The 10 Best Salesforce Einstein & Sales Engagement Alternatives & Competitors
A Salesforce Einstein alternative is not one category of software. Einstein covers several capabilities, while Salesforce Sales Engagement includes cadence workflows and Einstein Conversation Insights analyzes eligible voice and video conversations. First identify which capability is falling short; then compare products that solve that job.
These ten product and workflow options include both replacements for a specific capability and complementary tools. Salesloft and Clari are one supplier, with distinct product names and buying requirements. None of these choices is presented as a replacement for the Salesforce CRM itself.
If your requirement is specifically outbound cadences, use the focused Salesforce sales engagement tools comparison. Continue below when you need to separate engagement, conversation review, activity capture, and forecasting before deciding what to replace.
Define what you are replacing
Sales Engagement: evaluate cadence steps, rep work queues, call and email execution, enrollment and stop rules. A meeting recorder alone will not reproduce that process.
Einstein Conversation Insights: evaluate capture, transcription, conversation insights and coaching review. Salesforce already analyzes conversation content in this product, so a useful comparison must demonstrate a specific workflow difference.
Activity capture: evaluate eligible interactions, associations, visibility and retention. Do not assume an integration writes every interaction to every Salesforce record.
Forecasting: evaluate submissions, rollups, history and management review independently. A forecast tool may complement Sales Engagement rather than replace it.
Quick comparison: ten product and workflow options
| Option | Buyer fit | Evaluation priority |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue.io | Salesforce calling, live guidance and follow-through | Supported channels, record associations and required modules |
| Gong Core / Engage | Conversation review or engagement | Core versus Engage licenses and execution workflow |
| Outreach | Engagement and conversation assistance | Sequence logic, Kaia and Salesforce integration |
| Salesloft Cadence / Conversations | Engagement and conversation review | Cadence ownership, supported channels and package |
| Clari Forecast, under Salesloft | Forecast management | A complementary forecasting need, not cadence replacement |
| Aviso | Revenue intelligence and forecast evaluation | Required models, source data and administration |
| Aircall | Sales/support calling | AI Assist Pro, call routing and CRM workflow |
| Dialpad | Calling and coaching | Sell/Support package and scoring requirements |
| Backstory, formerly People.ai | Revenue intelligence evaluation | Current scope and interaction-data requirements |
| Apollo | Prospecting and outbound execution | Contact data, sequences, dialer and CRM governance |
1. Revenue.io: Salesforce sales execution
Evaluate Revenue.io when reps need Salesforce calling, Moments live guidance and Guided Selling sequences for follow-through after the conversation. Conversation AI and AI Generative Scorecards support eligible review and coaching workflows.
Demonstrate the complete path from a Salesforce record to a supported call, configured guidance, associated interaction and follow-up. Verify the required modules and permissions. The buying case is whether these steps fit your team’s process and reduce a demonstrated gap; do not assume every existing Salesforce capability needs replacing.
Trade-off: a broader execution platform needs a rollout owner. If your current Salesforce setup meets the requirement, improved configuration may be the more useful next step.
Watch the Guided Selling walkthrough to see the rep workflow before defining your pilot. Then test enrollment, task completion, reply handling, and stopping rules with your own Salesforce configuration.
2. Gong: separate conversation review from engagement
Gong’s documented plans distinguish Core, Forecast and Engage. Evaluate Core for conversation and deal review, and Engage for the applicable engagement workflow. Gong should not be dismissed as a product with no engagement capability.
Have a rep execute the proposed outbound workflow and a manager review the resulting conversation. Confirm which plan and seat cover each step, how Salesforce associations work and who owns exceptions. Request the actual quote rather than relying on an uncited per-seat price from a comparison.
3. Outreach: engagement with Kaia assistance
Outreach combines engagement workflows with conversation intelligence, including Kaia live assistance. Compare the supported channel, configured content and rep experience with the assistance your team needs.
Test sequence enrollment, completion, reply handling and ownership changes. During a representative call, inspect what appears live and what is generated afterward. Check Salesforce field mapping and the process for an interaction that cannot be associated confidently with a record.
4. Salesloft: cadence and conversation workflows
Evaluate Salesloft Cadence and Conversations for engagement and review requirements. Decide which system will own enrollment, tasks and stop conditions when Salesforce already has related workflows.
Use an account with multiple contacts and an existing open opportunity. Demonstrate how the rep avoids duplicate outreach and how the manager retrieves the relevant conversation. Verify the package and integration; a shared supplier brand does not establish that every capability is included.
5. Clari Forecast: a complementary forecasting requirement
Clari Forecast remains a product name under Salesloft. Consider it when the unmet job is forecast management rather than sales cadences. It belongs in a broader revenue-stack evaluation, but should not be counted as a second independent supplier alongside Salesloft.
