Act-On Software vs. Sugar Market

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
Sugar Market
Score 2.1 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
Sugar Market (formerly Salesfusion) is a marketing automation solution built to work for the user. With a curated toolset that includes intuitive campaign builders, automations and reporting, the vendor says they focus on what matters most to marketers -- streamlining campaign creation, understanding engagement, improving conversion, and driving more revenue. Salesfusion was acquired by SugarCRM May 2019.
$750
per month
Pricing
Act-On SoftwareSugar Market
Editions & Modules
Professional
$900
per month
Enterprise
$2,000+
per month
Core
$1,000
Database size
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Act-OnSugar Market
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeRequired
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.Prices listed are monthly subscription rates. Our packages include live support and training. Additional charges apply for contact databases above 10k, dedicated IPs, CRM integration and sandboxes. Please complete the form on our site to request a quote based on your specific needs.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Act-On SoftwareSugar Market
Considered Both Products
Act-On
Chose Act-On Software
We were actually first leaning towards HubSpot, however they couldn't agree to our standard Code of Conduct (as a principle they never do) and since we have some strict purchasing routines that includes the supplier signing our CoC we were unable to go through with the deal. In …
Chose Act-On Software
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.
Chose Act-On Software

Salesfusion was the best alternative to Act-On in my evaluation but there were a few things that ultimately had us side with Act-On. Integrations with Outlook, Customer Service, User Friendly Interface and Sales portal for our Sales Executives. These tools really made the …

Chose Act-On Software
It's been years since my product evaluation prior to selecting Act-On, but we do use Salesfusion, which is a marketing automation tool for SalesLogix. Act-On is much more intuitive and user friendly. The pieces tie in together better. I believe there may be more functionality …
Sugar Market

No answer on this topic

Features
Act-On SoftwareSugar Market
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
8.2
124 Ratings
8% above category average
Sugar Market
4.4
4 Ratings
53% below category average
WYSIWYG email editor7.6123 Ratings3.03 Ratings
Dynamic content8.2102 Ratings5.03 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content8.0102 Ratings4.02 Ratings
Landing pages8.2118 Ratings6.03 Ratings
A/B testing8.0106 Ratings4.03 Ratings
Mobile optimization8.3113 Ratings1.03 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting8.3123 Ratings7.04 Ratings
List management8.7122 Ratings4.04 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences8.598 Ratings6.03 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
8.2
124 Ratings
5% above category average
Sugar Market
5.3
4 Ratings
38% below category average
Lead nurturing automation8.4113 Ratings6.04 Ratings
Lead scoring and grading8.3113 Ratings4.04 Ratings
Data quality management8.3112 Ratings5.04 Ratings
Automated sales alerts and tasks7.8104 Ratings6.03 Ratings
Campaign Management
Comparison of Campaign Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
7.5
84 Ratings
1% above category average
Sugar Market
6.5
3 Ratings
13% below category average
Calendaring6.88 Ratings6.03 Ratings
Event/webinar marketing8.183 Ratings7.02 Ratings
Social Media Marketing
Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
7.3
75 Ratings
2% below category average
Sugar Market
8.2
1 Ratings
10% above category average
Social sharing and campaigns7.373 Ratings8.21 Ratings
Social profile integration7.367 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
7.5
124 Ratings
3% above category average
Sugar Market
2.3
4 Ratings
104% below category average
Dashboards7.6118 Ratings5.04 Ratings
Standard reports7.6122 Ratings1.04 Ratings
Custom reports7.493 Ratings1.04 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
7.7
117 Ratings
4% above category average
Sugar Market
4.8
4 Ratings
43% below category average
API8.377 Ratings5.02 Ratings
Role-based workflow & approvals8.478 Ratings6.02 Ratings
Customizability7.898 Ratings3.02 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com8.569 Ratings9.22 Ratings
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM7.038 Ratings1.01 Ratings
Integration with SugarCRM6.830 Ratings00 Ratings
Third-party software integrations7.48 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Act-On SoftwareSugar Market
Small Businesses
Vbout
Vbout
Score 10.0 out of 10
Vbout
Vbout
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.1 out of 10
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.1 out of 10
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Act-On SoftwareSugar Market
Likelihood to Recommend
8.9
(229 ratings)
3.0
(7 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.9
(112 ratings)
10.0
(3 ratings)
Usability
8.2
(44 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(14 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.2
(13 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.3
(39 ratings)
8.2
(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 SoftwareSugar Market
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.
Read full review
SugarCRM
Salesfusion is a marketing automation platform more appropriate for small companies considering the limited functionalities are limited. The email builder tool is easy to use and ideal for someone with no coding knowledge
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.
Read full review
SugarCRM
  • It was easy to navigate.
  • I liked that I could click on a link to email a potential client and that it would track/link that email back to the Salesfusion profile.
  • I liked the reporting features so that I could see exactly how many cold calls resulted in appointments, with whom I last left voicemail or need to follow up with.
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
SugarCRM
  • The user interface is somewhat cumbersome and not intuitive at times.
  • Additional user education available through downloads for existing customers rather than scheduled webinars would be helpful.
  • Custom reporting is complicated to set up.
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
SugarCRM
We've been very happy with SalesFusion since day 1. We've also created a new website during the time period that we've had SF and everything carried over great to our new website!
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.
Read full review
SugarCRM
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.
Read full review
SugarCRM
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
SugarCRM
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
Read full review
SugarCRM
The support team has always been helpful, friendly, prompt and knowledgeable. They follow-up on all my tickets promptly and when needed are available for screen sharing to illustrate solutions for more complex problems. The support department at Salesfusion is one of my favorite things about the platform.
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
SugarCRM
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
SugarCRM
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
Read full review
SugarCRM
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.
Read full review
SugarCRM
I was using Net-Results and it seemed more geared for an experienced marketer who was familiar with HTML and didn't need as much training. I found the system frustrating and didn't have much success when I called in for training. I was brand new to automation marketing and needed more hand-holding than Net-Results was able to provide
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
SugarCRM
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.
Read full review
SugarCRM
  • Increased employee efficiency
  • Better customer service
  • The ability to send email campaigns from a specific user and not "from" the organization title. We use this funcationality a lot and it was not available with other software so this is huge.
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.