Iterable vs. Retainful

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Iterable
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
Iterable is an AI-powered customer communication platform that activates customers across channels in real-time. With intelligent personalization, dynamic content, and a cross-channel suite, Iterable helps brands create seamless, data-driven experiences across email, SMS, push, and in-app notifications.N/A
Retainful
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
Retainful is an eCommerce marketing automation platform designed to allow emails to flow on their own while the user simply waits and watches the conversions unfold.N/A
Pricing
IterableRetainful
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
IterableRetainful
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
IterableRetainful
Features
IterableRetainful
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Iterable
7.8
108 Ratings
2% above category average
Retainful
10.0
1 Ratings
23% above category average
WYSIWYG email editor8.595 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Dynamic content8.3103 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content8.2101 Ratings10.01 Ratings
A/B testing8.3104 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Mobile optimization7.899 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting6.2104 Ratings10.01 Ratings
List management7.0104 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences7.795 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Landing pages00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Iterable
5.8
105 Ratings
23% below category average
Retainful
10.0
1 Ratings
27% above category average
Dashboards6.3105 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Standard reports5.7104 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Custom reports5.595 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Iterable
6.9
102 Ratings
8% below category average
Retainful
-
Ratings
API7.892 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-based workflow & approvals8.488 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizability7.793 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM3.63 Ratings00 Ratings
Third-party software integrations7.111 Ratings00 Ratings
Pre-Send Testing
Comparison of Pre-Send Testing features of Product A and Product B
Iterable
-
Ratings
Retainful
10.0
1 Ratings
23% above category average
URL Validation00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Link Tracking00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Image Validation00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Inbox Display00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Email Accessibility Tools00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Spelling and Grammar Check00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Spam Testing00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Email Previews00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Best Alternatives
IterableRetainful
Small Businesses
Vbout
Vbout
Score 10.0 out of 10
Vbout
Vbout
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.0 out of 10
VerticalResponse
VerticalResponse
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.0 out of 10
Emma by Marigold
Emma by Marigold
Score 9.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
IterableRetainful
Likelihood to Recommend
8.7
(108 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.1
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
8.6
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.5
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.1
(4 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
6.4
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.1
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
IterableRetainful
Likelihood to Recommend
Iterable
Iterable is a highly robust platform for omnichannel management with advanced personalisation capabilities, and it is among the best in the industry. It does it without being technically overcomplicated, thereby surpassing older industry standards that require developer-level knowledge for advanced personalisation or targeting setups. One thing where Iterable shines is the CSM programs they assign to clients that truly nurture them to reach the full potential of the platform and achieve business goals. There are a few shortcomings here and there, but I haven't seen any platform without them, and overall, the enablement that Iterable allows far surpasses other alternatives.
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Retainful
If you are looking for a WP plugin to manage your abandoned cart, Retainful is the best you can find. The UX is really nice, the platform is user-friendly and you don't need any skill to start using it from day one. You can create email automation in a few steps and offer coupon codes to grab the attention of your customers. Last but not least, Retainful has the best support team! They reply super fast, they assist you to set everything properly and they really help you to have the best service possible. Honestly, you can't ask more!
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Pros
Iterable
  • Customer Journey creation - the platform easily creates a visual path for the marketing team to curate messaging based around timing, channel, behavior as well as add split testing logic and exit criteria so we target only the audiences we want.
  • Customer Success - one of the best teams I've ever had the pleasure of working with. I'm able to move so much quicker because they really create a helpful partnership.
  • Audience segmentation, the platform is easy to work with even if you're a first time user, they do a great job of visually showing the logic and the and/or/none type rules.
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Retainful
  • email automation
  • generate and send coupon code
  • data analysis
Read full review
Cons
Iterable
  • Insights. I think this is the biggest downfall of Iterable, the insights and analytics area is really not good at all. We have almost stopped using it all together in favour of just using Mixpanel (but now we're paying for 2 platforms). Things we can do in Mixpanel that we can't do in Iterable:
  • - custom conversion windows
  • - more scalable reports
  • - comparing multiple events
  • - setting up alerts that trigger to slack
  • Segmentation - building segments and organizing lists that are already built.
