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Most buyers should pick Adobe Marketo Engage.
Choose Adobe Marketo Engage if campaign automation, lead scoring, and marketing attribution are your priorities. Choose Salesforce Marketing Cloud if you need to build customer journeys around connected enterprise data. Neither product lists a free plan. Marketo’s prices are not published, while Salesforce lists profile pricing starting at $20 per 1,000 profiles monthly, billed annually; costs also depend on credits and the organization’s contract. These are different pricing bases, so compare your likely profile and usage needs before switching.
01Side by side
| Adobe Marketo Engage | Salesforce Marketing Cloud | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Not published | $20 per 1,000 profiles monthly, billed annually |
| Free plan | No free plan listed | No free plan listed |
| Best for | Campaign automation and lead management | Complex journeys and connected enterprise data |
| Core strength | Lead scoring, attribution, and omnichannel campaigns | Customer journeys and profile-based marketing |
| Learning curve | Review ease score: 5 | Review ease score: 4 |
| Integrations/data | Lead- and account-level audience profiles | Data 360 integrates and harmonizes enterprise data |
| Team/seat costs | Seat pricing not published | Profile- and usage-based; seat pricing not listed |
| Support | Review support score: 5 | Review support score: 5 |
Adobe Marketo Engage Choose Adobe Marketo Engage if
- Choose Adobe Marketo Engage if lead scoring and attribution matter.
- Choose Adobe Marketo Engage if you need multichannel campaign automation.
- Choose Adobe Marketo Engage if lead and account profiles suit your marketing.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Choose Salesforce Marketing Cloud if
- Choose Salesforce Marketing Cloud if customer journeys are central to your work.
- Choose Salesforce Marketing Cloud if connected enterprise data is a priority.
- Choose Salesforce Marketing Cloud if profile-based pricing fits your usage.
02Pricing compared
Marketo’s pricing is not published in the pricing notes. Adobe lists Growth, Select, Prime, and Ultimate, but provides no prices or plan details there. Neither product lists a free plan, and a free trial is not specified for either.
Salesforce lists Profiles at $20 per 1,000 profiles per month, billed annually, or $240 per 1,000 profiles per year. Enterprise Profiles cost $35 per 1,000 profiles per month, billed annually. Flex Credits cost $500 per 100,000 credits. Salesforce says billing depends on the organization’s contract, and prices for Data Masking and Ad Audience add-ons are not published.
These are different pricing bases: Marketo’s price is undisclosed, while Salesforce’s figures depend on profiles, credits, and contract terms. Compare your expected profile count and usage before treating Salesforce’s listed rate as a full-stack cost.
03Features and depth
Marketo’s listed feature set centers on campaign automation and lead management. It can run multi-step campaigns in response to customer behavior and data changes across email, web, mobile, chat, events, webinars, and digital advertising. Adobe also lists personalized content, lead scoring, lead- and account-level audience profiles, segmentation, dashboards, and multi-touch attribution. That makes Marketo the clearer fit when the buying brief emphasizes campaign execution, sales handoff, and measuring marketing’s revenue impact.
Salesforce describes Marketing as a tool for building, personalizing, and optimizing campaigns and customer journeys. Its broader platform includes Customer 360 business rules and workflows, plus Data 360 for federating, integrating, and harmonizing enterprise data. The published feature details are less specific about marketing functions such as lead scoring or attribution, so do not assume parity from the high-level description alone.
Choose based on the work you need the platform to do: Marketo’s listed strengths are marketing automation and measurement; Salesforce’s are journeys tied to connected enterprise data.
04Ease of use and learning curve
Neither product’s published materials give implementation times, training requirements, or a detailed learning-curve comparison. Salesforce’s pricing notes also tie billing to the organization’s contract and usage, so evaluating it means understanding profile counts and Flex Credit consumption—not just a headline rate.
Marketo’s pricing is opaque in the notes, and its feature list spans campaign automation, audience management, attribution, and sales alignment. That breadth may call for more evaluation than a narrow campaign tool, but the source does not quantify setup effort. Salesforce’s connected-data and workflow components may also add scope when they are part of the project.
Before switching, map your current journeys, data sources, and reporting needs, then ask both vendors to show how those requirements affect configuration and total cost.
Questions people ask
Which is better, Salesforce or Adobe?
There is no universal winner in our comparison. Marketo is the stronger fit if campaign automation, lead scoring, and marketing attribution are priorities. Salesforce suits teams building customer journeys around connected enterprise data. Compare your requirements and likely costs: Marketo prices are not published, while Salesforce charges by profiles and credits.
How does Marketo compare to HubSpot?
The published materials do not include HubSpot features, pricing, or plan limits, so we cannot make a grounded comparison. They do show Marketo’s focus on multi-step campaign automation, lead scoring, audience profiles, and attribution. Check HubSpot’s current pricing and feature documentation against those needs before comparing switching costs.
Who is Salesforce’s biggest competitor?
The published published material does not identify Salesforce’s biggest competitor, and the answer depends on which Salesforce product and market you mean. For marketing automation specifically, this comparison covers Adobe Marketo Engage. It does not establish that Marketo is Salesforce’s largest competitor overall.
What is Salesforce Pardot now called?
The published materials do not mention Pardot or state its current name, so we cannot verify the answer from these sources. Check Salesforce’s current product documentation before making a migration or procurement decision; product naming and packaging can change, and the pricing here covers Salesforce Marketing Cloud.