ContactMonkey vs Staffbase
The Staffbase alternative for teams who still want to send through Outlook
Staffbase’s Email Classic is moving into maintenance mode and will eventually be deprecated. If you send from the Outlook add-in, you face a migration either way, which makes this the best moment to evaluate an alternative.
Internal comms teams that need easy IT approval choose ContactMonkey
Michelle Geib
Manager of Internal Communications, Chamberlain Group
“The actual migration to ContactMonkey took a week, maybe less. Two or three training sessions: one for the account admins, one for the full group of primary users. IT needed to grant plugin permissions and review the FAQ. After that, they were satisfied. The platform worked through Outlook, which the IT team already understood, and there were no red flags in the security review.”
Lists sync from your HRIS, not a CSV
Templates import, branding stays intact
First campaign sends within weeks
Your CSM reviews results through Q1
Moving from Staffbase takes less work than you expect
Whether you are communicating with two hundred employees or two hundred thousand, ContactMonkey prices by the size of your audience. Book a demo and we will give you a range in the first conversation, then a specific quote once we understand your list size and program needs.
Why switch to ContactMonkeyContactMonkey vs. Staffbase, feature by feature
ContactMonkey
Staffbase
Product continuity
One platform, no forced migration.
Email Classic is moving into maintenance mode and will be deprecated. Customers migrate onto Staffbase Studio.
What you are buying
An intelligent internal comms platform built around email, with SMS, Pages, Teams and SharePoint.
A suite of intranet, app, email, SMS and signage, priced channel by channel.
Where email sends from
Outlook, Gmail, or the web app. Campaigns render as designed.
The Studio web platform. An Outlook add-in exists, though documentation points higher plans to the web app and requires IT to authorize sending on your domain.
Integrations and HRIS sync
100+ integrations and 80+ HRIS syncs including Workday, ADP, UKG and SAP SuccessFactors.
16 integrations, with 4 HRIS syncs on display and provisioning through SCIM 2.0.
List management
Secure list management API with nightly sync. No file transfers.
SCIM, Workday and Entra ID sync, plus User and Groups APIs.
Analytics and reporting
Customizable dashboards, individual and anonymous tracking, click maps, and an Analytics API for Power BI and Tableau.
Opens, clicks, bounces and device type by user group. Read time is enabled only after a 9 day support test.
Ask your data questions
Insights Assistant answers questions about your campaign data in plain language.
Smart Impact dashboards and employee surveys. Navigator answers employee questions rather than yours.
Pre-send quality control
ConfidenceCheck reviews links, placeholder text, accessibility and custom checks you add.
Companion adjusts tone and length. No published pre-send review of an email.
Audience testing before send
Audience Preview simulates how different groups will receive your message.
No published equivalent.
Multi-language
Proof and edit every language inside the draft, with per language reporting.
Machine translation tabs. Edits to the source email do not carry into the translations.
Time to launch
Fully live in an average of 10 business days.
90 days is the typical path Staffbase publishes.
Pricing
Three published plans, priced by the size of your audience.
Quote only, with no published pricing.
Support and services
24/7 help centre, chat and email on every plan, a dedicated CSM, support in four regions, and five custom templates.
Consulting, Customer Care and Customer Success teams, with a published response time under two hours.
Why internal communicators choose ContactMonkey vs Staffbase
If you are migrating anyway, migrate to the inbox
Staffbase is moving Email Classic customers onto Studio. ContactMonkey ends that migration inside Outlook, where your communicators already work and your IT team has already approved the environment.
See the Outlook integration
Buy a platform built for email
Staffbase gives you an intranet, an app, digital signage and an email module. ContactMonkey puts the whole roadmap into the channel your employees already open, with added channels for expanded reach.
See employee emailMeasurement deep enough to defend your budget
Individual tracking and segmentation by any HRIS attribute work from a native Outlook send, and the Analytics API feeds Power BI and Tableau. Staffbase enables read time only after a 9-day reliability test.
Explore email analytics
See how the message lands before it is sent
Audience Preview builds AI generated personas from your own employee segments and reports how each group will read your draft, so you can rewrite the confusing paragraph before 10,000 employees see it.
See how Audience Preview worksEvery language gets proofed, and edits only happen once
Staffbase documentation states that updating a source email leaves its translations behind. ContactMonkey proofs every language inside the draft and reports per language on opens, clicks and read time.
See multi-language email
Your first send in weeks rather than a quarter
Staffbase publishes 90 days as the typical path from contract to launch. ContactMonkey customers are live in 10 business days, since there’s no new destination for employees to learn.
Why ContactMonkeyMigrating off Email Classic anyway
Staffbase is retiring the product your team sends from. Compare before you rebuild on Studio.
Send from the inbox IT already approved
Campaigns travel through your own Outlook environment. Staffbase points higher plans toward its web platform.
Fully live in 10 business days
Most customers send their first campaign within 10. Staffbase publishes 90 days.
Pricing that scales with your employee count, not your channel count
ContactMonkey prices by the size of your audience, whether that is two hundred employees or two hundred thousand. Book a demo and we will give you a range in the first conversation.
Book a demoEnterprise
Enterprise-grade workflows, governance, and intelligence for complex comms needs.
Grow
Deeper insights, multi-channel reach, and targeted internal communications.
Launch
Easy, on-brand internal comms with simple analytics.
See inside ContactMonkey
A short walkthrough of the drag and drop builder inside Outlook, HRIS-powered list building, ConfidenceCheck before a send, and the dashboard your leadership team sees.
Watch the tourQuestions IC professionals ask before committing
Staffbase documentation states Email Classic is moving into maintenance mode and will eventually be deprecated, with customers migrating onto Staffbase Studio through a four phase process. Staffbase includes that migration in your existing plan. The work of moving audiences, templates and governance onto new architecture still falls to your team.
You are rebuilding audiences, templates and governance in either scenario. With ContactMonkey your lists rebuild from your HRIS rather than a file export, your team keeps sending from Outlook, and most customers are fully live in ten business days.
ContactMonkey is built around employee email, sent from Outlook, Gmail or the app, which keeps rendering and deliverability inside the environment IT already approved. Staffbase is a suite where email sits alongside an intranet, an app and digital signage, each purchased separately.
Opens, clicks, read time, device type and click maps, segmented by any attribute in your HRIS. Tracking can be individual or anonymous, Insights Assistant answers questions in plain language, and Enterprise syncs to Power BI and Tableau.
SOC 2 Type II and GDPR, with encryption on AWS, SSO and SCIM. Employee data syncs through the Secure List Management API rather than external file transfers.
