Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued) vs. Emarsys

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Adobe Business Catalyst was a cloud-hosted system for building and managing web content and online stores with a built-in CRM framework in addition to sales, service, and marketing features including eCommerce and Email Marketing tools. It has been end of life (EOL) since 2020.
$10
per month
Emarsys
Score 7.5 out of 10
N/A
Emarsys is a customer engagement platform that allows users to automate personalized campaigns across channels, based on each individual consumer’s behavior. The suite's capabilities include marketing automation, email marketing, customer engagement, customer intelligence and predictive recommendations. Emarsys is now part of SAP, since the December 2020 acquisition.N/A
Pricing
Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)Emarsys
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)Emarsys
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeRequired
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)Emarsys
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)Emarsys
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
6.6
14 Ratings
15% below category average
Emarsys
6.8
7 Ratings
11% below category average
API7.911 Ratings6.57 Ratings
Role-based workflow & approvals00 Ratings6.14 Ratings
Customizability00 Ratings5.57 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com00 Ratings7.14 Ratings
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM00 Ratings9.02 Ratings
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
-
Ratings
Emarsys
6.6
8 Ratings
16% below category average
WYSIWYG email editor00 Ratings7.06 Ratings
Dynamic content00 Ratings8.06 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content00 Ratings4.17 Ratings
Landing pages00 Ratings8.03 Ratings
A/B testing00 Ratings7.17 Ratings
Mobile optimization00 Ratings6.17 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting00 Ratings6.58 Ratings
List management00 Ratings4.68 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences00 Ratings7.75 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
-
Ratings
Emarsys
6.5
5 Ratings
17% below category average
Lead nurturing automation00 Ratings6.15 Ratings
Lead scoring and grading00 Ratings7.04 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)
-
Ratings
Emarsys
6.9
8 Ratings
8% below category average
Dashboards00 Ratings7.58 Ratings
Standard reports00 Ratings7.08 Ratings
Custom reports00 Ratings6.17 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)Emarsys
Small Businesses
Divi
Divi
Score 9.8 out of 10
Vbout
Vbout
Score 9.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Image Relay
Image Relay
Score 9.5 out of 10
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises
Tridion
Tridion
Score 9.0 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
Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)Emarsys
Likelihood to Recommend
6.0
(21 ratings)
7.4
(11 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.4
(10 ratings)
9.9
(2 ratings)
Usability
9.7
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.0
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.6
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
8.6
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.6
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Adobe Business Catalyst (Discontinued)Emarsys
Likelihood to Recommend
Discontinued Products
The service provision is good the accounts customer service is poor so I would struggle to give BC a better than average review, if only they could offer customers a better accounts service then the value would be much higher.
Read full review
SAP
Emarsys is well suited for any company with an established list of contacts and an interest in email marketing. It's easy to manage, scalable, and has plenty of customization features to make your emails your own. If you're ever stuck, the responsive customer service team will help you out. I recommend Emarsys for medium to large size companies.
Read full review
Pros
Discontinued Products
  • Probably one of the easiest e-commerce platforms to work in, it does take setup, but compared to a lot of other e-commerce solutions, this is probably the best one that I have seen that can be designed and implemented custom.
  • Their template system works very well and allows you to create and re-use templates across Adobe Business Catalyst.
  • Their pre-built modules are great, giving people a great way to use common web elements without having to use a plug-in or find some solution, it is simply built in and generally works exactly as you would expect.
  • Adobe Business Catalyst is more of an all-around solution, providing elements that most smaller companies would have a hard time figuring out, since it includes the ability to build websites, send and track e-mails, analytics. It really is a powerful tool that would typically require a fair amount of coding knowledge and expertise but with the system already built, it can be easily modified and edited by those with limited or no coding knowledge at all.
Read full review
SAP
  • It has the ability to reach maximum market chains.
  • It helps to keep our customer’s data confidential in any means.
  • It encourages one-to-one customer engagement which has helped us developing more trust in our customers.
  • It is targeting the required and interested audience for the organization.
