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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    SharpSpring (discontinued)

    Score8 out of 10
    Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
    SharpSpring was a full-funnel marketing and sales automation platform that united marketing and sales teams to launch and track targeted campaigns and personalize every interaction to engage and convert more customers and drive revenue. It was acquired by Constant Contact and sold for a time as simply Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM, or SharpSpring by Constant Contact. This product, and the former SharpSpring have since been discontinued, and are no longer sold apart fromN/A

    Parse.ly

    Score7.8 out of 10
    N/AParse.ly is a content optimization platform for online publishers. It provides in-depth analytics and helps maximize the performance of the digital content. It features a dashboard geared for editorial and business staff and an API that can be used by a product team to create personalized or contextual experiences on a website.

    $499

    per month

    Pricing
    SharpSpring (discontinued)Parse.ly
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    SharpSpring (discontinued)Parse.ly
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeRequired
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    SharpSpring (discontinued)Parse.ly
    Considered Both Products
    Discontinued Products
    No answer on this topic
    Parse.ly
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    96%
    Would buy again
    144 Answers
    99%
    Would buy again
    78 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    143 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    47 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    148 Answers
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    76 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    124 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    36 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    125 Answers
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    37 Answers
    Features
    SharpSpring (discontinued)Parse.ly
    Email & Online Marketing
    Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of SharpSpring (discontinued) and Parse.ly
    Feature
    SharpSpring (discontinued)
    7.1
    509 Ratings
    9% below category average
    Parse.ly
    -
    Ratings
    WYSIWYG email editor9.0469 Ratings00 Ratings
    Dynamic content7.2452 Ratings00 Ratings
    Landing pages7.0441 Ratings00 Ratings
    A/B testing6.0396 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile optimization8.0427 Ratings00 Ratings
    Email deliverability reporting8.0497 Ratings00 Ratings
    List management6.0499 Ratings00 Ratings
    Triggered drip sequences6.0474 Ratings00 Ratings
    Lead Management
    Comparison of Lead Management features of SharpSpring (discontinued) and Parse.ly
    Feature
    SharpSpring (discontinued)
    8.5
    498 Ratings
    15% above category average
    Parse.ly
    -
    Ratings
    Lead nurturing automation8.0485 Ratings00 Ratings
    Lead scoring and grading9.0491 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data quality management8.0467 Ratings00 Ratings
    Automated sales alerts and tasks9.0463 Ratings00 Ratings
    Campaign Management
    Comparison of Campaign Management features of SharpSpring (discontinued) and Parse.ly
    Feature
    SharpSpring (discontinued)
    7.6
    400 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Parse.ly
    -
    Ratings
    Calendaring8.1338 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of SharpSpring (discontinued) and Parse.ly
    Feature
    SharpSpring (discontinued)
    3.7
    495 Ratings
    59% below category average
    Parse.ly
    -
    Ratings
    Dashboards4.0487 Ratings00 Ratings
    Standard reports4.0487 Ratings00 Ratings
    Custom reports3.0448 Ratings00 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of SharpSpring (discontinued) and Parse.ly
    Feature
    SharpSpring (discontinued)
    7.8
    467 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Parse.ly
    -
    Ratings
    API8.0365 Ratings00 Ratings
    Role-based workflow & approvals8.0403 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizability8.6439 Ratings00 Ratings
    Web Analytics
    Comparison of Web Analytics features of SharpSpring (discontinued) and Parse.ly
    Feature
    SharpSpring (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Parse.ly
    7.6
    7 Ratings
    6% below category average
    Lead Conversion Tracking00 Ratings6.23 Ratings
    Bounce Rate Measurement00 Ratings6.85 Ratings
    Device and Browser Reporting00 Ratings8.36 Ratings
    Pageview Tracking00 Ratings8.26 Ratings
    Event Tracking00 Ratings7.85 Ratings
    Reporting in real-time00 Ratings8.46 Ratings
    Referral Source Tracking00 Ratings7.66 Ratings
    Customizable Dashboards00 Ratings7.66 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    SharpSpring (discontinued)Parse.ly
    Small Businesses
    BenchmarkONE
    Score8 out of 10
    Matomo Analytics
    Score9 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    Lead Forensics
    Score9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Chartbeat
    Score9.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    SharpSpring (discontinued)Parse.ly
