Retently vs Simplesat
An independent, review-free comparison compiled by the SaaSTracker editorial team. Both products are profiled in full, and neither can pay for placement here.
The short answer
Editorial assessmentSimplesat compared with Retently
Retently runs a broader customer experience programme with NPS, CSAT, and CES campaigns, automation, and segmentation across the whole customer base. Simplesat is tighter, service-delivery-focused, and much better integrated with PSA tooling. Choose Retently for a company-wide sentiment programme, Simplesat for measuring service quality ticket by ticket.
Choose Retently if
Subscription and ecommerce businesses that already have a retention motion and want an earlier warning signal for it, particularly teams running a customer success or support function who will actually act on a detractor alert rather than letting it sit in a dashboard.
Choose Simplesat if
Managed service providers and IT service businesses running ConnectWise, Autotask, Halo PSA, Atera, or NinjaOne, and support teams on Zendesk, Freshdesk, Gorgias, or Intercom with enough ticket volume that a 1,000 response monthly allowance is useful rather than excessive.
Side by side
13 attributes| Attribute | Retently | Simplesat |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Retention | Retention |
| Starting price | $99 per month (Ecommerce Basic) (14 days trial) | $109 per month billed annually, or $119 billed monthly (14 days trial) |
| Pricing model | Flat monthly subscription metered by survey volume, with seats and API access varying by tier. No percentage of revenue and no per-response fee. | Tiered subscription metered by monthly responses received and account user seats, with a modest discount for annual billing. |
| Free plan | No | No |
| Free trial | 14 days, no credit card required | 14 days with Elite-level features, no credit card required |
| Best for | Subscription and ecommerce businesses that already have a retention motion and want an earlier warning signal for it, particularly teams running a customer success or support function who will actually act on a detractor alert rather than letting it sit in a dashboard. | Managed service providers and IT service businesses running ConnectWise, Autotask, Halo PSA, Atera, or NinjaOne, and support teams on Zendesk, Freshdesk, Gorgias, or Intercom with enough ticket volume that a 1,000 response monthly allowance is useful rather than excessive. |
| Setup time | A day to first campaign. Connect a data source or import customers, choose a methodology and channel, write the question, and send. The in-app and feedback-button channels require a small front-end embed, which is the only engineering work involved. | A day for the standard path. Connect the PSA or helpdesk, build a survey, set the dispatch trigger, and roll out signature embedding to technicians. Signature deployment across a large team is the slowest step and is administrative rather than technical. |
| Learning curve | Low to send surveys, moderate to run a program that works. The genuine skills are in survey timing (asking at the wrong moment produces garbage), sampling (avoiding fatigue while getting enough responses to be representative), and building the follow-up process that makes the data worth collecting. | Low to operate, moderate to run well. Configuring conditional logic and segmentation is straightforward; deciding how satisfaction data is used in technician reviews is the decision that determines whether the data stays honest. |
| Platforms | Web app, Email and SMS delivery, In-app survey embed, Embedded and link surveys, Feedback button, Kiosk mode, MCP server on Pro | Web application, Email surveys and signature embedding, Survey links, Helpdesk and PSA embedded experiences |
| Compliance | GDPR, Standard data protection controls for survey response data | GDPR, SOC 2 posture and enterprise SSO available on the Enterprise tier |
| Founded | 2016 | 2016 |
| Headquarters | Palo Alto, California, United States | Seattle, Washington |
| Ownership | Independent and bootstrapped | Privately held, no disclosed institutional funding |
Strengths and limitations
Retently
Strengths
- Three survey methodologies covering genuinely different questions, rather than the single NPS score most competitors stop at.
- Seven delivery channels including SMS, in-app, kiosk, and a persistent feedback button, which matters because response rate determines whether any of the data means anything.
- AI feedback classification included from the $99 entry tier rather than reserved for an expensive upper plan.
- The AI agent reads reviews and support tickets alongside surveys, so themes are corroborated across sources instead of resting on one channel.
Limitations
- It prevents no churn on its own. Retently produces a signal and an alert; if nobody is staffed to respond, you have added a survey and changed nothing.
- No dunning, no card retries, no cancel flows, and no offers, so the entire involuntary-churn half of this category is untouched.
