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Software · head to head

Gainsight vs SmartKarrot

Gainsight logo

Gainsight

Software

The #1 Customer Success Platform

From
$2500/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
SmartKarrot logo

SmartKarrot

Software

Intelligent Customer Success Platform

From
$499/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Gainsight limited customization options; teams resort to exports and scripts when platform lacks required fields; SmartKarrot the entry Basic plan starts at $15,000 per year and includes only 5 users
  • They diverge on capability: Gainsight covers Health scores, SmartKarrot covers Customer 360.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Gainsight and SmartKarrot actually diverge.

Attributes where Gainsight and SmartKarrot differ
AttributeGainsightSmartKarrot
Starting price$2500/month$499/month
Founded20112018

Identical on both: pricing model (subscription), 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 Gainsight

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

Only in SmartKarrot

  • Customer 360
  • Health monitoring
  • Success planning
  • Touchpoints tracking
  • Intercom

Both cover

  • Playbook automation
  • Salesforce
  • HubSpot
  • Slack
  • Web support

What people use each for

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

Gainsight

  • Customer Successnot SmartKarrot
  • Retentionnot SmartKarrot
  • Health Scoringnot SmartKarrot

SmartKarrot

  • Tracking customer onboarding phases and account health for a SaaS businessnot Gainsight
  • Segmenting accounts and users to target customer success playsnot Gainsight
  • Reporting on customer success outcomes with embedded BI dashboardsnot Gainsight

Where each one falls short

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

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

SmartKarrot

  • The entry Basic plan starts at $15,000 per year and includes only 5 users
  • All plans are billed annually with no monthly option
  • Basic includes only 2 third party integrations, Growth 3 and Pro 4
  • Usage tracking is limited to 1 SaaS product on Growth and 3 on Pro
  • Growth, Pro and Enterprise plans are all Contact Sales with no published price
  • Basic support is email-based only, with a dedicated CSM starting at Growth
  • SmartKonversation call intelligence is a paid add-on rather than an included feature on Basic, Growth or Pro
  • SmartOps advanced AI trends is an add-on available only on the Enterprise plan
  • Additional Lite users are billed at $10 per user per month on top of the plan fee

Pricing, plan by plan

Gainsight

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

SmartKarrot

$499/month
  • Professional$499/month
    • Health scores
    • Playbooks
    • Customer 360
  • Enterprise$1299/month
    • AI insights
    • Custom workflows
    • Advanced analytics

Which should you pick?

Choose Gainsight if

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

Choose SmartKarrot if

  • You need customer 360.
  • You also want health monitoring.
SmartKarrot review

Questions people ask

Is Gainsight or SmartKarrot better?
Neither clearly leads. Gainsight starts at $2500/month and SmartKarrot at $499/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Gainsight or SmartKarrot?
Gainsight starts at $2500/month and SmartKarrot at $499/month.
Does Gainsight or SmartKarrot run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
What is Gainsight best used for?
Gainsight is most often used for customer success, retention, health scoring. Of those, customer success and retention are not what SmartKarrot is typically brought in for.
What can Gainsight do that SmartKarrot cannot?
Gainsight covers Health scores, Churn prediction, Customer 360 view, Journey orchestration. SmartKarrot covers Customer 360, Health monitoring, Success planning, Touchpoints tracking. Both handle Playbook automation, Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack.

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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