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About Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)
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- Industry: Marketing & Advertising
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
SharpSpring Marketing Automation
SharpSpring has a very quick implementation process and is very easy to learn. Within the first 30 days of having SharpSpring we already ran 2 separate email campaigns for 2 separate clients. Their representatives check in with us frequently so we never feel like we're on our own. Our next challenge will be selling SharpSpring to prospects/clients.
Pros
The amazing customer support that is offered. Anytime I have a question I can either look it up myself in their library of resources with tutorials and instructional videos, or I can call their partner support line and speak to a real person who even follows up after the call to make sure all of the needs were met.
Cons
I wish you could edit Life of Lead to be able to put custom events in there. We uploaded a prospect database we had been tracking since 2017 and it had every time we touched a prospect. Unfortunately, once we uploaded this list into SharpSpring we were not able to edit their Life of Lead prior to the upload date. While this is barely an issue, it would be nice to see how long we have been tracking some of these prospects to give us a better prediction at how many touches it takes for a prospect to convert to a customer.
Alternatives Considered
Lead ForensicsReasons for Switching to Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)
SharpSpring seemed like the best deal on the market by far. For only a few hundred dollars a month we were able to start using our first marketing automation/CRM software. With SharpSpring you are able to cut off using other services, so we are actually paying less than we did before, but getting so much more in return!
- Industry: Marketing & Advertising
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
A powerful platform, but still has a long way to go
We use Sharpspring for email automation, marketing automation, lead tracking, reporting, as a CRM, and as a sales tool. It allows us to track contact interactions from first touchpoint through sale. It has been a huge help.
Pros
My favorite thing about Sharpspring is the ability to track and analyze the entire life of a lead, from start to finish. It allows us to optimize our funnels and nurture prospects from interest to sale. It is a really powerful tool and offers (almost) everything you need for marketing automation from automated workflows to landing pages and forms to email design. I also love their lead scoring.
Cons
Though it offers a lot of features, it's not all that usable compared to similar products. There are countless small usability issues. Landing pages are pretty difficult to create. Support is usually great – but can at times be entirely unhelpful. Automation has some key features other tools allow. Overall, there are just a lot of features that still need to be added in order to really compete.
Reasons for Choosing Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)
Price was the primary reason.Switched From
HubSpot Marketing HubReasons for Switching to Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)
We really needed a robust CRM for longer B2B buying cycles. Though all other tools were awesome, Sharpspring won out there.- Industry: Logistics & Supply Chain
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Review
Started out fine until we realized that all the report data within SharpSpring was false. We understand that data accountability is an issue in the marketing automation industry as a whole, but SharpSpring is especially terrible at this. The fact that upper management in IT recognizes that email report data is different between what's in SharpSpring email reports, what's in SharpSpring Life Of The Lead, and what's in the exported email report excel list and subsequently admits that none of it is entirely correct is beyond me. The software is meant to provide genuinely insightful feedback to track user activity and potential conversions, however, the development team.
Pros
Marketing automation features are very helpful.
Cons
- There is no escalation process for customer support requests that are above a customer support reps expertise
- Email report data is BS and one of the heads of IT at SharpSpring admitted it. The report data within SS differs from the data exported; the excel file has duplicate headline titles with different meanings/data; email data is shit - we sent test emails internally and didn't open them and it shows we opened them 3 times in SS and 4 times in the exported report
- Life of the Lead is the most valuable data within SS and yet you cannot automate based on any of it
- Life Of The Lead duplicates email "opens" and "clicks" based on how many people are in the chain, giving a false view of engagement from customers
- Email clicks are a load of BS - it shows that emails were opened and every link clicked within 10 seconds of sending because of spam bots/filters. SharpSpring doesn't filter this data out, so we can't tell the difference between what's real and what's not. "Can't we export the excel sheet and do that filtering ourselves?" Nope - as stated before, one of the head IT guys at SharpSpring validated our concerns that the excel email report is indeed, shit data. None of it is usable
- Rather than creating a backlog of needed updates and releasing them as a batch update on non-business-hours, SharpSpring product development teams push updates during work hours, breaking crucial functionality for 3+ hours/week, leaving our sales staff twiddling thumbs and complaining.
Response from Constant Contact
Chris, we're so sorry to hear about the experience and issues you've had with SharpSpring. We thoroughly appreciate that you have expressed specific concerns and hopefully we have the opportunity to regain your trust. I know the team is actively looking into these issues, but if there's anything additional we can do in the meantime, please feel free to reach out to us at [email protected].
Top Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring) Alternatives

- Industry: Computer Software
- Company size: 201–500 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
A better option to Hubspot and other Marketing Automation solutions
We like the platform as we can track online and email interactions with prospects, customers and partners. This helps us with qualifying lead generation and tracking the stickiness of campaigns. The training of SharpSpring was challenging but we were able to muddle through and figure out a lot of stuff on our own. Customer support has also been great when they are able to help with issues that may arise.
Pros
We like the fact it is much cheaper in cost as compared to HubSpot and other marketing automation platforms. The ease of using the platform has made it easy to early adoption of the end users and we are able to fully track our MQL and ROI.
Cons
SharpSpring has an extremely high demand on email accuracy rate of 98% so quite often we get suspended due to bounced back emails. Sometimes it is difficult to have an almost 100% list when people leave companies. We have as a solution, pay for 3rd party email checker services,to help mitigate this and we also send a larger portion of emails though mailchimp.
Reasons for Choosing Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)
We wanted to have a solution that could do more analytics and tracking on engagement. SharpSpring was able to do this.Reasons for Switching to Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)
cost, no locked in contract, larger user base capability and ease of use
- Industry: Marketing & Advertising
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Sharpspring the most complete marketing automation software you can get in this price range!
We use this software for the "marketing automation" catch leads and convert them to customers (for us but also our custumers). I have been using other tools and they tend to be FAR to big and overwhelming.
So my experience is that i can easy train others to use SharpSpring and let marketing and sales work together in the tool and with the tool.
Pros
- Price
- Easy of use
- Easy to implement and learn
- Fast support
- Active community and many updates
- Possible to have skype calls and team sessions with SharpSpring to spar.
Cons
- The Social Media part in the software is not optimal, we still use other software next to it.
- CRM feature is small, great for small companies, but bigger ones can come short.
Reasons for Switching to Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)
After running the demo of each software, the price, easy of use, and SharpSpring had a better fit with our type of costumers.
- Industry: Marketing & Advertising
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Amazing Enterprise-level Marketing Automation + Integrated CRM Platform
SharpSpring has saved us time and money by bringing together everything we need internally, as well as the needs of our clients, into one platform. Having the ability to dedicate time to only leads that truly show an interest in working with us, as well as, to see that interest with the click of a button is amazing.
Pros
SharpSpring is a game-changer! Getting an all-in-one platform that allows us to go from capturing lead information and behavior all the way through to identifying qualified leads through marketing campaigns is amazing. Having one place for marketing emails, landing pages, social media, blogging, meetings, video chats, and more is almost unheard of. Match that with a really robust CRM that tracks leads, beautifully outlines the life of a lead, and allows you to easily manage the sales pipeline and one-on-one engagements with pre-qualified leads with lead scoring is amazing.
Cons
Seriously, there isn't much negative to say about this platform. The onboarding was amazing, the self-guided trainings were awesome, it's a great platform. The only downside is it's not as "pretty" as some platform, but hey, I'd rather have a functioning product helping me make more money and something pretty to look at.

- Industry: Marketing & Advertising
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Perfect for Digital Marketing Agencies
There was a fairly steep learning curve to use SharpSpring, even though I'd used HubSpot and other marketing automation platforms in the past. I think this seems expected for a lower cost solution, though. Once we got comfortable with it, though, it's been very quick and easy to build out all the assets and start our campaigns. It's worked beautifully for our own marketing and for clients. It's easy to build emails and customize them to match your client's brand.
Pros
What I like most about SharpSpring is how much you get for the money. It packs every feature you'd expect from the expensive marketing automation platforms but doesn't throw exorbitant costs on those features. I also like the ease of integration with other platforms.
