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Act-On Software vs. Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Act-On

    Score8.9 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

    Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)

    Score8.1 out of 10
    N/ARadian6 was acquired by Salesforce.com in 2011 and - along with Buddy Media - became Salesforce Social Studio. The product was retired in November of 2024.

    $1,000

    Per Org Per Month

    Pricing
    Act-OnSalesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    Editions & Modules
    Professional
    $900
    per month
    Enterprise
    $2,000+
    per month
    Basic
    $1,000.00
    Per Org Per Month
    Pro
    $4,000.00
    Per Org Per Month
    Corporate
    $12,000.00
    Per Org Per Month
    Enterprise
    $40,000.00
    Per Org Per Month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Act-OnSalesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    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-OnSalesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    Considered Both Products
    Act-On
    Chose Act-On
    Act-On is the scrappy little program that could. One of the biggest problems of the larger ESP and ABM services is that companies have to meet a high standard with their other software and IT in order to use them. I think this is a big failing on their part, considering that …
    Incentivized
    Chose Act-On
    The cost of ownership vs. functionality and ease of use is second to none, add in the speed of implementation and their customer success programs and nothing comes close.
    Incentivized
    Chose Act-On
    It's more user-friendly and easier to edit email templates.
    Chose Act-On
    Cost/Functionality: Act-On > Hubspot
    Functionality alone: Act-On > ExactTarget
    Chose Act-On
    SilverPop
    Hubspot
    Exact Target
    Chose Act-On
    Hubspot was our other consideration, but Act-On was better for small businesses.
    Chose Act-On
    Exact Target, Marketo, HubSpot, and Genius were some of the platforms we explored. We chose Act-On because they offered the same capabilities as their competitors at one-third the cost, with no extra fees or charges. We were extremely impressed with the level of Salesforce …
    Discontinued Products
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    16 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    16 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    16 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    15 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    15 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Act-OnSalesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    Email & Online Marketing
    Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Act-On Software and Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    Feature
    Act-On Software
    8.3
    124 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    WYSIWYG email editor7.6123 Ratings00 Ratings
    Dynamic content8.2102 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ability to test dynamic content8.1102 Ratings00 Ratings
    Landing pages8.2118 Ratings00 Ratings
    A/B testing8.1106 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile optimization8.3113 Ratings00 Ratings
    Email deliverability reporting8.3123 Ratings00 Ratings
    List management8.7122 Ratings00 Ratings
    Triggered drip sequences8.698 Ratings00 Ratings
    Lead Management
    Comparison of Lead Management features of Act-On Software and Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    Feature
    Act-On Software
    8.2
    124 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Lead nurturing automation8.5113 Ratings00 Ratings
    Lead scoring and grading8.4113 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data quality management8.2112 Ratings00 Ratings
    Automated sales alerts and tasks7.8104 Ratings00 Ratings
    Campaign Management
    Comparison of Campaign Management features of Act-On Software and Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    Feature
    Act-On Software
    7.5
    84 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Calendaring6.88 Ratings00 Ratings
    Event/webinar marketing8.383 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social Media Marketing
    Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Act-On Software and Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    Feature
    Act-On Software
    7.3
    75 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Social sharing and campaigns7.473 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social profile integration7.367 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Act-On Software and Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    Feature
    Act-On Software
    7.5
    124 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Dashboards7.6118 Ratings00 Ratings
    Standard reports7.6122 Ratings00 Ratings
    Custom reports7.493 Ratings00 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Act-On Software and Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    Feature
    Act-On Software
    7.7
    117 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    API8.277 Ratings00 Ratings
    Role-based workflow & approvals8.578 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizability7.698 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with Salesforce.com8.569 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM7.038 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with SugarCRM6.930 Ratings00 Ratings
    Third-party software integrations7.58 Ratings00 Ratings
    Listening/monitoring
    Comparison of Listening/monitoring features of Act-On Software and Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    Feature
    Act-On Software
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    8.8
    11 Ratings
    14% above category average
    Boolean keyword searches00 Ratings8.010 Ratings
    Filtering out noise/spam00 Ratings8.010 Ratings
    Sentiment analysis00 Ratings9.09 Ratings
    Broad channel coverage00 Ratings10.011 Ratings
    Publishing
    Comparison of Publishing features of Act-On Software and Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    Feature
    Act-On Software
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    8.0
    11 Ratings
    2% below category average
    Content planning and scheduling00 Ratings8.011 Ratings
    Audience targeting00 Ratings8.010 Ratings
    Content optimization00 Ratings8.09 Ratings
    Workflow management00 Ratings8.011 Ratings
    Engagement
    Comparison of Engagement features of Act-On Software and Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    Feature
    Act-On Software
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    9.0
    10 Ratings
    10% above category average
    Automated routing and prioritization00 Ratings9.99 Ratings
    Customer interaction histories00 Ratings7.010 Ratings
    Bulk actions00 Ratings10.010 Ratings
    Marketing
    Comparison of Marketing features of Act-On Software and Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    Feature
    Act-On Software
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    8.5
    10 Ratings
    10% above category average
    Lead generation00 Ratings9.09 Ratings
    Content marketing00 Ratings9.010 Ratings
    Paid media management00 Ratings8.08 Ratings
    Campaigns and promotions00 Ratings8.09 Ratings
    Channel coverage/integration
    Comparison of Channel coverage/integration features of Act-On Software and Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    Feature
    Act-On Software
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    8.3
    11 Ratings
    0% below category average
    Twitter00 Ratings8.011 Ratings
    Facebook00 Ratings8.011 Ratings
    LinkedIn00 Ratings10.08 Ratings
    Google+00 Ratings6.86 Ratings
    Instagram00 Ratings9.08 Ratings
    Pinterest00 Ratings6.54 Ratings
    YouTube00 Ratings10.07 Ratings
    Reporting/analytics
    Comparison of Reporting/analytics features of Act-On Software and Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    Feature
