ActiveCampaign vs dotMailer

What users are saying about

Score 8.6 out of 10

Based on 76 reviews and ratings

Score 7.2 out of 10

Based on 13 reviews and ratings

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Feature Rating Comparison

ActiveCampaign

7.9

dotMailer

9.0

WYSIWYG email editor

7.7

9.0

Dynamic content

7.6

9.0

Ability to test dynamic content

7.7

9.0

Landing pages

6.8

—

A/B testing

7.4

—

Mobile optimization

7.8

9.0

Email deliverability

8.3

9.0

List management

8.3

9.0

Triggered drip sequences

9.3

9.0

ActiveCampaign

7.2

dotMailer

—

Dashboards

7.2

—

Standard reports

7.4

—

Custom reports

7.0

—

Pros

Simple, easy, and fast setup for lists. You can set up a new list in just seconds. And also, they allow you to have an unlimited number of lists and tags that keep things organized.
Powerful automations and a clean interface to build them. ActiveCampaign is a powerful tool, allowing you to segment users and send them congruent messaging.
Great deliverability. Email marketing is only as useful as the number of emails that get received. If your emails don't send or wind up in spam or junk or promotions folders, that will severely inhibit your email marketing efforts.

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Ben Marcoux Roofing Lead Generation Expert

Manager @ BMX Marketing LLC

BMX Marketing, LLCMarketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees

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Segmentation by distance.
RFM segmentation.
Product recommendations.

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Tim Berman

Founder and Growth Evangelist

Big Red's Equipment SalesRetail, 11-50 employees

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Cons

Since it has so many options, a beginner might be overwhelmed by the choices available. This is hard to avoid when offering so much flexibility, but still, a new user would be well-served to watch some tutorials and have a clear idea about the workflow they want to get started.
There is a point at which your list will outgrow the service (hopefully!) and you might want to think about switching to a service whose CRM and landing page functionality is more robust.

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Nicholas De Salvo

Founder, Creative Director

Edge One MediaDesign, 1-10 employees

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Integration is overly complex.
Cannot progressively profile from anything other than an email address.
Too expensive.

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Tim Berman

Founder and Growth Evangelist

Big Red's Equipment SalesRetail, 11-50 employees

View all 2 answers on this topic

Likelihood to Renew

ActiveCampaign10.0

Based on 1 answer

I've tried over half a dozen email autoresponders and ActiveCampaign is by far my favorite. The ability to send emails is the backbone of my business. The "cheap" email marketing tools designed for the mass market are not powerful or intuitive to set up and also don't have the best deliverability. And the "expensive" ones are usually super confusing to use.

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Ben Marcoux Roofing Lead Generation Expert

Manager @ BMX Marketing LLC

BMX Marketing, LLCMarketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees

View all 1 answers on this topic

dotMailer10.0

Based on 1 answer

Since this is used on a global scale and it is preferable to all of our brands, I cannot see us switching to a different provider. We have built years worth of contacts and templates within our current system, which saves our marketing team a lot of time when putting together future campaigns. All of them are mobile optimized which makes it even easier to work with

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Amanda Kocefas

Marketing Manager

FiveTen GroupStaffing and Recruiting, 501-1000 employees

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Usability

ActiveCampaign9.0

Based on 1 answer

It's super easy and fast to set up automations and email lists. In under five minutes, you can be mailing your list. I'm not a fan of complexity, and I'm also not a fan of being hamstrung by weak tools, so I really like using ActiveCampaign. It's the perfect blend of simplicity and power.

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Ben Marcoux Roofing Lead Generation Expert

Manager @ BMX Marketing LLC

BMX Marketing, LLCMarketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees

View all 1 answers on this topic

No score

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Reliability and Availability

ActiveCampaign10.0

Based on 1 answer

I've never had ActiveCampaign down for maintenance. I'm sure they update things, but they always seem to manage to stay live. Also, I've had very few errors, if any. None come to mind. This might be to due to the fact I focus on building things as simply as possible, but I also believe it's due to the quality of the software.

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Ben Marcoux Roofing Lead Generation Expert

Manager @ BMX Marketing LLC

BMX Marketing, LLCMarketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees

View all 1 answers on this topic

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Performance

ActiveCampaign10.0

Based on 1 answer

ActiveCampaign works seamlessly with the other tools I use. It integrates directly with most. And if no direct integration is available, there is almost always one you can make using Zapier. I've yet to run into a technical error that prevented me from doing something I wanted to be able to do.

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Ben Marcoux Roofing Lead Generation Expert

Manager @ BMX Marketing LLC

BMX Marketing, LLCMarketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees

View all 1 answers on this topic

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Support

ActiveCampaign9.0

Based on 1 answer

I have only had to reach out to ActiveCampaign support a couple of times, and every time they have helped me out quickly and efficiently. They get back to you pretty quickly and usually have the solution figured out within just a couple of message exchanges. Please keep in mind I use the simple features of ActiveCampaign, so if there's a complication solution you're looking for help with, your experience with support might be a little different.

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Ben Marcoux Roofing Lead Generation Expert

Manager @ BMX Marketing LLC

BMX Marketing, LLCMarketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees

View all 1 answers on this topic

No score

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Implementation

ActiveCampaign10.0

Based on 1 answer

If your email marketing strategy is clunky and confusing then it doesn't matter what tool you use or need to set up. It will take time to set it up. However, if you favor simple and effective email marketing strategies then you'll find that setting up ActiveCampaign is a breeze. And the results you'll get with it will far outweigh the time it takes to set it up.

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Ben Marcoux Roofing Lead Generation Expert

Manager @ BMX Marketing LLC

BMX Marketing, LLCMarketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees

View all 1 answers on this topic

No score

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Alternatives Considered

I think overall ActiveCampaign is more of an all-in-one solution than other similar products we have tried. The price is also a factor, ActiveCampaign is much more affordable and still has great support. I think that the editor and sequences in ActiveCampaign are more natural and user-friendly than Infusionsoft and MailChimp.

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Verified User

Partner in Other

Graphic Design Company, 1-10 employees

View all 27 answers on this topic

DotMailer is built for eCommerce. Drip, ActiveCampaign, and Infusionsoft are not eCommerce platforms out of the box, though they can be tailored to that use case. DotMailer is especially geared toward retail businesses.

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Tim Berman

Founder and Growth Evangelist

Big Red's Equipment SalesRetail, 11-50 employees

View all 2 answers on this topic

Scalability

ActiveCampaign10.0

Based on 1 answer

I've tried several of the email services available today. ActiveCampaign makes it easy and fast to get set up. And they have some of the best email deliverability available today as well. That's really important when it comes to email marketing, because winding up in spam or promotion folders makes your email marketing efforts and uphill battle.

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Ben Marcoux Roofing Lead Generation Expert

Manager @ BMX Marketing LLC

BMX Marketing, LLCMarketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees

View all 1 answers on this topic

No score

No answers yet

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Return on Investment

ActiveCampaign is the base of our marketing communications operations. So all the leads that we generate and nurture go through ActiveCampaign, which means most of not all of our revenue directly or indirectly is related to ActiveCampaign. It helps us operate and grow the business.
It helps us provide more personalized experience for new leads as well as our existing customers.
It makes communication more efficient, especially with the Gmail integration.

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Viktor Nagornyy

Marketing Strategist

ProjectArmyMarketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees

View all 27 answers on this topic

Gave us more granular segmentation than simply pages visited or products purchased.
Helped us segment local customers vs long-distance customers, and send different messaging to each.
It takes a product feed, so enabled us to launch personalized product recommendations in emails.

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Tim Berman

Founder and Growth Evangelist

Big Red's Equipment SalesRetail, 11-50 employees

View all 2 answers on this topic

Pricing Details

ActiveCampaign

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

Yes

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

Additional Pricing Details

—

dotMailer

General

Free Trial

Yes

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

Additional Pricing Details

—

Add comparison

Likelihood to Recommend

ActiveCampaign

dotMailer

Feature Rating Comparison

WYSIWYG email editor

Dynamic content

Ability to test dynamic content

Landing pages

A/B testing

Mobile optimization

Email deliverability

List management

Triggered drip sequences

Dashboards

Standard reports

Custom reports

Pros

Cons

Likelihood to Renew

Usability

Reliability and Availability

Performance

Support

Implementation

Alternatives Considered

Scalability

Return on Investment

Pricing Details

ActiveCampaign

General

Free Trial

Free/Freemium Version

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Entry-level set up fee?

Additional Pricing Details

dotMailer

General

Free Trial

Free/Freemium Version

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Entry-level set up fee?

Additional Pricing Details

Rating Summary