| Functionality | 4 <p>AWeber offers some, but not all, of the features that a business might need.</p><p><br></p><p>While you can create basic flows and email campaigns with the tool, there are practically no templates for flows, meaning they all have to be built from scratch.</p><p><br></p><p>On top of this, there are no Al-enhanced features, advanced segmentation, or surveys - making this a more meagrely kitted out marketing automation customers</p> | 4 <p>SendGrid only offers the key set of email marketing features - no other channels (e.g., SMS and Whatsapp) or website-related features (e.g., landing pages, website builder) are available. Automation, reporting and customisation are also quite basic. In our books though, this is enough for SMBs with simple needs.</p> |
| Ease of Use | 2 <p>AWeber was not particularly easy to pick up. Buttons and key calls to action were hidden in a hamburger menu, adding more clicks to get to basic sections of the program. However, given the simplicity of most of the features, this wasn't a huge issue.</p> | 8 <p>Mostly due to its limited functionality, key workflows were intuitive and easy to navigate. It was also generally easy to locate key information.</p><p><br></p><p>However, we found a few UX nits:</p><ul><li>There was no way to take bulk actions on contacts e.g. bulk select them and add to list.</li><li>There was only 1 email automation template.</li></ul> |
| Look and feel | 4 <p>Overall, AWeber's look and feel is outdated and a little tired. For those who don't mind the old-school look, AWeber could be a good fit. However, for those who want a more delightful interface and user experience, some other marketing platforms would be better options.</p> | 5 <p>We were not so impressed by the slow page loads - even with only 100 contacts, loading times were 3-4 seconds per page, making the platform frustratingly slow at times. <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Another thing to note is that the design is not fully responsive, sometimes text escapes containers when browser window is shrunk.</span></p><p><br></p><p>In terms of interface, SendGrid is very plain, but clean.</p> |
| Customisability | 3 <p>AWeber's email automation and customisation system is one of the weaker ones we tested. While its competitors offer robust customisation options, including templates and conditional logic, AWeber loses out on this regard.</p> | 4 <p>SendGrid offers good customisability even without code, including the ability to:</p><ul><li>Make basic stylistic changes to client facing assets e.g. emails, signup forms</li><li>Complete basic personalisation for emails with contact information</li><li>Create basic email automation workflows</li></ul><p>However, it's notably lacking in the ability to create custom dashboards and advanced segments (based on custom events, such as website clicks or email interactions).</p> |
| Ease of Setup | 2 <p>While AWeber does have a free trial, which allows you to perform basic setup and product testing, we still found that it was missing a large number of onboarding processes (e.g., tutorials). As such, basic setup takes 1+ hour to complete, and fully customising would take quite a few days.</p> | 7 <p>SendGrid is very easy to set up. We particularly liked how easy it was to locate key features (though note slower loading times).</p><p><br></p><p>It takes around 30 minutes to an hour to complete basic setup, while full customisations (such as integrating with current tools or creating advanced workflows) takes at most 1-3 days. </p> |
| Customer Support | 7 <p>Live chat, email support, and help centre articles are available. Live chat isn't 24/7 however - but they serve US hours. Just something to be aware of if you're based in Europe/anywhere else.</p> | 5 <p>Support is only available through ticket submission in the Help Centre, as there is no live chat option. However, responses are typically provided within a few hours. The Help Centre itself is of high quality, offering detailed explanations and video guides.</p> |
| Integratability | 7 <p>Most integrations that businesses would need are offered by AWeber - including integrations for CRM, e-commece, lead generation, social media, and more.</p> | 4 <p>There were some pre-built integrations with 120 tools - though we note that these were mostly technical and developer focused tools.</p><p><br></p><p>SendGrid was, however, lacking many key integrations - notably, there was no integration with even the most common CRM or e-commerce sites. The only web builder it integrates with is Wordpress.</p> |
| Ease of Migration | 7 <p>As with most marketing automation platforms, AWeber allows you to export your subscriber list. Anything else requires either an API or contacting customer support.</p> | 8 <p>There's the capability to self-serve export contacts from any segments/ lists into CSV files. Other exports (such as analytics) are not available directly through the platform.</p><p><br></p><p>A strength, however, is that there is an email API product available to extract any other information.</p> |
