Act-On Software vs. Makesbridge

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Act-On
Score 8.0 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
Act-On is an adaptive marketing platform designed to drive personal and purposeful multi-channel marketing. Its foci are inbound and outbound marketing, for enabling a tighter alignment with sales and turning data into actionable insights.
$900
per month
Makesbridge
Score 8.5 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
Makesbridge is a marketing automation product designed for SMBs, featuring core marketing capabilities. It is an on-demand product that is delivered without long-term contracts via a monthly subscription.
$29
per month (1 account)
Pricing
Act-On SoftwareMakesbridge
Editions & Modules
Professional
$900
per month
Enterprise
$2,000+
per month
Mini
$29
per month (1 account)
SMB
$75
per month (1 account)
MKS PRO
$150
per month (5 accounts)
Enterprise
$500
per month (10 accounts)
Engage
$1,500
per month (25 accounts)
Pay As You Go
$0
Custom Pricing
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Act-OnMakesbridge
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsThe Professional package starts at 2,500 active contacts, 3 marketing users, 50 sales users and 30,000 API calls per day. The Enterprise allows for much more customization, the package starts at 2,500 active contacts, 6 marketing users, 100 sales users and 30,000 API calls per day. Annual contract required for all packages.Makesbridge offers a range of pricing plans and packages to comfortably accommodate any combinate of needs and budget. Pay As You Go plans are just that - companies only pay for what they use in a given month. Alternative packages - PRO, Enterprise and Engage - are for companies with consistent use patterns and willingness to pay a minimum monthly fee. In all cases there is no long term obligation; 30 days notice is all that's required to cancel a PRO, Enterprise or Engage.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Act-On SoftwareMakesbridge
Considered Both Products
Act-On
Chose Act-On
Act-On pairs better with our internal CRM and provides exactly what we need. The price is better, and the working relationship with Act-On has traditionally been a good one.
Chose Act-On
We chose Act-On for its ability to support our customers within a single account. The Marketing Network is a huge benefit to our business and the offerings we provide to our customers. In previously working with Hubpsot and Salesforce, we found the support to be lacking - often …
Chose Act-On
Everything is better with Act-On Software. The landing pages, the email editing, the reporting, the campaigns, and the automated programs are just a few things I love more than Constant Contact. It's by far the best ESP out there and any sales company not using it is making a …
Chose Act-On
It's got way more bells and whistles, and we really just trust it more. Sure the Dynamics automated platform could help us, but we chose not to use it as Act-On Software sold us on their ease of use. We haven't regretted our decision and are now in the 6th (or maybe 7th) year …
Chose Act-On
Superior in every way at a competitive cost.
Chose Act-On
To improve the system, Act-On is developing custom reports and workflows. It is incredibly flexible as well as functionally sound and reliable. The other features that our team enjoys the most are the features such as all contacts. Creating landing pages and web forms is a snap …
Chose Act-On
Act-On has been committed to improving the system and performance through customized reports and workflows to motivate customers and track their progress and participation.
Chose Act-On
We investigated heavily into automation platforms prior to purchasing. Act-On was easily the stand out because:
  1. Interactive reporting. Getting behavioral data and other analytics is critical for us making the educated decisions we need for our business to continue to succeed.
  2. Enh…
Chose Act-On
Hootsuite allows me to add a month's worth of content to all of our social media platforms at one time. My problem with Act-On is it would not connect our accounts and when it did it would not use the company account. It would only use my personal account. Hootsuite also gives …
Chose Act-On
We have been evaluating HubSpot and Zoho CRM. These 2 are more expensive and more robust. These include more of the sales side interactions like pipelines, tasks, marketing emails, etc. Our team uses ACT as more of a Rolodex then a tool. Because we do have an outside ticket …
Chose Act-On
Acton does really well in ease of setup, quality of support, and also does a decent job in dashboard creation. These features are something that drove us to opt for Act-on.
