What is the best sales forecasting software in 2026?
A good forecast tells you what your team will close this quarter, not what it hopes to close.
Every Monday your VP asks for the number. You open the CRM, export open deals to a spreadsheet, fix the close dates nobody updated, and commit to a figure you half believe. Sales forecasting software does that work for you: it reads your pipeline (your open deals, sorted by stage), applies a win probability to each one and projects revenue month by month.
The short answer. Pipedrive is the best pick for a small or mid-size team: the forecast view comes with the Growth plan at $39 per seat per month, billed annually. HubSpot Sales Hub has the most complete built-in tool (forecast categories, rep submissions, AI projections), but only from Professional upward. Forecastio adds real statistical forecasting on top of HubSpot from $249 a month. Zoho CRM is the cheapest way in. Salesforce and Clari are built for large sales orgs.
What most "best of" lists skip: forecasting is almost always locked behind a higher plan than the one you're on. And the biggest source of error isn't the software. It's default stage probabilities and stale close dates. We compared every tool on the exact plan that turns forecasting on.
The ranking is editorial: a sponsored spot is always labeled on its card, and no affiliate link changes a score.
The best sales forecasting tool for your setup
Forecast view from Growth, $39 per seat
Most complete built-in forecastCategories, submissions and AI from Professional
Best add-on for HubSpotStatistical forecasting from $249 a month
Cheapest way inForecasts from the Standard plan
Best for large sales orgsBuilt-in forecasting, Pro Suite at $100
Best for enterprise forecast callsDedicated layer, custom quote
The 6 sales forecasting tools compared
This ranking is for B2B sales teams, from two reps to a few hundred, who track deals in a CRM and need a number they can defend for the month or the quarter. The price shown is the plan that gives you forecasting, not the cheapest entry plan. If you need to forecast unit demand to manage inventory, jump to "Which forecast you need".
| Best for | What sets it apart | Free plan | Team size | Visit | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pipedrive | Best for small and mid-size teams | Visual forecast, drag deals between months | 4.2/5 | Growth $39/seat/mo (annual) | — | SMBs, 2 to 50 reps | Visit → |
| 2 | HubSpot Sales Hub | Most complete built-in forecast | Forecast categories, submissions, AI projections | 4.2/5 | Professional tier (see card) | — | Teams already on HubSpot | Visit → |
| 3 | Forecastio | Best add-on for HubSpot | Time series, scenarios, accuracy tracking | 4.0/5 | $249/mo for 2 seats (annual) | — | HubSpot teams that want a modeled forecast | Visit → |
| 4 | Zoho CRM | Cheapest way in | Forecasting on the first paid plan | 3.9/5 | Standard (see card) | ✓ | Small teams on a tight budget | Visit → |
| 5 | Salesforce Sales Cloud | Best for large sales orgs | Built-in and advanced forecasting, fully configurable | 3.8/5 | Pro Suite $100/user/mo (annual) | ✓ | Mid-market and enterprise | Visit → |
| 6 | Clari | Best for enterprise forecast calls | Dedicated forecasting layer on top of Salesforce | 3.8/5 | Custom quote | — | Large revenue organizations | Visit → |
Scores use five weighted criteria, explained in the method. Prices read in 2026 on each vendor's official pricing page, before tax, in the currency the vendor displays.
Is your tool missing from this page? Email us: hello@hackceleration.com
How we compared and scored
This page is for the founder, sales manager or RevOps lead who has to commit a revenue number and wants to stop rebuilding it in a spreadsheet every week. It covers pipeline-based sales forecasting first. It does not cover the three-year financial projections a lender or investor asks for: for that, see our ranking of financial forecasting software. For budgeting and planning across the whole company, see FP&A software.
Forecast quality is the core criterion and weighs 35%: weighted pipeline, forecast categories (commit, best case, pipeline), projection by period, forecast versus actuals. Price to unlock forecasting weighs 20%: not the headline price, but the plan you actually need, including mandatory onboarding and seat minimums. Setup effort weighs 15%: how long before you get a first number you trust. AI and scenarios weigh 15%. User feedback weighs 15%: we read vendor community forums and public reviews, starting with the complaints.
