Sierra vs Decagon vs Ada vs Fin vs Forethought pricing and contracts

Sierra vs Decagon pricing starts with the contract. Sierra, Decagon, Ada and Forethought require quotes; Fin publishes an outcome rate. The 10,000-conversation model shows how billable results, handoffs and reopened issues change the total.

Sierra vs Decagon vs Ada vs Fin, pricing models

Fin’s rate gives you a public reference point. A matched enterprise quote from the other four may rest on a different billing event.

Check what each company calls a resolution

Take 10,000 support conversations a month. The agent handles 6,000 without a person stepping in, yet quality reviewers find that only 5,100 customers got their problem solved. A conversation priced contract can bill all 10,000. A resolution priced contract might bill 6,000. An outcome contract may apply a third definition. You cannot price the 5,100 genuine solutions until you know the platform fees and what happens to failed work.

10,000 support conversations, model billable outcomes

Model	Illustrative calculation	Monthly amount
Fin at 6,000 billable outcomes	6,000 × $0.99	$5,940 in outcome charges, before other costs
Hypothetical conversation contract	10,000 × an assumed $0.60	$6,000 plus any platform fee
Hypothetical resolution contract	6,000 × an assumed $1.25	$7,500 plus any platform fee
Sierra, Decagon, Ada or Forethought actual quote	Quote only	Needs a written proposal

The $0.60 and $1.25 rates are hypothetical and exist only to show how each billing model behaves. They are not company prices. If a quote carries a $60,000 annual platform commitment, add $5,000 a month before you compare. At 5,100 independently verified solutions, a $10,000 total monthly bill works out to about $1.96 per solved issue.

Compare Sierra and Decagon billing events

Sierra describes outcome based pricing in which the customer and the company agree what a completed task means. It charges for tangible results such as a resolved support conversation, a saved cancellation or an upsell, and it proposes a blended per conversation charge for routing style interactions. Decagon’s site publishes no pricing, and its conversation and resolution options come from secondary sources. Ask both for the exact billing event and whether a transfer, a reopened case or a partly completed workflow triggers a charge. Sierra explains its outcome model.

Get comparable quotes from Decagon and Ada

Neither company publishes a standard rate. Ada’s platform page says most customers choose per conversation billing for its predictability, and it offers resolution billing to organisations with particular requirements without setting out the terms. For Decagon, ask which meter applies to your use case and how minimum volume commitments work. Use the billing scenarios further down to frame your questions, then build the budget from the written quote.

Check the contract terms for Sierra and Ada

Press each company on whether the contract rewards useful outcomes. Ask Sierra to define a completed task. Ask Ada whether you pay for handled conversations or verified resolutions. In both cases, get the treatment of abandoned chats, reopened issues, multilingual handoffs and customer complaints in writing.

Use Fin’s public rate as a starting point

Fin’s published $0.99 rate gives procurement a baseline, and it applies on every Intercom plan. Intercom bills a resolution when the customer confirms the answer or leaves without asking for more help. It also bills a procedure that completes and hands off to a person. It does not bill escalations triggered by frustration or a request for a human, spam, or a procedure that fails. A customer who returns to a resolved conversation for more help has the earlier resolution deducted, and each conversation carries at most one outcome. Another company may invoice a different event for the same conversation, so compare $0.99 against a written definition. If you run Intercom or a compatible helpdesk, set the cost of staying put against the build and migration cost of a bespoke deployment. Fin outcome rules and Fin pricing.

Include Forethought’s platform fee

Forethought’s pricing page describes a blend of platform access fees and an outcome based cost, with optional add ons and possible overage past plan limits. It offers a Proof of Value in place of a free trial. Team, Professional and Enterprise are all quote only. Multibrand (up to 20 brands), Analytics API and Discover, which detects knowledge and workflow gaps, are optional add ons. Ask which channels, brand limits and quality rubrics each tier carries before you compare it with the others. Forethought pricing.