Chose Act-On
I am a relatively new HubSpot user and have only used a few different things on there but so far, the UI/UX is much more pleasant, seems more organized, seems more capable in general. I had heard rave reviews about HubSpot from my former coworkers who were using Act-On with me, …
Chose Act-On
I think that if you're just starting out in email marketing, you'll probably navigate to a tool like MailChimp. When you've gotten a good base of what the industry is and you want to do a little bit more, then you'll upgrade to Hubspot and then to Act-On. I feel like Act-on is …
Chose Act-On
I would select Act-On over competitors in the marketing space. While it can be used for sales outreach, I would not select it as a sales tool.
Chose Act-On
Act-On is the scrappy little program that could. One of the biggest problems of the larger ESP and ABM services is that companies have to meet a high standard with their other software and IT in order to use them. I think this is a big failing on their part, considering that …
Chose Act-On
We used to use a combination of SugarCRM and Inbox25, but we moved to a Microsoft platform and had to go to a compatible platform. Act-On was the perfect fit since it was compatible with both Sugar CRM and Dynamics CRM, which made our change over and integration relatively …
Chose Act-On
Many more, too^^^

The best after any free one. Once a company has a budget it's time for Act-On.
Chose Act-On
Act-On has a much more hands-on customer support focus than any of the other companies that we have worked with that do similar things. They also have a really easy to use platform (however I know they all do). It's one of those products that you feel good when you are using it.
Chose Act-On
A colleague used iContact but it did not offer us the ability to build content as efficiently as ActOn. In addition, the survey, landing page and automated program functionality was not available or not as advanced.
Chose Act-On
Act-On is easier to use than Marketo, but not as visually appealing and user-friendly as HubSpot. It's much better than Pardot, as Pardot feel clunky every step of the way. SharpSpring is comparable because of its price point but surpasses Act-On in its tools and intuitive …
Chose Act-On
We like to know a variety here, and we know multiple marketing automation platforms to help provide the best direction to our clients. We need to provide the know-how in many different use cases. Sometimes, Act-On isn't always the best solution for a company's needs. Marketers …
Chose Act-On
Act-On was decided upon by the Marketing and Operations team. I am part of the Development team and was consulted on the aspects of reporting. However, our Marketing/Operations team were very pleased with the way you could personalize and create your own emails and campaigns …
Chose Act-On
I've used Constant Contact, Mail Chimp, Exact Target. I would say Act-On Software is most similar to Exact Target, but I feel you get a better bang for your buck with Act-On.
Makesbridge
Chose Makesbridge
Good support that makes me feel comfortable talking with them and trying their service.
Chose Makesbridge
Support...unmatched, personalized, and always there for you. Have yet to find another company that comes close. They are at a great price too!
Chose Makesbridge
When I first got started I used Zoho. I was frustrated because the customer service was non existent. Whenever I take on a new project that is a little out of my scope I need to have someone who can walk me thorough it. Makesbridge does that better than any other company that I …
Chose Makesbridge
Makesbridge was easier to use and has a much better help desk. We were originally impressed with sales and then the technical side. At one point we handled e-mails with an internal program, what a headache, especially the list management.
Chose Makesbridge
Makesbridge had forms capability, nurture/drip campaigns and the price was much more reasonable when compared to other Salesforce-integrated systems. The capabilities were more robust and allowed for automation.
