Email marketing continues to be one of the most efficient strategies you can rely on to engage your customers. To make the most out of your email marketing endeavors, you need a reliable platform. In this post, we compared two of the best options currently available: ActiveCampaign vs AWeber.
Written By Henry Walden - Digital Marketing Expert Updated: 09/02/2021 |
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Score | 8.1/10 | 8/10 |
Summary | This platform offers advanced reporting and automation features, as well as multiple email design options. | AWeber offers all the basic features you need to create beautiful emails or workflows and track your campaigns. |
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Pros |
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Cons |
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Key Features |
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Pricing |
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Support |
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Ease of Use |
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Best fit for | Small companies, experienced marketers or beginners | Small companies, bloggers |
With ready-made email templates, creating email campaigns is easier as you only have to add text and images. Here is what ActiveCampaign vs AWeber offer in terms of templates.
ActiveCampaign allows you to choose from more than 125 responsive templates. Most of them offer a modern and appealing look and if you don't want to use them, you can start from scratch and create your own templates using HTML code. There is also a wide array of customization options you can benefit from when you design your emails.
AWeber is also a good choice if email templates are your priority. This platform features 150 templates you can easily adapt to your brand. One of the first things we noticed while browsing through the gallery is the variety of color schemes. Almost all the ready-made templates are HTML-based, and you can customize them by using tags. You can easily change layouts, color schemes, fonts, and add free stock images. AWeber is quite generous in this regard, offering hundreds of photos. You can also code new templates using HTML.
All in all, the two tools offer a similar number of templates and customization options, we consider it a tie.
To gather leads easier, you need an email marketing platform that provides you the possibility to create and embed sign-up forms.
ActiveCampaign provides you all the tools you need to create and personalize your registration forms. You don't need advanced technical skills to select the form type you want to, from a range that includes floating boxes, pop-ups, or floating bars, among others, and start adding the fields you need. Overall, the form-builder is flexible, but you can't enjoy the full array of form types with the lower plans, and the company's branding is present on the form if you're on the basic plan.
AWeber is also pretty flexible when it comes to building forms. This platform allows you to choose from a wide array of fields to make the registration forms as complex as you need to. To begin customizing your forms, you have to go to the ‘Sign Up Form Generator’, choose a template, click on ‘Show More’, and start choosing the categories you want from the menu.
Moreover, you can also add different audio files, videos, or page redirects. The forms also offer the possibility to customize the final thank you message subscribers get after signing up.
We choose AWeber this time because it provides more customization options. Yet it's also worth highlighting that ActiveCampaign's builder is slightly easier to use.
Split tests are important because they allow you to understand which email version is more likely to be opened. Find out how you can split test your emails with ActiveCampaign vs AWeber.
This software enables you to test different email elements such as CTAs, email text, images, subject lines, designs. With ActiveCampaign, you can also test entire workflows against each other and see which one is most efficient for a particular audience. Moreover, while many email marketing tools only support two email variants, with ActiveCampaign, you can test up to five emails at once.
AWeber allows you to test three versions of your email. It helps you evaluate the most common elements in these tests: subject lines, preview text, email content, send times. Aweber allows you to test completely different email variants, and you can also carry out the test by choosing different segments and segment percentages.
Furthermore, you can also get live results for your tests by accessing click, open, or engagement reports.
ActiveCampaign helps you test 5 emails simultaneously or entire automation. For these reasons, we consider it the winner.
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Landing pages help you promote your business and collect leads. Let’s see how you can create landing pages with ActiveCampaign and AWeber.
ActiveCampaign features a drag-and-drop landing page builder. You don’t need a lot of technical experience to be able to use this tool as you can simply choose the fields you want to fill in with content and drag them into your page. You can also use a large variety of widgets, add links, videos, or countdowns. The platform will also help you build branded domains for these pages. Moreover, once ready, the landing pages load pretty fast.
This platform offers a landing page designer that helps you create visually appealing pages fast and easily based on drag-and-drop functionality. There are no extra charges for this tool, and you get different design customization options, for example, you can add videos.
These pages also allow you to embed forms and tag leads automatically as they subscribe. You can create landing pages even with the free plan. There is also a special extension of the landing page builder you can use via Stripe for eCommerce. The platform also enables you to accept different payment methods directly through the landing pages. To track your landing pages performance, you can use Google Analytics.
AWeber is the winner as it provides more features.
To make the most out of your email marketing strategy, you should be able to send automated emails to your subscribers to constantly keep them engaged.
