Act-On Software vs. eTrigue DemandCenter

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Act-On
Score 8.3 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 (starts at 2,500 active contacts)
eTrigue
Score 6.0 out of 10
N/A
eTrigue DemandCenter is a marketing automation and channel marketing-as-a-service platform. Its key features include CRM integration, email marketing, real-time lead alerts, A/B email testing, and litmus email visualization testing.
$600
per month
Pricing
Act-On SoftwareeTrigue DemandCenter
Editions & Modules
Professional
$900
per month (starts at 2,500 active contacts)
Enterprise
$2,000
per month ( starts at 2,500 active contacts)
eTrigue DemandCenter pricing begins at:
$600
complete
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Act-OneTrigue
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo 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 package starts at 2,500 active contacts, 6 marketing users, 100 sales users and 30,000 API calls per day. Annual contract required.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Act-On SoftwareeTrigue DemandCenter
Considered Both Products
Act-On
Chose Act-On Software
We looked at Etrigue, Marketo and Eloqua and found much more value packed in Act-On. The easy pricing model, out-of-the-box ease of use and month to month contract quickly made it our top choice.
Chose Act-On Software
We evaluated Act-on, Marketo, eTrigue, and Eloqua and went with Act-on based on the price to value/feature equation as well as the contract flexibility.
eTrigue
Chose eTrigue DemandCenter
Ease of use is unparalleled. Marketo is very challenging, too much training required. The integration with WebX or Go To Webinar is 30 pages long. We integrated WebEx with eTrigue in 5 minutes.