Cons
I highly dislike the recent shift in having clients pay for their own accounts with separate billing. We were sold this platform as one we could completely white-label for clients, but now we are required to put a client CC on file.
Alternatives Considered
HubSpot Marketing HubReasons for Switching to Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)
We chose SharpSpring solely because it was cheaper than HubSpot.
- Industry: Information Technology & Services
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Great Product, Outstanding Service
Pros
SharpSpring provides all necessary features for successful marketing automation while being affordable.
Cons
The Visitor ID system is not working outside of the US. I am based in Europe.
Switched From
CopperReasons for Switching to Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)
SharpSpring has all the important features and is much more affordable.
- Industry: Financial Services
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Weekly for 1+ year
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Review Source
Amazing features for the price you pay
I've had a wonderful experience using this platform, from the ease of implementing to the plethora of workflows you can create. It really is created as the best in class marketing automation.
Pros
I really like that they are constantly innovating, adding new features and functionalities. I also think that having great support, right here in the U.S. is one of the most important things they offer.
Cons
Currently, their data is not easily integrated with my reporting tool TapClicks.
Alternatives Considered
FreshmarketerReasons for Choosing Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)
insufficient features, no integration with CRMSwitched From
MailchimpReasons for Switching to Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)
ability to build landing pages, schedule social posts, social listening and superior automation workflows
- Industry: Marketing & Advertising
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Incredible value for a robust tool
SharpSpring has helped us align our sales and marketing efforts, automate and elevate our lead follow up, and extend our offering to the market.
Pros
I love the simplicity of the CRM and the ability to see the life of the lead activity across both sales and marketing. SharpSpring can do so many things and the cost can't be beat compared to equivalent offerings. You can begin using this tool very quickly.
Cons
The set up does take some commitment and patience, but the customer service is outstanding and the tracking and functionality are worth the effort.
- Industry: Marketing & Advertising
- Company size: 51–200 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
1/3 the cost of other comparable platforms - but you get what you pay for.
No where near as feature rich as HubSpot - but a way better upgrade to MailChmp.
Pros
Pretty easy to figure out, if you're just using it as a glorified email marketing list building and automation tool.
Drag and drop email template manager is easy to use. So is the visual automation builder.
Forms can be customized and embedded on websites easily to capture lead information.
Out of the box stuff is pretty simple, but you can always get to the CSS to customize everything if you're a developer and want a deeper dive.
Cons
Support has become horrible since launch. You can never get anyone on the phone, it's become a call back system. If you're an agency and managing client accounts, usually you need help immediately, not by end of day or via a random email.
Their billing platform is absolutely ridiculous. They bill your clients directly, and not the agency using the platform saying that the client is the end user, not the agency managing the account. This makes retainer fees or internal billing a nightmare. You'll also have to talk your client into putting their banking routing numbers into a platform they don't understand. If you manage SparpSpring on behalf of your client (like they never login) - Good luck selling it.
There is no Facebook connect to capture lead information!
They keep changing how you export reports by date range. Annoying if you need monthly reports for your client. Sometimes they work, sometimes they move them.
The certification videos and courses are currently outdated after a year of feature pushes.
Biggest annoyance - lead history. You can view lead history in a timeline, but if a lead fills out a form multiple times requesting different information on different dates, you can not scroll through that history in the contact view, it only updates the leads custom fields with the latest information. You can only export the most recent custom fields too, even though you can still see the history and different information in the lead history timeline.
Reasons for Choosing Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)
Our agency network started moving to it and someone drank the hype Kool-Aid so we did too.Reasons for Switching to Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)
1/3 the cost of other comparable platforms - but you get what you pay for.- Industry: Marketing & Advertising
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Excellent value well functioning marketing automation software
The cost savings (literally thousands of pounds) of SharpSpring vs comparable suppliers is significant.. My team also finds the functionality and user experience to be much cleaner, meaning we use more features compared to our previous provider. Overall we are happy we migrated from our previous supplier to SharpSpring
Pros
We moved to SharpSpring from another leading marketing automation software provider and SharpSpring provide 95% of the features for less than half the cost. The software itself is easy to understand and navigate (much easier than our previous system) and the support team are responsive, friendly and helpful. We've been very happy with our migration to SharpSpring and intend to be a user for the foreseeable future. It meets our needs as a specialist life science marketing agency perfectly.
