ActiveCampaign vs. Waterfall

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
ActiveCampaign
ScoreĀ 7.9Ā outĀ ofĀ 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.
$15
per month
Waterfall
ScoreĀ 4.1Ā outĀ ofĀ 10
N/A
Text messaging software to connect and engage your audience using targeted, personalized mobile communications.N/A
Pricing
ActiveCampaignWaterfall
Editions & Modules
Starter
$15
per month
Plus
$49
per month
Pro
$79
per month
Enterprise
$145
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ActiveCampaignWaterfall
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsNo matter what plan you choose, our services are designed to help you get the most out of your investment ā€” so you can focus on running your business. ActiveCampaign services included in all plan tiers: ActiveTraining Community access Contact migration Customer enablement workshops Video tutorials Chat and ticket support Knowledge base & help guidesā€”
More Pricing Information
Features
ActiveCampaignWaterfall
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
8.8
674 Ratings
13% above category average
Waterfall
-
Ratings
WYSIWYG email editor8.8591 Ratings00 Ratings
Dynamic content8.4527 Ratings00 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content8.2477 Ratings00 Ratings
Landing pages7.2345 Ratings00 Ratings
A/B testing9.8387 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile optimization9.1534 Ratings00 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting7.9640 Ratings00 Ratings
List management9.9659 Ratings00 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences9.9581 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
8.6
530 Ratings
9% above category average
Waterfall
-
Ratings
Lead nurturing automation9.7497 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead scoring and grading9.1363 Ratings00 Ratings
Data quality management8.7405 Ratings00 Ratings
Automated sales alerts and tasks8.1359 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead segmentation and distribution7.26 Ratings00 Ratings
Campaign Management
Comparison of Campaign Management features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
9.7
379 Ratings
24% above category average
Waterfall
-
Ratings
Calendaring9.8299 Ratings00 Ratings
Event/webinar marketing9.7287 Ratings00 Ratings
Social Media Marketing
Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
8.7
290 Ratings
14% above category average
Waterfall
-
Ratings
Social sharing and campaigns8.7257 Ratings00 Ratings
Social profile integration8.7252 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
7.8
637 Ratings
4% above category average
Waterfall
-
Ratings
Dashboards7.7606 Ratings00 Ratings
Standard reports7.7594 Ratings00 Ratings
Custom reports8.1382 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
ActiveCampaign
9.4
499 Ratings
21% above category average
Waterfall
-
Ratings
API9.8397 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-based workflow & approvals9.8271 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizability9.2425 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com9.894 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM9.961 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with SugarCRM9.957 Ratings00 Ratings
Third-party software integrations7.726 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
ActiveCampaignWaterfall
Small Businesses
Vbout
Vbout
ScoreĀ 9.9Ā outĀ ofĀ 10
OneSignal
OneSignal
ScoreĀ 7.9Ā outĀ ofĀ 10
Medium-sized Companies
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
ScoreĀ 9.3Ā outĀ ofĀ 10
Flurry Analytics
Flurry Analytics
ScoreĀ 9.0Ā outĀ ofĀ 10
Enterprises
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
ScoreĀ 9.3Ā outĀ ofĀ 10
Flurry Analytics
Flurry Analytics
ScoreĀ 9.0Ā outĀ ofĀ 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
ActiveCampaignWaterfall
Likelihood to Recommend
8.4
(686 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.7
(25 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.4
(47 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
7.2
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
1.3
(41 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
7.3
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.7
(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
ActiveCampaignWaterfall
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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Upland Software
For large organizations that are looking to build big, robust SMS programs and want the benefit of a CRM back-end for managing users and messaging.
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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
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Upland Software
  • Customer service. You have your own point of contact. They are very supportive and helpful. They always respond quickly.
  • Their deep non-profit discount.
  • Their message schedules. Very flexible and it can be a relative schedule to say a pregnant woman's due date and someone's goal date for quit smoking, etc.
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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.
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Upland Software
  • Some features require additional cost. The nature of growth means the product becomes more expensive and that is a problem for some buyers.
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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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Upland Software
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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Upland Software
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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Upland Software
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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Upland Software
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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Upland Software
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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Upland Software
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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Upland Software
We had EZTexting before. They don't have relative scheduling message so we had to switch to another vendor. We checked into SMS Magic, but they were not very responsive to our sales inquiry and then we received some phone call from India from someone who's very hard to communicate with.
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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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Upland Software
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
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Upland Software
  • We have worked with several clients to help them launch and grow their SMS program and the platform helps us doing cutting edge work in this space.
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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