Choosing the Right Marketing Platform in 2025
Marketing Cloud on Core vs Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (aka Pardot) vs Ortto – What’s Best for Your Future?
In 2025, organisations have no shortage of marketing platforms to choose from. But if you’re looking to build something that lasts—something integrated, intelligent, and scalable—the choice starts to narrow.
Whether you’re weighing options before a major replatforming, or simply deciding where to focus next, three names often rise to the top:
- Marketing Cloud on Core – Salesforce’s newest marketing innovation, built natively on Core CRM and Data Cloud
- Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (Pardot) – Salesforce’s legacy B2B lead nurture platform
- Ortto – A fast-growing, all-in-one marketing tool popular with digital-first teams
All three have value. But only one is truly built for the future.
lets introduce our Platforms
| Marketing Cloud on Core | Pardot (Account Engagement) | Ortto |
|---|---|---|
| Core Identity: Salesforce’s next-gen marketing platform, built directly on Core CRM and Data Cloud | Core Identity: Salesforce’s traditional B2B automation tool for lead gen and scoring Teams running CRM-aligned sales funnels with linear nurture paths | Core Identity: Independent all-in-one platform with CDP-lite, email, SMS, and visual journeys Digital teams looking for flexibility, speed, and a user-friendly UI |
| Core Identity: Organisations ready to unify engagement, data, and AI across every channel | Core Identity: Teams running CRM-aligned sales funnels with linear nurture paths | Core Identity: Digital teams looking for flexibility, speed, and a user-friendly UI |
Key Differences That Matter
1. Integration & Identity
| Marketing Cloud on Core | Pardot (Account Engagement) | Ortto |
|---|---|---|
| Built directly into Salesforce, powered by Data Cloud. Identity is stitched in real time across email, mobile, web, commerce, and CRM. ✅ No connectors ✅ No sync delays ✅ No silos If you’re serious about a unified customer view, this is the only option truly built for it. | Connected to Salesforce via sync, but operates on a separate platform. Works well for lead/contact models, but struggles as complexity grows. ⚠️ Sync lag ⚠️ Limited to CRM data ✅ Familiar for Sales Cloud users | External to Salesforce. Offers basic syncing, but its data model is self-contained. Not designed to unify multiple systems or identities. ✅ Easy to set up ⚠️ Dual data ownership ⚠️ Not suited for enterprise integration |
2. Automation & Journeys
| Marketing Cloud on Core | Pardot (Account Engagement) | Ortto |
|---|---|---|
| Flow-based orchestration. Triggers from real-time events and identity signals via Data Cloud. Omnichannel by default. ✅ Dynamic ✅ Intelligent ✅ Limitless potential MCoC is the only one that can power true lifecycle automation across all touchpoints. | Great for lead scoring and drip sequences. Reliable, but limited to contact record changes and form submissions. ✅ Ideal for B2B sales paths ⚠️ Struggles with modern consumer journeys | Visual builder is a strength. Intuitive and fast. Great for standalone journeys but isolated from deeper system logic. ✅ Great UX ⚠️ Limited responsiveness to external system triggers |
3. AI & Personalisation
| Marketing Cloud on Core | Pardot (Account Engagement) | Ortto |
|---|---|---|
| Native Einstein AI, plus Data Cloud inputs. Power real-time recommendations, next-best-actions, predictive scoring, and dynamic content—all within the same system. ✅ Best-in-class AI ✅ Personalisation at scale AI isn’t an add-on here—it’s embedded at the core. | Offers basic Einstein scoring but lacks real-time or multi-source AI. Personalisation is limited to email logic and static segmentation. ⚠️ Useful, but narrow | Includes smart scores, churn predictions, and auto-tagging—but it’s a closed loop. No enterprise AI. ✅ Smart enough for mid-market ⚠️ Can’t scale beyond its ecosystem |
4. Team Fit & Complexity
| Marketing Cloud on Core | Pardot (Account Engagement) | Ortto |
|---|---|---|
| Teams with Salesforce in place, who want a single platform across CRM, marketing, and analytics—and are ready to scale. | Sales-aligned orgs that need basic nurture and lead scoring with minimal overhead. | Lean marketing teams who value speed, independence, and light-touch integration. |
5. Licensing & Investment
| Marketing Cloud on Core | Pardot (Account Engagement) | Ortto |
|---|---|---|
| Licensed at the enterprise level, typically with Data Cloud bundled or enabled. It’s an investment—but one that positions your organisation for long-term scale. ✅ High ROI for integrated strategies ⚠️ Requires planning and implementation support | Mid-tier pricing, often bundled with Sales Cloud. Easy entry point, but can stall out as marketing ambitions grow. ✅ Accessible ⚠️ Ceiling hits fast | SaaS pricing based on contacts and features. Easy to try, easy to cancel. Great value—until you need to unify data or scale operations. ✅ Affordable ⚠️ Silo risk as you grow |
So… What’s the Right Choice?
| Marketing Cloud on Core | Pardot (Account Engagement) | Ortto |
|---|---|---|
| Want to power your entire engagement strategy from within Salesforce, using real-time data, AI, and omnichannel journeys | Just need basic lead nurturing with some CRM alignment and scoring | Need fast, flexible journeys for email/SMS/web—and aren’t tied to Salesforce as a system of record |
Final Word
All three platforms work. But only one is truly built for what’s next.
Marketing Cloud on Core offers:
- Deep native integration
- AI-ready orchestration
- A single platform for data, engagement, and results
If your organisation wants to lead—not just launch campaigns—MCoC is your foundation.
Still unsure?
Start with the right question: Is marketing just a channel—or is it your competitive edge?\