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.0
    (523 ratings)
    7.8
    (82 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.1
    (32 ratings)
    8.7
    (32 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (71 ratings)
    7.7
    (35 ratings)
    Availability
    7.8
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    3.2
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.9
    (71 ratings)
    7.8
    (35 ratings)
    Online Training
    4.5
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    6.5
    (10 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    4.5
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    4.5
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    2.9
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    1.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    SharpSpring (discontinued)Parse.ly
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Discontinued Products
    SharpSpring is great for creating and tracking campaigns that span multiple channels. With the Salesforce integration, we are able to keep our Sales team focused inside Salesforce without them needing to learn a new tool. Our Marketing team uses SharpSpring to nurture leads before handing them off to the Sales team. Though the features are available, SharpSpring would not be suitable for social media management or blogs; our third-party tools do a better job at that.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parse.ly
    Parse.ly is a great tool for publishers who want to track engagement and audience behaviour across websites. With Parse.ly, we can easily track metrics like pageviews, time spent on page, and scroll depth to see which content is resonating with our audience and optimize our content strategy accordingly. Our marketers found Parse.ly to be an excellent tool for tracking the effectiveness of our campaigns. We can use Parse.ly to track metrics like referral sources, conversion rates, and engagement by audience segment to see which channels and tactics are driving the most engagement and conversions.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Discontinued Products
    • Their Emailers are very easy to construct and user-friendly. It takes your Newsletter and sales emails to the next level, especially with the action groups and trigger functionalities.
    • The life of the lead functionality allows you to see when leads get warmer, so you know when to send them what. Helps improve conversions.
    Read full review
    Parse.ly
    • Firstly, the platform is super easy to use, it is user-friendly and easy to navigate through.
    • Secondly, the platform also provides you the option to use filters to your best fit and adjust the filters according to what data you want to look at.
    • Thirdly, it enables the user to have live feedback on their articles and see what can be improved going forward to address the need of the readers.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Discontinued Products
    • The landing page builder is a bit hard to use. Doesn’t have much flexibility.
    • Sometimes confusing between types of workflows to use. Opportunity versus visual.
    • If you imported contacts that weren’t formatted correctly. It is hard to delete a bull amount. Need to type DELETE for each one manually. No bull options to make changes.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parse.ly
    • A more readily understandable visual guide to a visitor's pathway through your site would help understand what keeps a reader on-site.
    • The total page view number for the day should be more readily visible--on the overview page, not just by going to Posts>Historical.
    • Maintain the archive for longer than a year under all plans--it's a shame to lose year-on-year data quickly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Discontinued Products
    We have been very impressed with all aspects of this software and the potential for it to radically change how we operate is huge! Support has been exceptional and we have discovered many extra uses for the software than originally thought. Not only will it give us benefits for our company's growth, but for our client's growth as well.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parse.ly
    As an employee, this is difficult for me to comment as I am not directly funding or making these business decisions. However, it is a tool many get on with for surface level data that is useful to editorial teams.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Discontinued Products
    This rating is coming from an administrative perspective. With so many features, workflows, dashboards, and more, there is certainly a lot going on, and even the most savvy software user can get a little overwhelmed when trying to decide how to best implement and utilize the platform to its full potential. That being said, the SharpSpring platform is well-implemented and well-organized, with most solutions being fairly intuitive, once you have a grasp of the software. It is fairly easy to learn, but difficult to master. Just like any powerful platform, however, the complexity is worth it, and once you are comfortable navigating and problem solving within SharpSpring, it becomes a great marketing and sales tool which can do virtually anything you need it to.
