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Pardot vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Pardot
Ranking in Marketing Automation
6th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Ranking in Marketing Automation
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
53
Ranking in other categories
Social CRM (1st), Marketing Management (1st), Social Media Management Solutions (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Marketing Automation category, the mindshare of Pardot is 4.0%, down from 4.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is 22.6%, down from 26.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Marketing Automation
 

Featured Reviews

Vikram Rawani - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers an easy initial setup phase and good ROI
With Pardot, users can do the segmentation based on their requirements. You can segment your prospects based on their interests, locations, companies, or the sales cycle. You can also use the engagement studio to create a journey for the people you have segmented with the help of automation feature of the tool. The aforementioned area consists of the most useful features I found in the tool apart from its out-of-the-box features. The integration between Pardot and Salesforce is beneficial if you know how to share the leads that a company finds useful so that they don't have to invest in manual work or do anything blindly to reach out to leads. Users can segment the leads using the features that the tool provides. I recommend the product to those who plan to use it. If a business is into B2B marketing and can afford to purchase Pardot, then they should buy it. If the product of a company is good, then Pardot can help multiply such an organization's ROI. Based on the product and how the sales and marketing team works, the tool can be useful. In short, the tool can be as good as the person who is using it. I rate the tool a nine out of ten.
SantoshKrishna - PeerSpot reviewer
Easy to deploy, stable, and scalable
The encryption and decryption have room for improvement. We need to be confident that the customer's data is secure when shared outside of the organization. I would like to request additional mobile app features that go beyond push notifications. As the mobile development industry continues to advance with new technologies, such as AI components, it is important to consider these advancements when setting up campaigns. Currently, campaigns are scheduled to be sent to customers at a prescribed time, but they may not be relevant to the customer unless they see them as valuable. For example, if I want to run a campaign offering loans, I would need to consider the customer's needs and balance. In the future, I hope Salesforce can incorporate an AI component that utilizes the shared data, rather than just scheduling campaigns.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"It's easy to create email templates and landing pages."
"The solution can be easily integrated with Salesforce."
"The most valuable feature is the customization of the solution."
"Pardot directly integrates with CRM, specifically Salesforce, which has an excellent R&D team."
"Pardot's most valuable feature is its B2B marketing capabilities."
"It has made email marketing quicker and easier."
"I have not had any issues with the product's stability. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The product is stable."
"We use Marketing Cloud for marketing campaigns and engaging customers. It is a business-focused application for a specific area of business, which is acquiring customers."
"The most valuable feature of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is the ability to sell the products we have made to customers. Overall the solution is very useful for business."
"I think the product's best feature is its analytics, as that's where customers derive value. The second thing is its ease of implementation."
"Offers many great features and is intuitive."
"It is very easy to use from a marketing standpoint."
"The most valuable feature of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is the reporting engine. Reports are very good and easy to build."
"We haven't had any issues with integration."
"Its ability to integrate data and provide a comprehensive view of customer engagement sets it apart."
 

Cons

"Pardot needs many improvements in terms of email design and design studio functionalities."
"For new people, the installation of the tool can be difficult."
"Lacks sufficient free custom fields."
"​Technical support has been quick and helpful every time."
"When we compare it to other automation tools, in Pardot, I'm not able to see any drag-and-drop options. We have to work on an HTML template itself."
"Needs to improve list building."
"Pardot must be synced with Salesforce."
"The solution lacks integration with Instagram, which is our top problem with the product."
"The quality of support for this solution has been decreasing over time and the support team are sometimes more focused on closing tickets that resolving issues. Often the support team is not well trained or aware of the new features or products released by Salesforce."
"They could improve the product's data integration functionality for larger companies."
"Marketing Cloud should change the script language that it uses because it's not good. It's tricky and difficult to develop."
"I've noticed on one-to-one leads, the customer objection option is not available."
"The dashboards should be more intuitive, as there are far too many items on them. You're not always sure what you're looking for."
"We'd like to see more integrations with third-party products."
"It should contain artificial intelligence, in my opinion."
"The performance is sometimes sluggish, but I think that's to be expected with a heavy CRM tool because they're running reports in real-time on the data that you have entered."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of this solution is expensive. However, you are going to receive good value for money. They could improve by reducing the price."
"It is a competitively priced product, considering what it provides."
"​Make sure you do not pay for features that you may not need​."
"We pay about $4000 a month."
"In terms of pricing, Pardot is cheaper than Marketing Cloud."
"The solution is a bit expensive."
"It's not cheap, which is why I recommend that you use Marketing Cloud to create automated journeys. If you plan to use Marketing Cloud just to send emails, use another tool."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud is affordable, considering the significant improvements it brings to our campaign results."
"I don't know if my company pays for Salesforce Marketing Cloud monthly or yearly. It's a SaaS, so it's a recurring cost, but I have no information on its price."
"This is a low cost solution suited to larger organizations."
"It is a license per user."
"The solution is paid for monthly."
"On a scale where one is the lowest and ten is the most expensive, I rate the solution an eight out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
66%
Computer Software Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
5%
Manufacturing Company
3%
Educational Organization
55%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
5%
Manufacturing Company
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Pardot?
It has no limit for sending marketing emails.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pardot?
Pardot was somewhat costly for our requirements, nonetheless, the capacities of the item were limited.
What needs improvement with Pardot?
Pardot needs many improvements in terms of email design and design studio functionalities. It lacks a robust design studio, limiting our ability to perform various design activities efficiently. Yo...
What do you like most about Salesforce Marketing Cloud?
Datorama is part of Salesforce Marketing Cloud, which is quite a valuable feature that provides customer analytics.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Salesforce Marketing Cloud?
The solution's pricing is very high and should be more flexible for smaller companies.
What needs improvement with Salesforce Marketing Cloud?
Salesforce Marketing Cloud should provide some debugging facilities for every user. Apart from Data Views, nothing is available for debugging purposes. I cannot check for any errors or status behin...
 

Also Known As

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ExactTarget
 

Learn More

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Arketi Group
American Express, Financial Conduct Authority, KPN, Merck KGaA, Peterborough City Council, The Chapar, ADP, Financial Times, Stanley Black & Decker, SureFlap, Western Union, Philips
Find out what your peers are saying about Pardot vs. Salesforce Marketing Cloud and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.