Top 5 Best CRM & Email Marketing Software Services 2020

Are you looking for an email marketing system that has a fully integrated, automated, and intelligent customer relationship management (CRM) system?  Surprisingly, our testing reveals that there are not too many out there.

There are two parts to this review, the CRM system breakdown and the view of other enterprise features. We will focus only on CRM, Sales Funnels, Advanced Automation & Enterprise function.  For a full breakdown of the service, see out Top 10 Best Email Marketing Services Review.

Email Marketing & CRM Services Review Summary

Out of all the big email marketing companies we have reviewed, there are only three services with truly great CRMs, Sales Funnels, and Visual Intelligent Automation.  The best are GetResponse, Ontraport, and ActiveCampaign, who incidentally are also the three best services for enterprise functionality & customer support & satisfaction.

Top 5 Best Email Marketing CRM Systems Are:

1. GetResponse: Joint winner, with a seamless cross-platform customer journey tracking fully integrated into the CRM, including automated activity scoring to qualify leads.  Add to that over 160 other integrations and Facebook Lead acquisition engine, and you have a 1st class CRM for the enterprise.
2. Ontraport: The best for eCommerce and a joint winner for CRM offering a full cross-platform customer journey, lead-scoring, Facebook lead acquisition engine, plus 160+ 3rd party integrations.
3. ActiveCampaign: Joint winner Active Campaign offers the full suite of key services, cross-platform customer journey, lead-scoring, Facebook lead acquisition, plus 250+ integrations.
4. Benchmark Email: Have a usable, albeit manual CRM, but with 300+ native integrations, it takes 4th place.
5. ConvertKit: ConvertKit does have a CRM, but it lacks the seamless integration of the winners.

CRM & Remarketing
CRM & Deal Management	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Facebook Integration	✔	✔	✔						✔
Cross Platform Journey Tracking	✔	✔	✔
Activity Scoring	✔	✔	✔									✔
Integrations
3rd Party Integrations	160	103+	250+	300+	80+	28	88	948	456	9	54	216
Zapier App Integration	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Security & Certifications
GDPR Compliant	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
SSL TLS Encryption	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
EU-US Privacy Shield	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Visit the Vendor	Visit GetResponse	Visit Ontraport	Visit ActiveCampaign	Visit Benchmark	Visit ConvertKit	Visit iContact Services	Visit MailJet Services	Visit AWeber Services	Visit ConstantContact	Visit SendX Services	Visit SendinBlue	Visit Mailchimp

Table 1: Email Marketing Services for CRM & Integrations

Top 5 Email Marketing Services For Enterprises

1. GetResponse: Joint winner – An elegant multi-user collaboration engine allows for internal and external staff to work together on campaigns and allows for lead distribution to the sales force.  There is also full Salesforce.com integration, polling, survey, and the excellent visual auto-funnels, perfect for the enterprise.
2. ActiveCampaign: Joint winner in this section, with the full complement of multi-user collaboration, sales team lead distribution, salesforce.com integration, polls, funnels, and landing pages.
3. Ontraport: Ontraport also has a great enterprise offering, including multi-user collaboration, sales team lead distribution, salesforce.com integration, funnels, and landing pages.
4. ConstantContact: Allows you to host multiple accounts to enable better workflow and collaboration in the marketing/sales department.  You can add different accounts with different permissions.  Surveys, Polls, and Salesforce.com integration are also included.
5. SendX: Surprisingly, SendX also has some enterprise functions like Multiple users and landing pages.

