Best Gong Alternatives for Revenue Intelligence in 2025

What is Gong and why has it dominated revenue intelligence? [toc=Gong Market Dominance]

1. The rise of the "conversation tap":
Back in 2015, Gong burst onto the scene as the first platform to record, transcribe, and analyse every sales call at scale. It promised managers a crystal-clear "reality layer" on pipeline conversations, replacing gut feel with data-driven coaching and deal reviews. Within five years, Gong's trademark orange dashboards became synonymous with modern sales enablement and helped the company top $1 billion in valuation.

2. Traditional SaaS strengths… and limits:
Gong's suite eventually sprawled into three paid modules Conversational Intelligence (its original core), Forecast, and Engage. Yet all three share a pre-generative-AI architecture. Smart Trackers still hinge on keyword libraries; call analytics land 20–30 minutes after a meeting; and admins shoulder the work of tagging topics, exporting CSVs, and enforcing rep adoption. In practice, teams spend hours reviewing recordings and chasing CRM updates instead of selling.

3. The AI era exposes the cracks:
Today's revenue teams need insights in minutes, not overnight. Generative AI can summarise nuanced intent, map next steps, and surface risk signals automatically across calls, emails, and CRM objects. Buyers now expect their tools to act draft follow-ups, refresh pipeline data, even generate forecast commentary without leaning on overworked RevOps desks.

4. Why "good enough" is no longer good enough:
Gong's $250/user bundle forces companies to buy all three modules even if they only use call recording. Meanwhile, managers still juggle Clari spreadsheets for forecasting and Outreach for prospecting, doubling total cost of ownership. With spam filters crushing bulk email and AI reshaping every workflow, revenue leaders are asking whether a 2010-era SaaS stack can keep pace with 2025 quotas.

5. Setting the stage for alternatives:
If Gong showed the world how valuable conversational data could be, the next wave of platforms must do something with that data faster, cheaper, and across the full deal cycle. The remainder of this guide dives into six leading Gong alternatives beginning with the only generative-AI-native, agent-first platform built to replace three tools at once.

Best Gong alternatives at a glance : side-by-side comparison [toc=Alternatives Comparison]

At-a-Glance Shortlist

1. Oliv.ai – Best all-in-one AI revenue platform
2. Clari – Best pure forecasting suite
3. Salesloft – Best cadence-first engagement tool
4. Chorus.ai – Best ZoomInfo add-on recorder
5. Outreach – Best enterprise sequencing platform
6. Fireflies.ai – Best budget meeting recorder

Busy Sales Managers and RevOps leads rarely have time to dissect every vendor webpage. A concise list helps them orient instantly before studying the detailed table below.

Legacy comparison charts often treat every feature equally, masking the underlying maintenance costs of stitching multiple "best-of-breed" point tools together. In reality, pre-AI suites force teams to manage separate admin consoles, redundant data stores, and overlapping licences that balloon total cost of ownership.

Generative AI collapses functional silos. A single LLM backbone can deliver conversation insights, pipeline risk alerts, and personalised outreach from the same dataset—making the old "one tool per job" mindset obsolete. The shortlist above therefore focuses on platforms that either already combine pillars (Oliv.ai) or historically own one pillar very well (Clari for forecasts, Salesloft for cadences).

We built Oliv to sit at the top of every shortlist because its agent-first architecture spans all three revenue pillars—CI, forecasting, and engagement—without forcing bundle pricing or platform fees. That means leaders can run one 15-minute demo and evaluate end-to-end coverage instead of booking separate calls with three vendors.

*Representative 2025 production pricing.

Takeaway
If you need a single platform that records calls, predicts pipeline, and personalises outreach without separate licences or platform fees—Oliv.ai is the only AI-native option on the shortlist. Legacy stacks still shine in their original niches, but stitching them together now costs more in cash and admin hours than a modern agentic platform.

1) Oliv.ai - The AI-Native Revenue Engine

Oliv.ai is a generative-AI, agent-first platform that unifies conversation intelligence, forecasting, and sales engagement into one operating system. Instead of giving reps another dashboard to click through, Oliv deploys task-specific agents that do the work: logging CRM updates, prepping meetings, surfacing risk, and even drafting personalised outreach. The result is a single source of truth that accelerates deal velocity, boosts forecast confidence, and slashes tech-stack costs.

What Does It Do?

Oliv ingests every customer touchpoint—calls, emails, CRM fields, calendar data and runs it through a shared AI layer. From that core, four flagship agents spring into action.

• Meeting Assistant records calls, delivers a five-minute post-call summary, and auto-syncs notes to Salesforce.
• Prospector Agent performs deep account research, builds a bespoke value hypothesis, and writes hyper-personalised first-touch emails.
• Forecaster Agent produces weekly call, upside, commit, and best-case roll-ups with AI commentary—no spreadsheet consolidation required.
• CRM Manager detection-cleans duplicates, fills missing fields, and reconciles pipeline stages nightly.

Each agent is toggle-on, so RevOps can tailor the stack by role without paying for unused functionality.

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Key Features at a Glance

Pros & Cons

Pricing

Oliv breaks with bundled seat pricing:

• Starter ($19/user/month) – Unlimited recording, AI summaries, shareable links.
• Standard ($49) – Adds Meeting Assistant coaching, MEDDIC scoring, Slack alerts.
• Supreme ($89) – Unlocks Prospector + Forecaster.
  Most organisations land at ≈$120/user/month when layering Prospecting + CRM Manager, still ≤40% of a Gong + Clari stack and with no platform or onboarding fee. Existing Gong customers can switch recording to Oliv for $0 during migration.

