The quarter closes 18% under the number you gave the board. In the post-mortem, every deal that slipped had a reason, and every reason was visible in the records weeks earlier: a close date pushed three times, a champion who stopped replying, a legal review nobody logged. The forecast didn't miss because nobody looked. It missed because the number was assembled from rep judgment on Monday and defended by the CRO on Thursday, and the evidence sat in a different place from the number.
That is the moment most teams start shopping for sales forecasting software. Buy the wrong platform and you pay for AI projections that inherit the same stale close dates, plus a year of rollout before anyone admits it. Pick well and the weekly call shifts from defending numbers to discussing the three deals that actually moved.
The three statistics come from different years and methods. Gartner's State of Sales Operations survey (February 2020) also found only 47% of respondents believed their organization had high-quality data. Xactly surveyed 405 North American sales and finance leaders in March 2024; Gong surveyed 928 sales and revenue professionals for its 2022 Reality of Forecasting report. Two of the three come from vendors that sell forecasting software.
How we evaluated sales forecasting software
VANDFORT publishes this guide, and VANDFORT builds the Forecast Assistant, a custom forecasting system, so we are one of the options here and have a stake in the outcome. To keep the comparison honest, we fixed five criteria before reviewing any vendor and applied them to every option, including our own.
| Criterion | What we look for |
|---|---|
| Evidence behind the number | Whether each forecast change can be traced to a specific deal and a specific change in the records, or only to a model score. |
| Data the forecast reads | CRM fields only, or also call recordings, email, calendar and product signals. |
| Fit for team size | How much process, admin time and rep adoption the tool needs before it pays back. |
| Dependence on CRM hygiene | How badly the forecast degrades when close dates, stages and amounts are stale. |
| Pricing model | Published price or pricing model, as of October 2026, and what you must already own to buy it. |
We weight the first criterion most heavily. A forecast you can't explain to a board is a forecast you will override by hand, and once leaders override it, the tool becomes a dashboard. Vendors are described only from their own product, pricing and documentation pages or dated independent reporting, as of October 2026. Naming a vendor is not an endorsement, and we don't rank anyone first.
The sales forecasting software options compared
| Option | Best for | Strengths | Limits | Pricing model, as of October 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clari Forecast (Salesloft) | Multi-team sales orgs with a weekly forecast cadence | Forecasting is Clari's original product; AI Forecast Agent; filters by bookings, renewals, region and segment | Now part of a merged company with a broader suite to navigate | Pricing not published |
| Gong Forecast | Teams already recording calls in Gong | Deal predictions use conversation signals, not just CRM fields; two packages | Value depends on call and email capture across the team | Pricing not published; per-user licences plus a platform fee |
| Terret (formerly BoostUp) | Teams that want a machine forecast plus revenue agents | Machine Forecast with deal-health rollups; weekly forecast narrative | Repositioned as a broader agent platform in 2025 | Pricing not published; free 48-hour proof of concept |
| Native CRM forecasting | Teams under roughly 40 reps on Salesforce or HubSpot | Already licensed; forecast categories, rollups, adjustments, submissions | Only as good as the stage and close-date data reps enter | Included in Salesforce Professional and above; HubSpot Sales Hub or Service Hub Professional and Enterprise |
| VANDFORT Forecast Assistant | $3M to $30M ARR teams that need a traceable number | Every change traced to the deal behind it; tested on your last four closed quarters | An engagement, not self-serve software; one system at a time | System pricing not published |
Clari Forecast, now sold by Salesloft
Clari and Salesloft announced their agreement to merge in August 2025, and as of October 2026 Clari's forecasting product is presented on Salesloft's website under the name Clari Forecast. The page describes an AI Forecast Agent to help you "commit to a number you can trust," risk detection on deals, and forecasts you can filter by bookings, renewals, region, segment, account size or time period. Forecasting was Clari's first product: roll-ups by team, manager calls and deal inspection in one weekly workflow.
Salesloft does not publish pricing for it. The main thing to check is scope. Since the merger, Clari Forecast sits next to a sales engagement platform, a conversation product and a chat product, so make sure the proposal you get is for the forecasting you need. Clari is better suited to organisations with several sales teams and a formal weekly call than to a single team of eight reps.
