AWeber Review 2020: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly...
Is AWeber right for you?
AWeber was once regarded as the best marketing automation solution of the market. Since time has passed, new features have been developed, and new competitors have entered the market. How does AWeber stack up in this new era? Can AWeber still be regarded as one of the best tools?
It's time for an up-to-date AWeber review. We take you through all of the different features of AWeber, and how well this tool performs as a email marketing solution (also in comparison with other tools). Check out our detailed AWeber review below to see if this tool is right for you!
Our Review Score: 3.0/5
1) Email builder: 3.5/5
2) Email templates: 2.0/5
3) Form building: 3.0/5
4) Segmentation: 3.0/5
5) Automation: 2.0/5
6) Splittesting: 2.0/5
7) Integrations: 4.0/5
8) Reporting & tracking: 3.5/5
9) Support & Community: 4.0/5
10) Ease of use: 3.0/5
11) Value for money: 3.0/5
AWeber Review: Main Pro's and Con's
Main pro's
- Formerly a list based system, AWeber now uses a tag-based system
- Vast selection of form templates
- Great integrations with apps
- Very detailed reporting for broadcast emails
- Visual editor is simple and effective
- AWeber offers sales tracking
- List management is done well with AWeber
- We've gotten good support during our AWeber review . They also have a large community to connect with
Main con's
- Unsubscribed contacts still count for your monthly price
- AWeber's automations builder is a bit basic
- A/B testing capabilities are a bit basic as well. Difficult to set up and you can not split-test automations.
- Reporting & tracking features are a bit limited (especially on the automation side)
- Email templates look a bit out-dated
AWeber Review Rating Details
How does AWeber score as a Marketing Automation tool? After doing extensive research, using the the tool for our own Marketing purposes, and seeing how the tool stacks up against other tools, we have constructed this AWeber review feature table to give you a clear overview of the most important features. Every rating is accompanied by a small summary.
| Feature | Score | Review |
|---|---|---|
| Overall Score | (3.0/5) | AWeber has been around for a long time. It's not the most advanced product available, but it contains all features that you need for your basics. Mostly, it is easy to use. AWeber's reporting for broadcasts is on point and they offer some other cool features. |
1 – Email Builder | (3.5/5) | AWeber's visuals are a bit outdated, but all in all it's pretty effective in setting up emails. |
2 – Email Templates | (2.0/5) | AWeber has a vast selection of templates, but their designs are a bit outdated. For $29 you can have a template modified by the AWeber staff, and for $229 you can have your own design made. |
3 – Form Builder | (3.0/5) | A bit basic, but a large selection of form types. |
4 – List Management & Segmentation | (3.0/5) | The tagging options are a bit limited and outdated, but list management is nicely done. |
5 – Automation | (2.0/5) | It is fairly easy to use, but the features of setting up automations are limited. There are only two ways to set up an automation with AWeber. One is when somebody subscribes to a list, the other is when you apply a tag. You can not create triggers based on certain behaviour, like the purchasing of a product. |
6 – Splittesting | (2.0/5) | A/B-testing is possible, but a bit tricky. With AWeber, you can A/B-test broadcasts and subject lines but that's it. Testing content inside of emails seems to be possible but we could not figure out how to do it. And no automation splittesting, which is a big let down for such a tool. AWeber Split-testing capabilities are too basic if you ask us. |
7 – Integrations | (4.0/5) | AWeber integrates with basically every app (also Zapier integrations). |
8 – Reporting | (3.5/5) | Tracking and reporting, in general, is done well with AWeber, except for reporting of automations, which is limited. |
9 – Support & Community | (4.0/5) | There is no shortage of videos for using AWeber. If that's not enough, you can call them toll-free, as well as through a live chat (limited hours though). We had good support during our AWeber review. |
10 – Ease of use | (3.0/5) | In general this tool is not difficult to use, but some features are a bit outdated. |
11 – Value for money | (3.0/5) | AWeber used to be one of the most popular tools. But after our AWeber review we must conclude that AWeber has difficulties keeping up with other tools. The prices have stayed the same though. It is affordable for low numbers of contacts, but very expensive for large amounts. |
AWeber Pricing
Pricing is certainly an important aspect of this AWeber review. How much does it cost to use AWeber? Below you can find the prices based on the amount of contacts you need to manage.
We try to update the pricing as best we can in this AWeber review. However, the pricing as listed on this page might be differtent from the prices listed on the ESPs official site due to changes.
| 1.000 contacts | 10.000 contacts | 25.000 contacts | 50.000 contacts | 100.000 contacts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lite plan | Lite plan | Lite plan | Lite plan | Lite plan |
| $29/per month Free migration | $69/per month Free migration | $149/per month Free migration | $392/per month Free migration | $792/per month Free migration |
| Free 30 day trial | Free 30 day trial | Free 30 day trial | Free 30 day trial | Free 30 day trial |
See all AWeber's plans
We try to update the pricing as best we can in this AWeber review. However, the pricing as listed on this page might be differtent from the prices listed on the ESPs official site due to changes.
