Marketing is as vital to your business like any other core activity which you are doing!
And this fast-pacing world is witnessing an evolution in simply everything we see, be it customers or their unpredictable behavior.
So does the marketing landscape.
Based on this, businesses must spend more and more time staying up-to-date with the industry’s trends.
It might kill up your productive hours, which were to be spent on the core activities.
So, is there any way to mitigate this, simplify this or automate it?
Do you wish your business was more efficient?
Do you still wish something magical to happen such that it adds up to the productively?
What is lacking when it comes to better visualization of your business result?
Thanks to the ever-changing IT innovations, we have Marketing tools to make everything less exhausting and less time-consuming.
The two marketing tools, which are high on demand in the marketing are our interests as well are Pardot and HubSpot.
These are the top-rated CRM systems for hundreds of compelling reasons.
They aim at increasing traffic and conversion via inbound marketing.
And here, we have talked about every detail on Pardot vs. HubSpot.
Let us dive in, and we hope that you will be all set to make a practical choice for your business by the end of this blog.
Understanding Pardot and Salesforce Ecosystem
Let us first talk about Pardot and all about its features. Salesforce Pardot launched in the year 2006.
ExactTarget purchased it in the year 2012, where again, in June 2013, Salesforce bought it. Salesforce bought ExactTarget itself.
In simple terms, Salesforce Pardot is all about email marketing, lead generation, and marketing automation.
It’s for the Salesforce marketing automation suite for B2B companies.
It is available at two different price points offers different features.
Let us talk about the Salesforce ecosystem, which is made up of many Clouds.
The Salesforce Ecosystem:
In layman’s, term each one of these clouds has a group of features that are aimed to aid in a particular type of business activity.
Each of these clouds is named based on the business activity they serve, for instance, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Salesforce Service Cloud, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and Salesforce Community Cloud.
Pardot marketing automation tools are offered under the Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
There are two more solutions offered under this Marketing cloud, and they are both for B2C marketing, unlike Salesforce Pardot, which focuses on B2B marketing. As it is a part of the Salesforce Ecosystem, it is easy to install on Salesforce Cloud.
Next comes another top rate marketing tool which is HubSpot.
Before we jump on comparing Pardot vs. HubSpot, we will quickly talk about HubSpot and its Ecosystem.
Understanding HubSpot and HubSpot Ecosystem
Like Pardot, HubSpot was also founded in 2006, with a sole interest in inbound lead generation with the help of blogging and social media.
However, it later went from this stage to be an all-in-one, user-friendly customer relationship management (CRM) platform, and content management system (CMS).
Website CMS, social media management, email marketing tools, and tools for sales and customer service teams all come under one roof with HubSpot.
Most of the business consider HubSpot as of gold standard when it comes to inbound marketing.
The comprehensive features of HubSpot focus both on B2B and B2C marketing.
It offers three differently priced options for its users, referred to as tiers, of which the highest one has the maximum number of features and functionality.
Now let us talk about the HubSpot Ecosystem.
The HubSpot Ecosystem:
Broader HubSpot Ecosystem consists of many solutions; however, Marketing Hub is one of the major parts of the HubSpot Ecosystem.
All the solutions offer features and functions, as was the case in Salesforce.
Salesforce used this term clouds, and similarly, the term Hubs is used in HubSpot.
The other solutions in HubSpot Ecosystem are free CRM, a Sales Hub, a Service Hub, and CMS (content management system) Hub.
The CMS is the recently launched one. Like Salesforce, the names referred to the business activity they cater to, and all these solutions do have a lot of features and functions in common.
Now, when we understand both Pardot and HubSpot, we are in a state to compare them based on the features and functionality that might or might not offer.
It can further help you make a wise and informed choice for the automation tool for your business.
The actual Battle: Pardot vs. HubSpot
Let us focus on various features to understand which platform can be apt for your business.
| Based on | PARDOT | HUBSPOT |
| Ecosystem | Stronger CRM as it is a part of Salesforce Ecosystem. | HubSpot offers much lightweight CRM platform. |
| Integrations | Not many out of the box integration available but comes with some connectors. | Can integrate with third party tools with the help of connectors. |
| Tool scope, integration and application | More automation options available, lesser sync errors and reporting differences. | Not as good when it comes to automation and accuracy. |
| Development & company values | New and enhanced features updated. | Makes most of the revenue from marketing suite, so trying to match the needs for the core functions. |
| Vendor resources and Customer support | Support is offered at Salesforce support portal; one needs to describe the issue in detail. | You will get direct and all-round support. |
| Pricing | $1250 per month | $50 per month Basic; $800 per month Professional |
| Consultancy & partner network | Various option available and organization know well on how to do sales operations or set up technically challenging systems. | Smaller agencies offer better services for HubSpot. |
| Reporting and analytics | Reports are detail-oriented, but they need a lot of customization to deliver the desired results. | Highlighted information that is significant and important |
| Tracking and managing leads | built-in editors and many more advanced features making it better than HubSpot | interactive dashboards let sales and marketing teams collaborate on lead management. |
Apart from these, one can also talk about features and functions in terms of digital marketing, search engine optimization, and content marketing.
Social Media Management
Pardot and HubSpot both support posting on social media platforms and monitoring the activity on these posts on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Nonetheless, HubSpot offers a unique feature that is Instagram scheduling which is not present in Pardot.
Website Hosting
HubSpot is performing well when it comes to hosting websites.
It offers impressive templates for new websites for an additional cost.
Also, the development platform is customizable and supports almost all types of pages required by companies.
If we talk about, Pardot’s websites offered by Pardot are fundamental, and you will need other third-party integrations for building and launching a completely new website.
Lead Generation
It is an important factor that needs your consideration when you talk about Pardot vs. HubSpot.
HubSpot focuses on inbound marketing and its corresponding leads.
It is equipped with an integrated toolset comprising website hosting, blogging platforms, email functionality, forms, landing pages, workflows, personalized content, lead generation, and testing.
Relatable content is vital for the generation of more leads. It also includes chatbots, pop-ups, blog subscription options, and much more.
On the other hand, Pardot is also highly significant for lead generation as it supports similar tools, but it’s a disconnected experience if Pardot doesn’t host the main website.
Have you made the right choice? (Quick checklist)
Here is a checklist that will help you analyze whether or not you have made the right choice for your business:
- Budget
- Desired Features
- Integrated apps
- Lead Filter
- Customer Retention
- Lead Management
- Customization Qualifiers
- Visitor Reports
- Marketing Campaigns and many more
We want to add some valuable pieces of advice here.
It might be in short words; however, it is based on our expert team members’ total research and understanding.
Always yourself these questions and be informed to get the apt answers:
Do I know about my marketing goals and what kinds of metrics will help me track that?
Who do you think is going to manage the platform, and what experience do they have?
It can be you managing everything. In that case, know your expertise and understanding of each platform and then make the right choice.
In the end, do not forget to consider your budget.
Additionally, it is not valid in every case out there; however a good fit for most of them.
Hence you are advised to do some research at your end before you come down to make a final choice.
Final Word on Pardot Vs. HubSpot
No matter who is the winner of this fight between Pardot vs. HubSpot, you can decide the winner for you.
The checklist will help you check on all the factors such that you do not forget any of these while making the final choice.
Your business needs can help you figure out which features you need on priority and are not as crucial for your business.
If you find yourself stuck in a dilemma while making an informed choice, it would be great to take some expert advice.
And we have a team of professionals who happen to have served a considerable number of businesses just like you.
Consider talking to them?
Well, reach out to us, and we can surely help you settle with the right choice.