Tools that have a review page in our Labs (Pipedrive, HubSpot, Zoho, and Salesflare further down) keep the same overall score here, so a tool has one value across the site. The criterion scores are specific to forecasting.
- Forecast qualityWeighted pipeline, categories, projection by period, forecast vs. actuals, by team and by rep.35%
- Price to unlock forecastingPrice of the plan that actually turns forecasting on, per seat, with onboarding and seat minimums.20%
- Setup effortTime and skills needed before you get a first reliable number.15%
- AI and scenariosStatistical projection, scenarios, at-risk deals, early warning signals.15%
- User feedbackRecurring complaints in forums and public reviews, support quality.15%
No affiliate link changes a score or a rank.
Vendors keep moving forecasting between plans. Get the changes in your inbox
Pipedrive
Pipedrive is built around the pipeline, and its forecast view is the natural next step. Each column is a month (or a week, or a quarter). Each deal lands in a column based on its expected close date. If you set a probability on each stage, Pipedrive shows weighted value: a $10,000 deal at 40% counts as $4,000. Won deals count on the date they were won, next to the ones still open.
What makes it pleasant to use: drag a deal to the next column and its close date updates. Your Monday pipeline review turns into ten minutes of tidying instead of a round trip between the CRM and a spreadsheet.
Watch the plan. The forecast view and forecast reports come with Growth, at $39 per seat per month billed annually ($49 month to month). Lite at $14 doesn't include them. For five reps, budget $195 a month on annual billing.
The limit: Pipedrive projects, it doesn't predict. There are no commit or best-case categories like HubSpot, no rep submissions, and the AI side is light. On Pipedrive's own community forum, users also complain that an update moved won deals above open ones in the goal view, and ask for more visible columns.
Tip: if your revenue lands at delivery or invoicing rather than at signature, create a custom date field like "invoice date" and use it as the basis of the forecast view. Your projection then matches cash, not bookings.
- Month-by-month forecast, weighted by stage
- Drag a deal to update its close date
- Forecast on any custom date field
- ✓Best balance of simplicity and price
- ✓Up and running in an afternoon
- ✓14-day trial, no card
- ✗No forecasting on Lite
- ✗No categories or rep submissions
- ✗Limited AI forecasting
The first pick if your team already lives in its pipeline and you need a clean number without an IT project. If leadership wants commit categories and rep submissions, look at HubSpot Professional.
HubSpot Sales Hub
HubSpot's forecasting tool is the most mature of the CRMs ranked here. You get quotas per rep, weighted pipeline and, above all, forecast categories: you tag each deal as commit, probable or best case, and a manager sees the gap between the safe number and the hopeful one at a glance. Reps can submit their own call, which the manager compares with the calculated figure. The forecast amount can be weighted, total or a dedicated field, and AI projections round it out.
Price is the big hurdle. The tool only exists in Sales Hub or Service Hub Professional and Enterprise, with paid onboarding required on Professional. Some features also need a Sales seat assigned to each user. Professional costs $90 per seat per month billed annually ($100 monthly), plus a one-time $1,500 onboarding fee.
On HubSpot's community forum the same question keeps coming back: a user exports every pipeline to Excel each week because there's no forecast report on their plan. The answer is always the same: upgrade to Professional, or pull the data into a spreadsheet yourself.
A technical catch: the forecast period (monthly or quarterly) is shared by all pipelines, and changing it resets goals and submissions already entered. And only five stage values map to forecast categories.
Tip: pick the period before entering a single goal. Then order your pipeline stages before mapping categories, so the five values that count are the right ones.
