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Oracle Eloqua vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 6, 2025

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

Oracle Eloqua
Ranking in Marketing Automation
4th
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
36
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Ranking in Marketing Automation
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
Social CRM (2nd), Marketing Management (1st), Social Media Management Solutions (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Marketing Automation category, the mindshare of Oracle Eloqua is 8.1%, down from 11.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is 21.4%, down from 23.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Marketing Automation
 

Featured Reviews

Aniket Sukale - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers the ability to create lesser campaigns and drip campaigns, flexible to use and robust
Eloqua's reporting is very strong. Oracle, by default, provides many out-of-the-box reports – probably more than 150 – that cover the most common use cases. Additionally, there's a feature called Insight, where you can build customized reports without any coding. These reports can be scheduled for delivery to your inbox at regular intervals – monthly, weekly, etc.
Napitch K - PeerSpot reviewer
Integration challenges impact workflow efficiency
The features of Salesforce Marketing Cloud that I have found most valuable are the Journey Builder and Flow. These capabilities are valuable because they make managing automation easy. Automating customer journeys saves time when scheduling content through every channel, and we can set the automation in advance when planning marketing content. The AI-powered tools such as Salesforce Datorama and Einstein save time and have an impact on marketing strategy decisions for my customers. I have noticed a positive impact from Salesforce Marketing Cloud through customer feedback. For example, a customer mentioned after project completion that it had a significant impact on their marketing team by eliminating the need to hire additional staff for marketing content and planning.

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."
"It is a user-friendly product."
"The ease of maintenance is the most valuable feature."
"The solution is stable."
"The solution's engine framework is quite simple, giving you the agility you need in the business."
"The solution is good for B2B email marketing."
"The initial setup was straightforward."
"​Lead scoring is very useful for both measuring the effectiveness of campaigns as well as deciding which leads to send sales’ way."
"Email automation is most valuable."
"I think the product's best feature is its analytics, as that's where customers derive value. The second thing is its ease of implementation."
"The most valuable of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is seeing the customer's journey."
"The user interface is easy to use, especially for my staff who use assistive technology."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to get quotes out in a timely manner."
"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 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."
 

Cons

"This product hasn't kept up to date on features."
"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 could improve by having a more user-friendly interface."
"The solution should consider adding functionality related to event listening, such as webhooks."
"The solution does not have a good database architecture."
"​Reporting is very clunky and not user friendly.​"
"There are some things where improvement is needed. For me, it would be great if they integrated a tool like AI configuration capabilities within Eloqua itself."
"The cost of the solution has room for improvement."
"In terms of improvements, it would be beneficial to enhance the Copilot actions. The issue lies with the internal language setup."
"Marketing Cloud should change the script language that it uses because it's not good. It's tricky and difficult to develop."
"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."
"An additional feature needed would be better capacity for personalization."
"When you use your iPhone or Android phone, Salesforce is not as user-friendly as it could be. That UX needs to be improved."
"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."
"Clarity around new features could be improved when they are released."
"We need a development environment for Marketing Cloud. Currently, there is no development environment for this solution. Other Salesforce products, such as Sales and Service Cloud, have a development environment in which the developers can do some things and then post them in production. Currently, everything happens in the production for Marketing Cloud. There is only one environment, and the developers and the end-users have to work in the same environment, which seems to be challenging. If Salesforce can bring a developer environment for Marketing Cloud, it will be good."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's quite expensive."
"The solution is expensive."
"Our licensing costs are yearly."
"Oracle Eloqua can be expensive compared to alternatives."
"Oracle Eloqua's pricing is medium."
"Oracle Eloqua is quite an affordable solution."
"The tool is pricey compared to products like Marketo."
"Its licensing is on an annual basis. Customers are okay with its licensing cost, and they don't find it expensive."
"The solution's pricing is very high and should be more flexible for smaller companies."
"The solution is a bit expensive."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud is affordable, considering the significant improvements it brings to our campaign results."
"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."
"My company pays to use this solution."
"It's normal pricing."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Healthcare Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Oracle Eloqua?
Eloqua doesn't have built-in features for WhatsApp marketing or SMS functionality. They provide SMS, but you need to purchase it as an add-on. It would also be helpful to have a social media manage...
What is your primary use case for Oracle Eloqua?
We generally use it for B2B (business-to-business) marketing automation. We can build customer journeys and generate emails. And we can do email marketing. It also has the ability to create Lead ca...
What do you like most about Oracle Eloqua?
I've used other marketing automation tools, like Marketo, that require more technical knowledge. Eloqua is straightforward and user-friendly.
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.
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?
An area of Salesforce Marketing Cloud that could be improved is the connectivity between Sales Cloud and Marketing Cloud platforms. The issues with integration between different platforms arise bec...
 

Also Known As

Eloqua, Oracle Marketing Cloud
ExactTarget
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Thomson Reuters, The Dow Chemical Company, Avid, LifeSize, and Avalara.
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 Oracle Eloqua vs. Salesforce Marketing Cloud and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.