Gist vs. Litmus from Validity

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Gist
Score 9.5 out of 10
N/A
Gist is a unified marketing, sales, and support platform. It includes live chat, a help desk, knowledge base, email marketing, marketing automation, opt-in forms, and more.
$29
per month
Litmus from Validity
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Litmus, from Validity, is an email marketing solution used to create error-free emails in less time. It is also used to build email campaigns, personalize and test them thoroughly, monitor deliverability, and analyze email performance.N/A
Pricing
GistLitmus from Validity
Editions & Modules
Professional
$29.00
per month
Premium
$99.00
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
GistLitmus from Validity
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsLitmus offers different plan types to fit various needs, offering monthly and annual plans, as well as fully customizable Enterprise plans.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
GistLitmus from Validity
Considered Both Products
Gist
Chose Gist
Gist is a much more robust software with a variety of marketing tools in its arsenal. Things like website tracking is also extremely robust and it has many more features.

The ease of setup is also more enjoyable and intuitive in Gist so the overall result is that you can learn …
Chose Gist
Gist is much more affordable, but intercom is a better product. I recommend going for Gist to begin, and then migrating if you need more.
Chose Gist
Gist is more refined and its tools are very well integrated overall. However, its pricing is on the expensive side and this doesn't really help it stand-out. HubSpot has significantly more generous Free plan, while Dashly offers many of the Premium Gist tools at a fairer price, …
Chose Gist
My main use for Gist is live chat. I personally find their live chat to be one of the best, and their mobile app to be invaluable for small businesses on the go. I can receive and response to messages wherever I am, which is imperative for my use case.
Chose Gist
Intercom increases its price on a monthly basis. Besides they don't offer some features as Gist, specially about on forms.
We think Gist is targeted to SMB companies, differentially from Intercom that seems to be appropriate for larger companies.
One main difference between then …
Chose Gist
Gist is only a few years old, so it lacks some of the features of Drip and ActiveCampaign, but I believe they will get there.
Chose Gist
Hubspot and Salesforce are great and powerful, they are just so much more expensive than what I need.
Chose Gist
We went with Gist because it had the features we needed at a price we liked. The feature list has grown over time, which is really appreciated. We joined Gist a long time ago (it was still called ConvertFox back then) and have been happy customers for a long time. Happy with …
Chose Gist
Gist is much more than a basic mailing list system with chatbot integration and automation that connects you to your prospects in real-time live from your website.
Administering your contacts on Gist is much easier with less hassle.
And Gist can integrate with most of the major …
Chose Gist
Gist is slightly slower than ActiveCampaign but MUCH easier to use than Mailchimp. Overall, you can't beat the bang for the buck you get with Gist. And its messenger bot is the best I've used, it works on not only our main site but also our subdomains, kicking the competition …
Chose Gist
We've used Dashly and Tawk.to. Gist looks better than Tawk and that's the reason we switched from Tawk to Gist. But the feature that puts Gist above Dashly is the ability to collect user names and emails before they start the chat automatically. It is important for our business …
Chose Gist
They both seem to have parity with each other with each having their own small advantages. I went with Gist because it was more affordable.

Infusionsoft customer for almost 5 years and it seemed I was always working more on getting it to work instead of getting work done. Gist …
Chose Gist
Gist is better because easy of use and pricing. Hands down. It has an unbeatable cost-benefit ratio. Customer service has been with us since we started using it. That's great. For us, shortcomings such as no CRM are manageable. We like its front end appearance and customization …
Chose Gist
Gist is my first email and chat multi-purpose automated SAAS tool so can't really comment on others I've tried. They came recommended to me by an entrepreneurial group I am a member of. Anecdotally I evaluated it against ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp and it was far better in …
Chose Gist
Gist a more integrated and unified product for Sass companies. Some competitors don't have strong chat + email automation + help desk. Other competitors have the features, but they are not well integrated. Gist has integrated complete customer contact with a very finished …
Chose Gist
Gist is much more complete than other tools like Crisp, Customerly, etc, at a cheaper price. The perfect deal for your business.
