In our ActiveCampaign vs GetResponse review, we are going to carry out a detailed head-to-head comparison of these two and marketing email automation platforms.
You can use ActiveCampaign and GetResponse to keep in touch with your customers in a way that will turn them into returning buyers.
Verdict
ActiveCampaign is a much more powerful and advanced system complete with CRM functionality to track user activity on your site.
However, for simple email campaigns and sequences GetResponse has a few more features and a landing page builder which means you don’t even need a website.
Many marketing experts are inclined to believe that email marketing is living its final days. We, however, are more prone to think that it has evolved a great deal since its early days, especially with regard to marketing automation software’s features, the higher email deliverability rates, and the ever-increasing role of the social media.
The times when customers were bombarded with tons of unwanted email marketing messages are gone once and for all. Intelligent platforms like Activecampaign and Getresponse automatically launch highly-targeted email campaigns using a wide variety of engaging email templates.
As a result of these improvements, email marketing has acquired a Return-of-Investment index of 3,800% on average. This means that email marketing automation platforms like Activecampaign and Getresponse can bring you $38 for every dollar you’ve invested in email marketing campaigns.
ActiveCampaign vs GetResponse Key Differences
First, let’s have a look at how Activecampaign and Getresponse are different in terms of page creation tools, built-in features, channels for communication with customers, as well as their sales and payment acceptance features.
One of the main key differences between Getresponse – Activecampaign email marketing platforms,
- ActiveCampaign provides SMS marketing so it has a higher open rate. GetResponse does not provide this feature. Therefore, this is one aspect of ActiveCampaign winning.
- If you are a member of GetResponse, GetResponse also offers a large number of free courses. For example, their 90-day list creation program. If you are a newbie, this can be very useful because you will learn how to build and expand email lists
- GetResponse has a built-in webinar function. In ActiveCampaign, you need to use third-party integration.
- GetResponse only allows contact with customers via email, while ActiveCampaign allows contact with customers via email and website messages other than email.
- GetResponse allows you to sell products and receive payments through the target page.
Landing Pages
GetResponse allows you to build your web page even if you are not tech-savvy, while ActiveCampaign does not provide any page building tools. Why does this difference matter?
Landing pages are very important to the success of your online business. A nicely-built landing page can spark a visitor’s interest in what you do and sell. So, when choosing marketing software, better go for a product that provides page creation features.
The drag-and-drop editor of Getresponse allows you to create a stunning landing page with just a few clicks and then turn it into a profitable online business. The easy to use templates will let you quickly grow your contact list. By offer various incentives to your customers, you’ll be able to gradually convert them into high-quality leads.
Your landing page on Getresponse is the perfect place to show off your products and sell them more effectively.
You can use some of the ready-made sales funnel templates of Getresponse to add products or services to your landing page or draw visitors to your online courses.
If you don’t want to use GetResponse auto funnel function, you can use the landing page feature instead to create a sales funnel.
The landing page feature allows you to use a drag and drop editor to build landing pages, thank you pages, and sales pages. In addition, GetResponse comes with more than 180 different templates that can be used to create pages.
Bulk Social Media Posting
This feature is unique to ActiveCampaign, but it is not provided by GetResponse. This is one of the tools that your online business just can’t do without. It lets you post hundreds of email templates, image, video, files simultaneously, instead of sending a myriad of separate emails.
SMS Marketing
On ActiveCampaign, you can send promotional text messages to your customers, as well as instant messages. By contracts, GetResponse only allows you to reach out to your customers via marketing emails, thus potting certain limitations to the scope of your online business.
Webinar Tools
You can create and broadcast webinars from GetResponse to ensure that you can also interact with customers through more personalized channels.
The webinar is an excellent lead generation tool, and putting it on a platform with your email database can make webinar broadcasting more convenient.
The integrated webinar software of GetResponse allows you to get your business online and connect with your followers wherever they are.
If you start your free trial now, you’ll get instant access to a room for up to 1,000 online attendees.