Ask for the submission and rollup workflow, historical changes and manager adjustment controls. If cadence execution is your only problem, narrow the shortlist instead of buying a forecast product to solve an engagement issue.
6. Aviso: evaluate the revenue-intelligence job
Aviso is relevant to an AI-supported revenue-intelligence and forecasting evaluation. Specify the decision the manager cannot currently make, the data required and the expected output.
Test model explanations and historical results at the same horizon as the current forecast process. If the requirement is outbound cadence execution, demonstrate that exact workflow before treating a broader intelligence platform as a substitute.
7. Aircall: calling with AI Assist Pro
Aircall’s AI Assist Pro materials describe live assistance, playbooks and custom scorecards. Compare those capabilities with your calling requirement rather than assuming Aircall has no coaching layer.
Test inbound routing, an outbound call, transfers and the resulting CRM record. Check the AI Assist Pro package, supported workflows and administration. A successful phone integration alone does not prove it replaces your email cadence or forecast process.
8. Dialpad: choose the applicable sales or support package
Dialpad documents AI Scorecards for Sell and Support. Verify the relevant product and package instead of treating every Dialpad license as equivalent.
Ask a manager to define a scorecard, inspect the supporting interaction and send actionable feedback. Demonstrate the phone and Salesforce workflow separately, including a missed call and an ambiguous record association. Include usage and AI requirements in the proposal.
9. Backstory: the current People.ai identity
People.ai is now Backstory. Request current product documentation and a demonstration against your revenue-intelligence requirements; an old People.ai feature list is not sufficient evidence for a new purchase.
Start with the interaction data and account relationships you need to understand. Confirm the sources, permissions, associations and outputs. Evaluate cadence execution and conversation capture separately rather than assuming either from the presence of revenue intelligence.
10. Apollo: prospecting and outbound execution
Apollo offers sales-engagement workflows including sequences and a dialer. Its sequence documentation includes email, phone and social tasks; a social task should not be confused with an automatically sent social message.
Evaluate contact-data suitability, CRM deduplication and field ownership alongside execution. Run a test record through enrollment, outreach and completion, then inspect Salesforce. Ask how a rep stops outreach after a reply or meeting and how suppression rules are applied.
Pilot the entire lead-to-next-step workflow
Use this illustrative evaluation scenario: an inbound demo request enters Salesforce, is assigned to a rep, receives a call, and produces an agreed next step. Use approved test data and keep existing production forms unchanged.
- Assignment: confirm the record owner and which system controls enrollment. Test reassignment before the first activity.
- Execution: complete the actual call or email step. Observe any live assistance on the supported channel.
- Evidence: retrieve the eligible conversation, inspect the CRM association and distinguish a draft from an automatically executed action.
- Stopping: reply, book a meeting or mark the lead ineligible. Confirm that the applicable workflow stops rather than continuing duplicate outreach.
- Failure handling: remove a permission or use an ambiguous match. Check whether the issue is visible and who resolves it.
Have both a rep and a Salesforce administrator approve the result. The manager needs usable feedback; the administrator needs clear ownership, associations and failure handling. A feature checkbox does not demonstrate either.
If your immediate requirement is reporting continuity rather than replacing a product, use the Einstein Activity Capture reporting migration checklist to inventory affected outputs, define replacement metrics, and test the transition.
Compare total cost and migration effort
List the Salesforce licenses you would retain, modules you would add and tools you could actually retire. Include seats, usage, AI packages, implementation, data migration, support and internal administration. Do not use a public starting price as the total cost of the configuration.
Inventory cadence templates, recordings, scorecards, integration mappings and retention requirements. Assign an owner to each migrated asset. Roll out to a representative pilot group, reconcile records and agree on rollback criteria before expanding.
Frequently asked questions
Does Salesforce Einstein analyze calls?
Einstein Conversation Insights analyzes eligible voice and video conversations. Compare the specific insight and coaching workflow rather than assuming Salesforce cannot analyze conversation content.
Can a third-party tool replace Sales Engagement?
It may replace particular engagement workflows if the supported steps, enrollment, execution, stopping rules and CRM integration meet your requirements. Some tools on this list address a complementary forecasting or intelligence job.
Should we replace a tool or improve its configuration?
Reproduce the gap in a pilot first. If permissions, field mapping or workflow ownership are the cause, changing suppliers can reproduce the same problem. Compare configuration improvements with replacement costs.
Choose around your Salesforce workflow
For a Salesforce execution requirement, review Revenue.io for Salesforce teams and pricing and package options. Bring the steps your team needs to complete, the existing licenses you plan to retain and the specific gap the new configuration must address.
Ready to test the fit? Book a Salesforce workflow demo and bring one representative record, your current cadence or coaching process, and the pass/fail criteria from the pilot above.
Sources and product documentation
Product names and package boundaries checked October 7, 2026. Confirm the configuration in your proposal before purchasing.