Apptivo vs Keap (formerly Infusionsoft): The Best CRM Tool for You

In the quest for the perfect CRM, it feels a bit like finding that one puzzle piece that perfectly slots into your complex business picture. On one side, we have Apptivo, a versatile platform known for its adaptability across various business sizes and industries. On the other, there’s Keap (formerly known as Infusionsoft), which has carved out its niche by focusing on small businesses with a need for strong sales and marketing automation. But which one is the right piece for your puzzle? Let’s strip away the tech jargon and dive into a straightforward chat about what these tools do, how they do it, and most importantly, how they can make your life easier.

Apptivo	Keap

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Customization and Flexibility

When it comes to running a business, the ability to tailor your tools to fit your unique needs isn’t just nice to have—it’s essential. Both Apptivo and Keap offer customization options, but they approach flexibility in different ways. Let’s see how they stack up.

Apptivo: A Chameleon in the CRM World

Imagine a chameleon, seamlessly adapting to its environment. That’s Apptivo in the CRM landscape. It prides itself on being highly customizable, making it a strong contender for businesses that have specific needs or those that scale quickly. With Apptivo, you can tweak and turn its features to mirror exactly how your team works, whether it’s sales, marketing, customer support, or any combination thereof.

Apptivo’s customization extends to its wide array of apps within its ecosystem. From project management to invoicing and supply chain management, you can choose which apps to activate based on your current needs, and adjust as those needs change. This modular approach ensures you’re not paying for what you don’t use and keeps the platform nimble and adaptable to your business’s growth.

Keap: Streamlining the Path for Small Businesses

Keap, on the other hand, takes a slightly different approach. Its strength lies in its sales and marketing automation features, designed with small businesses in mind. Keap helps you streamline your processes, with a focus on converting leads, managing customer relationships, and automating repetitive tasks. It might not offer the same level of customization as Apptivo, but it compensates with powerful automation tools that can significantly reduce manual workloads.

One of Keap’s most touted features is its campaign builder, which allows you to visually map out and automate your sales and marketing workflows. This can be a game-changer for small businesses looking to grow their customer base without exponentially growing their workload. Keap makes it easy to set up complex sequences that nurture leads, follow up on sales, and maintain engagement, all tailored to specific triggers and behaviors.

Pricing

Continuing our exploration into the pricing structures of Apptivo and Keap can offer additional insights into which CRM might offer the best value for your specific business needs. Let’s delve deeper into the pricing strategies of both platforms, focusing on the nuances that could influence your decision.

Apptivo: Scalability Meets Affordability

Apptivo’s pricing is designed to accommodate businesses of all sizes, from solopreneurs just getting off the ground to large enterprises managing complex sales processes. With a tiered pricing model, Apptivo ensures that businesses can start with the basics and scale up as their needs grow. Apptivo’s Starter plan is free and supports up to three users, making it an attractive option for very small businesses or those still evaluating their CRM needs. It includes basic CRM functionalities, which can be a great way to get acquainted with what Apptivo has to offer.

As businesses grow, Apptivo’s Premium plans offer more advanced features, including project management, invoicing, and increased customization. These plans are priced per user, ensuring that businesses only pay for what they need. The pricing is transparent, with each tier offering additional features and capabilities. For businesses looking for the full suite of Apptivo’s capabilities, the Ultimate and Enterprise plans provide extensive customization options, advanced integrations, and dedicated support. These plans are suited for larger teams or businesses with complex CRM needs.

Keap: Focused Pricing for Targeted Needs

Keap’s pricing structure is tailored to small businesses looking for powerful sales and marketing automation tools integrated with their CRM. Unlike Apptivo, Keap does not offer a free tier, reflecting its focus on providing comprehensive solutions that drive value from the start. Keap’s plans are structured to cater to different stages of business growth, from startups looking to automate their sales processes to more established businesses aiming to optimize their sales and marketing efforts. Each plan builds on the last, adding more advanced features and capabilities.

One of the unique aspects of Keap’s pricing is the inclusion of bundled services, such as expert coaching and onboarding assistance. These services are designed to help businesses get the most out of their CRM investment by ensuring they are set up for success from day one. Keap also offers the flexibility to add features and services beyond what’s included in the standard plans. This allows businesses to tailor their CRM solution to their specific needs without moving to a higher tier unnecessarily.

Keap’s pricing reflects its emphasis on providing targeted solutions that help small businesses grow through improved sales and marketing efficiency. The bundled services and customizable add-ons ensure that businesses can align their CRM investment closely with their operational needs and goals.

Integration Capabilities: Expanding Your CRM’s Reach

In a digital ecosystem where your CRM is the heart, the ability to integrate with other applications is the lifeblood that keeps your business operations running smoothly. Integration capabilities determine how well your CRM can communicate with other tools, automate processes, and ultimately, save you time and resources. Let’s compare how Apptivo and Keap handle integrations to enhance your business workflow.

