Act-On Software vs. VerticalResponse

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
VerticalResponse
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
VerticalResponse is an email campaign management software and services platform from Deluxe. In addition to providing email marketing tools, VerticalResponse offers fully managed email marketing services from campaign launch and management to reporting and analysis.
$11
per month
Pricing
Act-On SoftwareVerticalResponse
Editions & Modules
Professional
$900
per month
Enterprise
$2,000+
per month
Basic
$11.00
per month
Pro
$16.00
per month
Pro Plus
$196.00
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Act-OnVerticalResponse
Free Trial
NoYes
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.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Act-On SoftwareVerticalResponse
Features
Act-On SoftwareVerticalResponse
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
VerticalResponse
9.9
Ratings
22% above category average
WYSIWYG email editor9.10 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Dynamic content9.10 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content8.20 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Landing pages8.20 Ratings10.00 Ratings
A/B testing9.10 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Mobile optimization7.10 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting9.10 Ratings10.00 Ratings
List management9.10 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences8.20 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
8.6
Ratings
10% above category average
VerticalResponse
-
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
VerticalResponse
-
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
VerticalResponse
-
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
VerticalResponse
10.0
Ratings
26% above category average
Dashboards8.20 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Standard reports9.10 Ratings10.00 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
VerticalResponse
-
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
Pre-Send Testing
Comparison of Pre-Send Testing features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
VerticalResponse
10.0
Ratings
22% above category average
URL Validation00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Link Tracking00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Image Validation00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Inbox Display00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Email Accessibility Tools00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Spelling and Grammar Check00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Spam Testing00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Email Previews00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
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User Ratings
Act-On SoftwareVerticalResponse
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.9
(0 ratings)
8.6
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.2
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.2
(0 ratings)
10.0
(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)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.6
(0 ratings)
10.0
(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 SoftwareVerticalResponse
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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For businesses requiring advanced email marketing features like sophisticated automation, in-depth analytics, and extensive customization, VerticalResponse might fall short due to its limited featuresVerticalResponse is ideal for small businesses or freelancers who need a simple, straightforward email marketing tool. Its ease of use and basic features make it suitable for those without extensive technical expertise in email marketing
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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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  • The tools that they provide you with for building out emails are particularly easy to use. I love the drag and drop ability that gives anyone the opportunity to build professional looking emails without any extensive experience.
  • With the majority of people checking emails on mobile, it is necessary to have highly responsive designs and this tool does all the work for you, no developer is needed and that is a MAJOR plus.
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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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  • The type face is small. Not sure if this is to avoid overwhelming the reader, but I could see this being an issue with vision-impaired people or people who don't see small print well.
  • Sometimes I find it takes multiple clicks to make one simple change. I wish there was a search field at the top of the screen that allowed me to jump directly to a client's entry to update it there.
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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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Product is easy for both technical and non-technical people to use. A cost effective solution for sending out large number of messages. We can manage unsubscribes by individual accounts, so we can have multiple multiple accounts combined to maximize our buying power on credits. Effective API for sending/receiving data makes tool a valuable asset.
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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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I truly love this product. We are moving to an all-in-one system next year and my greatest fear in doing so is how much I will miss this platform. Although we are excited for things ahead, I will always keep Vertical Response in my back pocket incase I don't love the new platform as much
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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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Never had an issue with uptime
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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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No issues
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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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At Vertical Response the help desk associates are courteous, knowledgeable and helpful. You can tell they enjoy what they do. And clearly, they are well trained because most times, the first point of contact is able to resolve any issue you may have. There have been very few times where an associate has needed to get back to me or escalate me to a supervisor
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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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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.
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Basic functions and online help...we used what was needed, at the time, and will continue to explore other online trainings as our functional needs expand
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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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Salesforce integration never worked right. We had to abandon.
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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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I am a true believer in Vertical Response. So much so, that this is the first and only software I have used for this type of marketing. When this program was first launched it was a godsend - truly innovative for its time. And in the years since, I have continued to implement this software at three other winery properties because there is nothing else I want to use
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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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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
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  • We were able to blast out promotions our company was having to customers which created an increase in business.
  • By blasting out any service issues, it keeps our customers informed so that they are not wondering what is going on.
  • Allows us to store unsubscribed emails so that we are not constantly pestering people who do not want to be emailed.
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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.