Challenges Faced

Because Oliv was launched in 2023, it lacks the decade-old brand equity of Gong or Outreach. SEO authority is climbing but still trails incumbents, so some buyers discover Oliv only after a referral. In high-compliance verticals (finance, healthcare), CISOs may request deeper documentation on Oliv's fine-tuned LLM safeguards, extending security review cycles.

Bottom-Line Impact

Across 100+ deployments, customers report:

• 30% faster deal cycles (Meeting Assistant + Deal Driver remove back-office drag)
• 25% uplift in forecast accuracy (Forecaster Agent's unbiased AI commentary)
• 1,200 hours/year saved in data entry for a 50-rep team (CRM Manager automation)

For revenue leaders evaluating Gong alternatives, Oliv delivers the rare combo of deeper insights, lower licence spend, and less admin effort—all powered by agents that act instead of merely analyse.

2) Clari - Forecasting Specialist

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Clari emerged in 2012 as the definitive platform for roll-up forecasting and pipeline inspection, pioneering what became known as "revenue operations." Built in the pre-generative AI era, it automated the painful spreadsheet consolidation process that plagued sales leadership and became the gold standard for forecast accuracy across mid-market and enterprise teams. Today, Clari remains the dominant choice for CROs who prioritize forecast rigor over conversational intelligence depth.

What Does It Do?

Clari's core mission centers on transforming fragmented pipeline data into executive-ready forecast views:

• Forecast Roll-Ups: Automatically aggregates individual rep forecasts using weighted methodologies, rolling up through team, regional, and corporate hierarchies with customizable confidence intervals.
• AI "Confidence" Scores: Deploys traditional machine learning algorithms to assess forecast reliability, flagging deals with poor trending patterns, missing data, or velocity anomalies.
• Pipeline Inspection: Delivers comprehensive dashboards covering deal stage progression, velocity analysis, conversion metrics, and waterfall reporting that executives can consume directly.
• Groove Engagement Add-On: Provides sequence management and basic email outreach capabilities through Clari Groove, though this requires separate licensing and integration work.
• Revenue Analytics: Offers funnel analysis, trend charts, and "what-if" scenario modeling to help leadership stress-test quota attainment and resource allocation.

Key Features Deep Dive

The platform's architecture revolves around several core modules that sales operations teams configure extensively:

• Multi-Category Forecasting: Commit, Best Case, Most Likely, and Upside categories with customizable business rules
• Scenario Planning: "What-if" modeling capabilities for testing quota buffers and territory changes
• Hierarchical Management: Complex org chart mapping that mirrors Salesforce role hierarchies
• Mobile Accessibility: Native iOS/Android apps for executives reviewing forecasts during travel
• Custom Field Mapping: Extensive CRM integration supporting custom objects and non-standard Salesforce configurations

Pros & Cons

Pricing Structure

Clari's pricing reflects its enterprise positioning but can escalate quickly:

• Core Forecasting: $100/user/month for basic roll-up functionality and standard dashboards
• Full Analytics Suite: ≈$200/user/month including AI Confidence Scores, advanced reporting, and Groove integration
• Platform & Implementation: $20K–$50K in setup fees are standard, with larger enterprises often paying $75K+ for complex Salesforce configurations
• Effective TCO: Most organizations land at $250+/user/month once professional services, training, and add-on modules are factored in

Challenges Faced in 2025

Despite Clari's forecast leadership, its SaaS-era foundation creates operational friction that modern AI-native platforms avoid:

Data Hygiene Burden: Revenue Operations teams spend 5–10 hours weekly cleaning CRM data to prevent "garbage in, garbage out" forecasting scenarios. Missing stage dates, incomplete opportunity fields, and stale pipeline data require constant manual intervention.

Multi-Tool Complexity: Sales managers typically juggle Clari for forecasting, Gong for conversational intelligence, and Outreach/Salesloft for engagement—tripling license costs and fragmenting workflows across separate admin consoles.

Integration Lag: CRM sync issues and custom object mapping delays can create 24-48 hour gaps in pipeline visibility, particularly problematic during month-end forecast calls when accuracy is paramount.

User Feedback from the Field

"Once set up and installed, Clari is very intuitive to use. Our sales leadership uses it exclusively for daily reviews and analysis, preferring it over Salesforce."
— Rob W., Sr. Director of Revenue Operations G2 Verified Review

"What I find least helpful is that some of the features that are reported don't actually tell me where that information is coming from. Where my weighted number is coming from or how it is being calculated would be helpful."
— Jezni W., Sales Account Executive G2 Verified Review

"The UI is not very intuitive and feels clunky. I have to maintain my own separate spreadsheet to track deals because I can only capture what my leaders want to see about a deal."
— Verified User in Human Resources G2 Verified Review

Bottom-Line Reality

Clari dominates forecast analytics but traps teams in expensive, multi-vendor stacks. For organizations prioritizing forecast accuracy above all else—and willing to invest in extensive RevOps support—Clari delivers unmatched executive visibility. However, teams seeking unified conversation intelligence, forecasting, and engagement in one AI-native platform will find Clari's SaaS-era limitations force costly compromises and operational overhead that modern agentic solutions eliminate entirely.

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3) Salesloft - Cadence Powerhouse

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Salesloft exploded onto the market in 2014 by giving SDRs a single workspace to launch, track, and optimise high-volume email and call cadences. For almost a decade it set the standard for outbound productivity, earning a passionate user base across SaaS, EdTech, and franchise sales. Yet the go-to-market landscape of 2025 looks very different: spam filters punish bulk sends, data privacy laws tighten, and buyers expect deeply personalised outreach. Against that backdrop, Salesloft's SaaS-era architecture is showing its age.

What Does It Do?

