Act-On Software vs. Ontraport

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Act-On
Score 8.0 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
Act-On is an adaptive marketing platform designed to drive personal and purposeful multi-channel marketing. Its foci are inbound and outbound marketing, for enabling a tighter alignment with sales and turning data into actionable insights.
$900
per month
Ontraport
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
ONTRAPORT offers customer relations management services that help with content management (creating and hosting webpages), lead tracking, traditional marketing approaches (e-mail, SMS, social media, direct mail), managing online payments, and workflow automation.N/A
Pricing
Act-On SoftwareOntraport
Editions & Modules
Professional
$900
per month
Enterprise
$2,000+
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Act-OnOntraport
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional DetailsThe Professional package starts at 2,500 active contacts, 3 marketing users, 50 sales users and 30,000 API calls per day. The Enterprise allows for much more customization, the package starts at 2,500 active contacts, 6 marketing users, 100 sales users and 30,000 API calls per day. Annual contract required for all packages.Ontraport offers a variety of plans to choose from based on the features needed. Pricing adjusts with the number of contacts in the database and users in the account. Monthly or annual plans are available, and all plans start with a 14-day free trial. Ontraport offers a Done-With-You Setup and Training Package for getting set up in the account quickly. Users can also access a free video library with step-by-step instructions on getting started and using every feature of the platform.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Act-On SoftwareOntraport
Features
Act-On SoftwareOntraport
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
8.6
Ratings
13% above category average
Ontraport
9.0
Ratings
17% above category average
WYSIWYG email editor9.10 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Dynamic content9.10 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content8.20 Ratings8.30 Ratings
Landing pages8.20 Ratings10.00 Ratings
A/B testing9.10 Ratings9.90 Ratings
Mobile optimization7.10 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting9.10 Ratings6.00 Ratings
List management9.10 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences8.20 Ratings9.80 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
8.6
Ratings
10% above category average
Ontraport
5.5
Ratings
35% below category average
Lead nurturing automation9.10 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Lead scoring and grading9.10 Ratings2.40 Ratings
Data quality management9.10 Ratings2.60 Ratings
Automated sales alerts and tasks7.30 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Campaign Management
Comparison of Campaign Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
7.1
Ratings
4% below category average
Ontraport
7.7
Ratings
4% above category average
Calendaring6.80 Ratings6.20 Ratings
Event/webinar marketing7.30 Ratings9.30 Ratings
Social Media Marketing
Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
9.1
Ratings
19% above category average
Ontraport
7.1
Ratings
6% below category average
Social sharing and campaigns9.10 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Social profile integration9.10 Ratings7.20 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
8.5
Ratings
15% above category average
Ontraport
9.3
Ratings
24% above category average
Dashboards8.20 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Standard reports9.10 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Custom reports8.20 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
8.3
Ratings
11% above category average
Ontraport
7.3
Ratings
2% below category average
API9.10 Ratings3.00 Ratings
Role-based workflow & approvals9.10 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Customizability7.30 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com9.10 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM8.10 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Integration with SugarCRM7.10 Ratings7.30 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Act-On SoftwareOntraport
Small Businesses
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Score 9.9 out of 10
Vbout
Vbout
Score 9.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
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Score 9.0 out of 10
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Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
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Score 9.0 out of 10
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User Ratings
Act-On SoftwareOntraport
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.9
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.2
(0 ratings)
7.8
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.2
(0 ratings)
7.7
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.3
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.7
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.3
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.6
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Configurability
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
6.4
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.1
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Act-On SoftwareOntraport
Likelihood to Recommend
If you have MS Dynamics CRM, this is the automation platform for you and your operations. Act-On Software easily syncs with dynamics, and we've never had a problem with this since we set ours up years ago. If you use a different CRM, I'd check to see if other options might make more sense. Having that ability for the systems to seamlessly talk is critical.
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Starting a business you have enough stuff to deal with. Ontraport takes the headache out of the tech side. Everything works together and you don't ever get left alone to figure things out. I would beg any new business to invest in Ontraport. Or if you want to grow and scale an existing business it would be great. I think it more for service-based business.
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Pros
  • The templates are easy to use and set up campaigns.
  • It's simple to use, and the email editor features a drag-and-drop interface.
  • It's easy to set up a drip campaign or a series of scheduled emails.
  • It has the flexibility of having a variety of scheduling options and the use of user experience automation.
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  • Campaign builder. The visual campaign builder is very easy to use and feels pretty modern.
  • CRM: customizing what type of data I'd like WHERE has been great. Custom fields, being able to move them around.
  • Task Management: one of the things that set ONTRAPORT apart from other similar automation platforms is the tasks. You can trigger automated tasks that cause your salespeople to take action, and the tasks stay in the queue until the salesperson takes that action and checks it off. This is great for putting together a web of accountability.
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Cons
  • Building email and landing page templates are difficult, the drag and drop builder is not straightforward, and requires coding knowledge
  • The workflow tool is cumbersome and not as intuitive as I'd expect a best in class marketing software's to be
  • Domain connections and domain management functionality made it difficult to manage multiple company domains and subdomains for pages
