Gong Alternatives 2026: 5 Tools Compared on Cost per Seat
Summary
Gong alternatives split into three groups: Avoma and Fireflies at $19 per seat per month, Salesloft and Chorus on enterprise quotes, and Fathom with a free plan. For a 10-rep team, Gong lands near $20,000 to $30,000 a year while Avoma costs $5,760 to $9,240. We pick Avoma for startups, and say when each other tool wins.
Verdict: Avoma wins among Gong alternatives for teams under 25 reps. A 10-rep team pays about $5,760 a year for Avoma with Conversation Intelligence, against an estimated $20,000 to $30,000 for Gong. Salesloft beats both on forecasting, Chorus makes sense only inside ZoomInfo, and Fireflies and Fathom cover recording without a deal layer.
What you pay for with Gong, and what you can drop
Gong sells three things bundled: call recording and transcription, a coaching layer for managers, and deal intelligence that flags at-risk opportunities from conversation and engagement signals. Reviewers on G2 rate it 4.7 out of 5 across 6,777 reviews, and the praise concentrates on the first two. The criticism concentrates on cost and onboarding.
The cost structure is the reason people search for alternatives. Buyer reports put the platform fee between $5,000 and $50,000 a year, on top of per-seat licences of roughly $1,200 to $1,600 a year. Onboarding fees are reported separately, and contracts run annual or multi-year. For a 10-rep startup, that is more than the CRM costs.
The useful question is therefore not "which tool is better than Gong" but "which of Gong's three layers do we use today". A team that reviews five calls a week needs recording and search. A team with a sales manager and a forecast call needs scorecards and deal risk. Only a RevOps-led org uses the whole stack.
Avoma: the feature-per-dollar pick
Avoma publishes every price. The Startup plan is $19 per seat per month on annual billing, Organization is $29 and Enterprise is $39. Conversation Intelligence (AI call scoring, trackers, coaching recommendations) adds $29 per seat per month, and Revenue Intelligence (deal risk, win-loss, forecasting) adds another $29. There is no platform fee, no onboarding fee and view-only seats are free.
Stacked, a rep seat with Conversation Intelligence costs $48 per month, or $576 a year. With both add-ons it reaches $77 per month, or $924 a year. That is still under the low end of Gong's per-seat licence before the platform fee is counted.
The trade-off is depth. G2 gives Avoma 4.6 out of 5 across 1,365 reviews, and reviewers who compared it with Gong rate Gong higher on forecasting and enterprise controls. Avoma's reviewers cite recording issues and occasional AI inaccuracy. For a team of 3 to 25 reps the gap rarely matters, which is why we rank it first.
Salesloft and Clari: pay for the forecast
Clari and Salesloft completed their merger in December 2025 and now sell under the Salesloft name. Clari Forecast keeps its brand, and Clari Copilot, the conversation intelligence product, continues inside the platform. The combined company reports roughly $450 million in ARR and more than 5,000 customers, according to coverage of the merger.
This is the right pick when the CRO's complaint is that the number moves every Thursday. Clari built its business on forecasting and attached conversation data afterwards, which is the reverse of Gong's path. G2 rates Clari 4.6 out of 5 across 5,610 reviews.
The cost is complexity and money. Neither company published pricing for the merged product, third-party estimates for the Clari platform run $100 to $200 or more per user per month, and implementation fees of $15,000 to $25,000 are reported. Salesloft's own merger FAQ says platform unification will take years, so expect to buy modules, not one system.
Chorus by ZoomInfo: a bundling decision
Chorus has deal scorecards, competitor tracking and risk alerts comparable in depth to Gong. Its distinct asset is the link to ZoomInfo's contact and account data, so call libraries sit next to the prospecting database.
That advantage disappears without a ZoomInfo contract. Third-party estimates put standalone Chorus near an $8,000 platform fee plus $1,200 per seat per year, so a 10-rep team ends up near $20,000, close to Gong. Independent reviews of its coaching workflows are thinner than Gong's, and G2 listings now fold it into ZoomInfo's wider offering. If ZoomInfo is already paid for, test Chorus first. If not, skip it.
Fireflies and Fathom: recording without the deal layer
Fireflies and Fathom are notetakers that grew sales features. Neither forecasts and neither inspects deals. What they do is capture calls, transcribe them, summarise them and push fields to the CRM, for roughly a tenth of Gong's cost.
Fireflies Business is $19 per seat per month on annual billing and includes CRM sync, video recording and conversation intelligence, so 10 reps cost $2,280 a year. It carries a free plan and a busy interface once Skills, Trackers and Channels are switched on. G2 rates it 4.7 out of 5.
Fathom has the most generous free plan in the category, with unlimited recordings for individuals, and a G2 rating of 5.0 across more than 7,000 reviews. The catch is that AI Scorecards and CRM field sync are Business-tier features at $25 or more per seat per month, and its coaching tools are thinner than Gong's. Fathom is now part of Superhuman, which is worth noting for roadmap questions.
Cost per 10 reps, side by side
The annual figures in the matrix above rank the six tools in this order for a 10-rep team on annual billing: Fireflies at $2,280, Fathom near $3,000, Avoma from $5,760, Salesloft from roughly $12,000, Chorus near $20,000 and Gong from $20,000. The two quote-only enterprise options cost as much as Gong, so they only win on a specific capability.
The delta between Avoma and Gong is the signal. At 10 reps it is $10,000 to $24,000 a year. At 50 reps Gong's per-seat price starts to dilute the platform fee, and Avoma caps its Organization plan at 75 paid seats, so the gap narrows and the decision moves to forecasting needs and compliance.
