TL;DR
Drift is a conversational marketing platform built for enterprise sales teams. Clarm is an AI Revenue Desk that captures and qualifies inbound autonomously—no playbook configuration, no SDR headcount. If you're building a developer product and want to capture inbound from Discord, GitHub, and docs—not just web chat—Clarm is the better fit.
The Core Difference
Drift was designed for B2B SaaS marketing teams with dedicated sales development reps. Its value comes from routing conversations to the right human at the right time using complex playbooks. If you have a sales team, Drift can be powerful.
Clarm assumes you don't have that team—and don't want to build one. The AI handles the entire conversation: qualifying, answering technical questions, and triggering actions without human intervention.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
Setup Time
Drift requires weeks of playbook design, routing rules, and SDR training before it delivers value. Clarm learns from your docs and starts working in hours. Point it at your documentation, connect your channels, and it's live.
AI-First vs Human-First
Drift relies on SDR routing—the AI assists, but humans close. Clarm's AI is the primary operator. It handles conversations end-to-end, only escalating when a human genuinely needs to be involved.
Channel Coverage
Drift focuses on web chat and email sequences. It doesn't connect to Discord or GitHub. Clarm captures inbound from every developer-native channel: Discord, Slack, GitHub Issues, web chat, and email.
Buyer Intent Scoring
Both platforms offer intent scoring, but Drift's is designed for traditional B2B sales cycles with MQLs and SQLs. Clarm's intent detection is tuned for developer products—recognizing signals like pricing inquiries in Discord, enterprise evaluations in GitHub Issues, and compliance questions in community channels.
Revenue Signal Webhooks
Clarm pipes revenue signals directly to Slack and CRM via webhooks. Drift has partial webhook support, but its primary flow routes through its own UI and requires SDR interaction.
Content Engine & SEO
Drift doesn't include a content engine. Clarm generates SEO-optimized technical articles that drive developer traffic—turning support knowledge into organic growth.
Why Teams Switch to Clarm
Zero Configuration
Drift requires weeks of playbook design, routing rules, and SDR training. Clarm learns from your docs and starts working in hours—no playbooks to configure, no rules to maintain.
Built for Technical Products
Drift was built for B2B SaaS marketing teams. Clarm was built for developer tools, infrastructure products, and open-source companies—where the buyer is often the user, and the first conversation happens in Discord, not a marketing chatbot.
No SDR Dependency
Drift's value depends on SDRs responding to routed leads. If your SDR is in a meeting, the lead goes cold. Clarm handles the entire conversation autonomously—qualifying, answering, and triggering actions without human intervention.
10x Cheaper
Drift pricing starts in the thousands per month and requires annual contracts. Clarm does custom pricing for every team—no bloated enterprise contracts, no per-seat fees.
On-Prem & Compliance
Clarm supports on-premise and air-gapped deployment. Drift is cloud-only with enterprise-tier pricing. Both are SOC 2 compliant, but Clarm is the only option for teams with strict data residency or self-hosting requirements.
The Bottom Line
Drift is powerful if you have a sales team to run the playbooks. Clarm is for teams that want the revenue intelligence without the sales infrastructure. If you're building a developer product and want to capture inbound from Discord, GitHub, and docs—not just web chat—Clarm is the better fit.
Where to Go Next
Compare Clarm with other tools: Clarm vs Intercom · Clarm vs Plain. Or see the full comparison of developer growth tools.