Chose Gist
Having a support ticket system is good and will help you resolve issues but, having an all-in-one tool that can let you not only resolve an issue but also to go above and beyond with customer support that later on translates into sales is priceless. That is the kind of tool …
Chose Gist
You can do everything you can with AC or Mailchimp (minus dynamic cart recovery for ecom) at a fraction of the cost, and you can do MORE -- better integration with FB ads than MailChimp, more powerful workflows, unified inboxes, live chat and chatbot, etc. It's just a more …
Chose Gist
I have a lifetime deal with Gist so I may be a bit biased, but Gist is quite easy to use and has a free tier so it's worth a serious look compared to the other players on the market. Personal preference does play a big role in your final decision, as feature-wise, Gist has most …
Chose Gist
Intercom was pricy and less user-friendly in comparison to Gist. It did have a broader range of features that we could use in our plan. However, we didn't see any return of investment in having many features to choose from if the price was too high for what was being offered at …
Litmus from Validity
Chose Litmus from Validity
Better user experience
Chose Litmus from Validity
Litmus is better overall. Better UI. User friendly. Relatively intuitive.
Chose Litmus from Validity
I selected Litmus because it provides an all-in-one powerful tool to update content, collaborate with teams, and analyse data seamlessly. This saves a big amount of time for the whole team. The insights are more granular allowing us to focus deeper into improvements. The …
Chose Litmus from Validity
Having used both, I definitely prefer Litmus over Email on Acid. It's a little more intuitive in terms of UI, and previews load faster. The integration with Salesforce Marketing Cloud also sets it apart further.
Chose Litmus from Validity
In my experience, Email on Acid is far less reliable for accuracy than Litmus
Chose Litmus from Validity
We've tried Email on Acid in the past and Litmus has a much more advanced offering. The user interface is superior and they are constantly innovating and rolling out new features.
Chose Litmus from Validity
This is not applicable to my role as I have used Litmus to test emails since I have started. Because of the ease of use, timeliness, consistent quality, and affordability that Litmus offers, I haven't found the need to look at similar products or organizations. If all of these …
Chose Litmus from Validity
I've used Hubspot marketing Hub previously to build marketing emails. In my current role, I do not use Litmus to build emails, only to QA - so I can cannot compare apples to apples. But I do have some familiarity with Hubspot, and I was never able to easily share an email for …
Chose Litmus from Validity
From a platform and tool perspective, Litmus does a great job at providing rendering testing. No issues.
Chose Litmus from Validity
Litmus is our first tool and will most likely be our last.
Chose Litmus from Validity
Litmus has an easier view to see how the emails render across different email clients and seems to be very accurate to how they show up in mailboxes.
Chose Litmus from Validity
I found that Litmus was able to give a more in-depth review and feedback on accessibility issues in my campaigns, whereas SendForensics lacked any helpful features for this purpose. Litmus' features have helped us better serve all our clients' customers.
Chose Litmus from Validity
I haven't used another service similar to Litmus before, but would be very happy to recommend it and I do not feel the need to evaluate other products.
Chose Litmus from Validity
Litmus is the first testing tool we've used and secured the account as an add-on through the ESP.
Chose Litmus from Validity
Email on Acid and Mailchimp
Chose Litmus from Validity
We currently use both Everest and Litmus. In my opinion, the way our team uses Litmus would rank in second place compared to Everest. Everest not only reports on deliverability, feedback loops, spam traps, block listings, domain and IP reputation, and so much more, but it also …
Chose Litmus from Validity
There is just no comparison in a way, Litmus offers a much greater range of features, from builder to previews accross various clients. Mailchimp only seems to allow very simple features compared to what Litmus itself has to offer.
Chose Litmus from Validity
Litmus is easier to understand, easier to use, and you cant beat the code editor Litmus provides
Chose Litmus from Validity
We selected Litmus primarily due to its balance of cost and functionality compared to other platforms. It offers a wide range of features for testing, previewing, and optimizing email campaigns, which was critical for our needs. While some competitors offer similar tools, …
Chose Litmus from Validity
Overall better user interface, product and pricing. Litmus is very well-known in the industry.
Chose Litmus from Validity
Litmus provides better client preview and collaborative reviewing of message and format.
Chose Litmus from Validity
N/a - have not tried others.
