Sleekplan
Sleekplan rebuilt itself around AI triage, then put the feedback board inside ChatGPT.
Comparison · Support
Formbricks vs Plain
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Formbricks and Plain — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:mcp
Formbricks vs Plain: at a glance
What is Formbricks?
The 5.3 line reached stable and immediately dropped into single-fix patch-RC mode.
Formbricks runs three release branches at once — 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3 — publishing release candidates almost daily, most carrying a single backported fix. The 5.3 line has moved past its feature RCs: 5.3.0-rc.1 through rc.3 delivered MCP scope corrections, Helm volume extension points and an accessibility pass, and the branch is now on 5.3.4-rc.1, a one-line fix stopping no-overlay surveys from blocking the host page they sit on. Workspace and organization scoping remains the recurring thread, with the contact detail page the latest surface re-tied to its authorizing workspace.
What is Plain?
Plain built an autonomous support agent, and has now built the controls to trust it.
Plain's changelog is dated entries with no titles, and nearly all of it concerns two AI surfaces: Ari, the customer-facing responder, and Sidekick, the internal agent. Sidekick spent July gaining reach — its own full-page home, reusable workspace skills, and connection to arbitrary MCP servers. The newest release turns to Ari and adds what was missing around it: a way to test it before customers see it, provenance behind each answer, configurable tone, and explicit escalation rules.
Formbricks vs Plain: editorial side-by-side
Formbricks
5.0SUPPORT
The 5.3 line reached stable and immediately dropped into single-fix patch-RC mode.
◆ Current state
Formbricks runs three release branches at once — 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3 — publishing release candidates almost daily, most carrying a single backported fix. The 5.3 line has moved past its feature RCs: 5.3.0-rc.1 through rc.3 delivered MCP scope corrections, Helm volume extension points and an accessibility pass, and the branch is now on 5.3.4-rc.1, a one-line fix stopping no-overlay surveys from blocking the host page they sit on. Workspace and organization scoping remains the recurring thread, with the contact detail page the latest surface re-tied to its authorizing workspace.
◆ Where it's heading
The multi-tenancy audit is still running and still backported everywhere rather than only forward — API keys, surveys, quotas, integrations, response imports and now the contact detail page have each been re-scoped in turn. Alongside it, the agent-facing surface built out in 5.2.0 is being refined rather than extended: the 5.3 MCP work is scope correction, not new capability. With 5.3 now issuing patch RCs a day or two apart, that branch has crossed from feature development into maintenance.
◆ Prediction
Expect 5.3 to keep issuing single-fix patch release candidates while the next feature drop opens a 5.4 line, and 5.1 and 5.2 to continue receiving only security and billing backports.
Plain
8.8SUPPORT
Plain built an autonomous support agent, and has now built the controls to trust it.
◆ Current state
Plain's changelog is dated entries with no titles, and nearly all of it concerns two AI surfaces: Ari, the customer-facing responder, and Sidekick, the internal agent. Sidekick spent July gaining reach — its own full-page home, reusable workspace skills, and connection to arbitrary MCP servers. The newest release turns to Ari and adds what was missing around it: a way to test it before customers see it, provenance behind each answer, configurable tone, and explicit escalation rules.
◆ Where it's heading
The sequence reads as capability first, then governance. Plain rebuilt Ari into an agentic first responder, opened Sidekick to any MCP server, and let teams write skills the whole workspace shares — all of which widen what the agents can do and reach. The current release closes the loop the other way, making that autonomy inspectable and bounded before it is switched on. That is the order support-AI vendors have to complete in: teams will not put an agent in front of customers on capability claims alone.
◆ Prediction
With testing and provenance in place, the next step is likely measurement — resolution and escalation rates per skill, or per-answer quality review feeding back into the skills teams write. The entries are short summaries linking off-site, so per-release depth is limited.
Alternatives to Formbricks and Plain
Other Support products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Formbricks or Plain.
Comm100
Comm100 publishes steadily about AI support — none of it is Comm100 shipping anything.
Respond.io
respond.io is layering an agent-authoring copilot and consumption billing on top of its omnichannel inbox.
Hatz AI
Hatz sells through MSPs, and its roadmap has started to serve the partner more than the end user
Knowmax
A teaser-only content feed making one argument: AI in the contact center fails on knowledge, not models.
TextMagic
A steady SEO blog on SMS basics, with the occasional ecommerce integration walkthrough.
See all Formbricks alternatives → · See all Plain alternatives →
Recent activity from Formbricks and Plain
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1d agoPlainTest Ari before customers see it, with per-answer proof ⚡
- 7d agoFormbricksBackport stops no-overlay surveys blocking the host page
- 9d agoFormbricksContact detail page re-scoped to its authorizing workspace
- 13d agoFormbricksHub dependency bumped to 0.8.3 on the 5.3 branch
- 13d agoFormbricksAccessibility, OTEL and Helm fixes backported to 5.3
- 15d agoPlainImport past conversations from any tool, no built-in importer
- 18d agoFormbricksMCP scope fixes and Helm extension points open the 5.3 line
- 20d agoFormbricksReverse-trial billing leak and response-import scoping fixed
- 21d agoPlainSidekick connects to any MCP server ⚡
- 23d agoPlainSidekick gains reusable, workspace-shared skills ⚡
- 28d agoPlainShare published workflows by link
- 1mo agoPlainSidekick gets its own full-page home and tool controls
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Formbricks and Plain?
Both compete on the same themes — mcp — within Support. Plain is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 8.8 vs 5.0), with 3 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Formbricks better than Plain?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Plain is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 8.8 vs 5.0), with 3 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Support products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Formbricks?
Top Formbricks alternatives in Support are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Formbricks alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/formbricks for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Plain?
Top Plain alternatives in Support are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Plain alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/plain for the full list with editorial commentary on each.