By Siddharth GangalA Scratchpad replacement should be chosen by the job forcing the switch, not by the number of overlapping AI features. Scratchpad currently combines a fast Salesforce workspace, notes, call capture, field updates, record agents, prompt controls, and hygiene monitoring. Few products replace every layer in the same way.
This guide evaluates current official documentation reviewed August 8, 2026. Gangly did not run a universal hands-on benchmark of every platform. Product claims are attributed to vendors, prices are snapshots, and recommendations are buyer-side judgments to validate in a controlled pilot and signed order form.
Scratchpad alternatives: the short answer
Direct answer. Start with Salesforce native capability when the goal is consolidation and the missing job is pipeline inspection. Shortlist Gangly when the team wants to move beyond a Salesforce workspace into a connected signal, outreach, preparation, supported live-call, notes, and CRM workflow. Shortlist Attention when conversation-derived CRM fields and revenue automation are central. Shortlist Clari Copilot when conversation intelligence, coaching, and revenue-process context are the main jobs. Keep Scratchpad when it still passes the funded workflow and switching value does not exceed migration cost.
These are replacement paths, not four interchangeable products. A team replacing Scratchpad’s sheets and quick Salesforce editing has a different decision from a team replacing its recorder or AI field updates. If the shortlist is specifically Gangly and Scratchpad, use the detailed Gangly versus Scratchpad comparison; this page owns the wider incumbent-replacement and migration decision.
Decide whether to renew, reconfigure, or replace
Do not migrate until the team can name a persistent defect that configuration cannot solve. Build a 30-day incident log. Record slow record updates, unused views, wrong AI suggestions, duplicate writes, missing call context, weak manager adoption, credit overruns, integration failures, security constraints, or gaps before and after the customer conversation. Give every incident an owner, frequency, affected roles, correction time, and downstream consequence.
Then score three low-risk changes: correct configuration, narrower seat assignment, and removal of overlapping tools. Scratchpad’s current pricing page lists multiple plans, AI-credit allowances, a call recorder, AI field updates, agents, integrations, hygiene monitoring, and service options. A package or configuration change may resolve usage or scope concerns without moving any operating data.
Renew when the incumbent clears knockout gates, passes the primary jobs, and costs less than the risk-adjusted alternative. Reconfigure when the platform fits but ownership, prompts, fields, integrations, or licenses do not. Replace when a finalist reproduces required incumbent jobs, fixes the documented constraint, and passes migration, security, and cost gates.
Do not use renewal pressure as the migration plan. If the export inventory, target mapping, parallel-run window, rollback owner, and deletion evidence are incomplete, negotiate time or a shorter renewal rather than forcing an uncontrolled cutover.
Match the replacement to the switching reason
Start by separating five possible reasons for leaving. Each points to a different category.
| Reason for switching | First path to test | Proof required |
|---|---|---|
| Reduce vendors and work natively in Salesforce | Salesforce native | Pipeline view, editing, tasks, activities, insights, permissions, and seller task completion |
| Connect work before the opportunity to work after the call | Gangly | Signal relevance, rep-reviewed outreach, prep quality, supported meeting workflow, and correct CRM state |
| Turn customer conversations into structured CRM fields | Attention | Capture coverage, extraction rubric, field type handling, approval, write safety, and auditability |
| Expand conversation intelligence, live guidance, and coaching | Clari Copilot | Recording, transcription, battlecards, playbooks, coaching, CRM next steps, and Clari platform fit |
| Lower cost without changing the job | Reconfigure or keep Scratchpad first | Seat utilization, credit usage, services, retained tools, and an equivalent finalist workflow |
Do not shortlist a broader platform merely because it can perform one overlapping action. Use the AI CRM tools category map to distinguish a CRM replacement, a workspace layered on the CRM, and a workflow that writes back to the system of record.
Four Scratchpad alternative paths to evaluate
Salesforce native: consolidate around the system of record
Salesforce is the first control option when the organization already pays for suitable capability and wants fewer external writers. Official Pipeline Inspection documentation describes a consolidated view of opportunities, pipeline metrics, week-over-week changes, activity, and insights, with edition and setup requirements. Test the exact edition and current activity-data behavior.
This route may replace pipeline views and inspection. It does not automatically replace Scratchpad notes, call capture, prompts, record questions, or seller-friendly bulk editing. Measure actual rep clicks, errors, and abandonment rather than assuming native means adopted.
