In our evaluation, we have assessed the three platforms across the top 5 factors that are most important to consider when scaling Customer Success:
Visibility, health and analytics capabilities: Does the platform allow you to get a full view of all your accounts and understand their health?
Automation and digital CS capabilities: How well does the platform allow you to automate user journeys, eliminate manual data and put internal workflows on autopilot?
Project management and collaboration capabilities: How well does the platform allow you to collaborate with customers when managing mutual projects such as onboardings and implementations
Support and services: How responsive and helpful is the vendor when providing services
Pricing: How cost-effective and scaleable is the pricing model?
ChurnZero and Vitally are both solid Customer Success Platforms. For Customer Success teams looking for an alternative that can provide them with high customer data visibility along with an easy-to-use interface and white-glove services, Velaris is a great alternative.
Let’s break down the key points of difference between ChurnZero and Vitally so you can make an informed decision.
1. Visibility, health and analytics
Both ChurnZero and Vitally offer visibility and health management features that help CS teams organize, prioritize and proactively manage their customers. These features include:
→ Customer 360 view
→ Filters and segmentation tools
→ Customizable health scores
→ Reports on customer data and internal team performance
However, there are some advantages and disadvantages to each platform that buyers may want to consider:
ChurnZero
- Large portfolio of integrations: ChurnZero has over 65 possible integrations.
- Customer Briefs: ChurnZero’s AI-powered Customer Briefs can aggregate a customer's essential details, interactions, and activity into a concise summary.
- Limited account visibility: ChurnZero only has layers for accounts and contacts
- Lack of AI-based sentiment analysis: ChurnZero does not have AI features to flag sentiment in customer communications.
- Outdated interface: ChurnZero’s UI is complex and less intuitive than most other platforms in the market, making it difficult to navigate.
Vitally
- Easy and quick integrations: Native integrations are simple to set up.
- Lack of pipeline dashboard: Vitally has no dashboard to track opportunities like expansions and upsells.
- Limitations in integrations: The integrations available are limited. Additionally, many tools do not integrate directly and workarounds are required.
How does Velaris compare to both ChurnZero and Vitally?
- Customer data consolidation, filters and segmentation, 360-degree profiles, and customizable health scores: Find every piece of customer data you need on a sleek and intuitive interface.
- Full visibility across multiple account layers: Your customer data can be organized into contact, account AND organization level hierarchies in Velaris, right out of the box. Additional layers and relationships can also be created through custom objects. Track your customers progress across lifecycle stages and get a quick view of recent activities.
- Unlimited integrations: Velaris will connect to any of your tools. If a custom integration is required, the Velaris team will handle the technical implementation for you.
- Lack of self-service reports: During implementation, the Velaris team will set up reporting dashboards for you. However, if you need to customize these reports, you will need to reach out to the team, who will update and publish the new versions within a couple of hours.
2. Automation, productivity, and digital CS
ChurnZero and Vitally both offer a suite of tools that help CS teams save time and scale their operations while retaining the human touch. These tools include:
✅ Automation builder
✅Playbooks for key processes
✅ Product walkthroughs
Once again, there are some advantages and disadvantages to each platform that buyers may want to consider:
ChurnZero
- Customer journeys: ChurnZero has flexibility to design structured workflows for key touchpoints like onboarding, renewals, and engagement.
- Basic tasks feature: Churnzero does not have a board view of tasks, and users report that it is difficult to sort through multiple tasks.
- Limitations in automation builder: ChurnZero can only automate simple processes, and lacks flexibility.
Vitally
- Hubs: Vitally allows the creation of customizable internal workspaces where specific pages and views can be added. For example, onboarding hubs and account management hubs are commonly used workspaces.
- Notes: Important details from customer interactions can be documented using Vitally’s Notes feature. Templates for Notes are available to standardize documentation.
How does Velaris compare to Vitally and ChurnZero?
- The most intuitive automation builder: Build automations on a Zapier-like drag-and-drop canvas. Automate entire customer journey flows, data entry tasks, and advocacy programs.
- Comprehensive set of AI tools that take manual work off your plate: Summarize customer communications, monitor customer sentiment and analyze tickets. All on autopilot.
- Automated email communications with Gmail and Outlook integration: Sync your email communications with your email service provider.
- Lack of in-app communications builder: Velaris only offers email communications at the moment.
3. Project management and collaboration capabilities
Both ChurnZero and Vitally offer project management features like task management and playbooks.
