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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    ActiveCampaign

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/AActiveCampaign 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.

    $180

    per year (single user)

    Twilio SendGrid

    Score6.9 out of 10
    N/ATwilio SendGrid Marketing Campaigns provides users with segmentation, campaign editing, and deliverability. According to the vendor, Twilio SendGrid Marketing Campaigns is trusted by over 80,000 customers globally, including Airbnb, Spotify and Uber. Twilio SendGrid Marketing Campaigns aims to help users by providing: MORE EFFICIENT EMAIL BUILDING The campaign building process is free from frustrating, rigid step-by-step wizards that slow users down. The vendor says…

    $15

    per month

    Pricing
    ActiveCampaignTwilio SendGrid
    Editions & Modules
    Starter
    $15
    per month (billed annually)
    Pro
    $49
    per month (billed annually)
    Plus
    $79
    per month (billed annually)
    Enterprise
    $149
    per month (billed annually)
    Basic
    $15
    per month
    Advanced
    $60
    per month
    Free
    Free
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    ActiveCampaignTwilio SendGrid
    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
    ActiveCampaignTwilio SendGrid
    Considered Both Products
    ActiveCampaign
    Chose ActiveCampaign
    I selected ActiveCampaign because many in the communities I was interacting with recommended it. It is also the software many of the platforms I interact with users and integrate directly via API.

