Gong vs tl;dv
A practical look at price, capture, notes, workflows, and what each product is actually good at.
The short answer
Which one fits better?
Best fit
Gong
Revenue forecasting, deal inspection, and rep coaching
Price
Custom quote: per-user licenses plus a platform fee
Pricing details
Gong does not publish a self-serve price. Its pricing page says cost combines a per-user license with a platform fee, and capabilities such as Forecast, Engage, Enable, and Data Cloud are organized as additional packages.
Free option: No self-serve free plan or free trial is advertised; request a demo and quote.
Good for
- Sales analytics and forecasting
- Enterprise coaching workflows
Watch for
- Opaque pricing + platform fee
- Follow-up tasks require Engage
Best fit
tl;dv
Free online recording, clips, and recurring reports
Price
Free; Pro from $18/user/month annually; Business from $29 annually
Pricing details
Free includes unlimited recordings and transcripts, but recordings are retained for three months, older recordings are archived shortly after processing, advanced AI credits are lifetime-limited, and after the first ten meetings generated notes cover only the first ten minutes. Paid prices are per user/month: Pro is $18 with annual billing or $29 month-to-month; Business is $29 or $39. Enterprise is quoted separately.
Free option: Yes: unlimited recordings and transcripts, with retention, archive, AI-note, credit, duration, and concurrency limits.
Good for
- A generous free recorder
- Clips and sales playbooks
Watch for
- Bot-free mode drops video and chat
- No bulk export; API is alpha
Side by side
The details that matter.
Ratings show documented breadth, not overall product quality. Open a row for specifics.
What matters
Capture options
GongBroad supporttl;dvBroad supportCapture options
Gong:Broad supporttl;dv:Broad support
Capture options
Capture options
Gong
Meeting bot, native Zoom recording, telephony, and mobile capture
Gong captures supported web meetings, calls, and email. Eligible company-hosted Zoom calls can use Zoom-native recording with no Gong bot; other web-conferencing paths generally use the bot. Its mobile app records scheduled or ad-hoc face-to-face conversations.
tl;dv
Meeting bot or bot-free desktop recording
macOS and Windows can capture system audio from any meeting platform without a bot. The bot remains the richer mode for supported conferencing platforms.
Evidencetl;dv bot-free recording
Desktop and mobile
GongAvailable with limitstl;dvAvailable with limitsDesktop and mobile
Gong:Available with limitstl;dv:Available with limits
Desktop and mobile
Desktop and mobile
Gong
Web plus iOS and Android; sales workflows are cloud-first
Mobile apps support recording and review. Gong is primarily an enterprise web platform rather than a general-purpose botless desktop recorder; only its Zoom integration offers native provider recording without the Gong bot.
tl;dv
Web, Chrome, macOS, Windows, and an early mobile app
Desktop capture is broad. tl;dv now documents a mobile app for in-person meetings, but describes it as recently launched, early-stage, and available for testing.
In-person capture and speaker labels
GongAvailable with limitstl;dvAvailable with limitsIn-person capture and speaker labels
Gong:Available with limitstl;dv:Available with limits
In-person capture and speaker labels
In-person capture and speaker labels
Gong
Mobile face-to-face audio recording
iOS and Android can capture scheduled or ad-hoc room meetings. Gong separates speakers, but same-room voices may appear as room-name Speaker 1, Speaker 2, and so on until someone edits them; noisy rooms can reduce quality.
tl;dv
Desktop microphone or early-stage mobile recording
A laptop can capture room audio and the newer mobile app can record in-person meetings. tl;dv documents speaker identification generally but does not explain whether the early mobile path preserves the same naming behavior, so test it before a broad rollout. There is no documented Watch capture.
Recordings, playback, and clips
GongBroad supporttl;dvBroad supportRecordings, playback, and clips
Gong:Broad supporttl;dv:Broad support
Recordings, playback, and clips
Recordings, playback, and clips
Gong
Rich call playback, libraries, snippets, and coaching review
Recording review is a core Gong workflow, with synchronized transcript, comments, snippets, libraries, trackers, and manager coaching tools.
tl;dv
Rich playback, clips, and reels—with a botless video caveat
Bot recordings support video, transcript, clips, reels, and shareable moments. Bot-free recordings are audio-only and omit video, screen sharing, and chat.
