Evaluating Marketo Competitors?

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Act-On Stands Out Among Marketo Competitors

Marketing Automation. Marketo. The words might go hand-in-hand, but if your team spends more time and money managing bloated software than creating demand, something’s gone wrong. Curious about which Marketo competitors to consider?

Meet Act-On. Our marketing automation platform is an easier-to-use and more affordable Marketo alternative. And our team of real, caring human beings is a lot like you—we get up every morning to provide real, meaningful experiences for every customer. Can you honestly say the same about Marketo? Check out our customer reviews on G2 for more on how we stack up.

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Considering Marketo Competitors? Choose the One Your Team Will Actually Enjoy Using

Once upon a time, Marketo was a great option for marketing automation. Then, Adobe acquired the platform in 2018. Ever since, investment in product innovation and support has taken a nosedive, according to an independent study of Marketo customers.*

Now known as Adobe Marketo Engage, users have been vocal about how the platform has become difficult to use, outdated, and expensive. Adobe may be losing ground to other Marketo competitors, and it’s no surprise why: If your marketing automation platform is so complex that only a highly trained expert can use it, that’s a problem.

Act-On was developed as a dedicated marketing automation alternative to Marketo and solutions like it. We believe everyone on your team deserves an automation platform they’ll actually enjoy using. Act-On was developed by marketers, for marketers, to be intuitive, easy to use, and approachable. Your team can scale your lead generation and customer experience engines without having to become experts in an expensive, bulky all-in-one platform.

Act-On vs. Marketo

You need an automation platform that is built specifically with your marketing plans and data in mind: and that’s probably not Marketo. With Adobe’s investment in product improvements and support declining, your team is probably struggling to work effectively and get the support they need. Their day-to-day life is worse than it used to be.

By comparison, Act-On will help you reach your full marketing potential — without triggering Marketo migraines.

*All Marketo intelligence based on customer reviews and independent research conducted by a third party and commissioned by Act-On.

Awards We've Won

Flexible integrations: Act-On fits with your martech stack

Great marketing automation requires good customer data for lead scoring, segmentation, and nurturing. Without information flowing between all your systems, your dreams of personalized campaigns will be dead on arrival.

Act-On plays well with others. With five major native CRM integrations compared to Marketo’s two, Act-On far outpaces Marketo in choice and flexibility for your martech stack. And since our partners include the most popular webinar, data, and ABM providers, you can plug and play with the best players in the martech landscape.

I looked at Marketo competitors, including Pardot. We decided to go with Act-On Software because the company has great customer service and flexibility. Act-On offered all of the main features as its competitors with a flexible pricing plan allowing us to build up our marketing activities over time.

What It’s Like to Work in Act-On vs Marketo

Easier to use than Marketo: Spend more time marketing


Act-On is the one platform among Marketo competitors that anyone can use. With our advanced marketing automation platform, you won’t need to fork over your hard-earned marketing dollars for expensive specialists or agency contracts just to get set up.

Marketo users report they spend nearly 90% of their time in the platform doing admin work. Time that could be spent adding value for their customers! Meanwhile, Act-On has an intuitive interface that lets your team do more of what they do best: marketing.

Imagine that! Less time building and more time doing. If autonomy and flexibility are important to you and your marketing team, Act-On is the Marketo competitor you need.

The main difference between Pardot or Marketo and Act-On is that Act-On is a lot easier to use.

Better customer experience than Marketo: Get the personal help you need

If questions come up as you’re developing your automation strategy or building campaigns, you want technical experts with unparalleled product expertise—and that’s Act-On.

Unless you’re a top-tier Adobe account (we’re talking maybe billions in revenue), you likely won’t get the same level of care and attention from the support team. Instead, you’ll probably have to spend your time sifting through forum posts and community threads to get the help you need.

Your marketing automation platform is mission critical. You can’t afford to wait when problems come up. Act-On has a team behind you to investigate, educate, and resolve any issue.

Bring Along Your Favorite Tools

Our Native CRM Integrations

More affordable Marketo Competitor: Do it all yourself, for less

Your marketing automation platform shouldn’t be a loss leader to get you on the hook for an expensive suite of tools you don’t need. Enough of the up-sells, expensive consultants, and added costs for must-have features.

Act-On’s platform has everything your in-house team needs to launch sophisticated campaigns across channels. Our pricing is based on active contacts, not total database size like Marketo. In other words, you only pay for the contacts you actually market to. When it comes to the total cost of ownership, customers are seeing cost reductions of up to 48%.

It simply takes fewer resources to run your marketing automation program with Act-On. Start dreaming: what will you and your team do with those extra dollars to put toward campaigns and content, not overhead. Act-On is the Marketo alternative you’ve been waiting for.

The Act-On Software Team has become an extension of our business. We ranked their marketing automation solution above Eloqua, Marketo, Pardot, and HubSpot. Their service has exceeded expectations. We are very happy to work with them!

Act-On Marketing Automation: The Best of Marketo Competitors​

You can run your marketing machine on Act-On or Marketo. But Act-On saves you all the potential headaches and extra costs Marketo brings with it. Our platform is easier for your team to use, better for your bottom line, and provides more personalized and attentive customer support.


Do you believe your team deserves a marketing automation platform they’ll love to use? If so, get a personalized demo of Act-On today.

See Why Act-On is Marketo Marketing Automation’s Best Competitor

Marketo was too expensive, had too many features we weren't using or didn't know how to use, our rep was slow in responding to our concerns and the whole thing just felt too bloated.