Gong Forecast
Gong sells forecasting in two packages, as of October 2026. Forecast Essentials includes unlimited deal boards, an AI Deal Reviewer, win-loss insights and deal drivers. Gong Forecast adds forecast submission, an AI Deal Predictor, forecast analytics and an AI Revenue Predictor. Gong says it uses "300+ unique signals" to predict deal outcomes with 20% more precision than algorithms based on CRM data; that is the vendor's own claim and we have not seen an independent test of it.
The distinctive point is the data. Gong's predictions draw on recorded calls and emails, so a deal where the buyer has gone quiet looks different from one with an active thread, even if the CRM stage is the same. Gong's 2022 survey found organisations using insights from customer interactions were twice as likely to report accuracy within 5% of their monthly forecast (22% against 11% for those relying on seller-entered data). Pricing is not published; Gong prices licences per user with a platform fee based on the number of users. Gong Forecast is better suited to teams that already capture most customer conversations in Gong than to teams that would buy recording just to forecast.
Terret, formerly BoostUp
BoostUp rebranded as Terret in September 2025 and repositioned from a forecasting tool to a broader platform of AI revenue agents. Forecasting continues as Terret Forecast, described as "machine-precision pipeline forecasting," with a Machine Forecast that scores deal health and builds roll-ups, and a weekly narrative of headwinds, tailwinds and deal movement for the CRO. The September 2025 launch also introduced agents for pipeline building, sales process and mutual action plans.
Terret does not publish pricing. It offers a free 48-hour proof of concept that analyses last quarter's closed-lost deals. Older reviews still use the BoostUp name. Terret is better suited to teams that want forecasting and deal agents from one vendor than to teams that only want a forecast roll-up.
Native forecasting in Salesforce and HubSpot
Before you buy a platform, look at what you already pay for. Salesforce Forecasting, also called Collaborative Forecasts, is available in Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited and Developer editions and offers live forecast rollups, AI predictions and historical trends, with forecast categories that follow opportunity stages and manager adjustments. HubSpot's forecast tool, documented as of September 2026, is included in Sales Hub and Service Hub Professional and Enterprise. It groups deals into forecast categories, tracks team progress toward goals and flags reps who haven't updated their forecast within a set number of days.
The limit is the same for both: the forecast is a roll-up of what reps enter. If close dates are stale and stages are optimistic, the native forecast is precisely wrong. For a team under roughly 40 reps, that is often a data problem rather than a tooling problem, and a platform priced per seat will not fix it.
VANDFORT Forecast Assistant: the evidence-based alternative
The Forecast Assistant is a custom system we build inside your stack. It builds the weekly forecast from the records themselves, shows what changed since last week and traces every change to the deal that caused it. It flags where its own confidence is low, and it does not adjust a number to make a quarter look better. Before it forecasts a live quarter, it runs against your last four closed quarters; it ships at 85 percent or it does not ship. It runs on read-only access to your systems of record until you choose to widen it.
It depends on clean deal data, so we usually pair it with the Pipeline Hygiene Sentinel upstream, and it feeds the Board Report Engine downstream. The limits are real: it is an engagement measured in weeks, not software you switch on this afternoon, and it does not replace a platform's rep-facing deal boards or call recording.
How to choose a forecasting tool
Measure the miss you have now. Pull the last four quarters: what you called in week four, week eight and week twelve, and what closed. If the error is under 5% late in the quarter, you may need speed, not accuracy. If it is over 10%, find out which deals caused it before you shop.
Find where the miss came from. Sort the slipped and lost deals by cause: stale close dates, stage inflation, missing renewals, or real surprises. If most causes were visible in the records, you have an evidence problem. Our guide to backtesting a scoring model uses the same discipline.
Decide what the forecast needs to read. If buyer engagement on calls predicts your deals better than CRM fields do, conversation data matters, and Gong or Clari's conversation product earns a place; our comparison of revenue intelligence platforms covers that choice. If your deals are decided by procurement steps and usage, CRM and product data matter more.
Count the people who will use it weekly. Forecasting platforms pay back through manager and rep adoption. With two or three managers and one weekly call, native forecasting plus clean data usually covers it. With many teams and a formal roll-up, a platform starts to earn its seats.
Test on your own past quarters. Ask each vendor to forecast a closed quarter from the data as it stood in week four, and compare the result with what actually closed. Every option here should manage it, including ours.
