15 years helping Irish businesses
choose better software
About Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)
Grow your leads and convert more deals by adding the power of marketing to your sales arsenal with Constant Contact Lead Gen & CRM.
The customer support team is absolutely amazing and helps us make sure we are running smoothly. The support team is willing to go the extra mile and even double check our work when needed.
The large amount of metrics can confuse some users.
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Alternatives Considered:
Great Solution for a Small Agency
Comments: It has been a great enabler for our business and has really become and extension of our capability that we deliver our clients
Pros:
We love the fact that we can white label the product and resell to our clients. It adds a new source of recurring revenue for our business that we would not have without this capability
Cons:
We’ve had some challenges setting up billing for our managed client accounts - that said, the SharpSpring team has been helpful and very responsive in sorting out our challenges.
Alternatives Considered:
The marketing automation choice when value-for-money matters
Comments: We moved from HubSpot to SharpSpring primarily because of the price: HubSpot can be very expensive, particularly if you need to use the CRM and marketing capabilities. HubSpot is the market leader in usability and reporting (in my opinion) so we did notice a difference when moving to SharpSpring, but for 95% of the activities we undertake SharpSpring is at least as good as HubSpot and often better. The grouping of landing pages into funnels is one example of some great SharpSpring functionality that helps make your campaigns more effective.
Pros:
SharpSpring does everything you would expect at a competitive price. The tool is a very capable marketing automation system, with good email and automation capabilities, as well as some great tracking and social media features.
Cons:
Reporting is good, but not as good as the best (which is HubSpot in my opinion). Although the capabilities don't hold us back, it would be nice to be able to have easy ways to measure the performance of landing pages/funnels.
Constant Contact killed this company and this product.
Comments: We were happy for years. Then Constant Contact destroyed the product and the culture.
Pros:
I loved SharpSpring until Constant Contact slaughtered it and their support fell off a cliff.
Cons:
Very confusing. Terrible email builder. Broken platform elements with no desire to fix...but they're happy charging you full price.
Alternatives Considered:
SharpSpring makes my life easier.
Comments: It's a great platform, and the support team has been very responsive with any questions we've had over the last few years. The onboarding process was great and we never felt alone in learning how to use it. I also like the regular webinars and learning opportunities that SharpSpring hosts for marketers/agencies.
Pros:
The email builder, landing page builder and form builder are all straightforward and fairly easy to learn. There are also help/support articles for pretty much anything I need help with or get stuck on. The "life of the lead" view is helpful to see a contact's interactions with our brand.
Cons:
The email and landing page builders offer a lot of flexibility in layout/design, but sometimes they are a bit too restrictive in terms of moving elements around.
Alternatives Considered:
SharpSpring is the Best of the Best
Comments: My overall experience with SharpSpring has been wonderful! While the platform still has kinks to work out (what platform doesn't?), their customer service is amazing and they move at a rate unseen by others to make the platform better every day. I highly recommend them not just for their platform, but their people are friendly as well.
Pros:
I really enjoy the various features that are available within the platform! It allows us to quickly and easily identify our prospects, capture their information on the website, and then market to them in a way that is meaningful and generates new business for us.
Cons:
In their mission to make their platform compete, they often focus on getting new features out quickly but then have to go back and update later. I've seen this happen for them with tools like Video Calling, which became quickly available due to COVID-19 but lacks the robustness of other dedicated video platforms that I would imagine most companies already use.
Alternatives Considered:
SharpSpring a full marketing automation platform everyone
Comments: Our experience with Sharpspring has been very satisfactory, since it gives us control over each client from the moment they are born as a lead until they become a client. has given us to reduce response time to a client and have better control of all actions taken with them through Automation
Pros:
Powerful tools for lead generation to pretty good customer management, tons of options to personalize a lot of aspect of the company. very good tools for building email marketing and landing pages with out third parties
Cons:
I think one point where sharpspring lose flexibility is on landing page creations, how designer we need more tools for layout.
Alternatives Considered:
Sharp Spring - A great email marketing tool and more!
Comments: SharpSpring is a complete email marketing tool that we use to reach out to clients and market to new leads. We use the automation tools to create drip campaigns and re-marketing campaigns for potential leads. We also use the page builder to build simple landing pages and sales funnels. The contact manager has the ability to mange our list of 30,000+ without any extra costs. It used by both our sales teams and client care teams to help the business grow. As a marketer I use SharpSpring to create campaigns that convert to sales and retention.