Salesloft's platform is anchored around three workstreams:

1. Cadence Builder – Drag-and-drop sequences combining emails, calls, LinkedIn touches, and manual tasks.
2. Integrated Dialer – VOIP, local-presence numbers, and basic call recording for coaching.
3. Analytics & Live Feed – Real-time alerts on opens, clicks, and reply rates, plus rep leaderboard dashboards.

Add-on modules include "Conversations" (a lightweight conversational-intelligence tool), "Deals" pipeline views, and a Chrome extension that pushes tasks into Gmail/Outlook.

Key Features

• Multi-Channel Sequencing: Pre-scheduled touch patterns across email, phone, social.
• Template & Snippet Library: Shared messaging with A/B testing.
• Auto-Log to CRM: Updates tasks and activities in Salesforce or HubSpot.
• Live Coaching: Managers can listen-in or review basic call snippets.
• Engagement Signals: Opens, clicks, and sentiment tagging to prioritise follow-ups.
• Governance Controls: Role-based permissions and template approvals for compliance.

Pros & Cons

Pricing

• Engage Core: ≈ $100 / user / month for cadence, dialer, analytics.
• Conversations Add-On: +$35–$50 / user.
• Deals Pipeline: +$25–$40 / user.
• Telephony Minutes & Local Numbers: Billed separately.
• Implementation: $5K–$20K services common for enterprise rollouts.

Effective TCO often tops $160 – $200 / user / month when firms layer on Conversations and call minutes—still without true forecasting or deal-level AI.

Challenges Faced

1. Deliverability Headwinds – Google and Microsoft's 2024 sender-verification rules penalise high-volume cadence tools; reps must throttle sends manually.
2. Manual Workflow Drag – Reps tab-hop between Salesloft, LinkedIn, and Salesforce; task queues stall when contact data is out-of-date.
3. Clunky Conversations Module – Unlike Gong or Oliv's 5-min processing, Salesloft Conversations supports only dialer calls and misses external Zoom/Teams meetings, limiting coaching value.
4. Mobile & Extension Gaps – Users complain that the mobile app can't place calls from personal numbers and the Chrome extension goes "stale," forcing multiple refreshes.
5. Customer Support Frustrations – Smaller customers report auto-closed tickets and rigid renewal policies, eroding goodwill.

User Feedback (balanced mix)

"Salesloft gives us the structure to manage high-volume outreach without losing the personal touch, helping us build stronger relationships."
— Nathalie J., Solutions Specialist ★★★★★ 5/5 G2 Review

"I still export to spreadsheets to fix cadences that break when prospects opt out; feels dated compared to newer AI tools."
— George P., Sr. Director Franchise Sales ★★★★☆ 4/5 G2 Review

"Conversations doesn't work at all—sold as a Gong competitor but lacks even basic Zoom functionality. Support tickets close themselves."
— Verified User, Professional Training & Coaching ★☆☆☆☆ 1/5 G2 Review

Where It Fits in 2025

Salesloft still serves SDR teams who run moderate-volume, multi-touch cadences and value granular send-time testing. Organisations with entrenched Salesforce workflows appreciate its two-way sync and task automation. However, sales motions that now rely on deep research + hyper-personalised emails will find manual research steps slow and the lack of deal-level AI limiting.

Oliv.ai Perspective

Oliv's Prospector Agent automates the heavy lifting Salesloft leaves manual:

• Account Research: Scrapes firmographic, technographic, and trigger events.
• Personalised Hypothesis: Drafts a unique problem statement tied to buyer pain.
• Sequenced Messaging: Generates a three-email cadence with persona-specific value props—ready to push into Outreach, HubSpot, or directly via Oliv's send engine.
• Deliverability Guardrails: Adjusts volume based on domain health and spam-score predictions.

While Salesloft remains a respectable cadence UI, revenue teams seeking an AI-native, agentic alternative can replace bulk-send mechanics with Oliv's research-led outreach—cutting prep time by 70% and boosting reply rates without risking spam folder purgatory.

4) Chorus.ai - ZoomInfo's Recorder Add-On

Chorus.ai once posed a credible challenge to Gong's conversational intelligence dominance, building innovative AI-powered call analytics that earned respect across mid-market and enterprise sales teams through 2022. However, since its acquisition by ZoomInfo, the platform has essentially entered maintenance mode—offering basic call recording and transcription bundled with ZoomInfo's data intelligence suite, but lacking the innovation velocity that modern revenue teams demand from their conversation intelligence stack.

What Does It Do?

Chorus.ai's current functionality centers around fundamental conversation capture and basic analytics:

• Automated Call Recording: Joins meetings across Zoom, Teams, and Google Meet with basic transcription capabilities
• Keyword Search & Tracking: Identifies mentions of competitors, pricing discussions, and custom topics through simple keyword matching
• Call Library Management: Organizes recordings with basic tagging and sharing functionality for coaching purposes
• ZoomInfo Data Enrichment: Leverages ZoomInfo's contact database to provide additional context on meeting participants
• Basic Analytics Dashboards: Offers talk-time ratios, meeting frequency, and rudimentary engagement metrics
• Snippet Creation: Allows users to create short clips from longer recordings for training and coaching scenarios

Key Features

The platform's feature set reflects its pre-generative AI architecture and ZoomInfo integration focus:

• Unlimited Recording & Transcription: No limits on meeting capture across supported platforms
• 40+ CRM Integrations: Connects with Salesforce, HubSpot, and other major CRM systems
• AI Trackers: Automatically identifies topics like next steps, pricing, and objections using keyword-based detection
• Sales Coaching Tools: Basic performance metrics and call review capabilities for manager oversight
• Market Intelligence Reports: Aggregated insights about competitive mentions and customer feedback trends
• Mobile Access: iOS and Android apps for on-the-go call review and coaching

