ActiveCampaign vs. ClickFunnels

I've been using ActiveCampaign since around 2018-2019 and I've always been satisfied with the software. It's simple to use, connects with the other tools I use and makes it easy for me to duplicate automations, email templates and workflows as I need to. On top of that, any time I've had an issue (which I think is around twice in the past 5/6 years), the customer service has always been super helpful and my issue has been resolved quickly.

Incentivized

Great for an all-in-one marketing package. From the web page to lead and email capture. Running ads to a sales funnel page to capture leads to a sale on a shopping cart page and the ability to up-sell and down-sell products with ease. Whether your business is face-to-face or online ClickFunnels has everything and more that you require to run marketing.

Incentivized

• Collects and filters emails from various lead magnets exceptionally well (especially if a user wants to re-sign up to the same lead magnet and go through it again, they can)
• Super easy to use email creation that is aesthetically pleasing and user friendly
• Easy email sequences and user classification from a large range of opt in trigger options

Incentivized

• The ease of building landing pages is incredible. It's just drag and drop, and still very customizable. It's simple enough that anyone can build a page, not just a designer. They have simple templates to start from and you can make a great branded page easily from there.
• It's great at generating leads. You can embed simple opt-in forms in webpages at the top of your landing page and integrate with your CRM and it also stores your leads in the system as well. Opting in can trigger a number of different actions, including a thank you page, a second offer, or trigger an automated email.
• ClickFunnels's biggest strength is sales funnels. Easily create a continuous set of pages that get someone from a visitor to a subscriber, and to a paid customer. You don't have to "glue" a bunch of different systems together like a page builder, shopping cart, eCommerce tool, email marketing tool, or CRM. It's all interconnected so you can churn out sales quickly, all automated.

Incentivized

• It took me a while to get to understand where to find things, and I used a free online course from a consultant who specialises in AC to help me get the foundations set up more easily. That said, there were lots of onboarding workshops, which were good. It just felt like it required a lot of different angles of learning to just get started.
• The customer support took longer than other software to get back to me via email, though once I found the chat option for my most recent query, that was fast.
• I've ended up switching to another programme where more software is more naturally integrated, and the AC equivalent is included in the price, along with many other types of software. However, design-wise, ActiveCampaign is much better.
• I also had a problem with a form used on my WordPress website, which has a BuddyBoss platform - the colours on the form would be overridden by colour choices for the website, so they were hard to read (pink text on purple background instead of the gold text it was meant to be)
• I couldn't always find the templates I was looking for or how to access them for automation-based emails. I think when I used it, there was a new type of template for newsletters that weren't available for automations, so I had to recreate it, which added time.

Incentivized

• End USER EXPERIENCE - OH. MY. GOODNESS. This software needs help in the design department. I don't like critiquing people or products, but in this case, you need to get someone to help you with design to really make your landing page look professional (this is attached to your brand image). A lot of direct response marketers use this platform for younger brands, so typically the designed landing pages on this software don't look great.
• User navigation - It's not necessarily user intuitive.
• The software has interior platforms for membership courses - But this is not a great user experience for your course. A micro-course, 7-day trial, or mini-course as an opt-in offer might work here, but COACHES, do not use this as the delivery system of your membership course. Go elsewhere for that, like Teachable, MyKajabi, or Thinkific.
• They need to make more room for templates. The basic plan of $99 only allows you to have 20 landing pages. According to industry leaders, you should have 40 per offer.

Incentivized

I am committed at the moment. Rebuilding the automations I have would be a huge time drain. Plus the cost of learning a new system and the risk to deliverability of porting a 6,000 person list to a new platform. Also, AC offers everything I need ast a reasonable (but a little high) price. So, why not a 10? Because, early 2023, AC dropped a massive 2x price hike on long-term customers. They knew few would shift, so this feels like a cynical cash grab and left a bad taste, If they do something like this again, this camel will have a broken back.

