CDP and CEP: What is the difference and how should you choose?

The global cloud data warehouse (CDW) market is growing rapidly. It is expected to reach £8.5 billion this year, with an average annual growth rate of 26% (The Business Research Company).

For most B2C companies, the data warehouse has become the core of their marketing infrastructure. 92% report storing their customer data there, or plan to do so (The State of Martech 2025).

In this cloud-dominated landscape, the need for activation and personalisation across the customer journey remains critical. Two types of platforms aim to meet these needs: CDPs (Customer Data Platforms) and CEPs (Customer Engagement Platforms).

👉 CDP or CEP: what are the differences and how do you choose the right one? Explore how these two platforms complement rather than compete with each other. 🎯

A CDP is software designed to collect, unify, and activate customer data. It brings together information from multiple sources (website, app, CRM, stores, etc.) and provides identity resolution.

The goal is to build a Single Customer View (Customer 360) so that business teams can better understand the customer journey and deliver personalised campaigns.

A major trend in the CDP market is the composable approach, which leverages the company’s data warehouse. The zero-copy architecture of composable CDPs ensures stronger governance, more flexibility for teams and better cost control.

The main goal of a CEP is to orchestrate marketing campaigns. It enables message delivery across various channels: email, push notifications, SMS, in-app, messaging tools, and more.

It leverages existing data to automate customer interactions. However, it does not manage upstream data collection or unification. Its segmentation and enrichment capabilities are less advanced than those of a CDP.

Popular platforms include Batch, Braze, and Klaviyo, often used to automate real-time campaigns.

Before CDPs and CEPs emerged, other tools shaped customer relationship management:

CRMs (Customer Relationship Management):
CRMs date back to the 1980s and remain the historical cornerstone. They manage information related to identified customers and prospects: contacts, purchases, and interactions. 

However, compared to a CDP, CRMs generally lack the ability to handle behavioural or anonymous data.

DMPs (Data Management Platforms):
DMPs were widely used in the 2010s during the rise of anonymous audiences. They collected third-party data for ad targeting. But with the decline of third-party cookies, their usage has plummeted.

MarTech suites:
Solutions like Salesforce Data Cloud or Adobe Experience Platform combine multiple components (CRM, CEP, CDP, analytics, etc.) into all-in-one packages. However, they are often complex to deploy and less open to modern data ecosystems.

Some Customer Engagement Platforms now include “CDP bricks”. However, they rarely match the capabilities of a full-fledged Customer Data Platform.

CDPs and CEPs offer features and pursue goals that may appear similar, to the point of sometimes being confused. However, they do not cover the same use cases and are not intended for the same teams.

Some Customer Engagement Platforms now go beyond basic campaign orchestration. An appealing promise on paper, but one that deserves closer examination.

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Customer engagement platforms today offer features that appear to overlap with those of CDPs. Some can connect to a data warehouse, create audience segments, manage personalised journeys, and support omnichannel activation.

Doing all of this from a single interface seems attractive. But this approach has clear limitations:

A solution that may be practical in the short term, but too limited for a robust, data-driven strategy. Depending on your data maturity and marketing goals, investing in the combination of data warehouse + CDP + CEP proves to be far more effective.

So, do you have to choose between a Customer Data Platform (CDP) and a Customer Engagement Platform (CEP)? Not necessarily.

A composable CDP builds on customer data centralised in the data warehouse. It models and enriches this data to create a true Customer 360° view. This zero-copy architecture ensures clear governance and makes it easier to build segments that can be activated across all channels.

A CEP focuses on optimising interactions. It orchestrates campaigns, automates journeys, and delivers the right messages through the right channels (email, SMS, push notifications, etc.).

Together, they form a high-performing duo:
- The CDP feeds the CEP with reliable, activation-ready data.
- The CEP executes the scenarios with agility and precision.

This modular approach fosters an interoperable ecosystem that is far more flexible and efficient than a monolithic stack.

Kappa is an iconic sportswear and lifestyle brand founded in 1967. The Italian label is loved for its colourful style and the quality of its products. It is one of the leading suppliers for major sports clubs.

The challenge: empowering the marketing teams to activate customer data in Klaviyo (for email and SMS), and on advertising channels (Meta and Google Ads) while keeping costs low and maintaining a flexible stack.

With DinMo, the brand was able to migrate all its segments and activations within just a few days, with no loss of continuity.

The combination of CDW + composable CDP + CEP is designed for any business looking to regain control over its data and marketing activations. In particular:

This modular architecture appeals to all data-driven organisations. It enables alignment between marketing performance, operational agility, and data control.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution. The right choice will always depend on your specific context and goals. Here are four essential criteria to help guide your decision:

A composable CDP integrates naturally into your modern data stack. It manages, unifies, and segments your data at the source: the data warehouse. The CEP, meanwhile, addresses your activation needs based on insights derived from the CDP.

Is your primary objective to personalise customer journeys, activate audiences across advertising platforms, or orchestrate omnichannel scenarios?

In a win-win approach, marketing teams need to move quickly without relying on technical support. This independence benefits data and IT teams, who are then less frequently called upon.

Some solutions may seem more affordable in the short term but come with limitations in governance, interoperability, or scalability. Investing in a robust and flexible data foundation ensures better long-term scalability and cost control.

Data warehouse, CDP, and CEP work together to meet the demands of data-driven marketing. By adopting a modern data architecture, businesses gain performance, agility, and autonomy.

DinMo supports you in choosing the right solutions that integrate with your existing ecosystem and scale with your needs. Feel free to contact us to set up a trial of our composable CDP.