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Oracle Eloqua 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 Oracle Eloqua is 7.5%, down from 9.4% 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%
Oracle Eloqua7.5%
Pardot2.9%
Other77.3%
Marketing Automation
 

Featured Reviews

Madhan Krishnamoorthy - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Functional Consultant at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Integration with CRM and third-party systems significantly boosts campaign management
The native integration could be improved, as Oracle Eloqua has decommissioned it. Manual uploads require changing the data priority order to top priority. Sometimes form capturing data fails, and campaign response issues occur. The pricing of Oracle Eloqua is quite high as it is an Oracle product. Compared to other marketing automation platforms such as Marketo, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, and Pardot, the price point is higher. The technical support is rated at eight because it can be difficult to get in touch with them after working hours. Support is only available during business hours, so if assistance is needed outside of the nine-to-five window, users must wait until the next day.
PradeepKumar25 - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate Manager at Tech Mahindra Limited
Allows seamless integration but lacks email design
Pardot needs many improvements in terms of email design and design studio functionalities. It lacks a robust design studio, limiting our ability to perform various design activities efficiently. You don't need to write any HTML code, but designing a banner for a website involves creating a landing page within Pardot. The platform's drag-and-drop features are not as advanced as those in other marketing platforms like Marketo, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, or Eloqua. Pardot's landing page and form-building features are pretty basic, requiring web developers or skilled users to build elements from scratch and perform extensive testing using tools like Litmus before deployment. This is a significant drawback of the platform. Additionally, Pardot's integration with third-party applications is limited because it operates on top of CRM systems. However, data integration between Pardot and CRM is seamless, reducing the need to worry about data errors once the configuration is complete.
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

"I like the insight part, where we can pull the reports. Oracle Eloqua can generate reports on the activities that customers take or that we do. That is one interesting part that I enjoy working with."
"The solution is stable."
"Lead scoring is very useful for both measuring the effectiveness of campaigns as well as deciding which leads to send sales’ way."
"In Oracle Eloqua, the most valuable feature from the marketer's user experience perspective is the design editor, which is very feasible, allowing a marketer to design emails and landing pages in a very short amount of time through drag and drop of email components, making them ready to use instantly."
"We needed a solution that could scale with our business - and it doesn't get better than Eloqua."
"Oracle Eloqua is easier to use compared to Salesforce Marketing Cloud because Salesforce requires their own scripting called AMPScript, while in Oracle Eloqua, you only need CSS, HTML, and occasionally JavaScript."
"The most valuable feature for us is that it integrates with our CRM content management system."
"Eloqua has a drag-and-drop interface based on HTML5 and is the easiest WYSIWYG editor for creating landing pages and HTML emails that I've ever seen."
"Pardot's most valuable feature is its B2B marketing capabilities."
"However, you are going to receive good value for money."
"The solution can be easily integrated with Salesforce."
"Technical support has been quick and helpful every time."
"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."
"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."
"Campaign tracking is a valuable feature."
"This is a very powerful and scalable solution."
"The most valuable features of Salesforce Marketing Cloud are the ease of use of the basic features."
"A powerful platform with robust features for a seamless one-tool solution."
"The tool's most valuable feature is its automation. We can integrate data with the Salesforce hub. Its Einstein feature tells us whether our campaigns are on the right track. It also helps with ideas."
"The most valuable feature of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is the reporting engine. Reports are very good and easy to build."
"We use it to communicate with our customers, look at the reports to see the communication engagement, and then do sequencing to make sure that there are continuous touchpoints with the client."
"The automation is great. It saves us a lot of time and it makes us move faster."
"The scalability of the solution is perfect."
 

Cons

"Data manipulation tools are lacking. Documentation is sketchy and often incomplete."
"​Reporting is very clunky and not user friendly.​"
"It could be a bit more intuitive for the average user. The segmentation portion is difficult for a marketer with no marketing operations experience to understand."
"The dashboards or the data which we get from insights reports could be improved."
"One improvement I would suggest for Oracle Eloqua is establishing data modeling capabilities where you can link various custom data objects to create multiple tables together, allowing access to data through SQL queries for better manipulation."
"The solution should consider adding functionality related to event listening, such as webhooks."
"The reporting features should be improved."
"The product's initial setup process could be better."
"The user interface could be made more intuitive and user-friendly."
"The solution lacks integration with Instagram, which is our top problem with the product."
"The solution lacks integration with Instagram, which is our top problem with the product."
"Lacks sufficient free custom fields."
"The reporting features of the Pardot system could be improved to provide better and more data."
"Pardot must be synced with Salesforce."
"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."
"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. It depends on how the processes are set up within your company natively. It is linked to the way you do business. So, it varies."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud should provide some debugging facilities for every user."
"We have struggled to get resolution of support tickets from the Salesforce team."
"The product could use a little bit of BI in the sense of rule-based building."
"User management could be better."
"An additional feature needed would be better capacity for personalization."
"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."
"Data protection and region specfic customization."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's quite expensive."
"Oracle Eloqua is quite an affordable solution."
"Our licensing costs are yearly."
"The solution is expensive."
"The tool is pricey compared to products like Marketo."
"Oracle Eloqua can be expensive compared to alternatives."
"Oracle Eloqua's pricing is medium."
"It is a competitively priced product, considering what it provides."
"In terms of pricing, Pardot is cheaper than Marketing Cloud."
"We pay about $4000 a month."
"​Make sure you do not pay for features that you may not need​."
"The price of this solution is expensive. However, you are going to receive good value for money. They could improve by reducing the price."
"My company pays to use this solution."
"The solution is a bit expensive."
"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."
"It's normal pricing."
"The solution's pricing is very high and should be more flexible for smaller companies."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a highly expensive solution, it needs to be less expensive. We are on an annual license to use the 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."
"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Healthcare Company
9%
Construction Company
8%
Marketing Services Firm
8%
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 Business13
Midsize Enterprise9
Large Enterprise21
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 needs improvement with Oracle Eloqua?
Some areas of Oracle Eloqua that could be improved include enhancements for campaign features, such as the ability to...
What is your primary use case for Oracle Eloqua?
In my company, I work with Oracle Eloqua and do not use it internally. My usual use cases for Oracle Eloqua include d...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Eloqua?
I am not sure how to answer that. We take care of emails and fetch the data regarding that only. I have not explored ...
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?
I feel that Salesforce Marketing Cloud can be improved in how the data views are accessed; it would be better to have...
What is your primary use case for Salesforce Marketing Cloud?
The main use case for Salesforce Marketing Cloud is email marketing through Salesforce for the B2B segment on a day-t...
 

Also Known As

Eloqua, Oracle Marketing Cloud
No data available
ExactTarget
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Thomson Reuters, The Dow Chemical Company, Avid, LifeSize, and Avalara.
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.
894,807 professionals have used our research since 2012.