Bad data from Website Visitor ID Resolution Tools can damage your email deliverability and business
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Chief Growth Officer at Optigo Networks
1. Even if RB2B manages to get the company name of the person who visited my website correct, it often gets the name of the person wrong. This renders the product no better than lead forensics or the million other tools that already do company deanonymization.
2. Most of the profiles pushed are just completely outside of our ICP. Now it’s easy to say “your website is bad if it draws people that aren’t in your target audience”, the reality seems more likely that your data providers are having a hard time matching the actual person, and are maybe serving the husband or wife who shares a profile or device? Just a guess here, but the point is that the majority of data is completely unactionable because of how laughably bad it is.
Co-Founder, Engineer & Fractional Chief Growth Officer
CEO at Natural Dog Company
We tried Retention and 1) the emails were crap, 2) the software was relatively primitive.
Website visitor ID vendors claim their data is highly accurate when it’s really 70-95% wrong.
Here’s why it’s time to switch from Retention.com:
While Retention claims to have a high accuracy rate, we’ve done tests showing emails are mostly wrong!
Other visitor ID providers focus on volume of emails vs. quality of emails, resulting in high spam reports and serious deliverability issues.
Klaviyo has strict policies regarding email sources and may restrict tools that do not meet their compliance standards. Many users have reported challenges using Retention.com with Klaviyo.
Retention has shifted focus away from ecommerce to focus on their B2B solution, including laying off 40% of their team.
Retention.com can result in much higher bills from Klaviyo or your ESP because they ID so many emails, most of which are wrong.
Retention claims an impressive 35% “Match Rate” for their Website Visitor ID but match rate alone is misleading—it can be inflated simply by returning more emails, even if most are incorrect.
What really matters is True Match Rate—what percentage of known, validated website users correctly identified?
Our studies show that Customers.AI’s True Match Rate is 2-18x higher than Retention.com because far fewer of their “matches” actually check out, indicating serious data quality issues!
Native email sending through our dedicated ESP
Advanced audience segmentation
Meta Conversions API (CAPI) integration
Email automation tools
Email deliverability Tools & Scores
Advanced Audience Analytics Platform
Retention dumps low-quality data into third-party ESPs, leaving you to handle poor engagement and deliverability risks while providing only data, not tools, at the cost of email performance.
Customers.AI delivers higher-quality visitor ID data with the flexibility to send it to an ESP or use our built-in marketing tools—including email automation, segmentation, customer journeys, deliverability optimization, postcard sending, and ad platform integrations like Google, Meta, and TikTok.
The result? More accuracy and more ways to leverage visitor ID data—without ESP compliance risks.
In a blind test run by a third-party CDP, Customers.ai was shown to have ~65-85% data accuracy rate while other vendors, including Retention, struggled to reach 30% accuracy.
Like most identity resolution tools, Retention licenses their data from multiple sources then combine it all together into one big mess.
At Customers.ai, our proprietary ID resolution data and techologies ensures the names, emails, and contact information provided are accurate most of the time.
The result? More sales, higher conversion rates, and significantly fewer negative interactions—like spam complaints— helping ensure your domain remains unpenalized.
Retention integrates with hundreds of third-party ESPs, but sending emails to contacts sourced from low-accuracy data can be risky, potentially triggering spam complaints and hurting your sender reputation.
Instead of dumping your third-party data into your ESP and potentially skewing your complaint rate, we offer a fully compliant solution.
We’ll send the emails for you, so there’s no need to mix identity resolution data with your first-party customer data.
Retention.com uses a tiered pricing model, starting at $500 per month for its basic “Startup Plan”. Custom pricing is available for enterprise-level plans targeting higher revenue but costs can quickly escalate as traffic and contact lists grow. Annual commitments are typically required, and access to advanced features like “Grow” and “Reclaim” may come with additional costs.
In comparison, Customers.ai offers a much more affordable pricing structure, starting at just $99 per month and going up to $399 + contact fees. This transparent, scalable pricing includes all premium features, giving you the flexibility to grow without breaking the bank.
Here’s what users are saying in their Retention.com reviews: Some users have reported a lift in email revenue however, there are concerns about the engagement quality of contacts added through the “grow” tool, as they may not be as engaged as regular subscribers. Other users report deliverability and sending issues due to spam complaints.
Retention.com’s main competitors include platforms like Customers.ai, Opensend, and RevenueRoll. While Retention focuses on basic data collection and outreach, competitors like Customers.ai provide advanced segmentation, automation, and actionable insights that help businesses drive more conversions and maximize ROI.
Yes, Retention.com integrates with Klaviyo. However, Customers.ai offers more advanced segmentation, data enrichment, and resignaling capabilities. While Retention.com connects your anonymous visitor data to Klaviyo, Customers.ai gives you the power to run various campaigns with richer audience insights and stronger retargeting options.
No, Retention.com’s so-called “API” is limited to some additional call-back functions on their main pixel – for example, sending back suppression data. It’s not an actual API from the sense of having the ability to integrate it into your code or product.
Yes, Retention.com integrates with Shopify, however, for more advanced segmentation and automation features, tools like Customers.ai may offer a more robust solution tailored to ecommerce marketers. Additionally, Customers.ai is the only official visitor identification app in the Shopify app store.
Yes, just like Customers.ai, Retention.com operates within legal frameworks. However, it’s important for businesses using Retention.com, or any visitor identification software, to ensure they comply with relevant laws. Many users have complained about their emails getting blocked and even getting kicked off of Active Campaign.
Most visitor ID solutions get identities right 5-30% of the time. Customers.ai is 2-7x more accurate with 2-18x higher True Match Rate. See the difference on your site firsthand.
Independent testing by brands and first-party data providers revealed a crisis of Website Visitor Identification inaccuracy. Read the report to understand the damage to brands — and what merchants can do about it. See the report →
