What is customer retention software?

Customer retention software is any tool that helps a business keep the customers it already has. The category covers several kinds of product: customer success platforms that score account health for B2B companies, loyalty programs and email or SMS tools for ecommerce, cancel flows and failed payment recovery for subscriptions, and survey tools that measure satisfaction. Which one you need depends on how your customers buy and why they leave.

What is the best customer retention software?

It depends on your business. For B2B SaaS with product usage data, choose a customer success platform such as Custify, ChurnZero, Vitally or Gainsight. For ecommerce, choose a loyalty program like Smile.io and an email and SMS tool like Klaviyo. For subscriptions that lose customers to cancellations and failed cards, choose a tool like Churnkey. If you already run HubSpot Service Hub Professional, start with its customer success workspace and NPS surveys.

How much does customer retention software cost?

Ecommerce tools start free: Smile.io has a free plan up to 200 orders a month and Klaviyo is free up to 250 active profiles. Churnkey starts at $250 a month billed yearly. B2B customer success platforms cost far more: ChurnZero lists $16,000 a year plus per-user fees, and reported median contracts are about $39,000 a year for Vitally and $50,500 for Gainsight.

Is a CRM a customer retention tool?

Partly. A CRM records every customer, their contacts, deals and activity, which is the base for any retention work. It does not usually score account health, run save offers or reward repeat purchases on its own. HubSpot is an exception at the higher tiers: Service Hub Professional adds a customer success workspace with health scores and NPS surveys.

What is the difference between customer retention software and customer success software?

Customer success software is one type of retention software, built for B2B companies with account managers. It scores account health, tracks renewals and gives each customer success manager a book of accounts. Customer retention software is the wider category and also includes loyalty programs, email and SMS marketing, subscription cancel flows and survey tools, most of which serve B2C businesses.

What retention tools work with HubSpot?

HubSpot Service Hub has its own customer success workspace and NPS surveys. Custify, ChurnZero, Vitally and Gainsight all connect to HubSpot, though sync depth differs by vendor. Klaviyo also integrates with HubSpot. If your account plans and renewal notes live in Notion, NoteLinker shows them on HubSpot contact and deal records.

Can a small B2B team improve retention without new software?

Often, yes. With a small book of accounts, retention mostly comes from knowing each customer well: their goals, the last conversation, the renewal date and the risks. A CRM plus a written plan per account usually covers it, as long as the plan is on the record the account owner opens before a call.

Customer Retention Software: 9 Best Tools by Business Type (2026)

The short answer: for B2B SaaS with product usage data, choose a customer success platform: Custify or ChurnZero for small and mid-size teams, Vitally for modern mid-market teams, Gainsight for enterprise. For ecommerce, choose Smile.io for loyalty and Klaviyo for email and SMS. For subscriptions that lose customers at cancellation or to failed cards, choose Churnkey. On HubSpot Service Hub Professional, start with its built-in customer success workspace and NPS surveys.

What it costs: ecommerce tools start free (Smile.io up to 200 orders a month, Klaviyo up to 250 active profiles). Churnkey starts at $250 a month billed yearly. B2B platforms cost the most: ChurnZero lists $16,000 a year plus per-user fees, and reported medians reach about $39,000 a year for Vitally and $50,500 for Gainsight.

Which type you need: match the tool to why customers leave. B2B accounts drift away when nobody notices risk; shoppers do not come back without a reason; subscribers cancel on impulse or when a card fails.

Customer Retention Software at a Glance

Tool	Type	Best for	Reported price
HubSpot Service Hub	CRM with CS workspace and NPS surveys	B2B teams already on HubSpot	Service Hub Pro about $90/seat/mo yearly
Custify	Customer success platform	Small and mid-size B2B SaaS	Quote; reported $499 to $899/mo
ChurnZero	Customer success platform	Mid-market SaaS with usage data	$16,000/yr plus per-user fees
Vitally	Customer success platform	Modern mid-market CS teams	Quote; median about $39,000/yr
Gainsight	Customer success platform	Enterprise CS programs	Quote; median about $50,500/yr
Churnkey	Cancel flows and payment recovery	Subscription businesses on Stripe and similar	From $250/mo yearly
Klaviyo	Email and SMS marketing	Ecommerce repeat purchases	Free to 250 profiles; reported from $20/mo
Smile.io	Loyalty and rewards	Ecommerce stores	Free to 200 orders/mo; paid from $15/mo
Notion + NoteLinker	Account plans on the CRM record	Small B2B teams that run accounts in Notion	$19/mo for the whole HubSpot account

Prices are what vendors, HubSpot Marketplace listings and review sites reported in 2026. Several vendors quote, so confirm before you budget.

