Braze vs. Smartlead.ai

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Braze
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Braze is a customer engagement platform that enables relevant and memorable experiences between consumers and brands. With Braze, global brands can ingest and process customer data in real time, orchestrate and optimize contextually relevant, cross-channel marketing campaigns.N/A
Smartlead.ai
Score 7.2 out of 10
N/A
A solution to scale cold email outreach featuring unlimited mailboxes, unlimited warmups, deliverability-focused infrastructure, and a unibox to handle the revenue cycle.
$39
per month
Pricing
BrazeSmartlead.ai
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Basic
$39
per month 2000 active Leads & 6000 Emails per month
Pro
$94
per month 30000 active Leads & 150000 Emails per month
Custom
starting at $174
per month upto 12M Active Lead Credits
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BrazeSmartlead.ai
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional DetailsDiscount of up to 17% available for annual billing.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BrazeSmartlead.ai
Features
BrazeSmartlead.ai
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Braze
-
Ratings
Smartlead.ai
5.9
2 Ratings
30% below category average
WYSIWYG email editor00 Ratings5.01 Ratings
Dynamic content00 Ratings1.01 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content00 Ratings4.01 Ratings
A/B testing00 Ratings7.02 Ratings
Mobile optimization00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Braze
-
Ratings
Smartlead.ai
7.5
2 Ratings
3% below category average
Dashboards00 Ratings6.52 Ratings
Standard reports00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Custom reports00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
Pre-Send Testing
Comparison of Pre-Send Testing features of Product A and Product B
Braze
-
Ratings
Smartlead.ai
4.5
2 Ratings
57% below category average
URL Validation00 Ratings2.01 Ratings
Link Tracking00 Ratings2.01 Ratings
Image Validation00 Ratings3.01 Ratings
Inbox Display00 Ratings6.02 Ratings
Email Accessibility Tools00 Ratings6.02 Ratings
Email Previews00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
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BrazeSmartlead.ai
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Dialpad Support
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All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BrazeSmartlead.ai
Likelihood to Recommend
8.7
(145 ratings)
6.0
(2 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
7.0
(112 ratings)
8.0
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
4.5
(21 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
BrazeSmartlead.ai
Likelihood to Recommend
Braze
Braze is a fantastic tool if you're looking to build a large number of CRM journeys using complex canvas structures and maximising use of customer data to segment and personalise. There are numerous tools to ensure each channel is maximising impact and engagement. Braze offers great features for testing, managing message frequency and control groups and using dynamic attributes and liquid code. If you're looking to limit your use to single-send campaigns with no or few automations, I don't think this is the right tool. From my experience, many Braze users also use external tools for analytics rather than Braze's native analytics.
Read full review
Smartlead.ai
We have ceased using the tool as our primary outbound marketing platform for all the reasons stated. Slick integration but poor ROI. We have switched to a platform that does not require management of dozens of domains and email addresses and sends from a U.S.-based API
Read full review
Pros
Braze
  • Canvas feature has been really good for creating customer journey paths and long-term messaging campaigns.
  • They have been addressing feature requests to continue to improve the Canvas feature. One of the simplest but most-handy features is allowing Delay steps wait for a very specific date on a calendar -- so you can plan seasonal campaigns or when you have evergreen-style drip campaigns it allows for avoiding public holidays/etc.
  • The catalog feature provides a lot of use-cases and flexibility for personalizing comms or customizing comms for whitelabeled versions of our standard comms (for our B2B2C scenarios).
  • We use the catalog as a repository of our B2B2C brand info, messaging customization - it basically allows us to offer a whitelabeled configurable version of our optimized automated in-life comms in the branding of our b2b customers.
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Smartlead.ai
  • Slick API integration with both our waterfall and CRM
  • Quick email verification tool
  • Handles high volume sending with ease
Read full review
Cons
Braze
  • Enabling GIF/videos to be directly uploaded on to Braze's platform
  • Easier way of creating canvases; right now it is too complex for someone new who is starting off in the company to understand what things do and where things are
  • Ability to track duplicate user profiles within the entire audience segment
  • Automated deduplicating email addresses/phone numbers in each targeting segment; right now it's done manually after extracting csv files
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Smartlead.ai
  • Response rate has been abysmally poor
  • ROI has been negligible
  • APIs are not U.S.-based
  • Does not handle attachments well
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Braze
We are on a mission for an omnichannel experience for our customers and are already making good progress with Braze able to fully support and optimise this
Read full review
Smartlead.ai
No answers on this topic
Usability
Braze
It is an easy-to-understand platform, thanks to its design and accessibility. You can, for example, easily find any users and their data, check exact volumes of segments, follow the history of messages sent, and create reports. We can connect Braze with other platforms for analysis or email design (Snowflake, Hightouch, Stripo...).
Read full review
Smartlead.ai
It's a good tool and you can figure out your way around it, but overall visibility from a bird's eye view could be better. Oftentimes you have to open up multiple tabs to see different client views
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Support Rating
Braze
Very responsive and helpful on simple questions, but not great other than that. They do not have a way for the customer/user to escalate a ticket. You have to contact your rep and in some cases, they don't respond within 24 hours so you have no idea if they have escalated it. There is no phone number for an urgent issue - you have to rely on email
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Smartlead.ai
No answers on this topic
Online Training
Braze
It's really well explained, there are lots of documentation about all topics. When we want to perform in a specific area, there are always a dedicated path. For each new feature, there is always some videos explaining the purpose and the new functionalities. Also I used to do the certification which allows me to show my achievements in my business environment.
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Smartlead.ai
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Braze
Braze is just the best one when it comes to aesthetics and usability, which matter when you're working every day, making complex or even simple changes to highly contextual campaigns for multiple stakeholders. Even without following tutorials, you just get it instantly and start crafting journeys very quickly. And they continue to keep adding new features at a rapid pace, so credit where it's due.
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Smartlead.ai
At the time when I was evaluating, Smartlead offered a client portal and was also a bit less pricey compared to some of their competitors
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Return on Investment
Braze
  • We are currently trying to reduce churn of our members, numbers are stable but not as good as they could be.
  • We have achieved well in the upselling of our products, and expect to see a good proportion of revenue from this at the end of the year.
  • Higher engagement in our app work, performing much better than email. Keeping things interactive really helps.
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Smartlead.ai
  • Negligible return
  • Open rates and response rates run below 10%
  • Best for single channel buziness development
Read full review
ScreenShots