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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Act-On

    Score8.1 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

    Ion Interactive

    Score8 out of 10
    Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
    Ion is an enterprise-grade content experience platform that empowers modern marketers and designers to create no-code interactive content experiences integrated with their CRM or marketing automation tools.N/A
    Pricing
    Act-OnIon Interactive
    Editions & Modules
    Professional
    $900
    per month
    Enterprise
    $2,000+
    per month
    Managed Services + SaaS
    Custom
    per year
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Act-OnIon Interactive
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup fee$5,500 per customer
    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.ion’s Build Anything SaaS platform provides organizations with an entirely new and agile interactive content marketing capability. It enables non-technical marketers and designers to create, test and measure an unlimited number of all types of interactive content marketing experiences. It includes unlimited seats, experiences, tests, customization, phone and email support, analytics and more.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Act-OnIon Interactive
    Considered Both Products
    Act-On
    No answer on this topic
    Ion Interactive LLC
    Chose Ion Interactive
    The ion interactive just offers so many more options for customization. You can make the pages you create truly beautiful. Act-On has worked well for simple, straightforward pages and emails, but it ultimately just cannot accomplish the same results as ion without the use of an …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    16 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    16 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    16 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    15 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    15 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Act-OnIon Interactive
    Email & Online Marketing
    Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Act-On Software and Ion Interactive
    Feature
    Act-On Software
    8.3
    124 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Ion Interactive
    -
    Ratings
    WYSIWYG email editor7.6123 Ratings00 Ratings
    Dynamic content8.2102 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ability to test dynamic content8.1102 Ratings00 Ratings
    Landing pages8.2118 Ratings00 Ratings
    A/B testing8.1106 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile optimization8.3113 Ratings00 Ratings
    Email deliverability reporting8.3123 Ratings00 Ratings
    List management8.7122 Ratings00 Ratings
    Triggered drip sequences8.698 Ratings00 Ratings
    Lead Management
    Comparison of Lead Management features of Act-On Software and Ion Interactive
    Feature
    Act-On Software
    8.2
    124 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Ion Interactive
    -
    Ratings
    Lead nurturing automation8.5113 Ratings00 Ratings
    Lead scoring and grading8.4113 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data quality management8.2112 Ratings00 Ratings
    Automated sales alerts and tasks7.8104 Ratings00 Ratings
    Campaign Management
    Comparison of Campaign Management features of Act-On Software and Ion Interactive
    Feature
    Act-On Software
    7.5
    84 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Ion Interactive
    -
    Ratings
    Calendaring6.88 Ratings00 Ratings
    Event/webinar marketing8.283 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social Media Marketing
    Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Act-On Software and Ion Interactive
    Feature
    Act-On Software
    7.3
    75 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Ion Interactive
    -
    Ratings
    Social sharing and campaigns7.373 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social profile integration7.367 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Act-On Software and Ion Interactive
    Feature
    Act-On Software
    7.5
    124 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Ion Interactive
    -
    Ratings
    Dashboards7.6118 Ratings00 Ratings
    Standard reports7.6122 Ratings00 Ratings
    Custom reports7.493 Ratings00 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Act-On Software and Ion Interactive
    Feature
    Act-On Software
    7.7
    117 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Ion Interactive
    -
    Ratings
    API8.277 Ratings00 Ratings
    Role-based workflow & approvals8.578 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizability7.698 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with Salesforce.com8.569 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM7.038 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with SugarCRM6.930 Ratings00 Ratings
    Third-party software integrations7.58 Ratings00 Ratings
    Content Creation
    Comparison of Content Creation features of Act-On Software and Ion Interactive
    Feature
    Act-On Software
    -
    Ratings
    Ion Interactive
    7.5
    105 Ratings
    4% below category average
    Ideation00 Ratings10.099 Ratings
    Content collaboration00 Ratings5.094 Ratings
    Content Publishing
    Comparison of Content Publishing features of Act-On Software and Ion Interactive
    Feature
    Act-On Software
    -
    Ratings
    Ion Interactive
    8.7
    120 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Content hub00 Ratings10.0104 Ratings
    Forms / Gated content00 Ratings10.0107 Ratings
