A research guidefor marketing agencies

SharpSpring vs. Pardot2017 COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS REPORT

Pardot launched in 2007, providing a full suite of tools that helps marketers engage leads and close more deals. It requires the Salesforce CRM which is priced separately. Pardot’s price point is on the high end of the spectrum, and an annual contract is required.

SharpSpring launched in 2014 to deliver powerful and affordable marketing automation.

It’s a flexible, open platform with a complete feature set and it integrates easily with other tools. SharpSpring doesn’t require an annual contract and is a fraction of the cost of competitors.

Reviews

Terms

Features

8.2/10 4.0/5

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7.1/10 4.0/5

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Comparable

Month to MonthAnnual ContractBilled Monthly

Annual ContractBilled Monthly

Annual ContractBilled Monthly

$39,000($42,000 Get Started)

Includes 1 license

$27,000($30,000 Get Started)

Includes 1 license

$15,000($18,000 Get Started)

Includes 1 license

$6,000($2,300 Get started)

Includes 4 licenses (agency +3 clients)

Pro StandardUltimate

7.1/10 4.0/5

Trust Radius Software Advice

7.1/10 4.0/5

Trust Radius Software Advice

Annual Cost(Get started)

SharpSpring vs. Pardot

Steve Buck, Black Tie Digital Marketing

“I've used other automated marketing platforms at another agency, however

they are wildly expensive and more geared towards large business.

SharpSpring was affordable enough for our agency and our business clients.

SharpSpring is by far my favorite 3rd party vendor. Truthfully it is the

product as a whole that really made us decide we NEEDED to use it.”

What one SharpSpring partner says:

Real Results

GetIT Comms is a fast-growing B2B marketing agency that operates in 19 countries, providing regional services to some of the world’s leading technology organizations. After implementing SharpSpring for its clients, GetIT Comms experienced an average revenue increase of 20-30% per client.

Demodia is a digital marketing agency that specializes in demand generation, digital marketing, website development, and channel enablement. The agency got up and running with SharpSpring for lead generation in just over one month, and then began using it for clients and getting results in under three months.

SHARPSPRING VS PARDOT2017 COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS REPORT 2WWW.SHARPSPRING.COM

ANNUAL COST

Initial Commitment

Onboarding fee

Annual cost

+/- $3,000Agency only

+/- $3,000Agency only

+/- $3,000Agency only

Price point per instance

SharpSpring wins on cost and contract type.SharpSpring comes in substantially lower than Pardot on cost. In addition, Pardot locks customers into a full-year contract, while SharpSpring partners only pay month to month and can cancel at any time. Minor agency incentives only kick-in for Pardot when there are 5 or more clients on the platform.

PRICING

WWW.SHARPSPRING.COM 3SHARPSPRING VS PARDOT

2017 COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS REPORT

100K

$2,300Includes agency

instance & 3 client instances

$42,000 / Per instance(Year 1 + Onboarding)

No price breaks until 5 clients brought in

$30,000 / Per instance(Year 1 + Onboarding)

No price breaks until 5 clients brought in

$18,000 / Per instance(Year 1 + Onboarding)

No price breaks until 5 clients brought in

$150/mo.Month-to-month,

cancel anytime

$1,800One time fee, includes

agency & all client instances

$3,000/mo.Plus Setup feeAnnual contract

$2,000/mo.Plus Setup feeAnnual contract

$1,000/mo.Plus Setup feeAnnual contract

$6,000Includes agency

instance & 3 client instances

$36,000 / per instance

$24,000 / per instance

$12,000 / per instance

Pricing/Terms

Additional contacts

Included contacts 10K / per instance

10K / per instance

10K / per instance

$36,000**

$2,300*

$24,000**

$12,000**

Pro StandardUltimate

Unlimited

Emails included per month

$3 per 1K/mo. $100 per 10k/mo.

$100 per 10k/mo.

$100 per 10k/mo.

Limited to the number of

Salesforce licenses

Limited to the number of

Salesforce licenses

Limited to the number of

Salesforce licensesUsers

25K Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited

* Agency +3 Clients** Agency Only

Rebrandable Interface (Logo/Colors) �

White-Labeled URL �

Rebrandable Sales Materials

Rebrandable Notifications

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Add a Client In-App

Multi-Client Management Console �

Share Templates Across Clients �

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TOTAL 7/7 2/7 2/7 2/7

WWW.SHARPSPRING.COM 4SHARPSPRING VS PARDOT

2017 COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS REPORT

Agency Features

SharpSpring promotes YOUR agency’s brand.SharpSpring is specifically designed to help agencies build and enhance their relationships with clients. Agency partners can reinforce their brands throughout the client relationship via SharpSpring’s rebrandable sales and marketing materials, interface, URL and more.

