Adestra vs. Marigold Engage+

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Adestra
Score 3.3 out of 10
N/A
Email automation software with optimized personalization to drive engagement.N/A
Marigold Engage+
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Marigold Engage+ (formerly Cheetah Messaging or CheetahMail) is an email marketing platform. It is optimized for delivering segmented email marketing campaigns with security in mind. It also integrates with any third-party CRM software.N/A
Pricing
AdestraMarigold Engage+
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AdestraMarigold Engage+
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Features
AdestraMarigold Engage+
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Adestra
10.0
1 Ratings
20% above category average
Marigold Engage+
-
Ratings
WYSIWYG email editor10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Dynamic content10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Landing pages10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
A/B testing10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
List management10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Adestra
10.0
1 Ratings
24% above category average
Marigold Engage+
-
Ratings
Dashboards10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Standard reports10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
AdestraMarigold Engage+
Small Businesses
ReachMail
ReachMail
Score 10.0 out of 10
Mautic
Mautic
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
VerticalResponse
VerticalResponse
Score 10.0 out of 10
The Trade Desk
The Trade Desk
Score 8.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Emma by Marigold
Emma by Marigold
Score 8.6 out of 10
Iterable
Iterable
Score 8.6 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
AdestraMarigold Engage+
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(1 ratings)
8.0
(11 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
7.6
(3 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(1 ratings)
4.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(1 ratings)
2.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
3.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
AdestraMarigold Engage+
Likelihood to Recommend
Upland Software
Small businesses with even smaller marketing budgets and no email marketing experience would be better off selecting a lower-end email marketing provider. However, Adestra will provide a growing company with every email marketing tool along the way.
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Marigold
I think CheetahMail, being one of the main ESPs in the market, is a quality choice. However, I would suggest that it's really only valuable for a bit larger of an organization, generally having staff of 100+ and revenues in tens of millions -- this is mainly to justify the amount of investment required, so may be cost-prohibitive to some. You also need to make sure that you understand the entire "level of support" you will gain through your specific contract.... the key is understanding what types of resources are within your organization (who's doing the coding? who comes up with the next campaign? What's the overall strategy?) Depending on these questions and resources, may help determine your final needs from a services point of view. CheetahMail can provide a wealth of various services specific to needs (and changes over time as your business changes), but a clear understanding of what you have before you bring them on will really help getting up and running quickly. Also be sure to truly understand the costs for the initial integrations, setups, IP senders, etc.
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Pros
Upland Software
  • Adestra's "dynamic" list allows users to consolidate multiple lists in combination with data filters and exclusion lists. This implements segmentation and is a powerful marketing tool.
  • Adestra's MessageFocus API integration provides developer-tools for list, campaign or transactional automated requirements.
  • Campaigns can be sorted into project folders. This allows marketers to group campaigns together for management or reporting requirements. Moving or copying campaigns from one project to another is a simple process.
  • Data downloads via Reporting is available at every level, from overview to individual KPI.
  • Creating "core" tables helps marketers develop lists with similar attributes. Whether a list has many fields or simply the one required email address field, a "core" table helps to quickly map data labels from spreadsheet to online database. Creating data labels on the fly is a simple process, as well. The "core" table also groups similar contacts into one core database.
  • Any list can be quickly "emptied" for to manage refreshed data. The contacts within the "emptied" list would still be members of the "core" table and so the process does not negatively impact reporting.
  • Unsubscribes can be managed in one list (as a default) or individual lists. Creating individual unsubscribe lists -- dependent on business requirements -- would allow for a preference center, whereby recipients could be given a choice as to which campaigns they receive.
  • The Form tool creates signup forms, simple surveys and landing pages. These can be hosted via Adestra or otherwise on the web. The tool provides for branding and proprietary cascading stylesheets, with a number of actions available through a drag-and-drop interface.
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Marigold
  • Internal management - This is a great web-based tool that allows our users to see what emails go to whom.
  • Organization - Many layers of organization for templates since there are many types of remarketing emails that we send out.
  • Historical Records - CheetahMail sends us the raw text files of all email actions so we can upload them to our database.
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Cons
Upland Software
  • As of this writing, there are at least 3 different editors available (a drag-and-drop, a WYSIWYG and HTML). However, only a small template library is available if requested through support. Those expecting to find ready-built templates for re-branding would find them through the third-party EDM Designer drag-and-drop editor.
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Marigold
  • The organization of CheetahMail could at times be better, as you create more and more mailings, they just pile up in a long list. It would be useful to be able to create folders to store specific mailings in. (ex. editorial, newsletters, marketing, etc.)
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Likelihood to Renew
Upland Software
No answers on this topic
Marigold
As I have begun exploring competitors, I've come to realize that every competitor offers so much more functionality and integration than CheetahMail does. When we first signed our contract, CheetahMail was much more innovative and at the forefront of email. Since being bought out by Experian, we've seen a huge decline in service and innovation. They have laid off much of their staff and moved their account representatives to Costa Rica. They also heavily rely on on third parties which you will have to pay large amounts of money for while other Email Service Providers have integrated new technologies into their platform. You will get more for your money going to a different email service such as Responsys, Silverpop, Listrak and the like,
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Usability
Upland Software
I have been self-trained on different ESPs for over 10 years, so my experience isn't comparable to most users. However, I've trained people on various email marketing platforms, and with some training, clients have a positive user-experience with Adestra.
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Marigold
CheetahMail has a high learning curve to master and requires a lot of backend work with tech teams to set up. Navigation is not the best and everything that should be automated is still extremely manual.
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Support Rating
Upland Software
I have had campaign related issues solved very quickly. When there are technical issues, that involve more than one departmental, it may involve a longer turn-around and management.
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Marigold
Account reps have a quick response time but a very slow resolution time. Because account reps do not have technical knowledge, there is a long long lead time between flagging a problem and tech team resolution.
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Alternatives Considered
Upland Software
For medium and large sized businesses, Adestra competes well with dotMailer. While many of the functions are available through either provider, creating campaigns, managing lists and reviewing metrics are somewhat different. As of this writing, dotMailer's drag-and-drop editor dominates that platform and performs well for low-end users with little-to-no HTML experience. Even high-end users will appreciate how quickly campaigns can be built via the drag-and-drop editor. While Adestra utilizes the EDM Designer drag-and-drop, the third-party functionality is not completely cohesive and lack of a template library gives dotMailer a bit of an advantage.
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Marigold
CheetahMail is very far behind these other providers. Specifically in Lyris we could build forms that automatically generated code connected to specific lists and be up and running in less than a few hours. With CheetahMail that would take days and developers at times.
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Return on Investment
Upland Software
  • For companies that focus on goals and analytics, Adestra provides all the necessary tools.
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Marigold
  • The customer service team at CheetahMail was good and efficient. It is always a frustrating experience to call in when your stuck on something but the CS team did a good job of quickly and effectively helping us when we called them for support.
  • Compared to other ESPs that our employees support, this platform was quite easy to learn and the documentation provided often helped us figure things out without having to go and call CS.
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ScreenShots