I've been a resident of the CRM world for a long time. After kicking off my career as a Salesforce consultant, I continued to use Salesforce or HubSpot at nearly every other B2B startup I worked at.
But it wasn't until I switched gears to solo content strategy that I began thinking about what both companies could offer from a marketing standpoint. Much of what my clients did could be automated, and I wanted to provide a thoughtful recommendation.
HubSpot (technically, HubSpot's Marketing Hub) and Pardot (now Salesforce's Marketing Cloud Account Engagement) are two of the top competitors in the world of marketing automation software. Honestly, they're both top-tier options with all the features you could want. So when it comes down to it, the comparison is going to be about little things: setup, user interface, and more niche use cases.
I'll get into specifics below, but before I do, let's clarify what's going on with the absurdly long names of these apps.
What is Pardot?
In 2012, Pardot was a unicorn—and every martech company wanted to acquire it. ExactTarget won out, purchasing the company for a whopping $95 million. This was a very convenient transaction for Salesforce, who was planning to buy ExactTarget. Just eight months later, Pardot became part of the Salesforce ecosystem.
For a long time, Salesforce benefitted from Pardot brand recognition and kept the name the same. But in 2022, the company announced several Marketing Cloud product name changes, including Pardot, which was renamed Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (MCAE).
The idea was that a consistent naming convention for the marketing product suite would help customers see how everything fit together seamlessly, overcoming a major gripe among small and mid-sized businesses—that the Salesforce ecosystem is too complex. But of course, people still call it Pardot. I'll use the names Pardot and MCAE interchangeably throughout this article—they're the same product.
Today, Pardot-slash-MCAE includes features like:
Email marketing
Landing pages
Engagement Studio (its workflow automation feature)
Lead scoring and nurturing
Segmentation
Reporting
…almost all of which also exist in HubSpot's Marketing Hub.
What is HubSpot Marketing Hub?
Marketing Hub is HubSpot's primary marketing automation product. It's just one of HubSpot's six Hubs: Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, CMS Hub, Operations Hub, and Commerce Hub. For the purposes of this comparison, I'm focusing on Marketing Hub because it's the most direct competitor to Salesforce's Pardot (MCAE).
HubSpot vs. Pardot at a glance
To see how HubSpot and Pardot stacked up, I started by signing up for a HubSpot free trial. Because Pardot doesn't make it easy to try it out without jumping through all the sales hoops, I gathered information from Salesforce's training academy, Trailhead, and loads of other demo videos and reviews.
Keep in mind that I don't intend to compare HubSpot to Salesforce more broadly—Zapier already has a HubSpot vs. Salesforce article that covers those differences on a larger scale. Here, I'm staying laser-focused on marketing automation.
With that in mind, here's an at-a-glance comparison of the main features of each platform. Keep reading for a more in-depth take on how the two platforms differ.
| HubSpot Marketing Hub | Pardot (Salesforce MCAE) |
|---|---|---|
Ease of use | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ There's a steep learning curve, but they have hints, pop-ups, and pre-built templates and dashboards to help | ⭐⭐⭐ Pardot also has a steep learning curve, especially if you've never used Salesforce before; Trailhead modules are a great resource |
Contact management | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ CRM is included in every HubSpot plan, making it easy to sync data back and forth | ⭐⭐ Needs to be linked to Salesforce Sales Cloud (CRM), and the connector is clumsy |
Email marketing | ⭐⭐⭐ There are pre-built templates, but you can also leverage HubSpot's catalog of email templates (along with other templates for ads, blogs, CTAs, etc.); monthly email send limits change depending on your plan (5, 10, 20x contact limit), but test emails, satisfaction surveys, and one-to-one emails sent from CRM don't count | ⭐⭐ There are pre-built layouts, and you can enable Lightning's drag-and-drop builder if you have Salesforce CMS, but most reviews recommend working with HTML (rather than the drag-and-drop editor), which you may need a professional for; every Pardot edition allows up to 10,000 mailable prospects (you can pay to extend it or remove contacts manually if you hit the limit) |
Automation | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ You max out at 500 workflows per portal; you can add up to 20 branches to an if/then branch action and add up to 250 enrollment triggers to a workflow | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ The number of simultaneous engagement programs depends on your plan (from 100 total and 10 repeating in Plus); the maximum number of steps Pardot allows is 300 |