    The cost to get started is relatively low for access to automation and tagging …
    Incentivized
    Chose ActiveCampaign
    I prefer the list management on ActiveCampaign. It is easier to set up segments and send them to a specific niche. The email build is slightly easier to use on Active Campaign, but only marginally, as both Mailchimp and sendgrid make this easy for any user.
    Incentivized
    Chose ActiveCampaign
    ActiveCampaign is much simpler, more intuitive, more modern, more dynamic and much more robust than any other platform I've used,
    Incentivized
    Chose ActiveCampaign
    It may have to do with the plan I was on but Mailchimp was not for me. Not very straightforward. If you’d are doing a very basic small list it could work. Active Campaign comes across as a way more pro solution. As I recall I was on boarded by an employee who showed me a lot …
    Incentivized
    Chose ActiveCampaign
    So far, ActiveCampaign is the winner although it would be nice if some of the features were easier to use and understand.
    Incentivized
    Chose ActiveCampaign
    ActiveCampaign offers better value than Mailchimp (which becomes very expensive as list grows). SendGrid seemed to complex to integrate.
    Incentivized
    Chose ActiveCampaign
    Each of the platforms has very similar features, but in our findings, the value of having all the features in one platform is how Active Campaign leads the industry in terms of features as well as the pricing. The other platforms will allow for the same they seem to be a la …
    Incentivized
    Twilio
    Chose Twilio SendGrid
    My company had been using Postmark which was cheap but extremely limited. It was great for transactional email but not marketing. We also used ActiveCampaign for marketing emails but our list size made using that tool too expensive. We thought we were getting the best of both …
    Incentivized
    Chose Twilio SendGrid
    Twilio SendGrid stacks up well to its direct competiros like Mailgun and BigMailer, but it doesnt stack up again more complex marketing automation tools like HubSpot and ActiveCampaign. That is understandable as it doesnt seem to be the purpose of the platform, but it is worth …
    Incentivized
    Chose Twilio SendGrid
    Before using SendGrid we used Mailchimp and were very limited with segmenting our users. Then we moved to ActiveCampaign and paid a ton of money for sending a few promotional emails per month. Then we got SendGrid - letting us rid both of ActiveCampaign and Mailgun and having …
    Incentivized
    Chose Twilio SendGrid
    I use both. SendGrid as I stated before I use in a very simple manner - just as an email server basically- because the
    email list I’m using is originates through ClickFunnels. They have enough reporting for me. Although I could definitely use click tracking so I may implement …
    Incentivized
    Chose Twilio SendGrid
    If I consider the the easiness in functionality of Email Editor in SendGrid Marketing Email software, it matches my expectations. I don't need to train my colleagues for the usage of this software. In my absence also anyone can create email campaigns and send it very easily. So …
    Incentivized
    Chose Twilio SendGrid
    I started using this application only because of its accuracy in newsletters. Once I started using this application for my product promotions I got very positive results. After couple of successful promotional email campaigns I realized a significant increase in transactional …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    98%
    Would buy again
    493 Answers
    75%
    Would buy again
    15 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    471 Answers
    72%
    Delivers good value for the price
    13 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    98%
    Happy with the feature set
    494 Answers
    70%
    Happy with the feature set
    14 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    455 Answers
    65%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    13 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    94%
    Implementation went as expected
    459 Answers
    70%
    Implementation went as expected
    14 Answers
    Features
    ActiveCampaignTwilio SendGrid
    Email & Online Marketing
    Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of ActiveCampaign and Twilio SendGrid
    Feature
    ActiveCampaign
    8.7
    691 Ratings
    12% above category average
    Twilio SendGrid
    6.7
    50 Ratings
    18% below category average
    WYSIWYG email editor8.5610 Ratings9.437 Ratings
    Dynamic content8.8542 Ratings6.640 Ratings
    Ability to test dynamic content8.5491 Ratings4.238 Ratings
    Landing pages7.7358 Ratings8.024 Ratings
    A/B testing8.3400 Ratings9.430 Ratings
    Mobile optimization9.3550 Ratings9.038 Ratings
    Email deliverability reporting8.6659 Ratings4.750 Ratings
    List management8.8678 Ratings4.444 Ratings
    Triggered drip sequences10.0597 Ratings4.424 Ratings
    Lead Management
    Comparison of Lead Management features of ActiveCampaign and Twilio SendGrid
    Feature
    ActiveCampaign
    8.2
    544 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Twilio SendGrid
    -
    Ratings
    Lead nurturing automation8.5510 Ratings00 Ratings
    Lead scoring and grading8.5372 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data quality management8.5418 Ratings00 Ratings
    Automated sales alerts and tasks8.8366 Ratings00 Ratings
    Lead segmentation and distribution6.820 Ratings00 Ratings
    Campaign Management
    Comparison of Campaign Management features of ActiveCampaign and Twilio SendGrid
    Feature
    ActiveCampaign
    8.9
    391 Ratings
    17% above category average
    Twilio SendGrid
    -
    Ratings
    Calendaring8.7312 Ratings00 Ratings
    Event/webinar marketing9.1293 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social Media Marketing
    Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of ActiveCampaign and Twilio SendGrid
    Feature
    ActiveCampaign
    6.8
    295 Ratings
    10% below category average
    Twilio SendGrid
    -
    Ratings
    Social sharing and campaigns7.2262 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social profile integration6.4257 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of ActiveCampaign and Twilio SendGrid
    Feature
    ActiveCampaign
    8.3
    653 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Twilio SendGrid
    5.9
    50 Ratings
    25% below category average
    Dashboards8.0624 Ratings4.448 Ratings
    Standard reports8.5612 Ratings4.848 Ratings
    Custom reports8.3398 Ratings8.631 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of ActiveCampaign and Twilio SendGrid