- Commit, probable and best-case categories
- Rep forecast submissions
- AI projections
- ✓Most complete built-in forecasting
- ✓Everything else in the same CRM
- ✓Fast adoption for teams already on HubSpot
- ✗Professional and Enterprise only
- ✗Mandatory paid onboarding
- ✗Changing the period resets goals
The best built-in option if your team is on HubSpot and the Professional budget works. If you're on Starter and only forecasting is missing, compare the upgrade cost with Forecastio or with a CRM-fed spreadsheet.
Forecastio
Forecastio does one thing: sales forecasting, and only for HubSpot. It reads your deals and your history, then blends several methods: weighted pipeline, time series (a projection built from past monthly sales), scenarios and AI forecasting. Above all, it tracks its own accuracy: month after month you see the gap between forecast and closed revenue.
Two plans. Sales Forecasting is $249 a month billed annually, with 2 seats included and $49 per extra seat. Forecasting & Revenue Intelligence is $369 a month, 2 seats included and $69 per extra seat, and adds pipeline health, at-risk deals and win/loss analysis. Monthly prices aren't shown; only annual billing is listed.
The math that matters: for a sales manager and a VP, Forecastio costs $249 a month and leaves your reps' HubSpot seats untouched. Upgrading a ten-rep team from Starter to Professional costs a lot more. If forecasting is the only gap, the add-on wins.
The limit: HubSpot only, billed in dollars, annual only. Public reviews are still thin, and older prices ($119 to $199) still float around comparison sites. Trust the official pricing page.
- Time series and scenarios
- Forecast vs. actuals accuracy tracking
- One-month free pilot
- ✓Modeled forecasting without switching CRM
- ✓Avoids upgrading every rep to Professional
- ✓At-risk deals on the higher plan
- ✗HubSpot only
- ✗Annual billing only
- ✗Few public reviews
The right call for a HubSpot team that wants a serious forecast without changing CRM. Run the free pilot on a quarter that's already closed: you'll see right away whether its number would have beaten yours.
Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM puts sales forecasting on its first paid plan, Standard. No other CRM in this ranking unlocks it that low. You set targets per rep or per team, monthly or quarterly, and Zoho tracks closed revenue and pipeline against them. Standard costs $14 per user per month billed annually ($20 month to month).
The free plan, capped at 3 users, isn't enough to forecast: it's there to try the interface. Annual billing saves up to 34%.
Zoho's AI assistant, Zia, adds predictions and recommendations, but only on Enterprise. At that tier, Pipedrive Growth becomes a close comparison.
The limit: Zoho is powerful but dense. Menus are deep, forecast settings sit in the admin area, and you need someone comfortable with the tool to set up targets and roles properly. Plan a day or two of configuration for a small team.
Tip: if you already use Zoho Books or Zoho Inventory, CRM forecasts sit next to invoices and stock in the same suite. That's Zoho's strongest argument against Pipedrive.
- Forecasting on the Standard plan
- Targets by rep and by team
- Zia AI predictions on Enterprise
- ✓Lowest price to unlock forecasting
- ✓Full suite if you're already on Zoho
- ✓Free plan to try with 3 users
- ✗Longer setup than Pipedrive
- ✗AI on Enterprise only
- ✗Dense interface
The smart pick on a tight budget, or if you already run on Zoho. If you need a tool reps adopt without training, Pipedrive is simpler.
Salesforce Sales Cloud
Salesforce is still the default for large sales organizations. Its pricing page puts sales forecasting in Pro Suite, at $100 per user per month billed annually; Starter Suite doesn't include it. Advanced forecasting comes with the higher Sales Cloud editions. Everything is configurable, which is both its strength and its cost.
Starter Suite is $25 per user per month, Pro Suite $100 billed annually. For advanced forecasting features, get the edition that includes them in writing before you sign.
The real cost sits elsewhere. A well-run Salesforce forecast needs an admin, often a partner, and weeks of configuration. On a sales operations forum, a team running Salesforce and Gong described going back to spreadsheets for weekly rep submissions. The tools weren't the problem: dirty CRM data was.
The limit: oversized and expensive for a small team. Under 20 reps, Pipedrive or HubSpot will get you a reliable number faster and for less.
- Forecasts by hierarchy, product and region
- Manager adjustments
- Advanced forecasting on higher editions
- ✓Most configurable
- ✓Scales to hundreds of reps
- ✓The base most forecasting add-ons plug into
- ✗No forecasting on Starter Suite
- ✗An admin is close to mandatory
- ✗Expensive from Pro Suite up
The right foundation for a large revenue org that can afford to run it properly. For a small team, it's usually too much project for the number you get.
Clari
Clari is a dedicated forecasting layer that sits on top of your CRM, most often Salesforce. Managers run their forecast call inside it: each rep submits a number, the manager adjusts it, the VP rolls it up. Clari matches those calls against real activity (emails, meetings) to flag deals that are stalling.
Public reviews are plentiful and mostly positive. Users praise how easy the forecast call becomes and the Salesforce integration. The same complaints keep coming back too: sync delays with Salesforce, double entry between the two tools, custom views that reset and, in a share of reviews, forecasts judged inaccurate.
There's no public pricing: Clari sells by quote, with implementation fees. That's why it scores low on price to unlock forecasting.
The limit: it only earns its cost with a big team and a clean CRM. On a messy pipeline, it will mostly show you, in great detail, that your data is wrong.
- Rep, manager and VP forecast roll-up
- Activity signals on every deal
- Deep Salesforce integration
- ✓The most structured forecast call
- ✓Flags stalling deals
- ✓Built for large teams
- ✗No public pricing
- ✗Salesforce sync can lag
- ✗Users report double entry
For a large Salesforce team that already runs a serious weekly forecast call. Below a few dozen reps, your CRM's built-in forecast is enough.
Pipeline, history or inventory: which forecast fits you
"Sales forecasting" covers three different needs that most lists blur together. Know which one is yours before you pick a tool. The ranking above covers the first, the most common in B2B.
Pipeline forecasting (B2B sales)
You sell contracts with cycles of weeks or months. The forecast starts from open deals: amount, stage, probability, close date. Take a pipeline of three deals: $30,000 in discovery at 10%, $20,000 at proposal at 50%, $10,000 in negotiation at 70%. Total pipeline is $60,000; weighted pipeline is $20,000 ($3,000 + $10,000 + $7,000). That second number is what Pipedrive or HubSpot shows you.
Historical forecasting (recurring sales)
You sell to many customers on short cycles or subscriptions. Here you project past sales forward: moving average, exponential smoothing, seasonality. You need at least 12 months of history, ideally 24 to 36. Forecastio blends both approaches for HubSpot. A spreadsheet does it too, for free, with Excel's Forecast Sheet.
Demand planning (inventory)
You sell products and need to decide what to reorder. You need a forecast per SKU, not per deal. That's the job of tools like Inventory Planner, covered below, and of our ranking of inventory management software. A CRM won't do it.
- Is forecasting included in the plan you already pay for?
- Is there mandatory onboarding or a minimum seat count?
- Does the forecast use the close date or an invoice date?
- Can you set a probability per stage and calibrate it on your real win rate?
- Does the tool compare forecast with actuals every month?
- Can reps submit their own call, and can managers adjust it?
Other options worth knowing
These come up a lot in searches. They aren't ranked because they serve another need (inventory, spreadsheets, call recording) or because forecasting isn't their strength. Here's when they're worth a look.
Excel or Google Sheets: the honest starting point
FreeMost small companies still forecast in a spreadsheet, and that's not a mistake. In Excel, the Data tab has a Forecast Sheet that applies exponential smoothing (an average that weighs recent months more) and draws a confidence band. It needs a column of evenly spaced dates and at least 12 months of history; 24 to 36 months give believable seasonality. Always check the result against a simple 3-month moving average: if the two disagree sharply, your history is too short or too lumpy.
