Best Customer Success Software

Scoring rules

How We Score Customer Success Software

Every platform gets our rating out of 10. Under it, each card shows what the facts show: seven categories, each scored out of 10 by the rules below. A vendor that doesn't publish a fact gets no points for it, and GainTrace is scored with the same rules as every other platform.

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The seven categories

CategoryHow points are earned (out of 10)
Go-live speed
  • 14 days or less: 10
  • 15 to 30 days: 8
  • 31 to 45 days: 6
  • 46 to 60 days: 4
  • Over 60 days: 2
  • Not published: 1

A range counts at its top end. When a vendor's own pages give different figures, or none, we use G2's reviewer average where we can read one, and otherwise the longest figure the vendor publishes.

Price and terms
  • Price on its own site: 3
  • Start without a sales call: 3
  • No required implementation fee: 2
  • No minimum annual term: 2
Seats
  • Every user free: 10
  • Viewers free, editors paid: 5
  • Every user paid, capped or not stated: 2
AI and MCP

MCP, up to 5

  • Official and generally available: 5
  • Beta, early access or connectors only: 2

AI, up to 5

  • Included: 5
  • Partly paid: 3
  • Paid add-on, credits, top plans only or beta: 2
Market presence

Gartner Magic Quadrant, 19 October 2026, up to 5

  • Leader: 5
  • In another quadrant: 3
  • Not named: 0

Years in market, up to 5

  • 10 or more: 5
  • 5 to 9: 3
  • 2 to 4: 2
  • Under 2: 1
Self-serve, no admin

Whether a team can sign up on its own and run the platform without a dedicated admin or a vendor-run setup. It draws on the start test and the upkeep test.

Integrations

The native integrations each platform lists on its own site.

How our rating works

Our rating is our overall view of each platform, out of 10. It weighs the seven fact scores and how good and easy to use each platform is, so it isn't a fixed formula, and two platforms with similar facts can get different ratings.

Scores by platform

PlatformOur ratingGo-live speedPrice and termsSeatsAI and MCPMarket presenceSelf-serve, no adminIntegrations
GainTrace8.810about 7 days10all four10every user free8MCP 5, AI partly paid 31not named, under 2 years104
Planhat8.22about 3 months2no required fee5viewers free7MCP 5, AI credits 210Leader, founded 201506
Vitally7.941.9 months0none of the four5observers free7MCP 5, AI in beta 26Niche Player, founded 201706
Custify7.78under 4 weeks2no setup fees2seats capped7MCP 5, AI credits 26Visionary, founded 201708
Velaris7.428 to 10 weeks0none of the four5viewers free7MCP connectors 2, AI included 56Visionary, founded 202108
Gainsight7.22about 5 months0none of the four5viewers free8MCP 5, AI partly paid 310Leader, founded 200908
ChurnZero7.02about 3 months0none of the four2not stated7MCP 5, AI add-on credits 210Leader, founded 201508
ClientSuccess6.764 to 6 weeks4no fees, monthly option2licences capped4MCP early access 2, AI add-on 25not named, founded 201456
Odie (formerly Totango)6.44about 8 weeks3price published10no seat pricing7MCP 5, AI tokens 25not named, founded 2010 as Totango06

Download the data (CSV)

Rules that keep it fair

  1. No published fact, no points. The one exception is go-live speed, where "not published" scores 1, since every platform goes live eventually.
  2. Announced isn't shipped. Gainsight's value-based pricing, planned for next year, doesn't count until it's live.
  3. A renamed company keeps its founding year. Odie counts from Totango's 2010.
  4. Not in the fact scores: review stars, customer counts or funding. How good and easy to use a platform is counts toward our rating, not toward the fact scores.
  5. A rule change applies to every platform. We re-score all nine and date the change below. A rule never changes to move one score.
  6. GainTrace scores 1 out of 10 on market presence. It's the newest platform here.

The tests on our team pages

Our team pages add checks the scores don't cover. Each uses one method, applied to all nine platforms:

  • Seat test: who gets billed when three people work in the tool and ten only look.
  • Commitment test: minimum term and billing options.
  • Start test: where each site's main "start", "try" or "get started" button actually goes, followed by hand.
  • Upkeep test: time to go live, and who runs the setup.
  • Data path test: native connectors to product-usage tools.
  • Growth test: what the price is based on, and any limits.
  • Hiring data: 2,288 post-sale job postings with a description, at 903 software companies. A role counts as CS Operations only if its title says customer success operations, CS Ops or CS systems, checked by hand.

Change notes