Notes, action items, and search
GongBroad supporttl;dvBroad supportNotes, action items, and search
Gong:Broad supporttl;dv:Broad support
Notes, action items, and search
Notes, action items, and search
Gong
Sales summaries, next steps, account search, and conversation intelligence
Gong excels at finding deal moments, objections, topics, rep behaviors, and next steps. With Engage, recommended meeting follow-ups become due-dated to-dos that can be completed, dismissed, reviewed by managers, and acted on through email or calls. A recommendation can auto-dismiss after seven days if no other completion rule fires. The experience is optimized around customer and revenue questions rather than general company knowledge.
EvidenceGong plans and seatsGong recommended to-dosGong team to-do management
tl;dv
AI notes, action digests, multi-meeting reports, and topic tracking
The product is particularly good at synthesizing multiple meetings and turning recurring prompts into reports, including action lists grouped by person and date. Those are report or checklist outputs rather than a native task lifecycle with workspace queues and completion state. Free accounts get a limited number of AI notes.
People, companies, and context
GongBroad supporttl;dvAvailable with limitsPeople, companies, and context
Gong:Broad supporttl;dv:Available with limits
People, companies, and context
People, companies, and context
Gong
Deep account and deal history for GTM teams
Calls, meetings, and email roll into account and deal context. This is powerful for revenue work but is not positioned as a shared memory for every internal and external company conversation.
EvidenceGong plans and seats
tl;dv
Meeting library and multi-meeting synthesis
tl;dv can query and report across accessible meetings, but it does not present a broader email/calendar/person/company relationship memory as its core model.
Evidencetl;dv MCP
Automatic sharing and workspace defaults
GongAvailable with limitstl;dvBroad supportAutomatic sharing and workspace defaults
Gong:Available with limitstl;dv:Broad support
Automatic sharing and workspace defaults
Automatic sharing and workspace defaults
Gong
Permissioned call, snippet, and folder sharing
Calls and snippets can be shared internally or externally, and shared folders can grant access to every call they contain. Gong documents automatic capture rules, while post-meeting distribution centers on direct shares, folders, teams, accounts, and coaching libraries.
EvidenceGong call and folder sharing
tl;dv
Granular team privacy defaults and automatic sharing
Teams can automatically share with participants, publish to a team or organization library, and apply admin privacy rules using meeting context such as title, internal or external type, and team role. Sensitive categories can remain private by rule.
Evidencetl;dv team privacy defaults
Automations
GongBroad supporttl;dvBroad supportAutomations
Gong:Broad supporttl;dv:Broad support
Automations
Automations
Gong
Purpose-built revenue workflows and engagement sequences
Gong automates CRM activity, deal signals, alerts, coaching, and sales engagement. Engage flows and AI-recommended to-dos centralize rep work and let managers inspect team queues. It is highly capable inside revenue operations, but this task system is package-gated and less open-ended for arbitrary company workflows.
EvidenceGong automation rulesGong recommended to-dosGong team to-do management
tl;dv
Recurring AI reports and sales workflows
Automated multi-meeting reports, playbooks, CRM updates, and conditional Slack posts are useful, especially for customer-facing teams. Slack workflows can format decisions and action items with owners and deadlines, but team workflow scope excludes team admins and billing-group admins, and the overall system is less open-ended than a general meeting condition/action builder.
Integrations
GongBroad supporttl;dvAvailable with limitsIntegrations
Gong:Broad supporttl;dv:Available with limits
Integrations
Integrations
Gong
Deep CRM, calendar, conferencing, and sales-stack integrations
The integration strategy is strong where revenue teams live: CRMs, dialers, calendars, meeting platforms, and sales engagement systems.