Cons
There are some features that are missing from SharpSpring vs our previous provider, but on balance we felt that either 1. We wouldn't use them 2. We could live without them for the cost savings and other benefits of SharpSpring. Dynamic forms would be great to have, and the analytics sometimes don't match our other analytics software. What I will say is that SharpSpring seem more responsive to requests for new features vs our old provider.
- Industry: Marketing & Advertising
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Best ROI for Small Medium Sized Business
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.
Reasons for Choosing Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)
Price performance and the agency model. SharpSpring provides lartely equivalent functionality for 1/3 the cost and the agency model is better.Switched From
HubSpot Marketing HubReasons for Switching to Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)
Cost effectiveness, ease of use, full stack functionality (CRM and Marketing Automation) and the strong agency model- Industry: Marketing & Advertising
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
Great Value, Functionality, and Support
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
HubSpot Marketing Hub, Constant Contact, Salesforce Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, Zoho Mail, Mailchimp and Marketo EngageReasons for Choosing Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)
Cost/Value and the strong focus SharpSpring has on supporting agencies.Switched From
HubSpot Marketing HubReasons for Switching to Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)
See comments above- Industry: Marketing & Advertising
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
We have embraced the Software to lead our company in communicating with customers and managing...
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.
Reasons for Choosing Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)
SharpSpring brought more to the table from a customer experience and data management tool.Switched From
Sage CRMReasons for Switching to Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)
Cost and the fact that we weren't buying ala'carte, rather we felt like we were buying into a partner experience.- Industry: Marketing & Advertising
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Functional Middle Market Software
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.
Reasons for Choosing Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)
The ease of use for marketing automation and ability to synchronize emails for communication transparency.Switched From
Zoho CRMReasons for Switching to Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)
Pricing, ease of use, and presentation from the SharpSpring staff. Hubspot made us feel like we were taking up their time and not valued. Salesforce was too much for what we needed. SharpSpring made us feel valued and explained their product well by asking us questions first and tailoring their presentation around our needs, not just sending us through a powerpoint.- Industry: Marketing & Advertising
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1-5 months
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Review Source
Marketing Automation with World Class Customer Support Has Exceeded Our Expectations
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
HubSpot Marketing HubReasons for Switching to Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)
It was the price, features and integration abilities that led us to choose SharpSpring.- Industry: Banking
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Great Marketing Automation Tool for B2B
We help credit unions build content driven in-bound funnels - the tool has met that need very well. Their onboarding and support have been super responsive and helpful.
Pros
It was very quick to deploy, fast to get my team trained, and effective in demonstrating results for clients.
In addition, the feature functionality vs. price balance is fantastic. Other tools have lots of bloatware and tools that you will never use.
Cons
I wish it had some built-in SEO tools and I wish their email list management was more forgiving on spam traps.
Reasons for Choosing Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)
Cost and HubSpot's lack of flexibility.Switched From
HubSpot Marketing HubReasons for Switching to Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)
It was a combination of feature vs. price. In addition, SharpSpring was much easier to use and get operational quickly.- Industry: Marketing & Advertising
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
SharpSpring is a phenomenal marketing automation platform.
SharpSpring is a superior marketing automation platform, with a very intuitive interface and offer the kind of support we have rarely seen in tech companies. They have worked harder to earn and keep our business than any other vendor we've ever worked with.
Pros
SharpSpring is a sleek system that offers outstanding tools for marketing automation. We researched a lot of platforms ranging from free to $1000s before going with SharpSpring. They have just the right amount of features that makes it the most useful for all of our clients, leaving off the bells and whistles that would inflate the price.
Their interface is top-tier which makes using their system a breeze. The dashboard gives you a comprehensive look at everything you're running. Moving around the system is super simple and they make it easy to jump to different areas when you're building a sales program. I'd urge you to check out all the features on their website because there are too many to list, but I can say that what they have offered us is unbelievably comprehensive.
