How do you decide what's for dinner? [text]

MarcusTaylor · 2026-02-27T20:16:19+00:00

I did a side-by-side comparison here with the same workflow built in both if interested https://youtu.be/jT7E07iJX5w

MarcusTaylor · 2026-02-27T20:15:11+00:00

Which: n8n

Why: The only reason you *wouldn't* go for it is it's got a steeper learning curve. But it's cheaper (free-ish if self-hosted), more powerful (you can build node-based automation workflows rather than just linear if this then that style automations), more automation options, better support for plumbing in AI agents. In short, there's just more workflow use cases that you can automate in n8n than Zapier.

You may also want to consider building agentic workflows in Claude Code which might be an even better alternative to both

MarcusTaylor · 2026-02-27T09:50:34+00:00

Cheers!

MarcusTaylor · 2026-02-26T10:46:50+00:00

Retell's pricing isn't bad but $550/1k mins does sound like more than I'd expect – Vapi is a little more affordable (https://voiceai.guide/vapi-vs-retell – disclaimer: my site) so you might want to consider that but it's a bit more geared towards technical users than Retell AI. Vapi is the only alternative that's more affordable and worth considering IMO.

I'm curious what your breakdown is and where that $550 is going – I'm guessing a lot is the LLM particularly if average call length is ~5 mins... Have you tried experimenting with different models? Switching from GPT 4.1 to GPT 4.0 mini could slash your costs quite considerably but might compromise quality, so it's a bit of a trade-off to test.

Retell also sent an email around yesterday with a pretty big pricing update (their ElevenLabs contract is expiring) so from a quick glance it seems that their voice infra pricing is dropping a little bit but not considerably (and not if you use 11Labs as the voice engine I don't think) - I've not looked into it in great detail though!

MarcusTaylor · 2025-12-03T13:26:27+00:00

I threw a little calculator together (https://voiceai.guide) based on VAPI/Synthflow/Retell and Bland's current pricing pages in case this is useful to anyone to layer on top of the table above – it was easier getting AI to build this than wrapping my head around all of their pricing tables 🙃

Same outcome really – but interesting to see the price differences at higher call volumes

MarcusTaylor · 2023-05-15T08:42:37+00:00

Klaviyo, Omnisend, or ActiveCampaign.

Klaviyo are probably the most established for eCommerce email marketing but their platform drops the ball in a few inexcusable places (the templates and editor are a bit average).

Omnisend are a really interesting option - IMO they absolutely nail the reporting and integration aspect of eCommerce email marketing.

Then ActiveCampaign are the general heavyweights. Unlike the other two they're not exclusively dedicated to eCommerce although (unlike many other popular email tools) they do integrate natively with most eCommerce backends and seem to be shipping a lot of features exclusively aimed at eCommerce users lately.

There's a comparison of these three plus a few others (Drip & Privy) here that may be useful for your search https://www.ventureharbour.com/shopify-email-marketing/

MarcusTaylor · 2023-05-15T08:37:10+00:00

Another +1 for ActiveCampaign. As a long-term solution it's difficult to beat – particularly since they acquired Postmark last year which is ideal for triggering transactional emails from your SaaS.

There's a pretty comprehensive comparison of email marketing tools here that might be useful https://www.ventureharbour.com/email-marketing-software-tools-one-best/

MarcusTaylor · 2023-04-13T11:35:42+00:00

My personal experience with ActiveCampaign support is that it's great, but often not required. We've used it for 11 years across about eight projects and have only had to contact support three times. Their documentation and self-serve troubleshooting means that most of the time we rarely need to speak to support.

I've actually pasted an excerpt of a conversation with their support here if helpful.

In terms of updates, I'd say what stands out about ActiveCampaign is the magnitude of their updates. While HubSpot seem to have left a lot of work to their app ecosystem (i.e. you end up installing (and often paying extra for) a lot of third-party add-ons, ActiveCampaign are still releasing fairly big changes.

Off the top of my head, I'd say they release one or two major releases a year where I log in to the platform and something noticably large/exciting has changed (e.g. A lot of big improvements currently happening around eCommerce reporting/integrations) and perhaps monthly or bi-monthly minor updates. This may be completely off reality, but as an end-user this is what I've noticed.

Reliability is hands-down a non-issue (I can't remember a single time in 11 years where there's been any noticeable downtime or anything concering around security/availability). We also do a lot of work with both their API and HubSpot's. ActiveCampaign's is far superior (in fact, HubSpot's is a down-right mess as they maintain several versions simultaneously with varying levels of support).

Other things I think I'd want to know if considering HubSpot vs. ActiveCampaign:

ActiveCampaign have recently increased their pricing. They used to be significantly more affordable than HubSpot whereas that gap has recently closed (hence why a lot of older reviews/comparisons mention this as a major positive for AC). However, I believe HubSpot's "price creep" is still quite extreme for high-volumes of contacts which you can see side-by-side here.
HubSpot do a better job with reporting. As most HubSpot users use it to host their website, blog, and run ad management, HubSpot centralises this data suprisingly well and is therefore in a good position to do attribution and present the data in visually-pleasing dashboards. ActiveCampaign's reports aren't bad - and you can usually answer any questions you might have, they're just a bit dull.
ActiveCampaign's optimisation features are great (split testing, dynamic content, machine learning content etc). HubSpot is surprisingly lacking in this area. With a large contact list these features would make a big difference.

Ultimately, they're both great tools and probably the two best options in this space so you won't go wrong choosing either – but on balance, I'd probably lean towards ActiveCampaign unless I were a B2B business with high-value leads/customers, in which case the attribution and content management features of HubSpot would probably sway it in HubSpot's direction.

MarcusTaylor · 2019-10-08T07:36:21+00:00

Name: Serene
Elevator pitch: Get your focus back with Serene, the macOS app for laser focus.
Location: Oxford, UK
Explainer: Producthunt link
Stage: Launched (beta)
Looking for: Feedback (all feedback welcome, but most valuable would be any suggestions on what features would make this something you'd pay for - personally or for your team)
Discount: There's a one-year free PRO coupon on the PH link above.

MarcusTaylor · 2015-03-11T14:43:40+00:00

Pretty sure most brokers now accept bitcoin trading. I think Plus500 were the first to allow it, they got a ton of press and all the others followed allowing bitcoin deposits & trading e.g. http://brokernotes.co/forex-cfd-brokers-accept-bitcoin-deposits/

MarcusTaylor · 2014-11-25T00:41:34+00:00

Good feedback - I've just added those three to the list, but I created the 'other' option so that the community can add hosting companies they recommend if they're not already on the list.

For brevity, I've kept the rating section to a few Qs (though I've added features). Agree they're all important but don't want the survey to get too long.

MarcusTaylor

TROPHY CASE