You’ll also be able to share the stage with two other speakers and store up to twenty hours of audio presentations. Unfortunately, ActiveCampaign does not provide any tools for online presentations.
Automation Map
The Automation Map provided by ActiveCampaign is one of the most powerful online marketing tools out there.
It enables you to see how marketing automation works and connects with the other features of the platform.
Armed with this information, you’ll be able to adjust your email marketing strategy, or discover new opportunities for business growth.
GetResponse has a similar visual workflow builder but it is not as easy to use.
Machine-learning Tools
Machine learning in ActiveCampaign crunches the numbers of the emails and phone calls that you receive and of sales that you generate to increase your lead scoring chances.
This tool can tell you when the time has come to launch massive email campaigns or how likely it is for a particular lead to become a returning customer.
The Send Email feature of Machine-learning is an email marketing automation that will attract more eyes to your emails. Finally, Machine Learning can analyze your deals and single out the ones that you are the most likely to close.
Leaving marketing automation to the Machine learning tool of ActiveCampaign will give you more time to take care of the human aspect of your business. Unfortunately, no such tools are available on GetResponse.
Active Campaign has machine learning and AI capabilities, you can use them to your advantage. The odds of winning allow you to see which leads are most likely to convert so that your sales team can allocate time most efficiently.
There is a predictive sending function that can automatically send automatic emails at just the right time. It can understand when your customers are most likely to open and read emails, and then ensure that emails are always sent at the customer’s preferred time to increase your open rate and click-through rate.
How are ActiveCampaign and GetResponse Similar?
Our Activecampaign vs GetResponse review has come to a point where we shall focus on some features shared by both email marketing platforms.
Ease of Use
In terms of ease of use, it appears as if ActiveCampaign has been reviewed more often as an online marketing platform that is both feature-rich and easy to use. Getresponse is also user-friendly, but some of its features have a longer learning curve.
ActiveCampaign is perfect for small and medium-sized businesses, while Getresponse serves small, medium, and large companies equally well.
Our marketing experts have concluded that in view of user-friendliness, Getresponse has got a small edge over ActiveCampaign.
Email Templates
Getresponse provides more than 500 gorgeous newsletter templates that will give your emails a fresh, industry-unique look.
The platform’s drag-and-drop Email Editor is amazingly easy to use and it even won the prestigious Stevie Award in 2012. It also allows you to customize your emails with topical photos from the iStock Library.
The templates listed on the website of ActiveCampaign can be recreated for you by one of their talented designers to include your company’s logo, marketing slogan, and branding. The prices of the custom email templates by ActiveCampaign start from $395.
Alternatively, you can use their free Template Library to build your own email template designs.
The template designers on both email marketing platforms can be used to create or format an email marketing campaign, or create a five-star referral form.
Customer Relationship Management
ActiveCampaign CRM is a powerful tool that will convert deal management from a tedious daily routine to a no-brainer. It features card-based pipelines that allow you to easily drag and drop deals from one stage to the next. You can create as many stages as you need, as well as create a different pipeline for every item or service.
GetResponse CRM regards all contacts in your list as potential deals, but the ones that you should add to a pipeline are usually those who are very active on your landing pages. They always open your marketing messages, click on the links inside, and take part in your online events.
GetResponse CRM collects valuable deal information and shows you how your sales are progressing.
You can use the data to adjust your business strategy or create new segments and schedule email marketing messages accordingly. GetResponse CRM tool is also available on iOS or Android devices.
The ActiveCampaign CRM can work in the following ways:
- Notify your sales team.
- Update transactions and create tasks.
- Will nurture automatically lead (of course thanks to their automation).
Marketing Automation
Marketing automation is a feature that you can use to reach cart abandoners, visitors, and customers with a personal touch.
The tool browses your email list for contacts that meet a certain condition and then acts according to your specific instructions.
Automated email responses greatly enhances communication with your customers, especially if you use appropriate email filters.
