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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Gainsight CS

    Score8.8 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

    Zendesk Suite

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/AZendesk is a customer support solution with built-in ticketing, conversational messaging, and live chat, designed to help businesses of all sizes and industries deliver personalized service at scale. Zendesk's AI agents are trained in CX to help Service teams resolve customer issues faster and more accurately while still providing a human-centered experience. Zendesk ultimately aims to help businesses improve time to value, reduce effort per ticket, and keep costs low.

    $69

    per month per agent

    Pricing
    Gainsight CSZendesk Suite
    Editions & Modules
    Subscription
    $2,500
    Per Company Per Month
    Suite Team
    $69
    per month per agent
    Suite Growth
    $115
    per month per agent
    Suite Professional
    $149
    per month per agent
    Suite Enterprise
    Contact Sales
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Gainsight CSZendesk Suite
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredOptional
    Additional Details20% discount available with annual pricing.
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Gainsight CSZendesk Suite
    Considered Both Products
    Gainsight
    Chose Gainsight CS
    Gainsight CS is beautiful and much more user friendly HOWEVER it does take more time to set up to have the desired impact than a software like ChurnZero.
    Incentivized
    Chose Gainsight CS
    Left Planhat because we outgrew it. Not able to bring in external data.
    Incentivized
    Chose Gainsight CS
    Very easy to use and customize.
    Incentivized
    Chose Gainsight CS
    We have used other products to serve our customers, but none have been as feature-rich as what Gainsight can provide. My experience is with well-known software as well as some in-house solutions that I even participated in designing. Some things are worth subscribing to, and …
    Incentivized
    Chose Gainsight CS
    There's really nothing like it that I've experienced, as this is one of my first positions within a Customer Success org. I've had quite a bit of experience in Adobe Creative Suite, and just how the features in those are complex, Gainsight has similar vibes-- that it takes a …
    Incentivized
    Chose Gainsight CS
    I have not used or evaluated any other products like Gainsight. In the past, I was using Wrike to store my client notes and use keep tabs on their onboarding process. I also synced my email to Salesforce so that the account managers could see my activity with customers. I know …
    Incentivized
    Chose Gainsight CS
    • Automated workflow is crucial
    • Automated and flexible health score is key
    • 360 view and ease of use are critical
    Incentivized
    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, …
    Incentivized
    Chose Gainsight CS
    I can't speak to how Gainsight measures up against competition. I was not part of the decision making process, nor have I seen demonstrations of the competitor tools.
    Incentivized
    Zendesk
    Chose Zendesk Suite
    Hands down winner. Not even a competition.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    98%
    Would buy again
    187 Answers
    87%
    Would buy again
    123 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    132 Answers
    85%
    Delivers good value for the price
    108 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    97%
    Happy with the feature set
    184 Answers
    92%
    Happy with the feature set
    131 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    95%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    93 Answers
    85%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    82 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    74%
    Implementation went as expected
    73 Answers
    85%
    Implementation went as expected
    94 Answers
    Features
    Gainsight CSZendesk Suite
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Gainsight CS and Zendesk Suite
    Feature
    Gainsight CS
    8.3
    294 Ratings
    3% below category average
    Zendesk Suite
    -
    Ratings
    Role-based user permissions8.3297 Ratings00 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Gainsight CS and Zendesk Suite
    Feature
    Gainsight CS
    8.1
    341 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Zendesk Suite
    -
    Ratings
    API8.0235 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with Salesforce.com8.5336 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with Marketo7.979 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with Eloqua8.039 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customer Data Extraction / Integration
    Comparison of Customer Data Extraction / Integration features of Gainsight CS and Zendesk Suite
    Feature
    Gainsight CS
    7.7
    362 Ratings
    13% below category average
    Zendesk Suite
    -
    Ratings
    Product usage7.8350 Ratings00 Ratings
    Help desk / support tickets7.5281 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customer Success Management
    Comparison of Customer Success Management features of Gainsight CS and Zendesk Suite
    Feature
    Gainsight CS
    8.1
    364 Ratings
    6% below category average
    Zendesk Suite
    -
    Ratings
    NPS surveys8.5297 Ratings00 Ratings
    Sponsor tracking7.3238 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customer profiles8.5317 Ratings00 Ratings
    Automated workflow8.2348 Ratings00 Ratings
    Internal collaboration7.6334 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customer health scoring8.5357 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customer segmentation8.1307 Ratings00 Ratings
    CSM Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of CSM Reporting & Analytics features of Gainsight CS and Zendesk Suite
    Feature
    Gainsight CS
    7.8
    358 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Zendesk Suite
    -
    Ratings
    Customer health trends8.3340 Ratings00 Ratings
    Engagement analytics8.1307 Ratings00 Ratings
    Revenue forecasting6.6203 Ratings00 Ratings
    Dashboards8.3358 Ratings00 Ratings
    Incident and problem management
    Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Gainsight CS and Zendesk Suite
    Feature
    Gainsight CS
    -
    Ratings
    Zendesk Suite
    8.6
    187 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings9.1186 Ratings
    Expert directory00 Ratings7.9127 Ratings
    Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings8.4130 Ratings
    ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings7.8131 Ratings
    Ticket creation and submission00 Ratings9.3186 Ratings
    Ticket response00 Ratings9.0185 Ratings
    Self Help Community
    Comparison of Self Help Community features of Gainsight CS and Zendesk Suite
    Feature
    Gainsight CS
    -
    Ratings
    Zendesk Suite
    8.5
    169 Ratings
    6% above category average
    External knowledge base00 Ratings8.5163 Ratings
    Internal knowledge base00 Ratings8.4156 Ratings
    Multi-Channel Help
    Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Gainsight CS and Zendesk Suite
    Feature
    Gainsight CS
    -
    Ratings
    Zendesk Suite
    8.4
    182 Ratings
    5% above category average
    Customer portal00 Ratings9.1150 Ratings
    IVR00 Ratings8.076 Ratings