- Price
- Part of your office suite
- Best for
- Small teams, recurring sales
A spreadsheet fed by your CRM
WorkaroundOn HubSpot Starter with no forecast tool? On HubSpot's community, the most common fix is pulling deals into a spreadsheet, either with an add-on like Coefficient for Excel and Google Sheets, or through HubSpot's API and an Apps Script. You keep your plan and build your own weighted view. It's often the right move while your data is still messy: there's no point paying for a forecasting layer to measure a broken pipeline.
- Best for
- Teams on entry plans
- Limit
- One more file to maintain
Gong Forecast: forecasting from call data
Custom quoteGong records and analyzes sales calls, and its Forecast module uses that conversation data to flag deal risk. It's sold by custom quote on top of Gong's core platform, so it only makes sense if you already use or plan to buy Gong. See our ranking of conversation intelligence software for the full picture.
- Price
- Custom quote
- Best for
- Teams already on Gong
Salesflare: simple CRM, light forecasting
Small teamsSalesflare fills in the CRM automatically from your email and calendar, and users love it for that. But its pricing page doesn't feature forecasting, and our review already notes reporting isn't its strong suit. Growth is $29 per user per month billed annually ($39 monthly), Pro $49, Enterprise $99 with 5 users minimum. 30-day trial, no card. Read our Salesflare review.
- Price
- From $29/user/mo (annual)
- Limit
- Light forecasting and reporting
Inventory Planner by Sage: demand planning for Shopify
EcommerceInventory Planner forecasts sales for each product in an online store and turns that into purchase orders. Essentials starts at $119.99 a month for one location, billed through Shopify; higher plans are by quote. For an ecommerce brand, this is the right category; for a B2B sales team, it isn't.
- Price
- From $119.99/mo (Essentials)
- Best for
- Shopify stores
Not on a CRM yet?
Start hereA forecast is only as good as the pipeline behind it. If your deals still live in email threads, choose a CRM before you think about forecasting. Our ranking of CRMs for sales teams compares the options, and our CRM pricing index shows entry prices plan by plan.
- Order
- CRM first, forecast second
- Best for
- Teams starting out
What makes a sales forecast wrong
These mistakes come up again and again in vendor communities and sales ops forums. No software fixes them for you.
Keeping default stage probabilities
MathEvery CRM ships with ready-made stage probabilities: 10%, 25%, 50%, 80%. They have nothing to do with your real win rate. If only 20% of your proposals close and your CRM counts 50%, your weighted pipeline at that stage is inflated by more than double.
- Fix
- Calibrate each stage on history
Letting close dates go stale
HygieneA deal whose close date has passed often stays in the current month, or quietly slides to the next. The whole monthly projection goes off. In Pipedrive, dragging the deal to another column fixes the date in a second: do it in every Monday review.
- Effect
- Current month overstated
Keeping zombie deals
HygieneA deal with no activity for weeks is unlikely to close, but it still counts in the weighted pipeline. Set a simple rule: no activity in 30 days, it gets requalified or marked lost.
- Rule
- 30 days idle, decide
Taking the rep's call at face value
PeopleRep optimism is the most cited cause of forecast error, and sandbagging is its mirror image. That's why HubSpot's categories or Clari's submissions matter: they separate what the rep commits from what the math says.
- Fix
- Compare the call with the math
Buying the CRM without checking the plan
PricePipedrive Lite, HubSpot Starter, Zoho Free: none of them forecast. Plenty of teams find out after migrating. Check the exact plan, and for HubSpot add Professional's mandatory onboarding to your math.
- Check
- The plan, not the headline price
Mixing up sales forecasts and financial projections
ScopeA lender asking for projections wants a P&L and cash flow over three years, not your quarter's pipeline. Those are different tools. For the first, see our ranking of financial forecasting software.
- Effect
- Wrong tool bought
Six settings for a forecast you can defend
These work whatever tool you use. They take an hour and do more for accuracy than switching software.
Calibrate probabilities on 12 months
MathExport the deals closed over the last 12 months. For each stage, count how many deals that reached it were won. That percentage becomes your probability. Redo it every quarter.
