Act-On Software vs. NetSuite ERP

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)
NetSuite ERP
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
NetSuite is a suite of ERP and accounting modules which is sold in various editions aimed at different size customers. The multi-country, multi-currency version is an additional module called OneWorld. Netsuite is a SaaS system and is not offered in an on-premise edition.N/A
Pricing
Act-On SoftwareNetSuite ERP
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-OnNetSuite ERP
Free Trial
NoNo
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.Users subscribe to NetSuite for an annual license fee. The license is made up of three main components: core platform, optional modules and the number of users. There is also a one-time implementation fee for initial setup. New modules and users and can be added as a business grows.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Act-On SoftwareNetSuite ERP
Considered Both Products
Act-On
Chose Act-On Software
Act-On prevailed over these because of a few reasons: ease of use and implementation, cost, features, and fit for a medium business.
Chose Act-On Software
Act-On does all that other vendors like HubSpot and Marketo promise. With Act-On it is much easier to get started and to be productive. Compared with HubSpot, Marketo and other important vendors, Act-On's pricing and support are big differentiators. Because Act-On wants to be a …
Chose Act-On Software
Price, ease of use and customer service put Act-On ahead of Marketo for our business. The interface was easier, the implementation was quicker and the results were easier to track.
NetSuite ERP
Chose NetSuite ERP
We selected Netsuite, based on customization and how we want to distract information when needed. We can use them across the board for multiple departments like Engineering, Marketing (if they use it and they don't), Sales and Accounting. If we had to do it all over again, we …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Act-On SoftwareNetSuite ERP
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
NetSuite ERP
-
Ratings
WYSIWYG email editor8.1112 Ratings00 Ratings
Dynamic content8.192 Ratings00 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content7.292 Ratings00 Ratings
Landing pages8.1108 Ratings00 Ratings
A/B testing8.195 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile optimization7.2103 Ratings00 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting8.1112 Ratings00 Ratings
List management8.1111 Ratings00 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences7.187 Ratings00 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
NetSuite ERP
-
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
NetSuite ERP
-
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
7% above category average
NetSuite ERP
-
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
NetSuite ERP
9.2
72 Ratings
28% above category average
Dashboards8.1109 Ratings9.271 Ratings
Standard reports8.1112 Ratings9.370 Ratings
Custom reports8.184 Ratings9.270 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
NetSuite ERP
-
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
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
1.1
15 Ratings
147% below category average
Pay calculation00 Ratings1.013 Ratings
Benefit plan administration00 Ratings1.010 Ratings
Direct deposit files00 Ratings1.39 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
9.1
74 Ratings
23% above category average
API for custom integration00 Ratings9.264 Ratings
Plug-ins00 Ratings9.547 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
9.2
81 Ratings
12% above category average
Single sign-on capability00 Ratings9.262 Ratings
Role-based user permissions00 Ratings9.280 Ratings
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
7.7
258 Ratings
1% above category average
Accounts payable00 Ratings8.3252 Ratings
Accounts receivable00 Ratings8.3233 Ratings
Global Financial Support00 Ratings9.526 Ratings
Primary and Secondary Ledgers00 Ratings9.528 Ratings
Journals and Reconciliations00 Ratings9.141 Ratings
Configurable Accounting00 Ratings9.535 Ratings
Standardized Processes00 Ratings9.437 Ratings
Inventory Management
Comparison of Inventory Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
8.8
48 Ratings
11% above category average
Inventory tracking00 Ratings9.847 Ratings
Automatic reordering00 Ratings8.628 Ratings
Location management00 Ratings9.335 Ratings
Order Management
Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
8.8
207 Ratings
12% above category average
Pricing00 Ratings9.253 Ratings
Order entry00 Ratings8.1203 Ratings
Credit card processing00 Ratings8.537 Ratings
Cost of goods sold00 Ratings8.848 Ratings
Order Orchestration00 Ratings9.521 Ratings
Subledger and Financial Process
Comparison of Subledger and Financial Process features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
7.4
199 Ratings
0% below category average
Billing Management00 Ratings8.3188 Ratings
