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Software · head to head

Clay vs Gainsight

Clay logo

Clay

Software

Data platform for sales teams

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Gainsight logo

Gainsight

Software

The #1 Customer Success Platform

From
$2500/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Clay two separate meters run at once, actions and data credits, and a plan can exhaust either independently; Gainsight limited customization options; teams resort to exports and scripts when platform lacks required fields
  • They diverge on capability: Clay covers Data enrichment, Gainsight covers Health scores.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Clay and Gainsight actually diverge.

Attributes where Clay and Gainsight differ
AttributeClayGainsight
Starting priceOn request$2500/month
Pricing modelquotesubscription
Founded20212011

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

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 Clay

  • Data enrichment
  • Contact management
  • Workflow automation
  • Integration
  • API access
  • Zapier
  • GDPR
  • Cloud deployment

Only in Gainsight

  • Health scores
  • Churn prediction
  • Playbook automation
  • Customer 360 view
  • Journey orchestration
  • Zendesk
  • Ios support
  • Android support

Both cover

  • Salesforce
  • HubSpot
  • Slack
  • Web support

What people use each for

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

Clay

  • Enriching prospect lists from multiple data providers in one tablenot Gainsight
  • Building automated outbound research and outreach workflowsnot Gainsight

Gainsight

  • Customer Successnot Clay
  • Retentionnot Clay
  • Health Scoringnot Clay

Where each one falls short

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

Clay

  • Two separate meters run at once, actions and data credits, and a plan can exhaust either independently
  • Data credit overage is sold at a 30% premium over the plan rate, so exceeding the allowance costs more per unit than planning for it
  • The free plan allows 500 actions, 100 data credits and 200 rows per table
  • The entry paid plan starts at $167 a month, and both paid prices are starting figures rather than fixed
  • The free plan cannot buy overage at all, so hitting the limit stops work rather than billing for it

Gainsight

  • Limited customization options; teams resort to exports and scripts when platform lacks required fields
  • Integration reliability issues; broken connectors and schema changes create stale health scores
  • Cannot automatically track emails within the platform; requires manual logging or third-party solutions
  • Long implementation and setup; typically requires 12-24 weeks and mandatory implementation services
  • High total cost of ownership; Year 1 costs often exceed $200K including required professional services

Pricing, plan by plan

Clay

On request
  • Pricing upon request$undefined/month
    • Data enrichment
    • Integration
    • Support

Gainsight

$2500/month
  • Essentials$2500/month
    • Health scores
    • Customer 360
    • Playbooks
  • Enterprise$5000/month
    • Advanced analytics
    • AI predictions
    • Custom integrations

Which should you pick?

Choose Clay if

  • You need data enrichment.
  • You also want contact management.
Clay review

Choose Gainsight if

  • You need health scores.
  • You also want churn prediction.
Gainsight review

Questions people ask

Is Clay or Gainsight better?
Neither clearly leads. Clay starts at On request and Gainsight at $2500/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Clay or Gainsight?
Clay starts at On request and Gainsight at $2500/month.
Does Clay or Gainsight run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
What is Clay best used for?
Clay is most often used for enriching prospect lists from multiple data providers in one table, building automated outbound research and outreach workflows. Of those, enriching prospect lists from multiple data providers in one table and building automated outbound research and outreach workflows are not what Gainsight is typically brought in for.
What can Clay do that Gainsight cannot?
Clay covers Data enrichment, Contact management, Workflow automation, Integration. Gainsight covers Health scores, Churn prediction, Playbook automation, Customer 360 view. Both handle Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, Web support.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Gainsight: Does Gainsight offer a free tier?

Gainsight does not offer a free trial for the main Customer Success Cloud platform. Gainsight PX (product analytics) offers a free Starter tier supporting up to 100 monthly active users.

Source
Gainsight: How is Gainsight priced?

Gainsight prices at $150-$300 per user/month for tier plans, but the main CS Cloud pricing is based on customer records managed. Initial deployments managing 500-1,500 customer records typically cost $60,000-$120,000 annually, with Year 1 costs often exceeding $200K including mandatory implementation.

Source
Gainsight: What are Gainsight's core features?

Gainsight offers health scoring, customer journey orchestration, playbooks, in-app engagement, reporting, customer data consolidation via Customer 360, and Staircase AI for real-time engagement insights. It also includes Skilljar for customer education and Communities for self-service support.

Source
Gainsight: What CRM integrations are available?

Gainsight integrates with Salesforce, HubSpot, and Slack. The Salesforce connector syncs account data, the HubSpot connector ingests engagement data, and Slack automation sends Gainsight notifications and alerts to channels.

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