No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Act-On Software vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud 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

Act-On Software
Ranking in Marketing Automation
14th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.7
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Ranking in Marketing Automation
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
63
Ranking in other categories
Social CRM (2nd), Marketing Management (1st), Social Media Management Solutions (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Marketing Automation category, the mindshare of Act-On Software is 1.8%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is 12.3%, down from 23.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Marketing Automation Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Salesforce Marketing Cloud12.3%
Act-On Software1.8%
Other85.9%
Marketing Automation
 

Featured Reviews

it_user82449 - PeerSpot reviewer
Business Systems Manager at a consultancy with 501-1,000 employees
The adaptive nurturing, segmentation, multiple lead scoring rules, and simple CRM integration stood out the most.
The CRM integration with Act-On is better with Salesforce and had more value for sales representatives than it did with Microsoft Dynamics CRM; that was MS CRM's downfall. Act-On Anywhere is a nice feature for general users, but the tracking in CRM is lost, and Marketing team subject lines do not carry over on the email templates.
GauravSingh2 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Targeted email journeys have boosted campaign insight and now need better data access and support
I feel that Salesforce Marketing Cloud can be improved in how the data views are accessed; it would be better to have something more physical. With data extensions, you can view them directly, but for data views, it is very difficult as you can only send it out or load it into data extensions. Improvements can also be made in the connections to different external tools such as Azure or AWS. Customer support can be improved in Salesforce Marketing Cloud, as sometimes it is not clear what the issue is or how to approach solving it, and it also takes time to resolve issues.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Act-On is simple to use and it makes campaign development a breeze."
"It is now much easier for us to send and segment emails, analyze our results and make smarter decisions."
"Our organization was operating blindfolded before implementing Act-On."
"Before I joined, my company used a larger, more expensive but more popular software, and after switching to this, my team can still do everything it needs to for cheaper."
"Act-On has an outstanding customer support team and they escalate issues to their technical teams before the frustration level."
"The user interface is easy to use, especially for my staff who use assistive technology."
"Marketing Cloud has improved our productivity and our team enjoy using it."
"We are satisfied with the Salesforce Marketing Cloud products, which is why we have extended and acquired the Data Cloud as integration."
"Salesforce is constantly evolving and have a good release cycle."
"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."
"In Salesforce Marketing Cloud, the ability to send emails effectively is very valuable."
"Datorama is part of Salesforce Marketing Cloud, which is quite a valuable feature that provides customer analytics."
"We use it to communicate with our customers, look at the reports to see the communication engagement, and then do sequencing to make sure that there are continuous touchpoints with the client."
 

Cons

"One area of improvement would be ability to use dynamic content fields. It is available, but not to the fullest extent where it would help me."
"The CRM integration with Act-On is better with Salesforce and had more value for sales representatives than it did with Microsoft Dynamics CRM; that was MS CRM's downfall."
"The product could use a little bit of BI in the sense of rule-based building."
"It's a very good solution, but the way the prices are structured is not always good, and I feel like that is a problem."
"In the SMS area, it is not up to the mark, compared to what has been developed for email."
"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."
"Marketing Cloud should change the script language that it uses because it's not good. It's tricky and difficult to develop."
"Customer support can be improved in Salesforce Marketing Cloud, as sometimes it is not clear what the issue is or how to approach solving it, and it also takes time to resolve issues."
"The UA could be better designed for a mobile connection."
"Improvements can be made in the processing speed, how information displays, and options for scrolling."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"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."
"My company pays to use this solution."
"Salesforce is an expensive solution."
"The price is expensive."
"Its licensing is on an annual basis. Customers are okay with its licensing cost, and they don't find it expensive."
"We did a yearly license. We negotiated and got a great deal. I don't think we would have gotten far with the regular price, but they negotiated, so it was worth that."
"This solution is priced in the medium to high price range."
"Salesforce has different versions of the solution and some are more suitable for smaller clients. However, Salesforce is expensive."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Marketing Automation solutions are best for your needs.
893,915 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise1
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise34
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Salesforce Marketing Cloud?
I did not work on any pricing or implementation aspects but learned on my own when dealing with Revenue Cloud products.
What needs improvement with Salesforce Marketing Cloud?
I feel that Salesforce Marketing Cloud can be improved in how the data views are accessed; it would be better to have something more physical. With data extensions, you can view them directly, but ...
What is your primary use case for Salesforce Marketing Cloud?
The main use case for Salesforce Marketing Cloud is email marketing through Salesforce for the B2B segment on a day-to-day basis.For B2B email marketing using Salesforce Marketing Cloud, I can prov...
 

Also Known As

No data available
ExactTarget
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

NYU, Tableau, Xerox, ASPCA, Lego Education, Hoopla, Avery Dennison and SolarWorld.
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 Act-On Software vs. Salesforce Marketing Cloud and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,915 professionals have used our research since 2012.