Act-On is limited because campaigns must be based on a list. Very inflexible.
Chose eTrigue DemandCenter
eTrigue is far better than other marketing systems we have used because of the drag-n-drop, advanced search, ability to launch campaigns when all assets are not ready, and THE BEST SUPPORT I HAVE EVER USED. We tried Marketo and Pardot, then tested Act-on. With the other …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Act-On SoftwareeTrigue DemandCenter
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
7.8
113 Ratings
0% above category average
eTrigue DemandCenter
6.3
16 Ratings
21% below category average
WYSIWYG email editor8.1112 Ratings7.015 Ratings
Dynamic content8.192 Ratings6.013 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content7.292 Ratings8.612 Ratings
Landing pages8.1108 Ratings7.015 Ratings
A/B testing8.195 Ratings6.010 Ratings
Mobile optimization7.2103 Ratings5.011 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting8.1112 Ratings4.016 Ratings
List management8.1111 Ratings6.015 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences7.187 Ratings7.04 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
8.1
113 Ratings
5% above category average
eTrigue DemandCenter
6.3
16 Ratings
20% below category average
Lead nurturing automation8.1104 Ratings6.015 Ratings
Lead scoring and grading8.1104 Ratings7.012 Ratings
Data quality management8.1102 Ratings6.014 Ratings
Automated sales alerts and tasks8.195 Ratings6.014 Ratings
Campaign Management
Comparison of Campaign Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
7.5
77 Ratings
2% below category average
eTrigue DemandCenter
6.8
14 Ratings
11% below category average
Calendaring6.88 Ratings8.611 Ratings
Event/webinar marketing8.176 Ratings5.014 Ratings
Social Media Marketing
Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
8.1
71 Ratings
8% above category average
eTrigue DemandCenter
6.6
11 Ratings
13% below category average
Social sharing and campaigns8.169 Ratings5.011 Ratings
Social profile integration8.163 Ratings8.38 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
8.1
114 Ratings
8% above category average
eTrigue DemandCenter
6.7
16 Ratings
11% below category average
Dashboards8.1109 Ratings7.016 Ratings
Standard reports8.1112 Ratings6.016 Ratings
Custom reports8.184 Ratings7.013 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
7.9
107 Ratings
4% above category average
eTrigue DemandCenter
4.8
15 Ratings
45% below category average
API8.167 Ratings6.011 Ratings
Role-based workflow & approvals8.171 Ratings6.012 Ratings
Customizability8.189 Ratings6.014 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com8.165 Ratings9.011 Ratings
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM8.136 Ratings1.06 Ratings
Integration with SugarCRM7.129 Ratings1.06 Ratings
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Score 9.3 out of 10
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User Ratings
Act-On SoftwareeTrigue DemandCenter
Likelihood to Recommend
8.1
(219 ratings)
6.0
(24 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.9
(112 ratings)
9.7
(21 ratings)
Usability
9.1
(32 ratings)
8.9
(4 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(14 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.2
(13 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
7.3
(39 ratings)
8.8
(4 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.7
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.3
(16 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.6
(22 ratings)
8.4
(3 ratings)
Configurability
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
6.4
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.2
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Act-On SoftwareeTrigue DemandCenter
Likelihood to Recommend
Act-On
Act-On simplifies the creation of landing pages, web forms, email campaigns, and other types of marketing automation. Designing a customer journey using the workflow builder (a nurturing flow) is possible. It is used in various ways and in a variety of contexts. Tactical's knowledgeable support team helped us unlock Act-On's potential for complex integrations and marketing campaigns. In some areas, it would be beneficial to improve functionality.
Read full review
eTrigue
The platform is most scalable-- works for small and large companies alike. Key for most of our clients is the little to no IT support required to implement and run the platform. I would definitely explore this when looking at a marketing automation platform beyond the "batch and blast" solutions. We've yet to have an issue working with our clients' sales and/or marketing teams to implement. And most of our clients work in the platform independent of the programs we run; are able to set up acampaign, upload lists and/or pull for CRM, and run reports on their own in very short turn.
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Pros
Act-On
  • Establishes a simple but very decisive way of how to perform specialized marketing work.
  • It includes the monitoring of advertising networks or account management on digital platforms and social networks.
  • The support is solid; it takes all the suggestions and doubts I have regarding the software.
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eTrigue
  • Really easy to use. We can build a campaign in about 30 minutes and our new hires can learn to use it very quickly.
  • Free phone support.
  • I can always get someone to help me and they actually return calls quicker than most all companies.
  • We are able to create campaigns before we finish all the assets. We can launch, then change the flow and add assets when they are ready.
  • Integration with Google AdWords is very easy to setup, and has lots of ROI and campaign peformance reporting.
Read full review
Cons
Act-On
  • The designer tools, especially for emails, were often difficult to use. The formatting of the text would be all over the place and change / refuse to change at random. Moving boxes around was shifty and sometimes nearly impossible. It just wasn't customizeable enough. No "undo" functionality either.
  • The only way to collect information expansively over time (there's a term Act-On uses for it, I can't recall) where it adds questions to the form each time a user fills it out, is if the person were to fill out the same form multiple times. I know this does happen for some websites/resources, but as a company that wanted to collect new information each time someone filled out any form, regardless of the resource or the URL, that was simply not an option, and that doesn't really make a lot of sense. I know it's not really possible to track someone but if they filled out the first part of the form and then it added new questions to answer, and then they submitted and got through the gating, that would actually be helpful.
  • There was no "trash can" of sorts in case you deleted something by mistake. This could be so stress-inducing if it was a major project. My coworker did this once, contacted Act-On, they couldn't even recover it.
