Softwr

Customer Support · head to head

Customerly vs Forethought

Customerly logo

Customerly

Customer Support

Customer service suite with live chat and automation

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Forethought logo

Forethought

Customer Support

AI resolution and ticket triage layered on top of an existing helpdesk

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Customerly has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Customerly usage-based pricing of 0.50 EUR per conversation can become expensive at scale; Forethought forethought needs roughly 20,000 historical tickets and around 2,000 a month to train usefully, so a support team below that volume is not simply a smaller customer, it is ineligible, and the sales process will tell you so late.
  • They diverge on capability: Customerly covers Live chat, Forethought covers Solve.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Customerly and Forethought actually diverge.

Attributes where Customerly and Forethought differ
AttributeCustomerlyForethought
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelsubscriptionquote
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, Ios, AndroidWeb
Founded2015Unknown

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Customer Support).

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 Customerly

  • Live chat
  • Email marketing
  • Customer surveys
  • Help center
  • Automation
  • Video chat
  • Slack
  • WordPress

Only in Forethought

  • Solve
  • Autoflows
  • Custom Actions
  • Triage
  • Assist
  • Discover
  • AI QA and Insights
  • Solve and Analytics APIs

What people use each for

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

Customerly

  • Customer supportnot Forethought
  • Lead generationnot Forethought
  • Email marketingnot Forethought
  • Customer feedbacknot Forethought

Forethought

  • A retailer with 40,000 tickets a year in Zendesk wants order status, returns and refunds resolved end to end without an agent, including the API calls into the order system.not Customerly
  • A support operation that already abandoned a rules-based chatbot because the decision trees rotted, and wants resolution logic that does not need rebuilding every time a policy changes.not Customerly
  • A team drowning in triage where tickets sit in a general queue for hours before a human reads them and routes them to the right specialist group.not Customerly
  • A support leader who needs to know which questions have no knowledge article behind them, ranked by the volume of tickets they generate.not Customerly

Where each one falls short

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

Customerly

  • Usage-based pricing of 0.50 EUR per conversation can become expensive at scale
  • Limited to 11-50 employees according to company size metrics

Forethought

  • Forethought needs roughly 20,000 historical tickets and around 2,000 a month to train usefully, so a support team below that volume is not simply a smaller customer, it is ineligible, and the sales process will tell you so late.
  • Billing is outcome based per resolution on top of a platform fee, so the invoice rises precisely when the product performs, and forecasting a year of spend requires forecasting your own deflection curve.
  • Channels are tier gated: email, voice and Slack agents sit above the entry tier while the Solve API, Analytics API and knowledge gap detection are Enterprise only, and buyers routinely scope a tier that turns out not to include the channel they came for.
  • Ease of setup is the lowest scored dimension in independent reviews, with 30 to 90 day rollouts, no self-serve path and continual configuration effort to keep flows accurate, which means a named internal owner rather than a set-and-forget deployment.
  • Zendesk acquired Forethought in March 2026, so anyone running a multi-helpdesk estate on Salesforce, Freshdesk or Intercom is buying their neutral AI layer from a direct competitor of their helpdesk vendor, and should get contractual commitments on non-Zendesk connector parity.

Pricing, plan by plan

Customerly

Free
  • FreeFree
    • 2 teammates
    • Live chat
    • Basic surveys
  • Essential$9/month
    • Unlimited chat
    • Help center
    • Automation
  • Startup$29/month
    • Video chat
    • Funnels
    • Priority support
  • Pro$79/month
    • White label
    • Advanced analytics
    • API access

Forethought

On request
  • Team$undefined/year
    • Solve for chat
    • Triage
    • Standard reporting
  • Professional$undefined/year
    • Adds email, voice and Slack agents
    • Assist for human agents
    • Multibrand add-on available
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Solve API and Analytics API
    • Discover knowledge gap detection
    • Multibrand up to 20 brands

Which should you pick?

Choose Customerly if

  • You need live chat.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android.
  • You also want email marketing.
Customerly review

Choose Forethought if

  • You need solve.
  • You also want autoflows.
Forethought review

Questions people ask

Is Customerly or Forethought better?
Neither clearly leads. Customerly starts at Free and Forethought at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Customerly or Forethought?
Customerly has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Customerly and On request for Forethought.
Does Customerly or Forethought run on more platforms?
Customerly runs on Web, Ios, Android. Forethought runs on Web.
Can I use Customerly for free?
Yes. Customerly has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Forethought starts at On request.
What is Customerly best used for?
Customerly is most often used for customer support, lead generation, email marketing, customer feedback. Of those, customer support and lead generation are not what Forethought is typically brought in for.
What can Customerly do that Forethought cannot?
Customerly covers Live chat, Email marketing, Customer surveys, Help center. Forethought covers Solve, Autoflows, Custom Actions, Triage.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Customerly: Where is Customerly's data stored?

All data is stored exclusively in the EU, providing GDPR compliance and data residency in European servers.

Source
Forethought: Does Forethought replace my helpdesk?

No. It installs on top of Zendesk, Salesforce Service Cloud, Freshdesk or Intercom and reads their ticket history. You keep paying for the helpdesk.

Customerly: What messaging channels does Customerly support?

Customerly integrates live chat, email, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram DMs, and mobile apps into a single unified inbox for managing customer conversations.

Source
Forethought: Is there a free trial?

No. Forethought runs a Proof of Value programme instead, which is a scoped paid or sales-managed pilot rather than a self-serve trial.

Customerly: How much of customer support can Customerly automate?

Customerly's AI assistant (Aura) handles up to 60 percent of customer conversations automatically, with the platform designed to handle 71 percent of support volume through automation.

Source
Forethought: Is it still sold to non-Zendesk customers after the acquisition?

Zendesk says yes. Treat that as a commitment to negotiate rather than a guarantee, and ask for connector parity terms in writing.

Forethought: How is it priced?

Platform access fee plus outcome-based charging per resolution, with usage overages. Nothing is published; every deal is quoted.

Share

Related pages

More on Customerly

More on Forethought

Keep looking

Other head to heads