Intercom Customer Communications Platform vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud comparison

Intercom and Salesforce are both solutions in the Social CRM category. Intercom is ranked #6 with an average rating of 9.0, while Salesforce is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.6. Intercom holds a 2.8% mindshare in SC, compared to Salesforce’s 12.6% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Intercom users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 98% of Salesforce users who would recommend it.

Intercom Customer Communica...

Read 2 Intercom Customer Communications Platform reviews

92 Views
38 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Read 58 Salesforce Marketing Cloud reviews

300 Views
175 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Intercom Customer Communica...

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 2025

Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Intercom Customer Communications Platform are competing solutions in customer engagement and communication. Intercom gains an advantage with its comprehensive features, offering significant value for price despite Salesforce's favorable pricing and support reputation.

Features: Salesforce Marketing Cloud offers robust automation, extensive integration capabilities, and is ideal for large-scale operations. Intercom focuses on conversational interactions, with tools enhancing personalized engagement and innovative messaging and chat-based solutions.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Intercom provides a straightforward deployment model with accessible support for agile implementations. Salesforce, while offering comprehensive educational resources, presents a more complex setup process.

Pricing and ROI: Salesforce Marketing Cloud features higher setup costs but promises substantial ROI for larger enterprises. Intercom, with a flexible pricing model, often delivers quicker ROI by streamlining communication processes, highlighting Salesforce's appeal to large organizations and Intercom's value in cost-efficiency.

To learn more, read our detailed Social CRM Report (Updated: May 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Social CRM

May 2025

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Helped 856,873 peers since 2012

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

Intercom Customer Communica...

Ranking in Social CRM

6th

Average Rating

9.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

CRM Customer Engagement Centers (12th), CRM (29th)

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Ranking in Social CRM

2nd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Marketing Automation (1st), Marketing Management (1st), Social Media Management Solutions (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Social CRM category, the mindshare of Intercom Customer Communications Platform is 2.8%, up from 2.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is 12.6%, up from 11.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Social CRM

Featured Reviews

Karan-Singh

Account Executive at Speak Ai

A good tool that can be used to capture inbound leads and manage all customer interactions

Sometimes, the solution lags and takes time to update something. If I put a specific tag on an inbound lead, it would take around five minutes for that tag to reflect throughout the solution for all the users. If my colleague and I are using the solution simultaneously and I create a tag for a specific lead, then that tag would not be visible to my colleague for about three to four minutes. Since the solution is great at capturing leads and giving me an overview of all the people interacting with our platform, I would love to see a CRM structure created. We can create a pipeline in the solution itself, and then it can give us that CRM experience.

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ADAIR WATHIER

Team Manager at Banco do Brasil S.A.

Provides efficient data integration features and good technical support services

Our primary use cases for the product include website personalization and email campaign evaluation The platform has significantly expedited our campaign implementation process and provided centralized control over operations. The platform's most valuable features include ease of implementation…

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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

"The live chat is pretty good because you can create a macro, which is a predefined input we can give customers."

"The feature we appreciate most about the Intercom Customer Communications Platform is the messenger functionality, allowing users to have conversations without entering their details repeatedly."

"The Journey Builder and the Email Studio features are most valuable."

"Salesforce Marketing Cloud integrates with multiple systems seamlessly, enabling effective lead management."

"We use Marketing Cloud for marketing campaigns and engaging customers. It is a business-focused application for a specific area of business, which is acquiring customers."

"It is straightforward to set up."

"Its ability to integrate data and provide a comprehensive view of customer engagement sets it apart."

"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."

"Email Studio is one of the core parts of Salesforce Marketing Cloud."

"The tool is flexible and helps us with insights and reports. Salesforce Marketing Cloud has improved our organizational functions by creating an environment where clients and internal staff can access information about various solutions. For instance, clients can apply for different projects, and internal staff can approve them based on donor requirements. This simplifies communication between clients, donors, and our company,"

More Salesforce Marketing Cloud pros

Cons

"Sometimes, the solution lags and takes time to update something."

"It would be beneficial if there was a way to train the AI to better understand customer language."

"It's a very good solution, but the way the prices are structured is not always good, and I feel like that is a problem."

"An additional feature needed would be better capacity for personalization."

"I would like to see more ways to accomplish specific tasks."

