Litmus from Validity vs. Salesforce Marketing Cloud

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Litmus from Validity
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Litmus, from Validity, is an email marketing solution used to create error-free emails in less time. It is also used to build email campaigns, personalize and test them thoroughly, monitor deliverability, and analyze email performance.
$500
per month
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
Marketing Cloud is an AI-powered, cloud-based digital marketing platform within the Salesforce Customer 360 ecosystem. Marketers can segment their audience, deliver personalized messages, track campaign performance, engage leads and accounts, and optimize strategies based on real-time insights.
$1,250
per month per installation
Pricing
Litmus from ValiditySalesforce Marketing Cloud
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Account Engagement
$1,250
per month
Engagement
$1,250
per month
Intelligence
$3,000
per month
Loyalty Management
$20,000
per month
Personalization
$100,000
per year
Data Cloud for Marketing
$108,000
per year
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Litmus from ValiditySalesforce Marketing Cloud
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsLitmus offers different plan types to fit various needs, offering monthly and annual plans, as well as fully customizable Enterprise plans.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Litmus from ValiditySalesforce Marketing Cloud
Considered Both Products
Litmus from Validity
Chose Litmus from Validity
Litmus is better overall. Better UI. User friendly. Relatively intuitive.
Chose Litmus from Validity
I selected Litmus because it provides an all-in-one powerful tool to update content, collaborate with teams, and analyse data seamlessly. This saves a big amount of time for the whole team. The insights are more granular allowing us to focus deeper into improvements. The …
Chose Litmus from Validity
We've tried Email on Acid in the past and Litmus has a much more advanced offering. The user interface is superior and they are constantly innovating and rolling out new features.
Chose Litmus from Validity
I've used HubSpot Marketing Hub previously to build marketing emails. In my current role, I do not use Litmus to build emails, only to QA - so I can cannot compare apples to apples. But I do have some familiarity with Hubspot, and I was never able to easily share an email for …
Chose Litmus from Validity
From a platform and tool perspective, Litmus does a great job at providing rendering testing. No issues.
Chose Litmus from Validity
Litmus has an easier view to see how the emails render across different email clients and seems to be very accurate to how they show up in mailboxes.
Chose Litmus from Validity
There is just no comparison in a way, Litmus offers a much greater range of features, from builder to previews accross various clients. Mailchimp only seems to allow very simple features compared to what Litmus itself has to offer.
Chose Litmus from Validity
I haven't used another service similar to Litmus before, but would be very happy to recommend it and I do not feel the need to evaluate other products.
Chose Litmus from Validity
We currently use both Everest and Litmus. In my opinion, the way our team uses Litmus would rank in second place compared to Everest. Everest not only reports on deliverability, feedback loops, spam traps, block listings, domain and IP reputation, and so much more, but it also …
Chose Litmus from Validity
Litmus is easier to understand, easier to use, and you cant beat the code editor Litmus provides
Chose Litmus from Validity
Overall better user interface, product and pricing. Litmus is very well-known in the industry.
Chose Litmus from Validity
Litmus has a better UI and is friendlier to non-email building people who need to collaborate and leave comments
Chose Litmus from Validity
Litmus is the original email testing platform, and nothing compares to the preview options it provides.
Chose Litmus from Validity
Campaign Monitor is good but Litmus seems to be more solid and "fully baked". We liked the flow of the Litmus build process better and Litmus Proof really sealed the deal.
Chose Litmus from Validity
I was not involved in the evaluation, however we just resigned our contract with them so Litmus has been working really well for our organization!
Chose Litmus from Validity
Litmus is a far more comprehensive platform than Email on Acid for template development and testing, but its analytics suite is not really that much more sophisticated. I use Litmus primarily for development and testing, so I am not complaining, but I wish that the analytics …
Chose Litmus from Validity
Email on Acid has a similar UX as Litmus, but the layout is about all that is similar. Litmus' device renders always match the actual test to that device. I have seen several mismatches within Email on Acid's device renders vs what is actually received which makes me question …
Chose Litmus from Validity
There was no other option in our mind, nor did we explore other options. They are the industry leader and we have always viewed them as such. It was an absolute no brainer for us.
Chose Litmus from Validity
Litmus does a great job allowing you to see how your emails look across ESPS. No other company does this as reliably as Litmus. My only gripe with Litmus is that they do not have an option to use a drag n drop builder. This means I now have to use another program to build emails.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Chose Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Salesforce Marketing Cloud is superior to other marketing platforms I have used in the past.
