Gong .io Review Roundup 2025
Gong.io has dominated the revenue intelligence space as the category leader, promising to transform how sales teams win by capturing and analyzing every customer interaction. As CMOs evaluate AI investments heading into 2025, the critical question isn't whether Gong has impressive technology (it does) but whether the platform delivers value that justifies its enterprise price tag and implementation complexity. We've analyzed ratings across major review platforms and recent independent assessments to cut through the marketing hype.
Overall Ratings (G2, Capterra)
The ratings landscape for Gong reveals consistent professional satisfaction alongside concerning consumer sentiment:
Gong commands exceptional loyalty from enterprise B2B sales organizations, consistently ranking as G2's #1 Best Software Product for multiple years.
The Major Platform Reviews
G2 Insights
With over 6,381 reviews and a 4.7/5 rating, G2 reviewers consistently praise Gong's conversation intelligence capabilities:
What Users Love:
- AI-powered call transcription and analysis eliminates manual note-taking during meetings
- Custom trackers for keywords and competitor mentions provide actionable trend analysis
- Deal health monitoring based on actual engagement signals, not CRM guesswork
- Seamless integration with Salesforce and other CRM platforms for automated data capture
Common Complaints:
- Search functionality described as clunky: "It's too complicated, and not intuitive at all. Searching for calls is not easy, moving around in the calls is not easy"
- Call search tool difficulties mentioned in 154 user complaints according to Oliv.ai's analysis
- Transcription accuracy struggles with technical terms and industry-specific acronyms
- Features hidden behind additional seat requirements, with forecasting and engagement capabilities not included in base subscription
Capterra Reviews
Capterra users award Gong a 4.8/5 rating from 554 reviews, emphasizing productivity gains:
Strongest Use Cases:
- Sales coaching and training: managers review calls to identify coachable moments without watching full recordings
- Eliminating handwritten notes: "Instead of having to take handwritten notes during all of my meetings, I am able to be more attentive and ask better questions"
- Call libraries for onboarding: new reps learn from recorded examples of successful calls
Friction Points:
- Recording reliability: "Sometimes the recorder doesn't join the meeting right away and will randomly join a few minutes in, which can be confusing for clients"
- Feature complexity: many users report not utilizing available features due to inadequate onboarding training
- Reporting limitations: "I wish the reporting was more centralized and customizable but its still really easy to use"
Recent Reviews from Around the Web
Lindy.ai Analysis (January 2025)
Lindy's comprehensive review highlights both power and limitations based on multi-team usage:
Key Strengths:
- AI-labeled highlights (pricing discussions, objections, competitor mentions) cut review time from hours to minutes
- Custom trackers enable trend analysis: identify if pricing concerns are increasing or which competitors appear more frequently
- Deal health monitoring based on engagement signals like response timing and stakeholder involvement
Critical Weaknesses:
- No real-time coaching assistance: "Gong provides excellent post-call insights, but there's no real-time assistant to guide reps while the call is happening"
- Implementation complexity: "Getting Gong fully integrated across tools like Zoom, Slack, Salesforce took us about 3-4 weeks"
- Requires dedicated RevOps resources: setup isn't plug-and-play despite well-structured documentation
Oliv.ai Competitive Analysis (October 2025)
Oliv.ai's detailed comparison exposes pricing realities obscured by lack of transparency:
Pricing Reality Check:
- No public pricing requires sales conversations for quotes
- Actual costs: $1,360-$1,600 per user annually plus $5,000 platform fee
- 10-person team: approximately $17,000 before onboarding
- 50-person team: $85,000 plus $7,500 onboarding fee
- "Overall it is a great product. Sadly Gong.io as a leader in its market is not too open to negotiate with smaller companies" (Enterprise Account Executive feedback)
User Experience Challenges:
- John S., Senior Account Executive: "It's too complicated, and not intuitive at all"
- Implementation requires 2-3 months training period, creating adoption barriers
- Manual review burden: requires sales managers to manually review calls and assess deal probability
- High-velocity sales cycles (15-20 days) struggle with recording volume management
TL;DV Review Synthesis (June 2025)
TL;DV's analysis of 20+ reviews across Reddit, G2, and Trustpilot reveals recurring frustrations:
Top Complaints:
- No free trial without sales qualification: "There's no sandbox. No 'have a play and see if it fits your team.' Just a form, a follow-up, and a BDR who wants to know if you've got budget"
- Storage impact on Salesforce: "When you have it writing back to SFDC, creates a TON of records... 25MB a day of records being created, on average. That's 12,000 records a day just for this"
- "Transcription is mediocre. 'AI' features add relatively little value... I would not trust them with my data" (G2 review)
The Divide:
- "Not great for small/startup teams, way too expensive when there are more affordable tools that work... Gong is a really powerful tool... but it isn't the right business decision" (G2 review)
Reply.io Comparative Review (May 2025)
Reply.io's assessment emphasizes Gong's positioning in the evolving AI sales landscape:
What Works Well:
- Real-time engagement insights: "The Account AI feature gives me a real-time view of engagement and flags issues like sentiment shifts or lack of multithreading"
- Coaching effectiveness: "We use Gong for call reviews and coaching. The reports are robust, and it's easy to highlight snippets for training"
- Automated follow-up: "I just focus on the audience's questions. Gong summarizes the call and even creates the email for me"
Limitations:
- Dashboards lack flexibility: reports described as too static for customization needs
- Post-call analysis only: doesn't handle prospecting, outreach generation, or pre-call activities
- Resource-heavy to implement compared to AI-native alternatives requiring minimal setup
The Bottom Line for CMOs
Gong.io represents the gold standard for enterprise revenue intelligence when you have the resources to implement it properly. For organizations with 100+ seat deployments, dedicated RevOps teams, and annual sales technology budgets exceeding $100,000, Gong delivers measurable ROI through improved coaching, forecast accuracy, and deal visibility. The platform's AI-powered insights genuinely transform how sales leaders understand customer conversations at scale.
However, four critical considerations demand executive attention:
1. Hidden Cost Structure: The lack of transparent pricing is challenging for budget planning. At $1,360-$1,600 per seat annually plus $5,000 platform fees and $7,500+ onboarding costs, a 50-person team faces $90,000+ annual commitment. Small and mid-market organizations consistently report feeling priced out or unable to negotiate favorable terms.
2. Implementation Complexity: This isn't a "set it and forget it" tool. Expect 3-4 weeks of integration work and 2-3 months of training before seeing adoption. Without dedicated RevOps resources, teams struggle with configuration, CRM mapping, and analytics setup. The learning curve is steep despite excellent documentation.
3. Feature Gaps: Gong excels at post-call analysis but provides no real-time coaching assistance. The platform generates insights but requires human action to implement them. For high-velocity sales cycles or teams needing in-call guidance, you'll need additional tools. Many users report purchasing both Gong and Clari, effectively doubling costs to approximately $500 per user.
The Decision Framework: Choose Gong if you're enterprise-scale (250+ reps), have dedicated implementation resources, and can justify the investment through measurable improvements in win rates and forecast accuracy. Consider alternatives if you're a cost-conscious team prioritizing ease of use, need transparent pricing for budget planning, or require real-time coaching capabilities beyond post-call analysis.
The consistent professional platform ratings (4.7-4.8 stars) confirm Gong delivers value for its target market. Just make certain your organization fits that profile before committing to what remains a significant enterprise investment.
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