Reported enterprise contract figures, evidence limits

Company	Reported figure	Source type
Decagon	No vendor rate card or matched customer quote verified. Request platform, usage and minimum-commitment terms.	Public website and a written sales proposal
Ada	No vendor dollar rate verified. Conversation and resolution options need a quote for the same workload.	Vendor documentation and a written sales proposal
Sierra, Forethought	No credible figure found	None

We removed the earlier secondary-source contract ranges because their underlying rate cards, sample sizes and matching package terms could not be verified. Use written quotes, not those ranges, to set a negotiation budget.

Find the break even point for billing models

Say a conversation costs C and a resolution costs P. The two bills match when your resolution rate equals C divided by P. Using hypothetical rates of $0.35 per conversation and $1.50 per resolution gives a break-even resolution rate of 23.3%, assuming equal fixed fees and comparable billable events. At a 60% resolution rate, a hypothetical $0.99 conversation price is $1.65 per resolved issue. These are scenarios, not Ada or Decagon prices.

The definition changes the bill as much as the rate. At 10,000 conversations and a 60% resolution rate, $1.50 per resolution bills $9,000. If the contract counts every conversation that is not escalated as resolved and that lifts the count to 7,500, the bill rises to $11,250, which is 25% more for the same service. A hypothetical $50,000 annual platform fee works out to $4,167 a month before the first conversation. At 2,000 conversations that adds $2.08 each, more than twice a $0.99 usage rate. These figures are IC arithmetic on hypothetical rates, not verified vendor offers.

Get these answers before signing

1. Billing. Send us the rate card, annual minimum, platform fee, implementation charges, overage rate and renewal terms.
2. Resolution. Define billable outcomes and provide an event level export that we can audit.
3. Handoffs. Specify what happens when a person steps in, a customer returns or the agent makes a mistake.
4. Integration. Identify the CRM, helpdesk, identity, payment and order system access required, and which integrations are custom.
5. Deployment. Give a milestone based implementation plan, acceptance criteria and the staffing you expect from our team.
6. Controls. Document approval gates, security reviews, retention, monitoring, incident response and a spending cap.

Cost per verified resolution, enterprise pilot method

Take 90 days of tickets across your main channels and languages. Select a representative sample, agree on successful outcomes before the test and ask every shortlisted company to price the same workload. Independently review at least 100 conversations from each pilot. Calculate (platform + usage + amortised setup + human rework) ÷ independently verified solved issues. Track resolution quality, escalation rate and launch time next to cost.

Questions to settle before choosing

Sierra pricing

Sierra does not publish a list price. Request a proposal that specifies outcome definitions, minimum spend and implementation charges.

Decagon billing

Secondary sources report both conversation and resolution models, and Decagon’s site shows no pricing. Confirm the current options, rates and billable events with Decagon directly.

Ada pricing

Ada publishes no dollar rate. Its platform page describes per conversation billing for most customers and a resolution option for enterprises with particular requirements. The quote sets the price.

Fin against Sierra and Decagon

No price ranking holds without Sierra and Decagon quotes for the same workload. Fin’s published $0.99 outcome rate gives you a starting point, and the effective cost depends on how each company defines a billable event.

Choosing a support agent

Start with your existing helpdesk, required integrations and the tasks the agent must complete. Compare resolution quality, implementation effort and total contract cost using the same pilot workload.

Sources

• Sierra on outcome based pricing, read 14 October 2026.
• Decagon website, read 14 October 2026. It publishes no pricing.
• Ada platform and billing model description, read 14 October 2026.
• Intercom Fin outcome rules and Fin pricing, read 14 October 2026.
• Forethought pricing, read 14 October 2026.

Company pages were read on 14 October 2026. Unverified secondary-source contract ranges have been removed. Hypothetical calculations are labelled as such.

For the helpdesk led buying decision, see Fin vs Zendesk vs HubSpot vs Ada. For source linked pricing units, use the AI Agent Pricing Tracker or browse the IC Lab comparison directory.