Chose Salesforce Marketing Cloud
I MUCH prefer Pardot to Mailchimp and Mailjet. It feels more like a professional product and behaves as such with a more advanced feature set and customizability. For instance, I have not found a good way in either of the competing products to do branded preference center …
Features
Litmus from ValiditySalesforce Marketing Cloud
Email & Online Marketing
Comparison of Email & Online Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Litmus from Validity
5.3
326 Ratings
40% below category average
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
7.9
167 Ratings
4% above category average
WYSIWYG email editor7.037 Ratings8.1118 Ratings
Dynamic content7.833 Ratings7.6149 Ratings
Ability to test dynamic content7.9209 Ratings7.7108 Ratings
Landing pages2.63 Ratings7.8117 Ratings
A/B testing1.84 Ratings8.0147 Ratings
Mobile optimization9.0317 Ratings7.3107 Ratings
Email deliverability reporting8.6230 Ratings8.3128 Ratings
List management1.82 Ratings8.5125 Ratings
Triggered drip sequences1.01 Ratings8.191 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Litmus from Validity
7.2
212 Ratings
6% below category average
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
8.2
121 Ratings
11% above category average
Dashboards5.610 Ratings8.3115 Ratings
Standard reports8.7211 Ratings8.3120 Ratings
Custom reports7.5148 Ratings7.997 Ratings
Pre-Send Testing
Comparison of Pre-Send Testing features of Product A and Product B
Litmus from Validity
8.9
315 Ratings
11% above category average
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
-
Ratings
URL Validation8.7236 Ratings00 Ratings
Link Tracking8.5206 Ratings00 Ratings
Spam Testing8.9236 Ratings00 Ratings
Email Previews9.5313 Ratings00 Ratings
Lead Management
Comparison of Lead Management features of Product A and Product B
Litmus from Validity
-
Ratings
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
8.3
121 Ratings
6% above category average
Lead nurturing automation00 Ratings8.2107 Ratings
Lead scoring and grading00 Ratings8.2108 Ratings
Data quality management00 Ratings8.1113 Ratings
Automated sales alerts and tasks00 Ratings8.599 Ratings
Campaign Management
Comparison of Campaign Management features of Product A and Product B
Litmus from Validity
-
Ratings
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
7.8
111 Ratings
5% above category average
Calendaring00 Ratings8.3100 Ratings
Event/webinar marketing00 Ratings7.494 Ratings
Social Media Marketing
Comparison of Social Media Marketing features of Product A and Product B
Litmus from Validity
-
Ratings
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
8.1
85 Ratings
7% above category average
Social sharing and campaigns00 Ratings8.380 Ratings
Social profile integration00 Ratings7.836 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Litmus from Validity
-
Ratings
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
7.7
121 Ratings
3% above category average
API00 Ratings7.187 Ratings
Role-based workflow & approvals00 Ratings7.586 Ratings
Customizability00 Ratings7.4108 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com00 Ratings8.3110 Ratings
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM00 Ratings8.613 Ratings
Integration with SugarCRM00 Ratings7.610 Ratings
Third-party software integrations00 Ratings7.021 Ratings
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Litmus from ValiditySalesforce Marketing Cloud
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Score 9.9 out of 10
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Vbout
Score 9.9 out of 10
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VerticalResponse
VerticalResponse
Score 10.0 out of 10
PFL Direct Mail Platform
PFL Direct Mail Platform
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
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Score 9.4 out of 10
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Score 9.0 out of 10
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User Ratings
Litmus from ValiditySalesforce Marketing Cloud
Likelihood to Recommend
9.1
(338 ratings)
8.1
(325 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.5
(25 ratings)
8.1
(114 ratings)
Usability
9.6
(19 ratings)
4.1
(35 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(6 ratings)
10.0
(11 ratings)
Performance
7.4
(6 ratings)
9.6
(9 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(36 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.0
(1 ratings)
5.0
(4 ratings)
Online Training
8.2
(2 ratings)
8.1
(7 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.1
(10 ratings)
3.0
(17 ratings)
Configurability
7.3
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
10.0
(2 ratings)
7.0
(2 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.5
(6 ratings)
7.6
(34 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.1
(4 ratings)
8.0
(3 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.2
(3 ratings)
7.0
(3 ratings)
User Testimonials
Litmus from ValiditySalesforce Marketing Cloud
Likelihood to Recommend
Validity
I’ve been really impressed with Litmus, especially the personalization features. Being able to easily plug in tools like sentiment trackers right into our emails has helped us gather valuable third-party data without a lot of extra work. I also really appreciate the ongoing learning resources—they offer tons of free webinars and articles that are actually useful. I recently read one on email deliverability that broke down specific data and gave me clear, actionable steps to improve how our emails are hitting inboxes. It’s more than just a testing tool—it’s become a go-to resource in our email marketing toolkit.