Team / Enterprise Functions
Multiple User Accounts	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔		✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Sales Team Lead Distribution	✔	✔	✔								✔
Salesforce Service Integration	✔ (i)	✔ (i)	✔ (i)	✔ (i)			✔ (i)	✔ (i)	✔ (i)	✔ (i)	✔
Primary Features Funnels
Surveys/Polls	✔	✔		✔				✔
Sales/Lead Funnels	✔	✔	✔
Landing Pages	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔					✔
Exit Popups	✔	✔			✔	✔
Visit the Vendor	Visit GetResponse	Visit ActiveCampaign	Visit Ontraport	Visit ConstantContact	Visit SendX Services	Visit ConvertKit	Visit AWeber Services	Visit Benchmark	Visit iContact Services	Visit MailJet Services	Visit SendinBlue	Visit Mailchimp

Table 2: Email Marketing Service Features for Enterprises

Top 5 CRM Email Marketing Service Reviews

1. GetResponse: Winner. Powerful CRM with Customer Journey Tracking & Lead Scoring

GetResponse has seamless cross-platform customer journey tracking integrated into the CRM, including automated activity scoring to qualify and rank potential leads. Add to that over 160 other integrations and Facebook Lead acquisition engine, and you have a 1st class CRM for the enterprise.

GetResponse is simply one of the best email marketing services around, with a complete portfolio of services.

Combining fantastic entry-level pricing with a set of powerful CRM & eCommerce services that will grow with your business and also drive your business forward.

GetResponse Pricing

When it comes to pricing GetResponse, have done their homework.  Below you can see that GetResponse currently offers one of the lowest price points but also offers by far the broadest most integrated set of services for all business needs.  So, for the features you get combined with the pricing, GetResponse is the winner.

Competitor Pricing Table – All Email Marketing Services

Value Ratings
Value	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆
Model	Contact	Contact	Contact	Contact	Contact	Contact	Contact	Contact	Contact	Contact	Email	Email
Free-Tier	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	6K/m - $0	9K/m - $0
#Contacts
500	$7.49	$15	$13	$19	$17	$25	$15	$9	$30	$79	30K/m - $9.65	40K/m - $25
2,500	$15	$25	$30	$29	$38	$49	$50	$39	$50	$147	60K/m - $18.95	60K/m - $39
10,000	$39	$65	$76	$69	$81	$119	$99	$111	$110	$297	150K/m - $69	120K/m - $67
25,000	$112	$145	$144	$149	$191	$166	$219	$179	$199	$497	450K/m - $230	350K/m - $173
50,0000	$172	$250	$237	$392	$295	$316	$299	$239	$379	$599=< 125K
Unlimited	$2,999									$99 per extra 100K
Cost per Contact (cents)	0.39	0.65	0.74	0.69	0.81	1	1	1.11	0.67	2.97	NA	NA
	Visit SendX Services	Visit GetResponse	Visit Benchmark	Visit AWeber Services	Visit ConstantContact	Visit ConvertKit	Visit Mailchimp	Visit ActiveCampaign	Visit iContact Services	Visit Ontraport	Visit MailJet Services	Visit SendinBlue

View the GetResponse pricing page to view the tiers of service for yourself.

GetResponse Email Marketing & Automation Features

Out of all the email marketing companies we tested, GetResponse offers the full suite of email marketing and automation features.

GetResponse Email Marketing Automation Tour Video

What Makes GetResponse Unique?

GetResponse has a few unique services which separate them from the crowd.  My favorites are:

Perfect Timing – Perfect timing is a really intelligent way to deliver your emails at the precise moment your customer is most likely to open them.  GetResponse uses algorithms to analyze your contacts opening times.  If your contact is an early riser and usually opens your emails at 5 am, then the algorithm takes account of this information and delivers the future messages at this time.  This means every single contact has the right message at the right time according to their behavior; this is fantastic. GetResponse claims Perfect Timing increases open rates by 23% and click-through rates by 20%, and I do not doubt them.

Time Travel – if you operate a business that spans multiple timezones, then this feature is perfect for you.  Suppose you have a special offer that runs from 9 am to 5 pm on a specific day, you can use the Time Travel Feature to time your email’s arrival for exactly 9 am on that day in their timezone.

SMS Messaging Integration – This service has SMS integration, and interestingly only 4 out of our 11 services tested offer an SMS service.  SMS is a great way to remind your customers of time-critical actions, for example, confirming a table reservation, or reminding a client of their webinar reservation.

The Excellent GetResponse Email Marketing Visualization – Screenshot

Enterprise Functions

Here we take a look at the functionality available for larger companies, specifically those with a dedicated salesforce and multiple roles within the marketing department.

