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Pardot vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 8, 2026

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

Pardot
Ranking in Marketing Automation
11th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Ranking in Marketing Automation
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
63
Ranking in other categories
Social CRM (3rd), Marketing Management (1st), Social Media Management Solutions (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Marketing Automation category, the mindshare of Pardot is 2.9%, down from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is 10.7%, down from 18.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Marketing Automation Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Salesforce Marketing Cloud10.7%
Pardot2.9%
Other86.4%
Marketing Automation
 

Featured Reviews

Vikram Rawani - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
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

"It's easy to create email templates and landing pages."
"It has made email marketing quicker and easier."
"The tracking and automation of outbound messaging is the solution's most valuable aspect."
"I have not had any issues with the product's stability. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The solution can be easily integrated with Salesforce."
"The most valuable feature is the customization of the solution."
"The solution is very fast, it's easy to create email templates and landing pages, and it is very good at score lists and sending signals to a salesperson for outreach purposes."
"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 would definitely recommend this solution to others who are interested in using it."
"Salesforce is an excellent choice."
"It is a great solution. I like its stability, scalability, and performance."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud has positively impacted my organization by reducing costs while significantly increasing the return on investment."
"The feature of Salesforce Marketing Cloud that has had the largest impact on improving my campaign outcomes is the recent WhatsApp integration, which allows Salesforce to connect with subscribers through different channels such as SMS, email, or WhatsApp."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a fantastic solution, but be aware of its technicalities when installation."
"It's a software-as-a-service solution. Everything is managed centrally from the cloud. As far as I can tell, installation is relatively simple."
"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."
 

Cons

"​Technical support has been quick and helpful every time."
"The price of this solution is expensive. However, you are going to receive good value for money."
"Needs to improve list building."
"When it comes to integration with third-party tools, Pardot's APIs are not that robust."
"Pardot must be synced with Salesforce."
"The solution is quite expensive, at least, for smaller teams."
"For new people, the installation of the tool can be difficult."
"The user interface could be made more intuitive and user-friendly."
"If you want to use advanced features in Salesforce Marketing Cloud, they are extremely difficult to use."
"They could improve the product's data integration functionality for larger companies."
"Marketing Cloud's forecasting could be improved."
"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."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud should include more point-and-click functionality."
"The product could use a little bit of BI in the sense of rule-based building."
"We'd like to see more integrations with third-party products."
"In the SMS area, it is not up to the mark, compared to what has been developed for email."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is a competitively priced product, considering what it provides."
"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."
"In terms of pricing, Pardot is cheaper than Marketing Cloud."
"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."
"This solution is priced in the medium to high price range."
"Salesforce has different versions of the solution and some are more suitable for smaller clients. However, Salesforce is expensive."
"We have two types of licensing. We have a yearly license for end users and we have a concurrent login for selling."
"I don't know if my company pays for Salesforce Marketing Cloud monthly or yearly. It's a SaaS, so it's a recurring cost, but I have no information on its price."
"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 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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Construction Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise5
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise34
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
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 notable challenge. Although the implementation partner highlighted these capabilitie...
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 engagement often begins pre-implementation, where I lead the requirements gathering proc...
 

Also Known As

No data available
ExactTarget
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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 Pardot vs. Salesforce Marketing Cloud and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
921,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.