ChatBeacon vs. Helpshift

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
ChatBeacon
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
ChatBeacon (formerly SightMax) is a live chat tool from SmartMax Software headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma.N/A
Helpshift
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Helpshift 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
Community Pulse
ChatBeaconHelpshift
Top Pros
Top Cons

No answers on this topic

Features
ChatBeaconHelpshift
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
ChatBeacon
-
Ratings
Helpshift
6.4
4 Ratings
21% 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 Product A and Product B
ChatBeacon
-
Ratings
Helpshift
5.0
4 Ratings
43% 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 Product A and Product B
ChatBeacon
-
Ratings
Helpshift
4.5
4 Ratings
52% 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
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ChatBeaconHelpshift
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Medium-sized Companies
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Enterprises
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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
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.
Read full review
Pros
SmartMax Software
  • Easy to install and configure.
  • Easy for customers to use.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
Read full review
ScreenShots