What company has the time to manually contact every lead in their database anymore?
In the case of a small family business, perhaps you could find a moment or two to converse with your clients at the checkout counter.
In this day and age, the internet has changed all that.
You may need some help building brand and consumer connections if you have thousands of visitors each week click onto your website. With email autoresponders, you can do that.
Aweber and GetResponse gives entrepreneurs the tools for managing their contact lists and nurturing leads.
As with any business tool, it's important to pick an email marketing service that's best for your company's needs.
So, which is better? Aweber or GetResponse?
So, that's the tricky part.
I’m happy to say that we're here to help you.
These companies provide email marketing services, respectively. The approach they take to deliver your results is very different though. In fact, Aweber claims it is “the” email marketing system.
Launched in 1998, the Aweber team certainly had a significant impact on email marketing as a whole. Today, more than 100,000 entrepreneurs and small businesses use it every single day.
GetResponse was launched in 1998, the same year Aweber launched, so their “About” page is somewhat out of date...
Despite this number, GetResponse has 350,000 customers in 183 countries; the company has to be doing something right.
It claims to be one of the easiest email marketing tools in the world -- another bold claim.
Both companies seem quite similar at first glance. Even the companies were started at the same time. However, as you will see from this Aweber vs GetResponse review, these tools offer more than what is expected so you can get more out of email marketing! You can see our other comparison with GetResponse vs Mailchimp by clicking this link.
Email Templates
Templates are essential to your auto-responder strategy, because they let you present a professional image to customers no matter what your coding and design skills are.
Getresponse and Aweber's templates are all responsive, meaning they automatically adapt to whichever device they are being viewed on — be that a mobile phone, tablet, or desktop PC.
As far as templates are concerned, Getresponse tends to have more attractive, modern templates than those offered by Aweber; however, Aweber has more choices which will make it easier to match your brand’s preferences.
Google's web fonts have been implemented by Aweber for years. There are fewer font options than those currently available from GetResponse.
Regardless of the product, there are many choices in the template department from both, as both meet an exceptionally high standard.
Email Templates Verdict: Aweber
The choice of the winner here depends on one's personal taste. However, I believe Aweber does a better job in this department than GetResponse.
You can choose from a larger variety of templates. They are more appealing and up-to-date.
However, if you’re more into using fonts than anything else then GetResponse is your best choice.
Autoresponder Comparison
Having seen how each of them looks, let’s take a deeper look into how both of them work in the background.
Whenever you deal with email marketing, you need autoresponders. It’s a series of emails you set up to go out to your subscribers.
The delivery of the messages also includes the time and date they are sent. Whenever a new subscriber joins your newsletter, you can send a greeting message to them.
The new subscriber will then receive updates, offers, and discounts in the coming days. This strategy is also referred to as a “drip campaign, as you will be dripping out new emails to them in a particular set time frame.
GetResponse Autoresponder
I think GetResponse offers a much better autoresponder experience and here's why.
You can set up an Autoresponder in minutes. You choose when to send your emails by clicking on “Create an autoresponder."
Let’s get to the fun part.
Once you learn how to set up and use autoresponders, you can easily set up “auto funnels.”
These drip sequences can be combined with landing pages that have sign-up boxes, so you can get your products off the shelf, build a list, and more.
When you delve deeper into GetResponse’s automated email marketing tools, you discover more about the things you can do to automate flowcharts, set up unique drip campaigns, and more.
The entire email campaign can be created by simply dragging and dropping, allowing GetResponse to know what to do every time someone opens an email, clicks on a link, or takes another action.
Templates are available that can be tailored to your needs based on the goals you intend to accomplish.
Once you select the model, you can modify it in any way you like by adding conditions, actions, and tags.
That means you can extensively customise subscribers based on how people interact with you.
Aweber Autoresponder
In comparison, Aweber doesn’t come close.
The first time I tried searching for an autoresponder, I had a hard time finding one. They called it a “follow up series”.
You can build autoresponders with drag and drop functionality but the options with GetResponse are much more advanced.
Neither process is as sophisticated nor visual. Plus, your drip campaigns cannot be as detailed. As an example, GetResponse allows you to send an email to people who have added items to their cart and let them know that something is waiting for them.
Using Aweber, you can simply send the basics to keep your subscribers in the loop. It's more about nurturing, rather than marketing.
Just wanting to keep in touch with your audience is fine, and there’s nothing wrong with it.
However, GetResponse enables you to nurture your prospects and customers, which will increase your chances of making a sale with them.
I believe that's great value for the money.
Autoresponder Verdict: GetResponse
When it comes to autoresponders and automating your marketing efforts, GetResponse wins.
You can improve your conversion rates and get more accomplished with their tools. The funnel building strategies just appeal to me more, I think.
Split Testing
It is crucial to run split testing for performance optimization because a change in your email marketing approach can significantly affect your conversion rate.
GetResponse
GetResponse is a step ahead of Aweber because it allows you to test 5 different email versions.