Three questions that pick the type

Do you sell to businesses with renewals, or to consumers who buy again? B2B renewals point to a customer success platform; repeat purchases point to loyalty and email.
Why do customers actually leave? Silent drift needs health scores, impulse cancellations need a save offer, and failed cards need payment recovery.
What data do you have? A health score needs product usage or support data to feed it; without that, it is a number someone types in.

In this article

The 5 Types of Customer Retention Software

Most "best retention software" lists mix tools that solve different problems. Sort them by type first:

Type	What it does	Who it is for	Examples
Customer success platforms	Health scores, renewal tracking, playbooks for account managers	B2B SaaS and subscription companies with account managers	Custify, ChurnZero, Vitally, Gainsight
Loyalty and rewards	Points, tiers and referrals that bring shoppers back	Ecommerce and retail	Smile.io
Email and SMS marketing	Win-back flows, post-purchase messages, segments	Ecommerce and consumer brands	Klaviyo
Cancel flows and payment recovery	Save offers at cancellation, retries and reminders for failed cards	Subscription businesses	Churnkey
Feedback and surveys	NPS and satisfaction surveys that flag unhappy customers early	Any business	HubSpot NPS surveys

A B2B company rarely needs a loyalty program, and a Shopify store rarely needs a health score. Pick the type, then compare tools within it.

The 9 Best Customer Retention Tools

1. HubSpot Service Hub: best if you already run HubSpot
Service Hub Professional and Enterprise include a Customer Success Workspace, where each customer success manager sees their book of accounts and a configurable health score labels customers healthy, neutral or at risk. The same tiers include customer loyalty (NPS) surveys, and HubSpot says you need an assigned Service Hub seat to create them. Service Hub Professional is reported at about $90 per seat per month billed yearly. There is no product usage pipeline of the kind dedicated platforms sell.
2. Custify: best for small and mid-size B2B SaaS
Health scores, lifecycle playbooks and churn alerts for SaaS teams that have outgrown spreadsheets. Custify's knowledge base describes two-way, field-level sync with HubSpot for companies, deals and contacts. Pricing is by quote: one analysis found references to a $499 a month yearly Standard plan, while listing sites show about $899 a month for three users.
3. ChurnZero: best for mid-market SaaS with usage data
Built around product usage tracking, health scores and automated plays for subscription businesses. Its HubSpot Marketplace listing shows a Standard plan at $16,000 a year plus per-user fees, and the HubSpot integration syncs accounts and contacts every 15 minutes by default.
4. Vitally: best for modern mid-market CS teams
A collaborative customer success platform with docs, projects and health scores in one workspace. Its HubSpot integration imports companies and pushes health scores back to HubSpot records. Vitally quotes every plan; CostBench reports a median contract of about $39,000 a year.
5. Gainsight: best for enterprise retention programs
The most established customer success platform, with health scoring, playbooks and renewal forecasting across large portfolios. Gainsight quotes; CostBench reports a median of about $50,500 a year. Plan for a dedicated admin.
6. Churnkey: best for subscription cancellations and failed payments
Churnkey shows a save flow when a subscriber tries to cancel (a pause, a downgrade or a discount) and recovers failed card payments with retries and reminders. Its pricing page lists Starter at $250 a month billed yearly, or $300 monthly, for teams with under $5,000 in monthly churned revenue, with a 14-day trial and no credit card. Core starts at $500 a month billed yearly and scales with churn volume.
7. Klaviyo: best email and SMS tool for ecommerce retention
The default for ecommerce brands that want win-back emails, post-purchase flows and segments built from order data. Klaviyo's pricing page shows a free plan for up to 250 active profiles with 500 email sends a month. Pricing guides report paid email plans from $20 a month for up to 500 active profiles and email plus SMS from $35, rising with your profile count.
8. Smile.io: best loyalty program for online stores
Points, VIP tiers and referral rewards that give shoppers a reason to buy again. Its pricing page lists a free plan up to 200 orders a month, Essential at $15, Standard at $79 and Growth at $199 a month, and Smile Plus at $999 a month billed annually, with order limits rising at each tier.
9. Notion + NoteLinker: best for small B2B teams that run accounts in Notion
Many agencies, consultancies and small B2B teams keep their account plans, onboarding status and renewal notes in Notion. NoteLinker shows each matching row live on the HubSpot contact or deal record, matched by email or deal name, so the account owner sees the plan and the last conversation before every call. No health scores, playbooks or payment recovery, and no rows on HubSpot company records. $19 a month for the whole HubSpot account, with a 14-day trial and no credit card.

