Act-On is an adaptive marketing platform designed to drive personal and purposeful multi-channel marketing. Its foci are inbound and outbound marketing, for enabling a tighter alignment with sales and turning data into actionable insights.
$900
per month
Agentforce Marketing
Score7.6 out of 10
N/A
Marketing Cloud is a cloud-based digital marketing platform, used by marketers can segment their audience, deliver personalized messages, track campaign performance, engage leads and accounts, and optimize strategies based on real-time insights.
$1,250
per month per installation
Pricing
Act-On
Agentforce Marketing
Editions & Modules
Professional
$900
per month
Enterprise
$2,000+
per month
Account Engagement
$1,250
per month
Engagement
$1,250
per month
Intelligence
$3,000
per month
Loyalty Management
$20,000
per month
Personalization
$100,000
per year
Data Cloud for Marketing
$108,000
per year
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Act-On
Agentforce Marketing
Free Trial
No
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
Yes
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
The Professional package starts at 2,500 active contacts, 3 marketing users, 50 sales users and 30,000 API calls per day.
The Enterprise allows for much more customization, the package starts at 2,500 active contacts, 6 marketing users, 100 sales users and 30,000 API calls per day.
Annual contract required for all packages.
Marketing Automation Manager in Marketing at Essendant (Wholesale, 1001-5000 employees)
Chose Act-On
We chose Act-On for its ability to support our customers within a single account. The Marketing Network is a huge benefit to our business and the offerings we provide to our customers. In previously working with Hubpsot and Salesforce, we found the support to be lacking - often …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Sr. Project Manager in Marketing at Big Presence (Marketing and Advertising, 11-50 employees)
Chose Act-On
Act-On is easier to use than Marketo, but not as visually appealing and user-friendly as HubSpot. It's much better than Pardot, as Pardot feel clunky every step of the way. SharpSpring is comparable because of its price point but surpasses Act-On in its tools and intuitive …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Development Manager- Corporate Partnerships in Corporate at Young Survival Coalition (Non-Profit Organization Management, 11-50 employees)
Chose Act-On
Act-On was decided upon by the Marketing and Operations team. I am part of the Development team and was consulted on the aspects of reporting. However, our Marketing/Operations team were very pleased with the way you could personalize and create your own emails and campaigns …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Verified User
Chose Act-On
We looked at using Pardot and decided to use Act-On due to pricing and ease of use. Pardot had a better Salesforce connection since they are owned by Salesforce. Pardot was very expensive and didn't offer some of the functionality we were looking for. For example, Pardot does …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Senior Content Marketing Specialist in Marketing at LeagueApps (Computer Software, 51-200 employees)
Chose Act-On
When our contract was running out, we were exploring all options. We looked at Pardot as the other option. Ultimately, we stayed with Act-On for three reasons.
