Are you looking for the ideal live chat software that fulfills your customer service and support requirements?
If your answer is YES, then you have come to the correct page.
Many businesses actively seek out the finest live chat software available in the market due to their awareness of the advantages it offers. By selecting the appropriate live chat solution, your company can promptly address customer inquiries, shorten response time, enhance agent efficiency, and gain numerous other benefits.
If you’re a business that has recognized the benefits of implementing a live chat feature, we will help you find the appropriate customer support software that meets your specific support requirements.
Before we begin, let’s briefly examine all the live chat solutions that we intend to investigate and assess.
What is Live Chat Software?
The live chat software designed for websites serves as a means for businesses to provide customer service and support by facilitating real-time interaction with site visitors. By incorporating a live chat widget, businesses can observe visitor behavior, gain insights into their needs, initiate conversations, and actively engage with them.
By incorporating live chat, your business can effectively connect with the desired target audience. Additionally, you can expedite response time and guarantee immediate resolutions for customers.
How to Select the Best Live Chat Software for Your Website
Businesses may find it difficult to invest in the best software among various live chat solutions that provide similar functionality. Whether you aim to replace current live chat software or gain a competitive advantage like other market competitors, it can present a considerable challenge for you.
In light of the challenge, we have compiled a list of the top 5 criteria to assist you in efficiently and expeditiously selecting the finest live chat software.
1. Offers Simpler User Interface
When evaluating a live chat solution, the initial aspect to examine is its interface. It is crucial that your agents can easily navigate the software upon implementation. If they consistently inquire about the software or struggle to locate essential features promptly during active conversations, it indicates a significant learning curve for the tool. This could have negative consequences in the future.
2. Matches Your Budget Expectations
When looking for the ideal live chat software for your business, it is important to ensure that it aligns with your support budget. This budget should encompass the cost of acquiring suitable resources and tools that enhance customer experience. Thus, it is crucial to search for tools that not only fit within your support budget but also have the capability to accommodate your expanding team.
3. Makes Support Automation Possible
In order to stay updated on the number of visitors in the queue and handle them efficiently, it is necessary to have a live chat widget. Seek out live chat tools that provide chatbot capabilities for all users, as this will enable your agents to prioritize more time-consuming and intricate queries.
4. Provides Integration with Third-Party Platforms
It’s difficult for agents to view customer information on one platform and respond to their inquiries on another. That’s why many live chat providers offer integrations with popular platforms to streamline multitasking for agents. That’s why we recommend seeking live chat support apps with multiple integrations to make work easier for agents.
5. Allows collecting real-time feedback
It is crucial for you to evaluate the performance and efficiency of the live chat channel as over 50% of customers prefer using it for contacting support services.
When searching for a tool, ensure it has a built-in feedback system such as post-chat surveys to gather customer satisfaction (CSAT) ratings. This feature enables you to obtain immediate feedback within the chat window regarding the chat experience and the agent’s effectiveness.
If the customer does not complete the initial post-chat survey, you can opt to use a specialized feedback tool such as Qualaroo to send a separate survey through either mail or SMS. This allows you to ask more detailed questions and gives customers the flexibility to complete it at their own convenience.
6. Helps You Offer 24×7 & 365 Days Support Experience
Simply providing 24×7 customer support is insufficient for your customers. They now expect your business to be accessible throughout the entire year. Therefore, you should seek a live chat application that includes a mobile app, preferably one that encompasses all features of a web app.
14 Best Live Chat Software for 2023
Having observed five criteria, we can assist your business in categorizing and choosing the most suitable live chat software. Yet, the abundance of choices in the market makes it difficult to make a selection. Therefore, we have compiled a comprehensive list of 14 options, allowing you to choose the one that aligns with your requirements.
We should begin now.
1. ProProfs Chat
ProProfs Chat is a live chat solution that fulfills all our requirements and shows great potential. It is quick, user-friendly, and can be swiftly installed on your website. Simply copy and paste the code to integrate it. Being a leading provider of live chat services, ProProfs enables you to actively connect and interact with visitors on your website.
By utilizing this tool, you can send proactive chat triggers to prompt your website visitors to engage with your brand instantly. Moreover, it enables your agents to observe the browsing activity of visitors and manually initiate chats with them.
The presence of a chatbot makes it more convenient to start a conversation, even without any operator. Not only does it aid in reaching the appropriate audience, but it also supports the creation of a customized experience.
If that isn’t sufficient, ProProfs Chat provides integration with over 50 third-party platforms, ensuring your satisfaction. These platforms include well-known options like Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM, WordPress, MailChimp, Shopify, and others.
2. Olark
We’d like to draw your attention to Olark, a highly regarded live chat software on our list. This chat solution stands out for its user-friendly interface, offering simplicity and clarity. It enables fast communication and assists agents in promptly identifying the appropriate features to streamline real-time conversations.
In addition to providing access to chatbot functionality, this tool assists in effectively managing your support queue by answering commonly asked questions. Moreover, it enables capturing and qualifying leads instantaneously.
In addition, Olark offers integration with well-known third-party platforms such as Salesforce, HelpScout, MailChimp, and various others. This enables you to establish sales and marketing packages for your business using this live chat solution.
3. Tidio
We have included Tidio in our compilation of the top live chat software solutions. This platform combines the capabilities of human support and automation, enabling you to utilize both their live chat and chatbot simultaneously.
By utilizing this combination, your business will be able to effectively prompt visitors to interact with your brand, ultimately maximizing sales potential.
One of the notable advantages of this live chat solution is its extensive range of integrations available to customers. It allows seamless connections with widely used platforms like Wix, WordPress, Google Analytics, Hubspot, MailChimp, Zendesk, and many more.
In addition, users are granted access to their mobile application, allowing them to answer questions at any location and time, ensuring that all queries are addressed.
4. Crisp
Crisp is more than just a live chat software; it combines various support tools like CRM, ticketing system, knowledge base, and more. Nonetheless, its live chat feature stands out as an exceptional support tool. The goal of Crisp is to provide a comprehensive support and sales package to users, ensuring that they never lose out on potential customers for their business.
The live chat system presents a variety of features that cannot be overlooked when weighing this solution. Specifically, it provides an extensive selection of options for customizing the chat widget. This enables effortless customization of the live chat widget to align with the theme of your website.
Your agents have the ability to aggregate all customer communication into a single shared inbox. Additionally, it assists in translating messages in various languages during an ongoing conversation.
5. Hiver
If your support team’s goal is to deliver a smooth customer service experience, then Hiver is the ideal solution.
Hiver, which is designed specifically for Google Workspace, is the first helpdesk in the world that enables customer support through email and live chat. Its seamless integration with Gmail means you can use it without having to familiarize yourself with a new and unfamiliar interface.
Hiver allows you to allocate customer chats to support agents and facilitate seamless teamwork on customer inquiries, making it effortless to interact with your website visitors and offer them prompt assistance. Moreover, Hiver’s live chat feature enables your sales team to effectively engage with potential customers at the appropriate moment.
Additionally, you have the option to tailor Hiver’s live chat widget to match the design language of your website. Hiver’s mobile application also allows agents to access live customer chats, enabling your team to provide exceptional support even while on the move.
6. Pure Chat
Pure Chat is renowned for its straightforward user interface that creates a seamless experience, making it one of the most easily accessible live chat solutions in the market.
Their fully integrated solution allows you to monitor visitor behavior, empowering your agents to enhance the visitor’s experience and tailor their responses accordingly, depending on the visitor’s browsing pattern.
With its editor, Pure Chat allows complete customization of its live chat software, enabling users to add their own brand and modify the widget’s appearance and functionality as desired.
7. LiveChat
LiveChat is renowned for being one of the most sought-after live chat tools in the SaaS market. Its array of native tools, including a chatbot, knowledge management, and help desk, enables users to build a comprehensive support bundle.