Although AWeber claims to be the founder of autoresponders since they’re the first email marketing platform to start using these recipes more than 2 decades ago, ActiveCampaign features a more flexible automation builder and a wider array of triggers.
Besides typical triggers such as a new subscriber joining a list (the action that triggers a welcome email), ActiveCampaign also allows you to set goals for your automation. Moreover, thanks to its efficient and powerful CRM, you can automate the full sales cycle and trigger particular tasks once a client fulfills a condition in the workflow (e.g. contact the sales team).
AWeber’s website presents this feature as ‘surprisingly easy email automation. The platform’s automated workflows are rather basic but, indeed, easy to set up. You can create automation for different occasions such as special days, welcome emails, abandoned cart emails, or follow-up emails after a purchase using AWeber’s pre-built campaigns. Recent blog post notifications or lead magnets can also be automated. These workflows are based on a series of triggers you need to choose when building each sequence.
ActiveCampaign wins for its more advanced automation features.
Pricing is always a factor that influences a business decision. Both Active Campaign and AWeber offer affordable pricing plans. Here are the available options.
You’ll be glad to learn that ActiveCampaign’s pricing plans start at only $9 per month for a subscriber limit of 500. The price grows with your contacts list, and it can get pretty steep if you’ve got a large contacts base. For 2,500 contacts, you have to pay $45. For 5,000 contacts, the price is $79 and if your list contains 10,000 subscribers, you have to pay $125 per month.
Moreover, this platform doesn’t offer a free plan. Nonetheless, it’s worth taking into account the generous number of advanced reports and tools Active Campaign’s package includes. Site and event tracking, automation reporting, more than 500 automation recipes, customer analytics, the possibility to import leads and contacts, sales emails, unified inbox, API, webhooks, and developer tools are just some of them.
AWeber has affordable pricing plans that start at only $16.15 for a maximum number of 500 subscribers. The price grows according to the number of subscribers. For a list of 1,500 - 5,000 contacts, you have to pay $46.15 per month. Some of the features included in the paid plan are unlimited emails, unlimited list profiles, email automation, the drag-and-drop email builder and templates, hosted broadcast archive, free stock photos, email split testing, branded click-tracking links, cart abandonment and purchase tagging, landing pages, list building, and segmentation features, reporting, unlimited users, sales tracking and other eCommerce tools, web push notifications, and plenty more.
AWeber also offers a free plan that grants access to most of these features. However, there are limitations to the free plan; like the subscriber limit (600 contacts tops) and the number of emails (3,000 per month). Also, you won’t be able to remove AWeber’s branding from the emails with the free plan.
AWeber wins in this round since it also provides a free plan.
Spending hours trying to learn how to use your email marketing platform is not efficient when you should rather focus on strategy. Let's find out how easy it is to use ActiveCampaign vs AWeber.
ActiveCampaign has a neat and attractive dashboard which makes it easy to use. Although they provide a plethora of features, they are well-organized to ease navigation. On the right side of the main menu, you can find all the main sections.
Email-building is fast and smooth, as it implies a step-by-step process where each stage means a new tab. All the tabs are displayed in a bar you can see, which allows you to access the previous steps to edit the content. The landing page builder is also easy to use having drag-and-drop functionality. Managing lists is a pretty flexible and easy process, although there's also a downside here as you can't create a campaign without previously having created a list.
AWeber doesn't lag behind its competitor in terms of user-friendliness. This platform also has a clean and straightforward user interface, although some features, such as the possibility to select a contact's address are a bit hard to find.
Another aspect that might cause a bit of confusion in the beginning, is the platform's word choice. While most tools use the word campaign to refer to creating a new email, with AWeber, this feature refers to automation, and the option 'Broadcast' is what you should click on to create a newsletter.
ActiveCampaign is easier to use, so it wins another point.
A powerful email marketing platform needs to be able to connect to a wide array of tools to help you share contact info easier or implement a multi-channel marketing strategy. Here is a summary of ActiveCampaign vs AWeber's integrations.
ActiveCampaign offers an impressive range of integrations. This tool is compatible with 870+ apps. CRMs such as Salesforce, eCommerce platforms such as Shopify or WooCommerce, and content management systems such as WordPress integrate seamlessly with ActiveCampaign. Other popular integrations include Facebook, JotForm, Zapier, Google Analytics, ClickFunnels, Pipedrive, Unbounce, OptiMonk, DropInBlog, WhatsApp, 46Elks, and plenty more.
