Pardot vs. Act-On
Switch to Act-On today:
- Better CRM integrations, 5 total platforms
- Easier-to-use Pardot competitor
- Better support with a personal touch
Act-On Stands Out Among Pardot Competitors
Marketing automation shouldn’t be an afterthought in your martech stack.
But tech giants like Salesforce have bought up specialized solutions like Pardot and rendered them no more than trivial add-ons to win larger deals.
The result: poor integrations, complex systems, and lackluster support. (Sound familiar? You’ve seen the same thing happen when once-thriving platforms like Marketo or Eloqua get swallowed up and added to the laundry list of solutions at Adobe or Oracle.)
That’s where Act-On stands apart among Pardot competitors. We do one thing: empower marketers to build business value by segmenting, personalizing, and optimizing their campaigns. And we do it well.
We’re the only dedicated marketing automation platform, and we’re proud of it. In the areas that matter most to marketers — integrations, usability, and customer experience— we have earned the reviews and awards to prove focus, commitment, and expertise are what really matter.
Want to make your marketing and sales teams happy? Ditch Pardot for Act-On marketing automation. You don’t even need to change your CRM, since Act-On integrates fully with Salesforce.
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Companies That Trust Act-On
Considering Pardot Competitors? Choose the One Your Team Will Actually Enjoy Using
Pardot is now officially known as Marketing Cloud Account Engagement…but we’re going to keep calling it Pardot, because that’s a mouthful. Since its acquisition by Salesforce in 2013, Pardot has been piggybacking on Salesforce’s position as a CRM market leader. Consultants say the parent company has been neglecting Pardot—not prioritizing marketing automation. The software has become painful to use and doesn’t meet the basic needs of B2B marketers.
Here at Act-On, marketing automation is our sole focus, not just another box to check in a quest to own the tech landscape.
We’re constantly investing in features, innovations, and resources that make your job easier, like our market-leading SMS capabilities. Since Act-On has native integrations with five major CRMs (including Salesforce), you don’t have to sacrifice marketing automation functionality to use your other favorite platforms.
And if you ever need help, you’ll get real answers from real human experts in marketing automation—not another service fee.
Act-On vs. Pardot
- Subsidized migration support + services to Act-On
- 4-step airtight process to safely switch to Act-On
- Maintain Salesforce CRM with Act-On integration
We know switching software is a big decision. Read on to learn how Act-On stands out in a crowded field of Pardot competitors.
The Act-On Software Team has become an extension of our business. We ranked their marketing automation solution above Pardot and competitors like Eloqua, Marketo, and HubSpot. Their service has exceeded expectations. We are very happy to work with them!
Awards We've Won
Don’t Settle for Subpar Competitors like Pardot: Act-On Rises Above in Three Crucial Areas
You might think that being acquired by Salesforce means Pardot’s marketing automation runs in perfect harmony with Salesforce CRM. Turns out, that’s not always the case. Customers complain about Pardot’s “native integration” lacking support for basic functionality including custom object info, multi-touch attribution, and even requiring extra licenses for basic levels of integration into Sales Cloud. Marketing teams find themselves building clunky workarounds to make Pardot work with its own parent company’s CRM.
Among Pardot competitors, Act-On’s native Salesforce CRM integration has more depth and flexibility in data flow. And while it may seem counterintuitive, our sales tool integrations run deeper. For example, from Salesforce, sales users can access an Act-On Tab, Activity History, Hot Prospects, Account Data, and more.
Act-On’s independence leads to more flexibility in CRM choices. In fact, Act-On has four other native integrations with top CRM providers, which means you and your sales team don’t have to be yoked to a lackluster all-in-one platform. You can make the best choice for your business.
With more customizable views, data, and reporting for marketing and sales teams, Act-On can easily help you analyze your data and determine which sources and campaigns generated the most leads, deals, and revenue.
The Pardot system is so complex you may struggle to move beyond basic email marketing. Using Pardot requires HTML expertise or even advanced specialists just to build simple email templates. Reviewers complain that compared to competitors, Pardot lacks flexibility for basic functions like standing up a landing page. Many users report spending too much valuable time battling the finicky email editor to add value.
These constant roadblocks can keep your team from digging deep enough to perform true marketing automation. By comparison, Act-On’s intuitive interface makes it downright delightful to automate nurture programs, accomplish multi-channel lead generation, perform marketing attribution and reporting, and so much more.
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 where Act-On really beats Pardot and its competitors.
Watching videos, sifting through knowledge bases, gambling on community advice, or sitting in long ticketing queues isn’t a productive use of your time. But that’s precisely what you’ll experience with Pardot’s success and support plans. Those support tiers can add more than 30% to your total cost, on top of licensing fees for services like training and account management.
Act-On delivers an exceptional experience to every customer. Our support engineers and marketing experts are here to help you hash out any platform questions and fine-tune your automation strategies. And we don’t force you into support workflows that rank the severity of your questions to throttle service or treat technical needs separately from platform success.
Prior to implementation, we conducted robust benchmarking of Pardot competitors Act-On, Hubspot, and Marketo. We had several demonstrations and discussions, specifically analyzing key criteria including CRM integration, reporting and analytics, administration (including segmentation and global use), and content creation. We were delighted to choose and continue to work with Act-On.
Act-On Marketing Automation: The Best of Pardot Competitors
Fed up with frustrating interfaces and unreliable support? If you’re finding that Salesforce simply hasn’t made the investment required to meet your expectations or provide the experience you deserve, it’s time to switch to Act-On.
Act-On delivers better functionality, integrations, and support. We’re dubbed “advanced marketing automation that anyone can use” because regardless of budget or experience, our customers succeed.
We aren’t Salesforce, and we don’t want to be. We’re Act-On. We focus on marketing automation instead of looking to be everything to everyone. Looking for a true partner in marketing automation? We’re exactly who you need.
