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Freshdesk 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.6
Freshdesk boosts ROI with automation, reducing costs and enhancing productivity, service quality, and operational scalability effectively.
Sentiment score
6.0
Users report improved efficiency and satisfaction with Salesforce Marketing Cloud, despite challenges in directly measuring ROI.
People who initially find ServiceNow to be on the higher side, but when you do the value gain comparison in the next few years, you see that it does give you the returns, with the AI capabilities and everything it brings.
Director, Portfolio Projects at Microland Limited
Automation of assigning tickets helps in reducing overall operational costs for the company, which frees up agents to do other complex and much-needed tasks.
Project Manager at Yohanna
I have seen a return on investment with Freshdesk, as there were definitely savings because we do not need to spend the lifetime of our customer success managers; we can just use this tool.
Head Of Product & Engineering (Cpto) at a real estate/law firm with 11-50 employees
I have seen some return on investment with Salesforce Marketing Cloud through features such as reporting, automation, and Journey parts that save resources.
Consultant at SNDT
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
Freshdesk offers responsive basic support with good documentation, but complex issues can be slow, averaging 8/10 ratings.
Sentiment score
6.2
Salesforce Marketing Cloud support varies, with Premium support rated high, but improvements needed in response time and documentation.
We have not needed to contact technical support, as Freshdesk has met our needs efficiently.
VP - Technology and Solutions at Ninth Dimension IT Solutions (P) Ltd
From my experience, once it is set up, we have never had problems.
Customer Success Manager at Mimshackworks Endeavors
The first-time response should be within 30 seconds.
NOC SOC ANALYST at SAVIC Inc.
Customer support could be improved, especially for new features.
Practice Manager at Katzion
Salesforce customer service is excellent.
Lead BSA at cloudperitus
I have communicated with the technical support of Salesforce Marketing Cloud and would give them a rating of 9.5 since they have resolved my issues most of the time and are quite responsive.
Consultant at SNDT
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.8
Freshdesk is scalable for small to mid-sized businesses but faces limitations with customizations for large enterprises.
Sentiment score
7.7
Salesforce Marketing Cloud offers scalable multi-business architecture, ideal for large organizations, despite cost challenges for smaller entities.
Additional features like email, WhatsApp, and SMS ticketing, along with Slack integration, can be enabled as required.
VP - Technology and Solutions at Ninth Dimension IT Solutions (P) Ltd
For small to medium-sized businesses, you can look at Freshdesk, but for larger enterprise levels, you look at ServiceNow.
Director, Portfolio Projects at Microland Limited
They can easily send an email to support, and a ticket gets generated for the IT person.
Project Engineer at IT Solution
The scalability of Salesforce is very good.
Practice Manager at Katzion
On a scale of one to ten, I rate its scalability at 9.5.
Lead BSA at cloudperitus
I find Salesforce Marketing Cloud to be scalable, as we can easily send out campaigns.
Senior Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Freshdesk is praised for high stability, with occasional minor issues, quick resolutions, and generally excellent performance ratings.
Sentiment score
8.2
Salesforce Marketing Cloud is highly stable, with reliable uptime, minimal bugs, and efficient issue notifications, inspiring user confidence.
The goal is always to respond to customer tickets in a timely fashion, ensuring that customers feel seen and heard while also providing solutions.
Customer Success Manager at Mimshackworks Endeavors
After installation and continuous operation, I have encountered no problems.
Head Advisor Infrastructure Cloud Architect at Adrienutech
Freshdesk has been quite stable in the market.
Director, Portfolio Projects at Microland Limited
Salesforce Marketing Cloud is highly stable.
Practice Manager at Katzion
The maximum downtime I faced was about two to three hours.
Consultant at SNDT
Salesforce Marketing Cloud is stable, with issues occurring sometimes, but it is stable approximately 90% of the time.
Senior Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

Freshdesk users seek improved customization, analytics, performance, integration, pricing, UI responsiveness, and easier configuration for complex cases.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud needs better user management, analytics, integration, support, personalization, AI, cost efficiency, and user-friendly interfaces.
Currently, some features like SMS or WhatsApp integration are only available to larger user groups, but even smaller teams should have access based on their specific needs.
VP - Technology and Solutions at Ninth Dimension IT Solutions (P) Ltd
The current integration is more complicated and doesn’t work as well.
Development Manager at Horizon Software
More automation would be beneficial, as it could greatly improve our efficiency and reduce manual tasks.
Call Centre Manager at a retailer with 51-200 employees
It takes the default language and doesn't accept custom language specifications, which creates discomfort in certain scenarios.
Lead BSA at cloudperitus
Overall, I know there are lots of features and options that are very reliable and sustainable, but it's complicated and it's expensive.
Partner & Senior Consultant at BO - Business Online
There are inaccuracies in how AgentForce retrieves information or interprets data.
Practice Manager at Katzion
 

