ChurnZero is one of the more well-known customer success platforms on the market today. They are generally highly rated and talked about in the community. And it’s well deserved! You can do a lot with the platform by using its extensive feature set.
This being said, it is not meant for everyone. ChurnZero is not the most budget-friendly option, the implementation is complex and the UI is not keeping up with newer tools.
Here’s an overview of ChurnZero's competitors & alternatives, with brief comparisons to help you decide where to look next.
3 reasons to look for an alternative to ChurnZero
1. Clunky outdated UI
One of the biggest complaints from ChurnZero users seems to be the outdated UI. As one of the more mature tools in the market, they've fallen behind in this aspect. It means that it's less appealing to use, less intuitive, and increases adoption time for teams.
2. Complexity
ChurnZero is a complex platform with a lot of features, which can make it overwhelming for some users. It may take time for teams to fully understand and utilize all the features of the platform.
ChurnZero's implementation process can also be time-consuming and require significant resources, including technical expertise and dedicated staff. This may be challenging for some businesses, especially for those with limited technical resources.
3. Pricing is high, and scales up fast
ChurnZero can feel expensive, especially if you don't need all the features. Furthermore -- pricing based on user seats means that the cost will increase as you grow. There are some alternatives which include unlimited user seats on all plans.
Here are the 8 best alternatives to ChurnZero:
- Gainsight
- Catalyst
- Planhat
- Totango
- Vitally
- Custify
- SmartKarrot
- CustomerSuccess Box
1. Planhat
Pricing model: Three different plans: Basic, Professional, and Enterprise. No exact price is available, though all plans come with unlimited users. Learn more here.
Key features
Planhat offers a robust set of features and components that businesses can use to manage and optimize their customer success efforts. Its focus on automated workflows, communication tools, and account intelligence makes it a solid choice for businesses that want to improve their customer experience and reduce churn.
The tool has everything you might need, similar to ChurnZero. From customer health scores, and automated workflows to account intelligence and different communication tools. In addition to that, Planhat has a separate feature for high-touch Customer Success which allows you to handle all tasks related to your high-touch customer experience.
Something worth noting is that users appreciate the user-friendly interface. The learning curve isn’t as complicated compared to other platforms which should also shorten the time for adoption. They also have a very highly praised Support team available who are able to make the onboarding process even easier.
Planhat offers a large variety of native integrations for well-known platforms, like Intercom, Salesforce, Hubspot, Zendesk. However, it does not currently offer integrations with payment processors like Stripe or Chargebee.
Planhat vs ChurnZero
See full Planhat vs ChurnZero comparison here.
- Planhat has an intuitive interface which makes the tool very user-friendly
- Planhat does not have a feature for task management. ChurnZero does.
- Planhat supports high-touch Customer Success. ChurnZero does not have any specific features developed for this.
- It does not have native integrations with any payment platforms. ChurnZero does.
Learn more about Planhat & request a demo here.
2. Gainsight
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Pricing model: Two tailored plans: Essentials and Essentials Plus. Plus custom Enterprise plan. Request pricing information here.
Key features
Gainsight is one of the more well-known Customer Success platforms out there. Their tool is built to support the customer experience starting from Product to Customer Success.
The platform is capable of measuring the health of your customer by using health scores, predicting churn and potential expansion opportunities, onboarding new customers, and automating a series of different tasks and communication.
You can centralize all your data for each customer with the Customer 360 feature. This will enable you to understand the health of the account, detect potential threats, and set automatic playbooks to guide your customer through their journey.
The scorecards feature lets you build a personalized health score for each of your accounts by letting you combine different sources and use data. You can then use these health scores in your playbooks to create automated touchpoints or set notifications for yourself.
Something worth knowing is that the tool has just recently given a makeover to the entire platform to make it easier to adopt and admin. This is one positive side to the fact that Gainsight is known to have a long adoption period and has usually needed a lot of admin power to keep it running.
Gainsight vs ChurnZero
- Gainsight requires more administration vs. ChurnZero
- Gainsight has a more modern UI compared to ChurnZero
- ChurnZero offers survey options (NPS, CSAT, CES), Gainsight CS does not (Gainsight PX product is required too).
