ActiveCampaign vs. iContact Pro Select

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
ActiveCampaign
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
ActiveCampaign helps small teams power big businesses with a platform for intelligent marketing automation. It provides email marketing, marketing automation, and CRM tools that help businesses to create incredible customer experiences.
$19
per month
iContact Pro Select
Score 6.5 out of 10
N/A
iContact Pro Select (formerly Outmarket) includes email marketing, landing pages, social media management, press outreach, and analytics. The software was originally Vocus Marketing Suite, and then was known as Outmarket. It was acquired by Cision
$300
per month
Pricing
ActiveCampaigniContact Pro Select
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Basic
$300
per month
Plus
$600
per month
Pro
$1,000
per month
Enterprise
$2,500
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ActiveCampaigniContact Pro Select
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
ActiveCampaigniContact Pro Select
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
ActiveCampaigniContact Pro Select
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
8.9
664 Ratings
13% above category average
iContact Pro Select
-
Ratings
WYSIWYG email editor9.4581 Ratings00 Ratings
Dynamic content9.1520 Ratings00 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content8.8471 Ratings00 Ratings
Landing pages8.0338 Ratings00 Ratings
A/B testing9.1380 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile optimization9.3526 Ratings00 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting7.3631 Ratings00 Ratings
List management9.6650 Ratings00 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences9.7574 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
7.5
524 Ratings
3% below category average
iContact Pro Select
-
Ratings
Lead nurturing automation9.2491 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead scoring and grading8.0359 Ratings00 Ratings
Data quality management9.2401 Ratings00 Ratings
Automated sales alerts and tasks9.2355 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead segmentation and distribution1.81 Ratings00 Ratings
Campaign Management
Comparison of Campaign Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
9.6
374 Ratings
23% above category average
iContact Pro Select
-
Ratings
Calendaring9.6295 Ratings00 Ratings
Event/webinar marketing9.5286 Ratings00 Ratings
Social Media Marketing
Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
9.5
287 Ratings
23% above category average
iContact Pro Select
-
Ratings
Social sharing and campaigns9.6254 Ratings00 Ratings
Social profile integration9.5250 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
8.4
627 Ratings
11% above category average
iContact Pro Select
-
Ratings
Dashboards8.0597 Ratings00 Ratings
Standard reports8.0584 Ratings00 Ratings
Custom reports9.1377 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
9.2
491 Ratings
19% above category average
iContact Pro Select
-
Ratings
API9.6391 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-based workflow & approvals9.2267 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizability9.4420 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com9.392 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM9.860 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with SugarCRM9.856 Ratings00 Ratings
Third-party software integrations7.520 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
ActiveCampaigniContact Pro Select
Small Businesses
Vbout
Vbout
Score 9.5 out of 10
Vbout
Vbout
Score 9.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.3 out of 10
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.3 out of 10
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
ActiveCampaigniContact Pro Select
Likelihood to Recommend
7.8
(676 ratings)
6.8
(3 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.4
(25 ratings)
6.1
(3 ratings)
Usability
7.7
(38 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
7.0
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
1.4
(41 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
7.3
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.6
(14 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
6.4
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.0
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
1.5
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
6.4
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
7.2
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
ActiveCampaigniContact Pro Select
Likelihood to Recommend
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is brilliant for small businesses wanting a secure, reliable and user friendly email capture software that filters users emails into the appropriate category/tags and have endless options when it comes to having different lead magnets and ways users may sign up. It's been super handy for my small business to send regular emails and be able to analyse the success rates and open rates of emails and the ability to resend them with a different subject line. It's made email marketing really easy peasy.
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iContact
If you use PRWeb already and are looking for a tool that integrates well with that program and offers additional functionality with email and social media then Vocus is great. If you don't use PRWeb or prefer an email tool with more functionality and ease of use, Vocus is not the best choice.
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Pros
ActiveCampaign
  • The graphic design is very good, especially fonts, colours and templates
  • Flexibility of design and functionality
  • Takes a little while to learn it, but generally user-friendly
  • Looks very professional but doesn't cost much to get started
  • There are masses of integrations for ActiveCampaign, and the ones I tried all worked well and didn't take long to figure out.
Read full review
iContact
  • Social Media Listening e.g.: Recommendations, Identify influencers for a selected topic, based on actual influence, or number of reposts and/or references, rather than the number of followers.
  • Campaign Management - Landing Page and Web Form Templates
  • Email Marketing -Delivery Tracking and Spam Analysis
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Cons
ActiveCampaign
  • The email designing part could be easier to use. There are certain simple shortcuts that don't work, for example, adding links is more complicated than it should be, moving blocks around is hard, etc.
  • There's no good way to filter by 'active' and 'inactive' subscribers when editing en-mass.
  • I'd like more reporting data on one page.
Read full review
iContact
  • Vocus can do a better job communicating with us. The representative made promises to us that I have not seen be fulfilled such as getting us national media hits through connections that he had.
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Likelihood to Renew
ActiveCampaign
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.
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iContact
Now that we have had the opportunity to try an enterprise wide marketing solution, I think we should look at other tools and programs that have greater flexibility and ease of use. If the tool does not happen to have PR Web then so be it. We may not see the cost savings with PR announcements but if the other tools have increased email functionality then we can part with more money on the PR side like we have in the past
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Usability
ActiveCampaign
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.
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iContact
No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
ActiveCampaign
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.
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iContact
No answers on this topic
Performance
ActiveCampaign
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.
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iContact
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
ActiveCampaign
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.
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iContact
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
ActiveCampaign
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.
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iContact
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
ActiveCampaign
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.
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iContact
I've used MailChimp before to generate emails and found Vocus to be a better option because it is an overall suite providing the tools to create customizable emails as well as many other features including press releases, social media etc. Vocus is an all-in-one platform for marketing which makes things more efficient for the user by being able to handle all marketing through one outlet.
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Scalability
ActiveCampaign
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!
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iContact
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
ActiveCampaign
  • 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
Read full review
iContact
  • Much more targeted email marketing. Spam analysis helped improve our overall email performance.
  • Increased customer engagement through social media listening.
  • Scheduled emails increased email open and click-through rates by 120%!
Read full review
ScreenShots

ActiveCampaign Screenshots

Screenshot of tagging, that when combined with conditional content helps to put the right message in front of each customer.Screenshot of marketing automationScreenshot of audience segmentation based on engagement, purchase activity, lead score, or any other dimensionScreenshot of live chat, site messaging, email, and a unified inbox that can be used to build relationships with customers.Screenshot of the CRM, which helps sales reps to get more done in less time