Planning to implement marketing automation and considering Pardot? We advice to look at resembling software to make a decision.

When customers choose marketing automation app, most often they are looking for functionality for email builder, marketing lead database, website builder, lead nurturing, A etc.

Comparing Pardot with competitors users pay attention to the automation builder, marketing lead database, help desk, conversations, survey builder, segmentation, number of triggers and actions and so on.

We’ve made a list of top 10 competitors that are very similar in cost and features to Pardot. The list is based on similarity, so if Pardot doesn’t suit you in any way, here you can easily choose the best variant for you.

E2 Shop System

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We help shops and manufacturers of all kinds and sizes work smarter for improved efficiencies, greater flexibility and bigger profits.

Home Inspector Pro

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The top Home Inspection Software in the industry giving you ultimate flexibility and time savings to run your business.

Todoist

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Todoist gives you the confidence that everything's organized and accounted for, so you can make progress on the things that are important to you.

tomHRM

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tomHRM is a user-friendly and fully configurable HR platform that gives you freedom in terms of the modules that you want to use. This means that you can pick and pay only for the modules you need and configure the platform according to your requirements.

Mumara

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Mumara is an advanced level web based Email Marketing/Blasting solution which enables the user to send high speed unlimited emails with custom criteria. Mumara includes everything which is required to a perfect mailer from sending to tracking. It allows you to manage your subscription lists and keep them categorized according to your requirement. It is built using highly optimized techniques which make the performance go unbelievably fast.

Omnisend

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Omnisend is an omnichannel marketing automation platform built for eCommerce. With email marketing at its core, creating effective email campaigns is easier than ever before. Using Omnisend's marketing automation, you can personalize your message with customer data, campaign engagement, and shopping behavior. Omnisend allows you to add several channels into the same automation workflow: email, SMS, push notifications, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and more.

ConvertKit

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ConvertKit is an email marketing automation and lead generation platform designed for content creators. As an example, course creators, YouTubers, podcasters, bloggers and other business owners who create and regularly share their content. The platform provides automated email marketing with drag-n-drop email sequences, workflow automation rules, landing page templates, custom opt-in forms, and more.

Bridgit Field

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Bridgit Field makes construction less complicated from day one - so projects finish faster.

Act-on

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Act-On is a subscription-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) product for marketing automation. Its software products are for email marketing, landing pages, social media prospecting, CRM integration, lead management, webinar management, and analytics.

Twitter

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Twitter is a service for friends, family, and coworkers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent messages. People post Tweets, which may contain photos, videos, links, and text. These messages are posted to your profile, sent to your followers, and are searchable on Twitter search.

ActiveCampaign

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ActiveCampaign is a platform that helps businesses automate customer experiences and build meaningful connections with their customers. Since 2003, ActiveCampaign has created tools that are both powerful and easy to use – because growing businesses don't always have the time to set up new tech. Today, 80,000+ businesses use ActiveCampaign for their email marketing, marketing automation, or CRM.

How to choose Pardot substitute

Many marketing automation tools are similar to each other. Platforms with identical features can differ in cost by 2 times. The first feature you should look at is the availability of funnel builder. This is a basic feature of marketing automation apps and if it doesn’t include this feature, most likely this app isn’t formed yet. All funnel builders look almost the same. It's important not to look at the UX, but pay attention to the functionality.

In a month, you'll get used to the UI, but the lack of features will always spite you. Changing marketing automation apps is very expensive. If you have the usual email set up, it's not that difficult to switch to another tool. But if you've already configured integrations, workflow, and have complex funnels, it can take months to change the tool. That's why you should be attentive to choosing an alternative.

What to look for when analyzing the automation builder? It has 4 important features categories.

1. Triggers. For instance, "Form submit" is a trigger that launches a business process. The most often used triggers are: opening an email, clicking a link in an email, reaching a goal, adding or removing a tag, closing a deal, visiting a page, etc. In each platform for marketing automation this set is different. The more, the better.
2. Action. For example, "Send email". This is the most simple action you can have. The most often used actions are: add or remove a tag, send a text message, send a messenger message, set a salesperson task, update a transaction, notify someone by email, move a transaction to another stage, etc.
3. Delay. For instance, "Wait 2 days. Customer fill in the form on the website and get in the marketing automation app (Trigger), the software sends a Welcome email (Action). Then the app waits 3 days (delay) and sends a second email. This is the most simple automation. But there are other options. For example, "Wait until something happens". Or wait until November 30th, or wait until 9 PM in the subscriber’s time zone.
4. If/else. For instance, "If a client, has the tag "Bought product #1", send the email, if the subscriber doesn't have the tag "Purchased product #1", wait 2 days and send the email. The most often used if/else parameters are: was on the site page, bought certain items, opened certain emails, user field the contact card matches some requirements. This is information according to which you can segment the contact base.

Analyzing the automation builder, you need to look carefully at all four categories of functions. The more, the better. Often it appears that good-working marketing automation software with the biggest number of features look uncomfortable. New systems look nice, but they have few functions. You need to the tool you plan to implement very deeply. Otherwise, it will be very painful to change it in the future.

Once you've analyzed the automation builder, you understand whether there are integrations with the apps you need. Fortunately, Apiway can help you. Usually, tools like Pardot are the center of business IT infrastructure. It's kind of digital hub for all your subscriber. This kind of software is like an octopus, which is putting its tentacles into other system. App like Pardot need to integrate with most other ones. Or you’ll have to waste a lot of money and time developing custom integrations.

Also those who are looking for alternatives to Pardot use tools from other categories like email marketing software, chat on website software, CRM system, lead management software