ActiveCampaign has been the number one email marketing software in the world for years, but we know that some people still have questions about which email marketing software is best for their business. This article will compare ActiveCampaign vs GetResponse and help you understand what makes them different.
Both ActiveCampaign and GetResponse are email marketing software companies. They have similar origins, but they have evolved into very different products over time.
ActiveCampaign is a fairly new company compared to many of the other email marketing tools in the world today. It was founded back in 2012 by Jonathan Nadelman and Jordan Kretchmer (both former marketers at MailChimp).
Since its inception, it has grown quite rapidly, becoming one of the most popular email marketing solutions on the market today – especially with businesses that use HTML-based emails like WordPress websites or Shopify stores.
GetResponse used to be owned by Active Campaign, but they have since gone their separate ways. GetResponse has been around for over 20 years and is considered to be one of the leaders in email marketing software, so it's no surprise that there are a lot of similarities between the two products.
In this comparison article, we will compare ActiveCampaign vs GetResponse mainly on four metrics: Features, Pricing, Customer Support, & Integrations.
ActiveCampaign and GetResponse both have a very similar feature set. Both of them are email marketing software companies, so that's not surprising. However, the number of features these products offer is extremely different!
For example, Active Campaign offers over 300+ pre-built templates. And it also comes with an entire suite designed to help you send automated emails (like Lead Nurturing) - this allows you to better segment your list and creates targeted campaigns based on your customers' history with certain pages or content they visit in your website.
GetResponse is less feature-rich – but it does offer a few things that ActiveCampaign doesn't. For example, they have an email marketing software called GetEngage (which has been around since 2008).
It's not as powerful as the Lead Nurturing system offered by Active Campaign, but it still gives you a lot of control over what messages get sent to your subscribers. This can be extremely important if you don't want to spam people or send inappropriate emails - which we will talk about more in this comparison.
The downside to using GetResponse is that they do not have as many options when it comes to customizing templates - so if you want advanced features like CSS, Javascript or HTML mail-merge, then you will have to use another tool.
A downside of GetResponse is that they are not as customizable as Active Campaign, which means the design and layout cannot be changed without changing your theme (which can make it harder for non-coders).
GetResponse does offer a mobile app, but I would recommend using MailChimp's iOS app instead since it lets you view all of your emails on one screen: no need to go back and forth between apps when building an email campaign. It costs $5/month.
Active Campaign offers multiple tiers of plans starting at $19/month, which allows you to send up to 100 emails per month and works best for small businesses that are only sending out 1-3 email campaigns a month.
GetResponse is also very affordable, with their starter plan being just $9/mo, which allows you not only to set your own template but also create unlimited emails - so it's perfect for people who want lots of customization options and more control over their email campaign.
When comparing pricing between Active Campaign vs GetResponse, I like the fact that both services start off relatively cheap (GetResponse has a free plan with limited options) and then have the ability to upgrade your account, which allows you to send more emails (and includes additional features).
Both services offer 24/7 customer support with their live chat and email. If you can get past the fact that they are run by a different company, then I find this to be good since it means there will be less of an issue if something is not working right or no one answers your question (especially for smaller businesses).
GetResponse has excellent customer service when compared to Active Campaign, who often have long hold times on their phone line, which makes them difficult to contact in a timely manner.
Active Campaign is built on WordPress, which has a lot of great features that outshine GetResponse. Things like email templates, custom fields and apps come pre-installed with ActiveCampaign making it much more professional and awesome when compared to other services such as MailChimp or GetResponse - who offer fewer options for customization at the cost of a free plan.
I would say that the main difference between these two companies is their plans and pricing structure, with GetResponse being slightly cheaper but having fewer features than Active Campaign.
The only advantage I see in having someone else's app on your website would be if you are using their plugin instead, then they will push all emails through there (just an option). If you do want additional integrations, though, ActiveCampaign offers a lot more than GetResponse.
I would say that both are about the same with their average delivery times, but I find it much faster when using a tool like ActiveCampaign since you can customize your settings to get them out in as few days as possible.
GetResponse has better support on this because they know how important delivering emails is, which means they will do everything within reason to make sure customers receive their email quickly (even if it means going above and beyond). They also have what is called 'deliverability assistant' where you can send test emails, and it will tell you how long they take to deliver.
ActiveCampaign 's feature called "Pulse" gives you access to an email tracking system so that your emails can be tracked from the moment they leave your server until delivery, which is a great tool for those who have limited resources.
Plus, if needed, there are ways around delivering via their platform:
- Email marketing tools like Mailchimp or GetResponse offer connections with other applications through Integrations which means the emails get sent out automatically but don't allow custom messaging (the reason why I would use this option instead
of the default one).
- If you use a service that allows email marketing, such as Zoho Manage, then instead of sending emails via ActiveCampaign, you can log into your account and send them directly to your customers.
I definitely think that I would be more comfortable using ActiveCampaign for my e-commerce website since they have tons of integrations with other tools, which means that it is easier to integrate every aspect of the business without having trouble finding ways around getting all those emails out there so quickly, especially when dealing with competitor sites.
Another thing I would like to mention is that when you receive emails from an e-commerce website, there's a chance they may be in copy and paste form, which means the content of your email will not change, so if this happens with your email marketing software then it can put unwanted strain on customer support.
This isn't good because most businesses do want their customers to be satisfied, but we must also consider how much effort is required for them to return our call or solve any problems as quickly as possible (in order for us to keep up selling more products).
Segmentation is something that ActiveCampaign has an advantage over other tools because they allow you to segment based on the content of each individual email (not only by device or account type).
Using this feature could mean fewer "human mistakes" and better customer support. With marketing automation like MixMax, it is a bit trickier to identify which emails are more likely to convert since there's not really any way for them to determine what your customers want, so instead, they rely on tracking their clicks & opens in order for them know if someone actually clicked through with either conversion or bounce rate being higher than usual.
If you are looking for a tool that will help increase your conversion rates, then I would suggest Mixmax, but if you want to track each specific email and segment based on content, then I'd definitely go with ActiveCampaign.
Now, there are a few things in this comparison that could be improved, such as the price of their plans (Active Campaign has more advanced features while MixMax is relatively less expensive). Other than that, they're both great tools, so it depends on what type of e-commerce website you run!
To conclude, both Active Campaign and Get Response are great email automation tools for small to medium size businesses. In my opinion, the main differences between them are their pricing and how they segment email lists (active Campaign works better with content based on individual emails while Get Response is a bit more 'general').
That being said, you can't go wrong with either one of these, so it just depends on what you prefer!
If you're looking to connect with contacts across your entire revenue operations (Leads, Prospects, Existing, and Churned Clients), Cliently would be a great way to engage at scale. Sometimes multiple tools can leave blind spots in who's engaging, how they're engaging, and when to engage. This is where Cliently could benefit you the most.