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HubSpot Marketing Hub vs Pardot 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 August 2025, in the Marketing Automation category, the mindshare of HubSpot Marketing Hub is 9.6%, down from 10.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Pardot is 3.3%, down from 4.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is 21.4%, down from 23.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Marketing Automation
 

Featured Reviews

Anika Gaur - PeerSpot reviewer
Marketing efficiency with automation and exceptional support
The major reason for switching from Marketo to HubSpot Marketing Hub was the ease of use and customer care service. HubSpot offers native integrations with over three hundred third-party tools, which is a significant advantage. The platform provides various automation tools, such as AI chatbots and auto-generated emails, which enhance efficiency in marketing tasks. These features help our company use resources efficiently and achieve ROI.
Vikram Rawani - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers an easy initial setup phase and good ROI
With Pardot, users can do the segmentation based on their requirements. You can segment your prospects based on their interests, locations, companies, or the sales cycle. You can also use the engagement studio to create a journey for the people you have segmented with the help of automation feature of the tool. The aforementioned area consists of the most useful features I found in the tool apart from its out-of-the-box features. The integration between Pardot and Salesforce is beneficial if you know how to share the leads that a company finds useful so that they don't have to invest in manual work or do anything blindly to reach out to leads. Users can segment the leads using the features that the tool provides. I recommend the product to those who plan to use it. If a business is into B2B marketing and can afford to purchase Pardot, then they should buy it. If the product of a company is good, then Pardot can help multiply such an organization's ROI. Based on the product and how the sales and marketing team works, the tool can be useful. In short, the tool can be as good as the person who is using it. I rate the tool a nine out of ten.
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

"I use HubSpot Marketing Hub for various tasks. It's easy to use and adaptable. After a little training, anyone can handle it efficiently. We use it for drip campaigns, social media, and marketing automation. We're not fully using marketing automation yet for smart content. I like the drag-and-drop feature for editing images and content in email templates. I don't need a developer to create designs. I can quickly test how emails look on different devices.4"
"HubSpot is a very helpful solution."
"There are customizable templates and we can easily make the templates more dynamic."
"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."
"Marketing Hub does an incredible job of tracking and updating client records. The reporting has been enhanced, so you can do just about any type of reporting with it and export to Excel if necessary. They just came out with a considerable upgrade a few months ago, which really helped on the reporting side."
"Ease of editing and creating templates after initial development with the Design Manager."
"It's my understanding that the initial setup is a straightforward process."
"HubSpot Marketing Hub has kept me updated with alerts."
"Pardot's most valuable feature is its B2B marketing capabilities."
"The most valuable feature is the customization of the solution."
"Pardot directly integrates with CRM, specifically Salesforce, which has an excellent R&D team."
"I have not had any issues with the product's stability. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"For me, the best thing is the Custom Redirect. That's one key thing I like because using that particular Custom Redirect, I can track a link wherever I'm sharing it. I can track how and when people are accessing it."
"The solution can be easily integrated with Salesforce."
"It has made email marketing quicker and easier."
"The tracking and automation of outbound messaging is the solution's most valuable aspect."
"This is a very powerful and scalable solution."
"It is a great solution. I like its stability, scalability, and performance."
"The most valuable of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is seeing the customer's journey."
"The most valuable features of Salesforce Marketing Cloud are that it performs well and gives me what I need. It's the most friendly interface system for CRM I've worked with. Additionally, it integrates fairly well with different kinds of AI and ML to allow you to receive more out of your application."
"The solution is very, very scalable."
"Marketing Cloud has improved our productivity and our team enjoy using it."
"The most valuable feature is the 'Accelerators', which are expert-taught subject matter webinars on items such as personalization of emails and SMS to contacts and prospects."
"In Salesforce Marketing Cloud, the ability to send emails effectively is very valuable."
 