Setup Cost

Freshdesk's per-agent licensing is cost-effective, with enterprise plans at 79 Euros monthly, offering comprehensive features and negotiation options.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud is costly but valued for advanced features, with varied pricing based on storage and module choices.
Our organization pays about 200,000 Indian rupees per year for the license.
VP - Technology and Solutions at Ninth Dimension IT Solutions (P) Ltd
The pricing experience is relatively competitive, so it is cost-effective.
Project Manager at Yohanna
The setup cost and licensing are very good.
Project Engineer at IT Solution
The pricing is around $10,000 per annum per user.
Practice Manager at Katzion
 

Valuable Features

Freshdesk streamlines customer support with efficient ticketing, automation, omnichannel support, and analytics, enhancing satisfaction and operational efficiency.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud enhances marketing with content, automation, and integration tools, improving customer engagement and multi-channel strategies.
These features drastically impact my day-to-day work and my team's efficiency by reducing the resolution time significantly, as issues that once took days to resolve are now handled in hours and even minutes.
Works at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
Freshdesk has positively impacted my organization as it has saved a considerable amount of time and has enabled us to focus better on customers, which resulted in lesser churn.
Project Manager at Yohanna
Now, with Freshdesk, tickets can be easily assigned to any engineer, who will provide the cause, explain why it happened, and give us the answer on how they resolved the issue.
Project Engineer at IT Solution
The feature of Salesforce Marketing Cloud that has had the largest impact on improving my campaign outcomes is the recent WhatsApp integration, which allows Salesforce to connect with subscribers through different channels such as SMS, email, or WhatsApp.
Consultant at SNDT
Salesforce Marketing Cloud has positively impacted my organization by reducing costs while significantly increasing the return on investment.
Senior Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The most valuable features of Salesforce Marketing Cloud include the timely alerts and notification systems, which greatly enhance communication not only with customers but also within dealerships.
Practice Manager at Katzion
 

Categories and Ranking

Freshdesk
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
41
Ranking in other categories
Customer Experience Management (3rd), Field Service Management (3rd), Help Desk Software (5th), Knowledge Management Software (4th)
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
63
Ranking in other categories
Social CRM (4th), Marketing Automation (1st), Marketing Management (1st), Social Media Management Solutions (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Customer Relationship Management solutions, they serve different purposes. Freshdesk is designed for Customer Experience Management and holds a mindshare of 2.3%, down 5.6% compared to last year.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud, on the other hand, focuses on Social CRM, holds 6.3% mindshare, down 12.9% since last year.
Customer Experience Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Freshdesk2.3%
Qualtrics XM Platform3.6%
Genesys Cloud CX3.2%
Other90.9%
Customer Experience Management
Social CRM Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Salesforce Marketing Cloud6.3%
Sprinklr12.4%
HootSuite10.3%
Other71.0%
Social CRM
 

Featured Reviews

Gauri Thakur - PeerSpot reviewer
Director, Portfolio Projects at Microland Limited
Integrated support workflows have provided a unified view but need broader enterprise flexibility
Freshdesk's scalability could be improved for larger businesses across departments. Its intuitive interface is appealing for small to medium-sized businesses. However, when you look at larger enterprise levels, ServiceNow operates more efficiently. This scalability is an area where Freshdesk could expand its offerings. Additionally, I don't have too much hands-on experience with Freshdesk ticket routing. I need to check with the service desk team if they've used it. Similarly, for analytics capability, I haven't explored much on Freshdesk, but I have done it for ServiceNow. I have seen a lot on ServiceNow and the BMC Remedy, so I can speak better for them. I haven't had the chance to look at it so much that I can do a comparison. I haven't had much experience with Freshdesk's reporting. Within its paradigm of customer service management, Freshdesk is quite scalable. But I've said that inter-department and the interoperability is better off in ServiceNow than in Freshdesk.
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
University
6%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Construction Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise14
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise34
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Freshdesk?
I think the main problem with Freshdesk is the deep settings, interface, and analytics. When you need complex cross-functional reports, such as a link between tickets and CRM data or a specific vis...
What is your primary use case for Freshdesk?
My main use case for Freshdesk is customer support tickets. A specific example of how my team uses Freshdesk for customer support tickets is that it was a pre-integrated Freshdesk tool with Jira, w...
What advice do you have for others considering Freshdesk?
My advice for others looking into using Freshdesk is to consider that compared to Zendesk or Salesforce, where the settings might take months, Freshdesk can allow you to launch it in just a few day...
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?
Regarding areas for improvement, the realization of value from Salesforce Einstein's predictive AI features is a notable challenge. Although the implementation partner highlighted these capabilitie...
What is your primary use case for Salesforce Marketing Cloud?
As a consultant, I partner with organizations to optimize their use of Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC). My engagement often begins pre-implementation, where I lead the requirements gathering proc...
 

Also Known As

No data available
ExactTarget
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Honda, 3M, Hugo Boss, Petronas, Sony Pictures, The Atlantic, goodreads, Clear Channel Radio, Penn University of Pennsylvania, unicef, Kuoni, Movember
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, Freshworks and others in Customer Experience Management. Updated: May 2026.
902,894 professionals have used our research since 2012.