Multiple User Accounts

For a multi-person marketing team, the ability to be able to collaborate on campaigns and assign roles to different employees is critical.  Multiple accounts are covered here in an elegant way enabling both internal employees and even external freelancers the right permissions to complete their tasks.  There is even a mobile app to enable quick responses, even when team members are not at their desks.

Sales Lead Team Workflow

Having the ability to assign hot prospects to members of the sales team is important for businesses that need personal contact with the customer; this is exactly what is enables with the sales leadership team workflow services. Efficiency within sales is key to be able to grow sales and keep costs down.

Sales & Payments

The key to being able to automate the sales funnel shown in the previous section is to have the ability to integrate the landing pages into the process.  Many small businesses using WordPress, for example, will struggle to structure and host high-quality landing pages.  The challenge is getting your website to communicate with PayPal, Stripe, or Square.  If you have a reoccurring payment model, for example, a membership program, this is close to impossible to manage by yourself.

Not only does GetResponse offer a fully integrated landing page and payment processing service, but they also have integrated abandoned cart follow-ups, and effective customer Win Back automation.  This is an impressive collection of integrated services, which means you do not have to worry about using 3rd party integrators or solutions to try to automate your workflow.  This is as beneficial for SMB’s as it is for enterprise businesses.

Customer Relationship Mgt (CRM) & Remarketing

As mentioned previously, the CRM integration enables the whole service to integrate seamlessly.  Many email marketing companies claim to have a great CRM service, but only a few offer a lead rating system and cross-platform customer tracing.

Lead Scoring & Cross-Platform Journey Reporting

Consider this example, a customer sees your Facebook advert and takes action to visit your website for further information. They then ask a question via site chat to your helpdesk.  They click around your website, looking for further information on a product. Then later, they signup to your email list and then send an email to the support team.  All of these interactions will be captured and reported in the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. This appears to be a very interested and active customer.  Based on the Scoring System rules you create, you can flag a customer as a hot prospect and assign the task to a member of the sales team to reach out to them.

This exemplifies the cross-platform journey of a potential customer and enables you to reach out to hot prospects for a sale.

Salesforce.com Integration

SalesForce.com is the industry leader when it comes to CRM, so being able to integrate your marketing department’s contact list to the Salesforce ecosystem can be critical for enterprise customers. GetResponse has developed its own integrated service to enable the seamless passage of customer data, messaging, collaboration, and messaging between the services.

CRM Features: AutoFunnel

Only 3 of our tested companies provide a Sales Funnel service.  GetResponse arguably does this better than it’s competitors by having services that cover the entire sales process.

Site Chat

Out of all tests, only three software vendors offer a fully integrated site chat function, GetResponse is one of them.  An integrated chat function helps to complete the picture of communications.  Imagine, for example, that a customer visits your website, they ask a question via chat to your helpdesk.  Then later, they signup to your email list and again via your website have a conversation with the support team.  All of these interactions will be captured and will ultimately feed into the customer journey reporting and the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. As you will read below, you can even automatically assign a customer a score to be able to assess their interest in a specific product or service.  Very clever.

[Related Article: Read the Full Detailed GetResponse Review]

Amazingly AutoFunnel is part of the GetResponse Plus Plan, and for only $179,- per month, you can host 25,000 contacts and get access to the entire portfolio of AutoFunnel related services.

Ease of Use & Customer Ratings

Using as many independent sources as possible, we have rated the services provided.

GetResponse scores highly in both ease of use and their modern approach to design.  Despite the vast and powerful array of features and functions, the service is easy to navigate and use.

GetResponse Summary

GetResponse’s fully integrated CRM services have practically every feature you can imagine.  Surprisingly they can compete effectively at both ends of the price spectrum, offering industry-leading low prices for Startups and SMB’s but also offering a full spectrum Pro service for the enterprise.  Whichever tier of service you choose, you can be sure GetResponse will grow with and help grow your business.

Try a GetResponse Free Trial

2. Ontraport: Winner, Best for eCommerce, CRM & Complete Integration

Ontraport is great for eCommerce and a joint winner for CRM offering a full cross-platform customer journey, lead-scoring, Facebook lead acquisition engine, plus 160+ 3rd party integrations.