Keep account plans where your team works

NoteLinker shows your Notion account plans and renewal notes on HubSpot contact and deal records, live from Notion. $19 a month for the whole account.

Get Started

Which Customer Retention Software Fits Your Business?

PickHubSpot Service HubWhenYou are B2B, already on HubSpot, and can pay for Service Hub Professional

Health scores and NPS surveys with no new vendor and no sync to maintain.

PickCustify, ChurnZero, Vitally or GainsightWhenYou are B2B SaaS with product usage data and more accounts than your team can watch by hand

Custify or ChurnZero for smaller teams, Vitally for mid-market, Gainsight for enterprise. Our guide to customer success tools compares them in depth.

PickSmile.io and KlaviyoWhenYou run an ecommerce store and want shoppers to buy again

Loyalty rewards plus win-back and post-purchase emails. Both have free plans to start.

PickChurnkeyWhenYou sell subscriptions and lose customers at cancellation or to failed cards

Save offers and payment recovery, priced by how much revenue you lose to churn.

Best fitPickNotion + NoteLinkerWhenYou are a small B2B team on HubSpot and your account plans already live in Notion

Keep the plan in Notion and see it on the HubSpot record before every renewal call. Flat $19 a month.

What to Check Before You Buy

Questions for every retention software demo

Which churn does it address: silent drift, impulse cancellation, failed payments or lack of repeat purchases?
Where does its data come from, and do you have that data today?
What does it sync with your CRM, how often, and does anything write back where sales can see it?
How is it priced as you grow: by seat, by account, by profile, by order or by churned revenue?
Who will own it day to day? Platforms with playbooks need someone to build and maintain them.

Customer Retention for Small B2B Teams on HubSpot

For an agency, consultancy or small B2B company with dozens of accounts rather than thousands, retention rarely needs a platform. It needs the account owner to walk into each check-in and renewal call knowing the customer's goals, what was promised, and what went wrong last quarter.

That knowledge usually sits in docs, not the CRM. Here is how teams that keep it in Notion get it onto the HubSpot record:

1
Keep one Notion row per account
Use a database for account plans or renewal notes, with a contact email column (or a deal name column for plans tied to a renewal deal). Our account plan template and QBR template are free starting points.
2
Connect Notion and HubSpot
Install NoteLinker from the HubSpot Marketplace and connect the Notion databases you want to show. Setup takes a couple of minutes.
3
Open the contact or deal
Every matching row appears on the record, read live from Notion. Hide a row with one click, or create a new row from the record.

For a formal program, see our guides to account management software and key account management software. The sales to customer success handoff covers where retention starts, and client onboarding software covers the first 90 days.

NoteLinker is not a retention platform: no health scores, playbooks, loyalty points or payment recovery, and no rows on company records. It fits when your account knowledge already lives in Notion and the problem is that HubSpot cannot see it. See pricing for the current plan.

Renewal notes your account team will actually see

NoteLinker connects Notion and HubSpot in two minutes and shows your account plans on the contact and deal records your team already opens. $19 a month flat.