Pros:
SharpSpring is a great tool for small to mid range companies looking to build email marketing campaigns. It has great templates which allow you to create emails that look great and are functional sales tools. There are also great automation tools for drip campaigns and re-targeting.
Cons:
The visual email builder can be finicky at times, resulting in editing directly in the code. If you are unfamiliar or uncomfortable formatting HTML code it can be overwhelming. Also, the social media tools are weak. It would be nice if I could schedule and post content directly from SharpSpring.
Alternatives Considered:
Full-featured marketing automation on a budget
Comments: Prioritizing leads for Salesforce, collecting customer feedback, and better tracking the effectiveness of marketing efforts are the key things we get out of SharpSpring. We are able to collect leads using SharpSpring forms and then deliver them to the right salesperson using their visual workflow tools. We can make lists and campaigns based on ANY criteria in the system, which is super impressive. The Life of the Lead is a revelation: Being able to see all digital interactions of our customers is a complete game-changer for Sales. With Life of the Lead, Sales is more informed and can take on calls armed with the right information to best serve the customer.
Pros:
The support is top-notch. They go above and beyond to ensure all questions are answered. If there is a key feature needed in the software, they'll work to make sure that you get that feature or have a workaround. They respond quickly, and they are incredibly knowledgeable. It's hard to list just one thing I like best! It's the most competitively-priced tool on the market... and it's a fraction of the cost of nearly any other marketing automation tool on the market.
Cons:
With their constant upgrades, SharpSpring occasionally can be a bit buggy while features get ironed out. Nearly all issues have easy workarounds, and the fixes come fast. It's a minor quibble for a service that is basically as good as it gets.
Alternatives Considered:
SharpSpring user for 4+ years
Comments: We really are able to do so much more with our marketing. We can see the interaction of clients with our marketing as a whole, not just off of one campaign. We can trigger emails and actions based on their behaviors which is very beneficial.
Pros:
Being a Partner for 4+ years has allowed us to grow with them. When they were a startup, we were able to really see the changes the partners were requesting and the software has come a long way. They really value their Partners (agencies).
Cons:
Sometimes SharpSpring likes to release new features, while they need to also work on continually improving their existing features.
Alternatives Considered:
Sharpspring is the solution for all-in-one marketing
Comments: We have implemented SharpSpring for our clients and are using it ourselves for Marketing Automation, emailmarketing and social media marketing. Our clients are very pleased for the way we create leads for them. SharpSpring gives a lot of insight in the way leads are generated and we use the automation tool also for cross selling and stay in touch with existing customers. Before SharpSpring we looked in to both HubSpot and Infusionsoft but SharpSpring is the best solution for us. Worth every penny and more.
Pros:
SharpSpring is best for clients who want to generate lots of leads and convert them to clients. If you look for a complete solution for marketing automation, social media, emailmarketing, Google Ads and a CRM, this is the go to solution. If you are only looking for emailmarketing without the rest then this is not the best fit.
Cons:
Social media monitoring could be beter. No other cons.
Alternatives Considered:
We have embraced the Software to lead our company in communicating with customers and managing sales
Comments: We didn't realize how slow we were when communicating with customers and how important the speed of communication really is. We now have automations in place that don't let the conversation and engagement drop off.
Pros:
Our customers are benefitting as much as we are and it starts with the automated services. We can route inquiries to sales reps faster and continue conversations with customers instantaneously through dynamic messaging.
Cons:
We need to understand Sales Optimizer better. It may be a software solution that we don't necessarily fit with, but we still think this is something we can improve with, but right now its a slice of the pie that we struggle with.
Alternatives Considered:
Used as point solution with all the potential of an enterprise platform
Comments: The interaction with customers has improved a lot since we started using SharpSpring's marketing automation, we have a better vision of the various client profiles that we've interaction with, and we've been able to focus on every single one of them with a more mindful approach. The chatbot helped to get more leads because we discovered that visitors feel more open to sharing their lead information with a more dynamic tool than a form per example.
Pros:
It has a lot of features and they keep adding new ones. From only one platform I'm able to keep track of my client's websites, create the forms, and manage the submissions, leads can schedule meetings with specialists without having to wait (or to interact with another human being) and I can keep track of everything with the help of the Life of the Lead. The automations available are a big deal as well, everybody in the team is aware of their responsibilities and the platform helps them never forget to follow-up.