Ontraport is the complete CRM & email marketing solution that becomes especially cost-effective for enterprises with large contact lists of more than 50,000 subscribers.

Ontraport is simply one of the best email marketing services around with a set of fully integrated CRM & eCommerce services that will grow your business.

Ontraport – The Best Enterprise Tier Pricing

Monthly Contract Pricing
Enterprise Tier – 10K Contacts	$297	$499	$1,199
Enterprise Tier – 50K Contacts	$597	Negotiation	$1,199
Enterprise Tier – 100K Contacts	$697	Negotiation	$1,199

View the Ontraport pricing page to view the tiers of service for yourself.

At industry-leading low price points on Enterprise Tier Services, Ontraport offers more features than nearly every other competitor, which means a great deal for you at 10,000 contacts or more.

Ontraport Email Marketing & Automation Features

All software providers offer Autoresponders, Email Sequencing, Customer Tagging, and Segmentation.  What separates Ontraport is the ease of implementation and the levels of automation available.  The video below will give you a good idea of how easy this process is.

Ontraport Email Marketing Automation Tour Video

Advanced Features

Time Zone Specific Delivery

If you operate a business that spans multiple timezones, then this feature is perfect for you.  Suppose you have a special offer that runs from 9 am to 5 pm on a specific day, you can use the Time Travel feature you time your email’s arrival for exactly 9 am on that day in their timezone.

SMS Messaging Integration

This service has SMS integration, and interestingly only 4 out of our 11 services tested offer an SMS service.  SMS is a great way to remind your customers of time-critical actions, for example, confirming a table reservation, or reminding a client of their webinar reservation.

Postcard Marketing & Delivery

Interestingly Ontraport also offers a fully integrated postcard service. Nothing impresses a customer more than a postcard to say thank you, or wish them a happy birthday.

Surprisingly, not all email newsletter providers offer this service.  To view the other vendors offering this service, check out our Email Service Master Comparison Table.

Visit Ontraport

Ontraport Email Marketing Outreach Campaigns

Enterprise Functions

Here we take a look at the functionality available for larger companies, specifically those with a dedicated salesforce and multiple roles within the marketing department.

Multiple User Accounts

For a multi-person marketing team, the ability to be able to collaborate on campaigns and assign roles to different employees is critical.  Multiple accounts are covered here in an elegant way enabling both internal employees and even external freelancers the right permissions to complete their tasks.  Each new user will cost an additional $47 per month.

Business Process Automation

This $47/m may sound a little expensive, but not when you understand that multiple users unlock powerful Business Process Automation (BPA).  You can use it to automate any collaboration, not just in the marketing department but in any part of your business, for example, talent acquisition or purchasing.

Sales Lead Team Workflow

Having the ability to assign hot prospects to members of the sales team is important for businesses that need personal contact with the customer; this is exactly what is enables with the sales lead team workflow services. Efficiency within sales is key to be able to grow sales and keep costs down.

Salesforce Integration

SalesForce.com is the industry leader when it comes to CRM, so being able to integrate your marketing department’s contact list to the Salesforce ecosystem can be critical for enterprise customers. Ontraport has developed its own integrated service to enable the seamless passage of customer data, messaging, collaboration, and messaging between the services.

Sales & Payments

The key to being able to automate the sales funnel shown in the previous section is to have the ability to integrate the landing pages into the process.  Many small businesses using WordPress, for example, will struggle to structure and host high-quality landing pages.  The challenge is getting your website to communicate with PayPal, Stripe, or Square.  If you have a reoccurring payment model, for example, a membership program, this is close to impossible to manage by yourself.

Not only does Ontraport offer a fully integrated landing page and payment processing service, but they also have integrated abandoned cart follow-ups, and effective customer Win Back automation.  This is an impressive collection of integrated services, which means you do not have to worry about using 3rd party integrators or solutions to try to automate your workflow.  This is as beneficial for SMB’s as it is for enterprise businesses.

