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.

Teachable

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Teachable is a learning management system (LMS) provider for bloggers, creatives and online educators who want to create and sell courses. It was founded by Ankur Nagpal and was previously known as Fedora. Teachable is for bloggers, creatives and entrepreneurs who want to create and sell online courses to their audience or followers.

SurveyMonkey

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We're on a mission to help people turn their curiosity into action. SurveyMonkey is the world’s leading survey platform enabling curious individuals and companies – including 98% of the Fortune 500 – to have conversations at scale with the people who matter most.

BigMailer

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Big Mailer is an email marketing platform powered by Amazon SES. Big Mailer allows anyone with large email lists to manage emails more effectively, and reduce organizational overhead and cost. Marketers can build custom customer segments in seconds and business can leverage Amazon's superior infrastructure without added cost of maintenance

ProTexting

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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.

Zoho Assist

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Access your computer or mobile device from anywhere, anytime using Zoho Assist; your one-stop solution for remote support, screen sharing and unattended access. Get started today with one of the industry's most secure, reliable and affordable software. Requires no prior installation. Cross-platform support available. Works across devices. Supports all major web-proxies and firewalls.

Paychex Flex

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Paychex makes paying and managing your employees easy and automatic.

SurveySparrow

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SurveySparrow lets you turn surveys into conversations. With a conversational interface, SurveySparrow enables users to create and share highly engaging, mobile-first surveys that offer a chat-like experience. SurveySparrow Recurring Surveys let you send surveys at regular intervals to gauge customer or employee pulse. With easy sharing options, SurveySparrow allows you to share your surveys across Web, Mobile, Social, and E-mail to easily collect feedback from your targeted audience.

ClubExpress

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ClubExpress provides clubs and associations with an Internet platform to manage both front-office and back-office operations. ClubExpress combines the association web site with the membership and non-member databases, secure online member signup, renewals and expirations, credit-card processing, membership directory, discussion forums, event calendar and online registration, E-commerce storefront, committees, documents, interests, surveys, and other modules based on what clubs and associations do. The platform includes a full suite of administration tools to run the organization. There is no programming or HTML experience required; everything is controlled by menus and dialog boxes, and all changes are immediately live. We use state-of-the-art security, there's no advertising and associations own their data at all times.

Google Docs

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Web-based app designed to store, create, and edit spreadsheets and documents online. Templates, charting and commenting are available.

Slack

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Slack is the collaboration hub that brings the right people, information, and tools together to get work done. From Fortune 100 companies to corner markets, millions of people around the world use Slack to connect their teams, unify their systems, and drive their business forward.

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