Keap vs Pardot (Marketing Cloud Account Engagement)

Keap logovsP(
Keap is a single system for small service businesses to follow up, book and invoice. Pardot is Salesforce's B2B marketing automation that only makes sense on top of Salesforce.
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The verdictSide by sidePlans and pricingWho each is forOther options

The verdict

For a small business that wants to run follow-up and payments in one place, I'd pick Keap. It is the simpler starting point and does not depend on another platform.

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

Pardot is sold on annual contracts, priced per organisation, and the entry edition costs a lot more than tools small teams usually start with. Keap has one plan priced by contact count and an early termination fee on annual contracts. Neither is the easy option for a team that wants to start cheaply. A CRM with marketing built in, such as HubSpot, is a lighter alternative.

What the data says
  • Both cover 2 of the 2 features we compared.
  • In our Marketing automation ranking, Keap places 1 and Pardot (Marketing Cloud Account Engagement) 6 of 13.

Side by side

Keap and Pardot (Marketing Cloud Account Engagement) compared
6 points compared
Keap logoKeap
P(Pardot (Marketing Cloud Account Engagement)
Starts at$249/mo€1,250/mo
Free planNoNo
APIYesYes
MCP serverNoNot known yet
Built-in outreach/sequencesYesYes
SMS / multi-channelYesYes
Links
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Plans and pricing

Keap logo

Keap

  • KeapStarting price with 2 users included; extra users $39 per month. Price grows with number of contacts.$299/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

Keap logo

Choose Keap if…

Pick Keap when you run a small service business, such as coaching, consulting or an agency, and want sales, follow-up and payments in one tool.

The campaign builder is visual and needs no code. Appointments, quotes and payment links sit with the contact, and SMS is available as an add-on. The vendor lists over 5,000 integrations, including Zapier.

It does not fit teams that need heavy reporting, detailed permissions or custom account structures, and email design is not its strongest side. If you already have a CRM you like, adding Keap on top is usually a mistake, because Keap wants to be the CRM.

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P(

Choose Pardot (Marketing Cloud Account Engagement) if…

Pick Pardot when you are a B2B team on Salesforce and marketing and sales need to read the same records. Lead activity sits next to the account and opportunity, so sales can see what a prospect read and clicked before the call.

The editions are Growth+, Plus+, Advanced+ and Premium+. Salesforce Flow for Marketers lets teams build automation with familiar Salesforce tooling, and Object, Export and Import APIs help with large data sets.

Assign someone who knows both Salesforce and marketing automation to own scoring and list hygiene. Do not build years of scoring rules into it if you may change your CRM later.

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