    Incentivized
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    Parse.ly
    The Parse.ly platform is very user-friendly and easy to use. User management is simple, and reporting setup only takes a few minutes. They provide very helpful documentation for implementing the scripts on your site and have great customer support to help with custom development such as implementing their content recommendation engine.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Discontinued Products
    The support is great which really helps overcome challenges if you become stuck and the training videos are great too. Same-day replies are great and I even got some help with some CSS code on the chat. Not many organizations would do this or even respond.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parse.ly
    I rate this question this way solely because I haven't requested any support. I feel where I will eventually get support would be when we take Parse.ly up on some training that is being offered. We are looking to do that at some point after the first of the year and when our schedules support it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Discontinued Products
    Overall I would say to be patient and bring everyone who will be touching the platform to the onboarding sessions. The Virtual Classroom lets you onboard as quickly or slowly as you want. Sales, marketing, design, account management, get 'em all in on it. For the most part, they will be happy to use this platform. I recommend getting as many people as possible to see the SharpSpring demo.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parse.ly
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Discontinued Products
    We use different CRMs for different clients, mostly due to budget and other requirements. SharpSpring from Constant Contact is in the middle, price-wise, but is slightly more user-friendly than ActiveCampaign when it comes to certain things, such as drip campaigns and workflows. Though the price can be prohibitive to some clients, it is extremely robust. I definitely prefer the list-building, the ability to send smart emails and the WYSIWYG editor.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parse.ly
    Parse.ly does pretty well compared to Chartbeat, particularly when it comes to historical information and analysis options that are easy for employees to use after some short training. The onboarding for Parse.ly is intuitive, and the scheduled reports take away basically all of the inconvenience associated with regular metrics reviewing. But Chartbeat wins in its social audience tracking because it can source traffic to a specific social post, which can show you exactly how your audience is coming to your content and where you need to put your content to be sure you get that audience.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Discontinued Products
    • Streamlined Processes - sales and marketing are now all in the same place.
    • Reduced Number of Platforms/Tools - CRM/lead management, email, automation, landing pages, forms, etc are all in the same place rather than using multiple tools.
    • Time-saving - sales pipeline is very easy to use for sales. For marketing, we have dozens of workflows that eliminate much of our manual processes from the past.
    • Return on Investment - We're more focused on moving the building the business than ever before because SharpSpring has simplified so many of our business operations and we're seeing massive results!
    • Lead generation - Up SIGNIFICANTLY (between 3x & 4x) since setting up SharpSpring.
    Read full review
    Parse.ly
    • Sometimes in meetings our editorial director will point out stories that didn't perform well. To us, that means readers don't really care about the topic, so we'll pivot away from writing about that in the future. That might not be "business objectives" though.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Parse.ly Screenshots

    Screenshot of Overview in full-screen mode: Many Parse.ly pages, like the Overview, are TV-ready. Keep your entire team up-to-date with live, full-screen dashboards on TVs in your office.Screenshot of Overview screen: See a snapshot of what your audience is paying attention to today so you can make fast decisions about what content to produce or distribute. Customize it to show only what your team cares about by filtering it to a particular author, section, or tag. You can pick what stats and listings are displayed.Screenshot of Real-time posts page: See what’s gathering steam so you can capitalize on attention to every post, campaign, or section.
Real-time data includes the last 24 hours and updates every five seconds. It can be seen, filtered, and sorted on most screens.Screenshot of Historical posts page: Explore historical trends by post, author, section, topic, referrer, or campaign. Compare today’s performance to last week, month, or year.Screenshot of Campaign tracking: Easily tie in your off-site promotion to engagement with your on-site content using UTM parameters.Screenshot of Multi-channel tracking: Track all your content in one place, no matter where it lives.
Compare how your content performances on various distributed channels including your website, AMP, Facebook Instant Articles, and Apple News.