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

Try for Free

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

Audiencer

Try for Free

Audiencer is a software that helps Facebook advertisers find their ideal audience by uncovering high intent interests they can target.

Optial SmartStart

Try for Free

Optial supports all kinds of audits, including internal, external, business reviews, ad hoc, risk-based or checklist based audits.

ActiveCampaign

Try for Free

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.

DirectIQ

Try for Free

With DirectIQ's rich features and intuitive user interface, you can easily load email contacts, pick a template, and send out email campaigns in just a matter of minutes.

ProTexting

Try for Free

ProTexting was started by a team of SMS marketing experts that have been in the industry since 2000. Since that time, both SMS marketing in general and ProTexting itself have evolved in many ways. Our text messaging platform now serves over 9,000 brands in a wide variety of industries.

Pinterest

Try for Free

Pinterest is an image sharing and social media service designed to enable saving and discovery of information on the internet using images and, on a smaller scale, animated GIFs and videos, in the form of pinboards.

Jobvite

Try for Free

Jobvite is a comprehensive talent acquisition suite that offers a marketing-inspired approach to recruiting by intelligently attracting your dream candidates, automatically screening for the highest quality, engaging employees invested in their future, and retaining the people who care the most about your organization by combining the power of data and the human touch.

GP MaTe

Try for Free

User-friendly maintenance and material management system that facilitates maintenance planning and inventory control. Product has many optional modules that support Safety (PSM, MOC and LOTO), Budgeting, Multi-plant information sharing, and Operator Tours and Data Collection. The system is available in many languages and supports vendor currency conversions.

Consumer Marketing Platform

Try for Free

Turn your customers into your brand advocates with world's most engaging automated Loyalty Program. Most effective, economical, easy to setup, customizable and highly scalable. Seamless and friction-less for consumers to use. The consumer participation is very high, with some of our clients achieving up to 76% consistent conversion rate. Comes with marketing automation to re-engage customers and advance dashboards for data analytics and reports.

Capsule CRM

Try for Free

Capsule CRM is an online Customer Relationship CRM that is very simple to use. Capsule CRM is the ideal choice for small and medium-sized businesses. Capsule CRM helps you develop strong customer relationships, make more sales, and get a clear picture of your business so that you can make more informed decisions.

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