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  • Ontraport is a very powerful and robust system capable of a great many things. The time it takes to get to know the program is a little intimidating. Don't get me wrong, you can get started right away, but a year in I know I am still not making the most of all Ontraport can do. I am UK based so access to their advanced trainings means international travel, maybe some online events could be initiated.
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Likelihood to Renew
It's my single biggest asset in my current role. With limited resources, its enabled Anachron to punch well above our weight marketing wise and although we're still at the beginning of our journey I know the system can scale with us
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My client was already using Ontraport and had a decent investment in the tool. As soon as we turn around the revenue situation with my client's products, we will be ditching OAP immediately, despite the significant re-implementation cost we are going to face moving to a new system. I am part of a high-end, professional marketing group, and the overwhelming sentiment with these other professionals is that one should run away from this as fast as humanly possible. I thought their words were just ungrounded opinion, and I deeply regret that I did not heed them more closely before sinking still more time and effort into OAP.
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Usability
It's good, but not quite brilliant. Some parts of the interface are still a bit outdated. The product has been evolving very fast, though, and I believe in a few months it will be up there with the best of them, interface wise as well.
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The software is just easy to use. The UI is fairly intuitive. The help system is pretty good. I find it is pretty quick to get my work completed and if I don't document my things well, I can always figure out how I did something when I need to make changes. When I have a problem the tech support is easy to deal with and when things need to get escalated they are resolved quickly.
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Reliability and Availability
I have always found them quick to respond to my query by web inquiry. In those instances when I call, I have always reached help quickly. They are conscientious and skilled in discussing my concern and finding a solution to my problem. Other tech organizations should use Act-On as a model for top-notch customer service.
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No answers on this topic
Performance
Sometimes the server loading speed is a little slow but most often runs fine and if it doesn't their tech support is quick to respond
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Most of the time OP runs fine. But I've had to submit more support tickets this year do to messages, seq.'s or rules not running correctly. Also experienced slow response times moving in and around OP.
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Support Rating
Since we start using Act-on for ourselves and our clients, we have been supported very well. Often we need to integrate with legacy systems and we find the support team on our side during the whole endeavor. Always asking if they can help us further, always willing to do a better job. The support of Act-On is one of the main differentiators
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The techs are reasonably savvy, highly courteous and want to do right by their customers. Unfortunately, the product they are supporting is so deeply flawed that there's only so much they can do when your legitimate business requirements are simply not supported.
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In-Person Training
Dan D. was great. He took the time to understand how I needed the program to run, and was very flexible to our special CRM setup.
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I went to their Ontrapalooza event, and it opened my mind as to how the software can be used.
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Online Training
The system is very user friendly, I think we were up and running within a day or so of having the product. It took very few online training for me to learn a large chunk of the functionality of this system.
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
What impressed me most is that Act-On showed full committment in making our implementation successful, even when it required additional support from their team. This gave me a lot of warm and fuzzy feelings. Most other software software vendors are not anywhere close to being this responsive and effective
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If you know your business, ONTRAPORT is easy
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Alternatives Considered
We chose Act-On for its ability to support our customers within a single account. The Marketing Network is a huge benefit to our business and the offerings we provide to our customers. In previously working with Hubpsot and Salesforce, we found the support to be lacking - often being referred to a forum or landing page rather than getting hands-on guided help from a knowledgeable person on their team. We LOVE Act-On and the team that they have servicing our account!
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We used it because it was recommended by other coaching companies. It meets well the need we have which is mostly about creating different type of access based on when the clients joined our program. You can easily create automations and rules to be notified when clients evolve in the program. It allows us to send them our messages at the right moment.
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Scalability
Before I feel like I need more features, the Act-On customer service reps are contacting me telling about new features as part of my account.
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With the new lower priced options, it's now easier for newer businesses to start with a more basic version and upgrade as they need more features.
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Return on Investment
  • Positive- quick setup for webinars between 3 different tools, made it easy to do in high volume
  • Negative- lots of processes with the designer tools that made email/landing page design take longer than it should have, costing man hours
  • Positive- email automation with different types of campaigns we could have flowing at once or could span across multiple audience segments made it so we could consistently create touch points and increase our engagement, thus our ROI over time
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  • ONTRAPORT has helped us as we continue to segment our users - we're able to quickly determine what messaging is working and what isn't.
  • Their form loading is so slow at times that it negatively affects signup conversion rates on our website.
  • They have an open API that let's us connect to other productivity and marketing tools without hiring programmers.
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ScreenShots

Act-On Screenshots

Screenshot of the Automated Journey Builder. Here, users can personalize customer interactions from awareness to loyalty.Screenshot of the Analytics Dashboard. This is used to compare performance over time, filter by segment, and export report components.Screenshot of the Email Composer. Here is where users design emails optimized for desktop and mobile with a drag and drop builder.

Ontraport Screenshots

Screenshot of Manage, track, sort and add to a contact listScreenshot of Design professional emails, forms and landing pages with block formatsScreenshot of Utilize the Support Center's in-depth advice on maximizing Ontraport's features