Pros & Cons

Pricing

Chorus.ai's pricing structure reflects its positioning as a ZoomInfo add-on rather than a standalone platform:

• Flat Fee Structure: $8,000 annually including three seats, based on typical 2-year contracts
• Additional Seats: $1,200 per user annually (approximately $100 per user monthly)
• Effective Per-User Cost: Ranges from $105-$137 monthly depending on team size
• ZoomInfo Dependency: Requires active ZoomInfo subscription as prerequisite infrastructure
• Volume Discounts: Pricing can drop to $20-30 per seat for enterprise deployments with high seat counts

Challenges Faced

Chorus.ai's post-acquisition trajectory illustrates the risks of innovation stagnation in rapidly evolving markets:

Technology Debt: The platform's pre-generative AI foundation becomes more apparent as competitors deploy modern language models. Users consistently report that "the software doesn't have the capability of identifying words/phrases that are similar to what you're looking for or understand context," forcing manual configuration for basic insights.

Feature Development Freeze: Since 2022, Chorus.ai has released minimal new functionality while competitors like Gong and AI-native platforms rapidly iterate. This creates a widening capability gap that affects user satisfaction and retention.

Transcription Accuracy Issues: Multiple user reviews highlight poor transcription quality, particularly for external meetings and diverse speaking patterns. One user noted, "We tried another product and realized that it is more accurate in transcription than Chorus."

User Feedback (Mixed Reviews)

"Great product, easy to use. The quantity of feedback metrics is amazing!"
— Clayton Z., Director of Technology ★★★★★ 5/5 G2 Verified Review

"Chorus does a good job with the basic functionality of call recording and screening. If you are looking for something that is more advanced and will help guide you/be able to work in the gray area then you may be disappointed, but if you know what you're looking for with your triggers and have a simple integration then it checks all the boxes."
— Director of Sales Operations ★★★☆☆ 3/5 Gartner Peer Review

"Chorus has been an okay experience, will be moving to Gong next term, Used Clari before it was awful. It was not Clari, and Its pretty simple to use."
— Justin S., Senior Marketing Operations Specialist ★★★☆☆ 3/5 G2 Verified Review

Bottom-Line Assessment

Chorus.ai serves organizations already committed to ZoomInfo's ecosystem who need basic conversation intelligence at minimal additional cost. However, revenue teams seeking modern AI-powered insights, automated forecasting, or sophisticated deal analysis will find Chorus's capabilities insufficient for competitive sales environments. The platform's innovation stagnation makes it a poor long-term investment for teams planning to scale their revenue operations capabilities beyond simple call recording and basic keyword tracking.

For organizations evaluating comprehensive Gong alternatives, Chorus.ai represents the limitations of legacy platforms that haven't evolved with modern AI-native solutions designed for today's revenue intelligence requirements.

5) Outreach - Enterprise Sequencing Platform

Outreach is best known as the enterprise workhorse for email, call, and task sequencing. Launched in 2014, it helped SDR teams industrialise outbound by bundling cadence automation, CRM sync, and activity tracking into one UI. In 2025 it still ranks among the most-purchased engagement tools, yet its SaaS-era design shows strain as buyers demand AI-driven personalisation, cleaner CRM sync, and lower admin overhead.

What Does It Do?

Outreach's platform revolves around three pillars:

1. Sequences & Task Engine – Build multi-step workflows spanning email, phone, LinkedIn, and generic tasks.
2. Prospector & Navigator – Basic prospect list-building plus inbox, calendar, and Salesforce connectors.
3. Kaia "Conversation Intelligence" – Real-time transcription and coaching overlays during calls (limited to Outreach dialer).

Auxiliary modules cover Meetings (calendar booking), Insights reporting, and Forecast dashboards, but adoption outside the core sequence engine remains light across most customer bases.

Key Features

• Drag-and-Drop Sequencer for branching logic, A/B testing, and persona-based templates.
• Rulesets & Triggers to enforce send limits, safety checks, and auto-enrolment from CRM fields.
• Email & Call Tracking with open/click data, call recordings, and sentiment tags.
• Bi-Directional CRM Sync (Salesforce primary, HubSpot partial) pushing activities and status updates.
• Kaia Live Cards that surface talk-track prompts and objection flashcards during dialer calls.
• Admin Governance offering role-based permissions, template approvals, and audit trails.

Pros & Cons

Pricing Snapshot (2025)

• Standard Plan ≈ $100/user/month (sequences, dialer, insights).
• Professional ≈ $135/user/month (adds Kaia, Meetings, advanced analytics).
• Add-Ons & Overages – Dialer minutes, compliance packs, additional email inboxes ($15–$25 each).
• Implementation Services – $10K-$25K typical for enterprise onboarding.
  A 50-rep team routinely spends $85K-$120K annually once overage fees and professional services land—without forecasting or true deal-level intelligence.

Challenges Faced

1. Deliverability & Spam – Google/Microsoft bulk-sender rules penalise high-volume sequences; reps must throttle manually or risk blacklisting.
2. Integration Friction – HubSpot, Outreach, and Salesforce tri-sync loops trigger duplicate contacts and missed tasks, eroding SDR productivity.
3. Feature Stagnation – Reviews cite "same UX as five years ago" and elusive AI roadmap; Kaia demos rarely translate into production value.
4. Contract Rigidity – Evergreen renewals plus 30-day cancellation windows earn complaints of inflexibility and surprise renewals.
5. Admin Overhead – Complex rulesets demand full-time RevOps attention; beginners face multi-week ramp to build compliant sequences.