Reporting | ⭐⭐⭐⭐ You get 90 pre-built reports with granular visibility into lead and campaign performance | ⭐⭐⭐ Salesforce reports are notoriously tough to pick up; while there are plenty that come out of the box, customizing them isn't a walk in the park |
Integrations | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Marketing Hub has a library of integrations to video, analytics, email, content, sales, and events tools; also integrates with Zapier | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Pardot has integrations with major webinar vendors, Google Adwords, and Google Analytics, but fewer than HubSpot; also integrates with Zapier |
Free trial | You can get a free account to experiment with before upgrading to a paid version within 14 days. (Heads-up: you may get passed around a lot—ownership of my "lead" went through 3 different BDRs/growth folks in 2 weeks.) | N/A. You can get a demo through an AE or consulting partner, but you can't get access to a full-fledged demo org. |
Support | Email and in-app chat support; HubSpot has an online Community and HubSpot Academy for further assistance | Every license includes a 2-day response time, and users can add on 24/7 Premium Success support if needed; Salesforce also has a Customer Support Community and training through Trailblazer |
Pricing | The $20/month CRM Suite Starter is the best bang for your buck; it includes Marketing Hub and 4 other Hubs (Sales, Service, CMS, and Operations) | Starts at $1,250/month for 10,000 contacts, 50 forms, and 50 languages; discounts are available for nonprofits |
HubSpot is easier to get up and running quickly
HubSpot has put considerable time and effort into its onboarding process, and it shows. New users get step-by-step walkthroughs for:
Connecting your domain(s)
Creating email lists
Creating emails
Creating forms
Error messages you may encounter along the way typically have a link straight to relevant help docs for extra support. And the Marketing Guide even has minute estimates for how long things take, which is super helpful if you're multitasking or completing steps during breaks in your schedule.
Marketing Hub also has interactive demos showing how to leverage social media, SEO, campaign, workflow, and report modules. Salesforce also has an assistant, but you have to know to turn it on.
Another way HubSpot gets you onboarded faster is its direct connection to contacts and leads. CRM is included in every Marketing Hub package, so there's no integration process.
MCAE, on the other hand, has a Connector to link up its Sales Cloud and Pardot. In theory, installing the Connector shouldn't be too heavy of a lift, but the integration guide is 20 pages long. There are considerations for syncing Users, Prospects, Opportunities, Fields, Buttons, and Automations.
Even in Trailhead documentation, Salesforce recommends leaning on your admin for help. If you're dealing with multiple Business Units (e.g., multiple brands), they strongly recommend using an integration partner. And while this may not be a problem for some business owners, the sync doesn't happen in real time—it's every two minutes.
HubSpot's Marketing Hub also makes it easy to upload new contacts from virtually any tool: Excel, Google Contacts, Outlook, Mailchimp, Zoho, or Pipedrive. Salesforce prospect lists must be .csv (you can't even use .xls). Not a huge deal, since you can export to .csv from almost any other app, but still a small win for HubSpot.
The user experience depends on your preferences, but HubSpot is likely better for beginners
Because I started my professional career in Salesforce, the Salesforce interface has always felt easy—and this was still true in Pardot. Like every Millennial, I have a million tabs open at once, and Pardot's tab structure is more intuitive to me than the dropdowns at the top of Marketing Hub. You can also customize which objects appear in your tabs. (I can even switch from Lightning to Classic, the interface I learned Salesforce in.)
I also like that most logic-based configuration in Pardot opens up in your main window. In HubSpot, logic appears on the left-hand side while you preview the results on the right. In my opinion, that makes it harder to read and review. Here's an example of how the two platforms differ when creating dynamic email lists.
There are a few other hang-ups I have with Marketing Hub. The first is oddly-placed buttons and menu items. For example, email lists are technically not part of Marketing Hub. They're listed under Contacts instead. And in certain modules, it's tough to find options that should be readily accessible. For example, font choices aren't shown by default in the Forms module—you have to click More to find it. Marketing Hub also makes you scroll through long lists of fields when building an Email List, Campaign, or Workflow, whereas Pardot organizes these options into a picklist.