    Feature
    ActiveCampaign
    8.7
    512 Ratings
    14% above category average
    Twilio SendGrid
    -
    Ratings
    API8.6410 Ratings00 Ratings
    Role-based workflow & approvals8.7278 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizability7.6438 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with Salesforce.com9.097 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM9.964 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with SugarCRM9.359 Ratings00 Ratings
    Third-party software integrations7.641 Ratings00 Ratings
    Pre-Send Testing
    Comparison of Pre-Send Testing features of ActiveCampaign and Twilio SendGrid
    Feature
    ActiveCampaign
    -
    Ratings
    Twilio SendGrid
    8.2
    12 Ratings
    1% above category average
    URL Validation00 Ratings7.911 Ratings
    Link Tracking00 Ratings7.512 Ratings
    Image Validation00 Ratings8.19 Ratings
    Inbox Display00 Ratings8.011 Ratings
    Email Accessibility Tools00 Ratings9.112 Ratings
    Spelling and Grammar Check00 Ratings8.09 Ratings
    Spam Testing00 Ratings8.011 Ratings
    Email Previews00 Ratings9.212 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    ActiveCampaignTwilio SendGrid
    Small Businesses
    Vbout
    Score9.9 out of 10
    Mad Mimi
    Score10 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Bloomreach
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Campaign Monitor by Marigold
    Score9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Iterable
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Emma by Marigold
    Score8.4 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    ActiveCampaignTwilio SendGrid
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.6
    (704 ratings)
    4.5
    (61 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (27 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    9.3
    (67 ratings)
    4.7
    (8 ratings)
    Availability
    9.1
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    7.3
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    1.3
    (42 ratings)
    3.0
    (9 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    10.0
    (16 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
    ActiveCampaignTwilio SendGrid
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Twilio
    If you're prepared to build out your whole staff UX, audience creation, email production, and analytics on your own using API, this tool may have that flexibility. If you require a sturdy drag and drop production tool, this tool has it but at the expense of a lot of other critical functionality. Out of the box analytics/reporting, is extremely limited. Complex queries, even something like pulling those who haven't engaged in email within a certain time period, is clunky. If you require any support at all, this is not the tool for you. I'm a deliverability consultant and have used many of the top email marketing tools and SendGrid has been extremely difficult for my team. I do not recommend it. Shiny and bright during sales, pretty disappointing thereafter.
    Read full review
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Twilio
    • Managing email lists / audiences is easy with features like groups and segments.
    • They provide pre-built email templates that are very easy to modify. It is also super easy to create new email templates with their drag-and-drop email builder.
    • Provides clear / easy-to-read analytics of email campaigns.
    • I can easily import large email contact lists all at once or add a user manually one-at-a-time, when needed.
    Incentivized
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Twilio
    • Not necessarily their Email API but their email in general - they are currently in beta for automated email sequences but are still bare bones. Much more work is needed before it can be used mainstream and be able to convert everything to SendGrid.
    • Helping with warming up our dedicated IP for the best-sending score.
    • We seem to hit the promotions folder a decent amount (maybe the IP problem above) and even a lot of their emails hit my spam or promotions folder (whether they be transactional or marketing) which isn't a great sign when trusting an ESP.
    • Transactional email sequences would be a huge plus.
    • Now that Twilio owns SenGrid, having an integrated platform where you could see all our transactional emails together.
    • Better reporting and split reporting between transactional and marketing emails.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Twilio
    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.
    Read full review
    Twilio
    It is usable but needs improvement in overall user experience and ease of use. A new joinee/anyone new to the tool would need more tarining currently before he can use the platform seamlessly. The set-up to value realization time for Twilio SendGrid customers is generally high because of this concern.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Twilio
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Twilio
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Twilio
    Twilio SendGrid Email API is everything we want it to be, and we have no reason to look for any other solution. Features and pricing match exactly what we need. As developers for SaaS products, Twilio SendGrid Email API provides a great service. I hope that they stay this way and don't inflate the service with too many marketing oriented features, because there are other tools for that and Twilio SendGrid Email API is a API for sending email first and foremost.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Twilio
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Twilio
    Sendgrid has a lot of features that other providers have and a few more - like the dynamic template builder, which AWS SES doesn't have. We choose the provider based on the scenario of use and the provider we're using. If we're going to be making regular changes to a template, then we'd go with Sendgrid, as the changes will be easier to make and don't necessarily require developer intervention.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Twilio
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Twilio
    • As it was cheaper than the transactional service we previously used, it saved costs.
    • The API was relatively easy to work with so it helped us ship the service and test it quickly.
    • We still use the transactional email service, even though we recognize its limits as it meets our immediate needs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    ActiveCampaign Screenshots

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