- Time
- One hour a quarter
Forecast on the date that matters
PipedriveIn Pipedrive, the forecast view can run on a custom date field. Create "delivery date" or "invoice date" and use it: your forecast now speaks your CFO's language.
- Where
- Forecast view settings
Set the period before the goals
HubSpotIn HubSpot, choose monthly or quarterly before entering any goal: switching later resets goals and submissions. Then order your stages, since only five values map to categories.
- Avoids
- Wiped goals
Log forecast against actuals
MethodAt the start of each month, log the forecast. At the end, log what closed. After a quarter you know your average gap, and whether your team leans optimistic or cautious. Forecastio tracks this automatically; a two-column sheet works too.
- Tool
- Two columns are enough
Trial on a closed quarter
ChoicePipedrive gives 14 days with no card, Salesflare 30 days, Forecastio a one-month pilot. Load the data from a finished quarter and see which tool would have called the closest number. It's the most telling check there is.
- Trials
- 14 days to one month
Cross-check two methods in Excel
SpreadsheetIf you stick with a spreadsheet, run both a 3-month moving average and Excel's Forecast Sheet. When they agree, your number is solid. When they don't, look for seasonality or one big deal skewing your history.
- History
- 12 months minimum
Wiring your CRM into a spreadsheet or a forecasting tool? Get our next automation guides
Where to go from here
Depending on what you're really after, another Labs page will answer better.
CRMs for teams of 10 to 250 people.
You're a very small teamBest CRM for micro businessesSimple, cheap CRMs.
You want to compare CRM pricesCRM pricing indexEntry prices for every CRM, plan by plan.
A lender wants projectionsFinancial forecasting softwareP&L and cash flow over three years.
You want to analyze sales callsConversation intelligenceGong and its competitors compared.
You need to forecast inventoryInventory management softwareTools that forecast demand per SKU.
Your questions about sales forecasting software
What is sales forecasting software?
It's a tool, or a CRM feature, that estimates how much revenue your team will close in a given period. It reads your open deals, applies a win probability to each and projects the total by month or quarter. The better ones also compare the forecast with what actually closed.
Do I need forecasting software if my CRM already forecasts?
Usually not. Pipedrive Growth, HubSpot Professional, Zoho Standard and Salesforce Pro Suite all include forecasting. A dedicated layer like Forecastio or Clari pays off when you need modeled forecasts, accuracy tracking or a structured forecast call across many reps.
How accurate is sales forecasting software?
As accurate as your pipeline data. With calibrated stage probabilities and up-to-date close dates, a weighted forecast is a solid baseline. With default probabilities and stale deals, it's confidently wrong. Track forecast against actuals for a quarter to know your real error.
What's the difference between pipeline and historical forecasting?
Pipeline forecasting weights each open deal by its stage probability, which suits B2B sales with long cycles. Historical forecasting projects past revenue forward with moving averages or smoothing, which suits high-volume or recurring sales. Many teams combine both.
Does HubSpot's free CRM include sales forecasting?
No. HubSpot's forecast tool requires Sales Hub or Service Hub Professional or Enterprise. On Free or Starter, you can pull deals into a spreadsheet with an add-on like Coefficient or through the API, or add Forecastio on top.
How much does sales forecasting software cost?
From around $39 per seat to custom enterprise contracts. Pipedrive unlocks forecasting at $39 per seat per month on annual billing, Forecastio starts at $249 a month for 2 seats, and Clari and Gong Forecast are sold by quote with implementation fees.
Can I forecast sales in Excel?
Yes. Put monthly sales in two columns (date, amount), select them, then Data, Forecast Sheet. Excel applies exponential smoothing and adds a confidence band. You need at least 12 months of history; with less, a 3-month moving average is more honest.
Is AI sales forecasting reliable?
It's as reliable as your data. On a clean pipeline, AI projections catch at-risk deals the eye misses. On a messy one, they're wrong with confidence. Judge any AI forecast on a quarter that's already closed before you trust it.