How to choose by sales motion
Match the tool to the motion, not the logo. A founder doing all the selling needs recorded calls and a searchable archive, so Fathom's free plan or Fireflies Pro at $10 per seat covers it. A team of 3 to 15 with a first sales manager needs scorecards and deal risk, which points to Avoma. A team above 50 reps with a forecast process needs Salesloft or Gong.
Run a two-week pilot on real calls before signing anything. G2's conversation intelligence category shows an average rating of 4.72 out of 5 and ease-of-use scores near the top of the scale, so differences between tools come from fit and price more than from transcription quality. Test the CRM write-back and the search, because those are the features reps keep using after month three.
At-a-glance
| Avoma | Salesloft (Clari Copilot) | Chorus by ZoomInfo | Fireflies.ai | Fathom | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Estimated annual cost, 10 reps | $5,760 with Conversation Intelligence ($48 per seat per month); $9,240 with Revenue Intelligence added | $12,000 to $24,000 in licences (estimate), plus implementation fees reported at $15,000 to $25,000 | About $20,000 (roughly $8,000 platform fee plus $1,200 per seat), usually bundled with ZoomInfo | $2,280 on Business ($19 per seat per month, annual billing) | About $3,000 on Business ($25 per seat per month, low end of the published range) |
| Pricing transparency | Fully published, monthly or annual billing, no platform fee | Quote only, packaging still changing after the Clari merger | Quote only, sold with the ZoomInfo platform | Fully published, free plan available | Fully published, free plan with no meeting cap |
| Conversation intelligence depth | Scorecards, trackers and call scoring as a paid add-on | Copilot call analysis plus Salesloft Conversations, two layers still being merged | Deal scorecards and coaching comparable to Gong | Talk time, sentiment and topic trackers from the Business tier | AI Scorecards and coaching on the Business tier only |
| Forecasting and deal inspection | Revenue Intelligence add-on at $29 per seat per month | Strongest here, Clari Forecast is the core asset | Deal risk alerts, forecasting depends on ZoomInfo modules | None, CRM auto-fill only | None, CRM sync only |
| Free tier or trial | Free plan plus 14-day trial, no card | No free tier, demo and quote | No free tier, demo request | Free plan, 400 minutes of team storage and 20 AI credits | Free plan, unlimited recordings for individuals |
Avoma
- Every plan and add-on price is published, with no platform or onboarding fee
- Meeting notes, scheduling, scorecards and deal risk in one product
- Unlimited free view-only seats and a free plan to test with
- Conversation Intelligence and Revenue Intelligence are separate $29 add-ons that stack up
- Rated 4.6 out of 5 across 1,365 G2 reviews, below Gong on depth of forecasting
- G2 reviewers flag occasional recording issues and AI inaccuracy
The closest feature-per-dollar match for a team of 3 to 25 reps.
Salesloft (Clari Copilot)
- Clari Forecast is the strongest forecasting layer in the category
- Engagement cadences and call intelligence under one vendor
- Clari rated 4.6 out of 5 across 5,610 G2 reviews
- The December 2025 merger means packaging and roadmap are still settling
- Quote-only pricing with reported implementation fees of $15,000 to $25,000
- Copilot call analysis is reported as less polished than Gong's native layer
Choose it for the forecast, not for the call recordings.
Chorus by ZoomInfo
- Call libraries tied to ZoomInfo contact and account data
- Deal scorecards and competitor tracking close to Gong in depth
- Bundling can lower the effective price for existing ZoomInfo customers
- Standalone value is weak, it needs the ZoomInfo ecosystem to pay off
- Third-party estimates still put a 10-rep deployment near $20,000 a year
- Fewer independent reviews of coaching workflows than Gong
A bundling decision more than a product decision.
Fireflies.ai
- Business tier at $19 per seat per month includes CRM sync and conversation intelligence
- Free plan and 200+ role-specific AI Skills
- Rated 4.7 out of 5 on G2 and strong CRM and dialer integrations
- Summary quality is gated by a shared AI credit pool on paid plans
- No forecasting or deal inspection, so it replaces call review and nothing else
- Free storage of 400 minutes per team fills quickly
Cheapest way to stop losing call content, with no deal layer.
Fathom
- Free plan has no meeting cap, seat limit or history expiry
- Rated 5.0 out of 5 on G2 with more than 7,000 reviews
- Bot-free capture option, now in beta on Mac
- AI Scorecards and CRM field sync sit on the Business tier only
- No forecasting, and team-wide search needs a paid seat for every member
- Built for notes first, so manager coaching is thinner than Gong's
Best free entry point, thin once a manager needs coaching data.
Verdict
Avoma is the strongest Gong alternative for a team under 25 reps: published pricing, no platform fee and a deal layer for about a quarter of Gong's cost. Pick Salesloft if forecasting is the real job, Chorus only if ZoomInfo is already in the stack, and Fireflies or Fathom if you need recorded, searchable calls and nothing more.
How we tested
We compared six products on published pricing pages, vendor documentation and G2 listings checked in October 2026. Seat costs were modelled for a 10-rep team on annual billing. Gong, Chorus and Salesloft do not publish prices, so those figures are third-party estimates from buyer reports and are marked as such. Review scores come from G2 and are quoted with their review counts. We did not run live call tests, so depth scores reflect documented features and reviewer feedback, not a hands-on benchmark. None of the five alternatives is an affiliate partner, and no vendor reviewed the page before publication.