Cons

"The search and questions aren't as intuitive as I would expect from a platform like this."
"HubSpot is mainly for enterprise clients and there is a lot of competition. There are better solutions, such as Eloqua and Marketo. This solution needs to improve the analytics for social media monitoring to a level that it can compete with other solutions available in the market. There are some limitations with the features compared to other solutions."
"Some customized reachouts might need additional levers or add-ons, especially when automating at scale for specific buying personas. That's when you might need some additional help, in my opinion."
"The upcoming tasks feature could be better. With HubSpot, whenever I put the contact information into Microsoft Office or Microsoft Outlook, it automatically inputs it into HubSpot. For example, it keeps telling me to contact my Solaris representative as an upcoming task. I've tried changing the contact in it to "not a lead," but it keeps sending me that notification."
"There are issues with the consistency of notifications."
"Increase the CRM size for sole proprietors before increasing the fee."
"The solution is not recommended for launching investment."
"HubSpot Marketing Hub’s user interface could be more accessible for a regular user to understand."
"For new people, the installation of the tool can be difficult."
"When it comes to integration with third-party tools, Pardot's APIs are not that robust."
"​Technical support has been quick and helpful every time."
"The solution lacks integration with Instagram, which is our top problem with the product."
"Pardot must be synced with Salesforce."
"The user interface could be made more intuitive and user-friendly."
"The solution is quite expensive, at least, for smaller teams."
"Pardot needs many improvements in terms of email design and design studio functionalities."
"We need a development environment for Marketing Cloud. Currently, there is no development environment for this solution. Other Salesforce products, such as Sales and Service Cloud, have a development environment in which the developers can do some things and then post them in production. Currently, everything happens in the production for Marketing Cloud. There is only one environment, and the developers and the end-users have to work in the same environment, which seems to be challenging. If Salesforce can bring a developer environment for Marketing Cloud, it will be good."
"The encryption and decryption have room for improvement."
"The majority of my clients are happy, but when it comes to the CDP of Salesforce, the client gets confused. They have no clue that Salesforce has a CDP platform too. If my clients want to go ahead with the same vendor, Salesforce, they get confused about the different marketing suites which are available. There is no clear marketing done for the suites available for the clients, this is where the client is facing the real challenges."
"The solution can be difficult to set up for non-technical individuals."
"Query Studio in Salesforce Marketing Cloud needs to be improved because not all queries are supported and we cannot debug the AM Script or SSJS code, which makes code debugging manual."
"I've noticed on one-to-one leads, the customer objection option is not available."
"Clarity around new features could be improved when they are released."
"They could improve the product's data integration functionality for larger companies."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"I'd rate the solution's pricing in the middle range. I want more regular communication from our customer service manager to help us improve our use of HubSpot Marketing Hub."
"The platform itself will typically cost anywhere from $50,000 to $80,000 per year."
"HubSpot Marketing Hub is less expensive than one of its competitors."
"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."
"I believe an individual license costs $50 per month."
"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 price of this solution is expensive. However, you are going to receive good value for money. They could improve by reducing the price."
"​Make sure you do not pay for features that you may not need​."
"We pay about $4000 a month."
"It is a competitively priced product, considering what it provides."
"In terms of pricing, Pardot is cheaper than Marketing Cloud."
"The solution is a bit expensive."
"My company pays to use this solution."
"The licensing cost for the solution is on a yearly basis."
"We have two types of licensing. We have a yearly license for end users and we have a concurrent login for selling."
"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."
"Salesforce has different versions of the solution and some are more suitable for smaller clients. However, Salesforce is expensive."
"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
"The solution's pricing is very high and should be more flexible for smaller companies."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
22%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Educational Organization
8%
Performing Arts
6%
Computer Software Company
19%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Healthcare Company
7%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Healthcare Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about HubSpot Marketing Hub?
I find HubSpot Marketing Hub's user interface very intuitive and easy to navigate, which is something I really apprec...
What needs improvement with HubSpot Marketing Hub?
One of the main improvements needed is in the preview process for emails. There is a discrepancy between how emails l...
What is your primary use case for HubSpot Marketing Hub?
My main use case with HubSpot Marketing Hub ( /products/hubspot-marketing-hub-reviews ) is email marketing. I primari...
What do you like most about Pardot?
It has no limit for sending marketing emails.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pardot?
Pardot was somewhat costly for our requirements, nonetheless, the capacities of the item were limited.
What needs improvement with Pardot?
Pardot needs many improvements in terms of email design and design studio functionalities. It lacks a robust design s...
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?
An area of Salesforce Marketing Cloud that could be improved is the connectivity between Sales Cloud and Marketing Cl...
 

Also Known As

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ExactTarget
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Emyth, CRS, ClearPivot, Stitch Live, SoldOut, Waterfall, SnapEngage, Duo
Arketi Group
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: July 2025.
865,670 professionals have used our research since 2012.