HubSpot vs Act-On: The Battle of Leading Marketing Automation Giants

Tired of spending countless hours managing your business's relationships with customers? Do you find it overwhelming to keep up with leads, sales, and customer service? 

Look no further than marketing automation and CRM platforms. These essential tools help businesses of all sizes streamline their processes and improve customer engagement. But with so many options available, which platform is the best for your business? 

Fret not! Today, we will compare two leading marketing automation giants: HubSpot vs. Act-On. We will compare each platform's features, benefits, and reviews to help you understand what each platform has to offer and make an informed decision for your business growth.

So, whether you're a small business owner or a marketing professional, get ready to witness the battle between these two popular CRM.

HubSpot vs Act-On : Find the right Marketing Automation Tool

Both HubSpot and Act-on offer a range of features to automate marketing efforts and streamline lead generation, but how do they compare against each other? Let's take a glance at the features offered by each platform!

HubSpot vs Act-On: Platform Capabilities 

HubSpot is an all-in-one platform with robust CRM, marketing automation, sales automation, customer service, and website builder capabilities. This makes it a great choice for businesses looking for an integrated platform to handle all their marketing and sales needs. HubSpot CRM also offers advanced personalization and segmentation options, along with a wide range of integrations with other software and tools.

On the other hand, Act-On is primarily focused on marketing automation, with additional capabilities such as basic CRM functionality, social media management, and webinars. Act-On's platform is designed to be more cost-effective than HubSpot, making it a good option for smaller businesses on a tight budget. Yet, it may not be the best fit for businesses looking for a more comprehensive, all-in-one solution.

Verdict: HubSpot software capabilities are more extensive than Act-On's, with its all-in-one platform providing businesses with a comprehensive range of features and tools for marketing, sales, and customer service. However, Act-On may be a better choice for businesses looking for a more affordable solution. 

Source: G2,2023

HubSpot vs Act-On: Email Deliverability 

Using the HubSpot tool facilitates inbound marketing operations throughout the marketing funnel, including the email channel. Businesses can provide our clients with extraordinarily high email sender scores and deliverability rates because HubSpot allows its customers to maintain clean databases of contacts who have freely opted-in to receive our emails.

A higher sender score indicates that emails are delivered to prospects rather than bouncing or being flagged as spam.

Many Act-On customers have publicly expressed dissatisfaction with low email deliverability rates and the Act-On team's failure to resolve the issues. Because Act-On does not provide an effective top-of-the-funnel lead generation strategy, companies frequently turn to purchase email lists.

When consumers purchase lists and send emails to persons who have not opted in to receive their communications, their sender score suffers, resulting in low email deliverability rates. 

Verdict: Both HubSpot and Act-On offer robust email deliverability capabilities. However, HubSpot's email marketing deliverability features are slightly more advanced, with tools that provide more detailed insights into email deliverability rates and offer more comprehensive email authentication features.

Source: G2,2023

HubSpot vs Act-On: Reporting and Analytics

With an intuitive UI, HubSpot Analytics Tools consolidate your data into one area. HubSpot offers micro and macro data for each platform tool. Furthermore, it merges data from all your tools into useful reports and dashboards without manual tracking URLs or connectors.

HubSpot helps you with a comprehensive and accurate collection of data to report on and the ability to design reports that measure the progress of your marketing activities in relation to your goals over time. As a result, you can do more than report on your efforts; you can also improve them.

Act-On provides more digital marketing data to starting marketers than solutions such as Google Analytics. However, once these marketers grasp how their digital marketing data affects their firm, Act-analytics On's and reporting frequently appear too bare.

Act-On, for example, does not allow a marketer to observe in real-time how different aspects of a multi-channel campaign are performing against one another.  

Verdict: HubSpot CRM offers more advanced and customizable reporting and analytics tools compared to Act-On. HubSpot's reports and dashboards tools are better suited for businesses looking to measure the impact of their marketing campaigns on revenue, while Act-On's reporting tools are better suited for businesses with basic reporting needs.

Source: G2,2023

HubSpot vs Act-On: Social Capabilities 

HubSpot's social media management platform allows you to publish content to social networks from where you develop campaigns and set up keyword monitoring. Hence, HubSpot CRM users never miss a mention on any of their social media platforms, and all the interactions are linked to their CRM for contextual discussions and social media ROI reporting.

On the other hand, Marketers may use Act-On's social media capabilities to tune in to the more extensive conversation and track industry keywords, mentions, and rivals. You may use this information to produce and select the content that interests your audience. The social media listening tool is meant to promote material based on interaction.

Verdict: HubSpot offers more comprehensive and integrated social media tools compared to Act-On. HubSpot's social media tools are better suited for businesses looking to manage their social media accounts and campaigns in one place, track social media interactions in their CRM, and use social media data to inform their marketing strategies.