We've also taken full advantage of their support which is outstanding. They have always been knowledgable and very friendly. Moreover, they won't let you off the phone until they are sure that the problem has been resolved! They also offer FREE continuing education programs like webinars to help make you more proficient at their program.
SharpSpring is a superior marketing automation platform, with a very intuitive interface and offer the kind of support we have rarely seen in tech companies. They have worked harder to earn and keep our business than any other vendor we've ever worked with. You would do yourself a giant favor to give their system a test drive.
Cons
I was not prepared for the steep learning curve that is required to take full advantage of this platform. I was a bit discouraged at first by everything there was to learn but I realized it's part of working with such a comprehensive platform. It's like moving to a new town and trying to figure out all the roads and highways. I don't know if that's really a con but it is something you must be aware of. You're going to need to spend some serious time learning it but once you do, navigating the system easily becomes second nature.
- Industry: Marketing & Advertising
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
SharpSpring is the number one Marketing Automation Platform for small to mid-sized digital...
We are a small boutique digital marketing agency based in the UK. We spent six months researching all the marketing platforms available.
It was vital to have 24/7 support available within the fees payable, favourable fee rates for an agency of our size (which did not require upfront annual payment), the option to have access to support within GMT timelines for our UK clients and last but not least a marketing automation provider who were developing new features on a near-quarterly basis. We decided that SharpSpring and their team would provide all of these features and benefits.
We commenced our inbound integration mid-2016, and the integration ran extremely efficiently with amazing support within GMT timeline availability. The support since and the new features constantly being added without any impact on fee rates have made the decision to choose SharpSpring, the absolute correct choice for our company. They have over delivered every step of the way for our company. Their team are highly knowledgeable, patient and supportive.
I would not choose any other platform now we are with SharpSpring.
Pros
The SharpSpring Marketing Automation Software provides the following features and benefits that make it a stand out product for my business;
1. The 24/7 support incorporated into the monthly fees; Ensuring no surprises down the line.
2. No requirement to pay fees annually upfront.
3. New landing page feature.
4. Blog page feature.
5. New integration with the Litmus test.
6. Link up with Zapier integration to allow connection to hundreds of 3rd party software providers with the Zapier integration and SharpSpring APIs.
7. Training platform library; In-depth and with video availability to walk through processes. This along with 24/7 support, in my opinion, are the two most important features out with cost of course which set SharpSpring apart as the right platform for our boutique digital marketing agency.
Cons
1. Monthly fees in dollars do not convert via local UK sterling currency rates, unlike other US marketing software providers. You pay in £ sterling the same monthly fee as in US $ dollars.
2. Email builder while it is satisfactory it could be even more user friendly.
- Industry: Marketing & Advertising
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 2+ years
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Review Source
The last review you need to read before you choose your CRM.
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!
Alternatives Considered
HubSpot Marketing HubReasons for Choosing Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)
Mid-tier price with top-tiers features.Reasons for Switching to Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)
Mid-tier price with top-tiers features.- Industry: Computer Software
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
I used to love SharpSpring (why I left)
Strong start, VERY disappointed with recent billing decisions and the rate increase. (Just because you want to buy a company doesn't mean I want to pay for it)
Pros
SharpSpring approached me with a very interesting mailer. It was enough to get my attention and learn who they were and what they did. After they bought my crew lunch and I sat through a presentation I decided to join. The minimum monthly bought me 3 accounts plus a free one for my agency. There are a lot of features in SharpSpring and they appear to be adding more, which is nice. They represent themselves as marketing automation for agencies. They offer a lot of white labeling which is a requirement for me when working with 3rd party softwares.
Cons
Late 2019 it was announced that SS would change their billing policies to require that THEY bill my clients. WAIT, WHAT? You're a whitelabeled SaaS service, why the **** would YOU bill MY clients. That's the opposite of the point. Since I haven't set up my clients in their billing interface they've locked me out of my account. And when I went to cancel they reminded me of the 30 days cancellation notice I'm required to give. OH, AND, they decided to up the rate $75/account. I'm so unhappy with where they're going as a company I can't even consider the new features that they're bringing in.
