Honest Comparison
RK Sterling vs Zocks
Zocks is a privacy-focused AI meeting assistant that captures conversations without recording audio or video. RK Sterling is an integrated AI platform with its own compliance-first design. Here is an honest look at how they differ.
Facts last verified 2026-07-02
The short version
Both are good products with different shapes. The right choice depends on your firm.
Choose Zocks if…
- A no-recording approach to meeting capture is a hard requirement for your compliance posture
- You want an assistant layer that feeds structured client data into your existing CRM and planning tools
- Form-filling and client data extraction into tools like eMoney are core needs
Choose RK Sterling if…
- You want meeting intelligence inside the platform that also holds the CRM, documents, plans, and advice workflow
- You prefer firm-level household pricing with unlimited team members over per-user tiers
- You want PII automatically detected and removed before any AI processing, across documents as well as meetings
What is Zocks?
Zocks, founded in 2022, is an AI assistant for financial advisors with a distinctive privacy architecture: it processes virtual, phone, and in-person conversations without recording or storing audio or video, keeping only notes and structured data. From those conversations, plus emails and documents, it extracts client facts, life events, and planning opportunities into client profiles, auto-syncs to CRMs, drafts follow-up emails in the advisor's tone, and fills intake and account-opening forms.
Zocks integrates with CRMs including Salesforce, Wealthbox, Redtail, HubSpot, and Dynamics 365, and with planning and wealth tools including eMoney and Orion. It also offers Zocks MCP, a Model Context Protocol server that connects its client intelligence to general-purpose AI tools like Claude, ChatGPT, and Microsoft Copilot. The company states client data is not used to train its AI.
Pricing is per user: $80/month (Essentials), $140/month (Professional), and $220/month (Ultimate), with discounts for annual billing (as published in July 2026). By scope, Zocks is an assistant and data layer: it is not a CRM of record, financial planning software, or a document vault. Instead, it structures information and feeds it into the systems that hold it.
What is RK Sterling?
RK Sterling shares Zocks's conviction that advisor AI must be compliance-first, but implements it differently: instead of avoiding recordings, Sterling automatically detects and removes personally identifiable information before any AI processing, keeps audit logs designed for SEC examinations, and holds the resulting intelligence in its own integrated platform, with CRM, documents, planning, and advice workflow included.
RK Sterling is an integrated AI platform for financial advisors, founded in 2025 and based in Denver, Colorado. Rather than assembling a stack of separate tools for planning, CRM, meeting notes, email, and documents, Sterling combines them in a single platform where every feature works from the same household data.
The platform includes an Advice Engine that surfaces client-specific opportunities, advice management, financial planning with One-Click Plans (AI drafts the complete plan with goals, toggles, and scenarios for advisor review), tax analysis, AI-powered research with full household context, a CRM with workflows, workspaces, and tasks, document storage with automatic PII redaction, fact extraction from documents, an AI notetaker, AI email, one-click content creation, and a Claude MCP connector.
Sterling is priced per firm based on active client households, never per seat, with unlimited team members on every plan. AI features are usage-based, so firms pay for what they use. Client data is protected by automatic PII detection and removal before any AI processing, with audit logs for SEC examinations.
Feature comparison
Based on publicly available product information as of 2026-07-02. A dash means the capability exists with limits; see the notes below the table.
| Feature | RK Sterling | Zocks |
|---|---|---|
| Advice Engine | ||
| Advice Management | ||
| Financial Planning | ||
| Tax Analysis | ||
| Workflows | ||
| Workspaces | ||
| CRM | ||
| Tasks | ||
| Document Storage | ||
| AI Notetaker | ||
| AI Email | ||
| AI-Powered Research | ||
| Claude MCP Connector |
- Workflows: Automations and form-filling; not a general workflow builder
- Tasks: Auto-created tasks synced to your CRM
- Document Storage: Document intelligence extracts data; not a document vault
- AI Notetaker: No-recording capture of virtual, phone, and in-person meetings
- Claude MCP Connector: Zocks MCP connects to Claude, ChatGPT, and Copilot
Pricing comparison
Zocks
Published pricing, as of July 2026
- Essentials: $80 per user/month ($67 with annual billing)
- Professional: $140 per user/month ($117 annual); adds form-filling and MCP
- Ultimate: $220 per user/month ($184 annual); adds document intelligence and automations
- Enterprise: custom; free trial available
As published on zocks.io/pricing. Verify current pricing with the vendor.