Here are a few more things to consider:
ChurnZero
- Success Centers: ChurnZero provides a centralized hub for customers to access self-service resources, onboarding guides, and proactive support.
- Limited email communications functionality: ChurnZero does not have automated bulk email campaigns.
- Lack of template builder: ChurnZero does not have a template builder for communications or presentations.
Vitally
- Mutual action plans: Vitally’s “Projects” work as shared success plans for customers and CSMs to collaborate on.
- Collaborative workspace: “Docs” in Vitally is a Notion-like space that can be used for collaboration and document sharing.
- Lack of automatic Success Plan KPI-tracking: Success Plans do not track outcomes automatically.
- Lack of AI writing assistant: Vitally does not have a built-in AI writing assistant to help with communications.
How does Velaris compare to ChurnZero and Vitally?
- Task management, success plans and playbooks.
- Automatic KPI-tracking for Success Plans: Track the impact of your projects and account plans in real time with KPIs that are updated automatically.
- Frictionless customer portal: Velaris’ customer portal comes with a widget that can be embedded in your product’s interface. This eliminates the need for your customers to log in to a separate workspace, and can instead access their portal tasks and messages through an in-app window.
- Lack of document sharing capabilities: Velaris does not yet offer the ability to share files and documents through the customer portal, although this feature is in development.
4. Training, support and services
Each vendor carries a slightly different approach to support and services. Here’s a full breakdown of their offerings:
ChurnZero
- Included support and training: ChurnZero also has support and training included in the subscription.
- High quality support: ChurnZero’s customers generally seem to approve of the support they receive.
Vitally
- Included support and training: Vitally has support and training included in the subscription.
- Knowledge base: Vitally provides an expansive library of self-service training resources from help center articles, live data assistance, templates.
- Lack of personalized consultations: Vitally leans towards self-service, meaning you may not receive support tailored to your needs.
How does Velaris compare to ChurnZero and Vitally?
- Effortless implementations: With an average go-live time of 4 weeks, Velaris’ implementation periods are at the top of the industry. You will have a dedicated team that will handle the heavy lifting on the technical side, even if custom integrations are required.
- Personalized onboarding + consultation: The Velaris team will consult with you to understand your specific needs and build out the early playbooks and automations for you, giving you a solid foundation to start on.
- Knowledge base: Access all help articles within a searchable knowledge base.
- Responsive feature development: Velaris is highly responsive to new feature requests and suggestions for feature improvements.
5. Pricing
ChurnZero
ChurnZero offers customized pricing tailored to the specific needs of each organization, taking into account factors such as the number of users, customer accounts, and desired features.
For precise pricing information, it's recommended to contact ChurnZero directly to receive a quote based on your organization's unique needs.
The median contract price according to Vendr is around $42,675.
Vitally
Vitally has three pricing plans: Tech-Touch, Hybrid-Touch, and High-Touch. The Tech-Touch plan is meant for scaling with one-to-many & PLG Customer Success. The Hybrid-Touch plan is designed for scaling with any model of Customer Success. And the High-Touch plan is suited for scaling with one-to-one Customer Success.
All plans include Vitally Core Features, Unlimited Automations, Unlimited Observer Seats, Single Sign-on, Full Integration Library, and Unlimited Docs.
The average contract price according to Vendr is around $44,524.
Velaris
Velaris offers a full suite of features for a flat base platform fee with 5 users. As their team grows, you can buy more user licenses for your CSMs, making Velaris a scalable option for fast-growing teams.
Final recommendations
To sum up, ChurnZero and Vitally are both good options for Customer Success teams looking to scale their operations. Both platforms offer visibility, health, project management and automation capabilities.
ChurnZero stands out for its large base of integrations and excellent support, but lacks flexibility and advanced features in automation, task management and communication. It is also reported to have outdated UI and low ease of use.
Vitally is a great choice for companies that need quick, easy integrations and efficient automation capabilities. However, it has some limitations in pipeline management, and Success Plan monitoring.
In addition to ChurnZero and Vitally, Velaris is also a strong contender in the Customer Success space. Velaris’ Customer Success Platform offers all the capabilities that a high-growth CS team requires. Their customers also benefit from highly responsive, attentive and personalized service that adapts the platform to their specific needs, drives ROI fast and makes implementation easy.
If you're looking for a flexible, scalable solution designed to help you manage Customer Success with ease, book a demo today and see how Velaris can support your team.