Learn more about Gainsight & request a demo here.
See also: Gainsight alternatives.
3. Catalyst
Pricing model: Base platform free + accounts. Request pricing information here.
Key features
Catalyst is a customer success platform that is designed to be a lighter-weight solution, similar to Vitally. While it may have fewer features and a lower level of complexity, it still provides the essential functionalities that most small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) need to manage their Customer Success efforts effectively.
Some of the key components of Catalyst include:
- Custom dashboards: These allow teams to track the metrics and KPIs that matter most to their business and get a real-time view of their performance.
- Account health overview: This feature provides a comprehensive view of the health and status of each account, enabling teams to identify and address potential issues proactively.
- Playbooks: These are pre-built workflows that guide teams through common customer success scenarios, such as onboarding new customers, upselling existing customers, and handling customer issues.
- Journey Builder: This feature allows teams to map out the customer journey and create personalized experiences for customers based on their unique needs and behaviors.
One of the key benefits of Catalyst is its ease of implementation. With a user-friendly interface and a relatively simple setup process, teams can quickly get up and running with the platform. It’s also been said that the Catalyst support team is very hands-on with their customers which is a benefit that not a lot of platforms offer.
One of the downsides to the product is the lack of integrations available. Even though more well-known players are available, like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Slack, all other platforms have to be integrated with their open API which can make the integration flow more complicated.
Catalyst vs ChurnZero
- Fewer native integrations available vs ChurnZero
- Easier implementation and adoption vs ChurnZero
- Smaller feature set compared to ChurnZero
- Catalyst is more suitable for small to medium-sized businesses
Learn more about Catalyst & request a demo here.
4. Totango
Pricing model: Four different plans available:
- Community: free up to 100 accounts
- Starter: starting from $249/month
- Growth: starting from $1099/month
- Enterprise: custom pricing
All prices are based on annual contracts. Learn more here.
Key features
Totango is a customer success platform that helps businesses drive customer adoption, retention, and expansion. Similar to ChurnZero, it has an extensive feature set to support your Customer Success efforts.
Totango provides a comprehensive view of each customer's account, including key metrics such as product usage, engagement, and sentiment. You can use Customer Health Scores to identify at-risk customers and prioritize outreach efforts.
You can create and automate workflows to streamline your processes and use the wide range of communication tools available to be more proactive. The tool also has a variety of reporting and analytics tools that allow businesses to track key metrics and KPIs related to customer success.
On the downside, Totango has a steep learning curve when it comes to setup and adoption but also customization. The extensive feature set might be confusing and choosing the necessary features difficult. Some users have also reported issues with the quality of Totango's customer support, including slow response times and difficulty resolving technical issues.
Totango offers integrations with CRMs, marketing automation platforms, and analytics tools like Intercom, Hubspot, Salesforce and many more.
Totango vs ChurnZero
- Totango's pricing is based on the number of active users or accounts, while ChurnZero's pricing is based on the number of customers and the specific features.
- ChurnZero is more user-friendly than Totango
- ChurnZero’s customer service is more highly rated than Totango’s
- Totango has a lower entry-price which is especially helpful for small businesses
Learn more about Totango & request a demo here.
5. Vitally
Pricing model: Three available plans based on your CS approach:
- Tech-touch
- Hybrid-touch
- High-touch
Pricing comes down to the number of customers & user seats. Learn more here.
Key features
Vitally similar to Catalyst is a powerful but more lightweight customer success platform that offers a range of features to help businesses drive customer adoption, retention, and expansion.
It is designed to be highly customizable and has all the necessary features you might want: health scores, automated playbooks, customizable dashboards, extensive insights, and an easily programmable NPS survey. It also has a project management tool that you can use for its meant purpose and for mapping out customer journeys. And, a dedicated workspace called Docs that allows you to collaborate with your customers.
Vitally is more flexible with its Sales process and pricing. Even though both platforms have hidden their pricing, ChurnZero is considered more expensive with no free trial option available. The team at Vitally is super friendly and more flexible with also offering time to test out the platform.
