Retention has become the number most SaaS boards ask about first, and that has turned customer success software from a nice-to-have into core revenue infrastructure. The category now spans enterprise platforms with AI agents, lighter tools for small CS teams and specialist products that stop cancellations at the moment they happen. This list is written for heads of customer success, CS operations leaders and SaaS founders comparing tools to track account health, run playbooks and protect renewals. It covers software only, not customer success consultancies or outsourced CSM services.
To build the list, we reviewed each vendor’s own website for its current product scope, health scoring and automation features, published pricing approach, named customers and AI capabilities. Products without a clear, live customer success offering were left out, as were platforms in the middle of a rebrand where the current product scope was unclear. Each entry notes who the tool fits best, since a 3-person CS team and a 200-person post-sales organization need very different software. Rankings reflect that review, not payment.
Best Customer Success Software In 2026
| Tool | Best For | Pricing Model | Key Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gainsight | Large, mature CS organizations | Two editions, pricing on request | Health scorecards, playbooks, Staircase AI, Atlas AI agents |
| ChurnZero | Mid-market SaaS teams wanting AI agents built in | Contact sales | ChurnScore, Kit assistant, 20 named AI agents, journeys |
| Planhat | Teams merging CS, account management and services | Quote-based with add-ons | Pi AI agent, customer platform, CRM and PSA tracks |
| Vitally | Collaborative CS teams at growth-stage SaaS | Three plans by touch model, pricing on request | Dynamic health scores, docs, projects, Quin AI |
| Velaris | AI-native CS for mid-market and enterprise B2B | Single license with 5 users, custom estimate | Health scores, AI agents, churn prediction, success plans |
| ClientSuccess | SMB and mid-market teams wanting a simple rollout | Quote by CSM count and modules | SuccessScore, renewal management, SmartCS AI co-pilot |
| HubSpot Service Hub | Companies already running on HubSpot CRM | Included in Service Hub Professional and Enterprise | Customer success workspace, health scores, alerts |
| SmartKarrot | Teams wanting unlimited users or outcome-based pricing | From $15,000 per year, user or outcome based | Health scores, early warning system, SmartAssist |
| Akita | Small CS teams on a budget | From $49 per month | Health scores, playbooks, segmentation, alerts |
| Churnkey | Subscription businesses fighting cancellations | From $250 per month, priced by churn volume | Cancel flows, payment recovery, predictive churn scoring |
1. Gainsight
Gainsight was founded in 2009 and is based in San Francisco. Nick Mehta became CEO in 2013, and the company reports more than 1,200 employees and around 20,000 customers across its products. Its leaders also co-wrote the 2016 book Customer Success, which helped define the discipline the software now serves.
Gainsight has grown from a single customer success platform into a broader customer platform. Staircase AI turns customer signals into scored risk and recommended actions, Atlas AI agents cover long-tail accounts, and Skilljar, Customer Communities and Product Experience add education, forums and in-app guidance. Gainsight CS comes in an Essentials edition with 10 full users and an Enterprise edition with 20, both with unlimited viewers. Named customers include DocuSign, Figma, Notion, Sonos, Zendesk and Acquia, which reports a 12-point increase in renewals.
Key features: Customer 360, health scorecards, playbooks and success plans, digital journeys, surveys, renewal and expansion forecasting, sponsor tracking, Staircase AI risk scoring, Atlas AI agents, Agent Studio.
2. ChurnZero
ChurnZero positions itself as AI customer growth software for subscription businesses, and it has pushed further into agents than most rivals. Its Kit assistant answers account questions and takes actions, and the platform lists 20 named agents, including Harbinger for relationship risk, Beacon for buying intent, Retrospective for churn notes and Baton and Liftoff for handoffs from sales and implementation into CS.
Under the AI layer sits a full customer success platform: ChurnScore health scoring, plays and automation, a customer journey builder, in-app communications, renewal forecasting and surveys. Integrations cover Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Gong, Zendesk, Stripe and Snowflake. ChurnZero also publishes an annual Customer Revenue Leadership Study, now in its seventh year, which is useful benchmarking for CS leaders building a business case.
Key features: ChurnScore health scoring, Kit AI assistant, 20 AI agents, plays and automation, customer journeys, in-app messaging, renewal forecasting, surveys, professional services.
3. Planhat
Planhat describes its product as a modern customer platform and has broadened from customer success into a wider commercial system. Pricing is quote-based across three tracks, a CRM, a customer success platform and professional services automation, with add-ons for an upgraded AI platform, advanced service, email marketing and portals. Planhat says it was named a world leader by Gartner and IDC MarketScape in 2024.
