Iterable vs Pardot vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud comparison

Iterable and Salesforce are both solutions in the Marketing Automation category. Iterable is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.2, while Salesforce is ranked #7 with an average rating of 7.8. Iterable holds a 1.0% mindshare in MA, compared to Salesforce’s 3.2% mindshare. Additionally, 77% of Iterable users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Salesforce users who would recommend it.

Iterable

Read 5 Iterable reviews

389 Views
385 Comparison Views

77% willing to recommend

Pardot

Read 12 Pardot reviews

1,019 Views
1,009 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Read 62 Salesforce Marketing Cloud reviews

5,146 Views
3,551 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

Iterable

Pardot

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Iterable, Pardot, and Salesforce Marketing Cloud based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Salesforce, HubSpot, Adobe and others in Marketing Automation.

To learn more, read our detailed Marketing Automation Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Marketing Automation

March 2026

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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 April 2026, in the Marketing Automation category, the mindshare of Iterable is 1.0%, down from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Pardot is 3.2%, down from 3.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is 11.9%, down from 23.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Marketing Automation Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Salesforce Marketing Cloud	11.9%
Iterable	1.0%
Pardot	3.2%
Other	83.9%

Marketing Automation

Featured Reviews

Teferes Rodney

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.

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Vikram Rawani

Pardot Consultant at Target

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.

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GauravSingh2

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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Iterable has positively impacted our organization as we have seen an improvement since geolocation features improved our weekly email conversion rate by 300%."

"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."

"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."

"Miro Business - Enterprise has been a lifesaver for us, increasing team collaboration by 70 to 80% and saving our time and resources."

"Iterable is one of the best, efficient, and user-friendly CRM campaign management tools."

"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."

"The solution can be easily integrated with Salesforce."

"The tracking and automation of outbound messaging is the solution's most valuable aspect."

"The most valuable feature is the customization of the solution."

"The implementation process is easy, it's easy to learn, the dashboards are very convenient when you go from one option to another option, the dashboard is very neat, and the UI is very easy to understand."

"Campaign tracking is a valuable feature."

"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."

"Our ROI is huge, not just in cost avoidance, but also in increased sales."

"Pardot directly integrates with CRM, specifically Salesforce, which has an excellent R&D team."

More Pardot pros

"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."

"Salesforce is an excellent choice."

"Salesforce Marketing Cloud's journey builder is very easy to handle and quickly sets up a journey for clients who use a lot of communication."

"The AI-powered tools such as Salesforce Datorama and Einstein save time and have an impact on marketing strategy decisions for my customers."

"The most valuable features of Salesforce are the automation and the ability to create dashboards which provide a wider picture of what is going on."

"The most valuable feature of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is the seamless conversion of lead to opportunity, in relation to orders is good."

"The most valuable feature of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is the ability to sell the products we have made to customers, and overall the solution is very useful for business."

"The ability to automate processes is one of the most valuable features of Salesforce, which sets it apart from other systems, and we use the journey builder to design a fully automated journey."

More Salesforce Marketing Cloud pros

Cons

"However, the challenge occurs when a large number of users are simultaneously on the whiteboards, but otherwise, there is no problem with scalability."

"I would like more training and resources on how to use Iterable."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"Technical support has been quick and helpful every time."

"The solution is quite expensive, at least, for smaller teams."

"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 lacks integration with Instagram, which is our top problem with the product."

"The reporting features of the Pardot system could be improved to provide better and more data."

"The user interface could be made more intuitive and user-friendly."

"Lacks sufficient free custom fields."

"The price of this solution is expensive. However, you are going to receive good value for money."

More Pardot cons

"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."

"User management could be better."

"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."

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

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

"Marketing Cloud's forecasting could be improved."

"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."

"The general setup and understanding of how to use it can be improved. There should be easier self-service for setting up dashboards."

More Salesforce Marketing Cloud cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"The price of this solution is expensive. However, you are going to receive good value for money. They could improve by reducing the price."

"We pay about $4000 a month."

"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."

"My company pays to use this solution."

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

"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 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."

"Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a highly expensive solution, it needs to be less expensive. We are on an annual license to use the solution."

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

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

More Salesforce Marketing Cloud pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Construction Company

13%

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

Retailer

Financial Services Firm

12%

Construction Company

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	5

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	5

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	19
Midsize Enterprise	14
Large Enterprise	31

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...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Iterable?

I would like more training and resources on how to use Iterable. That is the only area that I would love to be improv...

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What is your primary use case for Iterable?

Iterable is a vital tool across our organization, serving a variety of purposes. On my team, we specifically use Iter...

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What do you like most about Pardot?

It has no limit for sending marketing emails.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Pardot?

Pardot needs many improvements in terms of email design and design studio functionalities. It lacks a robust design s...

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.

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?

I feel that Salesforce Marketing Cloud can be improved in how the data views are accessed; it would be better to have...

See all answers

Comparisons

Marketo vs Iterable

Compared 28% of the time

HubSpot Marketing Hub vs Iterable

Compared 12% of the time

Zeta Marketing Platform vs Iterable

Compared 12% of the time

BloomReach vs Iterable

Compared 10% of the time

Oracle Eloqua vs Iterable

Compared 8% of the time

More Iterable Competitors

Marketo vs Pardot

Compared 26% of the time

Oracle Eloqua vs Pardot

Compared 23% of the time

HubSpot Marketing Hub vs Pardot

Compared 17% of the time

Klaviyo vs Pardot

Compared 10% of the time

SAP Marketing Cloud vs Pardot

Compared 4% of the time

More Pardot Competitors

HubSpot Marketing Hub vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Compared 15% of the time

Marketo vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Compared 13% of the time

Oracle Eloqua vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Compared 12% of the time

Zeta Marketing Platform vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Compared 6% of the time

monday.com vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Compared 2% of the time

More Salesforce Marketing Cloud Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Iterable

March 2026

Download Iterable product report

Buyer's Guide

Pardot

March 2026

Download Pardot product report

Buyer's Guide

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

March 2026

Download Salesforce Marketing Cloud product report

Also Known As

No data available

ExactTarget

Overview

Iterable is a consumer growth marketing and user engagement platform. With Iterable, B2C marketers send the right message, to the right device, at the right time. Iterable provides powerful segmentation, fully customizable templates, sophisticated workflows (with no coding), a/b testing and more. Iterable seamlessly supports email, mobile push notifications and SMS.

Iterable

Pardot, a salesforce.com Company, is an easy-to-use B2B Marketing Automation suite that helps sales and marketing teams maximize efficiency and increase revenue. Pardot's lead management software features CRM integration, email marketing, lead nurturing, lead scoring, and ROI reporting to help marketing and sales teams work together to generate and qualify sales leads, shorten sales cycles, and demonstrate marketing accountability.

Salesforce

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

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, HubSpot, Adobe and others in Marketing Automation. Updated: March 2026.

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