Forethought vs Sierra
A side-by-side comparison of Forethought and Sierra on what each one charges, what it meters, and which plan every capability actually sits on.
Capability by capability
Nothing we track differs between them.
Channels
| Capability | Forethought | Sierra |
|---|---|---|
| IncludedProfessional and above. The email agent is not part of Team. | IncludedNo plans are published, so plan gating cannot be assessed. | |
| Live chat | IncludedTeam and above. The vendor's wording is "AI agents for chat and mobile". | IncludedNo plans are published, so plan gating cannot be assessed. |
| Voice | IncludedProfessional and above. The voice agent is not part of Team. | IncludedNo plans are published, so plan gating cannot be assessed. |
| Not published | IncludedNo plans are published, so plan gating cannot be assessed. |
Ticketing
| Capability | Forethought | Sierra |
|---|---|---|
| Shared inbox | NoForethought is an overlay that runs on an existing help desk rather than a ticketing system of its own. Its integration page names 23 help desks and CRMs it plugs into, and Zendesk markets it as needing no migration. | Not published |
AI resolution
| Capability | Forethought | Sierra |
|---|---|---|
| Autonomous resolution agent | IncludedTeam and above. | IncludedThe whole product. Sierra bills only on outcomes such as "a resolved support conversation", which presupposes autonomous resolution. |
| Action-taking (API calls) | IncludedTeam and above. Listed as "Custom actions". | 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 | IncludedProfessional and above for "custom handoff models". Whether a default handoff exists on Team is not published. | 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 The exceptions are unpublished.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 | Not publishedGuardrails are published at policy level only: "strict security, privacy, and bias-mitigation controls to manage AI risks". The technical mechanics and citation behaviour are not documented. | 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 | IncludedTeam and above. Listed as "multilingual support". The list of supported languages is not published. | IncludedSierra publishes "voice, chat, email, and WhatsApp in 59 languages", available 24/7/365. |
AI assist
| Capability | Forethought | Sierra |
|---|---|---|
| Auto-tagging | IncludedTeam and above. | Not published |
AI voice
| Capability | Forethought | Sierra |
|---|---|---|
| Voice agent | Not published | IncludedVoice is listed as a first-class agent channel alongside chat, email and WhatsApp. No per-minute rate or telephony passthrough is published. |
QA & workforce
| Capability | Forethought | Sierra |
|---|---|---|
| Automated QA coverage | IncludedTeam and above. Listed as "AI QA". | Not published |
Reporting
| Capability | Forethought | Sierra |
|---|---|---|
| Prebuilt dashboards | IncludedTeam and above for the "Insights dashboard". AI-surfaced insights are Professional and above. | Not published |
| Raw data export | Paid add-onEnterprise. The Analytics API, described as conversation-level data access, is an Enterprise plan feature and is also sold as a paid add-on. Neither price is published. | Not published |
| CSAT / NPS | IncludedTeam and above. "CSAT collection" only; NPS is not mentioned on the pricing page. | Not published |
Enterprise
| Capability | Forethought | Sierra |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-brand | IncludedProfessional and above for multi-brand management. A separate Multibrand add-on covers up to 20 brands with personalised experiences, at an unpublished price. | Not published |
| HIPAA / BAA | Not published"Forethought has successfully completed SOC2 and HIPAA assessments". A completed assessment is not an available BAA, and BAA availability is not published. | IncludedNot assessable; no plans are published. |
| SOC 2 | IncludedSOC 2 Type II. No plan gate is stated. | IncludedNot assessable; no plans are published. |
| ISO 27001 | IncludedClaimed on the security page. No plan gate is stated. ISO 42001 is not mentioned. | IncludedNot assessable; no plans are published. |
| GDPR | IncludedReflected in the DPA, which also covers CCPA. No plan gate is stated. | IncludedNot assessable; no plans are published. |
Developer
| Capability | Forethought | Sierra |
|---|---|---|
| REST API | IncludedEnterprise. Solve API and Analytics API. | Not publishedNo public API reference is published on sierra.ai. The Agent SDK page describes extensibility without documenting an API. |
| 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 Forethought costs
- Billing unit
Two-part and entirely unpriced - Free tier
Not published - AI pricing
Not published - Vendor calls it
outcome-based pricing cost - 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 Forethought, 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