Salesforce Marketing Cloud vs Sprout Social comparison

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Read 17 Sprout Social reviews

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 8, 2026

Sprout Social and Salesforce Marketing Cloud compete in social media management and digital marketing sectors. Data indicates Salesforce Marketing Cloud holds an edge due to its robust feature set, preferred by users seeking comprehensive marketing capabilities.

Features: Sprout Social focuses on social media management tools, analytics, and engagement tracking, offering an intuitive approach to enhancing brand presence. Salesforce Marketing Cloud features marketing automation tools including email marketing, journey builder, and advanced targeting options, presenting a versatile solution for detailed campaigns.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Sprout Social offers quick deployment and accessible support, ideal for businesses aiming for fast implementation. Salesforce Marketing Cloud provides comprehensive support but involves a more complex deployment process due to its extensive features.

Pricing and ROI: Sprout Social offers a lower initial investment and faster ROI, appealing to budget-conscious businesses. Salesforce Marketing Cloud requires a higher setup cost but delivers substantial returns through its comprehensive feature set, benefiting companies focused on long-term growth.

To learn more, read our detailed Salesforce Marketing Cloud vs. Sprout Social Report (Updated: September 2026).

Salesforce Marketing Cloud vs. Sprout Social

September 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:

Categories and Ranking

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Ranking in Social CRM

4th

Ranking in Social Media Management Solutions

3rd

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Marketing Automation (1st), Marketing Management (1st)

Sprout Social

Ranking in Social CRM

2nd

Ranking in Social Media Management Solutions

4th

Average Rating

8.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Social Media Analytics Software (1st), AI Customer Experience Personalization (9th), AI Content Creation (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Social CRM category, the mindshare of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is 5.9%, down from 6.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sprout Social is 8.0%, up from 7.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Social CRM Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Sprout Social	8.0%
Salesforce Marketing Cloud	5.9%
Other	86.1%

Social CRM

Featured Reviews

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.

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Mirella Karpiesiuk

Social Engagement Manager at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees

Centralized social channels have transformed daily engagement and reporting workflows

Regarding how Sprout Social can be improved, these are very minor areas. Sometimes we have this metric called action rate, which reflects how fast a message has been touched in Sprout Social, whether that is the message being tagged, responded to, or closed out. Apparently, we cannot get a 100% action rate because some responses come in that are auto-replied to, and that action rate misses that. I think this is one thing that can be improved: figuring out how to count those auto-responded messages. This is a niche area. Outside of that, I do not have much advice for improvements in Sprout Social; I truly think it is a hub of value and provides a lot for us. The user interface is great; it is super friendly. For someone who has never touched it before, I knew where everything was and maneuvered through it within a week of using it. The integrations are seamless with all of our social media accounts: Reddit, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and all of that. We can also export data and PDF files, which helps us with other projects. I see very minimal improvements needed on my end; I think it is a very valuable program that we use.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The Journey and CloudPages and automation are all great."

"Marketing Cloud offers a 360 customers experience as it integrates with Service Cloud and Sales Cloud, the CRM portion of Salesforce. The different platforms integrate easily which makes it easy to manage customer communication using a single point of truth."

"The most valuable features of Salesforce Marketing Cloud are the ease of use of the basic features."

"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."

"Email Studio is one of the core parts of Salesforce Marketing Cloud."

"The most valuable part of the solution are the selling features."

"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."

"The most valuable feature is the ability to get quotes out in a timely manner."

More Salesforce Marketing Cloud pros

"Sprout Social has positively impacted my organization with enhanced engagements, enhanced reach for our social posts, and better ROI for our investment in our social channels."

"I have definitely seen a return on investment with Sprout Social, as it has led to time savings, improved efficiency, and financial returns since not everything had to be manually posted."

"We would not be able to do it without Sprout Social, and it is very easy to use; the user interface is very friendly and intuitive."

"Sprout Social has positively impacted our organization by aligning with our team goals and being very efficient at scheduling, publishing, and pulling analytics."

"Using Sprout Social helps us post content within peak active windows; by having that content scheduled in advance, we can better reach our more active audience times, which has a direct correlation to increased engagement and impressions."

"Sprout Social has positively impacted my organization by providing me with reporting capabilities and allowing me to assess how my posts are performing."

"In my experience, the best features Sprout Social offers are the ability to manage multiple campaigns."

"Sprout Social has saved us a lot of time, provided the convenience of a single login to multiple socials, and requires less time for training, making it very easy to use and start using it."

More Sprout Social pros

Cons

"This solution could be more user-friendly."

"I've noticed on one-to-one leads, the customer objection option is not available."

"If you want to use advanced features in Salesforce Marketing Cloud, they are extremely difficult to use."

"The main action I want to do in Salesforce Marketing Cloud is to export data into Excel and use it. My company may have that feature locked down, or if the Excel data exporting function still isn't available in Salesforce Marketing Cloud, that's the feature I want."

"The analytics feature needs some improvement."

"Customer support could be improved, especially for new features where I do not always receive proper solutions from the platform provider."

"I would like to see more ways to accomplish specific tasks."

"Technical Support: That's where it gets bad, in my opinion. I have had to deal with the support several times."

More Salesforce Marketing Cloud cons

"If you do not already have existing solutions and you are using the platform to help schedule out marketing campaigns, it will not be that helpful."

