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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    ChatBeacon

    Score9 out of 10
    N/AChatBeacon (formerly SightMax) is a live chat tool from SmartMax Software headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma.N/A

    Helpshift

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AHelpshift is a help desk software deployed as an in-application SDK to provide users with in-app service.

    $150

    per month issue

    Pricing
    ChatBeaconHelpshift
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Starter
    $150.00
    per month Issue
    Enterprise
    Please contact Helpshift
    per month Issue
    Growth
    Please contact Helpshift
    per month Issue
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    ChatBeaconHelpshift
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—Flexible Consumption-Based Pricing for Your Changing Needs. Only pay for the number of issues created each month. An issue is a customer problem or inquiry that is directed to an agent or a bot. Customers with greater usage receive a reduced per issue price. All packages come with 1,000 issues per month to get you started.
    More Pricing Information
    Features
    ChatBeaconHelpshift
    Incident and problem management
    Comparison of Incident and problem management features of ChatBeacon and Helpshift
    Feature
    ChatBeacon
    -
    Ratings
    Helpshift
    6.4
    4 Ratings
    25% below category average
    Organize and prioritize service tickets00 Ratings5.54 Ratings
    Expert directory00 Ratings3.64 Ratings
    Subscription-based notifications00 Ratings6.43 Ratings
    ITSM collaboration and documentation00 Ratings4.53 Ratings
    Ticket creation and submission00 Ratings9.13 Ratings
    Ticket response00 Ratings9.14 Ratings
    Self Help Community
    Comparison of Self Help Community features of ChatBeacon and Helpshift
    Feature
    ChatBeacon
    -
    Ratings
    Helpshift
    5.0
    4 Ratings
    46% below category average
    External knowledge base00 Ratings1.04 Ratings
    Internal knowledge base00 Ratings9.13 Ratings
    Multi-Channel Help
    Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of ChatBeacon and Helpshift
    Feature
    ChatBeacon
    -
    Ratings
    Helpshift
    4.5
    4 Ratings
    56% below category average
    Customer portal00 Ratings5.53 Ratings
    IVR00 Ratings2.71 Ratings
    Social integration00 Ratings7.31 Ratings
    Email support00 Ratings2.74 Ratings
    Help Desk CRM integration00 Ratings4.52 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    ChatBeaconHelpshift
    Small Businesses
    ZoomInfo Chat
    Score7.9 out of 10
    Help Scout
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    SAP Conversational AI (discontinued)
    Score6.8 out of 10
    LiveAgent
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    AWS Chatbot
    Score8.4 out of 10
    Front
    Score9.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    ChatBeaconHelpshift
    Likelihood to Recommend
    6.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (4 ratings)
    Usability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    ChatBeaconHelpshift
    Likelihood to Recommend
    SmartMax Software
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Helpshift Inc.
    If you need a good way for players to send in support tickets that propagates in real-time, Helpshift would be a service I'd recommend.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    SmartMax Software
    • Easy to install and configure.
    • Easy for customers to use.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Helpshift Inc.
    • Their customer support is very responsive. If they have any problems, they fix them quickly.
    • They are constantly trying to improve and expand their offering, which is beneficial to our growing company.
    • It is very user-friendly and easy to manage. The analytics are pretty good as well.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    SmartMax Software
    • ChatBeacon is just SightMax with a fresh coat of paint.
    • The entire agent UI is remarkably worse than SightMax.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Helpshift Inc.
    • While I am not an engineer; it is known that Helpshift can be a bit of a pain to get it implemented into our applications.
    • There are some issues with the badge when it comes to the notifications of messages that let the user know they have a reply from customer service.
    • The website dashboard that is used to respond to customers has trouble sometimes and is very slow.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    SmartMax Software
    No answers on this topic
    Helpshift Inc.
    Helpshift is really easy to use and set up. We enjoy the automation to automatically route certain issues to different smart folders. There's just a lot of flexibility in the functionality to make things work for our team in the best way. I didn't give it a 10/10 just because we need SMS/Apple Business Chat and Helpshift doesn't yet offer that. They also don't currently support social media channels but they are working on releasing that soon.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    SmartMax Software
    Support is a strong point for ChatBeacon - their support team is small, but you definitely get white-glove service. Zero complaints about ChatBeacon support!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Helpshift Inc.
    The few times we've had to contact them, they were courteous and gave us the information we needed swiftly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    SmartMax Software
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Helpshift Inc.
    Zendesk is used for customer communication via email and Helpshift is used for chat, they are for the same purpose but with different response times.
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    SmartMax Software
    • 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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Helpshift Inc.
    • The ability to properly organize and delegate work to customer service representatives has been a very positive ROI after using Helpshift.
    • The customer service reps are much happier with this system over the previous system of a general company email address and other CS software tools.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots