Both are marketing automation but for different audiences and runtimes.
Pardot / Marketing Cloud Account Engagement (MCAE) — B2B-focused. Lives inside Salesforce. Lead nurture, scoring, email campaigns, marketing-to-sales handoff. Primary objects: Prospect (separate from Salesforce Lead/Contact), Form, Landing Page, Email Template, Engagement Studio.
Marketing Cloud Engagement (MCE, formerly ExactTarget) — B2C-focused. Separate platform; integrates with Salesforce. High-volume email, mobile push, SMS, social, advertising. Primary tools: Email Studio, Journey Builder, Mobile Studio, Audience Builder, Contact Builder.
Differences:
- Volume: Pardot ~hundreds of thousands sends/month; MCE ~millions/billions.
- Audience: Pardot for businesses (lead nurture); MCE for consumers (newsletters, transactional).
- Architecture: Pardot inside Salesforce; MCE outside but integrated.
- Pricing: Pardot per Salesforce-license-tier; MCE based on contact list and send volume.
Decision: B2B SaaS / enterprise sales -> Pardot/MCAE. Consumer brand / B2C -> Marketing Cloud Engagement. Both can coexist for hybrid B2B/B2C orgs.