AlphaSense is a market intelligence platform used by companies and financial institutions. Since 2011, their AI-based technology has helped professionals make business decisions by delivering insights from public and private content—including company filings, event transcripts, news, trade journals, and equity research. The platform boasts users among 4,000 enterprise customers. Headquartered in New York City, AlphaSense employs over 1,000 people across offices in the U.S., U.K., Finland, and…
N/A
Constant Contact
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Constant Contact is a full-featured email marketing solution with capabilities such as social media integration, drag-and-drop editing, and real-time reporting. It is a bulk email tool designed for SMB customers. Since 2019, Constant Contact also offers marketing automation features, a website and landing page builder, and other tools to support midsize businesses.
$12
per month
iContact
Score 6.8 out of 10
N/A
iContact is an email marketing solution that was acquired by Vocus in 2012. The product is integrated with Facebook and Twitter and is aimed at SMBs with unlimited sending as a key feature.
$14
per month
Pricing
AlphaSense
Constant Contact
iContact
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Lite
Starting at $12.00
per month
Standard
Starting at $35.00
per month
Premium
Starting at $80.00
per month
1500 Users
$15.00
per month
2500 Users
$25.00
per month
5000 Users
$45.00
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AlphaSense
Constant Contact
iContact
Free Trial
Yes
Yes
No
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Yes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
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The SMS Marketing tool can be added to any Standard or Premium Constant Contact account. SMS is only available in the US for Standard and Premium paid plans. SMS can be added when logged in to an account after purchase. Plans start at $10/month for up to 500 messages.
Constant Contact and iContact are very similar products. They also are priced similarly. I do prefer the design options in iContact over Constant Contact, but overall I would say they are about equal.
I prefer Constant Contact over Mailchimp and iContact because Constant Contact gives you more bang for your buck. I also prefer the interface of Constant Contact because it's very clean and easy to navigate. Constant Contact also has the best pricing structure of the three …
Constant contact was perfect for our needs for many clients, it wasn’t overly robust, but powerful enough to see strong ROI. With regards to the competitor tools, amongst standard ESP there’s not a huge difference as they all essentially work the same, it’s just about pricing …
Constant Contact is the best value for the investment. There are cheaper solutions - but not better. When you want to make a good impression, you want Constant Contact to be your provider (when we see Mailchimp emails we just delete!)
Simplest to use, great GUI, and awesome support! For SMB and startups, email marketing isn't their specialty, so having support is essential. To design a beautiful email can be challenging, but with CC, you put in your website and it can create custom emails using the colors …
Constant Contact and Vertical Response were on my shortlist. Ultimately I chose Constant Contact because of budget and functionality.
iContact
Verified User
Account Manager
Chose iContact
I have personally used MailChimp and Constant Contact. Plus, a back-end WordPress plug-in that I've since forgotten the name of as well as Active.com's email platform.
iContact was the solution in use when I entered the organization. I have heard very good things about MailChimp and Constant Contact, the other two big names in this field. We have chosen to remain with iContact since then, but would be open to moving. However, it is fulfilling …
iContact and Constant Contact are very similar products, however I prefer the iContact interface. Mailchimp may have more features but is harder to train users who are not familiar with email campaigns.
In my opinion, Mailchimp is the top contender to iContact and really gives them a run for their money. Mailchimp offers users more features, and costs less. Of course, they both have their advantages and disadvantages. Overall, it is a tough decision to make between the two, …
It offered the best cost to feature ratio and was easy to use. The other systems were great as well, but the potential integration with our CRM (Salesforce), was one of the key deciding factors. Also, icontact was included with the Vocus marketing suite which offered other …
We are no longer using iContact, but if you were comparing them to Constant contact, Mail Chimp, etc. then go with one of those, their software is more current and they have better analytics, but will still be in the cheaper price bracket. Currently, we are using our ESP, …
I have not yet tried ConstantContact, but iContact has served our company well thus far. Although ConstantContact seems more popular in our circles, iContact has been trustworthy and reliable with very minor issues, if any. The one thing that really makes iContact stand apart …
AlphaSense is very well suited to investing teams that need a research management system that has a robust database behind and rich content management features for note-taking. AlphaSense may not be well-suited to individual investors who want data access but don't need to be sharing notes to a wider team. The sharing features are what make AlphaSense most useful.