    Embedded CTAs00 Ratings10.0108 Ratings
    Content distribution00 Ratings8.093 Ratings
    Content promotion00 Ratings8.086 Ratings
    Content automation00 Ratings6.090 Ratings
    Content Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Content Reporting & Analytics features of Act-On Software and Ion Interactive
    Feature
    Act-On Software
    -
    Ratings
    Ion Interactive
    8.5
    118 Ratings
    14% above category average
    Audience profiling and targeting00 Ratings6.091 Ratings
    Closed-loop tracking and reporting00 Ratings8.095 Ratings
    Content performance analytics00 Ratings10.0116 Ratings
    Campaign optimization dashboard00 Ratings10.0107 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Act-OnIon Interactive
    Small Businesses
    Vbout
    Score9.9 out of 10
    Contently
    Score9.9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Bloomreach
    Score9.2 out of 10
    CoSchedule Marketing Suite
    Score10 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Iterable
    Score8.2 out of 10
    PathFactory
    Score8.3 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Act-OnIon Interactive
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.9
    (229 ratings)
    10.0
    (135 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.9
    (112 ratings)
    7.0
    (22 ratings)
    Usability
    8.2
    (44 ratings)
    7.4
    (17 ratings)
    Availability
    9.1
    (14 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    8.2
    (13 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.3
    (39 ratings)
    10.0
    (18 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    8.7
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    9.3
    (16 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.6
    (22 ratings)
    10.0
    (6 ratings)
    Configurability
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    6.4
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Act-OnIon Interactive
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Act-On
    We often have quick turnaround time requests, and Act-On's new composer is great because it is easy to make an email look great in desktop or mobile views. This has been a huge time-saver for us! We have benefited from using Act-On for many years and are accustomed to where everything is and how to use it. For the new accounts we train, we will sometimes hear that the organization of where things are could be improved.
    Incentivized
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    Ion Interactive LLC
    If you want to choose a quick start template and fill in the fields with your content, Ion will be fantastic for you. We've done this with whitepapers and quizzes and it's been great and extremely easy to use. If you have an exact idea of what you want, and a background in web development, you may get frustrated. Ion has some quirks that make it tricky to fully customize - everyone once in a while I really just want to go into the HTML and make some changes, but can't. If you are looking to reuse a piece of content for specific targeting (industry or account-specific), Ion is great. The dynamic substitutions are great and very helpful.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Act-On
    • 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.
    Incentivized
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    Ion Interactive LLC
    • Quick Starts make it so easy to get started.
    • Real-time updates are awesome and save a ton of wasteful process.
    • The combination of user friendliness for simple things and the flexibility to do more complex things is great.
    • Chat support is excellent and deeper-dive support has been super helpful.
    • The ability to use these tools in the cloud or embedded has given us tactic flexibility.
    Incentivized
    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.
    Incentivized
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    Ion Interactive LLC
    • Ion University, while stacked with a wealth of information, is difficult to navigate from a troubleshooting perspective. The tutorial videos are all very helpful, but they are also very long. Sometimes I would want to search for how to address a particular issue I was struggling with and it would be a two-minute segment buried in a 45-minute video.
    • Again, getting back the self-guidance side of things. I think a lot of the tutorials are set up in a way that makes sense to Ion, but not as much to the end user.
    • I think the controls admins use when creating new users could be a bit more straightforward.
    Incentivized
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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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    Ion Interactive LLC
    We use it for every landing page and we plan on only doing more dynamic content creation. We dont see that option coming in-house any time ever in the future. ION has a very robust platform for us to work with that really allows us to do more for our customers in regards to having the one-to-one conversation.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    Act-On
    It's a great tool for our business, and we get a fantastic ROI on it every year based on wins for customer service and automation responses. It's save projects, repaired salesperson/customer relationships and generated new sales and interest yearly. We really wouldn't hesitate to recommend this platform at all.
    Incentivized
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    Ion Interactive LLC
