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Email Marketing · head to head

Dotdigital vs Sailthru

Dotdigital logo

Dotdigital

Email Marketing

UK-listed email and cross-channel marketing platform with deep Adobe Commerce and Dynamics connectors

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Sailthru logo

Sailthru

Email Marketing

Retail and publisher email personalisation, now one product inside the Marigold portfolio

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Dotdigital pricing is anchored on contact tiers, so inactive and unsubscribed contacts keep counting until you actively delete them and the bill grows with list decay rather than with sending.; Sailthru the product sits in a portfolio with several overlapping platforms under one owner, so roadmap investment is a portfolio decision rather than a product decision and is worth asking about in writing.
  • They diverge on capability: Dotdigital covers Automation builder, Sailthru covers Interest profiles.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Dotdigital and Sailthru actually diverge.

Attributes where Dotdigital and Sailthru differ
AttributeDotdigitalSailthru

Identical on both: starting price (On request), pricing model (quote), free tier (No), platforms (Web, REST API), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Email Marketing).

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 Dotdigital

  • Automation builder
  • Commerce connectors
  • Dynamics 365 integration
  • Regional data residency
  • Liquid personalisation
  • SMS and WhatsApp

Only in Sailthru

  • Interest profiles
  • Personalisation engine
  • Prediction Manager
  • Site personalisation
  • Zephyr templating
  • Lifecycle optimiser

What people use each for

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

Dotdigital

  • A Microsoft Dynamics 365 organisation that needs marketing automation without building the CRM sync itselfnot Sailthru
  • An Adobe Commerce retailer that wants basket and order data in campaigns without middlewarenot Sailthru
  • A European buyer that needs contact data held in the UK or EU with a named hosting region in the contractnot Sailthru
  • A procurement team that wants to review published financial statements before committing to a multi-year platformnot Sailthru

Sailthru

  • A publisher sending a personalised daily newsletter assembled per reader from a content cataloguenot Dotdigital
  • A retailer that wants email and on-site recommendations driven by the same affinity modelnot Dotdigital
  • High-cadence sending where per-recipient content assembly matters more than journey branchingnot Dotdigital
  • Teams that want churn and lifetime value scores available as native campaign conditions rather than imported fieldsnot Dotdigital

Where each one falls short

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

Dotdigital

  • Pricing is anchored on contact tiers, so inactive and unsubscribed contacts keep counting until you actively delete them and the bill grows with list decay rather than with sending.
  • SMS, WhatsApp and chat are add-ons billed on top of the platform fee, so cross-channel programmes cost noticeably more than the headline quote suggests.
  • The automation builder handles scheduled and behavioural triggers well but is not designed for high-frequency real-time orchestration, which is where growing teams outgrow it.
  • Attribution reporting beyond opens, clicks and connected commerce revenue is thin without the additional analytics module.
  • Automation logic is not portable, so migrating away means rebuilding programmes by hand after exporting contacts and data through the API.

Sailthru

  • The product sits in a portfolio with several overlapping platforms under one owner, so roadmap investment is a portfolio decision rather than a product decision and is worth asking about in writing.
  • Pricing counts stored profiles, so retained inactive readers keep costing money long after they stopped opening anything.
  • On-site personalisation requires a developer to implement the JavaScript and maintain the content feed, which puts the highest-value feature behind engineering time.
  • Zephyr is a proprietary templating language, so template maintenance skills are scarce compared with the Liquid syntax used by most competitors.
  • It is built for high-cadence content and retail sending, and B2B lifecycle programmes with long sales cycles sit poorly on the model.

Pricing, plan by plan

Dotdigital

On request
  • Dotdigital$undefined/month
    • Priced on a contact tier combined with a monthly email send allowance
    • SMS, WhatsApp and additional channels billed separately
    • Annual contracts standard, monthly available on entry tiers

Sailthru

On request
  • Sailthru$undefined/year
    • Priced on stored profiles and send volume
    • Site personalisation and prediction features licensed by module
    • Annual contract through Marigold

Which should you pick?

Choose Dotdigital if

  • You need automation builder.
  • You work on Web, REST API.
  • You also want commerce connectors.
Dotdigital review

Choose Sailthru if

  • You need interest profiles.
  • You work on Web, REST API.
  • You also want personalisation engine.
Sailthru review

Questions people ask

Is Dotdigital or Sailthru better?
Neither clearly leads. Dotdigital starts at On request and Sailthru at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Dotdigital or Sailthru?
Dotdigital starts at On request and Sailthru at On request.
Does Dotdigital or Sailthru run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, REST API, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
What is Dotdigital best used for?
Dotdigital is most often used for a microsoft dynamics 365 organisation that needs marketing automation without building the crm sync itself, an adobe commerce retailer that wants basket and order data in campaigns without middleware, a european buyer that needs contact data held in the uk or eu with a named hosting region in the contract, a procurement team that wants to review published financial statements before committing to a multi-year platform. Of those, a microsoft dynamics 365 organisation that needs marketing automation without building the crm sync itself and an adobe commerce retailer that wants basket and order data in campaigns without middleware are not what Sailthru is typically brought in for.
What can Dotdigital do that Sailthru cannot?
Dotdigital covers Automation builder, Commerce connectors, Dynamics 365 integration, Regional data residency. Sailthru covers Interest profiles, Personalisation engine, Prediction Manager, Site personalisation.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Dotdigital: Are unsubscribed contacts billed?

Yes, if they remain in the account. Contact tiers count stored contacts, so suppression lists still consume allowance until records are removed.

Sailthru: Who owns Sailthru now?

Marigold, formerly CM Group, which also owns Campaign Monitor, Emma, Selligent, Liveclicker and Cheetah Digital.

Dotdigital: Is it a real alternative to enterprise engagement platforms?

For scheduled and behavioural ecommerce and B2B programmes, yes. For real-time cross-channel orchestration at scale it is not competing in the same bracket.

Sailthru: Does that affect the roadmap?

It can. Overlapping products in one portfolio compete for investment, so ask which platform is the strategic one for your segment before signing multi-year.

Dotdigital: Where is contact data stored?

In the region contracted, with UK, EU, US and Australian hosting available, which is why it appears on European shortlists with residency requirements.

Sailthru: Is it worth it just for newsletters?

For personalised daily newsletters at publisher scale it remains one of the strongest options. For simple broadcast sending it is heavily over-specified.

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