You can edit and change variables such as content and delivery time, and you can see each process on your dashboard.
The only downside is you must test the changes on all your subscribers and not just a few.
Aweber
Aweber users can test three email variations, and you can try out A/B/C testing using just a few of your subscribers. This makes it a little safer to test and once the best variation is discovered, you can then send it out to your entire list.
You can also track results in your user interface.
Split Testing Verdict: GetResponse
If you need more variations for testing, GetResponse is your best bet here as it lets you test up to five different variations.
If you don't want to involve all your subscribers when testing things out, Aweber is your best option.
Aweber allows you to test more features with their split testing and the testing will not affect your entire subscriber base, so I would personally choose Aweber.
Pricing
Any business that is successful must use every dollar wisely. This is why it is crucial to compare their plans and pricing. Let’s see what each service plan has to offer.
GetResponse
You have four options with GetResponse based on your subscriber count. Most of these plans offer a good array of features.
Theirs's is not a one-size fits all and you get different features and prices based on your subscriber list.
The basic plan offers $15 monthly for 1000 subscribers but climbs higher to $450 monthly for 100,000 subscribers. The plan offers unlimited emails to your subscribers, alongside a range of features, including auto-responders, email marketing, one-sale funnel Facebook ads and more.
The plus plan comes at $49 monthly for 1,000 subscribers and $499 for 100,000. This plan offers the same features as the basic one, but it adds some extras. For instance, you can tag contacts, leverage 5 sales funnels, and host webinars for 100 persons.
The professional plan goes at $99 a month for 1,000 subscribers all the way to $580 for 100,000 subscribers.
A benefit of the plan is the ability to build unlimited automations, create webinars with 300 attendees and create funnels of all types.
The Enterprise plan is the highest level plan that contains all the features GetResponse offers, including an account manager, and an IP address.
No price is stated for the enterprise plan, so you will have to contact GetResponse to work on the pricing.
GetResponse offers an 18% discount for yearly subscribers or a 30% discount for a 2-year subscription. It also offers up to 50% discounts to non-governmental organizations.
GetResponse also offers a 30-day free trial to test the platform. You can sign up without a credit card and explore most of the features during your trial period, including split testing and analytics.
Aweber
Aweber's plans are named according to the number of subscribers you have, so they don't have a unique name.
With Aweber, you can access all the features no matter what plan you are operating. You can, however, upgrade your plan when you need to cater to more subscribers. Which makes it an amazing setup!
Here’s a quick break down of their plans and pricing according to the number of subscribers:
Up to 500 subscribers:
$19
501 to 2,500 subscribers:
$29
2,501 to 5,000 subscribers:
$49
5,001 to 10,000 subscribers:
$69
10,001 and up to 25,500 subscribers:
$149
If you have more than 25,000 subscribers on your list, you can contact Aweber to come up with a customized plan.
Aweber's pricing pattern is simple and easy to use because it doesn't limit any feature. You can access all the same features whether you have 500 or 2500 subscribers. This way, you are equipped with all the necessary tools to grow your subscribers right from the get-go.
Aweber’s plans are also very flexible, and they won't force you into making long-term commitments. You can upgrade whenever your subscriber numbers exceed your plan, and you can downgrade whenever you need to.
Aweber offers a 30-day trial, during which you will enjoy many features and even customer support.
Pricing And Plans Verdict: Tie
Aweber and GetResponse manage their plans and pricing in different ways. Aweber presents its plans simply and flexibly, but GetResponse seems like a more systematic and cost-effective option.
Customer Support
We cannot wrap up this review without talking about customer service because a company is only as good as its customer support.
If you are going to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on either of these email marketing tools, you should be assured that great customer support awaits.
GetResponse has a live chat feature that sits at the corner of your UI when working on your email.
You can expect to get a response in about 4 minutes, based on my own experience.
You can also send a snail mail, email, or contact GetResponse on social media. Sadly, phone support is unavailable.
To somewhat make up for that, GetResponse offers many podcasts, videos, blogs, and infographics on their resource page. You can even find the 'GetResponse University' which offers some handy marketing courses.
Aweber has a live chat function as well, but the timing is quite slow and you could spend a long time awaiting a reply.
They seem to be working with a bot, which might not offer the answer you need or it simply does not understand your message all the time, so I was not very fond of the Instant Messaging feature.
However, you can get in touch by calling their US and international toll-free numbers. You can also send an email or snail mail.
Aweber also offers 24/7 expert support for all pricing packages, even for persons using the 30-day free trial.
Customer Support Verdict: Aweber
Both Aweber and GetResponse are 'Stevie' award winners for their customer support, so you can trust that both will offer the assistance and guidance you need.
However, Aweber offers more options, which gives it the upper hand here.
Aweber Vs GetResponse: The Final Verdict
As we have explored, Aweber and GetResponse and both have a lot of tools that help entrepreneurs create emails, communicate and nurture subscribers with effective campaigns.