Act-On Software vs. Pulsar CORE

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
Pulsar CORE
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
Pulsar is a social media monitoring platform offering social listening, owned channels analytics, and social CRM. Customers use Pulsar for brand tracking and campaign measurement. The platform includes 4 tools: TRAC: Social media listening across topics, audiences and content diffusion. CORE: Owned channels analytics to measure your content performance and audience growth. FLOW: Social customer relationship management and social media publishing. TEAM: Analyse your internal social networks…
$1,200
150,000 mentions
Pricing
Act-On SoftwarePulsar CORE
Editions & Modules
Professional
$900
per month
Enterprise
$2,000+
per month
TRAC (starter package)
$1,200
150,000 mentions
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Act-OnPulsar CORE
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
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.Prices listed are on a 'starting from' basis. All TRAC packages have unlimited user log-ins, unlimited search queries and are charged on the amount of mentions pulled in. Bespoke packages are available.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Act-On SoftwarePulsar CORE
Features
Act-On SoftwarePulsar CORE
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
8.6
Ratings
12% above category average
Pulsar CORE
-
Ratings
WYSIWYG email editor9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Dynamic content9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Landing pages8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
A/B testing9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile optimization7.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
List management9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
8.6
Ratings
10% above category average
Pulsar CORE
-
Ratings
Lead nurturing automation9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead scoring and grading9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Data quality management9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Automated sales alerts and tasks7.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Campaign Management
Comparison of Campaign Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
7.1
Ratings
4% below category average
Pulsar CORE
-
Ratings
Calendaring6.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Event/webinar marketing7.30 Ratings00 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
Pulsar CORE
-
Ratings
Social sharing and campaigns9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Social profile integration9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
8.5
Ratings
15% above category average
Pulsar CORE
-
Ratings
Dashboards8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Standard reports9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Custom reports8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
8.3
Ratings
11% above category average
Pulsar CORE
-
Ratings
API9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-based workflow & approvals9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizability7.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com9.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM8.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with SugarCRM7.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Act-On SoftwarePulsar CORE
Small Businesses
Vbout
Vbout
Score 9.9 out of 10
Simplify360
Simplify360
Score 7.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.0 out of 10
Mention
Mention
Score 9.4 out of 10
Enterprises
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.0 out of 10
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Social Suite by Reputation.com
Score 9.4 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Act-On SoftwarePulsar CORE
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.9
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.2
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.3
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.7
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.3
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.6
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
6.4
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Act-On SoftwarePulsar CORE
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.
Read full review
I think that Pulsar is a good tool for brands or agencies who have a set list of competitors or subbrands that they are looking to do a monthly/weekly comparison of engagement metrics. When you have the brand account inputted, the data is shown in a visually tangible way and easy to comprehend.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
  • Track engagements over time
  • Easy to use interface
  • Modern and updated display
Read full review
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
Read full review
  • Unfortunately, when exporting data it is often hard to read in an easy format.
  • I've used other tools where you can get historical data once you put into the tool but Pulsar cannot do that.
Read full review
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
Read full review
No answers on this topic
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.
Read full review
Pulsar is not a complex tool by any means. The interface is updated and comprehensive, and I've used multiple tools in the past where the interface was very outdated and exporting data was often a difficult process since it was not well organized. The tool works well in visualizing complex data.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
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
Read full review
No answers on this topic
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
Read full review
I have not had to reach out to Pulsar support before but my coworkers have and said the support was good.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
No answers on this topic
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.
Read full review
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
Read full review
No answers on this topic
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!
Read full review
I think that Pulsar is one of the more updated platforms that I have used and the metrics exported/shown in the dashboard are accurate. I think that some tools report inaccurate metrics gathered from social media platforms due to the new APIs, something that often causes confusion and lack of clarity.
Read full review
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.
Read full review
No answers on this topic
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
Read full review
  • Input into our algorithm for brand strength and stature
  • Quick engagement tracking
Read full review
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.

Pulsar CORE Screenshots

Screenshot of The activity dashboard gives you a thorough snapshot of all the key numbers in your datasetScreenshot of Pulsar TRAC advanced location detection gives you up to 100% geo-localised data by city, country and GPS coordinatesScreenshot of The Network map visualizes the engagement patterns within your audience and identifies the most influential usersScreenshot of Slice and dice the data with contextual, behavioural and content filtersScreenshot of See the bigger picture. Pulsar CORE gives you integrated brand-level metrics across all owned channels, so you can measure the total reach and engagement you're getting.