ActiveCampaign vs. iContact Pro Select

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
ActiveCampaign
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
ActiveCampaign is presented as an AI-first marketing platform for marketers, agencies, and entrepreneurs. It uses Active Intelligence for goal-aware automation and personalized experiences across email, SMS, and WhatsApp. ActiveCampaign integrates with 950+ apps and generates insights to optimize every workflow.
$15
per month
iContact Pro Select
Score 6.4 out of 10
N/A
iContact Pro Select (formerly Outmarket) includes email marketing, landing pages, social media management, press outreach, and analytics. The software was originally Vocus Marketing Suite, and then was known as Outmarket. It was acquired by Cision
$300
per month
Pricing
ActiveCampaigniContact Pro Select
Editions & Modules
Starter
$15
per month
Pro
$49
per month
Plus
$79
per month
Enterprise
$159
per month
Basic
$300
per month
Plus
$600
per month
Pro
$1,000
per month
Enterprise
$2,500
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ActiveCampaigniContact Pro Select
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
ActiveCampaigniContact Pro Select
Features
ActiveCampaigniContact Pro Select
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
7.2
Ratings
5% below category average
iContact Pro Select
-
Ratings
WYSIWYG email editor5.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Dynamic content4.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content4.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Landing pages4.60 Ratings00 Ratings
A/B testing9.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile optimization7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting9.70 Ratings00 Ratings
List management9.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
8.0
Ratings
3% above category average
iContact Pro Select
-
Ratings
Lead nurturing automation10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead scoring and grading7.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Data quality management7.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Automated sales alerts and tasks7.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead segmentation and distribution7.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Campaign Management
Comparison of Campaign Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
9.9
Ratings
29% above category average
iContact Pro Select
-
Ratings
Calendaring9.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Event/webinar marketing9.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Social Media Marketing
Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
6.8
Ratings
10% below category average
iContact Pro Select
-
Ratings
Social sharing and campaigns7.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Social profile integration6.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
6.6
Ratings
10% below category average
iContact Pro Select
-
Ratings
Dashboards6.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Standard reports6.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Custom reports6.50 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
8.7
Ratings
15% above category average
iContact Pro Select
-
Ratings
API8.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-based workflow & approvals8.40 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizability6.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com9.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM9.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with SugarCRM9.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Third-party software integrations8.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
ActiveCampaigniContact Pro Select
Small Businesses
Vbout
Vbout
Score 9.9 out of 10
Vbout
Vbout
Score 9.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.0 out of 10
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.0 out of 10
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
ActiveCampaigniContact Pro Select
Likelihood to Recommend
9.2
(0 ratings)
6.8
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(0 ratings)
6.1
(0 ratings)
Usability
7.9
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
7.3
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
1.3
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
7.3
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.5
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
6.4
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
1.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
6.4
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
7.3
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
ActiveCampaigniContact Pro Select
Likelihood to Recommend
I've been using ActiveCampaign since around 2018-2019 and I've always been satisfied with the software. It's simple to use, connects with the other tools I use and makes it easy for me to duplicate automations, email templates and workflows as I need to. On top of that, any time I've had an issue (which I think is around twice in the past 5/6 years), the customer service has always been super helpful and my issue has been resolved quickly.
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Vocus is well-suited for press release posting via Vocus’ PRWeb subsidiary. Vocus is also great for social media such as Facebook promotions e.g: sign-up pages, sweepstakes, and fan offers. However, I did not like that "buying signals” draws on Twitter only. Vocus was well-suited where user rights are organized around “profiles”, which might relate to a company, brand, or product line. This approach made sense for our small business. However, since users are either assigned to a profile or not, there does not appear to be finer divisions of rights for specific features
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Pros
  • The graphic design is very good, especially fonts, colours and templates
  • Flexibility of design and functionality
  • Takes a little while to learn it, but generally user-friendly
  • Looks very professional but doesn't cost much to get started
  • There are masses of integrations for ActiveCampaign, and the ones I tried all worked well and didn't take long to figure out.
