Act-On Software vs. Nosto Visual UGC, powered by Stackla

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Act-On
Score 7.8 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
Nosto Visual UGC, powered by Stackla
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
A solution to discover, curate, rights manage, and display visual user-generated content (UGC) across online experiences—from websites and emails to social media, and ads. Nosto acquired Stackla in June of 2021.N/A
Pricing
Act-On SoftwareNosto Visual UGC, powered by Stackla
Editions & Modules
Professional
$900
per month
Enterprise
$2,000+
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Act-OnNosto Visual UGC, powered by Stackla
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo 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 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 SoftwareNosto Visual UGC, powered by Stackla
Top Pros
Top Cons

No answers on this topic

Features
Act-On SoftwareNosto Visual UGC, powered by Stackla
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
7.8
113 Ratings
2% above category average
Nosto Visual UGC, powered by Stackla
-
Ratings
WYSIWYG email editor8.1112 Ratings00 Ratings
Dynamic content8.192 Ratings00 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content7.192 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
3% above category average
Nosto Visual UGC, powered by Stackla
-
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
0% above category average
Nosto Visual UGC, powered by Stackla
-
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
Nosto Visual UGC, powered by Stackla
-
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
10% above category average
Nosto Visual UGC, powered by Stackla
-
Ratings
Dashboards8.1109 Ratings00 Ratings
Standard reports8.1112 Ratings00 Ratings
Custom reports8.184 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
7.9
107 Ratings
5% above category average
Nosto Visual UGC, powered by Stackla
-
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
Best Alternatives
Act-On SoftwareNosto Visual UGC, powered by Stackla
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Vbout
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Score 9.9 out of 10
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Score 9.4 out of 10
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PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.2 out of 10
LocaliQ
LocaliQ
Score 8.9 out of 10
Enterprises
PFL Direct Mail Platform
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Score 9.2 out of 10
Sprout Social
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Score 8.5 out of 10
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User Ratings
Act-On SoftwareNosto Visual UGC, powered by Stackla
Likelihood to Recommend
8.1
(219 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.9
(112 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.1
(32 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(14 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.2
(13 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.3
(39 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.7
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.3
(16 ratings)
-
(0 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)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.2
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Act-On SoftwareNosto Visual UGC, powered by Stackla
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.
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Nosto
If people are regularly sharing your product favorably across social media, this tool will help you automate, segment and display that social content across websites, emails and events. Products as big as destinations can benefit from Stackla all the way down to merchandise such as clothing. Stackla can not benefit your product if your product is not very visual or if people aren't talking about your product.
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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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Nosto
  • GoConnect feature lets you upload to a feed without using social media.
  • A number of display options including an email embed code, website widgets and event walls.
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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Nosto
  • The UI can generally be confusing, and there are roughly four steps with detailed settings that don't feel intuitive to create one widget.
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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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Nosto
No answers on this topic
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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Nosto
No answers on this topic
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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Nosto
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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Nosto
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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Nosto
Support has been a positive experience with quick response times and an extensive knowledgebase and ticketing system.
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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.
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Nosto
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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Nosto
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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Nosto
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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Nosto
Minimal experience with CrowdRiff, but the user interface is generally a little more friendly. Stackla was chosen after a thorough R&D process and the potential to partner with our company and industry.
Read full review
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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Nosto
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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Nosto
  • In some situations, including Stackla event walls in a sponsorship package has increased our bottom line for an event we plan.
  • Stackla saves you quite a bit of time when creating social media albums to display on your website.
Read full review
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.