Among all the popular email marketing platforms, Aweber and GetResponse definitely seem to be the best. So, what makes them stand out of the crowd full of email services? And what is the difference between these two? We will present our findings in this Aweber vs GetResponse: Review and Comparison, which we recently updated after resolving to go with AWeber.
What are Aweber and GetResponse, and what do they do?
If you are new to the world of email marketing, you might be wondering what these two services actually do. Basically, both of these are tools that allow you to host your mailing list, create beautiful email templates, and send newsletters to your subscribers.
You might be wondering why can’t you just use Gmail and import all the subscribers into the “To” section, and then send emails. However, every single email service that is free, including Gmail, has a daily limit of emails that you are allowed to send. If you have a massive list of subscribers, that limit will, most probably, be too low for you.
Another great thing that Aweber and GetResponse have is an autoresponders feature. It allows you to automate your communications with subscribers.
Autoresponders provide your subscribers with newsletters at intervals that you define. For example, you can set the autoresponder to send a newsletter when the user signs-up, and they will receive an email a day or a week later, a day before a discount at your store, and so on. If you have a list of 100,000 subscribers, for example, you would have to spend the whole day only sending emails. That’s how much time autoresponders save you, which is fantastic.
Now, let’s see how they differ from each other.
Pricing
When it comes to AWeber, there are five different subscription plans, importantly starting with a free plan If you have less than 500 subscribers, you will need to pay $19 per month. If you have between 10,000 and 25,000 subscribers, the fee that you have to pay will be $149 per month. However, if you have even more subscribers, you will have to contact Aweber directly to get the price.
Also, note that there are no differences in features between subscription plans. Everything that you get in the basic plan will be included in the premium plan, too. The only difference is the allowed number of subscribers. Also, Aweber offers discounted plans for non-profit organizations of three months free, and 25% off after that. For students, it’s 20% off.
GetResponse has four subscription plans, and they are different from Aweber’s plans. The first three plans, Basic, Plus, and Professional, cost $15, $49, and $99, respectively. However, they are all for up to 1,000 subscribers and differ by features that come with the plan. There is also an Enterprise plan in case you have more than 100,000 subscribers, and it costs $1,199 per month.
If you are a non-profit organization, you should note that there are also special pricing plans included. However, you will have to contact GetResponse directly about that. The main difference between plans includes the addition of landing pages, CRM, webinars, and e-commerce, but you will also get more functionality if you pay more.
So, which one is better in terms of price? If you have a list of between 500 and 1,000 subscribers, then GetResponse is a more cost-effective solution. If your list is bigger than 1,000 subscribers, GetResponse is again a better solution, around $5 per month cheaper than the similar Aweber plan. In a year, you will save around $50-60 if you choose GetResponse. There are also great discounts if you pay for one or two years in advance – you will get a discount of 18% or 30% respectively. If you pay for a year in advance to Aweber, you will get a 15% discount, which is slightly less.
Overall, we can say that GetResponse is the winner when it comes to pricing. However, there are also other things that we should consider.
Features
Let’s see what features both of these services offer. Of course, they both have the ability to capture data and host mailing lists. Additionally, both Aweber and GetResponse have pre-designed templates for newsletters. There are numerous different styles to choose from to satisfy everyone’s needs. Also, autoresponder and statistics are available with both services.
Statistics usually include the percentage of people who received, clicked, and opened your emails. Furthermore, they both offer integration with various third-party services and tools, such as Amazon Payments, Google Checkout, and similar.
However, GetResponse has some features that Aweber doesn’t. Those are webinars, CRM functionality, “autofunnels”, landing page builder, and even more advanced marketing automation.
Marketing automation is a feature that GetResponse recently featured, and it takes autoresponders to a much higher level. Basically, you are able to create more sophisticated automation using a drag and drop builder. It makes your job of automation much more manageable.
There are many triggers that you can use to optimize and shape your automation workflow, such as email opens, product purchases, abandoned carts, link clicks, and similar. It means that you can fully customize your subscriber’s journey, depending on how they react to your emails. Aweber offers a similar tool but is much more basic.
Importing Data
Both services are very similar when it comes to importing data. They both recognize extensions such as .xls, .xlsx, .txt, and .csv, and a few more. Also, GetResponse allows you to import data from various third-party services, while they both allow adding contacts manually and adding users to a particular autoresponder. Not all email marketing services allow that.
However, there is an important thing to note. When importing a new list of contacts, Aweber can take up to one business day to process the information, which is not very efficient if you are in a hurry. Anyway, we can say that both services are good when it comes to importing data.
Single and Double Opt-In
You can run a mailing list in only two possible ways – using a single, or a double opt-in approach to subscribers. But what does it mean?
