Act-On Software vs. Iterable

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Act-On
Score 8.2 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
Iterable
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Iterable is an AI-powered customer communication platform that activates customers across channels in real-time. With intelligent personalization, dynamic content, and a cross-channel suite, Iterable helps brands create seamless, data-driven experiences across email, SMS, push, and in-app notifications.N/A
Pricing
Act-On SoftwareIterable
Editions & Modules
Professional
$900
per month
Enterprise
$2,000+
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Act-OnIterable
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
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.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Act-On SoftwareIterable
Features
Act-On SoftwareIterable
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
8.2
124 Ratings
7% above category average
Iterable
7.7
108 Ratings
1% above category average
WYSIWYG email editor7.6123 Ratings8.395 Ratings
Dynamic content8.2102 Ratings8.2103 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content8.0102 Ratings8.2101 Ratings
Landing pages8.2118 Ratings00 Ratings
A/B testing8.0106 Ratings8.4104 Ratings
Mobile optimization8.3113 Ratings7.999 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting8.3123 Ratings6.2104 Ratings
List management8.7122 Ratings7.0104 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences8.598 Ratings7.795 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
8.2
124 Ratings
5% above category average
Iterable
-
Ratings
Lead nurturing automation8.4113 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead scoring and grading8.3113 Ratings00 Ratings
Data quality management8.3112 Ratings00 Ratings
Automated sales alerts and tasks7.8104 Ratings00 Ratings
Campaign Management
Comparison of Campaign Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
7.5
84 Ratings
1% above category average
Iterable
-
Ratings
Calendaring6.88 Ratings00 Ratings
Event/webinar marketing8.183 Ratings00 Ratings
Social Media Marketing
Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
7.3
75 Ratings
2% below category average
Iterable
-
Ratings
Social sharing and campaigns7.373 Ratings00 Ratings
Social profile integration7.367 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
7.5
124 Ratings
3% above category average
Iterable
5.8
105 Ratings
23% below category average
Dashboards7.6118 Ratings6.2105 Ratings
Standard reports7.6122 Ratings5.7104 Ratings
Custom reports7.493 Ratings5.695 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
7.7
117 Ratings
4% above category average
Iterable
6.9
102 Ratings
7% below category average
API8.377 Ratings7.692 Ratings
Role-based workflow & approvals8.478 Ratings8.588 Ratings
Customizability7.898 Ratings7.893 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com8.569 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM7.038 Ratings3.63 Ratings
Integration with SugarCRM6.830 Ratings00 Ratings
Third-party software integrations7.48 Ratings7.111 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Act-On SoftwareIterable
Small Businesses
Vbout
Vbout
Score 10.0 out of 10
Vbout
Vbout
Score 10.0 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
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Score 9.0 out of 10
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User Ratings
Act-On SoftwareIterable
Likelihood to Recommend
8.9
(229 ratings)
8.7
(108 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.9
(112 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Usability
8.2
(44 ratings)
9.1
(3 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(14 ratings)
8.6
(3 ratings)
Performance
8.2
(13 ratings)
8.5
(3 ratings)
Support Rating
7.3
(39 ratings)
9.1
(4 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.7
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.3
(16 ratings)
6.4
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.6
(22 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
6.4
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.1
(1 ratings)
9.1
(3 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.2
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Act-On SoftwareIterable
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.
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Iterable
At OneVision, I was brought on to migrate from ActiveCampaign and it was a huge improvement to go to Iterable. Much of the improvement lay in the back end connectivity to databases, which although not directly in my purview, made it easier to work as a team (product & marketing) inside our company.
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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.
Read full review
Iterable
  • Customer Journey creation - the platform easily creates a visual path for the marketing team to curate messaging based around timing, channel, behavior as well as add split testing logic and exit criteria so we target only the audiences we want.
  • Customer Success - one of the best teams I've ever had the pleasure of working with. I'm able to move so much quicker because they really create a helpful partnership.
  • Audience segmentation, the platform is easy to work with even if you're a first time user, they do a great job of visually showing the logic and the and/or/none type rules.
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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Iterable
  • Insights. I think this is the biggest downfall of Iterable, the insights and analytics area is really not good at all. We have almost stopped using it all together in favour of just using Mixpanel (but now we're paying for 2 platforms). Things we can do in Mixpanel that we can't do in Iterable:
  • - custom conversion windows
  • - more scalable reports
  • - comparing multiple events
  • - setting up alerts that trigger to slack
  • Segmentation - building segments and organizing lists that are already built.
  • - relative dates can be confusing but are a critical piece of building lists