User Feedback (balanced sample)

"Sequences are powerful and Salesforce sync keeps us organised, but invalid numbers still pop as call tasks and dialer spam is painful."
— Ethan R., SDR ★★★☆☆ 3/5 G2

"Great for mass outreach, yet the HubSpot sync breaks every couple of weeks—it kills BD productivity."
— Vamsi C., RevOps ★☆☆☆☆ 1/5 G2

"Love templates and email tracking, but reports are confusing and onboarding took longer than promised."
— Greg D., CRO ★★★★☆ 4/5 G2

Where Outreach Fits in 2025

Outreach still suits high-volume SDR shops that live inside Salesforce and rely on strict governance. Its cadence muscle and reporting depth remain strong for organisations comfortable with quantity-first motions and willing to absorb admin work. However, revenue teams shifting to quality-driven, research-led prospecting find Outreach's manual prep steps and dialer limitations increasingly inefficient.

Oliv.ai Perspective

Our Prospector Agent automates what Outreach leaves manual:

• Deep Account Research – Scrapes news, 10-K filings, funding events, intent data.
• AI-Drafted Messaging – Crafts a three-touch cadence with persona-specific pain mapping.
• Send-Engine Neutrality – Pushes personalised steps into Outreach, HubSpot, or Oliv's native sender, preserving existing deliverability tooling.
• CRM Hygiene Loop – Updates opportunity, contact, and engagement objects without RevOps intervention.

Early adopters report 3× reply rates versus generic Outreach sequences and a 70% reduction in SDR research time. For leaders evaluating Gong alternatives that also replace Outreach's bulk-email workflow, Oliv provides a single agentic platform delivering personalised engagement, conversation intelligence, and forecasting—without the contract lock-ins and manual upkeep that define Outreach today.

6) Fireflies.ai - Budget Note-Taker

Fireflies.ai launched in 2019 as the affordable alternative to enterprise conversation intelligence, targeting small and medium businesses seeking basic meeting transcription without Gong's complexity or cost. Built around GPT-powered transcription, it quickly gained traction among startups and growing teams who needed simple, reliable note-taking automation. However, as revenue teams demand deeper analytics and deal-level insights, Fireflies' lightweight approach reveals significant limitations for serious sales operations.

What Does It Do?

Fireflies operates as a meeting recorder and transcriber with basic AI enhancements:

• Automated Meeting Joining: The "Fred" bot automatically joins Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, and Webex calls based on calendar integration
• Real-Time Transcription: Converts speech to text with speaker identification and timestamp markers
• AI-Generated Summaries: Creates basic meeting recaps with action items and key discussion points
• Searchable Archives: Provides keyword search across historical transcripts and audio highlights
• CRM Integration: Syncs meeting data with Salesforce, HubSpot, and other popular CRM systems
• Collaboration Tools: Enables transcript sharing and commenting for team coordination

Key Features

The platform's feature set reflects its positioning as an entry-level solution:

• 95% Transcription Accuracy: Leverages GPT technology for speech-to-text conversion across 100+ languages
• Speaker Recognition: Automatically identifies and labels different participants in meetings
• Smart Highlights: AI-powered extraction of action items, questions, and key moments
• Custom Topic Tracking: Basic keyword monitoring for competitor mentions, pricing discussions, and custom terms
• Mobile App Access: iOS and Android apps for on-the-go transcript review and sharing
• Chrome Extension: Browser-based meeting capture and quick access to recent transcripts

Pros & Cons

Pricing Structure

Fireflies maintains straightforward, transparent pricing that appeals to budget-conscious teams:

• Free Plan: 800 minutes of storage with limited transcription credits and basic features
• Pro Plan: $10/user/month for unlimited transcription, advanced search, and CRM integrations
• Business Plan: $19/user/month adding conversation intelligence, custom vocabulary, and team analytics
• Enterprise Plan: $29/user/month with advanced security, API access, and dedicated support
• No Hidden Fees: Unlike enterprise platforms, Fireflies avoids platform fees and implementation charges

Challenges Faced

While Fireflies succeeds as a basic transcription tool, several limitations prevent it from serving as true revenue intelligence:

Feature Depth Gap: Users consistently report that Fireflies excels at note-taking but lacks the analytical depth needed for sales coaching, deal analysis, or pipeline management. The platform provides transcripts but minimal actionable insights for revenue teams.

Processing Speed Issues: Multiple reviews cite frustrating delays in transcript availability, particularly for longer meetings. As one user noted, "It takes an eternity to upload a call to listen to it," which impacts teams needing immediate post-call insights.

Limited Enterprise Integration: While Fireflies integrates with major CRMs, it lacks the sophisticated field mapping, custom object support, and bi-directional sync capabilities that enterprise sales operations require.

UI/UX Concerns: The interface prioritizes archival over analysis, making it difficult for sales managers to quickly identify coaching opportunities or track deal progression across multiple calls.

User Feedback (Mixed Reviews)

"Fireflies has completely transformed the way I manage meetings. The AI search and Smart Highlights features are especially powerful when I need to recall discussions from weeks ago in seconds."
— Verified User, Talent Acquisition ★★★★★ 5/5 G2 Verified Review

"The transcription accuracy hovers around 90%, which is fairly good, though it isn't flawless. The user interface can feel a bit overwhelming at first, and I find the cost to be somewhat high for individuals and small teams."
— DK_Stark, r/AIToolTesting ★★★☆☆ 3/5 Reddit Review

"Good tool for recording meetings; you can configure it to record only customer calls. However, it lacks the depth of platforms like Gong.io for real conversation intelligence."
— Verified User ★★★★☆ 4/5 G2 Review

Where Fireflies Fits in 2025

Fireflies remains the go-to choice for budget-conscious teams needing basic meeting documentation without advanced sales intelligence. It works well for organizations running internal meetings, conducting interviews, or managing project coordination where simple transcription meets 80% of requirements.

