What users are saying about
2 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 6 out of 100
Based on 2 reviews and ratings
Top Rated
131 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 8.1 out of 100
Based on 131 reviews and ratings
Attribute Ratings
- ChatBeacon is rated higher in 1 area: Support Rating
- Drift is rated higher in 1 area: Likelihood to Recommend
Likelihood to Recommend
6.0
ChatBeacon
60%
1 Rating
8.1
Drift
81%
46 Ratings
Usability
ChatBeacon
N/A
0 Ratings
7.3
Drift
73%
3 Ratings
Support Rating
8.0
ChatBeacon
80%
2 Ratings
7.9
Drift
79%
3 Ratings
Likelihood to Recommend
ChatBeacon
ChatBeacon is a decent choice for on-premises chat support, but the clunky agent UI sparks no joy. If your organization can use a cloud-based solution, there are plenty of other fish in the sea

Verified User
Professional in Information Technology
Wholesale Company, 51-200 employeesDrift
It is recommended for any company; it is a comprehensive tool for teams interested in strengthening business management and improving efficiency. It allows you to automatically schedule support with customers, thus saving a lot of time. Large companies can establish a chat and communication between potential customers, answering their questions quickly; allow you to monitor and track your leads and new leads, to make it fully functional, it has a very affordable value so that it can be used in all companies, it will not affect their economic aspects.
CMO (Chief Marketing Officer)
Spectrum ReachMarketing & Advertising, 1001-5000 employees
Pros
ChatBeacon
- Easy to install and configure.
- Easy for customers to use.

Verified User
Professional in Information Technology
Wholesale Company, 51-200 employeesDrift
- Easy to implement - we were up on our site in hours.
- Increases the volume and quality of buyer conversations - visitors get to value faster and qualify themselves by chatting in.
- Surfaces relevant experiences and content to people faster based on targeted use cases.
- Brings your brand to the prospect experience to stand out in the market. For example, our mascot Ollie Llama welcoming visitors on the homepage with funny llama.
Director of Marketing
LessonlyComputer Software, 51-200 employees
Cons
ChatBeacon
- ChatBeacon is just SightMax with a fresh coat of paint.
- The entire agent UI is remarkably worse than SightMax.

Verified User
Professional in Information Technology
Wholesale Company, 51-200 employeesDrift
- Whenever there have been challenges with the product, the team has always been hungry to fix the issues that we raise.
- In-platform reporting on conversion metrics can be improved. For example, it's not possible to report on business vs non business email capture rate (currently reported by our CSM every week), and to get the most detail about meetings that have been booked, you have to export data and review in Sheets/Excel. Drift responds quickly, and they're already working on this... so by the time you read this review, the reports will probably be fully functional in the platform.
Director of Brand Strategy and Communications
SmartlingInformation Technology & Services, 51-200 employees
Pricing Details
ChatBeacon
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
—Drift
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
Yes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
—Usability
ChatBeacon
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Drift
Drift 7.3
Based on 3 answers
The customer-facing usability is great, but managing drift from the back end can be challenging at times. This is mainly due to slow loading speeds when it comes to editing or viewing routing. Coupling this with no autosave function, changes are hard to make and can easily be lost.

Verified User
Analyst in Marketing
Security & Investigations Company, 501-1000 employeesSupport Rating
ChatBeacon
ChatBeacon 8.0
Based on 2 answers
Support is a strong point for ChatBeacon - their support team is small, but you definitely get white-glove service. Zero complaints about ChatBeacon support!

Verified User
Professional in Information Technology
Wholesale Company, 51-200 employeesDrift
Drift 7.9
Based on 3 answers
The Drift team has been remarkably responsive to me. From support reps available in-app, to my account manager committed to my long-term success, to regular connections and interactions with their leadership team. They have been wholeheartedly committed to answering every question and solving every issue so that we can succeed as a team, and I can succeed as a marketer!
Director of Marketing
LessonlyComputer Software, 51-200 employees
Alternatives Considered
ChatBeacon
Before using SightMax (now ChatBeacon), we used AliveChat, which was an OK SaaS product, but the team operating the service would frequently restart the servers after maintenance and forget to start our instance back up. ChatBeacon(SightMax) as on-prem software eliminated this concern.We've been evaluating ChatBeacon vs. other products lately, and we really like how DeskPro stacks up vs. ChatBeacon - ChatBeacon is purely a chat product, and DeskPro does web chat/phone/email ticketing.

Verified User
Professional in Information Technology
Wholesale Company, 51-200 employeesDrift
I have used a few different chat platforms, the most popular one being Intercom. They both have some similarities in functionalities and features. I have had more success with Drift and the calendar link/automation. I love the fact that a prospect can easily find my calendar link and book a demo without needing to speak with me.

Verified User
Employee in Sales
Information Technology and Services Company, 51-200 employeesReturn on Investment
ChatBeacon
- Using website chat (often with an agent:customer ratio of up to 1:3 or more ) vs. phone support (with an agent ratio of 1:1) has greatly reduced support costs in every business unit.
- Providing realtime feedback and links (vs. phone calls) has greatly improved the turnaround on the sales and customer inquiry processes.

Verified User
Professional in Information Technology
Wholesale Company, 51-200 employeesDrift
- Save time by allowing your inbound audience to access what they want immediately through Drift bots.
- Reducing friction you will increase your inbound audience engagement traffic.
- With Drift, our company has increased our qualified sales meetings booked more than 3x than when we used forms.
Marketing Demand Generation Manager
DyKnowEducation Management, 11-50 employees