Kentico Xperience vs. Wishpond Propel IQ

Well suited for marketers that do not have in-house web programming or web designing resources available. Less appropriate for people that aren't computer savvy (i.e. don't know how to use basic programs like email, Excel, PowerPoint) or for those who are not detail-oriented because if you skip certain steps when adding/editing content, your webpage won't render correctly and/or create negative impact for search engine optimization without you knowing it.

Incentivized

I would never recommend Wishpond to anyone. They provide a fancy marketing plan that is promptly ignored. You're far better off managing everything yourself as the things which are done are done against your instructions, or so badly it takes more time to fix them than just do them yourself. You'll have to ask for any reporting and when it is given it will be worthless as all campaigns are combined (across all advertising channels). You'll never be told what tweaks are made, keywords you specifically say not to use will be used, you won't be told how to check anything, and will have to chase up anything that is meant to be delivered. The first meeting was rescheduled, but I wasn't told, and things didn't improve from there. After 2 months I still had not received much and wasn't getting replies so had to take things up the chain. Things were then put in place, but no one ever checked if they solved anything. They didn't. One of my big problems is the only meeting times offered were between 3 and 4am my time. When the customer support person finally got in touch they also only offered between 3 and 4 am on a Sat morning. Nothing had been paid attention to at any stage. My manager's manager who is meant to solve problems has not replied to my emails from a week ago. The contract also auto renews, but there is no information on how to get out of it. I don't trust that the folks I have told I don't want to renew will pass that information on and will soon be looking into doing chargebacks on my card due to not being supplied with the services promised.

• Ease of use for the developer, content authors, and internet marketers that use it. The user interface in Kentico 8 truly is amazing and easy to pick up with no training.
• Strong customization and integration capabilities, including the built in REST service, Integration Bus, and elegant API. I love the fact that if there is anything not in the box we can use the system to extend it or connect it to any CRM, ERP, or other third party service very easily.
• Large out of the box functionality. There is an extremely high level of value that the platform provides. Instead of having to build extra modules for things like Event Booking, Forums, Polls, or E-commerce, they are already there for us to use.
• Ability to control the HTML output of the site at a very fine level. Creating HTML5 is very easy in Kentico and implementing any design, as responsive, is totally possible in the system.
• The ability to get a very high level of insight into the visitors journey through the website and market back to them with the Contact management, Lead Scoring, and Marketing Automation modules is very impressive.
• The scalablity of the system is impressive. Running a very highly trafficked web site is totally possible with Kentico and its strong caching and web farm capabilities.
• The support that Kentico provides is top notch, 24/7 global support is included with any purchase, 7 day bug fix policy, and excellent documentation
• The development community is engaged and ready to help if you are a developer learning Kentico, and the Kentico partner community is very strong as well.

Incentivized

• Very small learning curve, thanks to wonderful real-time tutorials and help, and drag-and-drop editors.
• Easy to navigate - there are only 3 main sections of the site (content, lists, and emails).
• Excellent customer service. I've always gotten prompt answers to any questions I've had.

Incentivized

• Their slogan - "Right First Time Technology" - I get what they mean, but some things may be lost in translation. This is a sentence fragment in English, and some clients may be turned off by it.
• Easier to understand documentation - their official documentation could use an overhaul. All of the information is there, but most of their code examples need to be fleshed out a bit. This aspect of their product can be very hard to navigate for first-time Kentico developers.
• Email Queue - this should be in the same section as Email Marketing; currently this is under Configuration

Incentivized

• The marketing tool is still not very intuitive
• We still don’t know how to use the contest feature
• We wish we could have more elements to add to our landing pages

Incentivized

We are locked into Kentico for the long haul. It provides us with an easy and flexible solution for a very non technical company to create a site and have the features they want, especially with the inclusion of EMS into our license. Now we have a true platform to build and grow our solutions.

It seriously is one of the best interfaces I have ever used. I also love the fact that I can use UI personalization to secure any functionality by user or role that I don't want that role to have access to. The best part is the customization of the UI, I can add in any button, tab, or menu item I want through it, no code required.

Incentivized

Their support staff is friendly, knowledgeable, and will work with you until your issue is fixed. This could take a few phone calls back and forth, but they are very diligent in helping you.

Incentivized

There is no support at Wishpond. I contacted my project manager's manager over a week ago without a reply. When I responded to the automated 'How is your experience' email saying how awful it was there was no follow-up. When I had trouble and had to escalate things it resulted in some new procedures being put in place that changed nothing and they never checked in to see if things were fixed.

The system provides many opportunities to integrate and enhance the platform and makes it easy to do so.

Previously we used Microsoft SharePoint as a content management system and it was very limited, required a ton of support, and we encountered bugs on a weekly/monthly basis. All of the negatives that we had associated with SharePoint went away when we switched to Kentico. It was really night and day and Kentico has really helped us move forward and become much more efficient.

Incentivized

I actually ended up using AgoraPulse AFTER Wishpond because my company was looking for ways to cut down our marketing budget and Agora had the contest capabilities, lead management, along with social media platform scheduling and management. I ended up loving Agora more and not only using it while at Clarion UX/Urban Expositions but bringing it over when I worked at Yale University as well.

Incentivized

• Kentico has allowed us to deliver to clients more quickly, more cheaply, and with high quality to our clients. It's an inexpensive licensing model, an easy development platform, and powerful enough we can deliver amazing results to our clients.
• Kentico's quick setup and deployment model has allowed me to very quickly ramp up new developers. This saves money and time.
• We routinely see extraordinary returns in visits, time on page, and other critical metrics after rolling out Kentico-based systems/applications.

Incentivized

• Negative google ROI.
• A few conversions in September on paid social then none - negative ROI.
• Between ad spend and Wishpond fees every month is negative ROI. Can’t wait until I can get out of this contract.
• Emails don’t perform as well as my own for open rates or clicks.