Gong and Clari are the two most commonly compared revenue intelligence platforms, but they actually solve different problems. Gong started with conversation analytics and expanded into deals. Clari started with forecasting and expanded into conversations. Understanding where they began tells you where their strengths still live.
What Each Platform Actually Does
Gong's Core Strength: Conversation Intelligence
Gong built its reputation on recording and analyzing sales calls. Every customer interaction — calls, emails, web meetings — gets captured, transcribed, and analyzed. Gong's AI identifies patterns: talk-to-listen ratios, competitive mentions, pricing discussions, objection handling. This data feeds into deal scoring and coaching recommendations.
Where Gong shines:
- Call recording and transcription accuracy (best in class)
- Conversation pattern analysis across your team
- Manager coaching tools — identify what top performers do differently
- Competitive intelligence from conversation mining
- Deal boards informed by actual conversation signals
Clari's Core Strength: Forecasting and Pipeline Management
Clari built its reputation on making sales forecasts accurate. It ingests CRM data, email activity, calendar signals, and (now) conversation data to predict which deals will close and when. Clari's AI focuses on pipeline trends, deal risk, and forecast roll-ups that help leadership make capacity decisions.
Where Clari shines:
- Forecast accuracy improvement (their central value prop)
- Pipeline trend analysis over time
- Deal inspection with multi-signal risk scoring
- Board-ready reporting and forecast snapshots
- Revenue operations workflow automation
Where They Overlap (and Where They Don't)
Both platforms now offer:
- Deal management / deal boards
- AI-powered deal risk scoring
- Conversation intelligence (Clari via Wingman acquisition)
- Revenue forecasting
- CRM integration
But the depth varies significantly. Gong's conversation analytics are 2-3 years ahead of Clari Copilot. Clari's forecasting methodology is more sophisticated than Gong Forecast. Each platform is expanding into the other's territory, but their core competencies remain distinct.
Key differences:
| Capability | Gong | Clari |
|---|---|---|
| Conversation recording & analysis | ★★★★★ | ★★★ |
| Forecast accuracy | ★★★ | ★★★★★ |
| Deal inspection | ★★★★ | ★★★★ |
| Manager coaching tools | ★★★★★ | ★★ |
| Pipeline trend analysis | ★★★ | ★★★★★ |
| Ease of implementation | ★★★ | ★★ |
| Time to value | ★★★★ | ★★★ |
Pricing Comparison
Both are enterprise-priced with no public pricing:
- Gong: $100-200/user/month, $50K+ minimum annual contract. Full pricing breakdown
- Clari: $80-180/user/month, $50K+ minimum annual contract. Full pricing breakdown
For a 100-person sales team, expect $150K-300K annually for either platform. When you add both, you're looking at $300K-500K in revenue intelligence tooling alone.
Who Should Choose Gong
- Your primary pain point is understanding what happens on sales calls
- You want to build a data-driven coaching program for managers
- Conversation intelligence is your entry point into revenue intelligence
- You have a large enough call volume to make recording worthwhile (50+ calls/week)
Who Should Choose Clari
- Your primary pain point is forecast accuracy for board reporting
- You need better pipeline visibility for capacity planning
- Revenue operations is driving the purchase decision
- You already have conversation recording or don't prioritize it
The Third Option: Neither
Both Gong and Clari are built for leadership visibility. They help VPs, CROs, and RevOps teams understand what's happening across the organization. What they don't do well is help individual reps sell better in their day-to-day.
If your actual problem is "my reps need help identifying which deals to focus on and what to do next," Pingd takes a fundamentally different approach. Instead of analyzing conversations after they happen or forecasting pipeline for leadership, Pingd acts as an AI teammate for each rep — proactively researching prospects, scoring deals, and recommending next steps.
For a detailed look at how Pingd compares to each platform: Pingd vs Gong | Pingd vs Clari