2/72/72/77/7

EMAIL FEATURES

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ProUltimate Standard

Drag-and-Drop Editor �

WYSIWYG Interface �

Dynamic Content

Responsive Templates

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Render Testing

After-the-Click Tracking �

RSS Integration �

A/B Testing �

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TOTAL 8/8 7/8 7/8 4/8

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2017 COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS REPORT

Email Features

3rd partyadd-on

$

$

3rd partyadd-on

3rd partyadd-on

Edge to SharpSpring in email marketing.Email marketing is at the core of all marketing automation platforms. SharpSpring and Pardot both excel in this area by offering all of the features that help agencies use email as an effective campaign tool for their clients. However, SharpSpring offers more built-in the platform.

4/87/87/88/8

EMAIL FEATURES

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ProUltimate

$ = available for additional charge

Standard

Advantage to SharpSpring with Personas.Automation is another area where SharpSpring and Pardot match up almost evenly in terms of features, with both platforms offering marketers the tools they need. There is a slight edge to SharpSpring due to its in-platform methodology of adding personas directly into the system and using with dynamic emails and landing pages for customized and personalized communication.

Automation Features

TOTAL

Workflows and Tasks

Triggers and Filters

Branching Workflows

Time-Based Automations

Dynamic Lists

Advanced Segmentation

Dynamic Landing Pages

Advanced Lead Scoring

Behavior-Based Automations

WWW.SHARPSPRING.COM 6SHARPSPRING VS PARDOT

2017 COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS REPORT

AUTOMATION FEATURES

10/10 8/10 8/10 8/10

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Personas �

10/10 8/10 8/10 8/10

Limited to150

Limited to100

Limited to50

Unlimited

ProUltimate Standard

Form Features

TOTAL

Drag-and-Drop Form Builder �

Dynamic Forms �

Use CSS to Match Your Site �

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Auto-Complete

Custom Calls to Action

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11/12

WWW.SHARPSPRING.COM 7SHARPSPRING VS PARDOT

2017 COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS REPORT

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12/12 12/12 11/12

Third-Party Forms Supported

Third-Party Post-Back

Progressive Profiling

Hidden Fields Supported

Referral Forms/Fields

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Native WebEx Integration �

ProUltimate

Edge to Pardot, but autocomplete can be more effective.

Pardot offers progressive profiling while SharpSpring’s

approach is to use autocomplete to pre-populate a form with

information previously provided. This allow leads to update

information that may have changed since their last visit. FORM FEATURES

12/12 12/12 11/1211/12

Limited to50

Standard

Identify Anonymous Site Visitors �

Contact Info from Anonymous Site Visitors (ZoomInfo) �

Track Behavior History of Known Leads

Timeline of Lead Interaction

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Important Page Visit Tracking

Daily Email of Site Visitors �

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TOTAL 6/6 5/6 5/6 5/6

WWW.SHARPSPRING.COM 8SHARPSPRING VS PARDOT2017 COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS REPORT

Contact Tracking

SharpSpring wins on contact tracking.Both platforms track information on anonymous site visitors and then tie those histories to their respective leads upon form fill-out. But only SharpSpring includes reverse IP lookup to reveal visitors’ company names and even offer potential lead names based upon those look-ups.

5/65/65/66/6

CONTACT TRACKING

ProUltimate

$$

$ = available for additional charge

Standard

WWW.SHARPSPRING.COM 9SHARPSPRING VS PARDOT

2017 COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS REPORT

Standard in SharpSpring, premium in Pardot.Both SharpSpring and Pardot stack up evenly with their respective landing page builders, but that’s only if you’re paying for the premium package from Pardot or paying additional fees to raise the bar for a lower level bundle.

Landing Page Builder

TOTAL

Point-and-Click Editor

WYSIWYG Interface

Dynamic Content

Library of Responsive Templates

Build Single Landing Pages

Optimize for Mobile

Build Landing Page Funnels

LANDING PAGE BUILDER

7/7 7/7 6/7 6/7

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7/7 7/7 6/7 6/7

$ = available for additional charge

ProUltimate

$$

Standard

WWW.SHARPSPRING.COM 10SHARPSPRING VS PARDOT

2017 COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS REPORT

Blog Builder

TOTAL

Point-and-Click Editor

WYSIWYG Interface

Dynamic Content

Library of Responsive Templates

Advance Post Scheduling

RSS Email Syndication

Social Sharing Widget

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7/7 0/7 0/7 0/7

ProUltimate

Blog builder unique to SharpSpring.

