The 7 Best Sales Forecasting Tools in 2026
The best sales forecasting tool depends on the decision you need to make. Forecast submissions and rollups, conversation-informed deal reviews, and connected financial planning are different jobs. Start with the gap in your current process, then test a shortlist against your own Salesforce data.
This guide compares seven options by buyer fit. It does not rank measured forecast accuracy: no controlled head-to-head benchmark is presented. Revenue.io is relevant when the gap is the evidence and execution behind a deal review; a dedicated forecast or planning product may still be needed for other requirements.
Quick comparison: seven forecasting options
| Option | Buyer fit | Evaluation priority |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue.io | Conversation-informed deal review for Salesforce teams | Trace deal concerns to calls and agreed next steps |
| Clari Forecast, under Salesloft | Forecast management and leadership review | Submission workflow, hierarchy and historical snapshots |
| Gong Forecast | Forecasting alongside conversation and deal evidence | Forecast licenses and interaction coverage |
| Terret, formerly BoostUp | Revenue intelligence and forecast evaluation | Current product scope, CRM mapping and historical data |
| Mediafly, with InsightSquared heritage | Revenue intelligence and forecast workflows | Current Forecasting module and migration requirements |
| Aviso | AI-supported revenue forecasting | Supported models, explanations and backtesting |
| Anaplan | Connected sales and financial planning | Planning model ownership and ERP/CRM integration |
Choose the forecasting job before the software
Forecast management: leaders need submissions, categories, rollups and a record of changes. Ask how rep, manager and executive views reconcile, especially across territories and currencies.
Deal inspection: managers need to understand why a deal is likely to close. Activity counts alone do not establish buyer commitment. Review the conversation evidence, stakeholders, unresolved objections and next step behind the forecast.
Connected planning: finance may need bookings, revenue recognition, capacity and scenario planning in a shared model. This requires different data and ownership from a weekly opportunity review. Define whether you forecast new bookings, recurring revenue, renewals or consumption before comparing products.
1. Revenue.io: conversation-informed Salesforce deal review
Evaluate Revenue.io when a manager can see an opportunity amount and close date but cannot tell what happened in the sales conversation. Conversation AI and AI Generative Scorecards can support review of eligible interactions; Moments live guidance addresses the rep’s execution during supported conversations.
In the pilot, choose a deal marked for this quarter. Find the interaction supporting its next step, inspect the associated Salesforce record and ask the rep to resolve the outstanding concern. Verify capture, permissions and licensed modules. Do not assume conversation analysis supplies every forecast submission, snapshot or planning capability your team requires.
Best fit: a Salesforce team that needs better evidence and follow-through in deal reviews. Compare any separate forecasting-system requirement independently.
2. Clari Forecast: forecast management under Salesloft
Clari Forecast retains its product name under the Salesloft brand following the merger. Evaluate it for forecast management, reporting hierarchy and leadership review. Salesloft and Clari are one supplier; that does not mean every feature is included in the same package or that every integration is already complete.
Bring your territory hierarchy, forecast categories and adjustment policy. Demonstrate how an individual submission becomes a manager rollup, how changes are retained and what happens when an opportunity moves between owners. Check the products and implementation scope named in the quote.
3. Gong Forecast: forecasting with conversation context
Gong distinguishes Core, Forecast and Engage plans. A Core conversation-intelligence seat should not be assumed to include Gong Forecast. Evaluate the Forecast package when you want leadership review connected to the interaction and deal evidence available in Gong.
Test a deal with incomplete capture and one with conflicting rep and buyer signals. Inspect the supporting evidence, manager adjustments and Salesforce reconciliation. Check which meetings and calls are eligible, how quickly changes appear and whether historical comparisons match your review cadence.
4. Terret: the current name of BoostUp
BoostUp has rebranded as Terret. Use the current product name when requesting demos, documentation and a proposal. For an existing BoostUp customer, establish which configuration, contract and migration requirements apply.
