Gainsight CS vs. Google Analytics

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Gainsight CS
Score 8.8 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
Gainsight Customer Success (CS) is presented as a growth engine for modern post-sale teams. Built for CROs, CS leaders, and operations pros, it provides visibility into customer health, expansion potential, and revenue risk. With automation, AI, and health scoring, Gainsight helps scale outcomes without scaling headcount. With its playbooks and success plans to CSQL tracking and journey orchestration, Gainsight CS helps teams to take the right action at the right time, every time. Access to…
$2,500
Per Company Per Month
Google Analytics
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Google Analytics is perhaps the best-known web analytics product and, as a free product, it has massive adoption. Although it lacks some enterprise-level features compared to its competitors in the space, the launch of the paid Google Analytics Premium edition seems likely to close the gap.
$0
per month
Pricing
Gainsight CSGoogle Analytics
Editions & Modules
Subscription
$2,500
Per Company Per Month
Google Analytics 360
150,000
per year
Google Analytics
Free
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Gainsight CSGoogle Analytics
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Gainsight CSGoogle Analytics
Considered Both Products
Gainsight CS
Chose Gainsight CS
I love that there are so many customer success related activities that can all be streamlined in one interface using Gainsight. These activities include training survey responses, tracking our product's API data (usage data), incorporating with the sales process in Salesforce, …
Chose Gainsight CS
We used Totango for a while, and I was not involved in administering it, but my understanding is that we couldn't get the data to be quite right. Gainsight provides extensive additional functionality, not just on identifying customer health, but on enabling our Customer Success …
Chose Gainsight CS
I didn't select, I just use it.
Google Analytics

