ActiveCampaign Vs. AWeber: Which is best for your business?

AWeber vs. ActiveCampaign

We’ll compare AWeber vs. ActiveCampaign here, two powerful email marketing and marketing automation tools that can help you grow your business. Suppose you’re looking for one of the most affordable ways to market your business. In that case, email marketing with an email service is the way to go.

Email marketing constantly beats other marketing channels, with an average ROI of 42:1.  That’s a massive $42 for every dollar you spend; even if you have a small marketing budget for your company, it’s well worth your time to invest that money in email marketing.

ActiveCampaign Vs. AWeber: Overview

ActiveCampaign Overview

Jason Vandeboom founded the autoresponder company ActiveCampaign in 2003. Since then, it has become a leading CRM and automation tool for email and SMS campaigns.

One of the most popular autoresponders available, it boasts more than 300,000 satisfied users. It’s also among the best customer relationship management (CRM) and email marketing automation tools.

AWeber Overview

Many consider AWeber to be the “godfather” of email marketing. We’re not sure whether it was the first autoresponder. Nonetheless, it was one of the first models sold to the general public. Tom Kulzer started the company in 1998. 

Since then, it has assisted over a million clients in using email marketing to maintain relationships with their clients. As you probably figured out, AWeber is also one of the most popular email marketing solutions.

ActiveCampaign Vs. AWeber: Features

As with any software, not all email marketing platforms are made equal. In ActiveCampaign’s instance, it offers a good roster of features, but it may be tough to use. AWeber has a solid feature set, although nothing makes it stand out above competing applications.

ActiveCampaign

One of ActiveCampaign’s best features is its ability to target specific geographic areas. The program facilitates the development of granular client subsets with strict inclusion criteria.

For example, you may establish a segment for individuals who reside in California, have subscribed in the previous 30 days, and have visited four different pages on your site. It helps you to customize and edit messages with more relevant material.

ActiveCampaign also enables you to add as many custom fields as you’d like in your contacts to assist you in constructing these segments. Other valuable features include:

• Drag-and-drop email editor
• The chance to try your email to see how it appears in various email clients.
• Spam check to determine whether emails will reach a recipient’s mailbox
• Pre-built automation templates

AWeber

When it comes to contact management, AWeber excels. The fields used to collect client data may be modified, giving you access to the precise details you need to run targeted marketing. It allows you to customize the beginning of an email to meet the requirements of each consumer.

AWeber’s automation features offer tags and campaigns you might add based on prior behavior, enabling you to construct more robust segmentation as you input more contacts swiftly. The ability to search for and sort your contacts based on criteria such as:

• Date added
• Web page visited
• Purchase price
• City
• Any custom fields you’ve added.

One-click will allow you to turn the search results into a section. However, AWeber’s email newsletter designs are pretty rudimentary, offering just the barest minimum in terms of graphics, color palettes, and formatting tools.

The template’s background color is the only one you may alter, not the tones, borders, or styles. In addition, you are not obligated to send emails to customers at times that are most convenient for them or that take into account their time zone.

Winner

ActiveCampaign wins this round with its exceptional segmentation capabilities and contact management functionality.

ActiveCampaign Vs. AWeber: Ease Of Use

Neither product excels in this regard. One is old-fashioned and confusing, while the other takes much explanation and training.

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is not an easy-to-use solution. Today’s workers — particularly millennials and Generation Z — want to get up and running with new software without having an instruction manual or hours of training.

To get the most out of this solution and use its vast feature set to the fullest, you need to spend time training and playing around with where everything is and what it does before you start creating campaigns.

ActiveCampaign assumes prior knowledge of concepts and does not provide any explanation. It also complicates processes, making them time-consuming.

For example, when establishing a list, you need to include a URL and a description instead of simply a name.

You can only use certain features after previous efforts, which slows down campaign creation and setup. For example, creating a lead score depends on already set up a segment.

AWeber

AWeber lacks the modern and Smart user interface of other email marketing solutions. The effort required to complete each task may seem excessive.

The application prompts you to create a mailing list, provide a subject line, and type in a confirmation message when you first launch it to guide you through the initial setup.

If you’re starting with email marketing and don’t yet have a mailing list, this isn’t the best place to start.

Winner

While none of these options provide a higher user experience, AWeber is the least complex and daunting of the two.

ActiveCampaign vs. AWeber: Email automation

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign’s automation is as excellent as they get. Their technology lets you track visitors to your website and customize email marketing campaigns to their behavior and interests. For example, suppose a registered user on your cooking blog visits a page about cheesecake. In that case, you can send an automated email with different recipes. 

Or you may ask them to assess the recipes after three days. The options are infinite. What’s more, developing automation is done using both straightforward and easy visual processes.

AWeber

AWeber’s automation is a new addition that is still in beta at the time of writing. When people subscribe to your list, you may tag them (for example, “interested in cheesecakes”) and split your mailing lists correctly. 

Winner

ActiveCampaign wins with one of the best automation systems we’ve tested. AWeber does feature automation, but they’re nowhere near as vital.

ActiveCampaign Vs. AWeber: Registration Forms:

ActiveCampaign

You may construct and edit ActiveCampaign’s registration forms with a decent degree of freedom, including all the fields you need. Note that they will maintain their branding on the form if you’re on the lesser pricing plan. 

Other benefits of the more expensive Professional and Enterprise plans include additional form types, such as floating boxes, modal pop-ups, and floating bars, in addition to inline forms.