Cash and Asset Management00 Ratings9.427 Ratings
Travel & Expense Management00 Ratings8.631 Ratings
Budgetary Control & Encumbrance Accounting00 Ratings8.527 Ratings
Period Close00 Ratings9.435 Ratings
Project Financial Management
Comparison of Project Financial Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
6.4
32 Ratings
17% below category average
Budgeting and Forecasting00 Ratings5.926 Ratings
Project Costing00 Ratings5.923 Ratings
Cost Capture00 Ratings5.922 Ratings
Capital Project Management00 Ratings4.014 Ratings
Customer Contract Compliance00 Ratings9.513 Ratings
Project Revenue Recognition00 Ratings6.722 Ratings
Project Execution Management
Comparison of Project Execution Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
4.1
17 Ratings
50% below category average
Project Planning and Scheduling00 Ratings8.614 Ratings
Task Insight for Project Managers00 Ratings3.311 Ratings
Project Mobile Functionality00 Ratings3.010 Ratings
Definable Resource Pools00 Ratings3.68 Ratings
Grants Management
Comparison of Grants Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
3.1
12 Ratings
84% below category average
Award Lifecycle Management00 Ratings3.57 Ratings
Procurement
Comparison of Procurement features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
3.3
19 Ratings
71% below category average
Bids Analyzed and Compared00 Ratings3.58 Ratings
Contract Authoring00 Ratings2.010 Ratings
Contract Repository00 Ratings3.58 Ratings
Requisitions-to-Purchase Orders Integrated00 Ratings3.613 Ratings
Supplier Management00 Ratings9.513 Ratings
Risk Management
Comparison of Risk Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
3.1
11 Ratings
71% below category average
Risk Repository00 Ratings3.58 Ratings
Control Management00 Ratings2.011 Ratings
Control Efficiency Assessments00 Ratings3.57 Ratings
Issue Detection00 Ratings3.58 Ratings
Remediation and Certification00 Ratings3.58 Ratings
Logistics
Comparison of Logistics features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
3.0
17 Ratings
78% below category average
Transportation Planning and Optimization00 Ratings2.89 Ratings
Transportation Execution Management00 Ratings2.88 Ratings
Trade and Customs Management00 Ratings2.88 Ratings
Fulfillment Management00 Ratings9.514 Ratings
Warehouse Workforce Management00 Ratings2.511 Ratings
Manufacturing
Comparison of Manufacturing features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
9.0
16 Ratings
18% above category average
Production Process Design00 Ratings8.612 Ratings
Production Management00 Ratings8.614 Ratings
Configuration Management00 Ratings9.510 Ratings
Work Execution00 Ratings9.512 Ratings
Manufacturing Costs00 Ratings8.614 Ratings
Supply Chain
Comparison of Supply Chain features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
7.9
132 Ratings
9% above category average
Forecasting00 Ratings7.817 Ratings
Inventory Planning00 Ratings7.3129 Ratings
Performance Monitoring00 Ratings8.614 Ratings
Product Lifecycle Management
Comparison of Product Lifecycle Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
NetSuite ERP
3.8
13 Ratings
63% below category average
Proposal Management00 Ratings2.610 Ratings
Product Master Data Management00 Ratings3.29 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Act-On SoftwareNetSuite ERP
Small Businesses
Vbout
Vbout
Score 9.5 out of 10
Acumatica
Acumatica
Score 8.7 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.3 out of 10
Infor VISUAL
Infor VISUAL
Score 7.2 out of 10
Enterprises
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.3 out of 10
SAP Business ByDesign
SAP Business ByDesign
Score 7.5 out of 10
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User Ratings
Act-On SoftwareNetSuite ERP
Likelihood to Recommend
8.1
(219 ratings)
8.5
(356 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.9
(112 ratings)
9.2
(49 ratings)
Usability
9.1
(32 ratings)
8.6
(231 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(14 ratings)
9.0
(16 ratings)
Performance
8.2
(13 ratings)
8.0
(15 ratings)
Support Rating
7.3
(39 ratings)
7.1
(215 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.7
(4 ratings)
7.3
(2 ratings)
Online Training
9.3
(16 ratings)
6.4
(10 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.6
(22 ratings)
6.4
(17 ratings)
Configurability
9.1
(1 ratings)
8.7
(5 ratings)
Ease of integration
6.4
(2 ratings)
7.3
(3 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.1
(1 ratings)
9.0
(8 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.2
(2 ratings)
4.8
(2 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.1
(2 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Act-On SoftwareNetSuite ERP
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
NetSuite
Really in this hybrid environment, being up in the cloud and being able to securely access the data and work from anywhere, I think it's a real game changer for my team. So I really like the fact that NetSuite keeps up with security features and allows users to access it from anywhere.