    Social integration00 Ratings7.4119 Ratings
    Email support00 Ratings9.2178 Ratings
    Help Desk CRM integration00 Ratings8.4138 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Gainsight CSZendesk Suite
    Small Businesses
    ClientSuccess
    Score6 out of 10
    Help Scout
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    ChurnZero
    Score7.9 out of 10
    LiveAgent
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Front
    Score9.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Gainsight CSZendesk Suite
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.9
    (401 ratings)
    8.7
    (225 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.2
    (21 ratings)
    10.0
    (43 ratings)
    Usability
    8.3
    (197 ratings)
    8.6
    (98 ratings)
    Availability
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    9.1
    (14 ratings)
    Performance
    8.8
    (3 ratings)
    9.1
    (11 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.2
    (135 ratings)
    5.5
    (31 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    8.6
    (4 ratings)
    6.4
    (10 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.1
    (7 ratings)
    9.1
    (19 ratings)
    Configurability
    8.2
    (2 ratings)
    9.1
    (4 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.2
    (3 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Professional Services
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Gainsight CSZendesk Suite
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Gainsight
    I really enjoy using Gainsight CS because we can track our customers through their life cycles through our CSM/Implementation teams, Customer Community, and even our Academy! All of the information is in one spot for us to use and see. I would recommend this product (as well as CC & CE) for any SaaS company that needs visibility across all products and teams.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zendesk
    Zendesk is good for small teams where work is not passed along to internal teams or situations where escalations lead to further customer interactions and no further oversight is needed. It is weak as a product for larger and medium-sized companies, where processes are in place that are not aligned with its workflow, as it is a very rigid tool.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Gainsight
    • One source of truth for all things CS - managing day-to-day tasks.
    • Getting ahead of the risk by having a very detailed and evolving health score system. Gainsight's CSM was incredibly helpful in building our risk mitigation plan using the health score, sharing their best practices.
    • Having a mutually agreed upon Success Plan that you can share with the customer. It was also incredibly helpful with assigning other parties to take actions, along with due dates and reminders
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zendesk
    • Merging of the tickets with similar issues, it is easy to avoid confusion
    • Al global team somehow gets connected with different ways like Slack, with the Zendesk Suite which is so easier to highlight & the issue quickly
    • The best thing is that this tool gives you to send the message via chat-, email, call through the one single platform
    • Now AI has been added so it works good
    Incentivized
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zendesk
    • Is there a way for AEs and CSMs to be informed in a weekly summary of all their accounts and any tickets? Example: Disney submitted a ticket on XYZ. Google has an urgent issue on X still unresolved.
    • Is there a way for CSMs or AEs to have a Dashboard that's specific to their accounts instead of seeing all the tickets in the queue that are not relevant to them?
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zendesk
    Zendesk is an amazing tool for communicating with your customers easily. The communication tickets from sellers to us or from us to sellers are stored, and there are statuses used to make communication easy. We have internal conversations between departments, linked with useful software such as Zingtree, Talkdesk, and Webs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Gainsight
    Gainsight CSGainsight's usability is extremely intuitive. The dashboards are modular and the ability to click into each to learn more is helpful to gain visibility and strategizing where to prioritize time as a CSM. Logging activities is also extremely intuitive as is the CTA function. There is some confusion on "Where can I find..." if there are multiple dashboards so an internal AI tool to ask would be helpful as well.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zendesk
    Pros: The agent interface is sleek, contemporary, and relatively easy to learn compared to many other enterprise tools. For common tasks, admins are given point-and-click options- adding fields, modifying workflows, constructing macros. The knowledge base (Guide) editor is easy to use for non-developers. Drawbacks: Once you move past the initial things - complex automations, reporting/analytics in Explore, and/or customizations integrating the API, it requires much more advanced training to use successfully. Navigating between the different modules (Support, Explore, Chat, Guide) can feel very disconnected; often you are reminded that it really is a "suite" of products brought together -not really one unified platform. If you're using multiple brands managing simultaneous support tickets, or heavily customizing workflows to meet your brand, you may run into a bit of struggle with usability. So: it's a lot more user friendly than the palaces (Salesforce Service Cloud, ServiceNow), but is not used as quickly or with as much streamlined flow as a product made for a small shop. So if you are looking for a great balance, this is a good option if you are a net new organization or an organization on their way to scaling from 15 - 50 employee. Expect some elbow grease from the admin team once learning, adapting, and working efficiently once you move past the basics with your support tickets and initial customizations.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zendesk
    In the past year, I'd say I have only noticed maybe two hours total of downtime in my own usage. Very minimal.
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Zendesk
    There has been minor performance degradation on a very few days out of the two years I have been using the product.
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zendesk
    We rarely need to contact their support team, but when we do they are responsive. However there have been notable times when communication between myself and the support rep was challenging despite me providing clear explanation of the issue, screenshots, and a thorough explanation of the goal we hope to achieve. It took several back and forth attempt, on a few occasions, to get resolution on an otherwise simple request
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Zendesk
    Zendesk has tons of available material for training - videos, webinars, articles, etc. The only reason this is not a 10 is because it can be hard to figure out how to navigate to these things and find what you are looking for.
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
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    Zendesk
    I was very satisfied. They have a free trial for 30 days and I recommend you do that and use it. It is very easy to get started with the basics and the build on over time.

