Aplos vs. Bloomerang CRM

Aplos integrates with Bloomerang. It brings donations in as either individual or organization, but there is no name or account number associated with the transaction. When reconciling over 500 transactions each month, many at the same amount, it can be tedious to be sure I am reconciling the right transaction. Having the donor name associated with each transaction would be very helpful

Incentivized

If you are a small organization just getting started, Bloomerang can be a good fit. It is simple and straightforward for development staff who maybe aren’t super savvy with data management or analysis in spreadsheets. In the sales demo they will try to upsell a lot of extras that are ultimately not necessary unless your stuff is very unfamiliar with database software. The base price of the software is something like $300 per year, as long as you mix all of the training and phone support add-ons they initially present you with.

Incentivized

• Reporting by Fund
• Ability to split transactions by fund
• Custom reports

Incentivized

• Reporting: Once I understood the logic behind Bloomerang's reporting tools, I could not believe I'd ever worked a different way. Some of our funders request very complicated reports and getting the relevant data out of Bloomerang is SO much easier than it was with our previous CRM tools.
• Website integration: I love the tracking functionality that Bloomerang offers, as well as how easy it is to integrate event ticket, volunteer, and other forms into our existing website.
• Intuitive design: I've introduced total novices to Bloomerang and been very impressed with how quickly they've been able to figure out all the top level navigation as well as deeper functionality.

Incentivized

• In my experience, report filters don't always work like they should.
• Recent updates have made entering transactions more complicated for me, instead of easier.
• No ability to delete or deactivate contacts so your list will always grow and you pay based on the number of contacts.
• In my experience, needs better interface options with other software

Incentivized

• Some of the searches did not bring up the expected results. It would be good to see the logic be a little more "fuzzy".
• More pre-set reports would be helpful for small organizations who do not understand the logic behind how to get the results they are seeking.
• An ability to just page through donor records would be nice. Sometimes you just want to browse the data to get inspired.

Incentivized

#1 - I am very happy with the product and support so far.
#2 - With significant data migration costs, I wouldn't even consider another option for at least 3 years no matter how much better it might be.

Incentivized

In my opinion, recent improvements have made working in Aplos more cumbersome, instead of easier. The new look seems less professional than the old look to me. I think there should be more options to have a default setting when starting some tasks, like opening a register.

Incentivized

Data and settings are very customizable to fit the needs of our organization. We are able to not only keep track of donations, but also other interactions we may have with a constituent. Support is extremely helpful when issues arise.

Incentivized

In my experience, Aplos support used to be awesome...very quick responses and open to suggestions. I could even see my suggestions implemented from time to time. Now I get an answer, but it's usually 'that's how it is' and no solution. 'Improvements' are not improvements to me.

Incentivized

Any time i had a problem or question it has been easy to find an answer or tutorial. When I cannot find an answer, it is easy to email or live chat with support and they resolve my problems very quickly.

I think Aplos has better fund management.

Incentivized

We left DonorPerfect for Bloomerang. I had come from an organization that used Raisers Edge and there was no way I was going to stay with DP. RE is great for larger organizations with staff dedicated to the database, but we were a much smaller organization and needed to have something we could all use easily. We demoed Salsa and Neon and liked them both, but Bloomerang had better integration features and seemed to be the most user-friendly.

Incentivized

• Easy so see what's in each fund at a glance
• Fixed asset management was not easy for me

Incentivized

• Because my organization has been using Bloomerang for only one year, we haven't yet studied what impact it has had on our ROI. We have, however, noted that we are able to more efficiently and more rapidly communicate with constituents now than we were able to before we had Bloomerang. We can quickly and efficiently generate acknowledgements and tax receipts - and do so - better than we ever did before.

Incentivized