Customer.io vs. Freshchat

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Customer.io
Score 8.8 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
Customer.io is a customer engagement platform that enables marketers to build sophisticated automated messaging campaigns. With access to real-time behavioral data, users can create personalized and relevant messages to engage and retain customers. This includes sending emails, push notifications, SMS, in-app messages, and more through a visual building experience. Built for scale, Customer.io boasts users among over 5,300 companies, sending over 17 billion messages per year.
$100
per month
Freshchat
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
A solution to engage customers with smarter conversations on any channel, designed so support, marketing, sales, and even bots to have conversations at scale with customers.
$0
per month free for up to 10 agents
Pricing
Customer.ioFreshchat
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Growth
$19
per month (billed annually) per agent
Pro
$49
per month (billed annually) per agent
Enterprise
$79
per month (billed annually) per agent
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Customer.ioFreshchat
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalOptional
Additional DetailsEssentials: For startups and small teams engaging customers on their mobile and web apps. - Up to 5,000 profiles*, Send Emails, Push, In-App, and SMS, Visual Workflow Builder, Segmentation, Two Workspaces, Email Support, Customer Community Premium: For high-growth companies looking for greater control over their messaging outcomes. - Everything in Essentials, Custom Data + Message Volume, Premium Product Features, Additional Workspaces, 90-day Onboarding Program, Premium Email & Chat Support, Managed Deliverability, Dedicated IPs, Parcel Pro Licenses, HIPAA Compliance Enterprise: For at-scale companies looking to create world-class customer experiences. - Everything in Premium, Managed Infrastructure*, Customer Success Manager, Quarterly Success Reviews, Technical Account Manager*, Audit Logging & Data Governance*, Parcel Business Licenses, Migration Support*, *Available by consultation.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Customer.ioFreshchat
Features
Customer.ioFreshchat
Chat Analytics and Reports
Comparison of Chat Analytics and Reports features of Product A and Product B
Customer.io
-
Ratings
Freshchat
7.3
18 Ratings
17% below category average
Chat history and transcripts00 Ratings7.818 Ratings
Chat reporting00 Ratings7.118 Ratings
Chat and web analytics00 Ratings7.015 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Customer.ioFreshchat
Small Businesses
Simplify360
Simplify360
Score 7.8 out of 10
Gist
Gist
Score 9.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Dialpad Support
Dialpad Support
Score 9.1 out of 10
Genesys DX (discontinued)
Genesys DX (discontinued)
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Verint Community
Verint Community
Score 9.8 out of 10
Genesys DX (discontinued)
Genesys DX (discontinued)
Score 10.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Customer.ioFreshchat
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(17 ratings)
8.5
(42 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(4 ratings)
Usability
9.2
(9 ratings)
8.3
(18 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
6.0
(3 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(2 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
4.5
(1 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
4.5
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
4.5
(1 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
4.5
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Customer.ioFreshchat
Likelihood to Recommend
Customer.io
This tool is well-suited for companies looking to run email marketing campaigns or send out newsletters regularly to their users/customers. The workflow setup is especially useful for companies who want to send specific emails based on user behavior - i.e. they've not logged in recently, have bought a specific product, haven't opened any emails, etc. This could also be useful for freelancers like me since you can create different workspaces within Customer.io. I have configured it this way to handle email marketing for a few of my clients, and the software keeps everything organized and separate. This might not be the best tool for small businesses, considering the price. It may be better to start out with a cheaper email marketing tool, and then if/when necessary, scale-up with a tool like Customer.io.
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Freshworks Inc
It is best suited for having 24-hour support, where customers can interact easily, even using their phones, to raise concerns or inquire about information. This makes it easier than going through the documents portal as a source of knowledge or sending emails for worries. However, it can be less appropriate for scenarios when you need more formal communication, like emails, and when proper documentation is necessary.
Read full review
Pros
Customer.io
  • Managing users, attributes and events. You are easily able to modify any user, based on their ID, and add or remove attributes, assign events to them. That makes it very easy to segment later and to assign them to several campaigns based on behavior. Just a warning: this integration isn't so easy (at least it wasn't for us).
  • Creating workflows of campaigns is very easy. You can quickly create behavioral campaigns based on attributes, segments and add elements to the workflow. You can send an email, then wait, then send another, then exit the campaign if they converted, etc. The workflow is easy to configure and very powerful for automation.
  • We don't use many email templates (we make them in MJML) but it's very easy to add senders, to change templates and in general to test designs.
  • Deliverability works very well, at least for us. It sends emails pretty fast and without issues.
  • Exporting is very quick and easy. Importing wasn't a feature until recently, but it works well too.
  • Seeing activity it's also useful. In general, logs are awesome (be it of a customer, of activity on the site, email sends, etc.).
  • We don't use environments, but it might be very useful for a bigger company.
Read full review
Freshworks Inc
  • Real time customer support. During busy times all our available agents can jump on and handle large volume of customer interactions.