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  • Ease and speed of getting out a PR release
  • Getting started with creating a new activity is just a few clicks
  • The ability to build a campaign and connect different emails, social media posts and PR releases in to one project with overall metrics.
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Cons
  • The email designing part could be easier to use. There are certain simple shortcuts that don't work, for example, adding links is more complicated than it should be, moving blocks around is hard, etc.
  • There's no good way to filter by 'active' and 'inactive' subscribers when editing en-mass.
  • I'd like more reporting data on one page.
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  • For the campaign management feature, provide a campaign diagram to better track campaigns.
  • For the reporting and analysis feature, provide a scheduled report delivery option.
  • Provide podcasts as another form of technical support.
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Likelihood to Renew
I am committed at the moment. Rebuilding the automations I have would be a huge time drain. Plus the cost of learning a new system and the risk to deliverability of porting a 6,000 person list to a new platform. Also, AC offers everything I need ast a reasonable (but a little high) price. So, why not a 10? Because, early 2023, AC dropped a massive 2x price hike on long-term customers. They knew few would shift, so this feels like a cynical cash grab and left a bad taste, If they do something like this again, this camel will have a broken back.
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Vocus works very well for a variety of business sizes. It is also well-suited for both mobile (iOS and Android) and PC platforms. These reports are comprehensive:
  • Campaign Performance Reports
  • Email Performance Reports
  • Landing Page Performance Reports
  • Web Analytics
In addition, they also offer great technical support and a lot of resources such as white papers, blog, and tips and hints
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Usability
ActiveCampaign has been the easiest marketing automation software we have ever used. They provide tips throughout the entire process of anything you are building. Their support team through LIVE CHAT has been extremely fast and helpful. The monthly meetings provided with the enablement team has helped us through several large and urgent needs.
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No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
I haven't experienced application errors or unplanned outages at all. Active Campaign is ultra reliable and I would not be using them if that were the case. Also, the helpful emails they send are welcomed and informative, and present very practical tips and guidance for using the platform. They're always demonstrating new features and I'm thankful for that.
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No answers on this topic
Performance
Oh my gosh, Active Campaign's performance gets an A+++ in my book. The pages load quickly and so do the reports. I haven't noticed any slowdowns when it's integrating with other programs and it performs excellently on all levels.
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
This might be the best part. The chat support lady offered to make a video to help me solve my problem. I worked in customer service for years and I've never done that, lol. So, if they're offering things like that, I can only imagine that they'd be able to handle most any issue you throw at them.
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Very satisfied with our implementation in our professional medical practice, allowing us to be on top of client service, and not miss out on crucial information and insights. Marketing is often neglected in professional practices and ActiveCampaign solved this problem with aplomb.
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
I transitioned from Mailchimp to ActiveCampaign because it was so much more user friendly and allowed me to do a lot more in regards to lead magnets than Mailchimp can. For example, ActiveCampaign allows users to sign up for a lead magnet as many times as they like to keep receiving it (in case they've lost or deleted the email with access to the lead magnet). Mailchimp was unable to do this. And the categorization of users and the trigger email sequencing was a lot easier in ActiveCampaign.
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I've used MailChimp before to generate emails and found Vocus to be a better option because it is an overall suite providing the tools to create customizable emails as well as many other features including press releases, social media etc. Vocus is an all-in-one platform for marketing which makes things more efficient for the user by being able to handle all marketing through one outlet.
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Scalability
My web designer told me about Active Campaign and although I don't recall which platform I had before, I LOVE Active Campaign and its user friendliness. The transition was seamless and I've never had a problem with functionality or server failure.
Active Campaign provides so many features, and makes it easy for non-techies to maneuver around the site with ease. They capture information and put it in an easy-to-read format.
At this point, I don't think I'd ever use any other platform!
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • Automations free up time - once set up, email campaigns execute in seconds
  • Emailing my newsletter is a second touch-point for my clients
  • The flat rate for my subscription means that I reach my clients and prospects for fractions of a cent each month
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  • Vocus has allowed us to increase and strengthen our customer interaction via social media.
  • Vocus has allowed us to generate and track more leads.
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ScreenShots

ActiveCampaign Screenshots

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