Read full review
Salesforce
I rated this a seven because I love Salesforce, and it is excellent on the sales side. However, the marketing side has some pros and cons. It is terrific for keeping track of lead, customer, and dealer information, but it is not easy to automate workflows, integrate other software, or create well-designed emails. It is also straightforward to generate reports, which is very helpful in keeping track of lead progression to better market those leads and turn them into customers.
Read full review
Pros
Validity
  • Alerts: users are notified whenever comments or approvals are made on emails, with regular reminders being sent in case some were missed
  • Centralised: all members can collaborate and give their feedback on emails, providing a better flow and efficiency for the hierarchy of approvals.
  • Integration: very smooth integration, with little to no errors, with our CRM tool.
  • Validation: alt text, scaling and image ratios are validated
  • Dark mode: a very important accessibility tool used by many email users, this compatibility theme is often overlooked on other platforms. Litmus, however, makes it clear how important it is to review and track emails in this format.
Read full review
Salesforce
  • Filter relevant content so you can priorize those that are more relevant and resolve it first
  • Measure the traffic in the different social networks, as well as the response rate, average response time and other relevant metrics
  • Configure automation rules to order the work of those who must interact with the customer
Read full review
Cons
Validity
  • Sometime, I feel like its slow to use. Speed is something which can be helpful.
  • AI feature. It will be beneficial for us if there is an AI feature for content updates. It can improve the subject line and content based on the performance of our past emails.
  • If it can provide more ideas on CRM based on industry standards, like I work in hospitality, and if it can share data and any new initiative for hospitality CRM, it might be useful for us to consider.
Read full review
Salesforce
  • The email builder does not offer any way to catch/check bugs across different email service providers
  • Creating SQL is not as easy as drag-and-drop; a lot of technical knowledge is required
  • Salesforce Marketing Cloud is sold as a marketing tool, but to be honest, you need a LOT of technical IT support to run the tool
  • Einstein metrics are across the board; if you have multiple audiences in one instance of Salesforce Marketing Cloud you can't segment the data.
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Likelihood to Renew
Validity
It's one the best tools that we've found for this type of tool but we would like some additional features like spell check so if there's a platform that features that with everything else Litmus has, then we'd potentially look to move over to that platform instead. However, we are overall pretty help with the platform
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Salesforce
As of right now we have not seen any other program that integrates as seamlessly into our Salesforce platform. We have barely scratched the surface of all the features and use cases. It would be irresponsible to make a move to another platform in the near future. We have not come up against any limitations that would prompt a need to switch
Read full review
Usability
Validity
Litmus has integrations that make the software an integrated part of my work every day. Being able to test right within my email builder is just brilliant. Daily I also use the web interface to review analytics and spam testing. Overall it is one of the pieces of software I use daily without any complaints or issues.
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Salesforce
You won't find another solution that has as many features as Salesforce Marketing Cloud Interaction Studio. We all know Salesforce, we all know how big they are and it's not for nothing... Their tools do most of the things you want, need and even imagine. Using it is complicated, but the usability is infinite.
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Reliability and Availability
Validity
We have never had a problem with Litmus being unavailable so I would say their availability is fantastic. There might have been one time years ago that the site was down briefly but it also might have been a server issue on my end. Either way, Litmus was back up and running in a very short time
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Salesforce
Upgrades and timing of the upgrades were communicated well and planned during off hours for our work. If we did have a campaign scheduled during that time, it would kick-off after the system was back active. There were a few unplanned system down times, but it was a rare occurrence and those times were also short in duration.
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Performance
Validity
As with all technology, there are inevitably use-cases where you are unable to get to your original goal without some good old-fashioned experimenting. Some situations will (and are) more urgent which complicates an effective integration of a new process or a new team using an existing process but the "issues" are regularly resolved by re-starting the process specific to when Litmus is introduced to a project. If it doesn't come out the way you're anticipating, run it again and verify there is an issue before declaring all is lost
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Salesforce
Though the make up of MA apps is not built this way today, it would be nice to see them become more real-time. The integration between Salesforce and Pardot is not a true real-time integration. If I modify something in Salesforce, those changes are not automatically reflected in Pardot immediately. There is a delay of about 15 minutes before the systems sync. This delay, although not long, is less than ideal We would love the systems to be integrated real time such that changes are propagated from one system to the other immediately.
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Support Rating
Validity
I am always so so impressed with the litmus support team. They are not only prompt but attentive and offer very personalised responses and support
Read full review
Salesforce
They are really responsive and more than not solve the problem or give you insight to how you can manage the solution yourself. I do find however sometimes a long delay on the more complex issues when they need to loop in other departments. but overall a good experience with support
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In-Person Training
Validity
I had internal training for how to use, not lead by litmus. Unsure if there was any external training which took place before my time
Read full review
Salesforce
The trainers at the Pardot user conference (Elevate and Connections) were very knowledgeable and presented the material well. Again, the content was targeted to more of a new user audience, and was not really relevant for folks who had been using the product for 2+ years.