EvidenceGong plans and seats
tl;dv
CRM and collaboration integrations on paid plans
tl;dv connects to common CRMs and work tools; exact access varies by plan. The catalog is oriented around GTM and collaboration workflows.
Evidencetl;dv pricing
API, MCP, CLI, and data portability
GongBroad supporttl;dvAvailable with limitsAPI, MCP, CLI, and data portability
Gong:Broad supporttl;dv:Available with limits
API, MCP, CLI, and data portability
API, MCP, CLI, and data portability
Gong
Mature APIs, exports, data cloud, and a focused MCP server
Gong exposes calls, full speaker-segmented transcripts, users, CRM-linked objects, exports, and data-warehouse tables. Its 2026 MCP server supports personal or organization-wide authorization for ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, and custom agents, but is read-only and limited to account/deal questions and generated briefs—not raw meeting retrieval. Those MCP tools and some AI APIs consume Gong credits. There is no documented first-party CLI.
EvidenceGong transcript APIGong API overviewGong MCP serverGong MCP setupGong AI creditsGong transcript downloadsGong media downloads
tl;dv
MCP on Pro+ and a public alpha API
MCP can search meetings and participants, with typical result sets capped at 50. A subtle access rule matters: viewing a shared meeting is not enough if its organizer is on Free—the organizer must have Pro or higher before that meeting is available through MCP or the API. The API is documented as v1alpha1 and includes recording downloads, so integration teams should expect contract evolution.
Security, privacy, and admin
GongBroad supporttl;dvAvailable with limitsSecurity, privacy, and admin
Gong:Broad supporttl;dv:Available with limits
Security, privacy, and admin
Security, privacy, and admin
Gong
Mature enterprise administration and governance
Gong supports large deployments, granular access, SSO/SCIM, retention configuration, deletion, and compliance workflows. Standard retention is the shorter of three years or the customer term and data is deleted 30 days after the relationship ends; company-library calls sit outside the standard rule.
tl;dv
Paid Team controls, with a looser domain Organization layer
Paid Teams add roles, billing administration, and forward-looking defaults; team settings do not override Team Admins. The separate domain-based Organization has no organization-wide admin defaults, any same-domain user can join it, and it cannot be deleted. Multi-team management is Business-only.
Evidencetl;dv pricingtl;dv team privacy defaultstl;dv organization and team modeltl;dv permission levels
Languages
GongBroad supporttl;dvAvailable with limitsLanguages
Gong:Broad supporttl;dv:Available with limits
Languages
Languages
Gong
More than 70 languages; some AI features remain English-only
Gong documents more than 70 transcription languages plus AI translation. Email labels, red-flag alerts, Gong-recommended to-dos, and example-based smart trackers are still English-only, so global teams should verify the exact workflow rather than relying on the headline count.
EvidenceGong language support
tl;dv
Multilingual transcription; advanced multilingual mode is plan-gated
Language selection behavior varies by capture mode, and the multilingual Whisper option is documented for Business and Enterprise.
Worth a look
Circleback
If neither Gong nor tl;dv quite fits, Circleback covers a different job: capturing online and in-person meetings and sharing them by rule. It is built for people and AI agents, with the same full meeting data available through its API, MCP, and CLI.
Every meeting
Bot, botless desktop app, iPhone, Android, or Apple Watch. Speaker labels every time; recording optional.
Shared company memory
Detailed notes, automatic sharing, and people and company context across every team.
People and AI agents
Assigned actions and automations for people; the same full meeting data for agents through API, MCP, and CLI.
Sources
First-party pricing, product docs, help articles, and release notes.
Gong sources18 first-party references
- Gong pricing
Custom pricing structure, per-user licenses, platform fee, and package model.
- Gong web-conferencing capture
Bot capture across providers and native bot-free recording for eligible Zoom meetings.
- Gong transcript API
Documented call-transcript endpoint, pagination, filters, and authorization scope.
- Gong API overview
Calls, full transcripts, analyzed conversation data, users, activity, and CRM-linked API capabilities.
- Gong MCP server
Read-only account/deal questions and brief generation for external AI clients.