1) The customer support is a slam dunk in Act-On's favor. In fact, I'm willing to bet there's not another marketing …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Marketing and Communications Manager in Marketing at Inova Software (Computer Software, 51-200 employees)
Chose Act-On
We chose Act-On because it was by far the easiest to use and has a streamlined interface. It's the only one I looked at and wanted to jump in and start using. It's also a bargain compared to similar solutions.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Lead Manager in Sales at Holmen Paper (Paper & Forest Products, 1001-5000 employees)
Chose Act-On
We were actually first leaning towards HubSpot, however they couldn't agree to our standard Code of Conduct (as a principle they never do) and since we have some strict purchasing routines that includes the supplier signing our CoC we were unable to go through with the deal. In …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
World Wide Marketing Programs Coordinator in Marketing at Crossmatch (Information Technology and Services, 201-500 employees)
Chose Act-On
I only used Pardot for a short time, but became really frustrated with their customer service. Having to wait 24 hours for an answer severely impaired my ability to quickly set-up, send and monitor email campaigns.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Consultant/ Client Advocate Marketing Automation at Element AB (Marketing and Advertising, 11-50 employees)
Chose Act-On
I think Act-On is a more easy to use system and companies can get up and running faster and you can handle Act-On with a marketing department of one person. I really like the new UI (user interface) and the modules for creating easy assets (using drag and drop in most cases) …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Marketing Communications Manager in Marketing at Alliant Cooperative Data Solutions (Marketing and Advertising, 11-50 employees)
Chose Act-On
Salesfusion was the best alternative to Act-On in my evaluation but there were a few things that ultimately had us side with Act-On. Integrations with Outlook, Customer Service, User Friendly Interface and Sales portal for our Sales Executives. These tools really made the …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
CRM & Marketing Automation Lead at Driven® (Information Technology and Services, 1-10 employees)
Chose Act-On
As a company, it's much more organized, much more in contact with customers, and much more willing and able to pick up their feedback and incorporate it into the product. Pricing wise, it's also much more balanced, with a fairer price mode. It's also more agnostic, in terms of …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Sales & Support Manager in Sales at Driven® (Information Technology and Services, 11-50 employees)
Chose Act-On
It has similar features but lacks the competitors' analyses and some of the reports. Also the support team at Act-On is very open to suggestions and helping the customer the achieve their goals.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Marketing Manager in Marketing at eFORCE Software (Law Enforcement, 11-50 employees)
Chose Act-On
I choose Act-On because of the price, simplicity and customer service reputation. After sitting through a few demos, I also felt Act-On had more to offer a small company like ours. Their niche is small to mid-size businesses, which made me feel like they understood our needs …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Verified User
Chose Act-On
Better has better integration with Salesforce than Pardot, ironically.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Marketing Coordinator in Marketing at Nextep, Inc. (Outsourcing/Offshoring, 51-200 employees)
Chose Act-On
We compared Act-On against several different platforms during our evaluation period, including Marketo, Pardot, iContact, and more. This seemed like a middle of the road option for us - we could take a powerful step up from email blasting, but not bite off more than we were …
Vice President of Marketing & Channel Development in Marketing at CellarStone (Internet, 51-200 employees)
Chose Act-On
We felt the other two products offered more things than we could possibly use. Plus, they were more expensive. We needed training wheels which Act-On provided.
Vice President, Marketing & Strategic Partnering in Marketing at ViroCyt, LLC (Biotechnology, 1-10 employees)
Chose Act-On
Act-On has a very low pressure sales approach. The other systems I looked at had a different method that I found very off-putting. The month-to-month agreement with Act-On gave me confidence that , if I didn't like the system, I wasn't committed for a year.
Director of Content Marketing in Marketing at CodeBaby (Computer Software, 11-50 employees)
Chose Act-On
We primarily looked at Pardot and Eloqua. Eloqua was out of our budget range. At the time Pardot and Salesforce weren't merged yet, and had they been, it might have changed our mind. However, I have to say the price point and the really easy integration into Salesforce makes is …
Account Executive in Marketing at Catalyst, Inc. (Marketing and Advertising, 11-50 employees)
Chose Act-On
Pardot and Act-On have similar capabilities in terms of the functions and features; however, Act-On's customer service is far superior. With Pardot, I felt as if implementation was a on set timeline and once you were done that was it, you had a question and you needed to either …
Development Manager- Corporate Partnerships in Corporate at Young Survival Coalition (Non-Profit Organization Management, 11-50 employees)
Chose Agentforce Marketing