  • - relative dates can be confusing but are a critical piece of building lists
  • - unable to compare multiple events
  • - we have a pretty good naming structure for our lists but with so many daily users, no good way to organize them (with labels or folders) and searching for a list requires you to find the exact word we end up re creating dynamic lists each time
  • - static lists don't show you what rules were used to create the list
  • - no way to see changes over time
  • Improved ways of collaborating. There's no way of knowing if other people are editing a list, template, campaign or journey. easy to overwrite each other's work
  • I've been an Iterable user for about 4 years, at 2 different companies. SinceI started using Iterable I think the number of bugs has increased.
  • I wish Iterable did a better job testing releases so we're not the ones discovering issues so frequently.
  • In app message. We've had issues with this tool/channel starting at implementation. It feels like it never made it's way out of beta, despite us paying for it now.
  • The app team offered to do working sessions with us to understand how we use it day to day and never followed up on that. There have been no improvements to the tool and any time we run into another issue with it (although Jena in support is great) it takes forever to diagnose or we are told the issue cannot be replicated. It just feels like we have constant issues with this tool.
  • We've actually onboarded to another tool (not ideal for omni channel) for some in app messages because this one has so many downfalls and is so buggy.
  • Self serve documentation is great when you have an idea of what you're doing but not entirely sure. It is not easy to understand for people who are newer or less well versed in the platform.
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Retainful
  • I'd like to have more templates for emails
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Likelihood to Renew
Iterable
Extremely easy to use, deeply integrated into our infrastructure
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Retainful
No answers on this topic
Usability
Iterable
Iterable very easy to learn and use. It's a great platform for both a new email marketer and a marketer that's been working in email for 20+ years.
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Retainful
No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
Iterable
Iterable is there like 99.9% of the time. However, when it goes down, it grinds us to a halt. Most of the time, outages are an hour or less, but if that's at a peak time, it can be a nightmare. That said, when the worst does happen, there are frequent updates and an easy situation tracker that give you an estimate of how much longer you'll have to wait for the issue to be resolved.
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Retainful
No answers on this topic
Performance
Iterable
The API is super quick. The UI can be a little sluggish depending on what you're loading, but overall Iterable performs great. Iterable appears to do a good job of making processes async so that one action isn't blocking another.
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Retainful
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Iterable
I've never experienced any issues with Iterable. As I and my colleagues have learnt the system and it's features, response to questions and advice from our account manager is always quick. Kevin knows the product well, and with the few tricky questions has hasn't been able to answer he's been quick to get back to us.
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Retainful
Best team Support ever! Fast, kind, and always helpful
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Alternatives Considered
Iterable
As mentioned previously, I was hired to do a migration from ActiveCampaign, and I stayed for 2 years as a power user of Itearble. Since leaving OneVision Resources, I have continued to volunteer my time in a regional user group, which I would not do if the platform, product, and company were not so strong and so marketer-forward.
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Retainful
We use Mailchimp for email marketing but as integration with WordPress we found Retainful easier to use (automation workflow) and you can start for free! Moreover, we can generate and send coupon codes directly from the plugin, and works great with Woocommerce! It is more than one year that we use Retainful and we are completely satisfied
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Scalability
Iterable
We've definitely tested scalability, and it's no line - it works. The process is pretty easy. Most of the times it goes off without a hitch. Any time we do encounter issues, our support team is quick to get on the job and very communicative as they work us through a successful launch.
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Retainful
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Iterable
  • I do not have hard numbers, as I am not in the department that deals with those kinds of quantifications of impact. However, I do believe the use of Iterable has been a positive thing for us in providing more comprehensive data that is useful when dealing with customer tickets.
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Retainful
  • Positive ROAS for abandoned cart
  • Positive ROAS for coupon code
  • Data analysis of customer behavior
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ScreenShots

Iterable Screenshots

Screenshot of how Iterable unifies customer, product, business, and martech ecosystem data to create integrated marketing.Screenshot of Iterable’s AI Suite, that helps to build personalized campaigns quickly, predicts what customers need next, and fine-tunes every message for maximum impact.Screenshot of some of the tools and support available through Iterable that support scale and tomorrow’s growth.Screenshot of how Iterable unifies all engagement channels into one platform for consistent, personalized communication, connecting with customers wherever they are: SMS, email, in-app, push, embedded messaging, and beyond.Screenshot of how to create highly-personalized communications that listen to, react to, and anticipate customer needs.Screenshot of an example of how AI can be used to influence the most important metrics and achieve key business goals.