Response from Constant Contact
Hi Jamison,
Thank you for taking the time to share your experience. Our intent in developing our new billing platform is to get out in front of a change in the tax law that applies to online sales and SaaS products like SharpSpring, Hubspot, SugarCRM, and Salesforce. This billing change is purely based around being tax compliant you are still in full control of your client relationship. We'll never talk to your clients without your knowledge. Our agency partners had 30 days to input their client's billing information but we're sorry if you may have needed more time to complete those steps.
Additionally, SharpSpring is implementing a price increase in February 2020 after 2 years of no price increase. I understand that your account manager will be reaching out to you and we'd really appreciate the opportunity to make things right and collect further feedback. If you'd be willing to share more about your experience in the meantime, you can also email us at [email protected].

- Industry: Marketing & Advertising
- Company size: 11–50 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
-
Review Source
Great for an agency, but trying to get clients involved is next to impossible.
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.

- Industry: Hospital & Health Care
- Company size: 501–1,000 Employees
- Used Daily for 1+ year
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Review Source
Easy to use, lots of customization and excellent support
We used to have a very simple automated message that sent to all inquiries - and it was the same message regardless of the inquirer or location. Now, we're able to customize the response based on who is inquiring - and the location and send them important brochures and information relative to a specific location. SharpSpring has improved our tracking --moving us from binders stuffed with papers to digital data tied to campaigns. It was a big step for our company and despite early resistance, people are really buying into it now that they are using it.
Pros
The system is easy to use -from training to the online help docs (i.e., self-training) - to the excellent support team, I feel very confident when using the system and making modifications. I know if I can't figure out how to do something I want to do - I can either jump on live chat or call support and someone will happily help me figure it out.
Cons
Reporting capabilities are still growing. They recently launched a new reporting dashboard with canned "custom" reports but I would like the idea to select the variables myself and run a report on my data - including my custom fields. If the fields exist, I'd like to run reports on them. I have figured out, however, that, I can export a lot into excel and create my own reports when needed.
Reasons for Switching to Lead Gen & CRM (formerly SharpSpring)
Cost, support and customization- Industry: Marketing & Advertising
- Company size: 2–10 Employees
- Used Daily for 6-12 months
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Review Source
Making great progress with SharpSpring
I've used a couple of different Marketing Automation platforms in the past. Marketo briefly and Act-On for a couple of years. I switched to SharpSpring around 6 months ago when I set up my own marketing agency.
Really happy with how its going. OK - its obvious that SharpSpring is a smaller company. I come across the occasional feature that could do with some refinement. But overall its fair to say I love SharpSpring.
Top features from my POV...
Ease of use - The separation of Tasks and Workflows seems to make this a much simpler product to use than Act-on. Easier than Marketo as well - though its about 3 years since I used that.
The templates provided for rapidly building landing pages are excellent.
The new personas feature is brilliant when combined with "Dynamic content blocks" (which you can use on landing pages as well as Emails.
The built in CRM is a huge advantage and is perfect for BDM teams or smaller companies. Obviously if you can make do without a full-featured CRM like Salesforce, you'll save thousands $$ by switching to a simpler product like SharpSpring. (I used to use Act-on integrated with Salesforce and that was an absolute pig.)
Cost - SharpSpring is much less expensive than Act-On and Marketo. You get unlimited users on their standard license plans - so you're not penalised for spreading use across Marketing, BDMs and Sales folk.
So features - not a problem.
I've found the training / on-boarding satisfactory and the ongoing technical support is fast and personal.
Pros
Ease of use, good templates, built in CRM (although you can integrate with 3rd party CRM if you need.) Cost saving compared to competing products - especially if you can dispense with a full-fat CRM like Salesforce which is bloated and over priced for SME market in my opinion.
Cons
Occasional glitches. Sometimes you have to refresh the page to see the result of a change that you have made. For example - the number of members in a list - can take a few minutes after saving the query to report a true number. But you soon learn to live with minor issues like this.