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 …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Account Executive in Marketing at Big Presence (Marketing and Advertising, 11-50 employees)
Chose Agentforce Marketing
Pardot was less expensive than HubSpot or Marketo. Compared to Act-On, it was similar in price but had more features and the integration with Salesforce was better and natively supported. Compared to SharpSpring, it doesn't have the same strong features, but the integration …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Sales Administrator in Marketing at Northwest Analytics (Computer Software, 11-50 employees)
Chose Agentforce Marketing
Pardot is a much more robust product than Act-On. We had used Act-On back when we were just getting into the marketing automation use and Act-On was a very young company just starting out, so the fit was good for both sides. As we started requiring more and more, it seemed …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Senior Vice President in Sales at Formtek Group, Inc. (Machinery, 51-200 employees)
Chose Agentforce Marketing
We selected Pardot primarily because it is native to Salesforce and we felt that long term it would be the better solution for our needs, based on our commitment to Salesforce. HubSpot seemed to be targeted more towards a small business, based on our experience using that …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Verified User
Chose Agentforce Marketing
Pardot is pretty much on the same level. We chose Pardot because it integrates directly with Salesforce. We already use Contentful for landing pages, so we weren't too worried about using Pardot's builder. I really liked the simplicity of the visual email workflows. Coming …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Director of Marketing in Marketing at Blueshift (Internet, 11-50 employees)
Chose Agentforce Marketing
Pardot is a VERY flexible tool. Most have thought of it as a very adolescent tool, but it holds its own against Marketo in the VAST majority of areas. You DON'T need a near full-time developer to keep it working (unlike Marketo). Act-on was limited in what it could do, HubSpot …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Verified User
Chose Agentforce Marketing
For my current needs, Act-On outshined Pardot. But at my previous company, we picked Pardot over Marketo because at the time it outshined Marketo's abilities and the Salesforce connection made it a safer bet for support since the team was new to marketing automation. I have …
Senior Manager Online Marketing in Marketing at ECi Software Solutions (Computer Software, 501-1000 employees)
Chose Agentforce Marketing
Difficult to say. I used Act-On several years ago so my knowledge of it is too far out of date to fairly compare the two. We had Marketo previous to switching to Pardot. That was before I arrived, but I heard the reasons for the switch were Marketo's complexity and higher cost.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Vice President - Member Services Group in Sales at Sourcing Interests Group (Civic & Social Organization, 11-50 employees)
Chose Agentforce Marketing
We looked at Act-on and Hubspot .... Pardot seemed to be a great fit for our org. based on capabilities, price, integration into SFDC and reviews.
Verified User
Chose Agentforce Marketing
This was selected before I joined the team. In their selection process pricing was an issue as we couldn't afford the likes of Marketo and Eloqua. I have evaluated Marketo and Eloqua and Act-On at previous employers.
Digital Marketing Manager in Marketing at Salsa Labs, Inc. (Internet, 51-200 employees)
Chose Agentforce Marketing
Eloqua, Marketo, Genius.
Eloqua was too expensive. Marketo, is a very slick product, and the pricing they offered us for the lowest-level version (Small and Medium Business) was competitive, but still about $3,000 per year more than Pardot. One big issue with Marketo though was …
We often have quick turnaround time requests, and Act-On's new composer is great because it is easy to make an email look great in desktop or mobile views. This has been a huge time-saver for us! We have benefited from using Act-On for many years and are accustomed to where everything is and how to use it. For the new accounts we train, we will sometimes hear that the organization of where things are could be improved.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
I think the product, by definition, is meant for marketing — and we use it exactly for that, for running campaigns. That’s the best-suited use case for the product. I don’t think it’s really meant to be used for anything else — that’s just not how it’s designed.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
The designer tools, especially for emails, were often difficult to use. The formatting of the text would be all over the place and change / refuse to change at random. Moving boxes around was shifty and sometimes nearly impossible. It just wasn't customizeable enough. No "undo" functionality either.
The only way to collect information expansively over time (there's a term Act-On uses for it, I can't recall) where it adds questions to the form each time a user fills it out, is if the person were to fill out the same form multiple times. I know this does happen for some websites/resources, but as a company that wanted to collect new information each time someone filled out any form, regardless of the resource or the URL, that was simply not an option, and that doesn't really make a lot of sense. I know it's not really possible to track someone but if they filled out the first part of the form and then it added new questions to answer, and then they submitted and got through the gating, that would actually be helpful.