CRM & Remarketing

As mentioned previously, the CRM integration enables the whole service to integrate seamlessly.  Many email marketing companies claim to have a great CRM service, but only a few offer a lead rating system and cross-platform customer tracing.

Ontraport CRM Overview Video

SalesForce Automation – Lead Scoring & Journey Reporting

Consider this example, a customer sees your Facebook advert and takes action to visit your website for further information. They click around your lead pages, looking for further information on a product. Then later, they signup to your email list and then send an email to the support team.  All of these interactions will be captured and reported in the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. This appears to be a very interested and active customer.  Based on the Scoring System rules you create, you can flag a customer as a hot prospect and assign the task to a member of the sales team to reach out to them.

This exemplifies the cross-platform journey of a potential customer and enables you to reach out to hot prospects for a sale.

Ease of Use & Customer Ratings

Using as many independent sources as possible, we have rated the services provided.

Ontraport scores highly in both ease of use and their modern approach to design.  Despite the vast and powerful array of features and functions, the service is easy to navigate and use.

Ontraport Review Summary

Ontraport may be the giant you have never heard about.  But they were established in 2006 and offer the single most well-rounded solution for growing your business. Offering a full CRM, BPA, a complete Email Marketing & Automation Service, Landing Pages, and even payment gateway services, this is already a great package.  Add to that, Membership Site management and a completely automated Partner Management solution, and you have a worthy review winner.

Visit Ontraport

3. ActiveCampaign: Winner CRM & Cross-Platform Customer Journey & Facebook Lead Acquisition.

ActiveCampaign is simply one of the best email marketing services according to our testing.

Combining high-quality analytics, landing pages, full payment gateways, and multi-platform customer journey tracking & CRM.

They are a class act.

ActiveCampaign Pricing

When it comes to pricing, ActiveCampaign is not the leader they came seventh in our study; however, it is important to remember that price is not everything and ActiveCampaign will be able to grow with your business demands and believe me the features are extensive.

Email Marketing & Automation Features

Special Feature: Customer Experience Automation (CXA)

Customer Experience Automation (CXA) is the ability for automation to customize itself to every individual customer—so you can get better results from the same amount of work. When you create next-gen automation, you create a single simple flow. Machine learning and other dynamic features turn that flow into hundreds of unique experiences–created fresh for every person. Our automation accomplishes this in a few ways:

• Timing: Create unique pauses and send times so that every message arrives at the perfect moment.
• Predictive Sending: this product is a major step to providing automation that helps you give every customer a truly unique experience.
  • Send automation emails at the most impactful time for each individual.
  • Truly optimized send times at the contact level vs. account level.
  • Available in Professional and Enterprise plans.
• Routing: Send people through the unique sequence that makes sense for them.
• Content: Customize every message for each person who sees it.

Customer Experience Automation (CXA) Video

Visit ActiveCampaign

SMS Messaging Integration

This service has SMS integration, and interestingly only 4 out of our 11 services tested offer an SMS service.  SMS is a great way to remind your customers of time-critical actions, for example, confirming a table reservation, or reminding a client of their webinar reservation.

Site Chat

An integrated chat function helps to complete the picture of communications.  Imagine, for example, that a customer visits your website, they ask a question via chat to your helpdesk.  Then later, they signup to your email list and again via your website have a conversation with the support team.  All of these interactions will be captured and will ultimately feed into the customer journey reporting and the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. As you will read below, you can even automatically assign a customer a score to be able to assess their interest in a specific product or service.  Very clever.

Enterprise Functions & CRM

Here we take a look at the functionality available for larger companies, specifically those with a dedicated salesforce and multiple roles within the marketing department.

Multiple User Accounts

For a multi-person marketing team, the ability to be able to collaborate on campaigns and assign roles to different employees is critical.  Multiple accounts are covered here in an elegant way enabling both internal employees and even external freelancers the right permissions to complete their tasks.  There is even a mobile app to enable quick responses, even when team members are not at their desks.

Sales Lead Team Workflow

Having the ability to assign hot prospects to members of the sales team is important for businesses that need personal contact with the customer; this is exactly what is enables with the sales lead team workflow services. Efficiency within sales is key to be able to grow sales and keep costs down.