Cons:
The email builder could use some improvements, maybe something more intuitive, more templates, more flexibility while making changes. Also, de contact manager is still kinda coarse, should work more like a database and not only as a display, it could be more flexible. And allow to bulk-import contacts with no emails could be huge.
Alternatives Considered:
Economical and POWERFUL Marketing Automation Solution
Comments: SharpSpring is a great tool and I have been so pleased with the automation and resources I have at my fingertips. The have great new features coming out all the time and their customer service and team members are always so helpful and enjoyable to talk to.
Pros:
All the marketing automation is incredible and so easy to use. We have been using the chatbot feature and love it! It is easy to set up and we have it integrated with Slack to make the ability to manage it simple. The email automation and workflow automation makes me day to day job so easy as well. I can set up new prospects in my sales workflow and they get moved down my funnel with just automation. It saves me a ton of time.
Cons:
I love SharpSpring but the overall user interface is not the most beautifully designed one. However, I am getting so many features and resources for an incredible price that this is not a big issue at all. And it really isn't that bad.
Alternatives Considered:
A great software alternative to Marketo or Pardot
Comments: It's a great platform overall. Expect great customer support, but also plan for a lot of time setting up automation workflows and action groups. But the tool will do what you need it to do, and then some.
Pros:
The biggest plus is its affordability - all the features you need at a price that is accessible. It has all the core functions one needs in a marketing automation platform, with a powerful sales pipeline and lead management component that provides an exceptional, integrated experience. Added bonuses are chatbox and book-time features included in the price, and the ability to sync Outlook emails to a contact's record. Lead scoring
Cons:
The email editor can be a bit clunky and formatting copy and layouts can be finicky. The email previewer can be cumbersome. Visual workflows can be arduous to make
Alternatives Considered:
Great Value, Functionality, and Support
Comments: SharpSpring allowed us to enter the email marketing services market in a way that was easy and scalable. Their support is one of the best I've seen in a software company. We have enjoyed the relationship and appreciate the robust capabilities of the platform.
Pros:
We manage a wide range of clients using SharpSpring, and you can not beat the cost and functionality delivered in a mid-high level automation platform - one that continues to evolve and grow.
Cons:
We have really had no complaints with SharpSpring over the past 5 years we have been using it for ourselves and our clients.
Alternatives Considered:
We moved ourselves and our clients over from Hubspot
Comments: The support is always there for us if we need them, but any new feature is introduced with great support materials (how-to guides/videos etc) so the need for my team to refer to them is minimised. The pricing is great when you compare to others with similar functionality and they go from strength to strength.
Pros:
Originally it was transparency and pricing that made us move. But since then it's the fact that Sharpspring have continued to develop the platform with great new features (like the inbuilt CRM, Sales Automation and integrated Meeting booking functionality) many of which at no additional cost (unlike Hubspot) that means we continue to use and recommend Sharpspring over any other platform for our SMB clients.
Cons:
I would like SMS functionality to be built in as well as email (I appreciate it's not as big in the USA where Sharspring's biggest customer base is) but it's big here in the UK
Alternatives Considered:
Best ROI for Small Medium Sized Business
Comments: We are one of the earliest SharpSpring agencies and users. We selected SharpSpring for its price/performance for SMB companies. We have worked extensively with HubSpot, Marketo, Pardot and others - but for small businesses, it is hard to beat the full-stack solution and feature set in SharpSpring.
Pros:
Complete integrated tech stack for marketing and sales that includes the core functionality a business needs to execute full-funnel marketing and sales campaigns and manage the sales pipeline.
Cons:
SmartMail provides 1:1 direct IMAP email, but it would be nice if there was a sales-driven email automation feature for low volume 1:1 emails to prospects.
Alternatives Considered:
Sophisticated yet easy-to-use platform
Comments: I am using SharpSpring across my entire client bases to generate and nurture leads, manage website inquiries and analytics and monitor and post across social media channels.
Pros:
While the functionality is extremely powerful, SharpSpring itself is easy-to-use. Like any software, there is an initial training period where you have to get comfortable with the platform, but I found it pretty intuitive, especially after participating in the on-boarding training classes. The best thing about the software is the results it's generating for my clients. Our email marketing campaigns have been extraordinarily successful and the reporting functionality makes it easy to demonstrate these results to our clients.