- Stated sentiment is a weaker predictor than behavior. A customer who scores you a 9 and then leaves is a common and frustrating outcome, and NPS response samples skew toward the strongly opinionated.
- Plans are named and shaped for ecommerce, and survey volume as the metered unit fits a small B2B SaaS poorly.
Simplesat
Strengths
- The MSP integration set across ConnectWise, Autotask, Halo PSA, Atera, and NinjaOne is genuinely differentiated and hard for competitors to replicate.
- Generous response allowances starting at 1,000 a month, with unlimited surveys and unlimited surveyed agents on every tier.
- Email signature embedding plus automatic dispatch on ticket close, covering both the highest-response and the most systematic distribution methods.
- AI topic detection makes large comment volumes readable, which is where most satisfaction programmes quietly fail.
Limitations
- It measures and never intervenes. Every improvement depends on somebody reading the data and picking up a phone.
- Poor value below a few hundred responses a month; the entry plan is sized for volume that a small team will not generate.
- No in-product surveys triggered by user behaviour, so software companies get a support signal only and learn nothing about how customers feel about features.
- The annual discount is unusually small at roughly eight percent, weakening the case for a yearly commitment.
Pricing compared
Retently
Flat monthly subscription metered by survey volume, with seats and API access varying by tier. No percentage of revenue and no per-response fee.
- Ecommerce Basic$99
- Ecommerce Pro$299
- EnterpriseQuote
Retently is well priced for what it does and easy to overvalue for what it does not. Three methodologies, seven channels, AI classification from the entry tier, and an MCP server on Pro is a lot of capability for $99 to $299, and the flexibility of month-to-month with no commitment lowers the risk further. But it produces a signal, not a save. Every dollar of value depends on someone acting on a detractor alert, and companies without a customer success or support motion to receive that alert will get a well-designed dashboard and no retention improvement. Buy it as an input to a process you already run, never as the process itself.
Simplesat
Tiered subscription metered by monthly responses received and account user seats, with a modest discount for annual billing.
- Standard$119 monthly, $109 annually
- Pro$249 monthly, $229 annually
- Elite$499 monthly, $459 annually
- EnterpriseCustom
Simplesat is priced for a business with real ticket volume, and within that context the value is strong: 1,000 responses, unlimited surveys, unlimited surveyed agents, and full integration and API access for $119 a month compares well against Nicereply's 100 responses at $59 or Survicate's 250 at $114. The MSP integration set is the genuine moat, because ConnectWise and Autotask coverage is not something a SaaS-focused survey vendor will build. Where it looks expensive is at the small end, where a team collecting fifty responses a month pays for a thousand, and at the top, where Elite at $499 lands in the same budget conversation as a customer success platform that actually drives action.
Editorial verdict on each
Retently
Retently is a good feedback platform sitting at the edge of a retention category, and buying it well means being clear about that. Three methodologies, seven channels, AI classification from the entry tier, and an MCP server on Pro is genuinely a lot of capability for $99 to $299 a month, and month-to-month terms with a no-card trial make it easy to test. The signal it produces is real and often moves before behavior does, which is valuable if you have annual B2B contracts that no dunning tool or cancel flow can reach. But it saves nobody on its own. Every dollar of return depends on a human receiving a detractor alert and doing something about it, and if that human does not exist you have bought a survey tool and called it retention. Third or fourth purchase in this category, not the first.
Read the full Retently profileSimplesat
Simplesat is the right satisfaction tool for a business whose customers talk to people rather than to software. The PSA integrations across ConnectWise, Autotask, Halo PSA, Atera, and NinjaOne are a real moat, the response allowances are generous where competitors are stingy, and the client-ready exports turn satisfaction into something you can put in front of a client at renewal time. For a managed service provider it is close to the only automated churn signal available, since nothing in the billing layer can see an annual agreement quietly going sour. Two caveats. It is poor value below a few hundred responses a month, where Nicereply fits better, and it prevents nothing on its own. Buy it as the instrument, then make sure somebody is accountable for the phone call it triggers.
Read the full Simplesat profileRetently profile last reviewed 2026-08-22; Simplesat last reviewed 2026-08-22. Pricing is compiled from public sources and can change without notice. See our methodology.