Planning to implement marketing automation and considering ActiveCampaign? We advice to view similar platforms to find a solution.

When customers choose marketing automation app, most often they are trying to find functionality for omni-channel communication, lead management, website builder, lead scoring, B tests etc.

Comparing ActiveCampaign with competitors people pay attention to the HTML email builder, customer data platform, chatbots, conversations, form builder, segmentation, number of triggers and actions and so on.

We’ve made a list of top 10 competitors that are very resembling in cost and functionality to ActiveCampaign. The list is based on user reviews, so if ActiveCampaign doesn’t suit you in any way, here you can easily choose the best solution for you.

E2 Shop System

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We help shops and manufacturers of all kinds and sizes work smarter for improved efficiencies, greater flexibility and bigger profits.

HeySpace

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HeySpace is a free task management solution that also aims to improve collaboration and communication in your business with its chat functionality.

Donesafe

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Donesafe is the fastest growing cloud-based safety platform built with the user in mind, helping organizations comply with legislation and enhancing their safety culture without the headaches or the large price tag.

NextThought

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NextThought helps people learn better and faster — together! We are a premium online learning solutions company focused on building collaborative and engaging experiences for our users. We create impactful learning outcomes with our VR-enhanced Learning Platform, turnkey Learning Design, and Video Production/Media Services.

Instagram Lead Ads

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Lead form ads are an ad type served from an ad account on Facebook's Ads Manager which allow advertisers to collect information from potential customers without those customers having to leave the native environment of Instagram.

iContact

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iContact is a very popular email marketing / marketing automation platform. iContact has a very intuitive design and layout, making it very easy for businesses to design and deploy their own email campaigns. iContact comes with two different products; their basic email marketing platform, and their Pro Automation version of the product. 

SiteDocs

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SiteDocs is a digital safety management system that allows you to move your entire safety program from paper, clipboards and filing cabinets to the iPad and web.

DirectIQ

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With DirectIQ's rich features and intuitive user interface, you can easily load email contacts, pick a template, and send out email campaigns in just a matter of minutes.

MailiGen

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Mailigen is all-encompassing email marketing software that integrates email, mobile and social media marketing. It offers everything you need in one, easy-to-manage email marketing platform.

Samepage

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With online collaborative tools including team chat, video conferencing, task management, file sharing, real-time document collaboration, and more, Samepage is helping teams of all sizes manage projects and get more done in a single easy-to-use collaborative workspace.

ShipStation

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ShipStation is a web-based shipping solution that streamlines the order fulfillment process for your online business. ShipStation consolidates orders from over 70 ecommerce channels, creates shipping labels, packing slips, and pick lists in batch, communicates tracking information to your customers, provides endless automation, filters, and views, wireless printing, a mobile app, and a lot more.

How to choose ActiveCampaign substitute

Many marketing automation apps are similar to each other. Tools with identical functionality can differ in price by 4 times. The first feature you should look at is the availability of funnel builder. This is a basic feature of marketing automation platforms and if it doesn’t include this feature, most likely this software isn’t completed yet. All node interfaces look almost the same. It's important not to pay attention to the UI, but pay attention to the functionality.

In a month, you'll get used to the design, but the lack of functionality will always annoy you. Changing marketing automation apps is very time-consuming. If you have the usual email chains set up, it's not that hard to switch to another tool. But if you've already set up integrations, business processes, and have complex funnels, it can take weeks to change the software. That's why you should be attentive to choosing an alternative.

What to pay attention to when investigating the node interface? It has 4 significant features categories.

1. Triggers. For instance, "Form submit" is a trigger that starts a business process. The most popular triggers are: opening an email, clicking a link in an email, reaching a goal, adding or removing a tag, closing a deal, visiting a page, etc. In each platform for marketing automation this set may differ. The more, the better.
2. Action. For example, "Send email". This is the most basic action you can have. The most popular actions are: add or remove a tag, send a text message, send a messenger message, set a salesperson task, update a transaction, notify someone by email, move a transaction to another stage, etc.
3. Delay. For example, "Wait 3 hours. Prospect fill in the form on the website and get in the marketing automation platform (Trigger), the tool sends a Welcome email (Action). After that the app waits 4 hours (delay) and sends a second email. This is the most simple automation. But there are other options. For instance, "Wait until something happens". Or wait until January 10th, or wait until 10 PM in the contact's time zone.
4. If/else. For example, "If a lead, has the tag "Bought product #1", send the email, if the lead doesn't have the tag "Bought product #1", wait 5 days and send the email. The most popular if/else parameters are: visited the site page, bought certain items, opened certain emails, user field the client card matches some criteria. This is data according to which you can segment the subscriber base.

Studying the automation builder, you should look carefully at all four categories of functions. The more, the better. Sometimes it appears that powerful marketing automation platforms with the biggest number of functions look uncomfortable. Young software look nice, but they have few functions. You look into the software you want to use very deeply. Otherwise, it will be very painful to change it in the future.

Once you've studied the automation builder, you understand whether there are integrations with the tools you need. Fortunately, Apiway can help you. In most cases, software like ActiveCampaign are the core of business IT infrastructure. It's kind of digital hub for all your subscriber. This type of system is like an tree, which is putting its tentacles into other system. Tool like ActiveCampaign need to integrate with most other ones. Or you’ll have to spend a lot of money and time developing custom integrations.

Also people who are looking for alternatives to ActiveCampaign use systems from other categories like email marketing software, helpdesk software, CRM software, sales engagement software