All the people that work online know and appreciate the importance of the autoresponders in every day job. As an online marketer, the autoresponders help me follow up my clients and prospects through email.
The Aweber Vs iContact challenge is not very easy to determine the winner. Is use both of them and I can tell you that they are all good. The iContact however seems to have an edge over Aweber in that it is capable of importing the leads without the need or requirement of confirmation.
Which is your winner in the Aweber Vs iContact challenge? To answer this you need to know more about the pros and cons of each of these autoresponders.
The Aweber Vs iContact challenge; in terms of PRICING, there is no clear winner
Most people rely on only the pricing factor to determine the winner of Aweber Vs iContact but I would suggest that you also consider the other factors because they are also important. The pricing structures and plans of these two autoresponders are slightly different. I will however try to offer the best possible comparison so that you can make the best choice.
The Aweber pricing plan chart
Number of subscribers on your mailing list |
The price per month |
0 to 500 |
$19 |
501 to 2,500 |
$29 |
2,501 to 5,000 |
$49 |
5,001 to 10,000 |
$69 |
10, 001 to 25,000 |
$149 |
The iContact pricing plan chart
Number of subscribers on your mailing list |
The price per month |
0 to 500 |
$10 |
500 to 1,000 |
$19 |
1,001 to 2,500 |
$29 |
2,501 to5, 000 |
$47 |
5, 001 to 10,000 |
$74 |
10,001 to 15,000 |
$109 |
15,001 to 25,000 |
$149 |
25,001 to 35,000 |
$239 |
35,001 to 50,000 |
$379 |
50,001 to 75,000 |
$529 |
75,001 to 10,000 |
$629 |
Based on the above two tables, there is no clear winner of the Aweber Vs iContact challenge. This is so because iContact offers more options that Aweber. In terms of the overall pricing, it seems that Aweber is slightly cheaper than the iContact. In most intervals, the prices are very close or the same. If it was an Aweber Vs iContact football game, the best we can give here is a draw of 0-0 or 1-1.
The Aweber Vs iContact challenge; in terms of TRIAL, iContact has clear win
Because pricing does not give us the winner of Aweber Vs iContact we have to consider the trial periods offered by each of these autoresponders. The trial period will allow you to use and test the working and operation of each autoresponder before you make the decision to purchase.
The iContact trial: iContact offers free trial for period of 15 days. You are not required to produce your credit card so as to sign up for this free trial. During the period of trial, iContact allows you to send 500 messages to about 250 subscribers on your list.
The Aweber trial: Aweber does not offer trial in the strict sense of the word. It allows you to test the system after paying $1 for one month. This means you have to provide your credit card details. At the end of that one month you have to pay $ 19 for the following month if you intend to use the Aweber autoresponder service. During this trial period you can send as many as massages as you want to 500 subscribers.
The Aweber Vs iContact challenge; in terms of SUPPORT
I can't say for either of them as I haven't has much issues with either. I had 2 support questions for aweber and they were both resolved very quickly.
1) are unsubscribe leads counting against my total lead count? the answer was yes
2) since the unsubscribes count against my total can I remove them? Support did a purge and removed all of my unsubscribes from my multiple lists very quickly.
The Aweber Vs iContact challenge; in terms of DELIVERABILITY
Generally this is a subjective term but one you can only get from listening to a lot of users and what their opinions are. I can't say if one is better than the other but the main reason I went with Aweber for so long is that most internet marketers tend to agree that aweber is a more established autoresponder in terms of what we use daily and deliverability is 2nd to none. Now how much better? Now, that's hard to say but I've never had issues with either.
Aweber vs iContact Winner = Aweber
When I first started out in internet marketing back in 2009 I started with iContact. It has changed over the years but still kinda stays true to it's style. The main reason I went with icontact was due to initial price. Later on I started to notice as I grew that the price would be better down the road with Aweber.
I was projecting out when I was going to hit my 10,000th lead and I wanted to shift to a more cost efficient pricing plan and started to look into Aweber a bit more. Then the marketing systems I was working with a the time seemed to all work with aweber out of the box. So in the end after many years I have played with both but have stayed with Aweber. So out of the aweber vs icontact battle I would go with Aweber.
But on a personal note…. I actually use both. I am as of Oct 2011 been using iContact for my buyer's list if that makes a difference. Here is a free trial to iContact if you want to use it.
6 Comments
spooon · February 25, 2014 at 10:35 am
@Michaela Kennedy yeah… just depends on your integration needs
Michaela Kennedy · January 11, 2013 at 5:28 am
Thank you, Lawrence, for this article. I’ve been wasting time comparing, and you have come to the same conclusions I have. Also, marketing software developers these days are integrating their email services with programs for easy use. If you want to use, for example, a Futuristic Marketing template, you can simply add your aWeber code. But if you want to use iContact, you need a developer to do the API integration. The opposite is true for Contest Burner software. Finding out what your favorite software developers use may help marketers like me make a decision. Cheers!
Jack Kapala · February 14, 2012 at 2:18 pm
Good article LT. I have found all the autoresponsers to have their strengths and weaknesses. I think the most important thing is to pick one and learn to use it well.
Gene · February 6, 2012 at 9:45 am
LT, Thanks for the article. I have my personal contacts list from outlook and gmail. I also have personal offline business list. What is best system to use with large lists? Thanks!
Lawrence Tam · February 9, 2012 at 7:31 pm
if your moving from one list you have personally to something like an autoresponder like icontact can let you import without a double opt in
Shawn Johnson · January 5, 2012 at 2:17 pm
I personally use Aweber myself because of the simplicity of it. As far as the pricing I think its reasonable because if you doing anything where you are collecting subscribers or buyers you need some type of communication software to keep the lines of communication open and consistent.
Hands down Aweber wins in my book and to be honest, I have not even looked in the IContact direction but I may at a later date based on some of the pros and cons you listed when comparing it to Aweber.
Thanks Tam!