Features
Act-On SoftwareMakesbridge
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
8.6
Ratings
12% above category average
Makesbridge
7.7
Ratings
1% above category average
WYSIWYG email editor9.10 Ratings6.90 Ratings
Dynamic content9.10 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content8.20 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Landing pages8.20 Ratings7.00 Ratings
A/B testing9.10 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Mobile optimization7.10 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting9.10 Ratings8.20 Ratings
List management9.10 Ratings7.20 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences8.20 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
8.6
Ratings
10% above category average
Makesbridge
8.1
Ratings
4% above category average
Lead nurturing automation9.10 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Lead scoring and grading9.10 Ratings7.60 Ratings
Data quality management9.10 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Automated sales alerts and tasks7.30 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Campaign Management
Comparison of Campaign Management features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
7.1
Ratings
4% below category average
Makesbridge
8.1
Ratings
9% above category average
Calendaring6.80 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Event/webinar marketing7.30 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Social Media Marketing
Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
9.1
Ratings
19% above category average
Makesbridge
8.8
Ratings
16% above category average
Social sharing and campaigns9.10 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Social profile integration9.10 Ratings9.10 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
8.5
Ratings
15% above category average
Makesbridge
8.0
Ratings
9% above category average
Dashboards8.20 Ratings7.60 Ratings
Standard reports9.10 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Custom reports8.20 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Act-On Software
8.3
Ratings
11% above category average
Makesbridge
7.6
Ratings
2% above category average
API9.10 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Role-based workflow & approvals9.10 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Customizability7.30 Ratings7.20 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com9.10 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM8.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with SugarCRM7.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
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Score 9.9 out of 10
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Score 9.9 out of 10
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Score 9.0 out of 10
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Score 9.0 out of 10
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User Ratings
Act-On SoftwareMakesbridge
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.9
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.2
(0 ratings)
8.8
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.2
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.3
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.7
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.3
(0 ratings)
5.5
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.6
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
6.4
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Act-On SoftwareMakesbridge
Likelihood to Recommend
If you have MS Dynamics CRM, this is the automation platform for you and your operations. Act-On Software easily syncs with dynamics, and we've never had a problem with this since we set ours up years ago. If you use a different CRM, I'd check to see if other options might make more sense. Having that ability for the systems to seamlessly talk is critical.
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Well, Makesbridge provides fast response and good support from their support team. Everything in their platform is fine; just maybe need more user friendly ways to create templates or HTML. Once you click return error, you will need to redo your template again.
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Pros
  • The templates are easy to use and set up campaigns.
  • It's simple to use, and the email editor features a drag-and-drop interface.
  • It's easy to set up a drip campaign or a series of scheduled emails.
  • It has the flexibility of having a variety of scheduling options and the use of user experience automation.
Read full review
  • Service: I have been so impressed by the service team. They are extremely responsive and knowledgeable!! Probably the best phone/chat tech support I have ever utilized.
  • Segmenting by targets, lists and tags. We can divide and target our contacts by who they are, how they interact with us, what URLs they visit and their activities.
  • Forms. I use their forms for subscriptions and surveys, as well as to take in information about meal and seating preferences for our events. I love that the forms can update contact records in Salesforce.
  • The system appearance. Love the graphic presentation.
  • Did I mention how good their phone/chat tech support team is?!! Fantastic (Ehsan and Mansoor are fantastic!)
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Cons
  • Building email and landing page templates are difficult, the drag and drop builder is not straightforward, and requires coding knowledge
  • The workflow tool is cumbersome and not as intuitive as I'd expect a best in class marketing software's to be
  • Domain connections and domain management functionality made it difficult to manage multiple company domains and subdomains for pages
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  • I want them to do ALL My marketing :-).
  • I want them to update and send messages on social media and track responses.
  • I want to be able to sort Targets by email opens and clicks.
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Likelihood to Renew
It's my single biggest asset in my current role. With limited resources, its enabled Anachron to punch well above our weight marketing wise and although we're still at the beginning of our journey I know the system can scale with us
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Great product, exceptional support. I'm going to be honest and say that I was apprehensive that the Makesbridge team was actually as wonderful as the app exchange reviews claim...How often does that actually happen?! But now, I can honestly say that the glowing reviews are spot-on, and my only concern is that they do not do justice in describing the product, support and service Makesbridge provides.
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Usability
It's good, but not quite brilliant. Some parts of the interface are still a bit outdated. The product has been evolving very fast, though, and I believe in a few months it will be up there with the best of them, interface wise as well.