Additionally, they provide their customers with over 200 integration options to aid in the creation of a comprehensive sales and marketing suite.
Furthermore, LiveChat is compatible with numerous messaging channels including WhatsApp Business, Apple Business Chat, Facebook, and more. This allows their users the freedom to handle incoming support requests and sales inquiries from various platforms through their live chat solution.
8. Drift
Drift functions as a support automation tool primarily designed for businesses to address queries when support agents are unavailable. It is augmented by a live chat tool that enables agents to gain a better understanding of visitors. Operators are able to monitor visitors, discern their intentions, and manually initiate a chat with them.
Once a chat concludes, Drift enables your business to gather valuable customer feedback. Additionally, this live chat tool facilitates communication and collaboration among agents through the use of internal notes.
By adopting this practice, your agents can effectively update other members on the status of the customer and provide guidance on appropriate actions to be taken in case the customer seeks further assistance.
9. Intercom
Intercom, a prominent player in the SaaS industry, is recognized as a major support tool provider. Its ability to tailor product packages to meet the specific needs and desires of users contributes to this reputation. However, a significant number of customers express dissatisfaction with the higher cost of Intercom compared to alternative solutions available in the market.
In addition to its reputation for being a live chat service provider, this tool is recognized for its ability to seamlessly integrate with various platforms. Notable examples include Qualaroo, Survicate, Google Analytics, Stripe, Jira Cloud, Salesforce, and Hubspot, among others.
By integrating with popular software platforms, Intercom allows you to build sales, support, and marketing stacks for your business, presenting an ideal chance for maximizing your sales potential.
10. Jivochat
Jivochat asserts that it can enhance sales and attract customers by providing a smooth support experience through its tool. Through this tool, you can connect with customers who send their requests via various messaging platforms, including Apple Business Chat, email, Facebook, Telegram, Instagram, chatbots, and more, allowing you to handle support and sales queries effectively.
Jivochat stands out among other market tools with its lightning-fast responses, benefiting both agents and customers. This feature ensures that their clients can effectively retain potential customers within their sales funnel.
11. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) live chat software
Brevo Conversations, renowned for its intuitiveness, reliability, and robustness, is an excellent option for live chat software suitable for businesses of any scale. Its user-friendly interface enables enterprises of all sizes to utilize Conversations efficiently. The setup process is as straightforward as a simple copy/paste, while the drag-and-drop editor facilitates quick and effortless design of chatbot flows.
Brevo Conversations not only supports live chat on your website but also enables you to manage messages from your business’s Instagram and Facebook accounts. This feature allows you to centralize all your real-time customer communications effectively.
12. LiveAgent
LiveAgent is a live chat software that offers a comprehensive set of features. Besides live chat, it includes a ticketing system, integrated call center, knowledge base builder, and customer access portal. These extra functionalities allow users to help themselves by finding answers to frequently asked questions and checking the status of their support tickets, thus avoiding the need to contact a team member.
LiveAgent’s website chat software provides customization options, video chat, and multilingual chat boxes. Additionally, it allows you to establish chat assignment rules to ensure that customer inquiries are handled by the most appropriate agent.
Once your chat agents are available, LiveAgent uses AI to send proactive chat invitations to visitors on a specific page, allowing for real-time follow-up and engagement.
For a cost of $39 per month, LiveAgent combines various communication channels like Slack, Twitter, Viber, forums, and Facebook, allowing help desk queries to be centralized in one place.
13. Chatra
Chatra is an all-inclusive live chat software designed for websites and ecommerce stores, enabling the efficient management of conversations across multiple channels such as email, messenger, and website. This enhances the organization and speed of customer service.
With Chatra, you can have real-time conversations with website visitors or automate interactions using triggered messages, allowing you to respond at your preferred pace. This not only relieves the pressure on you and your support team, but also improves the overall customer experience.