Read full review
Cons
Discontinued Products
  • Multi Client Management: The dashboard for managing multiple clients as a reseller is a little difficult to get to. There is also no very easy way for me to manage multiple clients at once. I have to log into and out of individual client accounts to do billing or management.
  • Lack of Server support: There are certain server protocols and languages that are not supported using BC. For example I cannot build a custom php database and upload to BC. I am required to use their tools.
Read full review
SAP
  • The email and content builder is significantly worse than other email marketing platforms I've used
  • Emails campaigns cannot be used in more than one automation flow
  • Amount of emails collected and being sent for smart insight are inaccurate
  • I've rarely completed a task without some type of user interface error
  • Customer service mostly directs you to help center on website
  • You have to pay extra for training
  • You have to pay extra for reporting in which the system cannot provide
  • Lengthy contract with a high price tag
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Discontinued Products
Actually with Business Catalyst there is no renewal; once you are a partner, you are a partner for as long as you like. It is an investment in your business not simply a product you purchase...and as an investment in partnership with Adobe, both are committed to each other's success.
Read full review
SAP
We have no intention of changing Emarsys
Read full review
Usability
Discontinued Products
Overall it is a "plug and play" interface. The majority of the work is done in other software interfaces. Managing billing, user roles and custom reports are all that you need to manage in the actual BC user interface. For my business this is an incredible benefit as I have to leave my preferred software less.
Read full review
SAP
No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
Discontinued Products
very few issues with availability
Read full review
SAP
No answers on this topic
Performance
Discontinued Products
Very few issues
Read full review
SAP
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Discontinued Products
The support provided by Adobe is excellent. Though the knowledge base, forums, blogs and online chat questions most all answers can be found. In the event that you are unable to find an answer or you have a unique situation simply post a question to the forums. These forums are regularly monitored by Adobe and its users.
Read full review
SAP
No answers on this topic
Online Training
Discontinued Products
bcgurus.com kiyuco
Read full review
SAP
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Discontinued Products
Pretty easy to do
Read full review
SAP
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Discontinued Products
As far as the CMS for BC goes, there is none out there that compares. In the past we have utilized Joomla, Wordpress, Mambo, Drupal, Concrete 5 and others. None of them were as easy to use and train on that Adobe's Business Catalyst. Our alternative to BC is WordPress when our clients want a less expensive solution. For the most part that works OK but we have had issues with plugin incompatibility among other issues. We lost at least two clients because of similar issues. The other great part about BC's solution is that we can still work with our favorite site creation tool - Dreamweaver. The whole process continues to be more and more simplified with added features to the system. No other solution (that we've found) offers such an easy way to create custom web sites that are easily editable by our clients.
Read full review
SAP
Emarsys is the email specialist service giver for our whole association. We use it to send custom and mass messages to our clients across three distinct business divisions. Email advertising is one of our greatest income driving channels due to focusing on limitations from deals regions. We can arrive at our clients through email with pertinent data and advancements, all driving income for the business. I have not used any other product marketing automation services.
Read full review
Scalability
Discontinued Products
It's easy to build small sites or large sites and there is lots of templating.
Read full review
SAP
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Discontinued Products
  • As someone who uses it on behalf of other clients, our ROI with BC is definitely positive. We needed a mid-range CMS without huge licensing costs to satisfy mid-range clients who have some dynamic needs but doesn't need the expense or liability of enterprise level products. Without it we would have lost possible customers or taken bigger hits on projects because of the costs involved with satisfying their mid-level needs
  • Our clients are all usually very positive about the BC platform and are able to use it themselves which lessens our Support time/cost.
  • To use the Web App element,. which we do on almost every site, you need to pay for the highest plan. This brings along with it many features most of our clients would never use. A more basic plan with that Web App capability would be a big improvement on our costs.
Read full review
SAP
  • From proficient and fast information assortment and converging to changing crude data into significant experiences, Emarsys gives you an answer that allows you to associate with your clients at an extremely close to home level and utilize that to additionally develop your business.
  • Reliable and giving cost effective services.
Read full review
ScreenShots