Constant Contact is an excellent tool for sending out flyers and newsletters. However, I feel the content's appearance is typically all the same. When I receive an email from Constant Contact, I can immediately identify it - the templates usually all look the same. When sending out communications with images, it is easy to use Constant Contact and link webpages. However, the email layout is always vertical and can get very lengthy. I prefer a more flip-book approach with options to flip the page.
I would only recommend it if someone was a small business. I think they are the best suited for companies who will send out a coupon or offer here and there. The most recent updates made it more complicated to use for more complicated processes. It is easy to train someone on the program, and so quick to learn. But I would also only stick to the simpler things. I also think the colorful templates are great, and show great creativity. But again, it is hard to justify recommending the program when it isn't WYSIWYG.
Market segmentation is great: my main segmentation is by region because that's how our sales team is divided.
Lists: making customized email lists is easy and intuitive; the custom fields allow some flexibility in case our fields don't exactly line up with Constant Contact's.
Campaigns: creating campaigns is quick and simple. I especially appreciate the 'resend to non-openers' option. I am constantly using this feature.
Subject line generator: I like using the recommended subject lines. I'm able to plug in their recommended ideas, or sometimes, this feature helps me generate my own ideas.
Contact management. iContact is really great for entering all your contact. You are able to put them onto different lists, and let them choose which lists they would like to be a part of as well. There are many data fields provided to fill in information.
Emailing. We use the email feature at least once a month. They are always improving and adding new features, which is very helpful in presenting content in a new and exciting way to our readers. There are many options with remade templates and themes, or you can add your own.
Insights. It is really helpful being able to have the data to see what is working and what isn't. It is nice to be able to go back and see how things went in the past compared to now. Opens, clicks, shares, etc.
I believe the AI agent could be improved to answer more detailed questions and provide better data.
Access to real time financial data in a similar vein to Koyfin.
The ability to easily search across all company decks to be able to quickly gather all relevant slides for a specific topic, similar to what Quartr offers.
It would be nice if we had more customizable options for emails - like moving around pictures and text boxes, rather than a set spot for everything to go.
I would like it if multiple people could work on a document at one time. So if I'm in charge of graphics, I can get those updated while someone else is entering content, etc.
AlphaSense is a very useful tool and is reasonably priced for our organization. While I may not be a hyper-active user, it's a great resource when I need to quickly do a competitive landscape survey, review publicly available documents (transcripts, etc.), or review Wall Street research
There is no doubt that we are going to renew Constant Contact. We have not just invested a lot of time in learning and creating a great looking product but we have developed a strong database of information that allows us to track how we are doing for each newsletter. This supports our goals of creating products that residents desire and are excited to receive.
iContact has been a quick and easy way to send any announcements and news directly to email and social media subscribers. Its tracking and reporting capabilities turn a simple email into a marketing campaign that can be used as a tool to efficiently gauge reader response and customer satisfaction, and ultimately to reach potential customers. The consistency and excellent customer service is what makes this program a pleasant experience.
AlphaSense has a very intuitive user interface, and I can tell they have been focused on expanding their product breadth and continuing to innovate on current products. Some basic features are missing or I can't find (I can't just sort expert calls by only the ones that are applicable to that ticker, most relevant is the one that works best, but I want just the ticker)
There is always room for improvement. I don't know how they test their systems, but they should invite not-so computer savvy people to test it. If I, as an expert have problems, they need to think like the technophobe. Since I've used Constant Contact in the past as part of my former employment, I have not viewed any of the tutorials and just jumped in to work on my client's newsletter. With that said, I found some areas easy and some a bit cumbersome
I rate iContact as an easy to use program due to its user friendly dashboard and user interface. Most companies of small to medium size do not have a dedicated marketer, therefore it is someone multitasking who may or may not have this kind of experience. iContact makes it relatively simple and can actually expand one's knowledge in the area of business promotion.
The availability of Alphasense is great. I have used the software for multiple years and cannot remember ever having an outage issue. This is surprising actually, as I use other software applications that do not have regular outages, but still have outages periodically. Alphasense, on the other hand, never seems to have any outages. Good sign if I can't remember the software not working :).
iContact is regularly up and running. Only once has it been unavailable for maintenance, which is to be expected and even desired for optimal performance when needed.
Loading or performing searches on AlphaSense platform is reasonably fast for most of the time. However, it is sometimes unacceptably long for me to load PDF files (earnings presentation, supplementary financial report) on AlphaSense. Certain features might also take very long time, such as loading for "similar tables" across EDGAR filings, or downloading tables from EDGAR filings
The system seemed quite slow sometimes. Specifically, there was sometimes a delay in sends if it was during a high traffic period. There were time-outs when uploading new code for an email, and a lag in reporting analytics which was sometimes as long as 72 hours
Customer support is very prompt. I get personalized support for search recommendations and content that I could not find in my own search. Support checks in with me on a bi-monthly basis to keep me informed of the many different feature additions, I cannot find a more kind, understanding, and supportive team.
I think the overall support for Constant Contact has always been incredible; I have nothing negative to say. Our customer support representative was attentive, easy to understand, and very knowledgeable. I never felt like I wasn't a priority of his and my issues, while very small, were fixed in a very short time frame.
They have always been responsive to any issues or concerns that have arisen with our account. Our customer account manager participates in our monthly county-wide communicators meetings via telephone to ensure that we are getting the most from the service. He also analyzes our lists to help us weed out inactive contacts.
The person was prepared, attentive, understood the nature of my questions, was willing to work through any difficulties or misunderstandings, was patient, and super pleasant to work with. Great customer service.
Our online training was led by a AlphaSense representative. The training is always good. The bigger issue is our time availability to remember the training and utilize it. The trainers will show us examples and then ask us for real industries or companies of interest to use so that the training is most relevant.
Implementation is very easy for someone who wants to send out the “batch and blast” type newsletters. If you want to use their templates with no customizations, the product works fine. However, the more customizations you get into involving link color, etc, that’s where things can get tricky for someone who may not be familiar with coding
Special features of AlphaSense that made us decide on this CI platform: - US-based market and competitive intelligence platform with various premium content (broker information, expert calls, earning transcripts, original company documents etc.) - AlphaSense is a trusted CI platform by world’s leading corporations and financial institutions - AlphaSense’s proprietary AI stack has been meticulously engineered over a decade so that their AI accelerates speed-to-insight so clients can act with confidence when making critical decisions - Private and public companies, therapeutic areas and products can be monitored - Datalog is available up to 15 years, and advanced search is supported for them - Curated newsfeed is available from more than 3,500 top news publications, client requests and hand-picked vendors for premium subscription - Very advanced company profiles are available by default with newsfeed, original company documents, expert calls and reports - Newsfeed and alerts can be also set by admins and individual users
Constant Contact is much more intuitive for people who are not tech-savvy. Also, while sendgrid offered more options in it's drag and drop interface, it displayed differently across different email clients, which made it very cumbersome to use. It also took much longer to upload contact lists and it was harder to manage existing contacts. Performance in sendgrid was much slower as well, and the Preview feature was quite buggy. Our team initially chose sendgrid because of the integration options that it's API offered, but we ultimately switched to Constant Contact because it was much easier to build campaigns and better suited our requirements.
I didn't have a say in the decision because I wasn't with the company at the time. I listed HubSpot here because I know we used it in conjunction with iContact for email automation, but HubSpot Email was only recently built-out to the point where it is today. Now, iContact and HubSpot are no longer integrated.
It has been very simple. Contract terms are standard for an online portal. Of course, I would like unit pricing to be lower so I could get more users on the license or to rotate seats to get more value out of each license. Billing frequency has been standard as well. This could be more significant for a larger customer.
The sharing features provides by AlphaSense mean that it can be readily scaled for teams within an organization and, subject to compliance requirements, with client organizations. The ability to share annotations of transcripts and investor releases is valuable, and facilitates collaboration between analysts.
Very reliable in sending email campaigns and controlling the recipients so that no contact is sent the same email more than once, even if they are on a resent list
iContact stays the same with the number of users added or taken away. It certainly remains reliable despite increased usage, and so, can be considered scaleable in that aspect.
AlphaSense has allowed us to generate deeper competitive insights. For example, we conducted an in depth analysis of the aerial data analytics (drone) industry, and AlphSense helped us narrow in on the market leaders and their various strengths / weaknesses.
AlphaSense has improved our team's overall efficiency. With Stream in particular, we are able to pinpoint insights in a matter of minutes through the transcript feature as opposed to having to conduct a series of calls ourselves. This is a significant time saver.
AlphaSense has allowed us to make more informed decisions on our public holdings by providing us with unfettered access to equity research analyst reports.
I have had nothing but positive impacts from using Constant Contact.
The church is large, and there are many subgroups and axillary groups within the church. Setting up specific groups based on responsibility, interest, member goals, and service needs allows me to send information quickly, saving valuable time for other tasks.
Constant Contact allows leadership to stay personally engaged with the members I work with, without over-taxing my time. It feels so seamless.
