional, which suggests they’re set to seem solely to specified buyer segments. Fairly neat, proper? 

GetResponse

The place the fundamentals are involved, you possibly can anticipate related issues from GetResponse’s electronic mail editor. This features a drag-and-drop interface with all the most important content material blocks.

Plus, there are over 220 electronic mail templates to select from, all of that are goal-oriented, masking targets similar to welcome, educate, promote, promote, and others. For one thing extra easy, you possibly can select from three fundamental layouts (one-, two-, or three-column emails). Alternatively, you can begin fully from scratch with a clean template. You may as well construct {custom} templates and curate your personal template library.

Not like ActiveCampaign, GetResponse locations a larger emphasis on sections and layouts, making it simple to restructure your electronic mail. You may as well organize content material into layouts and save them in your library to reuse as blocks later. Nevertheless, GetResponse is barely extra reliant on the sidebar editor, as even the textual content needs to be modified from the choices menu reasonably than inside the template itself, which isn’t as intuitive. 

Like ActiveCampaign, GetResponse additionally presents a fundamental picture editor. Right here, you possibly can crop pictures out of your media library and apply textual content and filters. As well as, GetResponse supplies entry to over 5,000 royalty-free inventory images, which you need to use to jazz up your electronic mail designs.

Plus, there are tons of of fonts to select from!

E mail Editor – Winner: It’s a Tie!

Each ActiveCampaign and GetResponse have related, intuitive electronic mail editors with comparable functionalities. 

ActiveCampaign makes it simpler to edit the textual content inside your templates. Whereas, GetResponse comes with a larger selection of themes and the neat capability to save lots of and reuse format blocks. 

As such, all of it comes all the way down to your wants — however, in both case, you doubtless received’t be dissatisfied.

Touchdown Pages

You should utilize touchdown pages for promoting your merchandise, lead magnets, providers, and extra. However most significantly, you possibly can gather buyer information utilizing subscription varieties. 

In mild of that, right here’s how ActiveCampaign and GetResponse’s touchdown web page builders sq. up.

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign’s highly effective enhancing capabilities shine in its touchdown web page editor. There are over 50 customizable templates which you could edit and save to your template library. You should utilize a drag-and-drop interface to position content material components in a grid and resize them as wanted.

Equally, you even have an amazing vary of design choices to select from. You’ll be able to even edit superior visible components similar to internal shadows, opacity, background colours, drop shadows, nook radius, and extra.

As well as, you possibly can optimize touchdown pages for various gadgets by utilizing the desktop or cellular mode to simply add, take away, or edit blocks.

Examples of content material blocks obtainable on your touchdown pages embrace countdown timers, navigation, columns, lists, subscriptions varieties, social hyperlinks, PayPal buttons, and the Shopify Purchase button.

Nevertheless, I’d wish to level out that ActiveCampaign solely unlocks touchdown web page creation with one in every of its costlier plans. If like me, you contemplate touchdown pages an integral a part of your electronic mail advertising funnel, ActiveCampaign might sound a bit pricey.

GetResponse

In distinction, even with GetResponse’s least expensive plan, you possibly can construct limitless touchdown pages. And there’s no scarcity of templates to select from, both. In truth, there are over 200 customizable templates explicitly designed to fulfill completely different enterprise objectives.

GetResponse’s drag-and-drop interface permits you to transfer, resize, crop, group, colour, and reshape your whole components in minutes.

You may as well tweak your touchdown pages to optimize them for cellular gadgets and add pictures from GetResponse’s free choice of inventory images. 

Touchdown Pages – Winner: GetResponse

In relation to touchdown web page creation, there isn’t a lot distinction between the 2 platforms. Nevertheless, I like that GetResponse lets you create limitless touchdown pages on its least expensive plan. It additionally has a variety of templates obtainable to select from — win-win!

Automation

E mail automation is the following largest function we’re all right here for. That is what makes sending emails in your sleep attainable and lets you lead prospects down a meticulously crafted gross sales funnel that hopefully ends in a purchase order.

That stated, let’s see how ActiveCampaign and GetResponse examine in the case of automation.

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign comes with an intuitive drag-and-drop automation workflow builder that makes funnel creation a bit like establishing a flowchart. Evidently, this makes visualizing your automation sequences a lot simpler — particularly when partnered with the automation map software. The latter supplies an summary of all of your automations in a single big map. You’ll be able to see how all of them work collectively, which makes recognizing bottlenecks a lot simpler.

Automation workflows begin with a set off situation and may then be populated with delays, circumstances, and actions. Actions mean you can add notes, take away or add tags to contacts, replace contact info, alter buyer scores, add prospects to Fb audiences, and extra. 