Incentivized

I use the funnel on a daily basis and spent a significant sum to hire someone to set this up and design the funnel, there's no way I won't renew the funnel. It is easy to maintain, very cost-effective, and doesn't require a lot of my time to manage properly.

Incentivized

ActiveCampaign has been the easiest marketing automation software we have ever used. They provide tips throughout the entire process of anything you are building. Their support team through LIVE CHAT has been extremely fast and helpful. The monthly meetings provided with the enablement team has helped us through several large and urgent needs.

Very easy to use and manage. There have been a few times I have needed to make some edits or change the flow of the funnel, and even though I didn't do the initial setup, I have no problems figuring out how to make the changes on my own without their help.

Incentivized

I haven't experienced application errors or unplanned outages at all. Active Campaign is ultra reliable and I would not be using them if that were the case. Also, the helpful emails they send are welcomed and informative, and present very practical tips and guidance for using the platform. They're always demonstrating new features and I'm thankful for that.

Incentivized

Oh my gosh, Active Campaign's performance gets an A+++ in my book. The pages load quickly and so do the reports. I haven't noticed any slowdowns when it's integrating with other programs and it performs excellently on all levels.

Incentivized

This might be the best part. The chat support lady offered to make a video to help me solve my problem. I worked in customer service for years and I've never done that, lol. So, if they're offering things like that, I can only imagine that they'd be able to handle most any issue you throw at them.

Incentivized

I don't think you should have to wait for more than an hour or two to get in touch with someone when you need support. Because they primarily have overseas help, it's typically at least until the next business day until you get help. Then there is the language barrier to deal with. It's not ideal. I have contacted support a few times and have gotten answers. However, I consider myself much savvier than most in terms of understanding all the behind the scenes issues that go on with building a website and online marketing funnels. So if I were a beginner or not as familiar with how to code and create websites, I would think the support is terrible.

Incentivized

Very satisfied with our implementation in our professional medical practice, allowing us to be on top of client service, and not miss out on crucial information and insights. Marketing is often neglected in professional practices and ActiveCampaign solved this problem with aplomb.

Incentivized

Yes, I highly recommend you hire an expert for this. While CF claims that anyone can set up a funnel, there's a difference between having a funnel and having a funnel that works. Between the design and the copy you use, unless you have a marketing background, hire an expert.

Incentivized

I moved to ActiveCampaign from Mailchimp. Admittedly, I was using the free version of Mailchimp, but I had numerous episodes of subscriber data NOT being added to Mailchimp, despite using API to integrate with my mailing list. Obviously, I couldn't pay for clicks and not capture subscriber data, so I had to find something else. ActiveCampaign has been 100% reliable in testing.

Incentivized

I went with ClickFunnels due to recommendation by a digital marketing mentor. WordPress to me had too much maintenance in the background and it was more time consuming to build pages at the time. Mailchimp is an email marketing software with a website builder and landing page builder but the payment integrations where limited. Kajabi was simply out of my budget at the time and it had more features than i needed

Incentivized

My web designer told me about Active Campaign and although I don't recall which platform I had before, I LOVE Active Campaign and its user friendliness. The transition was seamless and I've never had a problem with functionality or server failure.

Active Campaign provides so many features, and makes it easy for non-techies to maneuver around the site with ease. They capture information and put it in an easy-to-read format.

At this point, I don't think I'd ever use any other platform!

Incentivized

• I haven't monetized my list yet so no clear ROI but great from a list-building perspective
• The software is not cheap so at times I feel like I may not be getting the most out of the product because I'm not using all of the features

Incentivized

• My clients make more money with it than without it
• Other builders aren't necessarily better...we've tried and keep coming back to CF
• If CF 2.0 (which launches around March I'm told) is anywhere near as impressive as Russell Brunson makes it sound, it will be a TOTAL game changer when compared to the current version...(which will still be available as well)

Incentivized