Telecommunications · head to head
Five9 vs Gainsight
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Five9 a 50 seat minimum applies to the published rates, so the entry cost on the $119 Digital plan is $5,950 a month; Gainsight limited customization options; teams resort to exports and scripts when platform lacks required fields
- They diverge on capability: Five9 covers Intelligent routing, Gainsight covers Health scores.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Five9 and Gainsight actually diverge.
Identical on both: pricing model (subscription), 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 Five9
- Intelligent routing
- IVR
- ACD
- Dialer
- WFM
- Quality management
- Analytics
- ServiceNow
Only in Gainsight
- Health scores
- Churn prediction
- Playbook automation
- Customer 360 view
- Journey orchestration
- HubSpot
- Slack
- Ios support
Both cover
- Salesforce
- Zendesk
- Web support
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Five9
- Cloud contact centre across voice, chat, email and social messagingnot Gainsight
- Routing and managing high volume customer interactionsnot Gainsight
Gainsight
- Customer Successnot Five9
- Retentionnot Five9
- Health Scoringnot Five9
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Five9
- A 50 seat minimum applies to the published rates, so the entry cost on the $119 Digital plan is $5,950 a month
- Prices are per concurrent user rather than per named agent, which changes what a seat means when shifts overlap
- Voice is excluded from the Digital plan and requires a quote
- Usage based charges apply on top of the per seat rate
- Three of the five tiers publish no price at all
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
Five9
$149/month- Core$149/month
- Inbound/outbound
- IVR
- Basic CTI
- Premium$169/month
- Core + Chat/email
- Quality management
- Optimum$199/month
- Premium + WFM
- Proactive chat
- Ultimate$229/month
- Full suite
- Advanced analytics
Gainsight
$2500/month- Essentials$2500/month
- Health scores
- Customer 360
- Playbooks
- Enterprise$5000/month
- Advanced analytics
- AI predictions
- Custom integrations
Which should you pick?
Questions people ask
- Is Five9 or Gainsight better?
- Neither clearly leads. Five9 starts at $149/month and Gainsight at $2500/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Five9 or Gainsight?
- Five9 starts at $149/month and Gainsight at $2500/month.
- Does Five9 or Gainsight run on more platforms?
- Five9 runs on Web, Desktop. Gainsight runs on Web.
- What is Five9 best used for?
- Five9 is most often used for cloud contact centre across voice, chat, email and social messaging, routing and managing high volume customer interactions. Of those, cloud contact centre across voice, chat, email and social messaging and routing and managing high volume customer interactions are not what Gainsight is typically brought in for.
- What can Five9 do that Gainsight cannot?
- Five9 covers Intelligent routing, IVR, ACD, Dialer. Gainsight covers Health scores, Churn prediction, Playbook automation, Customer 360 view. Both handle Salesforce, Zendesk, Web support.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Five9: What is the minimum team size required to use Five9?
Five9 requires a minimum commitment of 50 seats for any subscription plan.
SourceGainsight: 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.
SourceFive9: How is Five9 pricing calculated, per user, flat rate, or usage-based?
Five9 offers flexible pricing models: per concurrent user, per named agent, or pay-per-use. The pricing structure varies depending on the chosen bundle.
SourceGainsight: 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.
SourceFive9: What does the entry-level Digital bundle include, and what does it cost?
The Digital bundle costs $119 per month per seat and supports digital channels only. Higher tiers (Core at $159, Plus, Pro, and Enterprise) are available, with Plus/Pro/Enterprise requiring contact with sales for pricing.
SourceGainsight: 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.
SourceFive9: Are there additional charges beyond the base subscription?
Yes. All bundles include 3000 AI minutes per seat, but additional AI usage incurs charges. SMS messaging also has usage-based charges applied separately.
SourceGainsight: 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.
Related pages
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