Ada vs Sierra
A side-by-side comparison of Ada and Sierra on what each one charges, what it meters, and which plan every capability actually sits on.
The short answer
1 of the 12 capabilities tracked on both differs.
| Measure | Ada | Sierra |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at | Sales-gated | Sales-gated |
| Included, where the other says no | 0 capabilities | 1 capability |
Capability by capability
1 of the 12 capabilities tracked on both products differs.
Channels
| Capability | Ada | Sierra |
|---|---|---|
| IncludedThe Ada Email Channel bills as an Email Conversation with a 72-hour inactivity window. | IncludedNo plans are published, so plan gating cannot be assessed. | |
| Live chat | IncludedChat is the default channel and the default billed unit. This is bot chat with escalation, not a human live-chat console. | IncludedNo plans are published, so plan gating cannot be assessed. |
| Voice | Included | IncludedNo plans are published, so plan gating cannot be assessed. |
| Not published | IncludedNo plans are published, so plan gating cannot be assessed. |
AI resolution
| Capability | Ada | Sierra |
|---|---|---|
| Autonomous resolution agent | IncludedUnknown. No plans are published. | IncludedThe whole product. Sierra bills only on outcomes such as "a resolved support conversation", which presupposes autonomous resolution. |
| Resolution over knowledge base | IncludedKnowledge is ingested from the customer's existing systems rather than migrated: Zendesk Guide, Salesforce Knowledge, Genesys, GuruKB, Helpjuice, Paligo, Contentful, Docusaurus and GitHub are all listed as content sources. | Not published |
| Action-taking (API calls) | IncludedAPI tools, code tools and MCP tools are documented, and tool invocations appear in the conversation export as used_mcp with an outcome_status. | Included"Enable your agent to take action to assist customers by securely connecting it with any internal or external system", including systems of record from order management to CRM. |
| Handoff to human | IncludedEscalation is a first-class contractual concept: an Automated Resolution is defined as a conversation that is not escalated, and the export carries is_escalated. Handoff blocks are documented separately. | IncludedEscalation exists and is usually not billed: "if a case needs to be escalated, in most cases, there's no charge". The exceptions are unpublished. |
| Guardrails & citations | IncludedCitations only. Each conversation records used_articles with article id, name, url and source. Guardrails are not published as a named feature, so the guardrail half of this attribute is Unknown. | IncludedGuardrails are published as "supervisory layers to reduce hallucinations, ensure security, and prevent abuse", and PII is "automatically encrypted and masked". Citation behaviour is not addressed anywhere, so half of this attribute is Unknown. |
| Multilingual AI | IncludedMultilingual support, language switching and manual translations are documented, and the conversation export carries an ISO-639-1 language field. Ada publishes no supported-language count, so the number is Unknown. | IncludedSierra publishes "voice, chat, email, and WhatsApp in 59 languages", available 24/7/365. |
AI assist
| Capability | Ada | Sierra |
|---|---|---|
| Summarization | IncludedThe conversation export carries inquiry_summary and a machine-written automated_resolution_classification_reason. | Not published |
| Auto-tagging | IncludedThe conversation object carries classifications, topics and intents alongside the Ada-generated automated_resolution_classification. | Not published |
AI voice
| Capability | Ada | Sierra |
|---|---|---|
| Voice agent | IncludedVoice Services are governed by their own Service Specific Terms with a separate billed unit and unpublished Fair Use Limits. | IncludedVoice is listed as a first-class agent channel alongside chat, email and WhatsApp. No per-minute rate or telephony passthrough is published. |
Reporting
| Capability | Ada | Sierra |
|---|---|---|
| Raw data export | IncludedBulk, cursor-paginated conversation and message export endpoints returning JSON, on a self-serve API key. | Not published |
| CSAT / NPS | IncludedCSAT score, style and free-text feedback plus CES and NPS all sit on the conversation object. There is no separate analytics or report export endpoint. | Not published |
Enterprise
| Capability | Ada | Sierra |
|---|---|---|
| Role-based access control | IncludedUnknown. No plans are published, so no role is known to be tier-gated. | Not published |
| Audit logs | IncludedUnknown. No plans are published. | Not publishedAI audit logging is not addressed on the trust and reliability page or any product page. |
| HIPAA / BAA | Not publishedAda publishes a HIPAA attestation dated 2024-09-30 in its trust center. Whether it will sign a BAA, and on what terms, is not published. | IncludedNot assessable; no plans are published. |
| SOC 2 | IncludedUnknown. No plans are published. | IncludedNot assessable; no plans are published. |
| ISO 27001 | NoNot listed in the trust center. Ada states its security program follows CIS Controls v8.0 rather than ISO. | IncludedNot assessable; no plans are published. |
| GDPR | IncludedNot plan-gated. | IncludedNot assessable; no plans are published. |
| Data residency | IncludedUnknown. Europe is an opt-in enrollment rather than a default; whether enrollment carries a price is not published. | Not publishedNo region list appears on the trust and reliability page or anywhere else on sierra.ai. PCI cardholder data runs on "dedicated PCI certified infrastructure" segregated from the core platform, which is infrastructure segregation rather than a residency or VPC option. |
| Right-to-erasure tooling | IncludedA bulk end-user deletion API with a pollable deletion job, plus a Data Compliance API for deleting chatter data that the docs now mark deprecated. | Not published |
Developer
| Capability | Ada | Sierra |
|---|---|---|
| REST API | IncludedREST with JSON, rotatable API keys, opt-in versioning for breaking changes, cursor-based pagination and a downloadable OpenAPI 3.1 spec. | Not publishedNo public API reference is published on sierra.ai. The Agent SDK page describes extensibility without documenting an API. |
| Webhooks | IncludedWebhook endpoints are listable via the API, plus documented end-user created, end-user updated and audit log event webhooks. | Not published |
| SDKs | Not published | IncludedThe Agent SDK is a published product surface, described as extensible so customers can write and connect their own integrations. No public API reference is published. |
Both entries last checked Sep 9, 2026.
What Ada costs
- Billing unit
Per conversation - Free tier
Not published - AI pricing
Not published - Vendor calls it
Conversation - Human handoff
Still billed - Reopened chat
Billed again - AI billing window
1d of inactivity - Data export
Self-serve - Automation export
Full
2 of 9 not published by Ada, checked
What Sierra costs
- Billing unit
Per outcome - Free tier
Not published - AI pricing
Not published - Vendor calls it
Outcome - Human handoff
Not published - Reopened chat
Not published - AI billing window
Not published - Data export
Not published - Automation export
Not published
7 of 9 not published by Sierra, checked