However, revenue teams seeking to accelerate deal velocity, improve forecast accuracy, or enable data-driven coaching will find Fireflies insufficient for competitive sales environments.

Oliv.ai Perspective

While Fireflies provides solid transcription, our Meeting Assistant Agent delivers the revenue intelligence that transcripts alone cannot:

• Deal-Level Context: Synthesizes multiple touchpoints into comprehensive deal narratives, not isolated meeting notes
• Proactive Coaching: Delivers actionable insights and risk flags in real-time, not just searchable archives
• CRM Automation: Automatically updates opportunity fields, contact records, and pipeline stages based on conversation analysis
• 5-Minute Processing: Delivers summaries and insights moments after calls end, not hours later
• Revenue Analytics: Tracks deal progression, identifies coaching opportunities, and surfaces pipeline risks that basic transcription misses

For organizations currently using Fireflies who need to graduate to true revenue intelligence, Oliv provides enterprise-grade insights while maintaining the simplicity and transparent pricing that made Fireflies initially attractive but with the agentic automation that actually drives revenue outcomes.

Critical Limitations Driving Gong Alternative Searches

Despite its strengths, we've identified several significant pain points that are pushing sales teams toward alternatives in 2025:

Pricing Transparency Crisis

The most consistent complaint centers on Gong's opaque pricing model. Unlike modern SaaS tools that offer transparent pricing, Gong requires lengthy sales cycles before revealing costs. This lack of transparency creates significant challenges for sales management tools evaluation and budget planning.

Hidden Fees and Unexpected Costs

Our research reveals that Gong operates on a three-component pricing structure with significant hidden costs:

• Platform fees: $5,000-$50,000 annually (regardless of user count)
• Per-user licensing: $1,360-$1,600 annually
• Professional services: $7,500-$15,000 for onboarding

Neel P., Sales Operations Manager, experienced this firsthand: "Gong's support team has stated... their current solution is far from convenient or accessible - it requires downloading calls individually, which is impractical and inefficient for a large volume of data".

Overwhelming Complexity for Smaller Teams

Many users report that Gong's extensive feature set creates unnecessary complexity. John S., Senior Account Executive, explains: "It's too complicated, and not intuitive at all. Using it is very discomforting. Searching for calls is not easy, moving around in the calls is not easy".

Aggressive Sales Tactics

Customer feedback consistently mentions pushy sales approaches that create negative experiences. This aggressive approach, combined with pricing opacity, has damaged Gong's reputation among budget-conscious buyers.

Cost Concerns and Value Misalignment

The pricing concerns extend beyond transparency to fundamental value perception issues. Iris P., Head of Marketing, Sales & Partnerships, captures this sentiment: "It was a big mistake on our part to commit to a two year term. Gong is a really powerful tool but it's probably the highest end option on the market... Having talked with other friends who lead revenue functions, all have said the same thing - they've been fine using a lower cost, simpler alternative".

Users consistently express that Gong is "WAY too expensive" with many recommending alternatives that offer similar features at lower costs.

How do AI-native platforms up-level revenue teams in 2025? [toc=AI-Native Platforms]

Revenue teams entering 2025 face an unprecedented challenge: quotas are climbing 15-20% annually while deal cycles stretch longer and buyer committees grow more complex. The old playbook of throwing more reps at the problem no longer works when each AE juggles 40+ active opportunities and sales managers spend 60% of their time on administrative tasks instead of coaching. The question isn't whether to adopt AI—it's whether to choose platforms that truly automate work or merely digitize manual processes.

Legacy revenue tools like Gong, Clari, and Outreach were architected in the pre-generative AI era when "intelligence" meant keyword matching and basic machine learning. These platforms excel at data collection—recording calls, tracking emails, logging activities—but they dump the analytical burden back on already-overwhelmed revenue teams. Sales managers still spend hours each week reviewing call recordings manually, RevOps teams export CSV files for custom analysis, and reps toggle between six different tools to understand a single deal's health. The result is "data rich, insight poor" operations where teams drown in dashboards but struggle to identify which deals need attention before they stall.

Generative AI fundamentally changes the revenue intelligence equation by shifting from reactive reporting to proactive action. Modern LLMs can synthesize calls, emails, CRM fields, and external signals into deal-level narratives that identify risks, suggest next steps, and automatically update systems—all without human intervention. Instead of showing you what happened last week, AI-native platforms predict what will happen next month and take corrective action autonomously. This isn't about better dashboards; it's about AI agents that perform revenue work while humans focus on relationship building and strategic decisions.

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Oliv.ai Solution

We designed Oliv around the principle that AI should do work, not create more work. Our agent architecture operates through four core automation pillars:

Deal Intelligence Agent: Continuously monitors every opportunity, synthesizing call transcripts, email exchanges, and CRM updates into real-time deal health scores. When a champion goes quiet or buying signals shift, the agent proactively alerts managers via Slack with specific recommended actions—not generic warnings that require further investigation.

Forecaster Agent: Eliminates the weekly forecast theater by automatically analyzing deal progression patterns, velocity trends, and risk factors across the entire pipeline. Instead of forcing reps to manually categorize deals as "commit/upside/best case," our agent generates forecast commentary explaining why each deal landed in its category and what's needed to move it forward.

CRM Manager Agent: Solves the eternal problem of dirty CRM data by automatically updating opportunity stages, contact roles, and activity records based on conversation analysis. Reps never touch another manual data entry field, and managers get accurate pipeline views without policing adoption.

Meeting Assistant Agent: Transforms every customer interaction into actionable intelligence by delivering 30-minute prep briefs before calls, capturing detailed notes during meetings, and pushing follow-up tasks to the right team members within five minutes of call completion.

