ActiveCampaign vs Salesforce Sales Cloud comparison

ActiveCampaign and Salesforce are both solutions in the CRM category. ActiveCampaign is ranked #33 with an average rating of 8.5, while Salesforce is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.2. ActiveCampaign holds a 0.3% mindshare in CRM, compared to Salesforce’s 8.6% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of ActiveCampaign users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Salesforce users who would recommend it.

ActiveCampaign

Read 2 ActiveCampaign reviews

114 Views
72 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Salesforce Sales Cloud

Read 114 Salesforce Sales Cloud reviews

5,511 Views
2,933 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

ActiveCampaign

Salesforce Sales Cloud

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

Salesforce Sales Cloud and ActiveCampaign are competing in the sales efficiency and customer interactions sector. Salesforce Sales Cloud seems to have the upper hand due to its comprehensive feature set, while ActiveCampaign is favored for its price-value balance and ease of use.

Features: Salesforce Sales Cloud offers lead and opportunity management, customizable dashboards, and advanced analytics with seamless enterprise integration. ActiveCampaign is known for email marketing automation, customer segmentation, and CRM capabilities, focusing on small-to-medium businesses.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Salesforce Sales Cloud's deployment requires significant time and often third-party assistance, but provides comprehensive support services. ActiveCampaign allows for simpler deployment with an easy setup process and responsive customer support catering to businesses seeking fast deployment.

Pricing and ROI: Salesforce Sales Cloud typically requires higher initial setup costs but offers extensive features justifying the investment for larger enterprises. ActiveCampaign provides affordable pricing options emphasizing marketing value, ideal for budget-conscious businesses. Salesforce may offer higher ROI for large enterprises, while ActiveCampaign offers accessible ROI for smaller businesses.

To learn more, read our detailed ActiveCampaign vs. Salesforce Sales Cloud Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

ActiveCampaign vs. Salesforce Sales Cloud

April 2025

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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

ActiveCampaign

Ranking in CRM

33rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Salesforce Sales Cloud

Ranking in CRM

1st

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

114

Ranking in other categories

Opportunity Management (1st), Sales Force Automation (1st), Conversation Intelligence Software (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the CRM category, the mindshare of ActiveCampaign is 0.3%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Sales Cloud is 8.6%, down from 10.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

CRM

Featured Reviews

Laura Oosterbroek

Head of Markting at Vanderkamp

Easy to use, efficient marketing automation and CRM tool

AI is upcoming, so for reporting and dashboarding, it would be nice to have some AI integrated into the system. Overall, some AI features can be added. For example, I can ask, like, we have imported conversion rates, and you can ask like, "What is the trend of the conversion of the last half year?" So, more on a reporting side you can get those kinds of AI skills. Not that you have to download an Excel and put it into another AI system to do the analysis, but that it would be possible to do it on its own.

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Richard Mottershead

Enterprise Architect at a non-profit with 501-1,000 employees

Infinitely customizable, good end-to-end sales and customer management processes but lacks good documentation

Essentially, it's the CRM solution for managing customers and leads. The features that had the most significant impact on our sales efficiency include flexibility, regular updates, and very good end-to-end sales and customer management processes. AI and machine learning are on the agenda for next year. Initially, it will be very silo-based, but eventually, we'll be integrating MIBI data into our solution. Sales Cloud's reporting and analytics capabilities influenced our sales strategy quite a lot. We can build every report as a dashboard, and there are various sorts of things. We are using Tableau as our MIBI analytic solution, which is also owned by Salesforce these days.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"ActiveCampaign is for medium-sized companies is the better solution because it’s way less complex than the other solutions."

"Salesforce is such a widespread software in terms of what it can do and its scope. Theoretically, you can run a whole company off of it. There are many valuable features, such as reporting and analytics. You can customize almost the whole environment is what appeals to so many companies the most."

"The dashboards and dashboard customization are great."

"The tool is very good in terms of stability, support, and features."

"Our use case within the organization covers the entire cycle from lead generation, demand planning, and opportunities to realization and closure. For our clients, Salesforce is used more to plot the cycle from products to cash and lead to revenue. They mostly build offers and pricing quotations in the Salesforce environment through their field marketing agents."

"This product is lightweight."

"It has custom fields and custom reports which can align to our business objectives and marketing focus."

"Salesforce Sales Cloud is very user-friendly, and simple to create dashboards and extract the reports. Additionally, it integrates well with other applications."

"When it comes to the lead management process, we track and evaluate the different stages and the challenges in each stage. It's so that the entire team has visibility of what's going on with each individual lead."

More Salesforce Sales Cloud pros

Cons

"AI is upcoming, so for reporting and dashboarding, it would be nice to have some AI integrated into the system."

"They should also include ATP and CTP functionality."

"There could be an option to change the price list without creating a new quote."

"We have a very broad set of products at our company. The process to get that information accurately into the Sales Cloud system could use improvement. It shouldn't take weeks of time. The process of identifying products that are being sold for forecasting purposes and sales tracking purposes is too hard."

"One aspect I find challenging with Salesforce Sales Cloud is its forecasting feature. While it's useful for analyzing sales data and predicting future revenue, I've encountered instances where the outcomes weren't as perfect as expected."

"The problem is the solution has gotten so big, it's very complex now. It's a bit difficult to figure out how to do certain actions."

"Sales Cloud could be improved with more training. In general, the training is very good, but you have to really seek out some good options in order to upskill yourself. Another thing, which could also be a benefit, is that Sales is very customizable. If you move from one organization to another, you can see your Salesforce as before, but their Sales Cloud may look completely different from what you're used to. It's not like Microsoft Excel or Trello, where the layout and all the functions are the same. Because it's so customizable, I feel like there is a bit of a learning curve when you inherit another Sales Cloud instance. To be honest, I think that's the beauty of Salesforce because you can customize it so much to fit your needs as a company. It follows your processes and use cases in order for you to get the most out of the system itself."

"The product is not stable when enhancements are done to the cloud."

"The solution's design could be improved."

More Salesforce Sales Cloud cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The development costs are lower because you don’t have to have consultants changing and all that stuff."

"Salesforce Sales Cloud is an expensive solution."

"Its license is expensive. It is probably a lot more than smaller solutions. It is around £500 a month, but I don't know how many licenses we have."

"Being license based, the license varies by type. The pricing is considered average."

"Not the cheapest"

"Sales Cloud is expensive."

"It's expensive, storage being the most costly aspect."

"Sales Cloud is quite expensive."

"The price of the product is very high. I rate the product price a ten on a scale of one to ten, where one means low price, and ten means expensive."

More Salesforce Sales Cloud pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Educational Organization

72%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ActiveCampaign?

The development costs are lower because you don’t have to have consultants changing and all that stuff. I feel that it’s a bit cheaper than the other systems.

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What needs improvement with ActiveCampaign?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for ActiveCampaign?

I use it For marketing automation purposes and for share repurpose purposes.

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What do you like most about Salesforce Sales Cloud?

The features of Sales Cloud most useful for testing and running email campaigns are highly valuable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Salesforce Sales Cloud?

Improving system performance and processing speed would enhance productivity and allow for even smoother workflows according to my view. Additionally, introducing faster data retrieval and real-tim...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Salesforce Sales Cloud?

My primary use case for Salesforce is to streamline sales strategies, define key sales parameters, and manage focus areas effectively. I leverage Salesforce to record, track, and optimize our sales...

See all answers

Comparisons

No data available

Microsoft Dynamics CRM vs Salesforce Sales Cloud

Compared 28% of the time

SAP CRM vs Salesforce Sales Cloud

Compared 27% of the time

Oracle CX Sales vs Salesforce Sales Cloud

Compared 6% of the time

Oracle CRM vs Salesforce Sales Cloud

Compared 4% of the time

Siebel CRM vs Salesforce Sales Cloud

Compared 4% of the time

More Salesforce Sales Cloud Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

CRM

March 2025

Download ActiveCampaign product report

Buyer's Guide

Salesforce Sales Cloud

April 2025

Download Salesforce Sales Cloud product report

Also Known As

No data available

Sales Cloud, SFDC, Salesforce

Overview

ActiveCampaign provides marketing automation, email marketing, and CRM capabilities tailored for businesses looking to enhance customer engagement. Known for its rich feature set, it offers flexible solutions to help businesses streamline processes and improve marketing efforts.

ActiveCampaign serves as a key tool for businesses aiming to integrate automation with CRM functions. Its platform offers a robust range of features that help businesses engage effectively with their audience. Known for its flexibility, ActiveCampaign helps create personalized customer experiences. The platform is continually updated, reflecting feedback from a diverse user base. Some areas for improvement include intuitive navigation and analytics capabilities. Despite these, ActiveCampaign remains a popular choice among professionals who desire comprehensive marketing solutions.

What are the essential features of ActiveCampaign?

Marketing Automation: Offers sophisticated workflows for scheduling messages and segmenting contacts.
Email Marketing: Provides customizable templates and advanced reporting tools.
CRM Integration: Automates customer data management for efficient workflow processing.
Customer Experience Automation: Creates personalized experiences with data-driven insights.
Sales Automation: Streamlines sales processes through task management and deal updates.

What benefits should users look for in reviews of ActiveCampaign?

Enhanced Efficiency: Saves time through automation of repetitive tasks.
Improved Engagement: Increases interaction rates with personalized communications.
Scalable Solutions: Grows alongside business needs, adapting to larger campaigns.
Comprehensive Support: Provides extensive resources and support for seamless use.

In specific industries like e-commerce, ActiveCampaign is implemented to manage customer journeys from lead generation to purchase conversion. Retail businesses leverage its automation features to target promotions and optimize customer retention strategies. In the service sector, companies use its CRM functionality to maintain client relationships and streamline communication. These tailored approaches demonstrate the adaptability of ActiveCampaign across different market needs.

ActiveCampaign

Salesforce Sales Cloud is a comprehensive CRM platform designed for efficient lead management, sales forecasting, and customer engagement, offering extensive customization and cloud-based accessibility.

Aimed at enhancing business efficiency, Salesforce Sales Cloud supports core business processes like CRM, lead and opportunity management, sales forecasting, and customer engagement. Its robust integration capabilities allow seamless connectivity with ERP systems and various applications. The platform offers pipeline tracking, process automation, and advanced sales cycle management. Users appreciate its cloud-based accessibility, allowing teams to operate remotely and manage sales operations effectively. However, users highlight concerns about its complexity, cost, and the need for a more intuitive interface.

What features does Salesforce Sales Cloud offer?

Customization: Tailor the CRM to meet specific business requirements.
Robust Reporting: Comprehensive analytics and data insights.
Lead Management: Efficiently manage and convert leads.
API Integration: Seamless connectivity with multiple applications.
Cloud Accessibility: Work from anywhere with cloud-based access.

What benefits should be evaluated in Salesforce Sales Cloud reviews?

Enhanced Productivity: Streamline sales processes with automation.
Improved Collaboration: Facilitate team coordination and client engagement.
Accurate Forecasting: Make informed decisions with reliable sales forecasts.
Flexibility: Accommodate diverse industry needs with ease.
Legacy System Integration: Efficiently update and integrate with existing systems.

Salesforce Sales Cloud is widely implemented across industries such as finance, healthcare, and retail, supporting sales teams in tracking and managing sales operations. Its use extends to reporting, collaboration, and enhancing client interactions, allowing companies to tailor Salesforce to meet industry-specific requirements efficiently.

Salesforce

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Coca-Cola Enterprises, Kuoni Global Travel Services, Financial Times, Just Eat, Jobsite, H.R. Owen, PlayerLayer, O2, DMGT, Philips, Xtreme.ie, Business Stream, Remote Asset Management, Dialogue Group

Buyer's Guide

ActiveCampaign vs. Salesforce Sales Cloud

April 2025

Free Report: ActiveCampaign vs. Salesforce Sales Cloud

Find out what your peers are saying about ActiveCampaign vs. Salesforce Sales Cloud and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.

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