ActiveCampaign vs. InboundWriter

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
ActiveCampaign
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
ActiveCampaign is presented as an AI-first marketing platform for marketers, agencies, and entrepreneurs. It uses Active Intelligence for goal-aware automation and personalized experiences across email, SMS, and WhatsApp. ActiveCampaign integrates with 950+ apps and generates insights to optimize every workflow.
$15
per month
InboundWriter
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
InboundWriter is a relatively focused content marketing tool containing predictive analytics, suggestions, and authoring guidelines for content optimization. InboundWriter has been backed by about $2.5 million in venture capital since its inception in 2011.N/A
Pricing
ActiveCampaignInboundWriter
Editions & Modules
Starter
$15
per month
Pro
$49
per month
Plus
$79
per month
Enterprise
$159
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ActiveCampaignInboundWriter
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
ActiveCampaignInboundWriter
Features
ActiveCampaignInboundWriter
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
8.6
688 Ratings
12% above category average
InboundWriter
-
Ratings
WYSIWYG email editor8.3605 Ratings00 Ratings
Dynamic content8.0539 Ratings00 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content8.0488 Ratings00 Ratings
Landing pages7.0356 Ratings00 Ratings
A/B testing8.8398 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile optimization8.8545 Ratings00 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting9.0654 Ratings00 Ratings
List management9.3673 Ratings00 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences10.0594 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
8.6
541 Ratings
9% above category average
InboundWriter
-
Ratings
Lead nurturing automation9.1507 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead scoring and grading8.5370 Ratings00 Ratings
Data quality management9.5413 Ratings00 Ratings
Automated sales alerts and tasks8.3365 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead segmentation and distribution7.917 Ratings00 Ratings
Campaign Management
Comparison of Campaign Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
9.7
388 Ratings
26% above category average
InboundWriter
-
Ratings
Calendaring9.9308 Ratings00 Ratings
Event/webinar marketing9.4291 Ratings00 Ratings
Social Media Marketing
Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
7.1
295 Ratings
4% below category average
InboundWriter
-
Ratings
Social sharing and campaigns7.4262 Ratings00 Ratings
Social profile integration6.8257 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
7.9
650 Ratings
7% above category average
InboundWriter
-
Ratings
Dashboards8.1619 Ratings00 Ratings
Standard reports7.9607 Ratings00 Ratings
Custom reports7.9394 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
9.1
509 Ratings
20% above category average
InboundWriter
-
Ratings
API8.7407 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-based workflow & approvals8.6278 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizability7.9435 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com9.397 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM9.964 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with SugarCRM9.859 Ratings00 Ratings
Third-party software integrations9.137 Ratings00 Ratings
Content Creation
Comparison of Content Creation features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
-
Ratings
InboundWriter
8.5
1 Ratings
8% above category average
Ideation00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Approval workflows00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Content collaboration00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Content calendar00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Content Publishing
Comparison of Content Publishing features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
-
Ratings
InboundWriter
8.8
1 Ratings
11% above category average
Content hub00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Forms / Gated content00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Embedded CTAs00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Content distribution00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Content promotion00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Content automation00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Content Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Content Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
-
Ratings
InboundWriter
8.2
1 Ratings
9% above category average
Audience profiling and targeting00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Closed-loop tracking and reporting00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Content performance analytics00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Campaign optimization dashboard00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Competitive analytics00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Best Alternatives
ActiveCampaignInboundWriter
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Score 10.0 out of 10
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Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.0 out of 10
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
CoSchedule Marketing Suite
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.0 out of 10
Vyond
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Score 8.6 out of 10
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User Ratings
ActiveCampaignInboundWriter
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(699 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(25 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.2
(62 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
7.3
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
1.3
(41 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
7.3
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.5
(14 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
6.4
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.1
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
1.0
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
6.4
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
7.3
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
ActiveCampaignInboundWriter
Likelihood to Recommend
ActiveCampaign
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.
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InboundWriter
I think most users have found that InboundWriter is every bit worth what you pay for it. At a freemium model, it's affordable and helpful in analyzing your posts for SEO direction. It is particularly well suited for getting focused terms on specific topics, and less on more general terms.
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Pros
ActiveCampaign
  • 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
Read full review
InboundWriter
  • Very easy to use and follow direction.
  • The price is right for this freemium Wordpress plugin.
  • Helps discover what content and keywords are popular around your subject matter.
Read full review
Cons
ActiveCampaign
  • 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.
Read full review
InboundWriter
  • Sometimes tough to decide what direction to follow without keyword stuffing your content.
  • Colleagues have complained about the Document Score being unreliable at times.
  • It's only as good as the information you put into it and lacks the ability to give you more high level though leadership terms/topics.
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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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InboundWriter
No answers on this topic
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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InboundWriter
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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InboundWriter
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.
Read full review
InboundWriter
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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InboundWriter
The InboundWriter support is certainly sufficient for the type of troubleshooting you may encounter when using the tool. There are chats and forums available with best practices or knowledge share. For bigger issues, even WordPress can serve as a support system for getting to the answer quickly. Luckily, you're more likely to find that it is a very intuitive tool that is easy to use.
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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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InboundWriter
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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InboundWriter
While Yoast is also very useful as a free WordPress plugin that helps up your SEO game, where it stops at just providing direction for your meta data, like titles and descriptions, InboundWriter takes your search engine reach a bit further and helps you create relevant content for your industry that targets the right keywords and topics.
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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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InboundWriter
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
InboundWriter
  • InboundWriter has helped us craft more SEO-driven content and balance our keyword usage.
  • InboundWriter has also helped us hone in on the specific topics we should be covering for our industry.
  • Overall, it has helped us achieve our goals of creating pillar content and driving more organic traffic.
Read full review
ScreenShots

ActiveCampaign Screenshots

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