Salesforce.com Integration

SalesForce.com is the industry leader when it comes to CRM, so being able to integrate your marketing department’s contact list to the Salesforce ecosystem can be critical for enterprise customers. ActiveCampaign has developed its own integrated service to enable the seamless passage of customer data, messaging, collaboration, and messaging between the services.

Customer Relationship Mgt (CRM) & Remarketing

As mentioned previously, the CRM integration enables the whole service to integrate seamlessly.  Many email marketing companies claim to have a great CRM service, but only a few offer a lead rating system and cross-platform customer tracing.

Win Probability & Cross-Platform Journey Reporting

Consider this example, a customer sees your Facebook advert and takes action to visit your website for further information. They then ask a question via site chat to your helpdesk.  They click around your website, looking for further information on a product. Then later, they signup to your email list and then send an email to the support team.  All of these interactions will be captured and reported in the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. This appears to be a very interested and active customer.  Based on the Win Probability, a customer will be flagged as a hot prospect and can be assigned to a member of the sales team to reach out to them.

This exemplifies the cross-platform journey of a potential customer and enables you to reach out to hot prospects for a sale.

Killer Feature: Funnels

Only 3 of our tested companies provide a Sales Funnel service.  ActiveCampaign arguably does this better than most by having services that cover the entire sales process.

[Related Article: Active Campaign Pipelines Details in Our Full Review]

Ease of Use & Customer Ratings

Using as many independent sources as possible, we have rated the services provided.

ActiveCampaign scores highly in customer service and customer satisfaction.  Despite the vast and powerful array of features and functions, the service is easy to navigate and use.

ActiveCampaign Review Summary

ActiveCampaign offers an almost complete set of tools, and what it does not provide natively is covered with 250+ integrations.  Its customers are extremely happy and are willing to pay a little more to get the highest levels of customer service and personal support.  Innovation in A.I. and Machine learning is allowing great features to bubble to the surface, such as predictive sending and predictive win probability reporting.

Visit ActiveCampaign

4. Benchmark: A Redimentry Manual CRM, But 300+ Integrations.

California based Benchmark Email was established in 2004.  They offer a solid set of features for a competitive price.  Neither the price leader nor the features leader, Benchmark, occupies a place in the industry offering simplicity and value for money.

Benchmark Email Marketing Features

Like all of the services reviewed, Benchmark Email offers a selection of pre-designed email templates and a good selection of high-quality images for use in your email campaigns.  The email design process is also fully drag-and-drop, making crafting your message a breeze.

In fact, Benchmark Email has a collection reasonable of newsletter templates, but unlike many of its competitors, it does not offer a large selection of licensed images, you will have to source your own, which can be costly and time-consuming.

Benchmark Email Service Overview Video

Start a Free Plan

Highlights of the Benchmark Email Pro Service:

• Email Marketing Automation
• Unlimited Email Sends
• Segmentation, Tagging, Autoresponders, Drip Campaigns
• Automated Customer Journey Funnels
• Facebook Audiences Integration
• CRM Integration
• Events Management
• Polling & Surveys

Benchmark CRM

Benchmark Email is also taking aim at SMB customers by offering a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. Most small email marketers do not really need this level of functionality. But if you are part of a larger team that needs CRM, you will want to consider GetResponse or Ontraport.  GetResponse has a great price point and a complete set of features.  However, Benchmark does have some enterprise functionality.

Multiple User Accounts & Collaboration

Benchmark Email does, however, allow you to host multiple accounts to enable better workflow and collaboration in the marketing department.  You can add different accounts with different permissions.  Permissions are simple; you either have the administrator or contributor privileges.

Ease of Use & Customer Ratings

Using as many independent sources as possible, we have rated the services provided.

Benchmark Email scores highly in customer service and customer satisfaction.  Whatever problem you may be facing the talented and passionate support team is available instantly, the support service is easy to navigate and use.