- Gong MCP setup
Paid-seat requirement, personal or shared authorization, OAuth setup, and official MCP endpoint.
- Gong AI credits
Shared annual credit pool and consumption behavior for MCP, AI APIs, and continuous AI processing.
- Gong transcript downloads
Per-call transcript download and synchronized transcript behavior.
- Gong media downloads
Permissioned audio, video, and snippet downloads on any Gong plan.
- Gong plans and seats
Foundation platform and Enable, Forecast, Engage, and Data Cloud packages.
- Gong mobile recording
iOS and Android in-person recording behavior and quality considerations.
- Gong speaker identification
Speaker separation, same-room generic labels, platform behavior, and optional voice identification.
- Gong data retention
Standard and custom retention behavior.
- Gong language support
More than 70 transcription languages, AI translation, and the AI capabilities that remain English-only.
- Gong call and folder sharing
Company permissions for external call sharing and internal shared folders.
- Gong automation rules
Plan availability, supported triggers and actions, and future-only rule application.
- Gong recommended to-dos
Engage eligibility, AI meeting follow-ups, source timestamps, due dates, completion rules, seven-day expiry, and language limits.
- Gong team to-do management
Personal and manager task views, filters, due dates, bulk completion, CRM context, and execution controls.
tl;dv sources13 first-party references
- tl;dv pricing
Official Free, Pro, Business, and Enterprise pricing and plan scope.
- tl;dv free-plan limits
Recording retention, archive behavior, AI-note coverage, lifetime credits, meeting duration, and concurrency.
- tl;dv mobile app
Recently launched early-stage mobile recording for in-person meetings.
- tl;dv speaker identification
General automatic speaker identification; the article does not document mobile-mode parity.
- tl;dv bot-free recording
Desktop capture and the audio-only limitation.
- tl;dv MCP
Plan eligibility, tools, access model, and result behavior.
- tl;dv API
Pro/Business eligibility and v1alpha1 status.
- tl;dv team privacy defaults
Admin-controlled automatic sharing, workspace-library publishing, and privacy rules for sensitive meetings.
- tl;dv download limits
No bulk export plus paid-plan, ownership, and permission requirements for individual recording downloads.
- tl;dv organization and team model
Automatic same-domain Organization membership, absence of Organization-wide admin defaults, and the paid Team hierarchy.
- tl;dv permission levels
Team roles, admin behavior, and the non-deletable domain Organization.
- tl;dv AI prompts
Cross-meeting action-item reports grouped by participant and date plus common analysis workflows.
- tl;dv Slack workflows
Conditional automatic summaries, decisions, and owner/deadline action lists plus the team-admin scope exception.
Questions people usually ask
Which is better: Gong or tl;dv?
Gong is the deeper sales operating system. tl;dv is the lighter, cheaper recorder for clips, recurring reports, and playbooks without the same forecasting machinery.
Which is less expensive, Gong or tl;dv?
Gong: Custom quote: per-user licenses plus a platform fee. tl;dv: Free; Pro from $18/user/month annually; Business from $29 annually. Compare the paid seats, included usage, recording access, and admin features you actually need.
Can Gong and tl;dv record without a bot?
Gong: Meeting bot, native Zoom recording, telephony, and mobile capture. tl;dv: Meeting bot or bot-free desktop recording. The useful check is whether your required capture mode keeps video, a recording, and speaker names.
Which is better for a whole company?
First ask who gets each note automatically; otherwise useful context stays with the recorder. Then compare permissions, retention, and enforced defaults. Gong: Permissioned call, snippet, and folder sharing. tl;dv: Granular team privacy defaults and automatic sharing.
Can I access and move the full meeting data?
Gong: Mature APIs, exports, data cloud, and a focused MCP server. tl;dv: MCP on Pro+ and a public alpha API. Check the selected plan, authentication model, transcript scope, export format, and retention window for the workflow you need.
How was this comparison researched?
We use first-party pricing pages, product pages, help docs, and release notes for both products. The sources are linked below.