AWeber allows you to connect your account to different tools and platforms such as social media channels, eCommerce platforms, content management systems, payment services, and plenty of apps. This can help you make the most out of your email marketing strategy. Some of the main integrations include GoToWebinars, WordPress, PayPal, Elementor, Weblium, Duda, Dasheroo, Blogger, Ghost, Squarespace, Webflow, Weebly, ContactUs, Satori, Salesforce, Bloomerang, Bonjoro.
ActiveCampaign integrations with a dazzling number of apps, we consider it the winner in this round.
Both ActiveCampaign and AWeber provide various reporting tools, which can be extremely useful in helping you monitor your campaigns' evolution and measure their results.
ActiveCampaign is a good choice if you need detailed reporting on your campaigns and subscribers. This platform provides multiple types of reports on every campaign metric that might interest you. Metrics include; open rates, click rates, bounces, new subscribers, unsubscribes, as well as advanced reports on your social media activity, subscribers’ location, or link CTR distribution.
However, one area where ActiveCampaign's reports seem to lag behind other competitors is eCommerce.
AWeber can provide you with all the basic reports you need to track your campaigns' performance. You can generate and understand AWeber's reports on open rates, clicked links, the total number of bounces, unsubscribes, etc. Moreover, this platform also offers useful reports on the different types of email providers your emails are sent to. You can access this feature by selecting the Domains reports. Geo-tracking and eCommerce reports are also available.
Both platforms offer similar reports, but we choose AWeber this time because it also provides eCommerce analysis.
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Customer support is important, especially in the beginning when you need to set up your account. Here is a summary of the customer support options you can access with these two platforms.
You can contact ActiveCampaign by email or live chat with the platform’s Lite, Plus, and Professional plans. The Enterprise plan also offers phone support. The chat option is available from Monday through Friday, and the agents can support you in English. No matter what page you’re on while you’re using the platform, you’ll see the Help bubble in the right corner, and it will take you directly to the support options. You can also type a search term and look for the topic that interests you as the platform features myriad articles and training materials.
AWeber excels when it comes to customer support. This software offers help via email, phone, and live chat. Phone support is available from 8 AM to 8 PM from Monday to Friday, while live chat and email support are available 24/7. AWeber also provides a knowledge base, just like ActiveCampaign, although it’s a bit harder to navigate.
Both platforms offer similar customer support based on our experience and customer reviews, both services are great. It’s a tie.
Each software is suitable for a particular audience. Learn when you should use ActiveCampaign vs AWeber.
ActiveCampaign is a good option for small to medium businesses. It offers flexible prices based on the number of subscribers you have and powerful automation and reporting features that can support a robust marketing strategy. If creating beautiful emails and landing pages is one of your priorities, ActiveCampaign is a good choice. Due to its multitude of features and complexity, this tool is more suitable for marketers who have a bit of experience using similar software.
AWeber is a simple and intuitive email marketing platform. It can help you create email campaigns, landing pages, and forms easily using drag-and-drop builders. This platform also features good integrations and multiple useful features for eCommerce. It can also help you sell products using landing pages. Overall, AWeber doesn’t provide the scalability and advanced features you get with ActiveCampaign, but it is a good choice for bloggers, freelancers, or small companies.
Both AWeber and ActiveCampaign have their pros and cons, and by reading the full comparison above, you’ll be able to learn more about them.
One advantage you can enjoy with ActiveCampaign but can’t find in AWeber are the multiple design and spam test functions. This platform offers an easy pass/fail testing feature that allows you to check your emails before sending them to your customers. Although this feature is not very complex and won’t explain in detail why certain emails are going to reach the spam folder, it is very useful.
Moreover, you can also preview your emails and see how they would look in different email clients’ inboxes. ActiveCampaign also features a useful CRM, a conversation tool, which allows you to manage communications through its dashboard, many tracking features, and comprehensive automation. However, all these features can be overwhelming and also make this platform more expensive than its rivals. Besides this, ActiveCampaign doesn’t offer a free plan.
AWeber’s strong points include the ability to easily customize your emails and a wide range of quality templates, great customer support, integrations with multiple third-party tools, a straightforward form-building process, and multiple customization options for sign-up forms.
Some of the platform’s cons in comparison with ActiveCampaign include: a user interface that could be simpler, some features seem hidden, and some processes require lots of clicks (e.g. generating reports on geo-tracking or eCommerce), the lack of spam and design testing features.
If you’re not sure if ActiveCampaign or Aweber can help you meet your email marketing goals, here are two alternatives:
We compared two reliable and powerful email marketing platforms in this article, but the final winner can only be one, and we choose ActiveCampaign. This platform offers great reporting and automation tools, a powerful CRM, multiple email and landing page design options, and affordable prices.
Check out our other comparisons
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