Boost your conversion rates by targeting visitors on specific pages, such as a product page, where you can provide real-time assistance and aid them in making decisions.
Moreover, Chatra seamlessly incorporates with the majority of leading ecommerce platforms, enabling you to observe the items the visitor has included in their cart. By doing so, you can assist them in selecting the appropriate size, the optimal shipping approach, and addressing any other inquiries related to the checkout process. Consequently, this leads to customer satisfaction and also allows room for potential upselling opportunities.
14. Zendesk
Developed by the same company as Zendesk Sell, Zendesk offers a customer service live chat solution. With a special emphasis on AI and automation, as well as a ticketing system and reporting features, Zendesk’s chat software is well-suited for businesses aiming to expand their operations.
Designed for larger teams, this solution focuses on providing routing, collaboration tools, and knowledge management, ensuring quick response rates.
In one agent workspace, Zendesk consolidates conversations from messaging platforms, social media, website, email, and voice. Additionally, chatbots, referred to as Answer Bot, can be utilized across these channels. Furthermore, you have the capability to create diverse workflows for the bot to adhere to depending on different customer scenarios.
In addition, it provides features that alleviate the burden on customer service received via the business chat software. You have the option to establish a help center, a knowledge base, or a community forum where customers can find solutions independently.
15. Gorgias
Gorgias is designed to serve as webchat software specifically for ecommerce purposes. It provides comprehensive customer reporting along with sales tracking. Gorgias seamlessly combines ticket help desk software with live chat functionality to enhance customer support and boost sales. By integrating with Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce, you can conveniently update customer orders and refunds in real time while engaging in chat conversations.
Gorgias integrates conversations from various platforms like Facebook, Instagram, email, and SMS into a single live chat application. This tool also enables users to promptly reply to comments on Instagram ads and social media posts, thereby enhancing the efficiency of the conversion procedure.
Gorgias’s pricing stands out due to its uniqueness; it is not dependent on the number of agents but rather offers unlimited chat users within its plans.
While there are options for automations such as instant answers and self-service scenarios, they require an additional cost of at least $75 per month when used with the Basic plan.
16. Freshchat
The reason why this live chat tool is more suitable for larger teams and intricate organizations that operate in both physical and virtual environments is because it encompasses multiple products such as Support Desk, Messaging, Contact Center, and Customer Success. These products can be obtained individually or as a bundle within the Omnichannel Suite.
17. HubSpot Service Hub
Service Hub, a component of Hubspot, incorporates a chat widget, automated help desk features, ticketing, a knowledge base, feedback surveys, and reporting in its live chat support software offering.
Inside Hubspot, you have the option to customize the chat window and target specific audience segments. Additionally, there is a feature to develop chatbots that can handle inquiries, schedule appointments, or assess potential leads.
Having the CRM integration allows service teams to have immediate access to all customer data while they engage in chat conversations, handle support tickets, make phone calls, and perform other tasks. This platform not only functions as a live chat tool but also serves as a sales management and customer satisfaction platform. The inclusion of features such as VoIP calling, self-service customer portal, video messaging, and team management further enhance its capabilities.
18. Smartsupp
Smartsupp is an alternative choice when it comes to websites’ free live chat software. By opting for Smartsupp’s free plan, you can gain access to essential customer information, including name, email, and location. The chat boxes are fully optimized for mobile devices, and you also have the ability to personalize the chat box colors to create a distinct chat encounter.
To avail chat boxes on multiple domains and utilize other languages, upgrading to the Standard plan is necessary. By opting for the Standard plan, users can enjoy three agent seats and connect their live chats to email and Facebook Messenger.
One notable aspect of Smartsupp is its feature of customer analytics, which allows you to observe the frequency and specific pages that visitors view on your website. This enables you to obtain valuable understanding on customer interest.
Best live chat software table comparison
Take a brief look at our comprehensive review of the top live chat software. Continue reading to explore a detailed analysis of the features offered by each platform.