Across 100+ deployments, revenue teams report 25% faster deal cycles, 30% more accurate forecasts, and managers reclaiming 8+ hours weekly for strategic work—metrics impossible to achieve through traditional SaaS adoption alone. The difference isn't incremental improvement; it's operational transformation from manual revenue operations to autonomous revenue intelligence.

Cost-benefit analysis: unified AI stack vs. multi-tool SaaS [toc=Cost-Benefit Analysis]

CFOs are scrutinizing sales tech spending more intensely than ever as economic headwinds pressure every line item. The average enterprise sales organization now manages 15+ revenue tools with overlapping functionality, duplicated data storage, and integration maintenance costs that compound quarterly. Meanwhile, the "best-of-breed" approach forces RevOps teams into full-time system administration roles instead of strategic revenue optimization. Smart organizations are asking: what's the true cost of maintaining separate tools for conversation intelligence, forecasting, and engagement versus consolidating into a unified AI-native platform?

The multi-vendor revenue stack delivers death by a thousand cuts. Gong charges $250/user for conversation intelligence, Clari adds $200/user for forecasting, and Outreach demands another $135/user for engagement—before platform fees, implementation services, and integration maintenance. A 100-rep organization easily spends $750,000+ annually on just these three core tools, plus $150,000 in implementation and ongoing API management. But the hidden costs hurt more: RevOps teams burning 20+ hours weekly on data reconciliation, duplicate contact cleanup, and manual reporting because systems can't share a unified data model. Sales managers waste entire afternoons exporting CSVs from multiple platforms to understand pipeline health, while reps toggle between interfaces that each demand separate logins, training, and adoption enforcement.

AI Era Transformation

Unified AI platforms eliminate both direct costs and operational overhead by architecting all revenue functions around a single data model and generative AI core. Instead of forcing three separate vendors to share data through fragile APIs, modern platforms ingest every customer touchpoint once and serve multiple use cases through specialized agents. This architectural approach reduces license costs by 40-60% while eliminating the hidden administrative burden that consumes RevOps bandwidth. More importantly, unified platforms enable cross-functional insights impossible in siloed systems—like automatically adjusting forecast confidence based on engagement velocity or triggering personalized follow-up sequences when deal sentiment shifts.

Oliv.ai Solution

Our TCO analysis consistently shows 50-70% cost reduction versus multi-tool stacks:

Direct License Savings:

Implementation & Integration Savings:

But the strategic advantage extends beyond cost reduction. Unified platforms enable revenue acceleration impossible with fragmented tools—like Oliv's ability to automatically adjust outreach cadences based on conversation sentiment or update forecast categories when deal velocity shifts unexpectedly.

Forward-thinking revenue leaders recognize that 2025's economic environment demands operational efficiency alongside growth acceleration. Organizations continuing to invest in fragmented, pre-AI tool stacks will find themselves at a permanent cost and capability disadvantage versus competitors running unified, agent-driven revenue platforms that deliver better results at lower total cost.

A step-by-step migration path from Gong to Oliv.ai [toc=Migration Path]

Migrating from an entrenched revenue intelligence platform like Gong represents one of the most critical decisions a revenue organization can make. With teams dependent on call recordings for coaching, forecasts tied to conversation data, and workflows built around existing integrations, the stakes are high. Yet the operational and financial benefits of moving to an AI-native platform often outweigh the transition complexity—provided organizations follow a structured migration approach that minimizes disruption while maximizes adoption velocity.

Legacy platform migrations typically follow the "rip and replace" methodology that creates weeks of operational chaos. Traditional SaaS tools like Gong store data in proprietary formats with limited export capabilities, forcing organizations to choose between losing historical context or investing months in custom data migration projects. Worse, these platforms require extensive user retraining because their interfaces and workflows differ fundamentally from previous tools. The result is a productivity valley where teams struggle with new systems while mourning the loss of familiar features, often leading to partial adoption or outright migration failure.

Modern AI-native platforms enable "augmented migration" strategies that preserve institutional knowledge while accelerating capability gains. Generative AI can analyze existing conversation patterns, extract key insights from historical data, and even replicate familiar workflows during transition periods. Instead of forcing teams to abandon established processes, smart migration approaches overlay new capabilities onto existing habits—gradually shifting users toward more efficient AI-driven workflows as comfort and confidence grow.

We designed our migration methodology around four strategic phases that minimize risk while maximize time-to-value:

Phase 1: Parallel Data Capture (Weeks 1-2)
Our Meeting Assistant Agent begins recording all customer calls alongside your existing Gong setup, creating a safety net while teams evaluate output quality. During this period, we configure CRM field mapping, establish Slack notification channels, and customize agent behaviors to match your existing sales processes. Historical Gong data remains accessible while new insights begin flowing through Oliv's 5-minute processing pipeline.

Phase 2: Selective Feature Adoption (Weeks 3-4)
Teams begin using specific Oliv agents for targeted use cases—typically starting with our CRM Manager Agent for automatic data hygiene and Deal Driver Agent for risk identification. Managers can compare Oliv's deal insights against Gong's keyword trackers, while reps experience the productivity benefits of automated CRM updates without abandoning familiar coaching workflows. This gradual approach builds confidence in AI-native capabilities.

Phase 3: Workflow Transition (Weeks 5-6)
With proven agent reliability, teams transition core workflows to Oliv's unified platform. The Forecaster Agent begins generating weekly forecast reports alongside traditional spreadsheet processes, allowing managers to validate accuracy before fully committing. Our Prospector Agent handles account research for new opportunities while existing sequences continue running through legacy tools.

