Leer este artículo en español →
Braze is a customer engagement platform that reacts in real time to what each customer does in an app, on a website, or by email, SMS or WhatsApp, and Salesforce has agreed to buy it for about $5.66 billion. Braze was one of the most direct competitors of Salesforce Marketing Cloud. If Salesforce already has Marketing Cloud Engagement and Marketing Cloud Next, why does it want a third platform? Here is what Braze is, what Salesforce says it is buying, and how the three pieces could fit together.
Joaquín País, CEO of ShowerThinking, also explains it on video:
The deal
Salesforce signed a definitive agreement to acquire Braze in October 2026. The numbers from the press release:
- Price: about $5.66 billion in enterprise value, or $47.50 per share, in cash.
- Expected close: in Salesforce's fiscal year 2028, which starts in February 2027.
- Conditions: approval by Braze's shareholders and by the regulators.
Until the deal closes, Braze and Salesforce remain separate companies.
What is Braze?
Braze was founded in New York in 2011 as Appboy, a tool for sending messages inside mobile apps. It became Braze in 2017 and went public on Nasdaq in 2021. That origin explains what it is good at: it was built for brands whose relationship with the customer runs through an app.
- Channels: push notifications, in-app messages, content cards, banners, email, SMS, WhatsApp and web, coordinated in one journey.
- Event streaming: every time someone opens the app, looks at a product or leaves something halfway, that event updates their profile and can change their journey within seconds, without waiting for an overnight batch.
- Canvas: the editor where those journeys are built, with channel splits, experiment paths and control groups.
- BrazeAI: the AI layer that picks the content, offer, channel and timing for each person.
Around 2,770 companies use it, mostly consumer brands with very large audiences, such as Canva and Urban Outfitters.
Braze vs Salesforce Marketing Cloud: why they competed
When a consumer brand chose its engagement platform, Marketing Cloud Engagement and Braze often ended up in the same evaluation. But they come from opposite ends.
Engagement added mobile and SMS over the years, but it was designed around sends. Many mobile-first brands chose Braze for that reason. For more on Engagement and its successor, see what is Salesforce Marketing Cloud Next.
What does Salesforce say it is buying?
The press release names three things:
- Acting on customer behaviour in real time.
- Richer experiences across channels, especially mobile and in-app.
- Smarter personalisation, by connecting Braze's AI decisioning with Salesforce's customer data, Data 360 and Agentforce, so that marketing is tied to service, commerce and the rest of the customer relationship.
Salesforce also talks about reaching hundreds of millions of people in real time. Read between the lines: it is buying the speed and scale of high-volume B2C, the ground where Braze had the edge.
What happens to Marketing Cloud Engagement and Marketing Cloud Next?
Salesforce has not said yet. What we do know:
- Braze's CEO says the company will keep building as Braze.
- Engagement is still sold, and Salesforce says existing journeys keep working as they are.
- Marketing Cloud Next is the platform built natively on the Salesforce core, with Data 360 underneath and agents across the whole customer lifecycle.
Our reading: three pieces, three jobs
Next would be the strategic layer, connected to the CRM. Braze, the real-time engine for brands whose customer relationship lives in an app. And Engagement, the installed base, which is not going to move overnight. Salesforce has done this before: Tableau, MuleSoft and Slack kept their names after they were acquired. The open question is whether Braze's capabilities will end up inside Next, or whether Next will connect to Braze as one more engine.
What it means if you work with Salesforce
- Nothing changes in the short term. If you are on Engagement or moving to Next, your roadmap stays where it is.
- If your business depends on an app, watch the integration closely. Think of a patient support programme with reminders and in-app content: Salesforce's data with Braze's real-time engine fits right there.
- Ask your Salesforce team how Braze will connect to Data 360. That is where the value of the deal will really show.
Frequently asked questions
What is Braze?
A customer engagement platform that reacts in real time to each customer's behaviour across apps, web, email, SMS and WhatsApp, with push, in-app messages and content cards, and an AI layer, BrazeAI, that decides the content, offer, channel and timing.
How much is Salesforce paying for Braze?
About $5.66 billion in enterprise value, or $47.50 per share in cash.
When will the acquisition close?
Salesforce expects it in its fiscal year 2028, which runs from February 2027 to January 2028, subject to approval by Braze's shareholders and the regulators.
Will Braze replace Marketing Cloud?
Salesforce has not said so. It talks about strengthening Marketing Cloud's cross-channel personalisation, and Braze says it will keep building as Braze. Engagement is still sold and Next remains Salesforce's native platform.
What is the difference between Braze and Salesforce Marketing Cloud Engagement?
Engagement grew out of email and works with data extensions and scheduled processes. Braze grew out of the app and works with real-time events.
Sources
- Salesforce, Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Braze, October 20, 2026.
- Braze, Form 8-K filed with the SEC with the press release, October 20, 2026.
- Salesforce, Marketing Cloud.
- Salesforce, acquisition of ExactTarget, Form 8-K filed with the SEC, July 2013.
Working with Marketing Cloud?
At ShowerThinking we have worked with Salesforce Marketing Cloud for years, as a Salesforce partner. If you want to talk about what this deal means for your roadmap, get in touch.
