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Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued) vs. MessageGears

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)

    Score7.9 out of 10
    N/AThe Bronto Marketing Platform was an email marketing solution from Oracle which was acquired from NetSuite in 2016. It was optimized for creating automated, yet personalized emails, and subscriber profile segments, analyzing click and visit behavior, and tracking geolocation. It has since been discontinued.N/A

    MessageGears

    Score10 out of 10
    N/AMessageGears is a hybrid email marketing service built around deliverability, actionable customer data, and audience segmentation and targeting.N/A
    Pricing
    Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)MessageGears
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)MessageGears
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsRequest pricing at info@bronto.com.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)MessageGears
    Considered Both Products
    The Bronto Marketing Platform
    No answer on this topic
    MessageGears
    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 …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)MessageGears
    Email & Online Marketing
    Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued) and MessageGears
    Feature
    Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)
    7.4
    58 Ratings
    9% below category average
    MessageGears
    3.3
    3 Ratings
    84% below category average
    WYSIWYG email editor7.050 Ratings1.52 Ratings
    Dynamic content6.450 Ratings3.83 Ratings
    Ability to test dynamic content6.449 Ratings2.23 Ratings
    Landing pages4.525 Ratings00 Ratings
    A/B testing9.055 Ratings2.73 Ratings
    Mobile optimization7.850 Ratings8.01 Ratings
    Email deliverability reporting9.458 Ratings3.83 Ratings
    List management7.456 Ratings2.13 Ratings
    Triggered drip sequences8.448 Ratings2.23 Ratings
    Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued) and MessageGears
    Feature
    Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)
    7.6
    57 Ratings
    2% below category average
    MessageGears
    1.1
    3 Ratings
    150% below category average
    Dashboards7.857 Ratings1.13 Ratings
    Standard reports7.856 Ratings1.13 Ratings
    Custom reports7.143 Ratings1.03 Ratings
    Pre-Send Testing
    Comparison of Pre-Send Testing features of Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued) and MessageGears
    Feature
    Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    MessageGears
    3.7
    3 Ratings
    75% below category average
    URL Validation00 Ratings1.01 Ratings
    Link Tracking00 Ratings2.83 Ratings
    Image Validation00 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Inbox Display00 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Spelling and Grammar Check00 Ratings6.01 Ratings
    Spam Testing00 Ratings1.02 Ratings
    Email Previews00 Ratings1.02 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)MessageGears
    Small Businesses
    Mad Mimi
    Score10 out of 10
    Mad Mimi
    Score10 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Campaign Monitor by Marigold
    Score9 out of 10
    Campaign Monitor by Marigold
    Score9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Emma by Marigold
    Score8.5 out of 10
    Emma by Marigold
    Score8.5 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)MessageGears
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.1
    (60 ratings)
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.0
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    6.0
    (1 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    2.0
    (2 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Bronto Marketing Platform (discontinued)MessageGears
    Likelihood to Recommend
    The Bronto Marketing Platform
    If you're a mid-size to larger business and rely on regular email engagement from customers, then Bronto Marketing Platform could be a potentially great partner if not game-changer for how you've been doing email campaign management previously. Their automation tools and development interface is amicable. The amount of data that's collected and available from engagement with subscribers through their tools can be overwhelming. Still, if you enjoy digging into every kernel of possible user activity information, you'll love it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    MessageGears
    MessageGears can be a solid, inexpensive email solution and you can be able to send millions of emails per year. In 2020, we delivered over 235 million emails at a fraction of what that would cost with any other email service provider. We worked with MessageGears on a custom solution with our database.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    The Bronto Marketing Platform
    • It's easy to work with – it has seamless integration across all platforms, which helps when you're working with big clientele.
    • It's logically organized, which can't be said of all ESP's.
    • It has the LIVE CHAT support. A lot of email marketing clients simply don't have that. It's the little things!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    MessageGears
    • The MessageGears Support team is very helpful.
    Read full review
    Cons
    The Bronto Marketing Platform
    • Segmenting- although there's a lot that can be done with segmenting audiences, there's a bit of a learning curve when it comes to setting up segments. Wish it was more intuitive.
    • Workflows- setting up automation workflows requires some practice and I've needed to consult a Bronto support person each time I set up a new workflow.
    • Bronto Pop-up manager- we use this feature, not sure how common it is among Bronto clients, but there is overall some improvement needed with this tool. There is limited capability to update the look and feel of the pop-up manager, and we've run into some conflicts with other pop-ups on our website interfering with the Bronto pop-up.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    MessageGears
    • Multivariate testing
    • WYSIWYG email builder
    • SQL audience error report
    • Native reporting
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    The Bronto Marketing Platform
    Never really had any issues that caused out-of-the-ordinary frustration levels. Of course, you'll have days where the learning curve of using a tool gets challenging. Still, I don't remember ever really coming across an obstacle or roadblock while using the tool because of a feature or function it just couldn't do successfully or at all. Customer support was always available as needed, and it was generally easy to find answers to questions when they arose.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    MessageGears
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    The Bronto Marketing Platform
    Usability is great. Very intuitive drag-and-drip metaphor for building automations. And the UI is very user-centric. It constantly prompts you with suggestions and next steps such that you hardly have to refer to the (excellent) documentation.
    Read full review
    MessageGears
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    The Bronto Marketing Platform
    I never experienced any downtime.
    Read full review
    MessageGears
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    The Bronto Marketing Platform
    No issues.
    Read full review
    MessageGears
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    The Bronto Marketing Platform
    They used to be good, but they've evolved into a monolithic bureaucratic nightmare after the Netsuite / Oracle acquisition. Can't talk to anyone that actually knows the system and support tickets seem to go days or weeks without responses and resolution.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    MessageGears
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    The Bronto Marketing Platform
    They have lots of videos on list importing / segmentation / report customization etc. when you sign on they give a link to online tutorials and documentation which is very helpful. They have very helpful PDFs on how to import / set up platform
    Read full review
    MessageGears
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    The Bronto Marketing Platform
    Easy to set up.
    Read full review
    MessageGears
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    The Bronto Marketing Platform
    Bronto hits the sweet spot for us. It is most similar to the Salesforce family of products. Salesforce however can feel cluttered and configuration and setup can be time consuming and confusing. Bronto is much more streamlined and also has features built in that may require additional purchases in the Salesforce world. Adobe Campaign is a very powerful solution and can do many things hard to achieve in Bronto. However, Campaign is much more of a developer tool where Bronto is easy to learn and use right out of the box.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    The Bronto Marketing Platform
    • Offering great reporting for tracking everything. I can see what emails are working (I track on a monthly basis) and what people are clicking.
    • A/B split testing lets us try different things. Try this and that.
    • Creating lists and segments of subscribers lets us look at who is the best performing contacts. Really get 'into the data' and understand what is working and what is not.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    MessageGears
    • Sending more email!
    • Onboarding handoff was a little rough
    • Great control on who we are sending to
    • Dynamic content is very easy!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots