Constant Contact vs Pardot

What users are saying about

Score 8.1 out of 10

Based on 722 reviews and ratings

Score 7.7 out of 10

Based on 784 reviews and ratings

Feature Set Ratings

Constant Contact ranks higher in 1 feature set: Reporting & Analytics
Constant Contact and Pardot are tied in 1 feature set: Email & Online Marketing

Email & Online Marketing

7.7

Constant Contact

77%

7.7

Pardot

77%

Constant Contact ranks higher in 6/9 features

WYSIWYG email editor

7.8

78%

82 Ratings

6.8

68%

87 Ratings

Dynamic content

7.6

76%

82 Ratings

7.6

76%

78 Ratings

Ability to test dynamic content

7.5

75%

81 Ratings

8.2

82%

75 Ratings

Landing pages

7.6

76%

56 Ratings

7.5

75%

86 Ratings

A/B testing

7.4

74%

52 Ratings

7.8

78%

79 Ratings

Mobile optimization

8.0

80%

85 Ratings

7.3

73%

75 Ratings

Email deliverability reporting

8.6

86%

135 Ratings

7.9

79%

177 Ratings

List management

8.4

84%

90 Ratings

8.4

84%

90 Ratings

Triggered drip sequences

6.7

67%

47 Ratings

8.0

80%

61 Ratings

Reporting & Analytics

7.8

Constant Contact

78%

7.0

Pardot

70%

Constant Contact ranks higher in 3/3 features

Dashboards

7.8

78%

87 Ratings

7.1

71%

85 Ratings

Standard reports

8.2

82%

87 Ratings

6.8

68%

88 Ratings

Custom reports

7.5

75%

58 Ratings

7.0

70%

66 Ratings

Pre-Send Testing

8.1

Constant Contact

81%

Pardot

Feature Set Not Supported

N/A

Constant Contact ranks higher in 8/8 features

URL Validation

8.4

84%

31 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Link Tracking

8.0

80%

34 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Image Validation

8.2

82%

31 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Inbox Display

8.0

80%

34 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Email Accessibility Tools

8.0

80%

28 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Spelling and Grammar Check

7.8

78%

31 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Spam Testing

7.8

78%

26 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Email Previews

8.6

86%

40 Ratings

N/A

0 Ratings

Lead Management

Constant Contact

Feature Set Not Supported

N/A

7.4

Pardot

74%

Pardot ranks higher in 4/4 features

Lead nurturing

N/A

0 Ratings

7.2

72%

83 Ratings

Lead scoring and grading

N/A

0 Ratings

7.7

77%

84 Ratings

Data quality management

N/A

0 Ratings

7.0

70%

84 Ratings

Automated sales alerts and tasks

N/A

0 Ratings

7.5

75%

79 Ratings

Campaign Management

Constant Contact

Feature Set Not Supported

N/A

7.7

Pardot

77%

Pardot ranks higher in 2/2 features

Calendaring

N/A

0 Ratings

7.7

77%

74 Ratings

Event/webinar marketing

N/A

0 Ratings

7.7

77%

71 Ratings

Social Media Marketing

Constant Contact

Feature Set Not Supported

N/A

7.0

Pardot

70%

Pardot ranks higher in 2/2 features

Social sharing and campaigns

N/A

0 Ratings

6.5

65%

62 Ratings

Social profile integration

N/A

0 Ratings

7.5

75%

21 Ratings

Platform & Infrastructure

Constant Contact

Feature Set Not Supported

N/A

7.5

Pardot

75%

Pardot ranks higher in 6/6 features

API

N/A

0 Ratings

7.3

73%

64 Ratings

Role-based workflow & approvals

N/A

0 Ratings

7.0

70%

60 Ratings

Customizability

N/A

0 Ratings

7.2

72%

80 Ratings

Integration with Salesforce.com

N/A

0 Ratings

9.4

94%

81 Ratings

Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM

N/A

0 Ratings

8.3

83%

3 Ratings

Integration with SugarCRM

N/A

0 Ratings

5.4

54%

4 Ratings

Attribute Ratings

Constant Contact is rated higher in 8 areas: Likelihood to Recommend, Likelihood to Renew, Usability, Availability, Performance, Support Rating, Online Training, Implementation Rating

Constant Contact

84%

106 Ratings

7.6

Pardot

76%

148 Ratings

Constant Contact

90%

21 Ratings

1.4

Pardot

14%

86 Ratings

Constant Contact

100%

9 Ratings

8.5

Pardot

85%

17 Ratings

Constant Contact

90%

4 Ratings

7.5

Pardot

75%

16 Ratings

Constant Contact

100%

4 Ratings

8.3

Pardot

83%

10 Ratings

Constant Contact

100%

17 Ratings

6.4

Pardot

64%

28 Ratings

Constant Contact

N/A

0 Ratings

9.0

Pardot

90%

3 Ratings

Constant Contact

100%

1 Rating

8.1

Pardot

81%

7 Ratings

Constant Contact

100%

9 Ratings

8.2

Pardot

82%

22 Ratings

Constant Contact

100%

1 Rating

Pardot

N/A

0 Ratings

Pros

You can accomplish quite a bit using the drag and drop interface, so there is less custom HTML required.
Easy to use for folks who are not tech savvy.
Very quick upload speed for contact lists when compared with other email marketing vendors.
Easy to customize contact lists.
Displays much more consistently across different email clients when compared with other email marketing vendors.

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Verified User

Analyst in Marketing

Insurance Company, 501-1000 employees

View all 106 answers on this topic

Pardot enables you to set up different environments via the Pardot Business Unit feature, this is helpful for when decentralization is still needed, but you want all business units working with the same tool.
Pardot enables you to quickly and easily create automation rules that can clean the database retro-actively.
Pardot has the ability to have multiple lead scoring models run at the same time.

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Robert Nagelmaker

Marketing Automation Specialist

Wolters KluwerInformation Services, 10,001+ employees

View all 148 answers on this topic

Cons

The interface is definitely a bit difficult to use and it takes some getting used to.
More customization and exporting of html would be awesome.
They could expand on features that other email marketing software has such as tying in with social media, more flows, etc.

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Verified User

Strategist in Marketing

Marketing & Advertising Company, 11-50 employees

View all 106 answers on this topic

Email templates and drafts are really confusing. I trained various people to create their own templates, but they consistently got confused between publishing a template or just saving a draft, and where they needed to go back to find it.
Their help process is broken, at least for our particular use case. Because we have an enterprise license for Salesforce (even though we had a separate license for Pardot) whenever I needed help with something, I'd get stuck down a rabbit hole and couldn't submit a ticket.

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Verified User

Manager in Product Management

Information Technology & Services Company, 10,001+ employees

View all 148 answers on this topic

Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

Yes

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

Starting Price

$9.99 per month

Constant Contact Editions & Modules

Edition

Core	$9.99¹
Plus	$45.00¹
CRM Platform by SharpSpring	$449.00¹

per month

Additional Pricing Details

—

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Yes

Entry-level set up fee?

Starting Price

$1,250 per month

Pardot Editions & Modules

Edition

Growth	$1,250¹
Plus	$2,500¹
Advanced	$4,000¹
Premium	$15,000¹

/month/up to 10,000 contacts billed annually

Additional Pricing Details

Salesforce Engage, an additional offering for sales and marketing alignment, is priced at $50 per month per user.

Likelihood to Renew

Constant Contact 9.0

Based on 21 answers

There is no doubt that we are going to renew Constant Contact. We have not just invested a lot of time in learning and creating a great looking product but we have developed a strong database of information that allows us to track how we are doing for each newsletter. This supports our goals of creating products that residents desire and are excited to receive.

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Ty Swartz, CPP, USN Ret.

Multimedia Communications Supervisor

Virginia Beach City GovernmentGovernment Administration, 5001-10,000 employees

View all 21 answers on this topic

Pardot 1.4

Based on 86 answers

As of right now we have not seen any other program that integrates as seamlessly into our Salesforce platform. We have barely scratched the surface of all the features and use cases. It would be irresponsible to make a move to another platform in the near future. We have not come up against any limitations that would prompt a need to switch

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Karol Clark

Marketing Manager

Soilworks, LLC - Soil Stabilization & Dust ControlEnvironmental Services, 11-50 employees

View all 86 answers on this topic

Usability

Constant Contact 10.0

Based on 9 answers

There is always room for improvement. I don't know how they test their systems, but they should invite not-so computer savvy people to test it. If I, as an expert have problems, they need to think like the technophobe. Since I've used Constant Contact in the past as part of my former employment, I have not viewed any of the tutorials and just jumped in to work on my client's newsletter. With that said, I found some areas easy and some a bit cumbersome

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Giselle Aguiar

Owner, Consultant

AZ Social Media WizInternet, Myself Only

View all 9 answers on this topic

Pardot 8.5

Based on 17 answers

The system has so many features that it does take a while to get spun up on what they all do and how they interact with each other. Once you dedicate the time to training to reach that crucial level of understanding however, it is easy to creatively apply the varied functionality of the program to address issues that would have previously seemed to mandate the use of another system.

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Marshall Darr

Sales Optimization Specialist

Stock & Option Solutions51-200 employees

View all 17 answers on this topic

Reliability and Availability

Constant Contact 9.0

Based on 4 answers

No major problems in sending out the email campaigns and accessing the analytics

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Verified User

Manager in Research & Development

Public Policy Company, 11-50 employees

View all 4 answers on this topic

Pardot 7.5

Based on 16 answers

There have been a couple of service incidents over the past few months. I'm not sure if it has to do with Pardot integrating their infrastructure with ExactTarget. However, they responded well with proactive communication and a debrief as to what happened.

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Pam Risch

Lumina MarketingComputer Software, 51-200 employees

View all 16 answers on this topic

Performance

Constant Contact 10.0

Based on 4 answers

The system seemed quite slow sometimes. Specifically, there was sometimes a delay in sends if it was during a high traffic period. There were time-outs when uploading new code for an email, and a lag in reporting analytics which was sometimes as long as 72 hours

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Verified User

Employee in Marketing

Retail Company, 51-200 employees

View all 4 answers on this topic

Pardot 8.3

Based on 10 answers

Though the make up of MA apps is not built this way today, it would be nice to see them become more real-time. The integration between Salesforce and Pardot is not a true real-time integration. If I modify something in Salesforce, those changes are not automatically reflected in Pardot immediately. There is a delay of about 15 minutes before the systems sync. This delay, although not long, is less than ideal We would love the systems to be integrated real time such that changes are propagated from one system to the other immediately.

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Verified User

Manager in Marketing

Telecommunications Company, 51-200 employees

View all 10 answers on this topic

Support Rating

Constant Contact 10.0

Based on 17 answers

I think the overall support for Constant Contact has always been incredible; I have nothing negative to say. Our customer support representative was attentive, easy to understand, and very knowledgeable. I never felt like I wasn't a priority of his and my issues, while very small, were fixed in a very short time frame.

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Verified User

Administrative Assistant in Marketing

Real Estate Company, 51-200 employees

View all 17 answers on this topic

Pardot 6.4

Based on 28 answers

Pardot support is tremendous. The knowledge base and in-application targeted help articles and videos are thorough and straightforward. If those don't do it, Pardot has office hours every business day with members of the team available to answer anything. I've called twice and they are incredibly helpful.

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Verified User

Administrator in Marketing

Financial Services Company, 11-50 employees

View all 28 answers on this topic

In-Person Training

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Pardot 9.0

Based on 3 answers

The trainers at the Pardot user conference (Elevate and Connections) were very knowledgeable and presented the material well. Again, the content was targeted to more of a new user audience, and was not really relevant for folks who had been using the product for 2+ years.

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Pam Risch

Lumina MarketingComputer Software, 51-200 employees

View all 3 answers on this topic

Online Training

Constant Contact 10.0

Based on 1 answer

No answer on this topic is available.

Pardot 8.1

Based on 7 answers

Pardot's online training touches on all topics briefly and vaguely without much indepth exploration into how a final outcome could look, such as Nurturing Campaigns, Email templates, landing page templates, etc...The only true way to uncover Pardot's full capabilities is to have Front End design and coding experience. Without this key skill set, I would not recommend Pardot to another business.

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Sean Marsh

Digital Business Developer

Quarsh CreativeComputer Software, 11-50 employees

View all 7 answers on this topic

Implementation Rating

Constant Contact 10.0

Based on 9 answers

Implementation is very easy for someone who wants to send out the “batch and blast” type newsletters. If you want to use their templates with no customizations, the product works fine. However, the more customizations you get into involving link color, etc, that’s where things can get tricky for someone who may not be familiar with coding

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Verified User

Employee in Marketing

Retail Company, 51-200 employees

View all 9 answers on this topic

Pardot 8.2

Based on 22 answers

Love the tool, so much easier to see what our visitors are doing, creating campaigns etc. One recommendation about forms in campaigns etc is to make sure the form is not shared between countries. To send out notifications to responsible, you should have one form per country or question.

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Anna Johansson

Web- & Community Manager

IFS in ScandinaviaInformation Technology and Services, 501-1000 employees

View all 22 answers on this topic

Alternatives Considered

We tried Mailchimp. We could send messages to larger groups for free with Constant Contact. And we simply found more people read the emails and responded more frequently when we used Constant Contact. I think it's because it didn't feel as much like a marketing tool as when we contacted them with Mailchimp.

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Verified User

Contributor in Other

Religious Institutions Company, 10,001+ employees

View all 106 answers on this topic

We moved from Act-On to Pardot almost a year ago. The way Pardot integrates with Salesforce and is able to report on the communications really drew us to change. We enjoyed the customization of the emails and the easier set up of the emails. Both products are similar but as stated, the reporting and processes were positive to my organization. The upside of Act-On is the ability to make lists and learn the system on your own. Pardot requires much more training on the front end.

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Danielle Armour

Development Manager- Corporate Partnerships

Young Survival CoalitionNon-Profit Organization Management, 11-50 employees

View all 148 answers on this topic

Scalability

Constant Contact 10.0

Based on 1 answer

Very reliable in sending email campaigns and controlling the recipients so that no contact is sent the same email more than once, even if they are on a resent list

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Verified User

Manager in Research & Development

Public Policy Company, 11-50 employees

View all 1 answers on this topic

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Return on Investment

Good email marketing option that we need to expand on
We have not had a strong determinable ROI, but we do not always know if a donation resulted from an email
Very affordable and we plan in keeping it as a resource

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Terri Betts

Director of Development

Health Care Center for the HomelessHospital & Health Care, 51-200 employees

View all 106 answers on this topic

We spent several months and lots of money working with a outside integration partner, only to find out the journey we were trying to automate couldn't really be done and was better suited for Marketing Cloud. We ended up cancelling and switching to Marketing Cloud.

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Verified User

Director in Marketing

Financial Services Company, 11-50 employees

View all 148 answers on this topic

Screenshots

—

See All (4) Pardot Screenshots

Constant Contact

Pardot

Constant Contact

Pardot

WYSIWYG email editor

Dynamic content

Ability to test dynamic content

Landing pages

A/B testing

Mobile optimization

Email deliverability reporting

List management

Triggered drip sequences

Constant Contact

Pardot

Dashboards

Standard reports

Custom reports

Constant Contact

Pardot

URL Validation

Link Tracking

Image Validation

Inbox Display

Email Accessibility Tools

Spelling and Grammar Check

Spam Testing

Email Previews

Constant Contact

Pardot

Lead nurturing

Lead scoring and grading

Data quality management

Automated sales alerts and tasks

Constant Contact

Pardot

Calendaring

Event/webinar marketing

Constant Contact

Pardot

Social sharing and campaigns

Social profile integration

Constant Contact

Pardot

API

Role-based workflow & approvals

Customizability

Integration with Salesforce.com

Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Integration with SugarCRM

Constant Contact

Pardot

Constant Contact

Pardot

Constant Contact

Pardot

Constant Contact

Pardot

Constant Contact

Pardot

Constant Contact

Pardot

Constant Contact

Pardot

Constant Contact

Pardot

Constant Contact

Pardot

Constant Contact

Pardot

Likelihood to Recommend

Constant Contact

Pardot

Pros

Constant Contact

Pardot

Cons

Constant Contact

Pardot

Pricing Details