Its newest piece is Pi, which Planhat calls a multiplayer customer agent. Pi draws on conversations, tickets, product usage and revenue data to work across renewals, customer success, services and sales, and it can either migrate commercial data or run alongside Salesforce or HubSpot with two-way sync. Customers shown on its site include Wiz, Nasdaq, Dropbox, DigitalOcean, Synthesia, Trustpilot and Instacart. It suits companies that want CS, account management and services in one data model.
Key features: Pi AI agent, unified customer data, project management, dashboards and metrics, templated and advanced automations, customer portals, documents and presentations, open API, audit logs.
4. Vitally
Vitally was founded by Jamie Davidson, its CEO, and Patrick Vatterott, its CTO. The company is remote-first, with staff in the US and London and an office in New York, and says more than 600 customer success teams use the platform. Customers include Zapier, Gorgias, Pleo, Productboard, Mixpanel and Tines.
Vitally stands out for collaboration. Docs, projects and notes sit next to account data, so onboarding plans and QBR decks live where the health score does. Its Quin AI assistant drafts emails, captures meeting notes, creates tasks and updates CRM fields. Pricing is organized around how you run CS, with Tech-Touch, Hybrid-Touch and High-Touch plans, and every plan includes unlimited automations, unlimited observer seats and SSO. Navattic reports a 20% drop in monthly churn after moving renewals into Vitally.
Key features: dynamic health scores, collaborative docs, project management, Quin AI assistant, AI meeting notes, playbooks, NPS and surveys, reporting, integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, Gong, Zendesk and Stripe.
5. Velaris
Velaris was founded in 2021 in London by Dilanka Kalutota, its CEO, and José Fernández-Castaño. It describes itself as an AI-native customer success platform for mid-market and enterprise B2B SaaS teams, and says it was the only vendor named a Visionary in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Customer Success Platforms. It holds SOC 2 and ISO certifications.
Velaris builds an AI knowledge graph of each customer, then runs agents on top of it that monitor risk, prepare daily briefings, summarize meetings, plan accounts and manage renewals, with approvals for sensitive tasks. Pricing is unusually simple: one license with five users and unlimited viewers covers the View, Analyze, Orchestrate and Execute modules. Onboarding includes a forward deployed engineer who migrates data and configures integrations. Customers include Uberall, Airship, Lokalise and Pax8.
Key features: health scores, AI churn and expansion prediction, AI sentiment scores, AI agents with approvals, success plans, playbooks, automations and email campaigns, 70+ integrations, MCP connectors.
6. ClientSuccess
ClientSuccess says more than 500 CS teams use its platform, and it focuses on getting small and mid-sized teams running quickly. Its SuccessScore health score draws on usage, adoption, feedback, engagement and sentiment, and it is paired with renewal management that tracks retention and growth rates. Customers named on its site include ShipHero, CampMinder, Corsearch and Learn to Win.
Pricing depends on the number of CSMs and the modules you choose, with Startup, Growth and Enterprise plans and no setup or implementation fees. Instead of a self-serve trial, the company runs a proof of concept on your own data. Its SmartCS AI co-pilot handles automated customer communications, and an MCP server lets teams query customer data through an AI assistant. It suits teams that want a capable customer health score tool without a long implementation.
Key features: SuccessScore health scoring, Client 360, renewal management, playbooks and automations, customer goals, SmartCS AI co-pilot, meeting intelligence, onboarding portals, MCP server.
7. HubSpot Service Hub
For companies already running sales and marketing on HubSpot, the customer success workspace inside Service Hub removes the need for a separate tool. It gives CSMs a central place to manage daily tasks, monitor activity on key accounts and track records they own, all on the same CRM data the sales team uses.
Health scores grade customers against your own criteria, and summaries show the share of accounts that are at risk, neutral or healthy, with alerts when a customer’s status changes. According to HubSpot’s documentation, the workspace requires Service Hub Professional or Enterprise, and some health score reporting is limited to Enterprise. It is less deep than a dedicated customer success platform, but the shared data model is a real advantage for smaller teams.
Key features: customer success workspace, health scores and status alerts, task reminders, account activity feeds, project and revenue pipeline views, reporting and dashboards.
8. SmartKarrot
SmartKarrot is a customer success and account management platform built around configurable health scores and an early warning system. Its SmartAssist virtual assistant supports CSMs, SmartKonversations transcribes calls and flags key phrases, and SmartOps surfaces revenue, risk, engagement and adoption intelligence. Lexipol and Nuqleous are among the customers quoted on its site.