Read full review
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
NetSuite
  • NetSuite does analytics very well.
  • They do reporting very well. I love the ability to have control over how the information flows through my NetSuite, my user roles, and my responsibilities. I can assign certain tasks to certain people, and they do that and then also have the control to approve that and make sure it's done correctly.
  • Just being able to drill down into a particular GL account or into a particular line item and see what really makes that up and what's driving our certain costs.
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.
Read full review
NetSuite
  • Honestly, right now, my biggest pain point is kind of our own doing, but I would appreciate a little bit more support and help in the area of performance management and kind of understanding how our application is built, what are the best choices for customizing or solving a problem in terms of performance, because our company is rather large, we have a lot of data coming in and out, and that has been an issue for us recently.
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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
Read full review
NetSuite
NetSuite is able to cover all of our needs, spanning multiple departments and managerial levels. We use it daily for a multitude of functions, including creating promotions, estimating inventory, pulling historical reports, forecasting sales, and more. Overall, we're very satisfied with NetSuite as an ERP solution and recommend it to medium to large businesses.
Read full review
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
NetSuite
I have given this rating due to below use cases: - Order Management - Advanced Revenue Management - Invoicing - Automated Billing - Inbound and Outbound Integrations with applications such as Salesforce, Zip, Stripe, Mavenlink, Avalara, Floquast - Project management and billing - Training -Customer Support - Knowledge Article Support
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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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NetSuite
It has been very reliable. I can only think of 1-2 times in 4.5 years that we have had issues getting in, and in each case were able to get back in within 1 hour. There has not been a major downtime
Read full review
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
NetSuite
Most of the time the performance is very good. Pages load in a few seconds; financial reports take less than 5 seconds; basic searches take a few seconds. But performance can be sporadic throughout the day and cause the run time to triple.
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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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NetSuite
The account rep changes quite often, which requires restarting. Suite Answers is a very good tool but can be hard to use for somebody who is not fully confident with Netsuite. Asking questions that are not already answered in Suite Answers can be rough. Training is readily available, but most of the time stays on the surface and doesn't answer medium to more advanced questions.
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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
NetSuite
I had in person training for a day when first got the software. The training was good. The challenge was that there was a large gap between training and when we went live so we forgot quite a lot
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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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NetSuite
Online training is quite strong. I have used for specific pieces of functionality.However it is not sufficient in all areas.
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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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NetSuite
I felt NetSuite Professional Services did an excellent job of guiding us in the implementation. I also felt our internal teams were a little resistant to the change and engagement of new software. Had we performed better engaging and buying into the new software, I would be able to rate the implementation better. Therefore, the lower number should not be viewed as a deficiency with the software or the professional services teams, but as an reminder of how important complete buy-in from the local users is.
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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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NetSuite
Well, the reason why I'm with NetSuite is because obviously it beats out those other options quite considerably. It gave us the whole ecosystem that gave us everything we needed. I didn't need a dedicated administrator whose full-time job is to deal with it like our current system would need to really be useful. I can find people or train people how to use it right away. So for us, that really beats it out compared to the Sage and QuickBooks where we were looking at it from a perspective of, yeah, we can find people who are experts in those fields. They don't scale up to the size that we need as we're going to really quickly go from R&D company into doing tens of millions of dollars a year in revenue and activities. So that's where it beats us out over say Sage or QuickBooks is it's got that complete scalability. We can go to multiple subsidiaries, foreign currency, not a problem. It's got that full functionality.
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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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NetSuite
We have been able to scale our business 25X without any major overhaul with Netsuite. Its dashboard setup makes onboarding new employees very easy and allows data to be shared across multiple offices. Its cloud setup does not put any pressure on IT to scale servers or other infrastructure. We have been able to become much more efficient in all aspects of the business.
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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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NetSuite
  • Positive impact, again, it's our source of truth, so we are able to not have questions about how much money we have in the bank or do we have enough material to build this job. Being able to know those things immediately is super valuable.
  • I mean it's the grease that skids the wheels that gets us to accomplish the things that we do in our business.
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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

NetSuite ERP Screenshots

Screenshot of one view into the most critical business processes.Screenshot of Mobile-friendly design