Gainsight CS vs. Salesforce Experience Cloud

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
Salesforce Experience Cloud
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Salesforce Marketing Cloud Engagement (formerly Salesforce Experience Cloud or Salesforce Community Cloud) is an online forum powered by Salesforce that enables businesses to connect with their employees, customers, partner organizations, and prospects. Designed to help facilitate communication and information sharing, customers can ask questions and request help, administrators can integrate data from third-party apps, and employees can collaborate across projects and…N/A
Pricing
Gainsight CSSalesforce Experience Cloud
Editions & Modules
Subscription
$2,500
Per Company Per Month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Gainsight CSSalesforce Experience Cloud
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Gainsight CSSalesforce Experience Cloud
Considered Both Products
Gainsight CS
Chose Gainsight CS
It’s emailing tool isn’t as robust as outreach.
Chose Gainsight CS
Totango seemed like it was much more difficult to integrate with our application. The data we received from it was not accurate. Gainsight has been a much better experience.
Chose Gainsight CS
We are a SFDC customer, so it was a much more natural fit than the other choices. Gainsight, at the time, appears to have a larger part of the CSM market space/leader. They seem to be 6-9 months ahead of the other tools / companies in terms of maturity.
Chose Gainsight CS
I didn't select, I just use it.
Salesforce Experience Cloud
Chose Salesforce Experience Cloud
I have used Oracle Fusion and it was super slow if compared to Salesforce. The loading time was longer and information was not organized in a simple way like Salesforce. Even though I haven't participated in the decision process of subscribing to Salesforce, as an employee I …
Chose Salesforce Experience Cloud
Salesforce Community Cloud was purchased by the company and I was not a decision-maker or involved in the implementation process. Simply a user.
Features
Gainsight CSSalesforce Experience Cloud
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Gainsight CS
8.2
283 Ratings
6% below category average
Salesforce Experience Cloud
-
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
Salesforce Experience Cloud
-
Ratings
API7.9222 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Salesforce.com8.5325 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Marketo7.977 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with Eloqua8.139 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
Salesforce Experience Cloud
-
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
Salesforce Experience Cloud
-
Ratings
NPS surveys8.5284 Ratings00 Ratings
Sponsor tracking7.3229 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
7.8
347 Ratings
8% below category average
Salesforce Experience Cloud
-
Ratings
Customer health trends8.2326 Ratings00 Ratings
Engagement analytics8.2293 Ratings00 Ratings
Revenue forecasting6.7191 Ratings00 Ratings
Dashboards8.3344 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Gainsight CSSalesforce Experience Cloud
Small Businesses
ChurnZero
ChurnZero
Score 8.0 out of 10
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Square 9 Softworks
Score 9.7 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
CustomerSuccessBox
CustomerSuccessBox
Score 9.5 out of 10
MediaValet
MediaValet
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Cisco Webex Experience Management (discontinued)
Cisco Webex Experience Management (discontinued)
Score 8.8 out of 10
MediaValet
MediaValet
Score 9.0 out of 10
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User Ratings
Gainsight CSSalesforce Experience Cloud
Likelihood to Recommend
8.9
(347 ratings)
8.8
(71 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.2
(20 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Usability
8.2
(138 ratings)
8.1
(15 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.2
(2 ratings)
9.1
(5 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(134 ratings)
8.0
(18 ratings)
Online Training
9.1
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
6.3
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
6.4
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
9.4
(4 ratings)
Product Scalability
6.4
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
6.4
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Gainsight CSSalesforce Experience Cloud
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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Salesforce
For well-suited, this product is great for your external clientele groups that you would not necessarily want to have a high user fee rate for. So basically general public or a group that will be authorized to come in and just do a few things here and there, but you don't necessarily want them access to all of your systems and your data points for groups that it would not be a great use for. I'd say probably your high level internal staff, they're going to be using a lot of the backend functionality automations, evaluating data, managing data, and doing custom inputs. That's just not what's intended for.
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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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Salesforce
  • Easy to use, just like Salesforce's other products. Many users can sit down and figure it out in no time, and with a little training become power users.
  • Fast and secure - Salesforce is a leader in the cloud world so you get consistently fast results and security that is top notch in the industry.
  • Accessible from anywhere - if you use cloud CMS already this is a no-brainer, but for those that do in-house CMS still, this is a major difference. Mobile access from anywhere on the planet without a VPN is something you just can't do without the cloud.
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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Salesforce
  • Unlike other CMS platforms like Wordpress and Adobe Experience Manager, Salesforce does not provide a fully featured editor with a drag-and-drop design tool.
  • Our content creators and marketing team often struggle with permissions and how to distribute content across different experience cloud sites.
  • Also, there is no side-to-side comparison view for content editors to update the content easily.
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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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Salesforce
Renewal exercise is already underway. Platform is to ubiquitous to not leverage, especially at a Fortune 50 firm
Read full review
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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Salesforce
Strengths: - Intuitive for Salesforce Users – If you’re already working within the Salesforce ecosystem, the Salesforce CMS is easy to navigate, with a clean UI, drag-and-drop content management, and reusable assets for quick updates. - Seamless Integration – Since it connects natively with Experience Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and CRM, it allows for efficient multi-channel content distribution without needing extra third-party tools. - AI-Powered Personalization – The ability to deliver dynamic content based on user profiles and engagement data is a huge plus, making content delivery more relevant and impactful. Challenges: - Learning Curve for New Users – If you're not already familiar with Salesforce, the interface can feel overwhelming, requiring training to fully leverage all features. - Limited Customization & Workflow Automation – While it works well for structured content, advanced approval workflows and deep editorial customization are limited compared to enterprise CMS platforms like Adobe Experience Manager. - Media & Design Limitations – Salesforce CMS is not as robust for managing rich media-heavy content, which can be frustrating for teams needing more flexibility in multimedia presentation.
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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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Salesforce
No answers on this topic
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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Salesforce
Again, since we provide and recommend solutions, I can't speak to every client's individual experience, but can offer general reflections as to keep their collaborations private, that they are satisfied with the experience. We hear a lot about how this system helps to encourage collaborations between their own business partners, customers, and internal members, and enables quality integrations with other products that help drive revenue.
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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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Salesforce
Although support from Salesforce itself can be quite unresponsive sometimes, the community hub is incredibly helpful. The large user base of Salesforce products contribute to troubleshooting and the forums are a powerful tool for finding solutions and possible bugs and response times can be quite fast compared to your regular support channels.
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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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Salesforce
No answers on this topic
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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Salesforce
No answers on this topic
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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Salesforce
Salesforce Experience Cloud was selected due to its tight integration with our existing Salesforce CRM platform. Customization of the portal was much, much simpler compared to Sharepoint - especially with role-based security parameters that are ultimately inherited based on attributes within the Salesforce CRM platform. Salesforce Experience Cloud was a natural fit for this customer-facing purpose.
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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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Salesforce
No answers on this topic
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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Salesforce
  • Time savings for our customer success team - no need to continually follow up on tickets as customers have access to see status themselves
  • In the future, it will also allow us to create more impactful knowledge articles that will increase self-service over ticket creation
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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.