AWeber

AWeber’s forms come with a wide variety of options for customization, such as text fields, audio files, page redirection, video embeds, and more. A thank you page might be shown when a user completes a subscription. Unfortunately, it’s not a breeze to set up the forms.

Winner

You may select your winner here; AWeber’s forms are more customizable. If you require exceptional capabilities like audio forms, they’re lovely. Choose ActiveCampaign if you want simplicity and no frills.

ActiveCampaign Vs. AWeber: Reporting

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is again one of the best choices if you require precise reports. Yes, eCommerce data are absent, but you get almost everything else, from opens, clicks, bounces, and unsubscribes to analytics tools like geo-reports, social media reports, and link CTR distribution.

AWeber

AWeber’s reports include the essentials, including opens, bounces, clicks, and even “Domains” reports, which break down your email recipients by service provider. 

As a bonus, they have access to detailed information on eCommerce platforms and global positioning systems that are otherwise difficult to get by. It’s inconvenient that it takes six clicks to get that data.

Winner

One another victory for ActiveCampaign! If they provided monitoring for online purchases, they would be unbeatable.

ActiveCampaign Vs. AWeber: Integration 

Most state-of-the-art email marketing platforms also have an API so that you may create your custom connections with other media.

ActiveCampaign

On its website, ActiveCampaign highlights a number of its most popular integrations. Here are a few instances when this occurs:

• Facebook
• WordPress
• Zapier
• Shopify
• Unbounce
• Google Analytics
• ClickFunnels
• Pipedrive
• WooCommerce

If an integration you want is not already available, ActiveCampaign provides an API so that you may create one. As a bonus, it has a wealth of information in its database that you may use to solve any problems you encounter.

AWeber

AWeber may link to various business systems, including those used to increase your social network following, create landing sites, and manage your shopping cart.

Popular integrations include:

• WordPress
• GoToWebinar
• PayPal
• Shopify
• WooCommerce
• ClickFunnels
• Zapier
• Facebook
• Google Analytics

If your program isn’t on the list, AWeber has an API that enables you to develop interfaces with it. The AWeber customer service staff will also individually assist you in integrating the solution with any other software that isn’t on the list of native integrations.

Winner

When it comes to integrations, there is almost no difference between these two. One advantage AWeber has is that its customer solutions team will work with you one-on-one to create an integration with a program that isn’t already supported by the service. 

It’s useful for organizations that don’t have much money to spend on IT or development.

ActiveCampaign Vs. AWeber: Support

ActiveCampaign and AWeber evaluated 9 out of 10, making the decision between them difficult.

ActiveCampaign

During the hours of 8 am-4 pm (CST), ActiveCampaign offers limited live help alternatives. You may also reach out by email or phone if you reside in or around Chicago for support.

There is also the possibility of signing up for a training webinar or arranging for virtual one-on-one help. ActiveCampaign has a “sticky help” button that you may use at any moment without leaving the current screen to bring up a menu of available assistance alternatives.

AWeber

AWeber’s central selling point regarding support is that it offers 24/7 live chat to all customers, no matter the price. The company also provides 24/7 email and phone support from 8 am to 8 pm Eastern Time on Monday to Friday.

Suppose you want to improve your email marketing abilities. In that case, AWeber has you covered with video courses, tips, and connections to pertinent articles in their knowledge base.

Winner

It was a close call since both platforms have top-notch support features, but AWeber nabbed first place because of its accessible live chat and email services.

ActiveCampaign vs. AWeber: Pricing

Pricing is crucial when deciding which software is best for your business. There wasn’t much to select between ActiveCampaign and AWeber in this category.

ActiveCampaign

• No free plan.
• Trial period: Yes (14 days).
• Discount: The yearly discount is determined by the price plan.
• Starting price: Pricing begins at $15 per month for up to 500 subscribers and unlimited emails.
• Number of pricing tiers: 4

When compared to paying monthly, ActiveCampaign’s annual cost is substantially more affordable. For example, the Lite price plan, the least expensive tier, costs $15/month when paid monthly but just $9/month annually.

Unfortunately, there is no free option, and the ActiveCampaign demo only lasts for a week.

AWeber

• Free plan: Yes
• Free trial: No
• Discount: 14.9% yearly and 14% monthly basis discount
• Paid plans begin at $19/month for up to 500 subscribers and unlimited emails.

The free version of AWeber lacks automation, sophisticated analytics, and A/B testing. All of your emails will have the AWeber logo in them.

Regardless of your chosen paid plan, you will have access to AWeber’s premium features, making them an excellent bargain for small companies. In addition, if you pay yearly, you may save 14.9%, and if you pay quarterly, you’ll save 14%.

Winner

ActiveCampaign and AWeber offer free trials, but neither provides a free version. The beginning pricing for both is comparable ($15 for ActiveCampaign and $19 for AWeber for 500 contacts and limitless). AWeber wins this round, however, because all of its pricing plans include the same features.

ActiveCampaign Vs. AWeber: Final Verdict

ActiveCampaign and AWeber are both fantastic email marketing platforms. The tiny difference between the two makes it critical to get the tool that best suits your demands. AWeber is the best pick if all you need is an email marketing platform.

ActiveCampaign is also a fantastic tool. As a service-based business, this is the right tool for you. Use the CRM tool to monitor your leads while automating most of your sales. In conclusion, depending on who uses them, both tools are appropriate.

ActiveCampaign and AWeber pricing

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