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Surveys · head to head

Medallia vs Zoho Marketing Automation

Medallia logo

Medallia

Surveys

Enterprise experience management platform for customer, employee and contact centre feedback

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Zoho Marketing Automation logo

Zoho Marketing Automation

Marketing

Contact-count marketing automation priced well below the mainstream platforms, tightest with Zoho CRM

From
$19/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Medallia there is no published pricing and no self-serve tier, so evaluating cost requires a sales process before any real budgeting can happen.; Zoho Marketing Automation pricing is by contact count, so an inactive or unengaged list costs the same as an active one, and nobody in the business has an incentive to prune it until the next tier boundary arrives.
  • They diverge on capability: Medallia covers Multi-channel feedback capture, Zoho Marketing Automation covers Journey builder.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Medallia and Zoho Marketing Automation actually diverge.

Attributes where Medallia and Zoho Marketing Automation differ
AttributeMedalliaZoho Marketing Automation
Starting priceOn request$19/month
Pricing modelquotePer month by contact count
CategorySurveysMarketing

Identical on both: free tier (No), platforms (Web, iOS, Android), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Medallia

  • Multi-channel feedback capture
  • AI text and sentiment analysis
  • Role-based reporting
  • Contact centre analytics
  • Experience orchestration
  • Market research tools

Only in Zoho Marketing Automation

  • Journey builder
  • Lead scoring
  • Unlimited email sends
  • Landing pages and forms
  • Web behaviour tracking
  • Social campaigns
  • SMS and WhatsApp
  • Lead attribution and X-RAY

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Medallia

  • A retail or hospitality chain that wants customer feedback, digital behaviour and call transcripts unified in one platformnot Zoho Marketing Automation
  • An enterprise with a dedicated CX team needing role-based dashboards from frontline staff to the executive teamnot Zoho Marketing Automation
  • A contact centre wanting agent coaching and quality management driven by the same data as customer satisfaction scoresnot Zoho Marketing Automation
  • A company running employee and customer experience programmes and wanting one vendor across bothnot Zoho Marketing Automation

Zoho Marketing Automation

  • A B2B team already on Zoho CRM that wants scoring and nurture without paying for a separate platform and an integrationnot Medallia
  • A business emailing its list frequently, where unlimited sends beats a competitor metering both contacts and emailsnot Medallia
  • An Indian or emerging-market marketing team that would otherwise pay a US-dollar list price plus card forex feesnot Medallia
  • A small team upgrading from plain newsletter sending to behaviour-triggered journeys without a five-figure annual commitmentnot Medallia

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Medallia

  • There is no published pricing and no self-serve tier, so evaluating cost requires a sales process before any real budgeting can happen.
  • Implementation is a project, not a signup, and typically involves data integration and consulting work before the platform produces usable dashboards.
  • The breadth of modules means a buyer who only needs a simple survey tool is paying for enterprise infrastructure they will not use.
  • Switching away later means re-architecting how feedback is collected across the organisation, which creates real vendor lock-in once rolled out.
  • Smaller teams and mid-market companies are effectively priced out, since the platform and its go-to-market are built for large enterprise accounts.

Zoho Marketing Automation

  • Pricing is by contact count, so an inactive or unengaged list costs the same as an active one, and nobody in the business has an incentive to prune it until the next tier boundary arrives.
  • The Enterprise plan caps users at 25, which is a hard ceiling for larger marketing organisations rather than an upgrade path.
  • Its value depends heavily on running Zoho CRM; used alongside Salesforce or HubSpot the integration is shallower and much of the scoring and attribution advantage disappears.
  • Zoho sells Campaigns, Marketing Automation and MarketingPlus as separate products with overlapping function, and buyers regularly purchase the wrong one and then migrate lists between them.
  • Support and deliverability tooling are basic next to dedicated senders, so sender reputation problems on a large list get less expert help than a specialist provider would give.

Pricing, plan by plan

Medallia

On request
  • Medallia Experience Cloud$undefined/year
    • No published pricing, sold as a multi-year enterprise contract
    • Pricing depends on modules (CX, EX, contact centre, market research)
    • Implementation and integration typically charged separately

Zoho Marketing Automation

$19/month
  • Standard$19/month
    • Priced for 1,000 contacts, billed annually
    • Unlimited email sends
    • Unlimited social campaigns and signup forms
  • Professional$29/month
    • Priced for 1,000 contacts, billed annually
    • Contact scoring
    • Journey builder with reports
  • Enterprise$59/month
    • Priced for 1,000 contacts, billed annually
    • Lead attribution and X-RAY journey tracing
    • Landing page personalisation

Which should you pick?

Choose Medallia if

  • You need multi-channel feedback capture.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want ai text and sentiment analysis.
Medallia review

Choose Zoho Marketing Automation if

  • You need journey builder.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want lead scoring.
Zoho Marketing Automation review

Questions people ask

Is Medallia or Zoho Marketing Automation better?
Neither clearly leads. Medallia starts at On request and Zoho Marketing Automation at $19/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Medallia or Zoho Marketing Automation?
Medallia starts at On request and Zoho Marketing Automation at $19/month.
Does Medallia or Zoho Marketing Automation run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, iOS, Android, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
What is Medallia best used for?
Medallia is most often used for a retail or hospitality chain that wants customer feedback, digital behaviour and call transcripts unified in one platform, an enterprise with a dedicated cx team needing role-based dashboards from frontline staff to the executive team, a contact centre wanting agent coaching and quality management driven by the same data as customer satisfaction scores, a company running employee and customer experience programmes and wanting one vendor across both. Of those, a retail or hospitality chain that wants customer feedback, digital behaviour and call transcripts unified in one platform and an enterprise with a dedicated cx team needing role-based dashboards from frontline staff to the executive team are not what Zoho Marketing Automation is typically brought in for.
What can Medallia do that Zoho Marketing Automation cannot?
Medallia covers Multi-channel feedback capture, AI text and sentiment analysis, Role-based reporting, Contact centre analytics. Zoho Marketing Automation covers Journey builder, Lead scoring, Unlimited email sends, Landing pages and forms.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Medallia: Is there a self-serve or free version?

No. Medallia sells only through direct sales with quoted enterprise contracts; there is no published price list.

Zoho Marketing Automation: How does it differ from Zoho Campaigns?

Campaigns is email sending and newsletters. Marketing Automation adds journeys, lead scoring, web tracking and CRM writeback. Buying Campaigns and outgrowing it is the common mistake.

Medallia: Can a mid-sized company buy Medallia?

Technically yes, but the sales motion, implementation cost and contract structure are built for large enterprise deployments, not smaller teams.

Zoho Marketing Automation: Are email sends limited?

No, sends are unlimited on all plans. Only contact count determines your tier, which is unusual at this price level.

Medallia: Does it replace a standalone survey tool?

It can collect surveys, but its value is in unifying multiple feedback channels; a company only needing surveys is better served by a cheaper dedicated tool.

Zoho Marketing Automation: Is there a user limit?

Yes, up to 25 users on Enterprise, with lower limits below that. It is not designed for large marketing departments.

Zoho Marketing Automation: Can I pay in local currency?

Yes, Zoho publishes real local pricing in several markets including India rather than converting the US dollar figure at checkout.

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