No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud vs SugarCRM Platform comparison

Why PeerSpot?
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 6, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Ranking in Marketing Automation
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
63
Ranking in other categories
Social CRM (3rd), Marketing Management (1st), Social Media Management Solutions (2nd)
SugarCRM Platform
Ranking in Marketing Automation
16th
Average Rating
7.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
CRM Customer Engagement Centers (11th), CRM (27th), Sales Force Automation (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Marketing Automation category, the mindshare of Salesforce Marketing Cloud is 10.5%, down from 20.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SugarCRM Platform is 2.0%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Marketing Automation Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Salesforce Marketing Cloud10.5%
SugarCRM Platform2.0%
Other87.5%
Marketing Automation
 

Featured Reviews

GauravSingh2 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Targeted email journeys have boosted campaign insight and now need better data access and support
I feel that Salesforce Marketing Cloud can be improved in how the data views are accessed; it would be better to have something more physical. With data extensions, you can view them directly, but for data views, it is very difficult as you can only send it out or load it into data extensions. Improvements can also be made in the connections to different external tools such as Azure or AWS. Customer support can be improved in Salesforce Marketing Cloud, as sometimes it is not clear what the issue is or how to approach solving it, and it also takes time to resolve issues.
reviewer1345677 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager / IT Planning & Architecture Services at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Easily customizable, automation enhances the marketing campaigns but support is the main hiccup for us
It has been effective in managing customer relationships. It has sales email campaigns, plus integration with Active Directory. And there are centralized reports for the CEO and the general managers. We work with automation for these marketing and email campaigns. It sends out emails to prospective customers related to sales offers automatically. And it copies the sales team so that they can follow up. They are tracking the sales leads. So, the automation within SugarCRM enhances the marketing campaigns. For now, my work is done because I am the IT strategy and planning manager. I just try to deliver the solution according to the requirements of the business. From my side, it's implemented already, the requirement related to the sales funnel. But if they have any other requirement from the business side, they will submit it to me, and then I will look for a suitable solution.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"What is most valuable is that you can schedule reports, there are a lot of supporting tools, and you have access to all that information."
"The tool's most valuable feature is its automation. We can integrate data with the Salesforce hub. Its Einstein feature tells us whether our campaigns are on the right track. It also helps with ideas."
"It is straightforward to set up."
"A powerful platform with robust features for a seamless one-tool solution."
"Its ability to integrate data and provide a comprehensive view of customer engagement sets it apart."
"The solution has made it easier and faster in marketing, specifically around automation, and in the deployment of lists, we can get a lead and share it with marketing right away."
"The most valuable features of Salesforce Marketing Cloud are that it performs well and gives me what I need. It's the most friendly interface system for CRM I've worked with. Additionally, it integrates fairly well with different kinds of AI and ML to allow you to receive more out of your application."
"I like that Salesforce allows for the integration of different data sources."
"This solution's stability is very good, it runs almost without effort, and we don't have any support issues with it."
"My advice to others is this is a good solution for importing or exporting any graphics."
"It has sales email campaigns, plus integration with Active Directory."
"The most valuable features of the SugarCRM platform include its flexibility in customizing fields, layouts, and dashboards."
"By default, it comes with a really good model where you can start working with it without having a lot of developers in your team."
"The most valuable feature is relation capability, which allows us to relay customers with invoice orders."
"It works well with Jira. You can customize it to fit your needs."
"The most valuable features of Sugar Enterprise are the exports of graphics, statuses, complaints, and tasks."
 

Cons

"We need a development environment for Marketing Cloud. Currently, there is no development environment for this solution."
"The data extension tools are not very user-friendly."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud could improve by having more graphical options because a lot of tables are now only numbers and percentages and data. I prefer graphs, lines, and pie charts. I know there are ways to receive this from Salesforce Marketing Cloud. It doesn't play a huge role in my daily work to invest the time to figure it out. I feel that it would be time wasted. They could make the graphical options easier to find and use in the future."
"There could be easier tools to configure the product and to create landing pages to better handle large data sets."
"A few of our clients found using Salesforce Marketing Cloud challenging after they upgraded, they were finding it difficult to just move to the newer version of Salesforce and they were complaining about the customer support because they did not help them out."
"Technical Support: That's where it gets bad, in my opinion. I have had to deal with the support several times."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud is expensive; it can be more affordable, but it doesn't matter where we implement or use it for our organization since we are able to manage well so far."
"Customer support could be improved, especially for new features where I do not always receive proper solutions from the platform provider."
"Functionality and features are well suited for small business companies only."
"I would like to see more integration on a mobile platform in the next release."
"I would appreciate it if SugarCRM could support us in on-premise implementation."
"The UX was such that it limited the use of it."
"The interface could be more user-friendly."
"At the moment, there is a complicated flow in regards to the user's permissions and what they can see."
"You cannot include all your entities under one instance at the moment."
"While it is already user-friendly, a slight enhancement in UI design, especially in terms of color combinations, could make the platform more visually appealing and comfortable to use."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Salesforce has different versions of the solution and some are more suitable for smaller clients. However, Salesforce is expensive."
"The price is expensive."
"This is a low cost solution suited to larger organizations."
"We have two types of licensing. We have a yearly license for end users and we have a concurrent login for selling."
"Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a highly expensive solution, it needs to be less expensive. We are on an annual license to use the solution."
"It's normal pricing."
"I don't know if my company pays for Salesforce Marketing Cloud monthly or yearly. It's a SaaS, so it's a recurring cost, but I have no information on its price."
"Its licensing is on an annual basis. Customers are okay with its licensing cost, and they don't find it expensive."
"Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Marketing Automation solutions are best for your needs.
917,433 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Construction Company
15%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Engineering Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business20
Midsize Enterprise15
Large Enterprise34
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise3
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Salesforce Marketing Cloud?
I did not work on any pricing or implementation aspects but learned on my own when dealing with Revenue Cloud products.
What needs improvement with Salesforce Marketing Cloud?
Regarding areas for improvement, the realization of value from Salesforce Einstein's predictive AI features is a notable challenge. Although the implementation partner highlighted these capabilitie...
What is your primary use case for Salesforce Marketing Cloud?
As a consultant, I partner with organizations to optimize their use of Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC). My engagement often begins pre-implementation, where I lead the requirements gathering proc...
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Also Known As

ExactTarget
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

American Express, Financial Conduct Authority, KPN, Merck KGaA, Peterborough City Council, The Chapar, ADP, Financial Times, Stanley Black & Decker, SureFlap, Western Union, Philips
Redglaze Group, TengoInternet, Hilco, Bancvue, Vet Adivsor
Find out what your peers are saying about Salesforce Marketing Cloud vs. SugarCRM Platform and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
917,433 professionals have used our research since 2012.