Act-On's social media tools may be sufficient for businesses with basic social media needs, but they may need to look to other tools to get more advanced social media monitoring and analytics features.

Source: G2,2023

HubSpot vs Act-On: Integrations 

HubSpot offers an extensive range of integrations with other software and tools, including popular options like Salesforce, Zapier, and Google Analytics. Using HubSpot CRM also offers an open API, which allows businesses to create custom integrations with their preferred tools.

Additionally, HubSpot supports native integrations with its all-in-one platform making it easy for businesses to seamlessly connect their marketing, sales, and customer service efforts.

Act-On offers integrations with a range of third-party tools, including Salesforce, SugarCRM, and Google Analytics. While the number of integrations available is more limited compared to HubSpot, Act-On's integration capabilities are still strong enough to meet most business goals. Act-On also offers an open API, allowing businesses to create custom integrations quickly and efficiently.

Verdict: Both HubSpot and Act-On offer robust integration capabilities, allowing businesses to connect with their preferred tools and software. However, the HubSpot CRM tool offers an extensive range of integrations, and its all-in-one platform makes it a more comprehensive option for businesses looking to streamline their marketing and sales efforts.

On the other hand, Act-On may be a better choice for businesses with specific integration needs or those on a tighter budget.

HubSpot vs Act-On: Customer Support 

HubSpot is known for its excellent customer support, offering 24/7 phone, email, and chat support. They also provide an extensive knowledge base, community forum, and help center with a vast library of resources, guides, and tutorials. HubSpot experts and support team are well-trained and responsive, offering personalized support for all its customers.

Act-On offers phone and email support during business hours on weekdays and a knowledge base with a comprehensive range of resources, guides, and videos. They also provide a customer community forum where users can connect with other Act-On customers to share tips and ideas. However, Act-On's customer support is known to be slower and less responsive compared to HubSpot's support team.

Source: TrustRadius,2023

Verdict: Both HubSpot and Act-On offer customer support options, including a knowledge base, community forum, and phone/email support.

However, HubSpot service provides 24/7 chat support and personalized support, too, making it a better option for businesses that require immediate assistance with the best solution and a high level of responsiveness from their support team.

Ultimately, marketers purchase tools to simplify their lives. And the results are in: HubSpot ranks first in Customer Satisfaction. 

HubSpot vs Act-On: Pricing

HubSpot offers a broad range of pricing plans for its marketing platform, including free, starter, professional, and enterprise plans. The HubSpot pricing plans are based on the features and level of service required.

The starter plans range from $50 to $1,275 per month, while the professional and enterprise plans are customized and based on the specific business needs. HubSpot also offers a 30-day free trial for all their paid plans.

Act-On's pricing is also based on the features and level of service required. They offer a free trial for their platform, but they do not offer a free plan. Act-On's pricing plans start at $900 per month for their basic plan and go up to $2,000 per month for their professional plan. The enterprise plan is customized based on the business's specific needs.

Verdict: Both HubSpot and Act-On offer a range of pricing plans, but HubSpot has a free plan and lower-priced starter plans compared to Act-On. HubSpot's pricing plans are also more flexible and customizable, while Act-On's pricing plans are more structured and based on specific levels of service. 

Overall Rating Breakdown: Who won the battle?

Both HubSpot and Act-On offer powerful marketing tools for businesses. However, HubSpot's focus on inbound marketing and the all-in-one platform provides a more holistic approach for marketers, while Act-On's ABM capabilities make it a better fit for B2B marketers focused on targeting specific accounts.

Besides, HubSpot has five times as many clients as Act-On because of its simple tools, extensive reporting, live and on-demand training, and top-tier consulting and support.

Source: Gartner, 2023

**The above table depicts HubSpot as a clear winner in every department over Act-On based on the number of reviews and ratings. 

Source: G2,2023

Ready to make a choice?

The decision to choose between HubSpot and Act-On ultimately depends on the unique needs of your business. Both platforms offer powerful tools and features to help automate your sales and marketing and streamline your lead-generation efforts.

Businesses looking for an all-in-one solution with a user-friendly interface and advanced CRM capabilities may use HubSpot. On the other hand, Act-On may be the better choice for businesses looking for more advanced features in email marketing and social media management system.

Regardless of which marketing software you choose, automating your marketing processes can transform and optimize the way you do business, boost your team's productivity, and help you grow in the marketing and business world.

So, take the time to carefully evaluate your options and choose the platform that will best support your marketing goals and help you achieve long-term success in the best possible way.

Already made a decision and looking forward to starting your HubSpot journey?  Feel free to reach out!

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