Evaluate the present forecast workflow against your own operating model rather than assuming an older BoostUp feature list still describes every package. Ask the supplier to demonstrate the data inputs, explanations for deal changes and a historical review at the same horizon your managers use.
5. Mediafly: forecast workflows with InsightSquared heritage
Mediafly acquired InsightSquared, so buying an independent InsightSquared product from an old comparison can be misleading. Mediafly’s current platform documentation includes Forecasting navigation. Confirm the module, data prerequisites and commercial scope available to a new customer.
Show the supplier the reports your team actually uses, including the exception report for stale close dates. Ask who owns field mapping and how existing historical data is migrated. If coaching is also required, evaluate that workflow separately from forecast reporting.
6. Aviso: AI-supported forecasting
Aviso is an option to evaluate for AI-supported revenue forecasting. A model’s headline accuracy claim is not a reliable estimate for your own sales cycle. Request a demonstration using a clearly defined outcome, forecast horizon and set of historical inputs.
Check whether the model can explain a material change in a way your manager can investigate. Separate model output from rep submissions and manager adjustments. Agree on how limited history, unusual large deals and business-model changes will be handled before rollout.
7. Anaplan: connected planning
Anaplan is relevant when sales forecasting must connect with broader business planning. Its sales-forecasting documentation describes planning with CRM and ERP inputs. The key buying question is who will build, maintain and govern the model.
Use a scenario such as a territory change or a delayed major contract. Ask how the change flows into sales capacity and financial assumptions. Budget for model design, data integration and ongoing administration alongside licenses; a flexible planning model requires an accountable owner.
Backtest fairly before choosing a forecasting tool
- Define the outcome: specify bookings, recognized revenue or another measure, the currency and the treatment of renewals and cancellations.
- Freeze the horizon: compare forecasts made at the same point, such as four weeks before quarter-end. Use only information available at that date; a later CRM export can leak the outcome into the test.
- Use several closed periods: include both ordinary quarters and unusual ones. Track the effect of a single large deal separately.
- Compare baselines: keep rep submissions, manager adjustments and model outputs distinct. A new system should be assessed against the process it would replace.
- Record error and bias: for a nonzero actual, absolute percentage error is |forecast − actual| ÷ |actual| × 100. Also record signed error to see persistent over- or under-forecasting. When actual is zero, report an absolute currency difference rather than dividing by zero.
Illustrative example: a forecast of $1.2 million against $1 million in actual bookings has a $200,000 absolute error and 20% absolute percentage error. That calculation describes one period; it does not establish a vendor’s accuracy. Check your finance team’s preferred aggregation method before combining results across periods.
Implementation and total-cost checklist
Inventory opportunity stages, close-date history, forecast categories, owner hierarchy, currencies and missing fields. Identify whether reliable point-in-time data exists before promising a historical test. Resolve conflicting definitions with sales operations and finance.
Request itemized costs for seats, required modules, integration, historical-data migration, onboarding, support and internal administration. Establish an owner for mapping failures and a process for correcting bad source data. Agree on acceptable reconciliation and review time in the pilot, rather than relying on an unsupported implementation timeline.
Frequently asked questions
Can a conversation tool replace a forecasting system?
Only if it meets the forecast requirements you actually use. Conversation evidence can improve a deal review, but submissions, rollups, snapshots and planning should each be demonstrated rather than assumed.
Which option is best for Salesforce?
Test the Salesforce associations and operating workflow, not just the existence of an integration. The best fit depends on your forecasting job, data quality, licensed package and administration capacity.
Make the next forecast review more useful
If the gap is understanding and acting on sales conversations, explore Revenue.io for Salesforce teams and Revenue.io pricing and package options. Bring a representative deal, the evidence your manager needs and the next action your rep should complete. Evaluate that workflow alongside any dedicated forecast or planning requirement.
Sources and product documentation
Product names and package boundaries checked October 7, 2026. Confirm the configuration in your proposal before purchasing.