  • Automations and canned response features. With automation we can greet our customers the moment a chat gets assigned to an agent letting customers know they are being attended to similarly canned response helps us use templates for generic and commonly asked questions.
  • Dashboards and analytics. Freshchat's ability to build customized dashboards and analyze performance in a granular level helps us monitor workload and manage performance effectively.
Read full review
Cons
Customer.io
  • Customer.io needs to be more known! I don't know why they don't come up as a direct competitor to Iterable and Braze.
  • Their new Design Studio drag + drop tool could be improved with further customization.
  • Reports aren't the strongest - I use Amplitude to do all my Customer.io reporting.
Read full review
Freshworks Inc
  • Freshchat is one of the best platforms, but still there are certain areas that require further improvement in order for the platform to become flawless.
  • I feel that the automated system in Freshchat is comparatively slow and due to this, it does not respond well according to all the requirements.
  • There are certain features in Freshchat which are not available for everyone and they can only be accessed by those who are paying the highest pricing tier.
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Likelihood to Renew
Customer.io
No answers on this topic
Freshworks Inc
Freshchat has met all our expectations and more. It has allowed our team to be more efficient with their time, field questions quickly, and escalate issues up the chain. We highly recommend freshchat as the perfect addition to anyone already using freshdesk or simply looking for a good solution for in app messaging.
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Usability
Customer.io
Customer.io has drag-and-drop functionality for their campaigns that is very fun and intuitive to use. The audience build functionality strikes the right balance between usability and meticulousness. They also have an array of actions -- time delays, time windows, waitUntils -- that allow you to customize the timing of messages.
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Freshworks Inc
I give it an 8 due to its usability. Yes, I had a few issues to begin with and needed some assistance from Freshchat agents, but considering this is something that is completely new to me, to set up what feels like a professional chat handling system complete with autobot within a day is really saying something I feel.
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Reliability and Availability
Customer.io
No answers on this topic
Freshworks Inc
Freshchat has always been available when I needed to use it.
Read full review
Performance
Customer.io
No answers on this topic
Freshworks Inc
Freshchat always loads quickly and communication is quickly sent and received.
Read full review
Support Rating
Customer.io
No answers on this topic
Freshworks Inc
The experience we had in past for lets say 4-5 months with the support team and our TAM was really helpful. The changes in the bot flow has helped our bot to ensure we connect with customer easily.
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Implementation Rating
Customer.io
No answers on this topic
Freshworks Inc
I hope to show new users data because this can save a lot of time
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Customer.io
Customer.io was really the first pure, full-featured drip email program on the market and as far as I know, it's still the simplest and best overall for that specific function. SendGrid has also added drip campaign features, but I would seriously evaluate Customer.io against any other drip email provider because they really have all the key elements you need to make it work.
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Freshworks Inc
Messaging across mediums - Freshchat integrates with majority of mainstream instant messaging apps. Like Facebook messenger, Telegram and WhatsApp . This makes it convenient for us to have a presence on the above-mentioned platforms and respond to messages from these platforms from a single Freshchat dashboard.its good app Freshdesk Messaging help me to contact the customer and contact the customer to inform my problem to solve it and is a good app and help full app and its easy to use uncomplicated and Freshdesk Helps me provide good quality to the customer and make customer feedback good for a company
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Customer.io
No answers on this topic
Freshworks Inc
Did not help with the purchase
Read full review
Scalability
Customer.io
No answers on this topic
Freshworks Inc
We only implemented the product in 1 way so I cant speak to this.
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Professional Services
Customer.io
No answers on this topic
Freshworks Inc
Did not use
Read full review
Return on Investment
Customer.io
  • Positive impact on the sales side. I'm not sure about the specific ROI (you have to include the designer and the time it takes to set up) but you certainly get back the investment in a few months, once you are able to scale your email marketing.
  • Customer experience is way better by having more segmented, contextual and accurate messages sent to them.
  • Integration is costly and it will take several days or weeks to be fully achieved. Expect to invest some money on this.
Read full review
Freshworks Inc
  • From the positive effect of working on it, it helps employees to speed up their thinking and writing.
  • One of the positive effects of our clients is that their problems are solved easily and quickly.
  • Each employee knows how many of his chats have been resolved.
  • There is no negative effect in general.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Customer.io Screenshots

Screenshot of data-driven or manual segments that can be created in the no-code builder for recipient lists, campaign triggers, filters, and conversion goals.Screenshot of the code editor for email, that helps navigate code and iterate.Screenshot of account performance, visible at a glance from the Dashboard view.Screenshot of drag and drop messages, time delays, and branches where desired, to build cross-channel campaigns.Screenshot of triggered campaigns based on forms submissions, customer attributes, customer actions, and dates.Screenshot of localization for global audiences. One message can be delivered in multiple languages.

Freshchat Screenshots

Screenshot of Channel Freedom: The interface to engage customers on the channel of their choiceScreenshot of Unified Agent Workspace: Equips agents to deliver personalization at scaleScreenshot of Admin and Analytics: These drive informed decisions to help business scale