Impressively, for extra granular management over when a funnel begins or continues, ActiveCampaign lets you use superior web site monitoring options. You may get as particular as launching an electronic mail marketing campaign as soon as prospects have watched 30% of a selected video, for instance.

Lastly, ActiveCampaign additionally makes it simple to trace your automation objectives. So you possibly can rapidly see what number of prospects make it to particular components of your funnel earlier than dropping off.

GetResponse

GetResponse’s automation builder comes with 30 funnel templates to assist get you began, together with lead magnet, gross sales, webinar, and opt-in funnels.

These pre-designed eventualities make it tremendous fast to launch a funnel. You merely auto-generate all of the steps, and all that’s left to do is fine-tune the funnel to your liking. The place GetResponse varies considerably from ActiveCampaign is its deal with pre-built funnels.

For instance, if you wish to create a gross sales funnel, you’ll be given a selection between a fast gross sales funnel and a full gross sales funnel. Fast funnels, by default, don’t embrace a touchdown web page for electronic mail subscriptions, whereas full funnels are extra advanced and embrace additional steps. 

That stated, you’re tied to those blueprints. Whereas they cowl most eventualities, you don’t have the liberty to completely customise an automation workflow in line with your particular wants.

Automation – Winner: ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign boasts the extra advanced and highly effective automation workflow builder. GetResponse, as compared, depends too closely on pre-built funnels and subsequently doesn’t provide you with as a lot freedom. It’s fast and straightforward however doesn’t present the identical in-depth expertise as ActiveCampaign.

Segmentation

E mail segmentation lets you cut up your contacts into smaller teams so you possibly can ship out extra focused electronic mail campaigns.

Personalization and relevance make a giant distinction to conversions, so let’s see how segmentation works with ActiveCampaign and GetResponse.

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign presents a brilliant versatile segmentation system. For instance, you possibly can mix lists, tags, and {custom} fields to create extremely focused segments. Or, you possibly can section by location, demographics, and the product varieties prospects work together with.

You may as well set off campaigns based mostly on subscriber habits similar to opened emails, coupons acquired, purchases, and others.

What makes ActiveCampaign’s segmentation so highly effective is which you could apply 20 circumstances to every section. This implies you possibly can goal the tiniest teams amongst buyer lists containing a number of thousand contacts. 

Segments are additionally simple to create. Simply use the superior search in your subscriber listing and choose a situation. When you’ve filtered your contacts down, you possibly can additional refine circumstances based mostly on different values or AND/OR logic. Then, you possibly can mix them into one section. 

You’ll be able to even create segments whilst you’re establishing campaigns inside the automation builder, so relaxation assured, the entire course of is immensely intuitive.

GetResponse

GetResponse’s segmentation can also be fairly versatile. For instance, you possibly can assign tags and scores to your contacts and use behavioral and engagement information to create segments. You may as well add contact lists and add customs information fields for faster grouping.

The superior search comes with a very good variety of circumstances to filter prospects by. The eCommerce situation, for instance, contains metrics such because the variety of purchases, complete spent, product bought, model bought, and extra — all of which can come in useful for segmenting your viewers.

Segments replace dynamically when contacts begin or cease becoming the necessities, and engagement scores could be assigned mechanically based mostly on efficiency metrics.

Segmentation – Winner: ActiveCampaign

GetResponse’s segmentation options are completely strong. I wouldn’t flip my nostril up at them! However with the power to assign as much as 20 circumstances with logic statements and a variety of tags, {custom} fields, and behaviors, ActiveCampaign takes segmentation to the following degree.

Analytics

The one technique to efficiently optimize your electronic mail campaigns is to study what labored and what didn’t by trying on the information. Subsequently, suppliers similar to ActiveCampaign and GetResponse attempt to make these insights simply accessible.

Each instruments allow you to evaluation metrics similar to your emails’ click on, open, bounce, and unsubscribe charges. With that in thoughts, let’s take a more in-depth have a look at what different insights they supply.

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign lets you set buyer scores to assign a numeric worth to buyer loyalty, making it a lot simpler to trace. Equally, you too can set conversion objectives to assist monitor whether or not you’re on monitor to fulfill your targets.

The service additionally presents attribution monitoring. This function lists each buyer interplay along with your model, together with the place they got here from and what their buyer journey appears to be like like. Observing these buyer paths will spotlight which platforms are higher for lead era, clarifying what to prioritize.

There are a number of studies obtainable in your dashboard that present completely different sorts of knowledge, together with web site, automation, eCommmerce, marketing campaign, and different studies.

