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Iterable 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 May 2026, in the Marketing Automation category, the mindshare of Iterable is 1.1%, down from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Pardot is 2.9%, down from 3.6% 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%
Iterable1.1%
Pardot2.9%
Other83.7%
Marketing Automation
 

Featured Reviews

TR
Digital Marketing Manager at Nestle
Marketing team has automated personalized lifecycle emails and now creates more engaging campaigns
The best features Iterable offers are automation and simplicity in use. Iterable is dynamic and allows us to engage customers at all stages of the customer journey. Iterable has allowed our customer communication to be automated. With thousands of customers, the ability to automate email communication has saved our team incredible amounts of time. While Iterable is used largely by our marketing team, we do have individuals who are less tech-savvy with limited coding experience, yet confident in navigating the platform. Iterable is very user-friendly and has maintained its simplicity. Iterable has saved our team an incredible amount of time and manual labor through automation of emailing. With the creative and engaging content created in Iterable, customers are more likely to engage than previously, hence increasing customer engagement. We have saved between sixty to seventy percent of our time through automation. Iterable has allowed us to automate email campaigns to customers by planning a series of emails six months prior to their delivery.
RakeshKumar18 - PeerSpot reviewer
Team Leader at ECHO INDIA MANAGED SERVICES PRIVATE LIMITED
Good for basic email sending program but lacks in documentation
When it comes to integration with third-party tools, Pardot's APIs are not that robust. And when it comes to bringing the CMS content, that is also an area where they have to work hard. The templates are good, but I think there's a lot of scope of improvement in that area. And when it comes to landing pages, there are some gaps. Like marketing is weaker. If I compare it with other tools in the market, like HubSpot, in terms of marketing, but yet for a small and midsized company that does not go much deeper into the marketing side, Pardot is fine.
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

"Iterable allows us to trigger SMS messages through Twilio based on real-time user events such as abandoned actions, incomplete transactions, account or subscription changes, inactivity or re-engagement milestones."
"Miro Business - Enterprise has been a lifesaver for us, increasing team collaboration by 70 to 80% and saving our time and resources."
"Iterable has positively impacted our organization as we have seen an improvement since geolocation features improved our weekly email conversion rate by 300%."
"Iterable saves our time and has better customer relationship benefits, making a very good relationship with our customers because once we have already created the workflow, client communication has been automatically done and our work, work pressure, and work stress have been reduced, creating a very good impact on a better work environment."
"Using Iterable has helped me manage my customer workflows very well, as the process is smooth and quick, and whenever I set up the workflows, the data events trigger immediately, making it a user-friendly workflow setup."
"Iterable is one of the best, efficient, and user-friendly CRM campaign management tools."
"Iterable has positively impacted my organization, as it enhanced campaign execution speed, increased engagement and conversion rates through personalization, reduced our dependency on engineering for routine campaign changes, and improved collaboration between marketing and technical teams."
"The solution can be easily integrated with Salesforce."
"I have not had any issues with the product's stability. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"It's easy to create email templates and landing pages."
"Pardot's most valuable feature is its B2B marketing capabilities."
"The product is stable."
"Our ROI is huge, not just in cost avoidance, but also in increased sales."
"However, you are going to receive good value for money."
"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."
"If someone wants to sell their product in a very good manner, they can use Salesforce Marketing Cloud."
"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."
"Salesforce is constantly evolving and have a good release cycle."
"The most valuable of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is seeing the customer's journey."
"Marketing Cloud offers a 360 customers experience as it integrates with Service Cloud and Sales Cloud, the CRM portion of Salesforce."
"Email Studio is one of the core parts of Salesforce Marketing Cloud."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a fantastic solution, but be aware of its technicalities when installation."
"The most valuable feature of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is the seamless conversion of lead to opportunity, in relation to orders is good. That seamless connection is beneficial and simple."
 

Cons

"Iterable challenges I have faced include a steep learning curve for advanced use cases; basic campaigns are easy to launch, but advanced and personalized campaigns or event-based logic take considerable time, which is a challenge for new users."
"I would like more training and resources on how to use Iterable."
"Iterable can be improved regarding handling attributes, as it has limited limitations on event attributes and profile attributes."
"When I consider needed improvements, I find that the limitation in handling many brands in a single project can be problematic, which affects the use of custom event data within Handlebar logic, and the foldering option for snippets and lists needs improvement."
"Although the platform is powerful, advanced use cases require a learning curve and deeper analytics and performance optimization at scale could further enhance its value."
"However, the challenge occurs when a large number of users are simultaneously on the whiteboards, but otherwise, there is no problem with scalability."
"Pardot must be synced with Salesforce."
"The user interface could be made more intuitive and user-friendly."
"When it comes to integration with third-party tools, Pardot's APIs are not that robust."
"Needs to improve list building."
"Needs to improve list building."
"When we compare it to other automation tools, in Pardot, I'm not able to see any drag-and-drop options. We have to work on an HTML template itself."
"The solution is quite expensive, at least, for smaller teams."
"The reporting features of the Pardot system could be improved to provide better and more data."
"Salesforce could benefit by implementing further integration with more platforms."
"We have struggled to get resolution of support tickets from the Salesforce team."
"Technical support is good but could be faster, maybe more knowledgeable, and more customer friendly."
"Salesforce could benefit by implementing further integration with more platforms."
"The performance is sometimes sluggish, but I think that's to be expected with a heavy CRM tool because they're running reports in real-time on the data that you have entered."
"Technical Support: That's where it gets bad, in my opinion. I have had to deal with the support several times."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud is expensive. The email functionality should be more modern and user-friendly."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud should provide some debugging facilities for every user."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"We pay about $4000 a month."
"The price of this solution is expensive. However, you are going to receive good value for money. They could improve by reducing the price."
"It is a competitively priced product, considering what it provides."
"​Make sure you do not pay for features that you may not need​."
"In terms of pricing, Pardot is cheaper than Marketing Cloud."
"It's normal pricing."
"The solution's pricing is very high and should be more flexible for smaller companies."
"It is a license per user."
"The solution is paid for monthly."
"On a scale where one is the lowest and ten is the most expensive, I rate the solution an eight out of ten."
"We have two types of licensing. We have a yearly license for end users and we have a concurrent login for selling."
"Salesforce is an expensive solution."
"The solution is a bit expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Construction Company
14%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Retailer
8%
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 Business4
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise6
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise34
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Iterable?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing shows that the price is very cost-effective compared to my prev...
What needs improvement with Iterable?
In my assessment, the impact of Iterable's segmentation capabilities on my conversion rates is that segmentation is l...
What is your primary use case for Iterable?
I am using the product for myself as my company's own product.The primary use cases with Iterable are end-to-end Iter...
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 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

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ExactTarget
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

BetterDoctor Bisnow Decorist Dot&Bo IMGE Rocksbox Yelp
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: May 2026.
895,399 professionals have used our research since 2012.