There was no "trash can" of sorts in case you deleted something by mistake. This could be so stress-inducing if it was a major project. My coworker did this once, contacted Act-On, they couldn't even recover it.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
It's my single biggest asset in my current role. With limited resources, its enabled Anachron to punch well above our weight marketing wise and although we're still at the beginning of our journey I know the system can scale with us
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
It's a great tool for our business, and we get a fantastic ROI on it every year based on wins for customer service and automation responses. It's save projects, repaired salesperson/customer relationships and generated new sales and interest yearly. We really wouldn't hesitate to recommend this platform at all.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
You won't find another solution that has as many features as Salesforce Marketing Cloud Interaction Studio. We all know Salesforce, we all know how big they are and it's not for nothing... Their tools do most of the things you want, need and even imagine. Using it is complicated, but the usability is infinite.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
I have always found them quick to respond to my query by web inquiry. In those instances when I call, I have always reached help quickly. They are conscientious and skilled in discussing my concern and finding a solution to my problem. Other tech organizations should use Act-On as a model for top-notch customer service.
Upgrades and timing of the upgrades were communicated well and planned during off hours for our work. If we did have a campaign scheduled during that time, it would kick-off after the system was back active. There were a few unplanned system down times, but it was a rare occurrence and those times were also short in duration.
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.
Since we start using Act-on for ourselves and our clients, we have been supported very well. Often we need to integrate with legacy systems and we find the support team on our side during the whole endeavor. Always asking if they can help us further, always willing to do a better job. The support of Act-On is one of the main differentiators
They are really responsive and more than not solve the problem or give you insight to how you can manage the solution yourself. I do find however sometimes a long delay on the more complex issues when they need to loop in other departments. but overall a good experience with support
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
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.
Act-On had a lot of resources, and their staff was great at answering any questions I had to make sure we got started on the right foot. Looking back, I would have preferred some additional training sessions since we didn't have any previous experience with Marketing Automation and best practices.
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.
What impressed me most is that Act-On showed full committment in making our implementation successful, even when it required additional support from their team. This gave me a lot of warm and fuzzy feelings. Most other software software vendors are not anywhere close to being this responsive and effective
From an IT perspective, once you set up the Javascript beacon and start collecting data there is a waiting game. During this time you can start labeling your site actions which can be labor intensive for a single person, but you don't really have the final end-users on the platform yet. We did a lot of training so users were experienced, but it wasn't until they had their first tasks to accomplish that they started using the system and had questions. I'd recommend setting up some immediate goals for an end-user to start segmenting for the purpose of displaying message campaigns so you can jump start end-user action.
Act-On is easier to use than Marketo, but not as visually appealing and user-friendly as HubSpot. It's much better than Pardot, as Pardot feel clunky every step of the way. SharpSpring is comparable because of its price point but surpasses Act-On in its tools and intuitive interface. We selected Act-On because of the pricing model and thought all things would be close to parity with other options. It depends on the team you have. If you have developers and a marketing team that knows some html/css, you can get by with Act-On.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
We use Salesforce Marketing Cloud for lead management, generating reports, tracking customer and dealer information, inputting orders, and more. I prefer HubSpot for email marketing and automation because it is easier to use and the emails are designed much better. We currently use Salesforce and HubSpot, and we are very happy to have both, as they have different pros/cons.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
Prior to this, we had no solution and literally were doing things on paper in a world where technology is outpacing paper. Having this process optimized has made it easier for the sales and marketing people to change information. From the training perspective, it has allowed us to see holes in where we could create additional support training, so the ROI here has been a lot more than just the optimization of a process.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
With the Automated Series, we were able to put in place campaigns that generated revenue that took no time to continue running once set up. This was a positive feature allowing employees to work on another project while the campaign ran on their own.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Salesforce Marketing Cloud allows us to more efficiently reach out to a higher number of prospects.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud allows us to nimbly communicate important messages in a timely fashion to facilitate conversion.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud allows us to track who is opening our messages so that we can stop sending to those not interested and focus on the most engaged audiences.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