If content is king, SharpSpring wins by offering a blog

builder designed to crown your top-of-the funnel

marketing and lead acquisition efforts. SharpSpring’s

blog builder is also dynamic, allowing the index page to

automatically respond to a lead’s attributes. Pardot

relies upon 3rd-party integration tools to sync up to

blog offerings like WordPress.

BLOG BUILDER

0/7 0/7 0/77/7

Standard

TOTAL

Social Media Features

Edge to Pardot in social features.Pardot edges out SharpSpring with social media features and the capability to track conversions to and from social. Pardot even takes it to another level with their “community cloud” offering. In terms of enterprise solutions, it’s impressive, but it requires a substantial add-on fee. Still SharpSpring fares better as an alternative to the low end Pardot Standard offering, without upcharges.

Social - CRM Integration

Social Profiling

Social Monitoring/Interactions

Social Media Publishing

WWW.SHARPSPRING.COM 11SHARPSPRING VS PARDOT

2017 COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS REPORT

SOCIAL MEDIA FEATURES

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Social Monitoring Conversions � �

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3/5 4/5 4/5 0/5

0/54/54/53/5

ProUltimate

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$

$

$ = available for additional charge

Standard

TOTAL

Sales-Focused Features

Built-In CRM

Advanced Lead Scoring

Native Salesforce Integration

Shopping Cart Integration

WWW.SHARPSPRING.COM 12SHARPSPRING VS PARDOT

2017 COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS REPORT

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3/4 2/4 2/4 2/4

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ProUltimate

SharpSpring wins on flexibility.Pardot is seamlessly integrated with Salesforce since they are part of the same company. If Salesforce is already your CRM, that’s fine. SharpSpring offers a built-in CRM (no additional charge) and also integrates with countless others, including Salesforce. SALES-FOCUSED FEATURES

3/4 2/4 2/4 2/4

$$$

$

3rd party 3rd party

Standard

Platform Features

WWW.SHARPSPRING.COM 13SHARPSPRING VS PARDOT

2017 COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS REPORT

TOTAL

Universal CMS Compatibility

Open API

Zapier Integrations

Multiple Device Tracking

Native Salesforce Integration

Advanced Reporting

$ = available for additional charge

Third-Party/NativeForm Compatibility

Parity in platform features.

The platforms stack up well here, with both offering key

integrations that are of value to marketers. Pardot

users buying in at the lowest level will still need the

Salesforce CRM license that starts at $75/user per

month. If you want the advanced reporting features

offered by Pardot, expect another upcharge. PLATFORM FEATURES

5/7 5/7 2/76/7

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6/7 5/7 2/75/7

ProUltimate

$

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Universal

Standard

Partner Support

WWW.SHARPSPRING.COM 14SHARPSPRING VS PARDOT

2017 COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS REPORT

TOTAL

Phone, Email Support

In-App Contextual Support Videos

Dedicated Customer Success Manager

Platform Migration Support

Ongoing Training

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5/5 5/5 4/5 4/5

2/6

ProUltimate

Customer support is a key focus for both platforms.Both SharpSpring and Pardot offer platform migration support and a dedicated customer success manager, but Pardot limits full unlimited phone and email support to their Ultimate bundle. Everybody else pays for that support. SharpSpring also offers unlimited free assistance to help with implementing integrations.

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

4/54/55/55/5

$

$ = available for additional charge

Standard

SHARPSPRING VS PARDOTFEBRUARY 2017WWW.SHARPSPRING.COM

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Reviews

Terms

Features

8.2/10 4.0/5

Trust Radius Software Advice

7.1/10 4.0/5

Trust Radius Software Advice

Comparable

Month to MonthAnnual ContractBilled Monthly

Annual ContractBilled Monthly

Annual ContractBilled Monthly

$39,000($42,000 Get Started)

Includes 1 license

$27,000($30,000 Get Started)

Includes 1 license

$15,000($18,000 Get Started)

Includes 1 license

$6,000($2,300 Get started)

Includes 4 licenses (agency +3 clients)

Pro StandardUltimate

7.1/10 4.0/5

Trust Radius Software Advice

7.1/10 4.0/5

Trust Radius Software Advice

Annual Cost(Get started)