No answer on this topic

Features
Gainsight CSGoogle Analytics
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Gainsight CS
8.2
283 Ratings
6% below category average
Google Analytics
-
Ratings
Role-based user permissions8.2283 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform & Infrastructure
Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Product A and Product B
Gainsight CS
8.1
331 Ratings
6% below category average
Google Analytics
-
Ratings
API7.9222 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com8.5325 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Marketo7.977 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Eloqua8.039 Ratings00 Ratings
Customer Data Extraction / Integration
Comparison of Customer Data Extraction / Integration features of Product A and Product B
Gainsight CS
7.7
350 Ratings
13% below category average
Google Analytics
-
Ratings
Product usage7.8335 Ratings00 Ratings
Help desk / support tickets7.5267 Ratings00 Ratings
Customer Success Management
Comparison of Customer Success Management features of Product A and Product B
Gainsight CS
8.1
353 Ratings
6% below category average
Google Analytics
-
Ratings
NPS surveys8.6284 Ratings00 Ratings
Sponsor tracking7.4229 Ratings00 Ratings
Customer profiles8.5305 Ratings00 Ratings
Automated workflow8.2334 Ratings00 Ratings
Internal collaboration7.6320 Ratings00 Ratings
Customer health scoring8.5343 Ratings00 Ratings
Customer segmentation8.0293 Ratings00 Ratings
CSM Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of CSM Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Gainsight CS
7.9
347 Ratings
7% below category average
Google Analytics
-
Ratings
Customer health trends8.3326 Ratings00 Ratings
Engagement analytics8.2293 Ratings00 Ratings
Revenue forecasting6.7191 Ratings00 Ratings
Dashboards8.3344 Ratings00 Ratings
Web Analytics
Comparison of Web Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Gainsight CS
-
Ratings
Google Analytics
8.4
11 Ratings
4% above category average
Lead Conversion Tracking00 Ratings8.110 Ratings
Bounce Rate Measurement00 Ratings8.410 Ratings
Device and Browser Reporting00 Ratings9.211 Ratings
Pageview Tracking00 Ratings9.011 Ratings
Event Tracking00 Ratings8.311 Ratings
Reporting in real-time00 Ratings7.910 Ratings
Referral Source Tracking00 Ratings8.510 Ratings
Customizable Dashboards00 Ratings7.910 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Gainsight CSGoogle Analytics
Small Businesses
ChurnZero
ChurnZero
Score 8.1 out of 10
StatCounter
StatCounter
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
CustomerSuccessBox
CustomerSuccessBox
Score 9.5 out of 10
Siteimprove
Siteimprove
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Cisco Webex Experience Management (discontinued)
Cisco Webex Experience Management (discontinued)
Score 8.8 out of 10
Optimal
Optimal
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Gainsight CSGoogle Analytics
Likelihood to Recommend
8.9
(348 ratings)
8.5
(192 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.2
(20 ratings)
9.0
(51 ratings)
Usability
8.2
(138 ratings)
7.4
(19 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(2 ratings)
10.0
(4 ratings)
Performance
8.2
(2 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(134 ratings)
7.0
(42 ratings)
Online Training
9.1
(3 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Implementation Rating
6.3
(6 ratings)
9.0
(7 ratings)
Configurability
6.4
(1 ratings)
6.0
(2 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
6.4
(2 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
6.4
(1 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Gainsight CSGoogle Analytics
Likelihood to Recommend
Gainsight
I love using Gainsight CS for global collaboration, monitoring account health, digging into potential churn risks, summarizing account activity, logging account activity and having an overall historic record of account activity across multiple account teams, especially in my segment on a global account team.
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Google
Google Analytics is particularly well suited for tracking and analyzing customer behavior on a grocery e-commerce platform. It provides a wealth of information about customer behavior, including what products are most popular, what pages are visited the most, and where customers are coming from. This information can help the platform optimize its website for better customer engagement and conversion rates. However, Google Analytics may not be the best tool for more advanced, granular analysis of customer behavior, such as tracking individual customer journeys or understanding customer motivations. In these cases, it may be more appropriate to use additional tools or solutions that provide deeper insights into customer behavior.
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Pros
Gainsight
  • Ability to capture all customer information in one spot
  • Gantt charts for overall success plans to map out TAM deliverables
  • Automatically integrate feeds from sources to build reports as needed
  • Ability to capture customer follow-up tasks so I'm not trying to capture the list of actions too repetitively (e.g. using the "Tasks" section of an entry)
  • Ability to use the plugin to automatically add emails to timeline; ability to use calendar integration to automatically add meeting minutes that will sync up to Gong notes
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Google
  • Multiple reports to see website use and behavior
  • Allows you to customize reports with days, weeks, months, and years
  • You can build out a dashboard to easily view stats from multiple websites in one place
  • You can share analytics reports via the dashboard, automatically emailed PDFs or in other formats
Read full review
Cons
Gainsight
  • Outlook integration could be better as within Outlook we do not get much insight of the account. While contacting a contact from Outlook, it will be great if the Outlook -Gainsight CS tool can show certain important information, like any pending CTAs, the latest billing amount, and pending certifications, etc. This will improve the communications and make it more aligned with the company and account perspectives.
  • Limitations of report creation are user level - As a user I can not create report as per my wish on my set of accounts. Only the admin user has access to that, and also it's very intuitive compared to Salesforce.
  • Dashboard customization - as a user I have very much limited options to put in my dashboard. It's all about CTA all the time.
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Google
  • Data sampling is somewhat inaccurate on the free tier - this is addressed in premium but is expensive.
  • Some of the UI is very similar in naming when presenting different data, some in-situ information might be useful.
  • Gotchas around filtering and data validation.
  • Implementation can be tricky, it can take a lot of time and expertise to get a full, accurate picture of your metrics.
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Likelihood to Renew
Gainsight
Gainsight offers a level of support that I've not experience before. They will work with you to come up with a solution to a problem - or help match you with another client that has a similar setup as you to get their feedback. Also the functionality that we have built within the software works for us. It's 'easy' to use (once you get the hang of it) and our users rather enjoy working in the software.
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Google
We will continue to use Google Analytics for several reasons. It is free, which is a huge selling point. It houses all of our ecommerce stores' data, and though it can't account for refunds or fraud orders, gives us and our clients directional, real time information on individual and group store performance.
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Usability
Gainsight
Gainsight CS earns a 10/10 usability rating for me by prioritizing strategic power and deep configurability over simplistic, rigid design. Instead of forcing users into a generic workflow, the platform allows us to build bespoke health scores and playbooks that align perfectly with our unique business model. This high degree of customization ensures that the tool acts as a tailored workspace that meets the needs of mature CS organization like ours. By leveraging the proactive CTA triggers, Gainsight CS reduces the manual burden on our CSMs, allowing them to focus on high-value customer interactions rather than administrative data hunting. It ultimately functions as a professional grade cockpit that empowers our team to manage complex revenue lifecycles with precision and repeatability.
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Google
