AWeber vs GetResponse – Comparison

This AWeber vs GetResponse side-by-side comparison is the 4^th part of a 4-part series on Email Autoresponders:

1. Email Autoresponder vs Email Newsletter
2. Best Autoresponder for me?
3. AWeber Review – Sadly Switching
4. AWeber vs GetResponse – Comparison (you are here)

In my previous post “AWeber Review – Sadly Switching“, I promised you a mini-comparison on AWeber vs GetResponse.  You normally will not get to see images of these interfaces till you have joined either one or both of these systems.  So this pictorial mini-comparison should be of immediate help.

(For more detailed information and review, I refer you to the Reference section at the bottom of the page.)

AWeber vs GetResponse

Affordability and Reliability
As far as affordability and reliability go, both AWeber and GetResponse are pretty much on par.  GetResponse is a tat cheaper than AWeber (e.g. AWeber charges US$19 mo. for up to 500 subscribers; GetResponse charges US$15 mo. for up to 1,000 subscribers). Both are on a sliding scale – the more subscribers you have, the more expensive it gets.

(Check Reference section below for links to their pricing pages.)

But as I indicated in my previous posts, it was mainly the non-friendly user interfaces and the lack of ease of use from AWeber that determined my switch away from them. Both are pretty important especially to a time-conscious person and/or a newbie.

So in this AWeber vs GetResponse mini-comparison, I will show you some screen captures that will be pretty much self-explanatory.

Start Up Screens

By startup Screens, I mean the screens that you as a user would most likely see as part of the first steps in using your autoresponder system.

As you can already see at a glance, GetResponse’s screen already looks much easier, clearer, and more user-friendly.

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Adding and/or Importing Contacts

Both AWeber and GetResponse allow you to manually add and import contacts.

Adding Contacts is much easier with GetResponse

But GetResponse’s is better. Here’s why:

Say you are switching from one autoresponder system to another.  For example, in my first few days (when I didn’t know better and had not come across either AWeber nor GetResponse), I used the sign-up form from the plugin “Jetpack for WordPress” as a way to allow people to sign-up for updates.

Then when I started with AWeber, while it allowed me to add/import my existing subscriber contact details, it also required another double opt-in for those subscribers.  (That is almost going to guarantee a loss of subscribers.  Most busy people will miss the email or won’t manually opt-in again to what seems like an ineffective blog.)

SideNote: Double opt-in just ensures that a subscriber gets a chance to minimize their spam because when they sign-up at a site, an automated email is immediately sent to their email address to confirm that they actually do want to subscribe – hence, a “double opt-in”.

As you can imagine, while AWeber’s requirement that another double opt-in email is sent to your (imported) subscribers is prudent, it is not always good for you.   And AWeber gives you no choice in this matter.

GetResponse on the other hand does allow you to import your subscriber contact list and choose not to bother your subscribers with yet another opt-in email.

Important Note: Of course, it goes without saying that you must exercise your own integrity and not abuse this choice.  You do not want be adding people’s names and emails into your subscriber contact list without permission. Not only might it get you blacklisted and marked as spam, but it is just downright annoying to the people and will tar your reputation.

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Terminology

Terminology can be the difference between Confusion or Progress

One of the most common things that you might want your autoresponder system to do is to automate what you post(s) into an Email Newsletter for your subscribers.

This means that, without having to do more manual work, your new posts will be automatically sent to your subscribers in an email.

The usual method is:

1. you know your RSS feed (e.g. a self-hosted WordPress blog on your own domain would most likely be www.yourdomain.com/feed/)
2. your do your normal blog posts
3. your autoresponder automatically picks up your posts (via your RSS feed) and sends it out to your subscribers
4. your subscribers automatically get updated of your new postings

There are options, tweaks, and configurations within that, but that’s basically it.

I am going to assume that you already have set up an RSS Feed. Now to figure out how to set up that RSS-to-Email automation.

If autoresponder systems have clear terminology, it would make it much easier for you. Especially if you are a newbie lost in a world of new terminology and concepts.

Here we are looking into how to automate your RSS feed into an automated Email Newsletter, right?

As you can see from the comparison screenshots, the terminology used can make a lot of difference between being able to find what you need straightaway or having to hunt around trying to understand what is going on.

GetResponse’s terminology here is much clearer; much better.

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Visual Editor

Here I am showing  AWeber vs GetResponse Visual Editors.  As you can clearly see, the GetResponse visual editor looks much more user friendly.  It actually pulls one of your actual (RSS) posts as a working example.  Meanwhile, the AWeber visual editor shows the much less user-friendly RSS-variable fields.

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Preview Screens

AWeber provides a very poor online preview.

In fact, it is quite useless.  It looks exactly the same as their “Design” view!

AWeber does provide another way for you to preview what your newsletter might look like: send a test email to yourself.  However it is not very efficient.

1. Sending an email to yourself is not always instantaneous.  So you might have to check and wait for a while.
2. I tried sending the test email to myself multiple times. I stopped receiving after 2 test emails.  Even when I sent the test email to different email addresses, the maximum number of times I could receive a test email to evaluate changes was 2.

Getting just 2 preview samples is just not good enough for any designer.  As anyone well knows, tweaking a design involves continuous changes which is best accomplished when one can view results as changes are made.

GetResponse’s Preview Screen Totally Rocks!

In comparison, GetResponse’s online preview rocks!  You not only get to see what (an actual sample of) your newsletter might look like, but GetResponse will show you what it looks like across a number of different devices!

To the right here you can see a screenshot of the multiple previews.  And this is only a portion of the number of multiple devices on which your preview can be viewed!

Note: it might take a while for all the previews to render.

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My Conclusion: AWeber vs GetResponse

Actually there are even more GetResponse features that swayed me (and others) to switch from AWeber to GetResponse. But I think these examples are sufficient to illustrate my point.

(Please refer to the Reference section to find out even more of these features.)

You may also want to watch the following video (which is aimed towards the more advanced email marketer but will also benefit any newbie).

The video is by Chris L Davis from chrisdavis.com

Anyway, those are all part of the reasons that convinced me to move from AWeber to GetResponse. If AWeber had the same user-friendly features and therefore, was not so confusing and frustrating to use, AWeber could have won the race.

Next: Look out for GetResponse Tutorials for Newbies

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Next: GetResponse Tutorials for Newbies

Now that I have done our little AWeber vs GetResponse comparison,  I am sure there will be a How-To GetResponse tutorial (series) out of me. That is normally what I feel compelled to do: document the How Tos, step-by-step.

I will aim it towards helping newbies and/or infrequent users who need reminders of the required early steps.

See you then!

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