Apptivo: The Versatile Integrator

Apptivo prides itself on its ability to play nice with a wide array of other software. From email marketing platforms and social media tools to accounting software and customer support applications, Apptivo’s integration capabilities are designed to ensure that your CRM system can connect seamlessly with the tools your business relies on.

One of Apptivo’s strengths is its integration with productivity tools such as Google Workspace and Microsoft Office 365, making it easier for your team to collaborate, share data, and stay on the same page. Additionally, Apptivo offers integrations with payment gateways, project management tools, and even custom APIs, enabling a tailored approach to fitting into your existing business ecosystem.

Keap: The Automated Marketing Powerhouse

Keap’s approach to integration focuses heavily on automating your sales and marketing processes. It offers deep integrations with e-commerce platforms, email marketing services, and lead capture tools. Keap shines in its ability to automate follow-ups, manage sales pipelines, and create personalized customer journeys through its integrations.

Beyond marketing, Keap integrates with a range of payment processors and accounting software, streamlining the process from lead capture to payment and follow-up. Its marketplace is filled with add-ons and plugins that extend its functionality, allowing businesses to connect Keap with other tools they use, enhancing its role as a central hub for customer-related activities.

Customer Support and Education: Ensuring You’re Never Left Stranded

A robust CRM tool can transform your business operations, but what happens when you hit a snag or want to learn more about leveraging its full potential? That’s where customer support and educational resources come into play. A responsive support team and comprehensive educational materials can significantly enhance your CRM experience. Let’s evaluate how Apptivo and Keap support their users beyond the software interface.

Apptivo: Comprehensive Support for Every User

Apptivo believes that support should be accessible to every customer, regardless of their plan. From the get-go, users can access 24/7 support through email and live chat, ensuring that help is always just a message away. For more complex issues or setup assistance, phone support is also available, offering a more personalized touch to problem-solving.

Beyond direct support, Apptivo provides an extensive knowledge base filled with articles, tutorials, and FAQs designed to help users self-serve a wide range of questions and issues. For those looking to deepen their understanding of Apptivo’s capabilities, webinars and training sessions are regularly offered, covering both basic and advanced topics.

Keap: Tailored Support and Learning

Keap takes a slightly different approach, emphasizing personalized support and onboarding processes, especially for new users. This begins with a dedicated onboarding sequence that guides new customers through setting up and optimizing their CRM, ensuring they can hit the ground running.

In addition to onboarding, Keap offers phone and chat support, with the responsiveness and depth of assistance varying depending on the plan chosen. Their knowledge base, while robust, is complemented by a community forum where users can share insights, ask questions, and learn from each other’s experiences.

Keap also invests in user education through its Keap Academy, a resource center filled with courses, webinars, and tutorials designed to help businesses maximize their CRM investment. This focus on education is a testament to Keap’s commitment to not just sell a product but to partner in its customers’ business growth.

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Data Security and Compliance: Safeguarding Your Business’s Lifeline

The integrity and confidentiality of customer data are not just about maintaining customer trust but are also crucial for complying with increasingly stringent data protection laws worldwide. Here’s how Apptivo and Keap address these concerns.

Apptivo: Fortifying Your Data

Apptivo takes data security seriously, implementing robust security measures to protect your data from unauthorized access and breaches. This includes using industry-standard encryption protocols for data in transit and at rest, ensuring that your information remains secure whether it’s being transmitted or stored on their servers.

Moreover, Apptivo is transparent about its compliance with global data protection regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe, providing users with the tools and processes necessary to comply with these laws. This commitment to data security and regulatory compliance makes Apptivo a reliable choice for businesses operating in regions with strict data protection laws.

Keap: A Trusted Custodian of Your Data

Keap also places a high emphasis on data security and compliance. Recognizing the sensitivity of the sales and marketing data it manages, Keap employs a comprehensive set of security measures, including encryption, secure data centers, and regular security assessments, to ensure that customer data is always protected.

Keap’s adherence to data protection regulations and its proactive approach to ensuring its platform is compliant with laws like GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) mean businesses can use the CRM with confidence, knowing their data handling practices are up to par with legal standards.

Conclusion

In the world of CRM solutions, choosing between Apptivo and Keap involves more than just comparing lists of features or pricing tables. It’s about identifying which platform aligns best with your business’s unique processes, growth trajectory, and the specific challenges you face in managing customer relationships. Apptivo offers a broad, customizable suite of applications that can serve a wide range of business sizes and types. Its strength lies in its adaptability, allowing for deep customization and integration with a variety of third-party applications. Keap, on the other hand, shines with its focus on automating sales and marketing processes for small to medium-sized businesses. Its streamlined approach is designed to help businesses nurture leads, manage customer relationships, and automate repetitive tasks efficiently.

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