AWeber Features (Marketing & Sales)
We've compiled some of the most important marketing and sales features from this AWeber review in the table below. This is especially handy if you are a B2B organisation or an organisation with a sales team, because you might need features like a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system included in your platform. Check it out:
Want to see which Email Marketing Service scores best? Check out our top-to-bottom Best Email service provider ranking overview.
| ActiveCampaign | AWeber | Constant Contact | ConvertKit | Drip | GetResponse | Mailchimp | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing Features | |||||||
| Native Conversion tracking | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🔴 |
| Web activity tracking | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 |
| Splittesting Campaigns | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 |
| Splittesting Automations | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 |
| Dynamic Personalized Content | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 |
| Multichannel Attribution | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 |
| Site Messaging | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 |
| Facebook Integrations | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 |
| SMS Integrations | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🔴 |
| Webinar integrations | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🟢 |
| Native Landingpage builder | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🟢 | 🟢 |
| Native Shopping Cart | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 |
| Sales & CRM Features | |||||||
| Leadscoring | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🔴 |
| Native CRM System | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🟢 | 🔴 |
| Task Management | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 |
| Realtime Sales alerts | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🟢 | 🔴 |
| Gmail integration | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🔴 |
| Mobile App CRM | 🟢 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 |
| Create quotes & invoices | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 | 🔴 |
Who is AWeber right for? It's great when...
#1 You are looking for an automation tool for sales tracking
You need sales tracking. The reporting and tracking of AWeber is pretty solid. Most tools don't offer sales tracking, but AWeber allows this through their automation features.
#2 You have basic needs and need a user friendly tool that organizes your lists in a convenient way.
With AWeber you can easily create certain rules to automatically manage your subscribers.
See also: Sales funnels | Book funnels | Challenge funnels | Ecommerce funnels | High ticket sales funnels | Lead funnels
#3 You are a beginner and in need of a lot of support.
AWeber offers good support for their starting users, like articles, videos and podcasts.
It's not so great when...
#1 You need to set up more advanced automations
AWeber is very basic when it comes to setting up automations. There are only two ways to set up an automation with AWeber. One is when somebody subscribes to a list, the other is when you apply a tag. You can not create triggers based on certain behaviour, like the purchasing of a product.
#2 You are on a tight budget and you need to manage a large amount of contacts
When you use AWeber, and you need to manage more than 50,000 contacts, AWeber is expensive.
Checkout AWeber here.
AWeber Alternatives
Although AWeber used to be one of the most popular Marketing Automation tools out there, there are now some users who feel that AWeber is inadequate. And after our AWeber review, we believe there are definitely better options out there for you. For this reason, we have provided three alternative tools we believe can be good alternatives if AWeber is too limited for your specific marketing needs, accompanied by a list of cool alternative features of each tool.
Alternative #1: ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is a very effective tool that just offers more in terms of setting up automations and setting up A/B-tests. Here are some other advantages of using ActiveCampaign over AWeber:
- With ActiveCampaign you have the best options when it comes to tagging and segmentation
- With ActiveCampaign you have the possibility setting up automations fast with a better visual workflow builder and more options.
- With ActiveCampaign you have access to the best A/B-testing of all tools available.
- ActiveCampaign offers a nice visual form builder.
- With ActiveCampaign you have access to better looking templates and a better user interface.
- ActiveCampaign also offers goal tracking, which means you can track conversions within ActiveCampaign.
Read ActiveCampaign vs AWeber
Read Full ActiveCampaign Review
Alternative #2: GetResonse
If you are looking for a good alternative for AWeber, then GetResponse may be a good option. It's a tool with a great tagging and segmentation system. Here are some advantages of using GetResponse over AWeber:
- Setting up forms with GetResponse is done conveniently with their form builder.
- GetResponse makes use of a drag and drop editor with which you can undo/redo actions with a revision history.
- With GetResponse, you can spam-test your emails.
- GetResponse has better tracking and reporting
- GetResponse has ROI tracking
Alternative #3: Drip
Drip is a good tool with some outstanding features. We would especially recommend this tool for people working in ecommerce and people who know some javascript. Here are some advantages of using Drip over AWeber:
- Drip is the best tool when it comes to segmentation features.
- Drip exceeds AWeber's tracking & reporting features.
- Drip is specialized in ecommerce features.
- Drip has more different form types
- With Drip, you have more options of customizing the visibility and the behavior associated of your forms
Read Drip vs AWeber
Read Full Drip Review
Conclusion
AWeber is a tool that used to be one of the most popular ones on the market. Although we feel that it wasn't able to keep up with the competition, we still regard as a a good tool if you are a beginner or don;t have advanced needs. It contains most of the basic features you'd want to use with a marketing automation tool. Also, it offers some cool features, like the ability to set up free webinars.
AWeber User Reviews
Please leave your own AWeber review below. We are always looking for users to give their two cents on this software.
1) What you like about this software?
2) What you dislike about this software?
3) Who would you recommend it to? Who is it best for?
4) How did this software contribute to your business?
Be the first to leave a review.