Act-On Software vs. Litmus

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 (starts at 2,500 active contacts)
Litmus
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
As a core component of an organization's marketing tech stack, Litmus allows users to create, personalize, test, review, and analyze every email sent.
$99
per month
Pricing
Act-On SoftwareLitmus
Editions & Modules
Professional
$900
per month (starts at 2,500 active contacts)
Enterprise
$2,000
per month ( starts at 2,500 active contacts)
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Act-OnLitmus
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
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.Litmus offers different plan types to fit various needs, offering monthly and annual plans, as well as fully customizable Enterprise plans.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Act-On SoftwareLitmus
Considered Both Products
Act-On
Chose Act-On Software
We looked at using Pardot and decided to use Act-On due to pricing and ease of use. Pardot had a better Salesforce connection since they are owned by Salesforce. Pardot was very expensive and didn't offer some of the functionality we were looking for. For example, Pardot does …
Chose Act-On Software
I've used Constant Contact, Mail Chimp, Exact Target. I would say Act-On Software is most similar to Exact Target, but I feel you get a better bang for your buck with Act-On.
Litmus
Chose Litmus
Litmus is the most full featured email testing platform I have used. There are so many device / email client combinations that we can always replicate the issue an end user may be seeing. It would be great if it added cross browser website testing and take on some of the …
Chose Litmus
Litmus does a great job allowing you to see how your emails look across ESPS. No other company does this as reliably as Litmus. My only gripe with Litmus is that they do not have an option to use a drag n drop builder. This means I now have to use another program to build emails.
Chose Litmus
Litmus is more of an overall thought leader than Email on Acid. When I worked for an agency we had Email on Acid for several years and nobody used it, not user-friendly. Then we got litmus and multiple teams started using it right away. It is more intuitive and process …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Act-On SoftwareLitmus
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
Litmus
5.2
296 Ratings
44% below category average
WYSIWYG email editor8.1112 Ratings6.119 Ratings
Dynamic content8.192 Ratings8.011 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content7.292 Ratings8.5187 Ratings
Landing pages8.1108 Ratings2.63 Ratings
A/B testing8.195 Ratings1.84 Ratings
Mobile optimization7.2103 Ratings9.2288 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting8.1112 Ratings7.6207 Ratings
List management8.1111 Ratings1.82 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences7.187 Ratings1.01 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
Litmus
-
Ratings
Lead nurturing automation8.1104 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead scoring and grading8.1104 Ratings00 Ratings
Data quality management8.1102 Ratings00 Ratings
Automated sales alerts and tasks8.195 Ratings00 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
Litmus
-
Ratings
Calendaring6.88 Ratings00 Ratings
Event/webinar marketing8.176 Ratings00 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
Litmus
-
Ratings
Social sharing and campaigns8.169 Ratings00 Ratings
Social profile integration8.163 Ratings00 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
Litmus
6.8
190 Ratings
13% below category average
Dashboards8.1109 Ratings5.610 Ratings
Standard reports8.1112 Ratings8.2189 Ratings
Custom reports8.184 Ratings6.6130 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
Litmus
-
Ratings
API8.167 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-based workflow & approvals8.171 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizability8.189 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com8.165 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM8.136 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with SugarCRM7.129 Ratings00 Ratings
Pre-Send Testing
Comparison of Pre-Send Testing features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
Litmus
8.2
285 Ratings
4% below category average
URL Validation00 Ratings7.7209 Ratings
Link Tracking00 Ratings7.9178 Ratings
Spam Testing00 Ratings8.1211 Ratings
Email Previews00 Ratings9.1283 Ratings
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User Ratings
Act-On SoftwareLitmus
Likelihood to Recommend
8.1
(219 ratings)
9.2
(308 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.9
(112 ratings)
9.7
(22 ratings)
Usability
9.1
(32 ratings)
9.8
(18 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(14 ratings)
9.1
(6 ratings)
Performance
8.2
(13 ratings)
7.4
(6 ratings)
Support Rating
7.3
(39 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.7
(4 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
9.3
(16 ratings)
8.2
(2 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.6
(22 ratings)
9.0
(10 ratings)
Configurability
9.1
(1 ratings)
8.7
(4 ratings)
Ease of integration
6.4
(2 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.1
(1 ratings)
8.6
(6 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.2
(2 ratings)
9.1
(4 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.1
(2 ratings)
9.2
(3 ratings)
User Testimonials
Act-On SoftwareLitmus
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
Litmus Software
It is nice to be able to double-check the HTML code easily. However, that being said, once we have the template structure and modules coded and rendered, we often do not feel that Litmus is as helpful because we have already verified that the HTML is functioning as intended.
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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.
Read full review