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eTrigue
  • I've never been too crazy about the reporting within DemandCenter. There is always a solution for any type of report I'm seeking, but it involves report designing (choosing data points dragging/dropping columns & rows) which is made difficult by the lack of descriptions & values for the data points. To their credit, they did release a new suite of simplified (and pretty) reports, dubbed "Marketing Effectiveness". Relegating the older, complicated (yet super-flexible) reports as "Business Analytics".
  • The UI will be a little unfamiliar at first. That is, where you think you should be clicking, you'll need to double-click or drag-and-drop. And I would say DemandCenter has always (and still does) have an issue with UI elements that are "windows within windows" or modal windows with scrolling. But, at least these UI components are consistent throughout the entire application - so once you're used to it, you can actually achieve some pretty impressive speeds.
  • One of DemandCenter's greatest features is being squished down to uselessness: Derived Data. As mentioned, I scrub our data on a regular basis, and this means filling/appending data, or extrapolating to fill missing data. DC released a feature called "Derived Data" that scours useful info from the prospect's IP address (mostly geographical info). Now, while you can create campaign & list conditions based on derived data, there is no easy way to simply extract that oh-so-valuable derived Country or State and have it map those values to the standard fields. Or at least let you export derived data. They have plans to fix this - but for now it's like dangling candy in front of a baby.
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Likelihood to Renew
Act-On
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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eTrigue
We have tried other systems and eTrigue is the easiest to use, easiest to train new people on, and most responsive support team we have ever experienced. They ask our input on new features they are developing, and have implemented some of our suggestions in their product rollouts. We get new features almost every month. We get live support without any cost, and they return our phone calls within an hour every time. They treat us like a true partner.
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Usability
Act-On
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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eTrigue
Having used Marketo, Act-On, and Pardot, eTrigue is MUCH easier to use and easier to train new team members to use.
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Reliability and Availability
Act-On
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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eTrigue
No answers on this topic
Performance
Act-On
Great for the most part. Sometimes there are little lags, but that's likely because I'm requesting to see a lot of data at one time.
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eTrigue
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Act-On
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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eTrigue
Been very happy with their responsiveness and ability to resolve issues
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In-Person Training
Act-On
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
eTrigue
No answers on this topic
Online Training
Act-On
Act-On had a lot of resources, and their staff was great at answering any questions I had to make sure we got started on the right foot. Looking back, I would have preferred some additional training sessions since we didn't have any previous experience with Marketing Automation and best practices.
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eTrigue
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Act-On
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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eTrigue
You will need to think about which users you want to have each role, and the features allowed in each role. You should watch the training videos before you get live training. It saved us several hours as they had already answered 90% of our questions.
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Alternatives Considered
Act-On
Act-On is easier to use than Marketo, but not as visually appealing and user-friendly as HubSpot. It's much better than Pardot, as Pardot feel clunky every step of the way. SharpSpring is comparable because of its price point but surpasses Act-On in its tools and intuitive interface. We selected Act-On because of the pricing model and thought all things would be close to parity with other options. It depends on the team you have. If you have developers and a marketing team that knows some html/css, you can get by with Act-On.
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eTrigue
Constant Contact offered now tracking, lead alerts. Marketo wasn't as flexible-- for example not easy to schedule campaigns in advance, to launch in the future. Also liked the interface and the DemandCenter lead alert format more than Marketo.
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Scalability
Act-On
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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eTrigue
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Act-On
  • With the Automated Series, we were able to put in place campaigns that generated revenue that took no time to continue running once set up. This was a positive feature allowing employees to work on another project while the campaign ran on their own.
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eTrigue
  • We get the upper hand on follow-up with return visitors... not by reverse DNS lookup or pattern match but by direct cookie validation. Inside sales productivity is boosted by 33% easy with eTrigue.
  • The alerts and data are lightning fast, giving marketing immediate feedback on campaign data and prospects.
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ScreenShots

Act-On Screenshots

Screenshot of List Segmentation - Segmentation using behavioral, demographic and/or firmographic dataScreenshot of the Quickstart PageScreenshot of Landing Page Composer - landing pages are designed with a drag and drop function

eTrigue Screenshots

Screenshot of Drag and drop campaign builder includes the statistics from each stepScreenshot of Prospect profiles show individual prospect detail, including activity, demographics and engagementScreenshot of Dashboards quickly show the results of marketing effortsScreenshot of Dashboards and reports quickly show the results of marketing effortsScreenshot of Highly configurable real-time lead alerts notify sales (or others) when prospects are taking specific actionsScreenshot of The home page quickly shows results that are configurable to each user.