Phase 4: Full Platform Activation (Weeks 7-8)
Complete migration involves deactivating Gong recording, consolidating all revenue intelligence through Oliv's agent architecture, and optimizing workflows for maximum AI leverage. Teams retain access to historical Gong data through API connections while gaining the operational efficiency of unified conversation intelligence, forecasting, and engagement automation.

Use Case/Comparison/Proof

Our structured approach consistently delivers smoother transitions than traditional migration methodologies. A 200-rep SaaS organization recently completed their Gong-to-Oliv migration in just six weeks, maintaining 98% forecast accuracy throughout the transition while reducing total revenue tech costs by 55%. The key success factors included:

• Zero Historical Data Loss: API connections preserved access to 18 months of Gong recordings
• Gradual Capability Expansion: Teams adopted one agent per week rather than overwhelming feature dumps
• Manager Champions: Sales leadership experienced forecast accuracy improvements before asking reps to change habits
• Measurable ROI: Cost savings and productivity gains were evident within 30 days, building organizational momentum

By week eight, managers reported spending 40% less time on administrative tasks while reps achieved 25% faster deal cycles—metrics that validated the migration investment and created internal advocates for continued AI-native optimization.

FAQs

Q: Is gong a CRM tool?
No, Gong is not a CRM tool. It's a revenue intelligence platform that analyzes sales conversations and integrates with your existing CRM (like Salesforce or HubSpot) to provide AI-powered insights. While Gong tracks deals and conversations, it doesn't replace core CRM functions like lead management, contact storage, or opportunity tracking. Think of it as a conversation intelligence layer that enhances your sales automation tools rather than replacing them.

Q: Is Gong like Salesforce?
Gong and Salesforce serve different purposes in your sales tech stack. Salesforce is a comprehensive CRM platform for managing customer relationships, while Gong focuses specifically on conversation intelligence and revenue analytics. Gong integrates with Salesforce to analyze call data and provide insights, but it doesn't offer the broad business process management capabilities that Salesforce provides. They're complementary tools rather than direct competitors.

Q: Is Gong AI free?
No, Gong AI is not free. Gong operates on a premium pricing model with costs ranging from $113-$133 per user monthly (including platform fees). There's no free tier or freemium option available. For budget-conscious teams seeking free alternatives, platforms like Fireflies.ai offer free plans with basic features, while Oliv.ai provides transparent pricing at $19/user/month without hidden fees or forced enterprise commitments.

Q: Does Gong have an API?
Yes, Gong provides an API for data export and integration. However, users report significant limitations with bulk data access. The API requires downloading calls individually rather than bulk exports, which creates operational challenges for data migration or analysis. Teams planning to switch platforms should engage with Gong's API documentation early, as extracting large volumes of call data can be complex and time-consuming.

Q: What is gong AI used for?
Gong AI analyzes sales conversations to provide coaching insights, deal intelligence, and forecasting support. It transcribes calls, identifies key topics, tracks objections, and provides performance analytics for sales teams. The platform helps managers coach reps, understand customer sentiment, and predict deal outcomes. However, many teams find sales productivity tools with simpler interfaces deliver similar value without the complexity and cost overhead.

Q: Which companies use Gong?
Gong serves over 4,000 customers including LinkedIn, Shopify, Slack, and Twilio. The platform primarily targets mid-market and enterprise organizations with larger sales teams and substantial budgets. However, many smaller companies find Gong's pricing and complexity excessive for their needs. As one user noted, Gong "really makes sense for more established sales organizations with larger budgets" rather than growing teams or startups.

Q: "Can Oliv maintain our existing Zoom/Teams recordings without disruption?"
Yes. Our Meeting Assistant Agent natively joins all major platforms (Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, Webex) using the same infrastructure as your current tools. Historical recordings remain accessible through API connections while new conversations process through Oliv's 5-minute pipeline. Zero workflow disruption during transition.

Q: "How long does deployment actually take from contract signature?"
Typical deployment timeline is 2-3 weeks for full agent activation. Week 1 covers CRM integration and basic recording setup. Week 2 involves agent customization and team training. Week 3 focuses on workflow optimization and success metric establishment. Compare this to Gong's 8-12 week implementation cycles.

Q: "What if we only need conversation intelligence, not forecasting or engagement?"
Our modular agent pricing lets you activate only needed capabilities. Start with our Meeting Assistant Agent at $19/user for basic conversation intelligence, then layer additional agents as requirements evolve. No forced bundles or unused feature waste.

Q: "Is our sensitive customer data secure in an AI-native platform?"
We maintain SOC 2 Type II compliance, field-level encryption, and regional data residency options. Unlike platforms that send data to third-party AI services, Oliv processes all conversations through dedicated infrastructure with zero data sharing or model training on customer content.

Q: "Can Oliv replace our Outreach/Salesloft sequences entirely?"
Our Prospector Agent handles research-driven, personalized outreach that delivers 3× higher reply rates than bulk sequences. For teams requiring complex multi-channel cadences, we integrate with existing engagement platforms while providing superior research and messaging automation.

Q: "How do we measure ROI beyond basic cost savings?"
Success metrics include: 25-30% faster deal cycles (Meeting Assistant automation), 20-25% forecast accuracy improvement (Forecaster Agent insights), 40% reduction in manager administrative time (Deal Driver automation), and 60-70% CRM data accuracy gains (CRM Manager Agent). We provide monthly ROI dashboards tracking all key performance indicators.

Q: "What happens if Oliv doesn't meet our expectations after 90 days?"
We offer quarterly contract terms (versus annual locks) and include success milestones in every deployment. If agents don't deliver measurable productivity gains within 90 days, we facilitate smooth platform migration with full data export and transition support.