Adobe Journey Optimizer vs. MessageGears

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Adobe Journey Optimizer
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
Adobe Journey Optimizer is a customer engagement solution, enabling brands to orchestrate and deliver personalized customer engagement across all channels — including email, web, app, mobile, and more — in the moments that matter to customers.N/A
MessageGears
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
MessageGears is a hybrid email marketing service built around deliverability, actionable customer data, and audience segmentation and targeting.N/A
Pricing
Adobe Journey OptimizerMessageGears
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Adobe Journey OptimizerMessageGears
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Adobe Journey OptimizerMessageGears
Considered Both Products
Adobe Journey Optimizer
Chose Adobe Journey Optimizer
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Social Studio (discontinued)
Chose Adobe Journey Optimizer
Adobe Analytics is head and shoulders about journey analytics. It’s simple an easy to use. It gives you the most accurate real-time data. It’s also the best reporting platform out there in the market. It was so easy to sign up and start using it for our internal reports. …
Chose Adobe Journey Optimizer
Adobe Marketo Engage
Chose Adobe Journey Optimizer
Adobe Experience Platform, Adobe Real-Time Customer Data Platform, Adobe Campaign, Adobe Marketo Engage, Adobe Analytics and Adobe Experience Manager
Chose Adobe Journey Optimizer
no comparison. the connectivity with CDP and AEP sets it above all competitors. The only thing that gives mail chimp and almost all of abobe's competitors and advantage is the simplicity, ease of implementation and ability to upload a quick list and send immediately without a …
Chose Adobe Journey Optimizer
AJO has more capabilities compared to Marketo.
Chose Adobe Journey Optimizer
Because the data is central to Adobe, this helps us flow to market and present ourselves to our prospects as an overall better experience.
Chose Adobe Journey Optimizer
With the AEP ecosystem, AJO will have a real-time impact.
Chose Adobe Journey Optimizer
This is a great product to have in combination with our content management system we use that is Adobe experience manager.
Chose Adobe Journey Optimizer
Adobe Journey Optimizer provides even more personalized unique experiences than Marketo. Adobe Journey Optimizer allows 1:1 personalized journeys using real time behaviour and across more channels like sms, mobile, etc. whereas marketo is more web and email based. Adobe Journey …
Chose Adobe Journey Optimizer
Adobe ANalytics is simplified data and analytics tool, not comparable.
Chose Adobe Journey Optimizer
Adobe Journey Optimizer takes the lead because it integrates the functionality of several disparate systems, such as Adobe Marketo Engage (content creation/campaign operations) and Adobe Analytics (data, reporting, trends, predictions), to provide a comprehensive approach to …
Chose Adobe Journey Optimizer
Adobe Acrobat Reader
Chose Adobe Journey Optimizer
Adobe Experience Platform, Adobe Customer Journey Analytics and Adobe Real-Time Customer Data Platform
MessageGears
Chose MessageGears
MessageGears doesn't come close to Salesforce Marketing Cloud. We chose MessageGears based on how data was accessed. We never really got a good preview of how the system works or what was available, so we didn't know everything that it was lacking until we started using it.
Chose MessageGears
MessageGears is a completely different approach to email marketing than its competitors, and while it has a learning curve, it is superior after you've figured it out . The ability to find your audience through SQL on top of quick control of your templates allows for lightning …
Chose MessageGears
Bronto is a much better email service provider, though our choice to use MessageGears is based on our unique database situation, our partnership with them, and our deal structure. The automation and functionality within Bronto is superior, but it also comes with a hefty price …
Features
Adobe Journey OptimizerMessageGears
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Adobe Journey Optimizer
-
Ratings
MessageGears
3.3
Ratings
84% below category average
WYSIWYG email editor00 Ratings1.50 Ratings
Dynamic content00 Ratings3.80 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content00 Ratings2.20 Ratings
A/B testing00 Ratings2.70 Ratings
Mobile optimization00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting00 Ratings3.80 Ratings
List management00 Ratings2.10 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences00 Ratings2.20 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Adobe Journey Optimizer
-
Ratings
MessageGears
1.1
Ratings
150% below category average
Dashboards00 Ratings1.10 Ratings
Standard reports00 Ratings1.10 Ratings
Custom reports00 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Pre-Send Testing
Comparison of Pre-Send Testing features of Product A and Product B
Adobe Journey Optimizer
-
Ratings
MessageGears
3.7
Ratings
75% below category average
URL Validation00 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Link Tracking00 Ratings2.80 Ratings
Image Validation00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Inbox Display00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Spelling and Grammar Check00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Spam Testing00 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Email Previews00 Ratings1.00 Ratings
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Adobe Journey OptimizerMessageGears
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User Ratings
Adobe Journey OptimizerMessageGears
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.9
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
7.5
(0 ratings)
6.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
7.3
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
6.4
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
6.4
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
4.5
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
4.5
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
5.5
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
7.3
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Adobe Journey OptimizerMessageGears
Likelihood to Recommend
