Act-On Software vs. Nutshell CRM

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)
Nutshell
Score 7.2 out of 10
N/A
Nutshell offers a CRM with contact management, calendar sync, click-to-call, and collaboration features.
$20
per user, per month
Pricing
Act-On SoftwareNutshell CRM
Editions & Modules
Professional
$900
per month (starts at 2,500 active contacts)
Enterprise
$2,000
per month ( starts at 2,500 active contacts)
Starter
$20
per user, per month
Pro
$35
per user, per month
Pro+
$70
per user, per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Act-OnNutshell
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
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.
More Pricing Information
Features
Act-On SoftwareNutshell CRM
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
Nutshell CRM
-
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
Nutshell CRM
-
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
Nutshell CRM
-
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
Nutshell CRM
-
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
Nutshell CRM
-
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
4% above category average
Nutshell CRM
-
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
Sales Force Automation
Comparison of Sales Force Automation features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
Nutshell CRM
7.4
11 Ratings
4% below category average
Customer data management / contact management00 Ratings9.010 Ratings
Workflow management00 Ratings8.39 Ratings
Territory management00 Ratings6.06 Ratings
Opportunity management00 Ratings9.07 Ratings
Integration with email client (e.g., Outlook or Gmail)00 Ratings7.511 Ratings
Quote & order management00 Ratings6.76 Ratings
Interaction tracking00 Ratings9.59 Ratings
Channel / partner relationship management00 Ratings3.01 Ratings
Customer Service & Support
Comparison of Customer Service & Support features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
Nutshell CRM
8.8
6 Ratings
16% above category average
Case management00 Ratings9.75 Ratings
Call center management00 Ratings8.04 Ratings
Marketing Automation
Comparison of Marketing Automation features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
Nutshell CRM
8.3
10 Ratings
9% above category average
Lead management00 Ratings8.59 Ratings
Email marketing00 Ratings8.08 Ratings
CRM Project Management
Comparison of CRM Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
Nutshell CRM
8.9
9 Ratings
16% above category average
Task management00 Ratings9.08 Ratings
Reporting00 Ratings8.87 Ratings
CRM Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of CRM Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
Nutshell CRM
8.1
11 Ratings
6% above category average
Forecasting00 Ratings8.08 Ratings
Pipeline visualization00 Ratings7.810 Ratings
Customizable reports00 Ratings8.610 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
Nutshell CRM
8.2
8 Ratings
8% above category average
Custom fields00 Ratings7.78 Ratings
Custom objects00 Ratings9.05 Ratings
Scripting environment00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
API for custom integration00 Ratings7.04 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
Nutshell CRM
7.5
2 Ratings
10% below category average
Single sign-on capability00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Role-based user permissions00 Ratings6.01 Ratings
Social CRM
Comparison of Social CRM features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
Nutshell CRM
7.8
7 Ratings
7% above category average
Social data00 Ratings7.67 Ratings
Social engagement00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Integrations with 3rd-party Software
Comparison of Integrations with 3rd-party Software features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
Nutshell CRM
8.0
1 Ratings
11% above category average
Marketing automation00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Compensation management00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Platform
Comparison of Platform features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
-
Ratings
Nutshell CRM
7.5
11 Ratings
0% below category average
Mobile access00 Ratings7.511 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Act-On SoftwareNutshell CRM
Small Businesses
Vbout
Vbout
Score 9.5 out of 10
Salesmate
Salesmate
Score 9.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.3 out of 10
Creatio
Creatio
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.3 out of 10
Creatio
Creatio
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Act-On SoftwareNutshell CRM
Likelihood to Recommend
8.1
(219 ratings)
9.2
(11 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.9
(112 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
9.1
(32 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(14 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.2
(13 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.3
(39 ratings)
9.5
(2 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.7
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.3
(16 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.6
(22 ratings)
8.0
(1 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 SoftwareNutshell CRM
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
Nutshell, Inc.
This can be used for different industries, healthcare, IT, retail or any company with a customer service line, big or small. if i had to ask, i would say "Do you have any type of filing system that you use?" "anything where you are keeping track of personal/ business information." Do you need access to information on a day to day basis? If they do , then this can be used , especially if you need to keep track of the numbers; we like how we can see if are things going up or down.
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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
Nutshell, Inc.
  • Customization - we are able to make Nutshell make the most sense for our company and processes
  • Scheduling - the ability to set tasks allows us to never forget a follow-up call or email
  • Tags - allow us to prioritize leads and segment our customers and potential customers
  • Communication - the ability to tag colleagues in notes for callbacks or updates to accounts is very helpful to keep everyone on the same page
  • Email History - being able to blind copy all our email communication to Nutshell, allows us to have email threads and notes all in one place
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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Nutshell, Inc.
  • SWOT analysis --- currently we put this in as custom fields but they don't link up at all and are hard to read/navigate. We also use the custom fields for other information we want to capture. It would be nice to build those in so they can show the info as bullet points or something --- currently paragraph form and hard to find things at a glance.
  • Funnel could use some work. Only shows how many leads are currently in that part of the pipeline which doesn't give us a good historical comparison.
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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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Nutshell, Inc.
This is perfect for a small business / Home based business with SaaS. Nutshell constantly adds new features and the price is much better than more robust software like Salesforce.
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.
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Nutshell, Inc.
Very easy to use, great for small office
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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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Nutshell, Inc.
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
Nutshell, Inc.
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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Nutshell, Inc.
Nutshell's support team has always been great and they tend to go above and beyond. They are polite, friendly, personable and great listeners. They are also great about sending follow up emails too.
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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
Nutshell, Inc.
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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Nutshell, Inc.
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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Nutshell, Inc.
Implementation is difficult everytime but this was relatively simple due to the small amount of data we moved
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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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Nutshell, Inc.
Well, my team had trials for these others and they all prefer Nutshell for different reasons. I prefer it as I need a user-friendly software to help me out as I am not a big tech guy. I have heard others in the office say things like they like the way activities are scheduled better, or the way nothing ever gets accidentally erased if they hard crash or power goes out.
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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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Nutshell, Inc.
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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Nutshell, Inc.
  • Nutshell's mobility has provided significant ROI for me since we've started using the CRM. I've been able to provide immediate feedback to clients, schedule meetings from the field with confidence, and much more.
  • Nutshell's tagging features have helped us craft custom mailing/email lists. We struggled to do this in the past.
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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