Litmus Software
  • Emulation of 100s of email clients by pasting HTML email code into their builder
  • The UI for navigating the build tools, analytics, and other functions are intuitive and easy to learn.
  • They have amazing weekly newsletters that go deep into email trends, benchmarks, and very practical tips. They are well-written.
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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Litmus Software
  • It would be great if there was an integration where we could make necessary changes in Litmus and update Klaviyo.
  • A better understanding of ways to optimize - things may be good as is, but what are ways that we can improve it for a better-sending reputation?
  • Sometimes the app in Chrome is clunky.
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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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Litmus Software
It's offering me more than any other email proof software I've heard of! I also really appreciate how Litmus gives back to the email development community via their content creation. I want better marketing and marketing email in the world, and Litmus is working towards that goal. So, yeah, they're good folks with a good product!
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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.
Read full review
Litmus Software
Litmus has integrations that make the software an integrated part of my work every day. Being able to test right within my email builder is just brilliant. Daily I also use the web interface to review analytics and spam testing. Overall it is one of the pieces of software I use daily without any complaints or issues.
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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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Litmus Software
We have never had a problem with Litmus being unavailable so I would say their availability is fantastic. There might have been one time years ago that the site was down briefly but it also might have been a server issue on my end. Either way, Litmus was back up and running in a very short time
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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
Litmus Software
As with all technology, there are inevitably use-cases where you are unable to get to your original goal without some good old-fashioned experimenting. Some situations will (and are) more urgent which complicates an effective integration of a new process or a new team using an existing process but the "issues" are regularly resolved by re-starting the process specific to when Litmus is introduced to a project. If it doesn't come out the way you're anticipating, run it again and verify there is an issue before declaring all is lost
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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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Litmus Software
No answers on this topic
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
Litmus Software
It was very informative one on one session for me. I was able to use Litmus without any issues.
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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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Litmus Software
It has all the required information.
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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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Litmus Software
It was quick and easy to get up and running. We were able to use the platform not long after getting it up and running.
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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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Litmus Software
For more in-depth QA and personalization needs, Litmus is the way to go. I believe that Litmus should be used in conjunction with a product like Mailchimp or Constant Contact to support your email development efforts. I would not use any one of these by itself if you really want to create an end product that can provide the greatest ROI and use for your end consumer.
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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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Litmus Software
With our enterprise account, scalability is not an issue. I have not yet seen or heard of significant issues with user access, API connections for integrations etc. This includes down time for "Scheduled Maintenance" as some providers call them, Litmus has the technology backing to support a global team with a 24-hour workday across regions
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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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Litmus Software
  • Litmus has positively helped us to be able to measure email performance metrics and provide stakeholders insights on what email content is resonating with clients
  • Litmus has helped us to ensure our emails are error free by providing us with an overview of whether each email meets the requirements for optimal email performance and delivery
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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

Litmus Screenshots

Screenshot of Litmus Personalize Essentials, with live polls to give subscribers a voice and drive email engagement.Screenshot of Litmus Email Guardian, featuring 24/7 link monitoring to safeguard emails.Screenshot of Litmus' integrated insights reports, that can automatically combine metrics from Salesforce Marketing Cloud with subscriber engagement insights from Litmus.Screenshot of campaign preview, available in 100+ popular email clientsScreenshot of Litmus' inbox previewing and feedback tools, that help users to spot and fix issues early.