Unifying all Adobe products and journeys. Omnichannel marketing. We wish it were easier to build emails, but it requires coding. I think once we get more training and use cases, we will be able to leverage it more effectively and get more out of it. We have other Adobe tools to use with it.
Read full review
Unless you have someone on your team who is an expert in writing SQL queries and APIs, this platform is not for you.
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Pros
  • Integration with other AEP products.
  • Easy build emails and journeys as long as there aren't complex integrations from AEM.
  • Integration with AEM to see what AEM Content fragments are in use in what journeys.
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  • Solid customer service
  • Inexpensive solution
  • Flexibility in setup
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Cons
  • Intuitive UI design / Ease of accessibility for users with limited experience/subject knowledge.
  • Analytics integration is difficult to navigate.
  • My organization is having a difficult time adopting this platform across all divisions due to resistance to the new technology (accuracy, etc.).
Read full review
  • The platform is extremely literal. Every possible scenario (included unsubscribes) must be written into every audience query.
  • Messy user interface
  • Email development is overly complicated.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
It has been working very well, and actually it is a reliable tool for audience segmentation and everything that needs to be done for a campaign to deploy correctly
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No answers on this topic
Usability
AJO certainly requires a firm understanding of how Adobe expects data to be architected. AJO should not be an organizations first experience with an Adobe product. We benefited from ~18 months of experience with RTCDP prior to bringing on AJO. Engageable profiles, data storage, profile usage limits, all factor in when using an omnichannel solution. Marketers must be careful to bring in only the data required for business use cases, and continually evaluate these needs in the face of a changing marketing ecosystem.
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Our situation is unique so I believe we are working on a semi-outdated UI which needs a tune up / version upgrade. Similarly, our custom connection means that we do not have access to the full feature set so I've never experienced MessageGears' best functionality
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Reliability and Availability
I do not rate it perfect because there are times that is not perfectly realiable, and it stops working when you need it the most, especially because the audiences take so long to evaluate and 2 times a dat to do them quickly is really not enough
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No answers on this topic
Performance
I really think this is something that can be improved, especially the querrys, sometimes it takes too long for them to run
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Sometimes when the manager connects to a support representative, even though the response is very immediate, they are not always able to provide a solution and we end up resolving the issue other ways
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MessageGears support is always quick to respond when we have an issue, which is rare. Gail has been our main rep and she has been great. We don't have many issues so luckily, we don't need to lean on their customer support team much. That said, it would be beneficial to hear from upper management more.
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In-Person Training
It didnpt possess anything new from the online version of it, in fact, there were less
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No answers on this topic
Online Training
I give it this rating of 5 because the truth is I started the training with the pages in Adobe and is far more complete and has more explanations that the online training and you can revisit it as many times as you want to, the online non live version is better
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
The only thing I wanted to mention is that when going into the email edition, when adding labels, I was able to copy and paste the labels before, and now it has changed and I am no longer able to do it without editing the label itself
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Adobe Analytics is head and shoulders about journey analytics. It’s simple an easy to use. It gives you the most accurate real-time data. It’s also the best reporting platform out there in the market. It was so easy to sign up and start using it for our internal reports. Journey optimization uses some of the reporting data but it never shows journey in one go. There is lot of initial setup to do.
Read full review
Bronto is a much better email service provider, though our choice to use MessageGears is based on our unique database situation, our partnership with them, and our deal structure. The automation and functionality within Bronto is superior, but it also comes with a hefty price tag; MessageGears provides the scale we need
Read full review
Scalability
This is very functional, is has been great to work with pleople from different areas and being able to show them how adobe journey optimizer works for the team
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • Improved customer experience, allowing you to more confidently target customers with greater precision.
  • Ability to run multiple journeys at the same time based on targeted audiences, instead of blindly performing segmentation and targeting.
  • The interface fonts and icons are sometimes small and may require drilling down to several levels to configure a journey flow. E.g., Applying the right filter when sending an email with the right matching key requires multiple clicks, driving deeper into different levels of schema attributes.
Read full review
  • Sending more email!
  • Onboarding handoff was a little rough
  • Great control on who we are sending to
  • Dynamic content is very easy!
Read full review
ScreenShots

Adobe Journey Optimizer Screenshots

Screenshot of Channel Setup in Adobe Journey OptimizerScreenshot of Content Accelerator in Adobe Journey OptimizerScreenshot of In App Message Designer in Adobe Journey OptimizerScreenshot of Screenshot of Profiles Dashboard in Adobe Journey OptimizerScreenshot of SMS Journey in Adobe Journey Optimizer