A good example of a single opt-in method is using a subscription form or a sign-up form. When the user submits the information, their email is automatically added to your “subscribers” list. With a double opt-in process, the person that subscribes to your list receives a confirmation mail. That mail contains the link that they have to click to subscribe to your newsletter. Although the first method might seem like an easier way to gain more subscribers faster, both of these have their pros and cons.
As mentioned, using the first way, you will definitely get more subscribers. However, with the second method, you will be sure that the entered email is correct, and that a real person has subscribed to your list. Also, you will know that they are interested in what you have to offer. You can think about it as the quantity and quality.
The first way will get you more subscribers, but the second one will get you “quality” subscribers. It’s important because you pay monthly based on the size of your subscription list, so you don’t want to have a big list with random entered email addresses and waste money on that.
Integration with Other Systems
As mentioned, both GetResponse and Aweber offer integration with lots of third-party sites and apps. Besides Amazon Payment and Google Checkout, you can also integrate them with Facebook and Twitter. However, that’s not all. While GetResponse offers around 150 integrations, Aweber offers several hundred. In this field, Aweber is a clear winner.
You should also know that some of the integrations require you to set up a connection between your account and a third-party tool. It’s not too complicated but might require some trial and error until you get everything to work correctly.
Data Segmentation
Another important factor that we should consider is data segmentation. That’s also the main reason why some people prefer GetResponse over Aweber.
Both of them allow you to create data segments pretty easily. There are a variety of filters that you can use to identify subscribers and save them. However, GetResponse is better since Aweber allows you to send newsletters to only one segment at a time.
Let’s say that you have a mailing list of car owners with three pre-existing segments, such as red, green, and blue car owners. Now, you want to send newsletters only to red and green car owners. You can do it by ticking these two segments and clicking send. In Aweber, you have to create a completely new segment each time, for red car owners OR blue car owners. This leads to more manual work and can be exhausting if you have to repeat it every day.
Creating a Landing Page
Creating a landing page is another aspect in which GetResponse is better than Aweber. But first, what’s a landing page? It’s a page that is specially designed for data capture. Usually, it contains a form with some very attractive images and is intended to make the user subscribe and enter their details, such as email address.
GetResponse has a landing page creator which allows you to directly customize or create your own landing page, or choose from many templates and customize them. The truth is, you can get a beautiful landing page in a very short amount of time.
It also allows you to create an unlimited number of landing pages, display them to how many users you want, and also do A/B testing. When it comes to testing, the system will automatically identify the best performing page.
When it comes to Aweber, you can make landing pages using a variety of third-party integrations, or you can manually code your landing page. It also allows you to do split testing. The downside is that using third-party apps to create landing pages can be quite expensive. For example, if you use apps such as Ubounce or Instapage, it will cost you a minimum of $99 per month, and the price can go much higher.
Which is better, AWeber, or GetResponse?
The truth is, although AWeber and GetResponse are good at doing what they are supposed to do, we have evolved from using both software programs to choosing AWeber to go forward with. Even if you are not too into coding and technical stuff, you will be able to use them with ease. However, the definite winner is AWeber
https://blog.aweber.com/email-marketing/aweber-the-better-alternative-to-getresponse.htm?awt_a=1w&awt_l=8z_Yz&awt_m=KM8FnZWbJJA&utm_source=awemail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=affiliates&utm_content=aweber-vs-getresponse-adv
After an in-depth analysis, we can say that AWeber is much better. It is also much cheaper and comes with much better and more advanced automation features.
At first, GetResponse allows you to get a free trial account without entering credit card details. AWeber has a free scheme though to allow you to get started.
There are a few things at which Aweber is better. The templates (700 from AWeber) are a little bit more attractive, and there are more templates to choose from.
With Aweber, that works perfectly. Additionally, a lot more third-party integrations are available with Aweber than with GetResponse, and the company offers excellent phone support.
Alternatives
In the end, if you can’t decide which one is a better fit for you, then you should know that there are a few very good alternatives. For example, Campaign Monitor and MailChimp are great choices, but a little bit expensive for some users. If you want a cheaper solution, you should check out Moon Mail. It has some great features that will not cost too much.
All of these options are great, and if you are looking for email marketing platforms, you should definitely check them out! However, with all things considered, when it comes to Aweber and GetResponse, we still think they are two of the best options out there. So take a look for yourself and decide.
We hope this Aweber vs GetResponse: Review and Comparison has helped you with your decision.
In conclusion as a latest update,We recently changed all our emails over to AWeber.
We were running both AWeber and GetResponse for a while, then we had an issue with a telephone number needing to be registered, or rather two telephone numbers for GetResponse, at the insistence of GetResponse compliance team so it was the clincher to stop using GetResponse. I dont understand why this was an issue, and we tried for several weeks to resolve it but it was just too difficult, and I dont see why i should buy and run a new phone just so as to use GetResponse.