ActiveCampaign vs Pardot (Marketing Cloud Account Engagement)

ActiveCampaign logovsP(
ActiveCampaign brings its own CRM and suits small teams. Pardot, now Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, sits on top of Salesforce and suits B2B teams already running sales there.
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The verdictSide by sidePlans and pricingWho each is forOther options

The verdict

For a small B2B team without Salesforce, I'd pick ActiveCampaign. It is easier to start with, it brings a CRM and you can change course later.

I'd pick Pardot when the company already pays for Salesforce, has enough lead volume to justify a dedicated platform and wants marketing and sales to use one set of records.

Pardot is sold on annual contracts and priced per organisation, not per user, so ask Salesforce what each edition includes and what an upgrade costs. If you are still deciding where your pipeline lives, look at HubSpot as the CRM-led option before you tie yourself to either.

What the data says
  • Both cover 1 of the 1 features we compared.
  • In our Marketing automation ranking, ActiveCampaign places 3 and Pardot (Marketing Cloud Account Engagement) 6 of 13.

Side by side

ActiveCampaign and Pardot (Marketing Cloud Account Engagement) compared
5 points compared
ActiveCampaign logoActiveCampaign
P(Pardot (Marketing Cloud Account Engagement)
Starts at$15/mo€1,250/mo
Free planNoNo
APIYesYes
MCP serverYesNot known yet
SMS / multi-channelYesYes
Links
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Plans and pricing

ActiveCampaign logo

ActiveCampaign

  • StarterEmail marketing plan with multi-step automation; price is for 1,000 contacts and rises with contact count.$15/mo
  • PlusAdds more automation, CRM add-on option and landing-page design service; price is for 1,000 contacts.$49/mo
  • ProMid-tier plan with 3 users; price is for 1,000 contacts and rises with contact count.$79/mo
  • EnterpriseFive users and 15x monthly email sends per contact; price is for 1,000 contacts and rises with contact count.$145/mo
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Pardot (Marketing Cloud Account Engagement)

  • Growth+Priced per organisation, billed annually (1,250 EUR monthly equivalent); includes Marketing Cloud Next Growth Edition.€15,000/yr
  • Plus+Priced per organisation, billed annually (2,750 EUR monthly equivalent); includes Marketing Cloud Next Advanced Edition.€33,000/yr
  • Advanced+Priced per organisation, billed annually (4,400 EUR monthly equivalent); includes Marketing Cloud Next Advanced Edition.€52,800/yr
  • Premium+Priced per organisation, billed annually (15,000 EUR monthly equivalent); includes Premier Success.€180,000/yr

Prices as the vendors list them. They change often; the final price is on their sites.

Who each is for

ActiveCampaign logo

Choose ActiveCampaign if…

Pick ActiveCampaign when you want automation and a light CRM without a Salesforce stack. I have used ActiveCampaign on several B2B projects, including my own startup, and it gave me more than I expected for the price.

It was not flawless. A trigger sometimes did not fire, and very large workflows were slow. I hit the wall on the CRM, where I wanted custom objects and used tags instead. Check the newer developer docs on custom objects before you decide.

It is priced by contact count, so clean your list before you migrate. It suits a team that does not want a platform owner or an annual contract with a large vendor.

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Choose Pardot (Marketing Cloud Account Engagement) if…

Pick Pardot when you are a B2B team on Salesforce and lead generation, qualification and reporting are your core job. Scored leads and campaign influence flow back to the CRM, so sales sees what a prospect read and clicked before the call.

Salesforce Flow for Marketers lets teams build automation with the same flow tooling used elsewhere in Salesforce. Object, Export and Import APIs help with large data loads. The editions are Growth+, Plus+, Advanced+ and Premium+.

Someone needs to own scoring, field mapping and list hygiene, ideally a person who knows both Salesforce and marketing automation. If you move your CRM later, you lose the main reason to use it.

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