  • - unable to compare multiple events
  • - we have a pretty good naming structure for our lists but with so many daily users, no good way to organize them (with labels or folders) and searching for a list requires you to find the exact word we end up re creating dynamic lists each time
  • - static lists don't show you what rules were used to create the list
  • - no way to see changes over time
  • Improved ways of collaborating. There's no way of knowing if other people are editing a list, template, campaign or journey. easy to overwrite each other's work
  • I've been an Iterable user for about 4 years, at 2 different companies. SinceI started using Iterable I think the number of bugs has increased.
  • I wish Iterable did a better job testing releases so we're not the ones discovering issues so frequently.
  • In app message. We've had issues with this tool/channel starting at implementation. It feels like it never made it's way out of beta, despite us paying for it now.
  • The app team offered to do working sessions with us to understand how we use it day to day and never followed up on that. There have been no improvements to the tool and any time we run into another issue with it (although Jena in support is great) it takes forever to diagnose or we are told the issue cannot be replicated. It just feels like we have constant issues with this tool.
  • We've actually onboarded to another tool (not ideal for omni channel) for some in app messages because this one has so many downfalls and is so buggy.
  • Self serve documentation is great when you have an idea of what you're doing but not entirely sure. It is not easy to understand for people who are newer or less well versed in the platform.
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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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Iterable
Extremely easy to use, deeply integrated into our infrastructure
Read full review
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.
Read full review
Iterable
Iterable very easy to learn and use. It's a great platform for both a new email marketer and a marketer that's been working in email for 20+ years.
Read full review
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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Iterable
Iterable is there like 99.9% of the time. However, when it goes down, it grinds us to a halt. Most of the time, outages are an hour or less, but if that's at a peak time, it can be a nightmare. That said, when the worst does happen, there are frequent updates and an easy situation tracker that give you an estimate of how much longer you'll have to wait for the issue to be resolved.
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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
Iterable
The API is super quick. The UI can be a little sluggish depending on what you're loading, but overall Iterable performs great. Iterable appears to do a good job of making processes async so that one action isn't blocking another.
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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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Iterable
I've never experienced any issues with Iterable. As I and my colleagues have learnt the system and it's features, response to questions and advice from our account manager is always quick. Kevin knows the product well, and with the few tricky questions has hasn't been able to answer he's been quick to get back to us.
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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
Iterable
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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Iterable
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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Iterable
No answers on this topic
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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Iterable
I admittedly don't remember much of Klaviyo, as I have become so familiar with Iterable. I definitely prefer Iterable, however. There are so many more features in Iterable and it just feels like a more dynamic and comprehensive experience with more granular data than Klaviyo presented us
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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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Iterable
We've definitely tested scalability, and it's no line - it works. The process is pretty easy. Most of the times it goes off without a hitch. Any time we do encounter issues, our support team is quick to get on the job and very communicative as they work us through a successful launch.
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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.
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Iterable
  • Iterable journeys save us a ton of time and resources and we are able to optimize messaging with simple A/B testing and dynamic content.
  • Preview data and snippets are easy to use - managing them is less of a lift, saving us time to focus on creative.
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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.

Iterable Screenshots

Screenshot of how Iterable unifies customer, product, business, and martech ecosystem data to create integrated marketing.Screenshot of Iterable’s AI Suite, that helps to build personalized campaigns quickly, predicts what customers need next, and fine-tunes every message for maximum impact.Screenshot of some of the tools and support available through Iterable that support scale and tomorrow’s growth.Screenshot of how Iterable unifies all engagement channels into one platform for consistent, personalized communication, connecting with customers wherever they are: SMS, email, in-app, push, embedded messaging, and beyond.Screenshot of how to create highly-personalized communications that listen to, react to, and anticipate customer needs.Screenshot of an example of how AI can be used to influence the most important metrics and achieve key business goals.