The variety of native integrations is higher for ChurnZero, however, you still have the ability to use their REST API to integrate whichever tool you’d like. The integration process is quite easy as well so there is no huge need for dev power.
Vitally vs ChurnZero
See a full ChurnZero vs Vitally comparison here.
- ChurnZero has In-App Messaging available. Vitally doesn’t (without an Intercom integration).
- Vitally’s interface is very user-friendly and requires less adoption time than ChurnZero.
- ChurnZero has more native integrations available overall than Vitally
- Vitally is more affordable vs ChurnZero, and pricing scales better
Learn more about Vitally & request a demo here.
6. Custify
Pricing model: Prices are based on the number of accounts. Learn more here.
Key features
Similarly to ChurnZero, Custify offers a wide range of features to help businesses increase customer retention and revenue. It covers all the basics you might want: customer health scores, playbooks, customer segmentation, custom dashboard and insights, and surveys.
Custify is more geared towards smaller businesses. Especially as their pricing is more set up based on the number of customers, it’s a more cost-effective solution if you need to keep your headcount low.
Custify and ChurnZero both have user-friendly interfaces, but ChurnZero's interface is more visually appealing and easier to navigate. Though the users of the tool are very happy with the tool and its capabilities however there are quite a few reviews on the tool being buggy.
The selection of native integrations isn’t as large as ChurnZero’s but they still have the more well-known platform available, like Intercom, Stripe, Salesforce, and more.
Custify vs ChurnZero
- Custify is more budget-friendly compared to ChurnZero
- Less native integrations available vs ChurnZero
- Custify has a highly engaged customer service team
Learn more about Custify & request a demo here.
7. SmartKarrot
Pricing model: Three different plans: Growth, Pro, and Enterprise. Price varies between supported products and integrations, though all plans come with unlimited users and customers. Learn more here.
Key features
SmartKarrot is a powerful tool with all the necessary features you would need. They cover all the basics:
- Health Scoring
- Playbooks
- Segmentation
- Customer 360 view
- Surveys
- Customizable Dashboards
The major thing that sets them apart is SmartKonversations which is an exclusive digital offering that stores and reviews customer conversations, and offers automated transcription, phrase detection, and customer emotion analysis.
They offer a variety of integrations with tools like Salesforce, Zendesk, Intercom and Stripe. There isn’t a public list of integrations available but according to some users, they are also constantly building out new native integrations.
The setup and adoption period for the tools is quite long. However, the interface is said to be very user-friendly and the tool is easy to use on an everyday basis.
SmartKarrot vs ChurnZero
- Easier set up compared to ChurnZero
- Newer tool on the market compared to ChurnZero
- SmartKonversations is a unique offer that ChurnZero doesn’t have.
- Flexible pricing plans
Learn more about SmartKarrot & request a demo here.
8. CustomerSuccessBox
Pricing model: Four available plans: Tech Touch, High Touch, Enterprise, and CS Intelligence. Request pricing information here.
Key features
The tool, as with all others, includes all the basic features you’d want: from customer health scores, and segmentation to a variety of automations and insights. The biggest difference is that CSB uses AI and machine learning to improve your customer success efforts.
For example, the AI can identify patterns that are indicative of churn risk and retention likelihood. Using this data, the platform can assign a retention probability score to individual accounts, which indicates the likelihood of retaining that account. This can help customer success teams prioritize their efforts and focus on the accounts that are most at risk of churning.
As CustomerSuccessBox is also very focused on all kinds of automations, the tool is great for scaling up your CS efforts.
The tool has a good variety of native integrations available and most of the well-known names are represented. Something interesting is that CustomerSuccessBox offers to integrate all your data itself so you wouldn’t need to use any dev power.
CustomerSuccessBox vs ChurnZero
- Easier setup and lower administration efforts vs ChurnZero
- The use of AI and machine learning can help scale your CS efforts quicker
- ChurnZero has a more extensive feature set than CustomerSuccessBox
Learn more about CustomerSuccessBox & request a demo here.