My last small complaint: time delays are considered a separate step in Marketing Hub—they aren't built into each action like they are in Pardot, which increases the time you spend building and editing workflows.
Having said all that, I am 100% aware of the fact that I'm biased because I started my career in Salesforce land. And because I was able to really dig in and test HubSpot (versus just watching detailed demo videos for Pardot), it's possible that I would have found plenty to complain about with Pardot, too, had I been clicking myself.
And, of course, that's not to say that Pardot doesn't have its oddities—in fact, it's likely more difficult to navigate for anyone new to marketing automation.
Folding Pardot seamlessly into existing Salesforce structures has always been a pain point (as evidenced by rants on Reddit). And I will say that the platform feels a bit cobbled together. Pardot was just one of the many acquisitions Salesforce made to build out its marketing functionality (full timeline here), and there are still vestiges of other tools.
For example, the Automations tab in Pardot opens up Engagement Studio (likely an old piece of EverEngage). Not a big deal, but these naming conventions could easily confuse a newcomer.
Another frustration I have—with Pardot, and with Salesforce in general—is that list views default to way too few results. If you see ten results when you're expecting hundreds, it's easy to freak out and assume there's been some sort of data loss.
That's all a long-winded—er, detailed?—way of saying: if you're already using HubSpot or Salesforce, sticking with the same interface and a similar setup/configuration will dramatically accelerate the time it takes to get up to speed. But if you're unfamiliar with both, HubSpot will be more user-friendly—particularly considering the lengths they go with tooltips, guides, and timely customer support. You'll find plenty of G2, TrustRadius, and Reddit reviews that agree.
Both apps are integrating AI, just in different ways
Pardot and HubSpot both use AI across the board. They both have predictive lead scoring and behavior scoring, for example, and campaign insights based on AI. There's a bit more granularity in the fields Salesforce's Einstein tracks for campaign insights vs. HubSpot. And for attribution, Einstein looks back at your data to propose a model, whereas Marketing Hub asks you to pick one from a number of different options. So Einstein has a bit of an edge, but it's likely not going to make or break, especially given the speed at which AI tools are developing.
In the end, HubSpot seems to be leaning more into generative AI than predictive AI (especially with the release of its chatbot, ChatSpot). Einstein, Salesforce's AI, has been around longer, and it shows—HubSpot's AI feels a bit more rigid in comparison.
Both apps integrate with Zapier to connect to your tech stack
Both HubSpot and Pardot have lots of native integrations with other tools in your tech stack (HubSpot does edge out Pardot in number, though). But if you spot any gaps, Zapier makes it easy to maximize the ROI of tools you already have by connecting Pardot and HubSpot to thousands of other apps.
I'd recommend using Zapier for things like sending new form submissions to HubSpot or Pardot, adding new prospects based on event attendance, or notifying your team about activity in the app. Learn more about how to automate HubSpot and how to automate Pardot, or get started with one of these pre-built templates.
Get Slack notifications for new HubSpot form submissions
Create Pardot prospects from new LinkedIn Ads responses
Zapier is the leader in workflow automation—integrating with thousands of apps from partners like Google, Salesforce, and Microsoft. Use interfaces, data tables, and logic to build secure, automated systems for your business-critical workflows across your organization's technology stack. Learn more.
Pardot vs. HubSpot: Which should you use?
Both of your choices here are powerful marketing automation tools. But generally, HubSpot will be easier to use—this is true for everything from email marketing to CRM connection to reporting. HubSpot is also a lot more affordable at the lower levels.
Pardot, on the other hand, will be a bit more powerful. Its AI engine, Einstein, has been around longer, so its predictive analytics and campaign insights are more flexible and granular. Especially if you have a lot of depth and breadth in your outbound campaigns, it could make the difference.
But if you're already familiar with one of the platforms (HubSpot or Salesforce), that might be your answer right there: understanding the experience will make the whole thing a lot smoother and allow you to get more out of your marketing automation.
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