Benchmark Email Review Summary

Benchmark Email has a strong portfolio of tools, including effective visual automation, smooth A/B testing, and good analytics.  Social integrations to Facebook, Twitter, and even LinkedIn & Slack show a well-rounded product feature set.  A reasonable CRM for small businesses is also included.  Starting at Free for up to 2,000 contacts, but even the Pro service is very competitively priced and well worth considering.

Visit Benchmark

5. ConvertKit: Includes a CRM, But Lacks Seamless Integration.

ConvertKit’s focus on email deliverability, and intuitive marketing automation and a slick interface make it a solid service offering.

But with a significantly higher price point than other competitors, we need to look at what extra they bring to the table.

ConvertKit Email Marketing & Automation Features

Like all of the services reviewed, ConvertKit offers a selection of pre-designed email templates and a good selection of high-quality images for use in your email campaigns.  The email design process is also fully drag-and-drop, making crafting your message a breeze.

In fact, ConvertKit has a nice collection of newsletter templates and impressive 100,000 licensed images.  This will ensure your emails will look professional and unique.

CRM & Visual Automations

Most software providers offer Autoresponders, Email Sequencing, Drip Campaigns, Customer Tagging, and Segmentation.  ConvertKit provides all of these services included in the price.

But what truly separates ConvertKit from the crown is the visual automation application, which makes it easy to implement a customer journey through your processes.   Because automation triggers actions, tagging, and segmentation can get complex very quickly, the best approach to it is via visual representation of the processes.  What this video to see it in action.

Visual Automations Video

Visit ConvertKit for a Free 14 Day Trial

ConvertKit is clearly not aiming at enterprise customers or trying to replace a fully-fledged Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. Most email marketers do not really need this level of functionality. So if you are part of a larger team that needs CRM, you will want to consider GetResponse or Ontraport.

Multiple User Accounts & Collaboration

ConvertKit does, however, allow you to host multiple accounts to enable better workflow and collaboration in the marketing department.  You can add different accounts with different permissions.  Permissions are simple; you either have the administrator or contributor privileges.

Ease of Use & Customer Ratings

Using as many independent sources as possible, we have rated the services provided.

ConvertKit’s levels of support do not justify it’s higher price point.  With support only via chat or email and service windows, 8 am to 8 pm Monday to Friday in the U.S. timezones. As a customer in Europe or Asia, you will need to wait until the afternoon or evening to get support.  The Twitter sentiment report was very good, with plenty of customers happy with the service.  There were, however, no reasonable reviews on Trustpilot.

Free Migration Service

Finally, ConvertKit will migrate you from your current email newsletter service provider to ConvertKit for free.  One of the biggest problems is that when you have built your contact lists, funnels, and automation with one company, the thought of moving to another provider is a headache of cost and effort.  The fact that ConvertKit provides this as a courtesy is impressive, but you must have a contact list of more than 5000 people to qualify.

ConvertKit Review Summary

ConvertKit excels in email deliverability and has all the core email marketing services you will need. It has an excellent automation visualization engine and built-in lead pages, which may well be worth the price premium they charge.  But do not expect any advanced CRM functions or payment gateways, they have a set of integrations to cover that through Zapier.

Summary – Top 5 Best Email Marketing CRM Systems

Out of all the big email marketing companies we have reviewed, there are only three services with truly great CRMs, Sales Funnels, and Visual Intelligent Automation.  The best are GetResponse, Ontraport, and ActiveCampaign, who incidentally are also the three best services for enterprise functionality & customer support & satisfaction. See the table below.

Ratings
Value for Money	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆
Features	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆
Deliverability	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆
Ease of Use	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆
Client Satisfaction	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆	☆☆	☆☆
Support	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆☆	☆☆☆	☆☆	☆☆☆
Total Stars	28	28	28	27	26	26	25	25	23	22	20	19
Visit the Vendor	Visit GetResponse	Visit Ontraport	Visit ActiveCampaign	Visit SendX Services	Visit ConvertKit	Visit AWeber Services	Visit Benchmark	Visit iContact Services	Visit ConstantContact	Visit MailJet Services	Visit SendinBlue	Visit Mailchimp

Table 1: Overall Ratings – Value for Money, Features, Deliverability, Usability, Customer Satisfaction & Support