    The only thing technically complex was single sign-on and integration to Salesforce.com required some tweaks – otherwise setting up system was very easy
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Gainsight
    Gainsight CS and Vitally offer distinct strategic advantages depending on organizational maturity. We used Vitally for a year and it is pretty decent for mid-market teams requiring immediate agility. We just had a hard time getting our CSM's to adopt the tool. In contrast, Gainsight CS serves as a comprehensive System built for enterprise complexity. Its architectural depth allows for intricate data modeling and parent-child hierarchies, while its Bionic Rules engine provides professional-grade automation that handles nuanced triggers far beyond the capabilities of standard, trait-based systems.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zendesk
    At the time of evaluation, Dynamics had extremely limited knowledge and support capabilities. The UI is clunky, and reporting requires a deep understanding of the underlying data structure. Ongoing maintenance was costly and didn't provide a positive ROI in any sense of the term.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zendesk
    WHY we will use Zendesk in HR and PD internally
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zendesk
    • More than anything, provided a boost to our perceived professionalism. The portal is a massive improvement on email only support.
    • Workflow optimization via macros and automations has enhanced response times and raise our 'first call resolution' metric.
    • Speaking of metrics; having them at all! Before Zendesk Suite we were email only so had no insight into agent and vendor performance.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.

    Zendesk Suite Screenshots

    Screenshot of the Zendesk Agent WorkspaceScreenshot of Omnichannel MessagingScreenshot of Zendesk TicketingScreenshot of Bots powered by Zendesk AIScreenshot of Tone shift with Zendesk AIScreenshot of Zendesk ticketing side conversations