"Sprout Social could be improved by being able to schedule out Stories, which is a current limitation."

"As of now, I have been using Sprout Social for almost two years, but there are some glitches in the back-end; sometimes the posts are not integrated or do not come with the proper details, proper dates, or proper content."

"Sprout Social can be improved because the user experience of having hundreds of channels to navigate can be quite fiddly, especially when trying to bulk post."

"I know Sprout Social is expensive; it is on the higher side."

"Sometimes, when it comes to user experience, it's really hard to tag businesses in the copy because the way they appear in the dropdown is really slow, and it doesn't always find them, even when I use the at symbol to tag them."

"It is not perfect. Sometimes its information or its syncing to platforms is clunky, so you end up having slightly wrong information or data."

"Currently, in the pilots that I have done, I have not found it to be very highly accurate, so there is a felt need to get improvements in those areas."

More Sprout Social cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 Marketing Cloud is affordable, considering the significant improvements it brings to our campaign results."

"This solution is priced in the medium to high price range."

"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."

"The price is expensive."

"The solution is a bit expensive."

"We have two types of licensing. We have a yearly license for end users and we have a concurrent login for selling."

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

More Salesforce Marketing Cloud pricing and cost advice

Information not available

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Construction Company

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

16%

Outsourcing Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

University

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	20
Midsize Enterprise	15
Large Enterprise	34

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	8
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	18

Questions from the Community

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...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sprout Social?

We do not mind the setup cost because the organization provides whatever we are asking for, and we are just working on it. We do not know much about pricing and setup costs as we have a separate te...

What needs improvement with Sprout Social?

I think enhanced AI features as well as APIs to talk to CRM programs would certainly make Sprout Social more efficient. Regarding Sprout Social's AI capabilities, I currently think they manage it w...

What is your primary use case for Sprout Social?

My main use case for Sprout Social is management of the social media channels at Harman, where we manage it for eight plus brands across key platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, an...

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Product Reports

Salesforce Marketing Cloud

August 2026

Download Salesforce Marketing Cloud product report

Download Sprout Social product report

August 2026

Also Known As

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Overview

Salesforce Marketing Cloud offers robust tools for content management, customer engagement, and multi-channel campaigns, enhancing personalization and communication with insightful analytics.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud integrates CRM functions, supporting automation and scalability while providing real-time notifications. It enables effective marketing campaigns through features like Content Builder and Journey Builder. Its AI-powered tools streamline data management and enhance productivity, though improvements in interfaces, third-party integrations, and development environments are needed. Companies benefit from email marketing capabilities and leverage the platform for lead generation and sales management.

What are the key features of Salesforce Marketing Cloud?

Content Builder: Streamlines content management for effective campaigns.
Advertising Studio: Engages customers across multiple platforms.
Journey Builder: Manages multi-channel marketing campaigns with ease.
Automation and Integration: Supports CRM functions, enhancing personalization and analytics.

What benefits or ROI should be considered in evaluations?

Ease of Use: User-friendly interface improves marketing efficiency.
Scalability: Adapts to growing marketing needs of companies.
Real-Time Notifications: Keeps users informed for timely actions.
AI-Powered Tools: Enhances productivity and strategy optimization.

Industries implement Salesforce Marketing Cloud for diverse applications such as email marketing, campaign management, and customer engagement, leveraging CRM capabilities for enhanced sales strategies. Organizations use it for integrating advertising, direct communication, and automation, targeting improved customer interactions and increased outreach.

Salesforce

Sprout Social provides social media management solutions with strengths in scheduling, analytics, and audience insights, assisting businesses in refining strategies.

Known for its intuitive interface and unified platform, Sprout Social supports efficient management across networks like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. It facilitates campaign coordination, communication centralization, and derives insightful reports on audience interactions. The platform’s social listening aids in tracking mentions and engaging with followers. Despite acclaim for its features, challenges include high pricing and a learning curve due to feature complexity. Feedback calls for improved data customization, image support, and third-party integrations.

What are the key features of Sprout Social?

Post Scheduling: Efficiently plan and automate posts across multiple accounts.
Smart Inbox: Centralizes messages from all social networks for streamlined communication.
Advanced Analytics: Offers comprehensive insights into audience engagement and performance metrics.
Social Listening: Monitors brand mentions for improved interaction and responsiveness.
Content Planning: Supports structured scheduling and publication to maintain brand consistency.

What benefits or ROI should users look for?

Time-Saving: Features like bulk scheduling enhance productivity and efficiency.
Audience Engagement: Detailed analytics help improve strategies and increase interaction rates.
Campaign Coordination: Centralized communication simplifies cross-platform management.
Brand Consistency: Ensures uniform messaging and adherence to brand guidelines.

In healthcare, there is a need for more tailored tools and templates. The industry seeks enhancements in analytics, scheduling, and integration capabilities. Non-marketing teams require simplified access to analytics and smoother integration with a broad range of social networks, including TikTok.

Sample Customers

American Express, Financial Conduct Authority, KPN, Merck KGaA, Peterborough City Council, The Chapar, ADP, Financial Times, Stanley Black & Decker, SureFlap, Western Union, Philips

Hyatt, Stanford University, Coldwell Banker, Razorfish, UPS, Box, Zipcar, PepsiCo, YogurtLand, Dove, TechSmith