    Usability is straightforward, with extensive documentation and tutorials provided to ensure landing pages are built to specifications and can be optimized for performance. Built-in platform funnels give insight into customer dropoff, success/failures, and conversions (at a glance). Setting up a landing page can be done quickly and easily, with numerous integrations (CRMs like SalesForce, for instance) supported
    Incentivized
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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.
    Read full review
    Ion Interactive LLC
    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.
    Read full review
    Ion Interactive LLC
    Sometimes the editor can be a little slow.
    Read full review
    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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    Ion Interactive LLC
    The ION support team is amazing. There has not been a single issue they they could not solve for me. If there is a feature or request that they do not have, they have even, on occasion, created custom scripts for our team. *Update 6/5/17 - ION has continued to delight on multiple occasions. I appreciate their attention to detail and ability to solve whatever issue I have. After 3+ years of use and support, ION still has my full endorsement.
    Incentivized
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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
    Ion Interactive LLC
    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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    Ion Interactive LLC
    They offer a great amount of online training, videos, articles, etc. There is usually an answer available if you run into an issue. I would recommend taking advantage of the online training they offer. I wish I would have done it sooner.
    Incentivized
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    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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    Ion Interactive LLC
    There were a lot of things we learned about the tool once we really got in and got our hands dirty. Being hands-on was essential for our team to be able to utilize ION in the most effective manner.
    Incentivized
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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.
    Incentivized
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    Ion Interactive LLC
    I was not the decision maker to choose this over Uberflip, but the UI is much more appealing to me. It's incredibly easy to use, clean, and from a backend standpoint, it requires little to no tech savvy'ness. Our team has really enjoyed using it and has required no training what-so-ever.
    Incentivized
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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.
    Read full review
    Ion Interactive LLC
    Separate client portfolios enable scalability, however, some elements are still grouped for all accounts so it's difficult to scale for an ad agency with multiple clients. Would prefer totally separate sections of the platform for all clients with each element housed separately.
    Incentivized
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    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.
    Incentivized
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    Ion Interactive LLC
    • Though we have not had the service long enough to see any measurable outcomes, we've been able to create interactive web content faster than ever before
    • The speed with which we can build interactive pages and re-use assets has been critical as projects we've done with Ion have made their way around and more and more internal clients have said "me too" for their own projects
    • It is very pricey at $28K for the base annual subscription (dropping to $24k after the first year), so depending on your budgetary situation, that may make no sense for your team--but we had contract money set aside for a company to build us a microsite for around the amount, so we just used it for Ion instead and will now be building the microsite ourselves using it
    Incentivized
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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.

    Ion Interactive Screenshots

    Screenshot of ion empowers your other marketing technologies to deliver higher fidelity, data-driven scoring, targeting, segmentation and personalization.Screenshot of The types of interactive experiences the ion platform can create is near-endless. These are the most common types used by our customers: Assessments, Calculators, eBooks, Interactive Infographics, Interactive White Papers, Landing Pages, Lookbooks, Quizzes, Resource Library, Solution Finder.Screenshot of See what our customers are saying about our platform and services!Screenshot of Starting at $2,000 per month, you get an unlimited, scalable interactive content platform with our full feature set. Including: Unlimited experiences, unlimited use of Quick Starts, Unlimited Seats/Users, Unlimited A/B/n Testing, Unlimited Sell-Side Experiences, Unlimited Phone, email & chat support, unlimited analytics... PLUS a FREE custom-branded theme that can be applied to all of your experiences.Screenshot of You have the option to start from a template or entirely from scratch. Our Quick Start template library includes more than 100 fully tested, responsive and flexible interactive experiences you can brand, customize and launch.Screenshot of ion is the only interactive content platform that provides the scalable foundation to grow from one interactive experience to one thousand interactive experiences. With ion, interactive content development complexity, long timelines, high costs and maintenance problems are replaced with freedom and agility.