You may as well generate {custom} studies utilizing a variety of metrics revolving round your campaigns, contacts, automation, and providers. That is the best technique to compile the data most necessary to you in a single centralized report.

ActiveCampaign boasts very strong A/B testing capabilities as properly. You’ll be able to cut up check your automations and emails based mostly on elements similar to wait instances, web site messages, variety of emails, message content material, topic line and header, and extra. You may as well schedule a selected date, time, or situation to cease splitting your automations.

GetResponse

GetResponse additionally presents some fairly strong analytics options. For instance, you possibly can intuitively examine campaigns aspect by aspect to see which carried out higher and study which electronic mail hyperlinks led to essentially the most gross sales, signups, or visits.

You may as well entry intuitive studies similar to your hottest subscription fashions, each day and month-to-month common subscription charges, and subscriber areas.

At any time, you too can create exercise and post-delivery studies. Exercise studies present the variety of subscribers and unsubscribers. It additionally touches in your autoresponder efficiency. Whereas, post-delivery studies are one-time studies compiling all efficiency metrics after a publication supply.

As with ActiveCampaign, you possibly can create objectives out of your Settings menu. This gives you an HTML snippet to position onto your web sites to trace guests. The purpose counter will increase every time the situation is fulfilled and a customer arrives at a selected URL. As an illustration, this may very well be a checkout web page to trace gross sales.

GetResponse additionally supplies desktop vs cellular consumer efficiency metrics.

Like ActiveCampaign, GetResponse lets you run A/B assessments for newsletters, autoresponders, and automation messages. Nevertheless, this primarily focuses on the topic line — there’s no technique to check for different electronic mail marketing campaign components.

Analytics – Winner: ActiveCampaign

General, I discovered ActiveCampaign’s studies to be rather more complete. You’ll be able to select from a broader vary of studies and A/B check electronic mail campaigns and workflows to a way more granular diploma.

Different Capabilities

Earlier than I conclude this options comparability, I’d wish to briefly point out another capabilities of those instruments. These would possibly make one or the opposite extra enticing to your small business, relying on the place your focus lies.

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign presents SMS advertising and reside chat. You’ll be able to even automate these options utilizing the workflow builder, triggering automations that comply with up with contacts and replace contact info with tags and {custom} fields as you go.  

One other nifty function is ActiveCampaign’s capability to personalize your web site to indicate guests a distinct message based mostly on their historical past along with your model. This contains displaying related content material to the appropriate buyer section or personalizing welcome messages for return prospects. You possibly can use this function to share an organization replace, qualify your leads, give a strong name to motion, or simply say “hello, thanks for visiting!”.

ActiveCampaign additionally lets you supply real-time help and suggestions by connecting with WhatsApp. 

GetResponse

GetResponse comes with fairly a variety of options that don’t strictly fall into the realm of electronic mail advertising. For one, they provide a web site builder to create your personal web site and combine it instantly along with your advertising instruments.

The platform additionally lets you add a reside chat perform to your pages and emails. You may as well apply tags and {custom} fields to your contacts based mostly on chat historical past to create extra focused segments. 

And at last, I can’t not discuss GetResponse’s webinar function.

GetResponse lets you host and construct webinars from a number of recording layouts. It’s as much as you whether or not you make webinars obtainable reside or on-demand — GetResponse facilitates each. You may as well embrace polls to see how your viewers is feeling throughout the webinar. 

You’ll be able to host limitless webinars and help 1,000 reside attendees at anybody time. You’ll be able to even invite two different presenters to collaborate with you and retailer as much as 20 hours of webinar recordings in your account.

Webinars aren’t one thing ActiveCampaign contains, so if this sounds wise for your small business, it makes GetResponse a wonderful package deal deal.

Different Capabilities – Winner: It’s a Tie!

ActiveCampaign boasts some helpful additional options that assist with advertising automation. Nonetheless, GetResponse takes issues in a complete new path with its webinar performance.

In different phrases, each suppliers have one thing additional to supply, so what’s greatest for you relies upon fully on your small business wants.

Pricing Plans

I caveat all the pieces I’m about to say by recommending that you simply try their web sites to get an correct quote on your personal wants.

As a foundation for our pricing comparability beneath, we’ll assume an inventory measurement of 1,000 contacts.

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign presents 4 premium pricing plans, billed both month-to-month or yearly. All plans include advertising automation and limitless electronic mail sends, plus entry to the e-mail template library. 

Nevertheless, it’s price noting that you simply don’t unlock touchdown pages, automation maps, the built-in CRM, and web site messages with the most affordable plan. You can also’t cut up automations till you choose into the next program.