    Act-On Software
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    8.3
    10 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Campaign success analytics00 Ratings8.010 Ratings
    Real-time tracking00 Ratings9.010 Ratings
    Competitor analysis00 Ratings8.08 Ratings
    Account management
    Comparison of Account management features of Act-On Software and Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    Feature
    Act-On Software
    -
    Ratings
    Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    8.5
    10 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Role-based user permissions & privileges00 Ratings8.09 Ratings
    Mobile access00 Ratings9.010 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Act-OnSalesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    Small Businesses
    Vbout
    Score9.9 out of 10
    Sendible
    Score7.2 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Bloomreach
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Emplifi
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Iterable
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Sprinklr Social
    Score8.8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Act-OnSalesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.9
    (229 ratings)
    10.0
    (52 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.9
    (112 ratings)
    8.8
    (38 ratings)
    Usability
    8.2
    (44 ratings)
    8.0
    (10 ratings)
    Availability
    9.1
    (14 ratings)
    9.6
    (5 ratings)
    Performance
    8.2
    (13 ratings)
    8.4
    (5 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.3
    (39 ratings)
    9.0
    (8 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    8.7
    (4 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    9.3
    (16 ratings)
    7.6
    (6 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.6
    (22 ratings)
    9.8
    (6 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-OnSalesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    If you're tasked with publishing content to social on behalf of your organization then this tool is certainly worth considering. You have quick and easy capability to schedule across multiple platforms with drag-and-drop simplicity. It ties into Salesforce's real strength of its CRM platform so you can quickly tie social activity and leads to those already in your database. And it does a good job at monitoring and analyzing brand and competitor content across multiple media types. Having said that, if you're into deep-dive and full functionality SaaS tools then this might not be for you as it covers three areas adequately, but not in enough detail or strength to make it a star performer
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • The amount of the information that radian6 can pull from multiple social platforms is absolutely phenomenal. Its just not only the pull but the way the information can be presented in dashboards was way good. It helped us understand in various aspects of our social presence.
    • Multiple profiles helped us to break down the Big/Huge social buzz cloud to smaller and more manageable pieces. This helped us concentrate on the lows and helped us to plan better on turning them to highs.
    • Radian6 allowed us to follow thru the crowd trends with the latest information presented in a single view. This also helped us to collect the social opinion on the product releases.
    • The ease of use, one need not be an expert to start using this platform. The interface is easily understandable by anyone.
    • A keyword can be edited quickly to tailor the needs and the results were quick.
    Incentivized
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • Instagram Social Listening - it currently does not offer much social listening in terms of Instagram.
    • Instagram Owned - It currently stops pulling once an update is "old" by their standards, even if it receives recent comments. They can force pull, but you have to work with their tech team to do so.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Discontinued Products
    I spent a lot of time researching the right platform for me and our organisation (thanks to the other reviews on TrustRadius also). Having used other platforms when I found frustrations getting my everyday work done, I knew exactly what I wanted and this is why I chose Social Studio. While there have been a few hiccups, the quarterly update releases and the outstanding tech support have kept me more than happy.
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • Would rate this a 6. The User Interface is pretty intuitive, but the platform was still considered pretty intimidating by our non-technical staff when they first saw it. It took a while to get used to it and feel comfortable. There was quite a lot of setup work in the beginning (for example, we had to build our own reports using a canned report as a template, and this was not simple). Although it took a while to get it setup correctly, it’s quite intuitive once that work has been done.
    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.
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    The platform is rarely down
    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
    Discontinued Products
    No issues with performance.
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    As mentioned previously, it can be hard to get through to people who can help you. On occasion when I have spoken to customer service/tech support, they all seem nice and try to be helpful, however instead of admitting the system cannot do certain things, they will persist it saying that it can, which results in many wasted hours overall.
    Read full review
    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
    Discontinued Products
    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.
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • We initially received dedicated online training for our team which was delivered by our account rep. This was pretty effective since it happened after our data had been loaded into the system and it had been configured for specific needs our organization. The training was perhaps a bit shallow though, as it was only an hour long. Online videos are available to be taken individually, and these have been useful.
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    Implementation was pretty simple. Just a matter of giving the account rep a list of our search terms and having him set the system up to pull the data we wanted to see. Once this had been done, we tweaked it with his help. Process was pretty smooth, although there was some back and forth until it worked the way we wanted.
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    Compared to Radian6, I found Meltwater Buzz, Simply Measured, and Sprout Social to be much more user friendly. Meltwater Buzz and Radian6 are very similar products with many of the same functionalities but Buzz presents your analytics in a way that is much easier to understand. I did a two week trial with Sprout Social and absolutely loved the product but our company needed the capability to connect to Salesforce, which is available on R6 and Buzz. Simply Measured is my all time favorite but I have only used the free version so I am not completely sure how it stacks up to Radian6
    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.
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • Monitoring social brand awareness is not something you can consider to have a meaninful impact in your business ROI short term, however it's a must for taking care of long term relationships and customer intimacy.
    • Radian6 connects with other analytical tools like webtrends, Google Analytics, etc..however it's not directly linked to a revenue driven platform, you can´t see the immediate ROI generated in the tool.
    • If you bet for social relationships you should consider this tool, no question on that. Social Commerce might be of course impacted postively by the proper use of this tool.
    Incentivized
    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.