Gangly: broaden into a connected rep workflow
Gangly is relevant when the buyer wants to connect stages outside Scratchpad’s Salesforce-centered starting point. Its documented workflow spans account signals, rep-reviewed outreach, call preparation, real-time guidance on supported Zoom and Google Meet calls, reviewed post-call work, and CRM hygiene. It is not a CRM, a stored call-recording library, or a spreadsheet-style Salesforce workspace.
Test Gangly only when upstream prioritization and handoffs are funded requirements. The sales workflow software guide provides a category-level evaluation if the team has not settled on Gangly.
Attention: specialize in conversation-derived CRM automation
Attention fits a replacement brief centered on calls, field extraction, follow-up, coaching, or agents rather than the classic Scratchpad workspace. Its official Salesforce integration documentation describes two-way sync, administrator setup, API scopes, and required permissions including Modify All Data. That scope makes integration-user design and monitoring a security gate, not a setup footnote.
Require known-answer calls for picklists, dates, checkboxes, text, rich text, protected fields, empty evidence, contradiction, and multi-call synthesis. Compare manual approval and automatic writes separately.
Clari Copilot: expand conversation and revenue intelligence
Clari’s official Copilot page documents real-time transcription, live battlecards, coaching playbooks, conversation-derived buyer signals, next-step capture, and connection to Clari’s revenue platform. It belongs when manager coaching, conversation intelligence, pipeline context, and forecasting workflows justify a broader deployment.
Clari Copilot is not positioned as a like-for-like spreadsheet workspace. Require a full quote and prove whether the organization needs Copilot alone, adjacent Clari products, implementation services, storage, integrations, and admin capacity.
Score Scratchpad as the incumbent
Score Scratchpad with the same evidence rules as every finalist. Its migration cost is zero, so the challenger must produce enough tested value to overcome change risk. Freeze weights before demonstrations and rate each criterion from one to five only when an artifact supports the score.
| Criterion | Weight | Required evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Switching problem resolved | 20 | The finalist removes the documented constraint in a production-shaped test. |
| Seller workspace and adoption | 15 | Representative sellers complete required jobs without shadow spreadsheets or extra cleanup. |
| CRM accuracy and authority | 20 | Record matching, permissions, fields, retries, conflicts, and audits pass. |
| Conversation and coaching fit | 10 | Capture, summaries, prompts, scorecards, and manager review match the funded scope. |
| Workflow breadth or specialization | 10 | The chosen category covers required jobs without paying for unused adjacent scope. |
| Security, administration, and support | 10 | Identity, access, retention, regions, monitoring, configuration, and incident work pass. |
| Migration and reversibility | 10 | Artifacts, settings, dependencies, parallel run, rollback, and deletion have accepted owners. |
| Three-year economics | 5 | Quotes, usage, labor, retained tools, and exit cost support the business case. |
| Total | 100 | Multiply one-to-five score by weight, total, then divide by five. |
Keep CRM compatibility, required objects, identity, data region, legal terms, call consent, retention, export, audit, and zero unexplained destructive writes as pass/fail gates. Do not let a high usability score offset a failed system-of-record or security requirement.
Score the incumbent in its corrected configuration, not in the broken state that triggered the project. Otherwise the evaluation rewards the challenger for defects that Scratchpad could resolve through a field mapping, permission, prompt, view, license, or integration change.
Build a CRM write-authority migration register
A Scratchpad migration is primarily an authority migration. Salesforce remains the system of record, but workspace artifacts, integration behavior, generated content, and write paths can still change. Create one register before connecting a finalist.
| Artifact or write | Current authority | Target authority | Acceptance evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Account and opportunity field | Scratchpad, Salesforce, or another integration | One named writer | Expected value, source evidence, timestamp, actor, audit event |
| Call activity, recording, and transcript link | Scratchpad or recorder | One capture system and one CRM activity writer | Correct participants, record association, access, retention, deletion |
| Notes and summaries | Scratchpad notes or AI output | Named repository and format | Content fidelity, ownership, relationships, search, export |
| Tasks and next steps | Scratchpad, CRM, sequencer, or calendar | One task authority per workflow | Owner, due date, status, completion, retry, cancellation |
| Views, sheets, prompts, agents, hygiene rules | Scratchpad configuration | Rebuild, archive, or retire | Owner sign-off and tested replacement behavior |
Include every standard and custom object, field type, validation rule, formula dependency, approval, automation, integration user, report, dashboard, and downstream consumer. For record-quality standards, use the CRM data quality framework. For sync design, apply the CRM integration checklist.