Cons:
I've been very satisfied with the software and don't have any complaints. One wish-list item would be for SharpSpring to integrate with survey tools so I could seamlessly administer campaigns requesting customer feedback.
Alternatives Considered:
Functional Middle Market Software
Comments: Overall, I'm very happy with my expereince with SharpSpring. I think it is a functional tool that is easy to use and it feels good to have check lists and to do's that are easy to set up. I like using this software.
Pros:
I love using this software on a daily basis and using it to manage my leads. As a salesperson, it is challenging to find a CRM that actually works for you, not where you have to work for it. I like the ease of use with the kanban boards as well as the marketing automation for drip campaigns.
Cons:
The mobile app is inoperable and not relevant. Sometimes the search feature is challenging to use- sometimes you need to use the companies name, sometimes you have to use the contacts name. When working in the drip campaigns you have to be really specific about which dates you select.
Alternatives Considered:
Marketing Automation with World Class Customer Support Has Exceeded Our Expectations
Comments:
Transparency of our efforts all from a single source. We are now able to analyze all of our various marketing efforts without the need to learn reporting from various systems.
The SharpSpring platform helped us see which marketing efforts are working. We have quit wasting money on efforts that weren't working as well as we had originally thought and moved the budget to those that are providing the best ROI.
We have pinpointed bottlenecks in our company and implemented actions that resolved these issues which has increased our bottom-line as well as our own customer satisfaction.
Pros:
SharpSpring offered us a way to implement marketing automation at a price that our business could afford. The features are more than enough for us to compete with companies that are much larger than we are. So the pricing got us to commit, but since then their customer service has proved to be nothing short of spectacular. The onboarding was laid out for us step-by-step. We have a specialist that we talk to frequently that keeps us on task. When we did hit a snag, support stepped in to resolve it quickly and accurately. The video training shows click by click what to do and how to do it. An added value is a webinar series on implementation and use. The platform is modeled in a way that replicates our business model, so our employees found it logical and easy to implement their pieces of the big picture.
Cons:
It's been working well for us, so it's kinda hard to come up with a dislike, but if I had to pick something it would be the fact that the weekly webinars "SharpSpring at Work" just went from weekly to bi-weekly. The upside is that they are planning at making them more in-depth.
Alternatives Considered:
I love this CRM
Comments: I love that fact of being able to add buyer personas to the contact info and I love the personalization that is used on the Software. Oh and the templates that they provide are great and easy to use.
Pros:
I like that I can do everything in one location. Also, I love the fact that Sharpspring is always adjusting with new things adding the system. If the software does not do something that you want to do. They put in to start working on that method or idea.
Cons:
If you get a hard bounce you can not update that contact with the new info on your own - you have to deal with support and send them the list of changes to be done.
Great for an agency, but trying to get clients involved is next to impossible.
Comments: We joined the SS family mainly as a means of sending automated drip marketing emails on behalf of our clients, which it does well. We also like being able to see the life of every individual lead directly within the program. It lets us know where our strongest leads lie and where we need to do better. All in all, it gets the job done despite the interface headaches we frequently encounter.
Pros:
There are a lot of features. Almost too many, actually. I can't imagine a company that could possibly use all of them successfully. Regardless, it's nice to know the option is there if a situation arises in which a certain feature becomes useful. My favorite function/feature has to be the lead tracking system. I love being able to see every interaction each lead has with my client's business. The automated actions on top of that in response to customer interaction is the main reason we use the software. It makes drip email campaigns a breeze. I like that it tracks conversions as well (although you have to set it up to do so which isn't necessarily the easiest process ever). All in all, though, it does the job we need it to do.
Cons:
The SharpSpring system is VERY non-intuitive for non-marketers (and heck, even for marketers sometimes). There are just too many ways you can screw up and have to start an email, action, or workflow completely over again. We have several clients who we act as their entire marketing department for and trying to get their sales representatives to use the system the way it's intended is next to impossible. They just don't understand it or even it's purpose, even after we've done training after training after training with them. We've even had SS support do training directly with them, to no avail. I ended up creating my OWN versions of step-by-step tutorials for our clients just to make things easier to understand. The other major drawback is it's way too easy to get "blacklisted" (aka hit spamtraps and honeypots), which I realize is a problem with email marketing in general, but SS doesn't have enough safeguards in place for preventing this type of situation. We have one client who likes to import their email lists in from an on-site wifi sign-on system, which inevitably leads to poor list quality regardless of how many safeguards (email weed-out) parameters we put in place ourselves. Getting on SS's blacklist is pretty much the worst thing that can happen because you still have to pay for the service even though you can't use it until your un-blacklisted, which can take a while. Lastly, their email-design interface is terrible and trick to navigate.
