Softwr

Telecommunications · head to head

Dialpad vs Forethought

Dialpad logo

Dialpad

Telecommunications

Cloud phone and voice communications

From
On request
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite
Forethought logo

Forethought

Customer Support

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

From
On request
Free plan
No
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Dialpad pricing details not publicly disclosed; requires contacting sales; 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: Dialpad covers Voice calls, Forethought covers Solve.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Dialpad and Forethought actually diverge.

Attributes where Dialpad and Forethought differ
AttributeDialpadForethought
Pricing modelUnknownquote
PlatformsWeb, MobileWeb
CategoryTelecommunicationsCustomer Support
Founded2013Unknown

Identical on both: starting price (On request), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated).

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 Dialpad

  • Voice calls
  • Video meeting
  • Chat
  • Analytics
  • Call recording
  • Slack
  • Salesforce
  • HubSpot

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.

Dialpad

  • Customer service with AI voice and chat agentsnot Forethought
  • Autonomous contact centre operations with handoff to humansnot Forethought
  • Multi-channel communication (voice, chat, SMS, email)not Forethought
  • HIPAA-compliant healthcare communicationnot 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 Dialpad
  • 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 Dialpad
  • 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 Dialpad
  • A support leader who needs to know which questions have no knowledge article behind them, ranked by the volume of tickets they generate.not Dialpad

Where each one falls short

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

Dialpad

  • Pricing details not publicly disclosed; requires contacting sales
  • AI Agent pricing uses credit-based model with pay-per-value structure
  • Specific pricing tiers and feature comparisons not available on public website

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

Dialpad

On request

No published plan breakdown. See the Dialpad review.

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 Dialpad if

  • You need voice calls.
  • You work on Web, Mobile.
  • You also want video meeting.
Dialpad review

Choose Forethought if

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

Questions people ask

Is Dialpad or Forethought better?
Neither clearly leads. Dialpad starts at On request and Forethought at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Dialpad or Forethought?
Dialpad starts at On request and Forethought at On request.
Does Dialpad or Forethought run on more platforms?
Dialpad runs on Web, Mobile. Forethought runs on Web.
What is Dialpad best used for?
Dialpad is most often used for customer service with ai voice and chat agents, autonomous contact centre operations with handoff to humans, multi-channel communication (voice, chat, sms, email), hipaa-compliant healthcare communication. Of those, customer service with ai voice and chat agents and autonomous contact centre operations with handoff to humans are not what Forethought is typically brought in for.
What can Dialpad do that Forethought cannot?
Dialpad covers Voice calls, Video meeting, Chat, Analytics. Forethought covers Solve, Autoflows, Custom Actions, Triage.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Dialpad: How much does Dialpad cost?

Dialpad uses conversation-based pricing where customers purchase a pool of AI Agent Credits. Billing occurs only when AI delivers value by retrieving information or executing actions. Exact pricing is not published online and requires contacting sales.

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.

Dialpad: What is Dialpad's AI Agent pricing model?

Dialpad AI Agents are priced per conversation using a credit system. Credits are used only when the AI retrieves information or executes actions like scheduling, routing, or order lookup.

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.

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.

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