Features
GistLitmus from Validity
Chat Analytics and Reports
Comparison of Chat Analytics and Reports features of Product A and Product B
Gist
8.9
Ratings
3% above category average
Litmus from Validity
-
Ratings
Chat history and transcripts8.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Chat reporting8.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Chat and web analytics8.90 Ratings00 Ratings
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Gist
-
Ratings
Litmus from Validity
5.3
Ratings
40% below category average
WYSIWYG email editor00 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Dynamic content00 Ratings7.90 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content00 Ratings7.80 Ratings
Landing pages00 Ratings2.60 Ratings
A/B testing00 Ratings1.80 Ratings
Mobile optimization00 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting00 Ratings8.80 Ratings
List management00 Ratings1.80 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences00 Ratings1.00 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Gist
-
Ratings
Litmus from Validity
7.4
Ratings
4% below category average
Dashboards00 Ratings5.60 Ratings
Standard reports00 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Custom reports00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Pre-Send Testing
Comparison of Pre-Send Testing features of Product A and Product B
Gist
-
Ratings
Litmus from Validity
9.1
Ratings
13% above category average
URL Validation00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Link Tracking00 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Spam Testing00 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Email Previews00 Ratings9.60 Ratings
Best Alternatives
GistLitmus from Validity
Small Businesses
Olark
Olark
Score 10.0 out of 10
Mad Mimi
Mad Mimi
Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Genesys DX (discontinued)
Genesys DX (discontinued)
Score 10.0 out of 10
VerticalResponse
VerticalResponse
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Genesys DX (discontinued)
Genesys DX (discontinued)
Score 10.0 out of 10
Emma by Marigold
Emma by Marigold
Score 9.4 out of 10
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User Ratings
GistLitmus from Validity
Likelihood to Recommend
9.5
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.2
(0 ratings)
7.4
(0 ratings)
Usability
6.7
(0 ratings)
9.4
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
7.4
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.6
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
8.5
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.2
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
GistLitmus from Validity
Likelihood to Recommend
Gist is perfect for SaaS I'd say, and perfect for long sales cycles with lots of lead nurturing involved, and for scenarios where you re-market via FB ads, because there's FB custom audience integration built into the workflows. Perfect for customer service and support. Really outstanding there. It's a little less suited to ecom but they're hammering out the finishing touches to make ecom cart recovery easier.
Read full review
I’ve been really impressed with Litmus, especially the personalization features. Being able to easily plug in tools like sentiment trackers right into our emails has helped us gather valuable third-party data without a lot of extra work. I also really appreciate the ongoing learning resources—they offer tons of free webinars and articles that are actually useful. I recently read one on email deliverability that broke down specific data and gave me clear, actionable steps to improve how our emails are hitting inboxes. It’s more than just a testing tool—it’s become a go-to resource in our email marketing toolkit.
Read full review
Pros
  • Gist provides endless ways of interacting with customers. I can chat and email with them, track their usage on my site, qualify them, add tags and other profile information, and so much more.
  • There is even an awesome live view that lets me spy on visitors to see how they're using the site.
  • The tools are powerful, easy to use, and constantly getting improvements. It seems like every week there is another update being rolled out that substantially extends the functionality or usability of the features in Gist.
Read full review
  • The AQ and Approval Process is very seamless. We have a brand team of 20 people, and there are mostly five emails being deployed every day across 3 Hotels and 30 restaurants.
  • The Preview of the email template on all devices, ranging from mobile phones to laptops and iPads, which we can also check based on ISPs like Gmail, Outlook, and AOL, is a very good feature that we use for each email.
  • The Analytics tools we use for each email to create a tracking link to insert into our email for a send is a great feature. It helps us to see the email performance based on ISP clients.
  • For every edits, we receive an email on our inbox, which is very helpful.
Read full review
Cons
  • Free plan limits are too low.
  • Chatbots should work not only for Gist's native online chat, but also for the other chat-based channels such as Facebook. (instead of having to use another software for that purpose)
  • Pricing structure - Support bot should not be an add-on but a core feature.
Read full review
  • When creating a tracking code, I would like to see a button that says "Create New" without having to return to the main page.
  • When creating a tracking code, I would like to have no expiration option.
  • There is a little bit more personalization for the personalization content (being able to access the code HTML and not only the snippet).
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Gist is a quite reliable service with a lot of added values. We don't need to pay for different Saas for these important features. If I had an issue the team was super responsive and helpful, that is essential for every business. The email delivery is great, so virtually no email has landed into spam folder
Read full review
I love using Litmus and find that it has been a huge component of the success of our email campaigns. I can't say enough great things about the platform, and I have seen firsthand how it has saved me time building and sending fully optimized email campaigns. I would absolutely renew again.
