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Salesforce Marketing Cloud vs SugarCRM Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 6, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Ranking in Marketing Automation
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
Social CRM (2nd), Marketing Management (1st), Social Media Management Solutions (2nd)
SugarCRM Platform
Ranking in Marketing Automation
8th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
CRM Customer Engagement Centers (8th), CRM (24th), Sales Force Automation (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Marketing Automation category, the mindshare of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is 22.8%, down from 25.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SugarCRM Platform is 0.4%, down from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Marketing Automation
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Styliana Araouzou - PeerSpot reviewer
Customizable, easy to configure, and reliable
My company is considered a customer and an end-user. I'm not sure which version of the solution we're using right now. It's a company that offers lots of user manuals and you can find most of your stuff there before starting development. I'd advise potential new users to go through everything. I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. By default, it comes with a really good model where you can start working with it without having a lot of developers in your team. It's a system that includes everything related to the client and you can see everything under one screen without having a different product or system. It's been great, for the most part.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is seeing the customer's journey."
"We haven't had any issues with integration."
"The solution is very, very scalable."
"The most valuable features of Salesforce are the automation and the ability to create dashboards which provide a wider picture of what is going on."
"If you want to be able to communicate with your client using email, WhatsApp, and push notifications, know if the client opened the communication or not, and create and automate their journey, Marketing Cloud is very good."
"The most valuable feature is the 'Accelerators', which are expert-taught subject matter webinars on items such as personalization of emails and SMS to contacts and prospects."
"The Journey Builder and the Email Studio features are most valuable."
"It is easy to send emails and SMS's."
"The most valuable features of the SugarCRM platform include its flexibility in customizing fields, layouts, and dashboards."
"The most valuable aspect of this solution is its low cost."
"The most valuable features of Sugar Enterprise are the exports of graphics, statuses, complaints, and tasks."
"The most valuable feature is relation capability, which allows us to relay customers with invoice orders."
"It works well with Jira. You can customize it to fit your needs."
"It has sales email campaigns, plus integration with Active Directory."
 

Cons

"Salesforce could benefit by implementing further integration with more platforms."
"The product could use a little bit of BI in the sense of rule-based building."
"In a future release, adding end-user personalization would be a benefit."
"The pricing is a bit high."
"The majority of my clients are happy, but when it comes to the CDP of Salesforce, the client gets confused. They have no clue that Salesforce has a CDP platform too. If my clients want to go ahead with the same vendor, Salesforce, they get confused about the different marketing suites which are available. There is no clear marketing done for the suites available for the clients, this is where the client is facing the real challenges."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud could improve by having more graphical options because a lot of tables are now only numbers and percentages and data. I prefer graphs, lines, and pie charts. I know there are ways to receive this from Salesforce Marketing Cloud. It doesn't play a huge role in my daily work to invest the time to figure it out. I feel that it would be time wasted. They could make the graphical options easier to find and use in the future."
"The processing speed, the way information displays, and scrolling options can be improved."
"The technicality of the solution can be streamlined."
"I would appreciate it if SugarCRM could support us in on-premise implementation."
"While it is already user-friendly, a slight enhancement in UI design, especially in terms of color combinations, could make the platform more visually appealing and comfortable to use."
"Sugar Enterprise could improve by removing bugs and glitches. For example, a comment was made but in the comment section, it was never displayed. However, the problems we faced might not be the fault of the solution."
"You cannot include all your entities under one instance at the moment."
"I would like to see more integration on a mobile platform in the next release."
"In the next release, I would like to see personalization of information about customers or specific businesses or opportunities."
"It lacks customization, and this is the main reason that we are switching to a different solution."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Salesforce Marketing Cloud is affordable, considering the significant improvements it brings to our campaign results."
"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
"On a scale where one is the lowest and ten is the most expensive, I rate the solution an eight out of ten."
"It is a license per user."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a highly expensive solution, it needs to be less expensive. We are on an annual license to use the solution."
"Salesforce has different versions of the solution and some are more suitable for smaller clients. However, Salesforce is expensive."
"The licensing cost for the solution is on a yearly basis."
"The solution's pricing is very high and should be more flexible for smaller companies."
"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
57%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
5%
Manufacturing Company
4%
Educational Organization
28%
Engineering Company
16%
Computer Software Company
14%
Real Estate/Law Firm
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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 needs improvement with Salesforce Marketing Cloud?
In the SMS area, it is not up to the mark, compared to what has been developed for email.
What do you like most about Sugar Enterprise?
The most valuable features of the SugarCRM platform include its flexibility in customizing fields, layouts, and dashboards.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sugar Enterprise?
All are almost the same pricing. Maybe the cheapest is Salesforce, I believe.
What needs improvement with Sugar Enterprise?
The only challenge was that we implemented it in our on-premise data center instead of using it in the cloud. That was a little bit of a challenge. But it was overcome with the help of SugarCRM com...
 

Also Known As

ExactTarget
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

American Express, Financial Conduct Authority, KPN, Merck KGaA, Peterborough City Council, The Chapar, ADP, Financial Times, Stanley Black & Decker, SureFlap, Western Union, Philips
Redglaze Group, TengoInternet, Hilco, Bancvue, Vet Adivsor
Find out what your peers are saying about Salesforce Marketing Cloud vs. SugarCRM Platform and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,190 professionals have used our research since 2012.