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Online Training
Validity
It has all the required information.
Read full review
Salesforce
Pardot's online training touches on all topics briefly and vaguely without much indepth exploration into how a final outcome could look, such as Nurturing Campaigns, Email templates, landing page templates, etc... The only true way to uncover Pardot's full capabilities is to have Front End design and coding experience. Without this key skill set, I would not recommend Pardot to another business.
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Implementation Rating
Validity
I didn’t really personally participate much in the implementation of Litmus, but from what I observed during the process, it was a smooth process with minimal disruptions. The team was able to get up and running quickly, and the platform’s user-friendly interface made onboarding fairly easy for everyone involved from the start.
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Salesforce
From an IT perspective, once you set up the Javascript beacon and start collecting data there is a waiting game. During this time you can start labeling your site actions which can be labor intensive for a single person, but you don't really have the final end-users on the platform yet. We did a lot of training so users were experienced, but it wasn't until they had their first tasks to accomplish that they started using the system and had questions. I'd recommend setting up some immediate goals for an end-user to start segmenting for the purpose of displaying message campaigns so you can jump start end-user action.
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Alternatives Considered
Validity
This is not applicable to my role as I have used Litmus to test emails since I have started. Because of the ease of use, timeliness, consistent quality, and affordability that Litmus offers, I haven't found the need to look at similar products or organizations. If all of these features continue to stay strong, I don't plan on changing providers
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Salesforce
I think that all of the marketing platforms I have evaluated and used in the past serve different markets and purposes. Salesforce Marketing Cloud was more palatable to our team because of our existing tech stack where we had Salesforce CRM already deployed and in use. Compared to Marketo and Hubspot, Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a bit dated in terms of the UI/UX and the overall experience but still meets the needs of our organization. Mailchimp, however, isn't even playing in the same arena and is meant for small organizations and companies that don't have a need for a full fledged offering that SFMC brings to the table.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Validity
No answers on this topic
Salesforce
was not involved with this part but i have not heard about clompaints
Read full review
Scalability
Validity
With our enterprise account, scalability is not an issue. I have not yet seen or heard of significant issues with user access, API connections for integrations etc. This includes down time for "Scheduled Maintenance" as some providers call them, Litmus has the technology backing to support a global team with a 24-hour workday across regions
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Salesforce
Prior to this, we had no solution and literally were doing things on paper in a world where technology is outpacing paper. Having this process optimized has made it easier for the sales and marketing people to change information. From the training perspective, it has allowed us to see holes in where we could create additional support training, so the ROI here has been a lot more than just the optimization of a process.
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Return on Investment
Validity
  • Litmus saves our team so much time by making the QA and email review process so much easier, streamlined, and efficient.
  • We often send out campaigns out to thousands of members, and Litmus gives us the assurance and peace of mind that everything is working as it should before it gets sent out.
  • Decreases the number of email review cycles we go through.
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Salesforce
  • Salesforce Marketing Cloud allows us to more efficiently reach out to a higher number of prospects.
  • Salesforce Marketing Cloud allows us to nimbly communicate important messages in a timely fashion to facilitate conversion.
  • Salesforce Marketing Cloud allows us to track who is opening our messages so that we can stop sending to those not interested and focus on the most engaged audiences.
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ScreenShots

Litmus from Validity Screenshots

Screenshot of Litmus Personalize Essentials, with live polls to give subscribers a voice and drive email engagement.Screenshot of Litmus Email Guardian, featuring 24/7 link monitoring to safeguard emails.Screenshot of Litmus' integrated insights reports, that can automatically combine metrics from Salesforce Marketing Cloud with subscriber engagement insights from Litmus.Screenshot of campaign preview, available in 100+ popular email clientsScreenshot of Litmus' inbox previewing and feedback tools, that help users to spot and fix issues early.

Salesforce Marketing Cloud Screenshots

Screenshot of Pardot Analytics - Pardot's reporting and analytics can be used to perform true revenue impact analysis and closed-loop reporting.Screenshot of Pardot Email Analytics - The reach and impact of  email marketing efforts are displayed in real-time with advanced reporting and analytics by device, and email client.Screenshot of Pardot Forms and Landing Pages - Pardot's form and landing page builders are used to turn online traffic to leads with targeted offers and content marketing.Screenshot of Pardot Email Marketing - Lead nurturing flows are defined via an interface that enables definition of the simplest or most complex segmented and targeted campaigns.