Google Analytics provides a wealth of data, down to minute levels. That is it's greatest detriment: find the right information when you need it can be a cumbersome task. You are able to create shortcuts, however, so it can mitigate some of this problem. Google is continually refining Analytics, so I do not doubt there will be improvements
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Reliability and Availability
Gainsight
Rarely any issues with availability or outages. When they do occur, there is excellent communication and consistent updates. Bugs are usually addressed in a timely manner, and communication around those issues is also extremely good
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Google
We all know Google is at top when it comes to availability. We have never faced any such instances where I can suggest otherwise. All you need is a Google account, a device and internet connection to use this super powerful tool for reporting and visualising your site data, traffic, events, etc. that too in real time.
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Performance
Gainsight
There are some times when it can take almost a minute to load some of our reports or the rules engine. Within a rule it can also take time to load the actions as they each load one at a time when scrolling. The ability to scroll without waiting would be ideal
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Google
This has been a catalyst for improving our site's traffic handling capabilities. We were able to identify exit% from our sites through it and we used recommendations to handle and implement the same in our sites. We have been increasing the usage of Google Analytics in our sites and never had any performance related issues if we used Analytics
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Support Rating
Gainsight
The CSMs are very hands-on and helpful, both Elaine and Lane have provided a lot of guidance and value over the years. Support is responsive and will jump on things as needed. The thought leadership and community is probably the most valuable part of our support from Gainsight.
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Google
The Google reps respond very quickly. However, sometimes they can overly call you to set up an apportionment. I'm very proficient and sometimes when I talk to reps, they give beginner tutorials and insights that are a waste of time. I wish Google would understand my level of expertise and assign me to a rep (long-term) that doesn't have to walk me through the basics.
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Online Training
Gainsight
The online videos are very good for basic tasks in the platform, but it isn't very descriptive or helpful trying to make your own specific variables fit the simple example that is typically used. Typically, I'll watch a video, try on my own and still have to get help from support or Customer Success team
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Google
love the product and training they provide for businesses of all sizes. The following list of links will help you get started with Google Analytics from setup to understanding what data is being presented by Google Analytics.
  1. How to Use Google Analytics for Beginners – Mahalo’s how-to guide for beginners.
  2. A beginner’s guide to Google Analytics – A free eBook walking you through Google Analytics from setup to understanding what data is being presented.
  3. Getting to Know Your Google Analytics Dashboard – The title says it all! This is a brief post with one goal: to introduce you to the Google Analytics dashboard.
  4. Google Analytics for Beginners: How to Make the Most of Your Traffic Reports– This guide doesn’t cover setup, but it does a great job of helping you to better understand the data being presented.
  5. Google Analytics Video Tutorial 1: Setup – A video presentation that walks you through Google Analytics setup.
  6. Google Analytics Video Tutorial 2: Essential Stats – A video presentation that introduces you to some of the most important data being presented in Google Analytics.
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Implementation Rating
Gainsight
I was not part of the implantation (I took over later). However, based on what was passed to me, the tool was not well implemented at our org. I think this had to do with complexity, wrong person assigned in our org, and org buy-in. I think it would have been very successful if we had a better assignment process internally.
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Google
I think my biggest take away from the Google Analytics implementation was that there needs to be a clear understanding of what you want to achieve and how you want to achieve it before you start. Originally the analytics were added to track visitors, but as we became more savvy with the product, we began adding more and more functionality, and defining guidelines as we went along. While not detrimental to our success, this lack of an overarching goal resulted in some minor setbacks in implementation and the collection of some messy data that is unusable.
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Alternatives Considered
Gainsight
They're pretty neck and neck. Both are super similar. I love the icons for logging account activity in Totango. I also like the dropdown activity tab we have in Gainsight. We need to improve our auto forms for QBR notes and cancellation notes, but I do like that we can have details listed for the CSM to fill out without them having to think about it. Helps us improve our reporting efforts, too.
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Google
I have not used Adobe Analytics as much, but I know they offer something called customer journey analytics, which we are evaluating now. I have used Semrush, and I find them much better than Google Analytics. I feel a fairly nontechnical person could learn Semrush in about a month. They also offer features like competitive analysis (on content, keywords, traffic, etc.), which is very useful. If you have to choose one among Semrush and Google Analytics, I would say go for Semrush.
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Scalability
Gainsight
It can lean a little heavily toward Customer Success, but the ability to customize many areas based on specific user or account characteristics allows you to make it work across many different roles. This also makes collaboration within the tool across teams possible. It a flexible tool if you have a skilled admin to help guide your process building.
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Google
Google Analytics is currently handling the reporting and tracking of near about 80 sites in our project. And I am not talking about the sites from different projects. They may have way more accounts than that. Never ever felt a performance issue from Google's end while generating or customising reports or tracking custom events or creating custom dimensions
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Return on Investment
Gainsight
  • No metrics yet, but we have improved our at-risk customers by identifying risks earlier via our automated health score and with our Gainsight approved mitigation workflow, CSMs and leaders have better discipline with mitigation efforts and sharing at-risk customers across the org so other teams can step in and assist
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Google
  • It has helped us gain understanding of what is going on on our website.
  • It has helped us determine areas that need fixing (i.e. pages with extremely high bounce rates may need to be redone).
  • It has helped us understand our biggest avenues for bringing traffic to the website and business in general.
  • It has helped guide our website redesign.
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ScreenShots

Gainsight CS Screenshots

Screenshot of the Journey Orchestrator, used to build personalized, scalable customer journeys with lifecycle-based emails, playbooks, and triggered workflows, so no customer slips through the cracks.Screenshot of an AI Cheat Sheet. These offer AI-generated summaries, suggestions, and insights tailored to each account—so CSMs spend less time analyzing, and more time acting.Screenshot of AI Scorecards. These are used to analyze renewal and churn data to recommend new measures, refine weights, and create high-impact scorecards (or refine existing ones), to forecast with more precision and act with confidence.Screenshot of Success Plans, where users can create clear, outcome-based plans with customers—then track progress, assign owners, and show stakeholders exactly how value is being driven.Screenshot of Gainsight Home, which provides one place for customer success teams to prioritize, act, and prove impact—powered by real-time insights, AI signals, and workflows designed to drive retention and expansion.Screenshot of Customer 360. This interface brings together usage data, health scores, playbooks, and account details into one unified view.