| Functionality | 7 <p>While ActiveCampaign has most marketing automation features that a business would need (campaigns, automations, deals, reports, websites, and reports), it lacks on some crucial templating features, including use-case and scenario-based templates (e.g., for conversion, festivals, sales).</p> | 8 <p>Campaign Monitor offers almost all functionality most companies will need. In addition to email and SMS campaign creation, it also offers:</p><p><br></p><ul><li>Segmentation and personalisation</li><li>Link error review</li><li>Signup forms</li><li>Transactional emails based on purchases</li></ul><p><br></p><p>However, a few advanced features are missing - such as landing page creation, survey creation (as opposed to linking a survey within the email), and creating highly customised dashboards for analytics.</p> |
| Ease of Use | 8 <p>It would take an average small business employee less than an hour or two to properly figure out the functionalities of this software - a great learning curve if you ask us. The layout is also extremely intuitive, making this a beginner-friendly piece of software.</p> | 8 <p>Campaign Monitor is generally easy to navigate and pick up - the average startup employee would require around 1-2 hours and minimal guidance to proficiently use all key functionalities of the product. Key functions, such as flows, campaigns, and segments, are also very easily accessible.</p> |
| Look and feel | 4 <p>While the interface is generally friendly and easy to pick up (especially the intuitive segmentation between the different key features on the menu bar), the frustratingly slow loading times (more than 2 seconds for email and automation) can be a real deal-breaker.</p> | 7 <p>While the interface is not as modern as some other competitors we've tested, Campaign Monitor has an attractive look and feel, with fast load times.</p> |
| Customisability | 7 <p>Users can customise a lot of the product (especially around email campaigns and automations). However, ActiveCampaign lacks the ability to make sophisticated custom reports and segmentation conditions.</p> | 7 <p>Much of the product is highly customisable by creating custom email campaigns, edit email templates, or create email/SMS campaigns directly from scratch. Good conditional segmentation and flow creation are also offered, contributing to a rich selection of functionalities.</p> |
| Ease of Setup | 10 <p>ActiveCampaign has truly standout ease of setup – it takes around 10-20 minutes to finish basic setup, and fully customising workflows takes 1-2 days at most.</p><p>What we love especially is how easy its AI capabilities improve the setup times: no more painstakingly trawling through manual workflow setups, since AI fully takes care of populating the correct information!</p> | 7 <p>Campaign monitor has a self-serve free trial, and it's easy to purchase without speaking to sales. Basic setup is also easy to complete, taking us on average 30 minutes. Fully customising (e.g., setting up lists and workflows) is fast, taking at most 1 day, without needing to consult help centre articles or contacing the customer support team. </p> |
| Customer Support | 8 <p>There are three helpful avenues of support, the most helpful of which is of course the live chat (only available 3am-11pm CT).</p><p><br></p><p>Supplementing this is the support centre and self-serve training materials.</p> | 8 <p>Excellent customer support is provided by Campaign Monitor. There is a personalised live-chat available in app (though not 24/7, only office hours, in the Americas, Europe, Australia and Asia). There's also a self-serve support through their help centre with high depth and quality.</p> |
| Integratability | 9 <p>ActiveCampaign supports 950+ integrations, meaning that most of your commonly used apps will likely be covered by the long list of integrations. Key areas, such as e-commerce, analytics etc, are obviously included.</p> | 9 <p>Campaign Monitor has almost all of the integrations that a business would need. From advertising and billing, to helpdesk, e-commerce, and landing pages, your currently used apps are likely integratable into Campaign Monitor's page.</p> |
| Ease of Migration | 8 <p>As with most marketing automation platforms, contacts can be exported easily directly through the app.</p> | 7 <p>Subscriber lists are easily exportable via a self-serve function.</p><p><br></p><p>Other data may also be accessed via an API, opening up more possibilities for integrating the platform with other software.</p> |