Scratchpad’s official legal and IT page says the product connects to Salesforce through API, inherits Salesforce configurations and permissions, and generally does not store Salesforce data except in stated cases such as an enabled audit trail. That does not mean there is nothing to migrate. Determine where Scratchpad-specific notes, views, prompts, recordings, audit history, and settings live and what export, retention, or deletion evidence the contract provides.
Run a staged migration and rollback test
Move authority in stages, never with two uncontrolled writers. Use a sandbox or isolated cohort first, then a limited production group, then a controlled cutover.
- Inventory and freeze. Export users, roles, views, notes, prompts, agents, hygiene rules, tasks, recordings, transcript references, audit data, integrations, fields, and dependencies. Record versions and owners.
- Create truth cases. Select representative accounts, contacts, opportunities, activities, notes, calls, custom objects, restricted fields, duplicates, merged records, former owners, currencies, and time zones. Write expected outcomes before the test.
- Test the finalist read-only. Confirm permissions, record matching, context, search, and answers without enabling writes. Reject unexplained access or missing source evidence.
- Enable one write family. Move notes, tasks, or one field group at a time. Disable the equivalent Scratchpad path, execute valid and invalid cases, and reconcile Salesforce history.
- Force failures. Expire a token, remove permission, lock a field, trip a validation rule, throttle the API, send a duplicate event, time out a request, retry it, merge contacts, reassign an opportunity, and delete a meeting.
- Run parallel workflows, not parallel writes. Keep Scratchpad available for rollback and reference while only one system owns each write. Compare seller completion and RevOps correction load for at least one complete operating cycle.
- Cut over and verify. Freeze configuration, process the delta, reconcile counts and relationships, confirm reports, monitor errors, and obtain sign-off from sales, RevOps, security, legal, and data owners.
- Decommission reversibly. Remove tokens and seats in stages, preserve required read-only evidence, verify exports, document deletion, and retain the rollback window agreed before cutover.
Use the call-recording analysis guide when recordings or transcripts move. File transfer alone does not preserve participant consent, ownership, sharing controls, timestamps, comments, scorecards, retention, or CRM relationships.
Calculate three-year switching TCO
Scratchpad’s public page currently lists Solo at $19 per user per month on annual billing or $24 monthly, Team at $49 annually or $62 monthly, and Enterprise as custom. It also documents AI credits with different consumption for summaries, field suggestions, and record questions. Model the incumbent using actual users and observed credit consumption, not the headline seat price alone.
Three-year switching TCO = replacement subscriptions + usage + implementation + integration + migration + remediation + administration + enablement + parallel run + exit − validated retired Scratchpad and tool costs.
- Include every seller, manager, operator, administrator, viewer, integration identity, environment, minimum, add-on, AI credit, storage unit, support package, and service.
- Price inventory, export, field mapping, prompt or agent rebuild, recording handling, testing, cutover, reconciliation, security review, training, support, and rollback.
- Keep Salesforce and any retained recorder, sequencer, forecasting, enrichment, or workflow tool in every architecture where it remains.
- Subtract Scratchpad or an adjacent tool only after the migration test proves the corresponding job and contract can end.
Run base, expected, and peak cases. Price a renewal uplift, usage growth, added teams, implementation overrun, failed first cutover, and extended parallel access. If reclaimed rep time is part of the benefit, count only the share converted into observable selling or avoided labor—not every theoretical minute.
Choose an alternative or keep Scratchpad
Choose Salesforce native capability when consolidation is the goal and native pipeline inspection plus configured seller workflows pass. Choose Gangly when the team funds a broader signal-to-CRM workflow. Choose Attention when controlled conversation-derived CRM automation is the core job. Choose Clari Copilot when conversation intelligence, live guidance, coaching, and revenue context justify the platform. Keep Scratchpad when it still wins the incumbent-inclusive score after corrected configuration and complete cost.
Do not declare a winner until the decision record contains the switching reason, excluded jobs, knockout gates, incumbent score, finalist evidence, authority register, migration results, unresolved defects, security decision, itemized quote, TCO assumptions, rollback condition, and decommission owner.
The best Scratchpad alternative is not the vendor with the closest homepage. It is the least risky architecture that fixes the measured problem, preserves Salesforce truth, and creates positive value after the full cost of switching.