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I'm not an IT guru. The layout and workflows make sense, and I appreciate not having to involve a developer for every change I'd like to make.
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Reliability and Availability
I have always found them quick to respond to my query by web inquiry. In those instances when I call, I have always reached help quickly. They are conscientious and skilled in discussing my concern and finding a solution to my problem. Other tech organizations should use Act-On as a model for top-notch customer service.
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Their tech support staff is the BEST I have worked with!
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Performance
Sometimes the server loading speed is a little slow but most often runs fine and if it doesn't their tech support is quick to respond
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Best tech support in the software industry.
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Support Rating
Since we start using Act-on for ourselves and our clients, we have been supported very well. Often we need to integrate with legacy systems and we find the support team on our side during the whole endeavor. Always asking if they can help us further, always willing to do a better job. The support of Act-On is one of the main differentiators
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Ehsan has provided incredible training, making sure my team understood the application. And if at any point you have questions, or need help, they're immediately available. It's like having fractional marketing FTE's on call.
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In-Person Training
Dan D. was great. He took the time to understand how I needed the program to run, and was very flexible to our special CRM setup.
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No answers on this topic
Online Training
The system is very user friendly, I think we were up and running within a day or so of having the product. It took very few online training for me to learn a large chunk of the functionality of this system.
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No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
What impressed me most is that Act-On showed full committment in making our implementation successful, even when it required additional support from their team. This gave me a lot of warm and fuzzy feelings. Most other software software vendors are not anywhere close to being this responsive and effective
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
We chose Act-On for its ability to support our customers within a single account. The Marketing Network is a huge benefit to our business and the offerings we provide to our customers. In previously working with Hubpsot and Salesforce, we found the support to be lacking - often being referred to a forum or landing page rather than getting hands-on guided help from a knowledgeable person on their team. We LOVE Act-On and the team that they have servicing our account!
Read full review
When I first got started I used Zoho. I was frustrated because the customer service was non existent. Whenever I take on a new project that is a little out of my scope I need to have someone who can walk me thorough it. Makesbridge does that better than any other company that I have worked with
Read full review
Scalability
Before I feel like I need more features, the Act-On customer service reps are contacting me telling about new features as part of my account.
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • Positive- quick setup for webinars between 3 different tools, made it easy to do in high volume
  • Negative- lots of processes with the designer tools that made email/landing page design take longer than it should have, costing man hours
  • Positive- email automation with different types of campaigns we could have flowing at once or could span across multiple audience segments made it so we could consistently create touch points and increase our engagement, thus our ROI over time
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  • The list management is important to us. We need to make sure that the opt-out lists are maintained and this is done automatically for us. In addition, we can create multiple lists and each e-mail is only sent once. This has saved many headaches.
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ScreenShots

Act-On Screenshots

Screenshot of the Automated Journey Builder. Here, users can personalize customer interactions from awareness to loyalty.Screenshot of the Analytics Dashboard. This is used to compare performance over time, filter by segment, and export report components.Screenshot of the Email Composer. Here is where users design emails optimized for desktop and mobile with a drag and drop builder.

Makesbridge Screenshots

Screenshot of B2B marketing automation is mostly about delivering leads on a silver platter.  Your sales Reps reap the benefits of an automation platform that drives digital engagement, intelligently tags contacts based on rules and tells sales who to call.Screenshot of Sales reps view tags, scores and alert messages. They know what prospects are hot for because they can filter activity by web visits, email clicks and alerts messages.Screenshot of Maximize campaign response with dynamic content blocks.Screenshot of The world's easiest drag-and-drop HTML Editor speeds campaign and landing page production. There are dozens of mobile compatible templates to make publishing even easier!Screenshot of Marketers see how drip messages perform with opens, clicks, social shares, web visits generated and conversions. You can even view populations of who's taken action.Screenshot of X-Ray Vision of interest! Drill down into the report even further to see a complete history of a prospect's web visits history and duration spent on each page.