Read full review
Usability
Gist does pretty much anything you want it to when it comes to managing your contacts. Sometimes I wish it updated faster, but wait a few beats and it gets there. I really love that I can show a colleague how to use the chat messenger and they understand it right away. Very user friendly!
Read full review
Litmus has integrations that make the software an integrated part of my work every day. Being able to test right within my email builder is just brilliant. Daily I also use the web interface to review analytics and spam testing. Overall it is one of the pieces of software I use daily without any complaints or issues.
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Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
We have never had a problem with Litmus being unavailable so I would say their availability is fantastic. There might have been one time years ago that the site was down briefly but it also might have been a server issue on my end. Either way, Litmus was back up and running in a very short time
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Performance
No answers on this topic
As with all technology, there are inevitably use-cases where you are unable to get to your original goal without some good old-fashioned experimenting. Some situations will (and are) more urgent which complicates an effective integration of a new process or a new team using an existing process but the "issues" are regularly resolved by re-starting the process specific to when Litmus is introduced to a project. If it doesn't come out the way you're anticipating, run it again and verify there is an issue before declaring all is lost
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Support Rating
I have communicated with their team multiple times and every time they have been very responsive, knowledgeable, and polite. They work to make sure you are happy and informed of what is going on. Better their team keeps up to date with their app, giving you new features, and keeping you notified and educated about what they are and how to use them. A+
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I am always so so impressed with the litmus support team. They are not only prompt but attentive and offer very personalised responses and support
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In-Person Training
No answers on this topic
I had internal training for how to use, not lead by litmus. Unsure if there was any external training which took place before my time
Read full review
Online Training
No answers on this topic
It has all the required information.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
I didn’t really personally participate much in the implementation of Litmus, but from what I observed during the process, it was a smooth process with minimal disruptions. The team was able to get up and running quickly, and the platform’s user-friendly interface made onboarding fairly easy for everyone involved from the start.
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Alternatives Considered
They both seem to have parity with each other with each having their own small advantages. I went with Gist because it was more affordable. Infusionsoft customer for almost 5 years and it seemed I was always working more on getting it to work instead of getting work done. Gist is so intuitive I had it setting up and running the basics in a few hours.
Read full review
I selected Litmus because it provides an all-in-one powerful tool to update content, collaborate with teams, and analyse data seamlessly. This saves a big amount of time for the whole team. The insights are more granular allowing us to focus deeper into improvements. The preview tools is one of the most important features we heavily rely on, as we can see how emails are previewed across multiple devices. Speed is also a major factor. Being an organisation sending out many emails, we are happy with the speed and efficiency of accessing and organising emails.
Read full review
Scalability
No answers on this topic
With our enterprise account, scalability is not an issue. I have not yet seen or heard of significant issues with user access, API connections for integrations etc. This includes down time for "Scheduled Maintenance" as some providers call them, Litmus has the technology backing to support a global team with a 24-hour workday across regions
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Return on Investment
  • Our ROI has increased significantly because of Gist's chat and app integration into our website. Contact forms are great but a real-time conversation means you can be more effective in meeting your customer's needs.
  • The additional features in the recent upgrade mean we can use Gist for more. They have always been effective for email campaigns, but the addition of the knowledge base and more effective workflows means we can automate more. This has saved us from buying more software.
Read full review
  • Litmus saves our team so much time by making the QA and email review process so much easier, streamlined, and efficient.
  • We often send out campaigns out to thousands of members, and Litmus gives us the assurance and peace of mind that everything is working as it should before it gets sent out.
  • Decreases the number of email review cycles we go through.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Gist Screenshots

Screenshot of Live ChatScreenshot of Email MarketingScreenshot of Marketing Automation WorkflowsScreenshot of Knowledge BaseScreenshot of Meetings

Litmus from Validity Screenshots

Screenshot of Litmus Personalize Essentials, with live polls to give subscribers a voice and drive email engagement.Screenshot of Litmus Email Guardian, featuring 24/7 link monitoring to safeguard emails.Screenshot of Litmus' integrated insights reports, that can automatically combine metrics from Salesforce Marketing Cloud with subscriber engagement insights from Litmus.Screenshot of campaign preview, available in 100+ popular email clientsScreenshot of Litmus' inbox previewing and feedback tools, that help users to spot and fix issues early.