"Clarity around new features could be improved when they are released."

"The data extension tools are not very user-friendly."

"Salesforce Marketing Cloud should provide some debugging facilities for every user."

"The technicality of the solution can be streamlined."

"There could be easier tools to configure the product and to create landing pages to better handle large data sets."

More Salesforce Marketing Cloud cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"The price is expensive."

"Salesforce Marketing Cloud is affordable, considering the significant improvements it brings to our campaign results."

"Its licensing is on an annual basis. Customers are okay with its licensing cost, and they don't find it expensive."

"Salesforce has different versions of the solution and some are more suitable for smaller clients. However, Salesforce is expensive."

"The solution's pricing is very high and should be more flexible for smaller companies."

"My company pays to use this solution."

"On a scale where one is the lowest and ten is the most expensive, I rate the solution an eight out of ten."

"I don't know if my company pays for Salesforce Marketing Cloud monthly or yearly. It's a SaaS, so it's a recurring cost, but I have no information on its price."

More Salesforce Marketing Cloud pricing and cost advice

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856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Educational Organization

43%

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 do you like most about Intercom Customer Communications Platform?

The live chat is pretty good because you can create a macro, which is a predefined input we can give customers.

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What needs improvement with Intercom Customer Communications Platform?

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What is your primary use case for Intercom Customer Communications Platform?

We use the solution to capture leads and interact with them. Our company manages all the customer interactions through the solution.

See all answers

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.

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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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Salesforce Marketing Cloud?

In terms of improvements, it would be beneficial to enhance the Copilot actions. The issue lies with the internal language setup. It takes the default language and doesn't accept custom language sp...

See all answers

Comparisons

No data available

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Oracle Eloqua vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Compared 10% of the time

HubSpot Marketing Hub vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Compared 9% of the time

Zeta Marketing Platform vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Compared 9% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

CRM Customer Engagement Centers

June 2025

Intercom Customer Communications Platform report

Download Intercom Customer Communications Platform product report

Buyer's Guide

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

May 2025

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Also Known As

Intercom

ExactTarget

Overview

Intercom Customer Communications Platform enhances interactions by offering robust tools designed to streamline customer engagement and support, effectively catering to modern business communication needs.

Providing a comprehensive approach to customer interaction, Intercom facilitates seamless conversation management through its adaptable suite of messaging, logistical, and analytical features. Frequently utilized for customer support and marketing, its flexibility and user-friendly design encourage efficient communication. While offering valuable insights through analytics, some users note areas for improvement in customizability and pricing models, pointing towards a potential enhancement in fine-tuning its cost-effectiveness and adaptability to diverse business strategies.

What are the standout features of Intercom?

Live Chat: Immediate customer support through real-time messaging.
Automated Bot: Streamlines inquiries by handling routine questions.
Integration Capabilities: Connects seamlessly with third-party tools.
Inbox Management: Organizes conversations for efficient response.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Enhanced Customer Satisfaction: Faster resolutions lead to happier clients.
Improved Team Efficiency: Automation reduces manual workload.
Actionable Analytics: Data-driven insights optimize strategies.
Scalable Solutions: Adapts to growing business demands.

Industries such as e-commerce, SaaS, and tech-driven businesses often implement Intercom for its ability to provide personalized customer journeys. Its messaging platform excels in maintaining customer relationships and resolving issues quickly, which is crucial in these fast-paced sectors.

Intercom

Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a comprehensive marketing automation platform that enables businesses to create personalized and targeted marketing campaigns across multiple channels.

With its robust set of tools and features, marketers can easily manage and automate their email marketing, social media advertising, mobile messaging, and customer journey mapping.

The platform offers advanced segmentation capabilities, allowing marketers to segment their audience based on various criteria and deliver tailored messages to each segment.

Additionally, Salesforce Marketing Cloud provides powerful analytics and reporting features, enabling marketers to track the performance of their campaigns and make data-driven decisions.

With its user-friendly interface and seamless integration with other Salesforce products, Marketing Cloud offers a seamless and efficient marketing automation solution for businesses of all sizes.

Salesforce

Sample Customers

Expensift, Moz, Invision, Salesforce, Droplr, Vend, BugHerd, Ghost, Put.io, Codeship

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 Sprinklr, Salesforce, Qualtrics and others in Social CRM. Updated: May 2025.

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