Gainsight manages your CS strategy. BackEngine makes sure it actually gets executed.
Gainsight gives your team the framework to manage customer success at scale — health scores, journey orchestration, renewal tracking. BackEngine connects the customer interactions that happen outside Gainsight and turns them into execution your team can act on. Together, they close the gap between strategy and what actually happens in every account.
An honest comparison
Different tools for different jobs. Here's how they compare.
| Capability | Gainsight |  |
|---|---|---|
| Core purpose | Manage the customer success lifecycle — health scores, journeys, renewals, surveys, and adoption analytics | Connect every customer interaction across channels, surface risk and opportunity, and help teams execute consistently |
| Data model | Structured data from CRM, product usage, and manual CSM inputs. Strong when data is clean and well-maintained | Unstructured interaction data from email, calls, Slack, meetings, and support tickets. Captures context that never makes it into structured systems |
| Health scoring | Configurable multi-factor health scores based on usage, survey, and CRM data | Conversation-driven health signals based on sentiment, engagement patterns, and relationship context across all channels |
| Execution support | Journey Orchestrator automates workflows and playbook steps based on triggers and segments | Drafts deliverables (QBRs, briefs, follow-ups), monitors execution drift, and ensures playbooks are followed in day-to-day interactions |
| Setup and time to value | Enterprise implementation typically takes weeks to months. Requires dedicated admin resources and clean CRM data | Connects via OAuth in under 30 minutes. Starts surfacing insights from historical data on day one |
| Best for | CS teams that need a comprehensive platform to manage the entire post-sales lifecycle at enterprise scale | CS teams that need to centralize scattered customer context and ensure consistent execution across every account |
BackEngine doesn't replace Gainsight. It captures the customer interactions that happen outside Gainsight and ensures the strategies you build actually get executed in every account.
What Gainsight does well
Gainsight is the market leader in customer success platforms for good reason.
Comprehensive lifecycle management
Gainsight provides end-to-end tools for managing the customer journey — from onboarding through renewal. Journey Orchestrator lets you design and automate complex multi-step workflows across your entire customer base.
Powerful health scoring
Gainsight's configurable health scores combine product usage, survey data, and CRM signals into a single view. For teams with clean, structured data, this provides a strong foundation for prioritization.
Enterprise scale
Gainsight is built for large CS organizations managing thousands of accounts. Its segmentation, automation, and reporting capabilities are designed to handle complexity at scale.
Ecosystem and community
With a large customer base and active community, Gainsight offers extensive resources, best practices, and peer learning opportunities that help CS teams continuously improve.
Where BackEngine adds a new layer
BackEngine is the connective layer that brings all of your customer interactions into one place — including the ones that never make it into Gainsight.
Capture the context that lives outside your CSP
The most important customer signals often happen in email threads, Slack messages, and call conversations — not in structured CRM fields. BackEngine automatically captures and analyzes these interactions so your health scores reflect what's actually happening, not just what got logged.
Turn strategy into daily execution
Gainsight helps you design the playbook. BackEngine helps your team actually run it. It monitors for execution drift, drafts deliverables like QBRs and follow-ups, and ensures every CSM is consistently executing the steps that drive retention and growth.
Eliminate manual data entry
One of the most common Gainsight challenges is keeping data current. BackEngine removes this burden by automatically capturing interaction data from every channel, so your team spends time on customers instead of on updating records.
Get value on day one
BackEngine connects via OAuth in under 30 minutes and immediately processes historical data. There's no multi-week implementation, no admin configuration, and no dependency on CRM data quality.
Better together: How Gainsight + BackEngine works
BackEngine connects to your communication channels
Email, Slack, calls, meetings, and support tickets are automatically captured and analyzed. BackEngine builds a complete picture of every customer relationship from the interactions that happen every day.
BackEngine surfaces what your team needs to act on
When BackEngine detects a key risk, an expansion opportunity, or a shift in customer sentiment, it surfaces the insight with full context — so your team knows exactly what's happening and can take action immediately.
Your team executes consistently, every time
BackEngine drafts QBRs, pre-call briefs, and follow-ups. It monitors whether your playbook is being followed and alerts you when execution drifts. Gainsight tells you what to do; BackEngine helps your team actually do it.
Teams using BackEngine see real results
Crayon
Crayon's 11-person CS team was spending 12-15 hours per week per CSM pulling together information from Slack, emails, and call notes. Important signals were buried in the noise.
BackEngine helped us identify risks early, save time, and exceed retention targets by 11%.
Make Gainsight more powerful with BackEngine
Connect in 30 minutes. See value on day one. No changes to your existing Gainsight workflows.