ActiveCampaign has got a number of robust features that allow the user to automate their marketing with few clicks.
You don’t need to read posts or watch tutorials, because the platform’s drag-and-drop automation builder lets you set up automated an unlimited number of workflows in just a few minutes.
The segmentation tool lets you send your contacts tailored email messages that they want to see. This will improve your relationship with them and will boost the growth of your business.
GetResponse also provides a suite of powerful automation tools that you can use to create an automatic response to certain actions of your customers or apply tags and scores for better segmentation.
ActiveCampaign also provides an intuitive drag-and-drop marketing automation editor which you can use to build a specific automated workflow according to the needs of your business.
Here are several examples of ActiveCampaign triggers that eventually start the automated process:
- Visit the website.
- Submit the form.
- Click the email link.
- Read or open the email.
- Subscribe (or unsubscribe) list.
These are just a few ways to activate the trigger because there are more options to choose from.
The following is a quick list of the features GetResponse provides for marketing automation:
- Label (tags)
- Score
- Abandoned shopping cart
- Web event tracking
- Automation template
- Automated segmentation
Lead Scoring
Lead scoring is an important aspect of the get response vs activecampaign rivalry. Each of these two platforms provides powerful tools that allow you to determine the sales readiness based on the interest they show in your products or services.
The lead scoring feature of GetResponse is called Engagement Score. It is included in their Lead Generation Bundle that allows you to effortlessly create highly-converting customer paths that will gradually turn random visitors into leads, followers, and loyal customers.
Engagement Score identifies and grades the activity of your contacts on the basis of their engagement with the messages you send them via email or social media. You can find the Engagement Score feature under the Search Contacts tab.
As for ActiveCampaign, Lead Scoring 101 is a powerful tool that enables marketers to use a points system for a contact or a group of contacts, based on their activity or inactivity.
The feature lets you award points for different actions. For example, opening promotional emails gives two points, while filling in a form or subscribing for your business newsletter brings five points. Points can also be subtracted, or they can expire after a set period.
A/B Testing
The ActiveCampaign vs GetResponse comparative analysis will be incomplete if we don’t look at their a/b testing features.
The split testing tool of ActiveCampaign appears in their portfolio of Email Marketing features and allows you to single out high-performing emails and adjust the templates of low-scoring ones.
Split testing your emails on ActiveCampaign is very simple. All you have to do is click on “Split Testing” and write a second subject line. Importantly, ActiveCampaign lets you test every part of the email like images and content, not just subject lines.
Email marketing campaigns are a great way to attract repeat customers and as well as new customers. However, retaining old customers is much easier than buying new customers.
The data also shows that it is 70% easier to sell products to returned customers. However, the probability of selling the product to a new customer is 5% to 20%, so A/B testing must be done when launching a new format for an email campaign.
These tests will help you increase the conversion rate of your campaign and will ultimately have a good impact on your marketing efforts.
GetResponse also provides a split-testing feature as part of their Email Marketing toolbox. It allows the user to create a multiple subject lines and then test the level of engagement it may create in the receiver.
The A/B testing feature on GetResponse is a part of their newsletter composition process.
Whenever you create new newsletter messages or promotional emails, you will find the split-testing tool in the Distribution Settings section at the bottom of the page.
To activate it, just click the A/B Test button.
Once the tool is active, the Newsletter Editor will guide you through the process of setting up a split test.
If you don’t need A/B testing on a particular message, you can always switch the tool off from the same button.
Customer Support
The customer support center of ActiveCampaign has a user-friendly layout. it is organized into twelve different sections:
- Automation
- CRM
- Forms
- Integration and Mobile Support
- Migrate to Active Campaign
- Site
- Tracking
- Reporting
- Messages
- General Questions
- Conversations
- Management Contacts
Each section contains a brief overview of the feature. Several short posts explaining how can you do different things with the feature or the tool, several tutorial videos, and a comprehensive FAQ section. if your query does not fall in any of these twelve categories, you can always submit a request for assistance.
