Sales forecasting software: 8 tools compared

By Giorgio Bonan. Updated October 21, 2026, published October 21, 2026.

Sales forecasting software turns an open pipeline into a number leaders can commit to. The main options in 2026 are the forecasting built into Salesforce and HubSpot, dedicated platforms such as Clari and Aviso, Gong's Forecast module, planning tools such as Anaplan, and tools that fix the inputs, such as Backstory or TruthPipe. Choose by method first, then by CRM and price.

Four ways to forecast

Most teams need the first method plus one other. The tools below are sorted by the method they lead with.

The grid

The tools, briefly

Salesforce. Sales Cloud lists Advanced Forecast and Pipeline Management, embedded forecast charts and Pipeline Inspection from the Core edition. Predictive Forecasting is available for purchase on Core and included in Advanced and Max. If you are on Salesforce, start here before buying anything.

HubSpot. Forecasting arrives with Sales Hub Professional, alongside sequences and custom reports, according to third-party summaries of HubSpot's pricing. A good fit if the team already lives in HubSpot.

Clari. A dedicated forecasting and revenue platform, now part of Salesloft. Strong for multi-level roll-ups and forecast calls in larger organizations. Prices are by module and unpublished.

Aviso. AI-first forecasting with win prediction and forecast validation, plus task agents. Suited to RevOps teams that want models and agents in one place.

Gong Forecast. For teams already on Gong, the Forecast bundle ties the roll-up to what was said on calls. tl;dv reports that Gong sells bundles such as Engage and Forecast on top of the core license.

Anaplan. A planning platform: capacity, quota and scenario models. It answers "what will we sell next year if we hire ten reps", not "will this deal close".

Backstory. Formerly People.ai, it captures activity automatically and scores deal confidence, which improves the inputs any forecast uses.

TruthPipe. Every night it scores pipeline integrity per rep, lists zombie deals (open, closing this quarter, no activity for more than 14 days) and computes the Clean Pipe. It does not produce the forecast; it tells the manager which part of it is real before the call.

Forecast categories, explained

Every tool above rolls up deals by forecast category. Salesforce's standard categories are a good common language:

Most forecast errors are category errors: a Best Case deal sitting in Commit, or a dead deal left in Pipeline. Any tool forecasts from these categories, so the rules matter more than the tool.

A weekly forecast cadence

The same pipeline, four forecasts

A team has $1,200,000 of open pipeline closing this quarter: $500,000 in Commit, $400,000 in Best Case, $300,000 in Pipeline. $200,000 of the Commit has had no activity for more than 14 days.

The spread, $300,000 to $700,000, is the real uncertainty. A tool that shows only one of these numbers hides it. The useful question in the forecast call is why the clean-pipeline number is $200,000 below the call, deal by deal.

How each method fails, and what catches it

Forecast, plan and quota are three numbers

• The forecast is what the team expects to close, built from deals.
• The plan is what the company budgeted, built from assumptions.
• The quota is what each rep is asked to deliver, usually above plan.

Software that blends them, for example by showing the forecast against quota only, hides the gap that matters most to finance: forecast against plan. Ask every vendor to show the three side by side.

Questions for the demo

1. Which fields does the forecast roll up, and can we change the categories?
2. How are deals without recent activity treated in the roll-up?
3. Can we snapshot the forecast at a fixed date and measure accuracy against it?
4. What does the AI prediction use as history, and how many closed deals does it need?
5. Who can override the number, and is the override logged?

Disclosure

TruthPipe, listed in the grid, is our product. It is an input-hygiene tool, not a forecasting engine, and the grid says so.

What good looks like after a quarter

A forecasting tool is working when, after one full quarter: the snapshot forecast is measured against actuals; bias is shrinking; the number of open deals with a past close date is near zero; and the forecast meeting spends its time on the five deals that matter rather than on correcting data. If the tool produced new dashboards and none of these moved, it added reporting, not forecasting.

Set up forecasting in Salesforce first

Before buying a tool, make sure the native setup is done, since every external tool reads it:

1. Enable Forecasts in Setup, Forecasts Settings, and choose the forecast type, usually opportunity revenue by close date.
2. Set the forecast hierarchy so each manager rolls up their team.
3. Map stages to forecast categories deliberately, and decide which categories managers may adjust.
4. Turn on adjustments if managers should override reps' numbers, so overrides are recorded.
5. Enable Pipeline Inspection for the weekly review, from the Core edition.

With this in place, an external tool adds a method on top of a clean structure instead of compensating for a missing one.

A data checklist before you buy

Run these five checks on open opportunities closing this quarter. They take an hour and tell you how much any tool will be able to do:

1. Close dates in the past: how many open deals have one?
2. Silent deals: how many have no activity for more than 14 days?
3. Empty next steps: how many in Commit or Best Case?
4. Amount missing or zero: how many?
5. Stage and category disagreeing: for example, early stage but Commit.

If more than one deal in five fails a check, fix the data first. A forecasting tool bought on that data will mostly reproduce it.

Five signs a forecasting tool will fail

1. Nobody owns the forecast categories' definitions.
2. Close dates in the past are tolerated on open deals.
3. Activity is not logged, or logged in a system the tool does not read.
4. The forecast is measured only at the end of the period, never against a snapshot.
5. The tool is bought to replace the weekly review instead of supporting it.

Pick by team size

Measure before you buy

A forecasting tool should improve a number you already track. Measure your current accuracy over the last three to six periods with the forecast accuracy formula, check whether your pipeline covers the target with the pipeline coverage calculator, and pilot the tool against that baseline. For call-based platforms, see revenue intelligence platforms.