Alternatives Considered:
The last review you need to read before you choose your CRM.
Comments: They help me understand where my leads are coming from, which campaign is been effective, with those leads are buying and how my commercial team is dealing with the leads and opportunities, and just by this month, we started to make our customer journey into the platform so we have also our CS on board.
Pros:
Looking all around the market, you will find sharpspring, with a slightly different business model that can make some eye turn but after you understand you will love it. The fact that you can buy directly from agencies that know the product and already know your objectives and product, is brilliant since no one will understand more your client than their selves and you that is emerging on his market, some platform forces you to buy their onboarding package that in the end, you don't leave with much. A platform with that many features on the begging can be a little overwhelming, but with time, you understand the reason for each feature. I use them for lead management, campaign, sales pipeline, and don't feel that i am using their potential 100% already
Cons:
the learning curve needed for the platform, all platform have their learning curve, but once you pass it, this service is awesome!
SharpSpring is YES for my company, e-Intelligence.in
Comments: I recommend to use the software as it: Provides customized reports and other features that fit your marketing needs Comes with powerful features of marketing automation with easy functionalities Offers cost-effective pricing plans Updates itself continuously Combines with most CRM, eliminating the concerns of the type of hosting platform Gives amalgamation of functions in one platform for delivering marketing results, lead conversions, and easy ROI measurement However, you need to spare some time to understand the software’s deliverables. But they offer free webinars to help you to understand the tool.
Pros:
SharpSpring is an automated marketing platform with features of third-party CRM integration, universal CMS compatibility, fully integrated call tracking, landing pages, blog builder and much more. It provides unlimited users for all plans, unlike its competitors. What it says vs. what it delivers: It says: It offers behavioral-based email automation with “after-the-click” tracking for personalized messaging. Yes, it delivers: With the feature, we were able to identify the cost of a lead. It also helped to decrease the unaddressed customer complaints It says: It offers in-depth analytics with statistics of clicks, bounces, and deliveries. It also enables to track the visitor’s conversions, the life cycle of a lead – from click to attending social events. No, it does not deliver: The reports and analytics are not in detail, though they provide the performance of campaigns. It misses the specifications on minute details of the strategy. It says: It offers customization in every feature such as customized conversion forms, buyer personalities, reports and much more. Yes, it delivers: My team at e-Intelligence were able to customize the tool for lead preferences, campaign performance, and email automation
Cons:
Nothing that I can think of! I suggest making the most of this tool for your marketing needs. You can overlook minor glitches as they are not affecting the tool’s performance to a large extent.
I am trying to recover 2k contacts lost in their CRM.
Comments: They are more interested in the revenue for the shareholders saying that the new function will bring more income, but that's a lie. Because not all agencies or business have access to those new features. So they increase the price to everyone and then show the increase in price as success of the new feature.
Pros:
The only reason to be on sharpspring is because the lower price compare to hubspot.
Cons:
The lack of support, they don't care your problems. 1.- On February 28, 2020 they erase 2,154 contacts from the CRM of one of my clients and they don't solve the problem, the only justification they have is that their system doesn't allow massive deletion of contacts. 2.- The price increment of 45% to their agencies because the new features only available in US, so all the other agencies have to pay more even if you are not allowed to get those features. 3.- The constant failure of the system, the automations fail. They are not fixing the bugs.
Constant Contact Response
3 years ago
Hi Manuel, Thanks for sharing your feedback with us. We've reached out to gather additional feedback and we hope to hear from you. We know our pricing is important to how partners generate revenue, and before the recent increase, SharpSpring hadn't raised prices since 2018. There was a 30-day notice before the price increase. We were sorry to hear the feedback on our CRM. We value working together with our partners on solutions when an issue arises. Our support team worked with you and discovered that you had duplicate contacts and you did not lose contacts. We hope to continue working closely with you to improve your experience with SharpSpring. If you'd be open to sharing any additional feedback please email us at [email protected].