You can use the contact form in the low lefthand corner of your screen to contact their support team. if you already have an account, you should provide your company’s log-in name and your email address to continue. You can attach up to five files to your message.
ActiveCampaign’s Help Center has several forums you can browse for information. Phone support is only available to premium account holders, and live chat is available after selecting a price plan and activating the account.
GetResponse has got a five-star customer support team. It enjoys the approval of 96% of the marketing platform’s customers and is available 24/7.
When you visit the support landing page of GetResponse, you are immediately given a live chat option. alternatively, you can send them a message via email in eight different languages, while the platform itself is available in 26 languages.
Below these two communication channels, you can find their Help Center which you can search for helpful posts and step-by-step guides.
In the context of the ActiveCampaign vs GetResponse rivalry, the customer support prize definitely goes to GetResponse by a wide margin!
Active Campaign Vs GetResponse Pricing
GetResponse pricing
Getresponse offers four different pricing plans: Basic, Plus, Professional, and Max. Save for the last one, all other plans include a free trial. The Basic plan costs $15 per month and includes the following features:
- Email marketing
- Autoresponders
- Unlimited landing pages
- Unlimited automation templates
- Sales funnels (1 funnel)
- Unlimited lead funnels
- Facebook Ads
- Sell e-products
Their Plus plan is the most popular among the platform’s customers. It costs $49/mo and includes all features of the Basic plan, plus:
- Automation builder with 5 workflows
- Webinars for 100 attendees
- 5 Webinar Funnels
- 5 Sales Funnels
- Lead scoring & tagging
- 3-user Shared Account
The Pro Plan costs $99 per month and includes all of the features listed above, as well as paid and on-demand webinars, five-user shared account, unlimited sales and webinar funnels.
The Max plan’s price is not specified and you’ve got to ask for a quote, depending on which of the following features you’d like to avail of:
- Transactional email addresses add-on
- Dedicated support
- Dedicated IP address
- Deliverability consulting
- Single sign-on (SSO)
- Webinars with up to 500 attendees
- Email campaign consultations
ActiveCampaign Pricing
ActiveCampaign also offers four pricing plans: Lite, Plus, Professional, and Enterprise with Profesional being the most popular choice.
The prices quoted below are valid if the plan is paid yearly. The platform provides a free trial, but you’ve got to complete a lengthy registration first. The Lite plan costs $9 per month and includes the following essential features:
- Unlimited sending
- Send Newsletters
- Email Marketing
- Marketing Automation
- Subscription Forms
- Chat & Email Support
- 3 Users
The Plus plan costs $49/mo and includes the whole Lite bundle, plus:
- Facebook Custom Audiences
- Lead & Contact Scoring
- SMS Marketing
- Dynamic Content
- Integrations
- Custom User Permissions
- 25 Users
The Pro Plan costs $129/mo and includes all Plus features, as well as:
- Conversion Attribution Reporting
- Split Automations
- Site Messaging
- Onboarding Consultation
- Automation Strategy Consultation
- 3 One-on-one training sessions per month
- 50 Users
The Enterprise Plan costs $229 /mo and includes the following special features:
- Custom Mail Server Domain
- Personalized Customer Support including Phone Support
- Free Design Services
- Free Social Data
- Uptime SLA
- Unlimited Users
It appears as if the plans of GetResponse are cheaper because you get an 18-percent discount on all plans if you pay for 12 months, and 30% off if you pay for two years.
Conclusion
It seems that the ActiveCampaign vs GetResponse rivalry has got a clear winner, and this is GetResponse!
There are at least three reasons for our decision: their pricing plans are cheaper, they provide multi-language, multi-channel customer, support, and their platform allows you to create customer-engaging landing pages.
ActiveCampaign also has some unique features, particularly in the CRM field, but their services are generally pricier and their customer support is not as comprehensive as that of their rival.