Nevertheless, one space the place ActiveCampaign is a bit more beneficiant is what number of customers you possibly can join with. On the most affordable plan, three customers are included, which extends to 25 within the subsequent tier. As compared, GetResponse’s least expensive plan solely comes with one person and solely unlocks 5 with its costliest plan:

For 1,000 contacts, that is what you possibly can anticipate to pay for ActiveCampaign’s completely different pricing packages:

• Lite: $29 monthly, or $25 monthly when billed yearly
• Plus: $70 monthly, or $49 monthly when billed yearly
• Skilled: $159 monthly, or $129 monthly when billed yearly
• Enterprise: $279 monthly, or $229 monthly when billed yearly

If you wish to verify ActiveCampaign out before you purchase, there’s a 14-day free trial obtainable.

GetResponse

As compared, GetResponse is significantly cheaper. That is very true if you happen to decide into annual billing, the place you’ll take pleasure in an 18% saving, and even two-year billing, the place you’ll profit from 30% financial savings.

GetResponse has a restricted free plan for as much as 500 contacts, three premium plans, and a MAX plan that may be requested at {custom} pricing.

Each premium plan contains electronic mail advertising, limitless touchdown web page creation, and GetResponse’s web site builder. Upgrading unlocks webinar performance, additional sale funnels, further automation, and gross sales options similar to deserted cart restoration emails.

For 1,000 contacts, the pricing appears to be like as follows:

• Primary: $15 monthly, or $10.50 monthly for 2 years
• Plus: $49 monthly, or $34.30 monthly for 2 years
• Skilled: $99 monthly, or $69.30 monthly for 2 years

You may as well strive GetResponse for 30 days with no obligations.

Pricing Plans – Winner: GetResponse

GetResponse is rather more reasonably priced general. Plus, it doesn’t drastically restrict your electronic mail advertising capabilities on its decrease plans — that is very true of the financial savings you make for longer commitments.

I might stress, nonetheless, that GetResponse is just extra reasonably priced you probably have a small group. As quickly as you wish to join greater than 5 customers, its {custom} pricing would possibly get costlier, and ActiveCampaign could be the higher match on your price range.

Buyer Assist

Buyer help is an important consideration for any electronic mail marketer. To get essentially the most out of your software program, it is advisable make sure you’ll obtain immediate and useful help while you get caught.

That stated, right here’s what you possibly can anticipate from ActiveCampaign and GetResponse on this enviornment.

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign presents reside chat and electronic mail help on all its plans, working from Monday to Thursday eight AM to 11 PM CST and eight AM to six PM on Fridays.

Cellphone help is just obtainable to Enterprise plan customers. One-on-one coaching and onboarding are additionally reserved for costlier tiers.

Whereas the platform has a “College” populated with video assets and useful articles, I didn’t discover any of their programs very in depth. As an alternative, they deal with shorter video tutorials with out going into an excessive amount of depth. 

There’s additionally a discussion board the place you possibly can community and focus on any questions along with your friends, nevertheless it doesn’t appear extremely energetic.

GetResponse

All GetResponse plans include reside chat and electronic mail help as properly. However right here, the platform has an edge: their reside chat is offered 24/7. 

Cellphone, Slack, and devoted help providers solely develop into obtainable with the custom-priced MAX plan.

On high of that, there’s an in depth on-line assist heart with tons of of articles. You’ll be able to join a getting-started coaching webinar and 6 free programs on mastering your electronic mail advertising methods as properly.

Their assets additionally embrace long-form video webinars, masking matters similar to getting extra leads, changing by means of chat, designing emails, and extra.

Buyer Assist – Winner: GetResponse

With 24/7 reside chat help and extra in-depth programs, movies, and articles, GetResponse makes discovering solutions to your questions simpler.

ActiveCampaign vs GetResponse: Last Verdict

Each ActiveCampaign and GetResponse are feature-rich electronic mail advertising platforms. Nevertheless, their capabilities distinctly transfer in the direction of completely different goal audiences.

ActiveCampaign doesn’t waste any efforts on increasing into different territories. As an alternative, it’s fully centered on advertising automation. As well as, all its instruments are advanced and in-depth. As such, it’s greatest suited to companies or firms eager to take electronic mail advertising automation to the following degree and have the price range to help it.

In distinction, GetResponse is a extra budget-friendly choice. So, it might higher go well with smaller companies searching for one platform to cowl all their electronic mail automation wants. As well as, they’ve an amazing webinar and reside chat function. Nevertheless, GetResponse’s automation and electronic mail functionalities are extra fundamental as compared.

Which electronic mail advertising software has caught your consideration extra? Let me know what you assume within the feedback beneath!