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 9.5, while Salesforce is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.6. Intercom holds a 2.9% 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

281 Views
98 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Read 58 Salesforce Marketing Cloud reviews

3,713 Views
260 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Intercom Customer Communica...

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

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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 Intercom Customer Communications Platform vs. Salesforce Marketing Cloud Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Intercom Customer Communications Platform vs. Salesforce Marketing Cloud

July 2025

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Helped 862,543 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 (10th), CRM (25th)

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 July 2025, in the Social CRM category, the mindshare of Intercom Customer Communications Platform is 2.9%, up from 2.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is 12.6%, up from 10.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Social CRM

Featured Reviews

Kumar Abhishek Anand

Director at Revivo Technologies

Customer support has improved significantly with seamless chat integration for quick resolutions

The feature we appreciate most about the Intercom Customer Communications Platform is the messenger functionality. We are able to integrate it into our application and provide support to customers directly through our application. The messenger works efficiently, allowing users to have conversations without entering their details repeatedly. There is conversation history available for each customer interaction, and they can access the help section within the chat itself. The Finn AI agent handles conversations both in chat and WhatsApp, which is particularly beneficial. Regarding automation tools, we have enabled the AI agent to answer customer queries instantly, reducing the need for constant staff presence. The AI agent quickly responds to customers and summarizes their issues, informing us when it cannot resolve a problem independently.

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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."

"Marketing Cloud offers a 360 customers experience as it integrates with Service Cloud and Sales Cloud, the CRM portion of Salesforce. The different platforms integrate easily which makes it easy to manage customer communication using a single point of truth."

"We use this solution for reporting, pipeline generation, and forecasting."

"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."

"If you want to be able to communicate with your client using email, WhatsApp, and push notifications, know if the client opened the communication or not, and create and automate their journey, Marketing Cloud is very good."

"We haven't had any issues with integration."

"Salesforce Marketing Cloud's integrations are seamless since it is a native application. It helps us with B2B and B2C send-outs and can handle large columns."

"Email automation is most valuable."

"The most valuable features of Salesforce Marketing Cloud are the ease of use of the basic features."

More Salesforce Marketing Cloud pros

Cons

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

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

"There is a lot of room for improvement in Salesforce Marketing Cloud's dashboards and the visualization of information in each journey."

"This solution could be more user-friendly."

"In terms of marketing, I don't think Salesforce invests the same level of intensity in promoting Marketing Cloud...Pricing is a concern and needs improvement, as some customers find the product a bit too expensive."

"In a future release, adding end-user personalization would be a benefit."

"The solution can have a better UI. Salesforce Marketing Cloud should consider making its solution more robust for error handling."

"Marketing Cloud's forecasting could be improved."

"In a future release it would be great to have the ability to connect the data from social media and email marketing and have it in one dashboard."

"Salesforce could benefit by implementing further integration with more platforms."

More Salesforce Marketing Cloud cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."

"It's normal pricing."

"This is a low cost solution suited to larger organizations."

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

"Salesforce is an expensive solution."

"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."

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

"It is a license per user."

More Salesforce Marketing Cloud pricing and cost advice

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862,543 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Computer Software Company

13%

Educational Organization

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Intercom Customer Communications Platform?

For the Intercom Customer Communications Platform, we are updating our knowledge base to help the AI read more proactively. It would be beneficial if there was a way to train the AI to better under...

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

When asked about AI tools and AI coding tools, we were using ChatGPT until recently. We switched to GitHub Copilot, which we have integrated into our IDE for software development purposes. Regardin...

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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.

See all answers

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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Compared 11% of the time

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Compared 10% of the time

Oracle Eloqua 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

July 2025

Intercom Customer Communications Platform report

Download Intercom Customer Communications Platform product report

Buyer's Guide

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

June 2025

Download Salesforce Marketing Cloud product report

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

Buyer's Guide

Intercom Customer Communications Platform vs. Salesforce Marketing Cloud

July 2025

Free Report: Intercom Customer Communications Platform vs. Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Find out what your peers are saying about Intercom Customer Communications Platform vs. Salesforce Marketing Cloud and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.

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