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Freshdesk vs Freshsales vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

Customer Experience Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Freshdesk3.0%
Salesforce4.9%
Genesys Cloud CX4.4%
Other87.7%
Customer Experience Management
CRM Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Freshsales0.9%
Microsoft Dynamics CRM4.4%
SAP CRM3.9%
Other90.8%
CRM
Social CRM Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Salesforce Marketing Cloud7.0%
Sprinklr9.1%
HootSuite7.5%
Other76.4%
Social CRM
 

Featured Reviews

Bharanidharan K - PeerSpot reviewer
User-friendly interface but needs enhancement in ticket tracking and response times
There is no room for improvement in Freshdesk. We can set a time period for particular employees as something that could be better. For example, if some new employees are unfamiliar with Freshdesk, it should be more user-friendly. They need to give shortcut keys to use the ticketing portal. If some users don't know how to generate a ticket, providing them with a help desk or tutorial portal would be useful for the end-user.
Cristina Neri - PeerSpot reviewer
Cheaply-priced and does not require much customizations
It is a scalable solution. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten. At the moment, the tool functions quite well for our needs. Around five people use the tool. In the future, my company might plan to increase the use of the solution. Currently, all the sales people in our company use the product.
Napitch K - PeerSpot reviewer
Integration challenges impact workflow efficiency
The features of Salesforce Marketing Cloud that I have found most valuable are the Journey Builder and Flow. These capabilities are valuable because they make managing automation easy. Automating customer journeys saves time when scheduling content through every channel, and we can set the automation in advance when planning marketing content. The AI-powered tools such as Salesforce Datorama and Einstein save time and have an impact on marketing strategy decisions for my customers. I have noticed a positive impact from Salesforce Marketing Cloud through customer feedback. For example, a customer mentioned after project completion that it had a significant impact on their marketing team by eliminating the need to hire additional staff for marketing content and planning.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The feature that I have found most valuable is the way that it connects to various folders especially because we use it as a CRM tool. We can connect it with our phones and our chat, and also with the API and have it as an email service. Freshdesk just makes our life easier."
"The most valuable features of Freshdesk are the automation of tickets to assign them to different agents, and the managing of documents is easy."
"Freshdesk's requirement for appending resolution details before allowing ticket closure ensures the automatic creation of a knowledge base."
"It's easy to use and integrates with other tools. We can embed Jira into it, link Jira tickets with Freshdesk tickets, and use it for our knowledge base."
"Technical support is outstanding."
"Freshdesk provides a plain vanilla solution, making it user-friendly and less complex."
"We have made use of the training academy and the technical support team from Freshdesk. Both have been very good resources."
"Some of the best features of Freshdesk include automation, user-friendly interface, and comprehensive support options that enhance our workflow."
"The solution is a low-cost CRM product compared to other CRM alternatives."
"Email integration is easy."
"Freshsales is user-friendly, scalable and stable."
"One of the most valuable features is the ability to divert deals based on the potential revenue or specific market to certain sales teams."
"I like Freshsales because it's integrated with Shopify which we use to host our website."
"Freshsales is very simple to use, but it's fairly limited in its functionalities, and it's very cheap."
"The solution's most valuable feature is its well-organized sales cycle, which is important to us."
"The Journey and CloudPages and automation are all great."
"The most valuable features of Salesforce Marketing Cloud are the ease of use of the basic features."
"I like that I can constantly add leads to Salesforce Marketing Cloud and look at accounts there. I also like that the solution lets me set up meetings."
"This is a very powerful and scalable solution."
"We have found the solution to be scalable."
"The solution is very, very scalable."
"It is very easy to use from a marketing standpoint."
"It is straightforward to set up."
 