Check whether you can explain the number. In the demo, pick one deal and ask why the forecast changed this week. If the answer is a score without a reason, you will end up overriding it in the board meeting.
A rule of thumb, offered as a suggested starting point rather than a benchmark: under roughly 40 reps, fix the deal evidence and use your CRM's forecasting. Above that, or with several teams rolling up, a dedicated platform usually earns its cost, provided the data underneath it is already trusted. Our guide to the board pack covers what the forecast has to support once it leaves the sales floor.
Where VANDFORT fits, and where it doesn't
You are a $3M to $30M ARR B2B SaaS company, your forecast misses by more than 10% and the post-mortem keeps finding causes that were visible in the records. Your board asks why the number moved and the answer takes a day of spreadsheet work. You bought a forecasting platform, and managers still override it because nobody can trace its number to deals. Or you need forecasting that reads CRM, billing and renewal data together. The Forecast Assistant is one of the nine systems in our Nine Systems Framework, and it is built to sit next to the rest of your stack.
If you run a large sales organisation with many teams and want a rep-facing forecasting workflow out of the box, buy a platform such as Clari or Gong. If you already record calls in Gong and your managers live in it, add its forecasting package before you look elsewhere. If you have one sales team and your CRM data is clean, the forecasting in Salesforce or HubSpot is likely enough. And if you want a self-serve tool your admin can configure in a day, buy software.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best sales forecasting software for B2B SaaS?
It depends on team size and data. Clari Forecast and Gong Forecast are the main dedicated platforms for larger sales organisations, and Gong fits best if you already record calls in Gong. Terret, formerly BoostUp, combines a machine forecast with AI agents. Teams under roughly 40 reps often get more from the forecasting already in Salesforce or HubSpot plus cleaner deal data than from a new platform.
What is the difference between Clari and Gong for forecasting?
Clari started as a forecasting product, and Clari Forecast is built around roll-ups, manager calls and deal inspection; it is now sold by Salesloft. Gong started with conversation intelligence, and Gong Forecast uses call and email signals alongside CRM data to predict deal outcomes. As a rule, Gong suits teams already recording calls in Gong, and Clari suits teams that want a dedicated forecasting workflow.
What happened to BoostUp?
BoostUp rebranded as Terret in September 2025 and repositioned from a forecasting tool to a platform of AI revenue agents. Forecasting continues as Terret Forecast, which offers a Machine Forecast with deal-health roll-ups and a weekly narrative for the CRO. The boostup.ai website now redirects to terret.ai, and as of October 2026 pricing is not published.
Can HubSpot do sales forecasting?
Yes. HubSpot's forecast tool is included in Sales Hub and Service Hub Professional and Enterprise. It groups deals into forecast categories mapped to pipeline stages, tracks team progress toward revenue goals and flags reps who haven't updated their forecast within a set number of days. Its accuracy depends on the close dates, stages and amounts reps enter on deals.
How accurate should a B2B sales forecast be?
Many teams aim to land within about 5% of the forecast called late in the quarter, as a suggested starting point rather than a benchmark. Surveys suggest most miss by more: in Gong's 2022 survey, 52% of leaders said they regularly miss by more than 10%. Track error at fixed points, such as weeks four, eight and twelve, so you can see whether accuracy improves.
Do we need forecasting software, or just cleaner CRM data?
If your misses trace back to stale close dates, inflated stages or missing next steps, start with the data, because forecasting software reads the same records. Software earns its cost when you have several teams to roll up, need conversation signals in the forecast, or spend hours each week assembling the number by hand. Many teams need both, in that order.
Sources: Gartner, State of Sales Operations survey press release (February 12, 2020). Xactly, 2024 Sales Forecasting Benchmark Report (fieldwork March 2024, n=405), via Agile Brand Guide (July 2024). Gong, Reality of Forecasting report press release (July 19, 2022, n=928). Business Wire and Salesforce Ben, Clari and Salesloft merger announcement (August 2025). Salesloft, sales forecasting software page (Clari Forecast). Gong, Forecast product page and pricing page. PR Newswire, BoostUp rebrands as Terret (September 9, 2025); Terret website. Salesforce Help, Salesforce Forecasting (Collaborative Forecasts) editions. HubSpot Knowledge Base, set up the forecast tool (updated September 2026). Vendor pages accessed October 2026.
Last reviewed: October 2026. Vendor features and pricing change; check each vendor's site before buying.