The pricing approach is what sets it apart. SmartKarrot offers user-based or outcome-based pricing, and its Basic plan starts at $15,000 a year for five users, with Growth, Pro and Enterprise plans quoted by sales. Its site also promotes unlimited users so anyone in the company can see customer data. That makes it worth a look for teams that want customer success costs tied to results.
Key features: customer health scores, early warning system, SmartPlaybooks, dynamic segmentation, product analytics, call intelligence, NPS, onboarding, retention and churn management.
9. Akita
Akita is one of the few customer success tools with fully published pricing. The Small Teams plan costs $49 a month with two integrations and two full-access users, Growing Teams costs $99 a month, and Enterprise Teams costs $499 a month with custom integration work and a dedicated success engineer. Plans are month to month with no setup or cancellation fees, and annual prepayment saves 20%.
The feature set covers the basics well: custom account and contact health scores, automated playbooks, segmentation, task management, dashboards and alerts for churn risk or upsell signals, with data pulled from more than 100 SaaS integrations. It suits early-stage SaaS companies that need structure for one or two CSMs before they can justify an enterprise contract.
Key features: customer health scores, automated playbooks, segmentation, 360-degree customer view, task management, personalized dashboards, churn and upsell alerts.
10. Churnkey
Churnkey is a different kind of churn reduction software. Rather than managing accounts through a CSM, it intervenes when a subscriber tries to cancel or a payment fails, using personalized cancel flows, pause and discount offers, exit surveys and dunning across email, SMS and in-app messages. Customers include Superhuman, VEED, Buildertrend and Gamma.
Pricing is tied to your monthly churned revenue rather than seats, starting at $250 a month billed yearly for teams under $5,000 in monthly churn volume, with a 14-day trial. Higher plans add A/B testing, AI adaptive offers and an account agent. Churnkey also offers predictive churn scoring and churn metrics, and says its State of Retention 2025 report analyzed more than $3B in subscription revenue. It suits B2C and PLG subscription businesses where most churn is self-serve.
Key features: cancel flows, subscription pauses, payment recovery and smart retries, dunning campaigns, predictive customer health, churn metrics, Feedback AI, open-source React SDK.
How To Choose The Right Customer Success Software
What Kind Of Churn Are You Fighting? High-touch B2B churn usually builds slowly through weak adoption and lost sponsors, which is where a customer success platform such as Gainsight, ChurnZero, Planhat or Velaris helps. Self-serve subscription churn happens in a single click, and tools like Churnkey work better there. Many companies need both. Map where revenue actually leaves before choosing a category, and use what you know about how SaaS buyers evaluate products to spot the early adoption signals worth tracking.
Can You Trust The Health Score? Customer health score tools are only as good as the data behind them. Check which signals a platform can ingest, such as product usage, support tickets, billing, meeting sentiment and survey responses, and how easily you can change weights. Ask for a back-test: would the score have flagged the accounts you lost last year? If not, refine the model before rolling it out.
Will It Fit Your CRM? Most CS teams live next to a CRM, so integration quality matters more than any single feature. Confirm two-way sync with Salesforce or HubSpot, how renewals and expansion opportunities flow back to sales, and who owns each field. If you are reconsidering your CRM at the same time, compare options in our guide to HubSpot alternatives before you commit to either system.
How Is Customer Data Protected? A customer success platform pulls product usage, contacts and conversation transcripts into one place, which raises the stakes on security. Ask vendors for a current SOC 2 report from the AICPA framework, data residency options and how AI features use your data. The NIST Privacy Framework is a useful checklist for deciding which customer data should flow into AI agents and which should stay out.
What Will It Really Cost? Pricing models differ widely: published monthly plans at Akita, churn-volume pricing at Churnkey, a single bundled license at Velaris, outcome-based options at SmartKarrot and quote-based editions at Gainsight and Planhat. Ask for a three-year total that includes implementation, integrations, extra seats and AI add-ons. Then run a pilot on a real renewal cohort and measure whether risk was flagged earlier than before.
Conclusion
The best customer success software depends on team size and how your customers churn. Gainsight remains the most complete option for large CS organizations, ChurnZero and Velaris lead on built-in AI agents, and Planhat suits companies that want CS, account management and services on one data model. Vitally is a strong pick for collaborative, growth-stage teams.
For smaller budgets and simpler needs, ClientSuccess, HubSpot Service Hub, SmartKarrot and Akita offer practical customer success platforms with faster rollouts and clearer pricing, while Churnkey covers self-serve subscription churn that a CSM never sees. Shortlist two or three, test the health score against last year’s losses and choose the tool your team will actually use every day.
If you want to add your company to this list, drop us a line or submit a form in the Best Choices section. After a thorough review, we’ll decide whether it’s an appropriate addition.
