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HubSpot Marketing Hub vs IBM Watson Campaign Automation 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

As of May 2026, in the Marketing Automation category, the mindshare of HubSpot Marketing Hub is 10.0%, up from 9.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Watson Campaign Automation is 1.6%, 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%
HubSpot Marketing Hub10.0%
IBM Watson Campaign Automation1.6%
Other76.1%
Marketing Automation
 

Featured Reviews

Xx Ee - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Content Marketing Strategist at a outsourcing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Has supported marketing and sales alignment while leaving room for better customization options
I have recommendations for making it easier to customize. I used to work in a tech company, so it's very easy to do that in-house, and our team did that. It's not easy to customize for a regular user though. In the world of generative AI where it's easy for you to connect different tools, APIs, etc., HubSpot Marketing Hub still requires some customization. For example, if you want to make sure it's connected with a custom CRM or some other CRM, there is some fair bit of modification that's required. Some main differences in my experience between HubSpot Marketing Hub and Salesforce are that Salesforce is a bit un-user-friendly. I have to be fair, I haven't used Salesforce too much, but I think HubSpot Marketing Hub is much more user-friendly.
it_user701487 - PeerSpot reviewer
Marketing Administrator and Member Web Support at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
Valuable features include creating and using defined templates. I would like to see reporting capabilities and graphing reports.
We are currently planning to switch at the end of this year to a different ESP. One reason was that, with IBM's takeover of SilverPop, we did discover that customer care and our relationship/sales manager were no longer responsive or as caring as they had been in the past seven or eight years. The feeling is very different. We had never felt ignored because we are not super-users, but now, we do feel that way.
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

"HubSpot Marketing Hub has positively impacted our organization by getting our message out there, having the designs look nice, and also just increasing our brand awareness."
"HubSpot is a very helpful solution."
"As a CRM tool, it looks good."
"Overall speed and ease of use, plus the sandbox environment that allows for real-time examples to test and share with clients, lets us shine with a deep understanding of the platform."
"We can choose the necessary stages as per the lead, and update it accordingly, then proceed it further."
"Ease of editing and creating templates after initial development with the Design Manager."
"It saves a lot of time."
"The contacts and the connection to sales as well as contact enrichment have been the most valuable aspects of the product."
"I love their tech support; they have not been needed frequently, but when needed, they are quick and very knowledgeable."
"The Journey Builder, which has been around for a while and follows the steps that customers use, is the greatest tool that Salesforce has."
"The ability to automate processes is one of the most valuable features of Salesforce. This sets it part from other systems. We use the journey builder to design a fully automated journey."
"This is a very powerful and scalable 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."
"The AI-powered tools such as Salesforce Datorama and Einstein save time and have an impact on marketing strategy decisions for my customers."
"We use this solution for reporting, pipeline generation, and forecasting."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud integrates with multiple systems seamlessly, enabling effective lead management."
"Offers many great features and is intuitive."
 

Cons

"HubSpot is mainly for enterprise clients and there is a lot of competition. There are better solutions, such as Eloqua and Marketo."
"While HubSpot Marketing Hub has shown increased functionality, there is still room for improvement, particularly in workflows."
"The solution can scale with no problem; it's just very expensive. One of the drawbacks to HubSpot is that it is a very pricey tool."
"They should integrate a bot, as it would be easier to get the status to the management team without logging into the CRM to get all the required details."
"The search and questions aren't as intuitive as I would expect from a platform like this."
"An expensive solution."
"Increase the CRM size for sole proprietors before increasing the fee."
"There are issues with the consistency of notifications."
"One reason was that, with IBM's takeover of SilverPop, we did discover that customer care and our relationship/sales manager were no longer responsive or as caring as they had been in the past seven or eight years."
"In a future release, adding end-user personalization would be a benefit."
"They can perhaps simplify the dashboards. In my opinion as an end-user, reports could also be simplified, but it also depends on how your company is set up."
"If you want to use advanced features in Salesforce Marketing Cloud, they are extremely difficult to use."
"The customization of Salesforce, a generic CRM software, has room for improvement."
"The general setup and understanding of how to use it can be improved. There should be easier self-service for setting up dashboards."
"Improvements can be made in the processing speed, how information displays, and options for scrolling."
"We have struggled to get resolution of support tickets from the Salesforce team."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud should be linked to an email ID, so the features after 15 days can update on the opportunity."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"HubSpot Marketing Hub's pricing is reasonable. It is about 800-900 dollars a month. It may be pricey for smaller clients, but for the bigger ones, it's only a small part of their monthly revenue."
"The licensing costs are around $4,800 per month. Initially, there's an onboarding fee of around $10,000 or $5,000, but after that, it's just the licensing fee."
"We are on an annual license for this solution. There have many different versions to meet the needs of their customers, such as professional enterprise and basic versions. They charge for the particular feature or components which are available in the license you have."
"For our organization, HubSpot was pretty affordable compared to Google Analytics."
"HubSpot Marketing Hub provided me with the startup package with 90% off, but it's still hundreds of dollars a month instead of thousands of dollars a month. There is an additional cost for training and onboarding which is hundreds of dollars. It is expensive and should be reduced."
"At present, the pricing seems reasonable, but with our plans to scale, I anticipate that it could become a bit steep."
"Regarding pricing and licensing, I haven't directly handled it, but I assume Zoho might be cheaper. However, I would still prefer HubSpot due to its cleaner and more user-friendly interface."
"The platform itself will typically cost anywhere from $50,000 to $80,000 per year."
Information not available
"It's not cheap, which is why I recommend that you use Marketing Cloud to create automated journeys. If you plan to use Marketing Cloud just to send emails, use another tool."
"This solution is priced in the medium to high price range."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a highly expensive solution, it needs to be less expensive. We are on an annual license to use the solution."
"The price is expensive."
"We have two types of licensing. We have a yearly license for end users and we have a concurrent login for selling."
"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."
"It is a license per user."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Construction Company
7%
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 Business29
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise11
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise34
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with HubSpot Marketing Hub?
The biggest thing HubSpot Marketing Hub needs to improve is to keep up with trends and continue innovating around AI ...
What is your primary use case for HubSpot Marketing Hub?
My main use case for HubSpot Marketing Hub is primarily for our website and all of our demand generation. A specific ...
What advice do you have for others considering HubSpot Marketing Hub?
HubSpot Marketing Hub has positively impacted our organization by allowing us to execute more targeted campaigns, as ...
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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 nota...
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 engageme...
 

Also Known As

No data available
IBM Marketing Cloud, IBM SilverPop
ExactTarget
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Emyth, CRS, ClearPivot, Stitch Live, SoldOut, Waterfall, SnapEngage, Duo
The King Arthur Flour, Stonyfield, InsideOut Development, Moosejaw, Big Scary Cranium, Paper Style
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, Adobe, HubSpot and others in Marketing Automation. Updated: May 2026.
895,990 professionals have used our research since 2012.