Act-On Software vs. Yesware

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)
Yesware
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
Yesware, from Vendasta since the October 2022 acquisition, is a service for salespeople that helps them close deals faster. An email service tracks email, templates responses and syncs to CRM.
$19
per month
Pricing
Act-On SoftwareYesware
Editions & Modules
Professional
$900
per month (starts at 2,500 active contacts)
Enterprise
$2,000
per month ( starts at 2,500 active contacts)
Pro
$19
per month
Premium
$45
per month
Enterprise
$85
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Act-OnYesware
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
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.Annual plans save up to 23%.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Act-On SoftwareYesware
Considered Both Products
Act-On
Chose Act-On Software
For a sales department, Act-on doesn't have many of the core functions of either ToutApp or Yesware.

Act-on is really a marketing tool that has bolted on a few features so that it can be sold as a tool for both marketing and sales. It was purchased by marketing without much …
Chose Act-On Software
I've used MailChimp and Constant Contact (both on lower level versions, not the more robust enterprise versions). I've evaluated Marketo.

The former two are not full service automation, but I would prefer them over Act-On solely for email services. I'd love Marketo, but I wasn't …
Yesware

No answer on this topic

Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Act-On SoftwareYesware
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
Yesware
-
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
Yesware
-
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
Yesware
-
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
Yesware
-
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
Yesware
-
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
Yesware
-
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 SoftwareYesware
Small Businesses
Vbout
Vbout
Score 9.4 out of 10
Mailtrack
Mailtrack
Score 8.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.3 out of 10
Mailtrack
Mailtrack
Score 8.4 out of 10
Enterprises
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.3 out of 10
Groove, a Clari company
Groove, a Clari company
Score 8.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Act-On SoftwareYesware
Likelihood to Recommend
8.1
(219 ratings)
8.4
(62 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.9
(112 ratings)
9.0
(6 ratings)
Usability
9.1
(32 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(14 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.2
(13 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.3
(39 ratings)
8.2
(12 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 SoftwareYesware
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
Vendasta
It works for my company and my problems. If you need a Sales CRM you can go for higher-end products that will give you what Yesware gives along with other stuff. Wherein we had specific problems we wanted to solve. -We needed a solution for a smaller team within our bigger sales team. -We needed a solution to be easy to use point and click and did not require any setup. -We needed to have a better solution to YAMM.
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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
Vendasta
  • Tracking open rates, link click rates, and reply rates. This allows us to compare different templates in order to see which allows for the most interactions and meetings set directly from email engagement.
  • Seeing exactly when someone opens an email and whether it is in their normal location. Also if they are opening on a mobile device versus a computer to be able to organize the set up of the email in a more beneficial way.
  • Being able to save Templates for Mail Merges to avoid the duplication of effort that other mass email systems utilize.
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
Vendasta
  • The ability to unwrap iframe embeds on email (e.g. if I send a Vimeo link over email, have that video thumbnail show and link out to a video)
  • Removing recipients from a campaign. If my ruleset is to remove a contact from a sequence after he/she replies, sometimes a person will reply from another email and Yesware doesn't recognize it. (e.g. if I add jeff@amazon.com to my campaign and jeff.bezos@amazon.com replies to my thread, Yesware will still send an email to jeff@amazon.com unless he is manually removed)
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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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Vendasta
I like the product, but due to the limitations I don't love it. I'm curious to revisit other options, particularly in lieu of Yesware's recent price increases (although I'm on a legacy plan). Some of my challenges to be browser related (I'm on an older computer) -- I'll have to see how things go when I receive my new computer. If the glitches (especially with regard to tracking accuracy and send later feature) go away, I'd be much more inclined to renew
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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
Vendasta
Pretty good overall, but again it needs some tweaks to ensure user frustration is kept to a minimum. This would go back to the autosave feature I mentioned which would immediately be a value add but not something that should need a user to move into a paid tier.
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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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Vendasta
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
Vendasta
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
Vendasta
Because it deserves this rating. The features and functionality provided are great. Our Sales team is very satisfied with this software as it integrates very well with our other software like Outlook, Salesforce, etc. Yesware provides great follow up with customers, which is essential for sales. Meeting scheduling is also flawless.
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
Vendasta
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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Vendasta
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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Vendasta
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
Vendasta
All of these tools do what Yesware does, and more; but Yesware does the follow-up email portion best, in my experience. It is reasonably priced and is regularly adding new functionality to make it a sticky license for us to have. Yesware does not have predictive analytics or a particularly strong dialer solution, but it does provide team-wide and template efficacy tracking, and a basic dialer.
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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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Vendasta
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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Vendasta
  • I think net positive ROI from generating meetings that lead to closed deals. Ultimately very difficult to quantify the ROI since it is essentially automating a lot of the manual prospecting done by BDRs/AEs - so ROI is likely higher than just that quantifiable number around deals closed.
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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

Yesware Screenshots

Screenshot of CampaignsScreenshot of Email Templates