RK Sterling
Per firm, by active households. Never per seat.
- Starter: free for up to 3 active households
- Tier 1: $195/month per firm, up to 100 households
- Tier 2: $495/month per firm, up to 500 households
- Tier 3: $995/month per firm, up to 1,000 households
- Enterprise: custom pricing above 1,000 households
- Unlimited team members on every plan, with no per-seat fees
- AI features are usage-based; every new firm starts with 100 free credits
A worked example
A four-person team on Zocks Professional pays $560/month ($140 × 4) for the assistant layer, with CRM, planning, and document systems as separate subscriptions. RK Sterling Tier 1 is $195/month for the whole firm (up to 100 households), including meeting AI plus the CRM, planning, tax analysis, documents, email, and research, with AI usage billed separately. The scopes differ: Zocks specializes in structured data capture into your existing stack, while Sterling is the stack.
Where Zocks is the better fit
- Firms whose compliance stance specifically requires that no meeting audio or video ever be recorded
- You want to keep your current CRM and planning tools and add a data-capture layer that feeds them
- Form-filling from conversations (account opening, intake) is a primary workflow
Where RK Sterling is the better fit
- You want one system instead of an assistant layered on several: notes, CRM, documents, and plans together
- PII redaction before AI processing across documents and meetings fits your compliance model
- Firm-level household pricing with unlimited team members suits your team better than per-user tiers
Frequently asked questions
Is RK Sterling an alternative to Zocks?
For AI meeting intelligence, yes. Sterling includes an AI notetaker, structured client facts, drafted emails, and tasks as part of an integrated platform. Zocks is a dedicated assistant layer with a no-recording privacy architecture that feeds your existing CRM and planning tools; Sterling holds that intelligence in its own CRM, documents, and advice workflow.
How do the privacy approaches differ?
Zocks avoids creating recordings at all. It processes conversations in real time and stores only notes and structured data. Sterling processes client information with automatic PII detection and removal before any AI processing, plus audit logs designed for SEC examinations. Both state that client data is not used to train AI models. Which model fits depends on your compliance requirements.
How does pricing compare between Zocks and RK Sterling?
Zocks is per user: $80–$220 per user/month by tier (as of July 2026). Sterling is per firm by household count: free up to 3 households, then $195/month for up to 100 households with unlimited team members, plus usage-based AI. That covers the full platform rather than the assistant layer alone.
Both offer MCP connectors. What is the difference?
Zocks MCP exposes its client intelligence (meeting-derived facts and profiles) to AI tools like Claude, ChatGPT, and Copilot. Sterling's Claude MCP connector exposes an integrated platform: CRM records, documents, and plans. Both let advisors bring their data into general-purpose AI conversations.
Does Zocks work without a CRM?
Zocks is built to sync structured data into an existing CRM (Salesforce, Wealthbox, Redtail, and others), because that is where its output lives. Sterling includes the CRM of record, so meeting intelligence and household data stay in one system.
See Sterling for yourself
Start free with your first households, no credit card required, and compare it against Zocks on your own real workflow.
Zocks is a trademark of its respective owner, which is not affiliated with and does not endorse RK Sterling. This comparison is based on publicly available information, including Zocks's own website and product documentation, as of 2026-07-02. Products and pricing change; verify current details with each vendor. If you spot an inaccuracy, email info@rksterling.com and we will correct it promptly.