Cons

"There aren't any features that we want to enhance, but we need to mature in our usage of some of them. I can't say any feature is missing or needs improvement, but a tool's built-in features need to evolve customer feedback. We have a dialogue set up for that kind of feedback."
"I would like a better integration towards Azure DevOps. The current integration is more complicated and doesn’t work as well."
"The reporting, analysis modules and insights capabilities for this solution could be improved."
"There are a few things we have asked for, like a forward button. When a ticket comes in, we forward it, but it doesn't sync up with the forward. That is the one they have to rework. The other is when we forward the ticket, it doesn't go all, or certain things don't go with it. We have told them about it, and they are working on it. It would be better if they gave us a more standard reporting template. Although they already have some, many aren't usable. It would be easier if we had more templates to work with."
"I would like to see improvements in the account management aspect, having a customer portal for better visibility into my subscription, invoices, and trouble tickets."
"Freshdesk could improve its capabilities. It's missing the article formatting, and the overall look and feel make it not easy to use. The administration instructions on how to manage the automation, capability, and integration with third parties, such as chat or bots, are very important in these types of solutions."
"With the advancements in AI now, I will say Freshdesk should consider integrating more AI, but so far, I am satisfied with every single feature."
"For integrations, we need to write code that communicates with their system in order to enable certain functionality in the system. This is a lot of work for their customers."
"The price of this solution could be improved as well as the reporting functionality."
"We have a problem with the time to delivery for our customers, although this is not specific to this solution. Time to delivery can be 90 days."
"The licensing costs should be based on the amount of data and number of clients that one can insert into the application."
"The reporting for this solution across all their products could be improved. Currently, we have clients who export their data from Freshservices to third party solutions such Power BI to create more comprehensive reports."
"It lacks customizability for complex and larger use cases."
"We can use only one domain in the basic package."
"The solution needs to improve the user experience and leads capture."
"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."
"There could be easier tools to configure the product and to create landing pages to better handle large data sets."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud is expensive. The email functionality should be more modern and user-friendly."
"The UA could be better designed for a mobile connection."
"Marketing Cloud's forecasting could be improved."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud should be linked to an email ID, so the features after 15 days can update on the opportunity. You should not have to update them manually to the next step."
"I found that the tool is more complex than expected. It requires a deeper understanding to utilize its capabilities thoroughly."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The best system plan is enterprise. It costs basically 79 Euros per agent per month when it's billed annually and 95 Euros per agent per month when it's billed monthly."
"Freshdesk was the best solution with the best price. It was cost efficient and included all the features that we needed."
"It is costly."
"The pricing is pretty manageable and acceptable."
"It was definitely not expensive. It was two grand or maybe three grand total for a year. It has just straight and simple standard licensing fees. There is no additional fee."
"The price could be better, but it's okay. Compared to ServiceNow and JIRA, Freshworks offers a competitive price. There are also additional licensing costs because you need Microsoft Outlook. Each new email account costs around $15 to $19."
"We use a licensing model only so we pay for the number of agents we have configured in the system only."
"We pay approximately $70 per agent to use Freshdesk. We have 10 agents, which is approximately $700 or $800 per month. It is a fixed license, there are not any additional fees."
"The price for this solution is good in general, but in Brazil we do pay additional taxes."
"If one is a very low price and ten is expensive, I rate the product price as a three."
"The tool is not that expensive."
"The basic price is affordable. The add ons are expensive."
"Freshsales is an economical product."
"It's normal pricing."
"Salesforce is an expensive solution."
"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."
"The solution is a bit expensive."
"Salesforce has different versions of the solution and some are more suitable for smaller clients. However, Salesforce is expensive."
"The solution is paid for monthly."
"My company pays to use this solution."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
23%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
6%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Insurance Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Healthcare Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business21
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise2
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise28
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Freshdesk?
Freshdesk significantly improved our customer issue resolution process. We can now easily record and track all custom...
What needs improvement with Freshdesk?
With the advancements in AI now, I will say Freshdesk should consider integrating more AI, but so far, I am satisfied...
What is your primary use case for Freshdesk?
As a customer success manager for over six years, I can sum up the benefits I've seen from using Freshdesk: it has pl...
What needs improvement with Freshsales?
The licensing costs should be based on the amount of data and number of clients that one can insert into the applicat...
What is your primary use case for Freshsales?
I use the solution in my company since we are interested in the application and all the activities that salespeople d...
What advice do you have for others considering Freshsales?
I can tell others that it is a good product and it is perfect for medium and large-sized companies because the setup ...
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?
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?
Salesforce Marketing Cloud works effectively as a suite, best-of-suite solution. However, if you want to reuse specif...
 

Also Known As

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ExactTarget
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Honda, 3M, Hugo Boss, Petronas, Sony Pictures, The Atlantic, goodreads, Clear Channel Radio, Penn University of Pennsylvania, unicef, Kuoni, Movember
Caratlane, Pykih, Buying Show, INTUO, WallyPark, Exploring Vacations, Raved, Forest, Ascendore, MagePlaza, Vacasa,
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 Salesforce, Qualtrics, Genesys and others in Customer Experience Management. Updated: September 2025.
869,785 professionals have used our research since 2012.