Live Chat Software
Top Rated Products
(1-4 of 4)
Intercom creates modern Customer Service software that aims to redefine how businesses support their customers. The platform connects businesses directly to customers using powerful messaging and automation. According to the vendor, Intercom enables teams to scale support without…
Genesys Cloud CX (formerly PureCloud, Genesys Cloud) is a contact center application optimized for automatic call distribution, interactive voice response, email, social media, chat, and text/SMS. It is also a VoIP interconnect service provider.
Drift is presented as a human-centric, AI-powered buyer engagement platform, a platform that automatically listens, understands and learns from buyers to provide individualized and human experiences at every touchpoint of the buying journey. The platform helps businesses translate…
Khoros Care enables brands to serve their customers on their preferred digital channels, reducing costs and increasing customer satisfaction and revenue. It Offers:Web chat & messaging gives customers convenient, efficient channels to engage brands, while giving brands a single…
All Products
(51-75 of 322)
ChatBeacon (formerly SightMax) is a live chat tool from SmartMax Software headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
eDesk is an eCommerce Help Desk purpose built for online sellers. eDesk integrates with marketplaces, channels, webstores and social channels and consolidates them into one shared dashboard. The solution provides tools and order data to help users to speedily turn around issues. eDesk…
Acquire is a scalable suite of tools equipping service agents with no-download interactive co-browse, live chat, chatbot, video & voice calling. Web and in-app - guide your customers in real time to reduce churn and increase conversion. The application is designed to streamline…
Explore recently added products
Ruby, or Ruby Receptionists headquartered in Portland, boasts supporting more than 10,000 businesses with live virtual receptionists and 24/7 available chat services. Users set their preferences to have Ruby answer the phone part-time, full-time, or after hours, and Ruby deploys…
RumbleTalk is a live chat tool from the company of the same name featuring group chat and document or video sharing.
Tidio is a live chat app powered by a chatbot and that comes with mailing features.
Gorgias, headquartered in San Francisco, builds a multi-channel helpdesk integrated with e-commerce merchants' back-office. It allows merchants to manage all their support from one place. Gorgias connects all business apps and all communication channels to provide support agents…
eGain is a cloud-based customer engagement hub (CEH) used by contact centers to facilitate omnichannel sales and customer service. It includes call tracking, click to call, live chat and cobrowsing, social media customer service, email support ticket management, social offers, and…
Wix Answers is a customer support solution that aims to consolidate all support channels in one place—a ticketing system, knowledge management, call center, live chat and built-in analytics. Wix Answers provides:A single view for all real-time and offline support channelsNo more…
Respond.io is a business messaging platform from the Hong Kong based company of the same name, that connects customers from any channel to every team. As consumers grow to demand personal communication on a wide variety of channels, businesses are looking to their software vendors…
Captivate Chat integrates customer live chats from various platforms (websites, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, SMS, and email) into MS Teams or Slack.The app simplifies customer communication and team collaboration, allowing users to communicate with customers from their…
Social Intents is a live chat tool for Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, and Slack, from the company of the same name headquartered in Atlanta.
Talkative is a customer engagement solution that gives supervisors and their teams tools to engage and convert customers. Talkative’s intelligent Routing Engine lets users create countless queues, groups, and page rules to make sure high-value customers are engaged with the right…
Elfsight widgets, from the Armenian company of the same name, help website owners to increase sales, engage visitors, collect leads, and make their websites more attractive. Elfsights offers widgets to accomplish a wide range of tasks on a website with the ultimate goal of increasing…
LiveCaller is a solution that combines different communication channels (Chat, Call, Co-Browsing, Social Messaging Apps) into one platform. Web Chat - direct text communication with web visitorsWeb Call - direct voice communication with visitors to connect with customers over an…
Magnet Beauty is a digital sales engagement (SaaS) platform and managed services for beauty brands. Developed to bring the in store experience online by assisting shoppers through their omni-channel buying journey, helping them make informed purchase decisions and providing personalized…
OKOMO is a plugin supporting omnichannel live consulting, customer engagement & commerce. It helps companies make their online customer communications & interaction personal. There is no download, no registration, and it is web-based. Users can interact and engage with web-…
InvoCom is a chatbot technology designed to ensure real-time support, engagement, and communication ties. The vendor states its aim is for long-term organizational growth by corroborating valued and loyal customers. They present their solution as a complete customer service representative…
Odoo Social Marketing allows users to manage social media, web push notifications, and Live Chat. Users can plan, monitor, and analyze accounts all in one place. They can also discover new customers and keep users engaged. It’s all about being present on social media to increase…
Chatlio is a live chat tool that enables users to interact with web visitors directly from Slack, from the small company of the same name in Seattle.
Surfly, from the company of the same name in Amsterdam, is software to upgrade existing Phone, Chat and Email channels with in-person online co-browsing experiences to achieve customer satisfaction.
Chatwee is a live chat and an instant messaging app which facilitates real-time interaction between members of online communities and virtual event goers via private, public, and group chats. Chatwee targets: online communities, virtual events, providers of mental health support,…
Table Duck is a customer service and messaging automation tool for small and mid-sized businesses. Manage and automate customer conversations, all from one inbox. Features:- Intelligent, AI driven and pre-trained chatbot to automate conversations- Channels like live chat, email and…
Herbie is a full-time, multilingual, multi-cultural, and multi-voice culture digital smart assistant who can speak to customers and assist them to solve their problems. Herbie is available on 13+ social channels with 24*7*365 support with unified approach. Herbie offers software…
Giosg is a Sales Acceleration Platform boasting users among over 1200 companies worldwide. The vendor states it can be used to increase conversions and speed up the lead to deal process with conversational marketing, sales and support solutions, like targeted live chat, AI chatbots…
Learn More About Live Chat Software
What is Live Chat Software?
Live Chat Software allows website operators to interact directly with visitors on their websites in real-time, typically through some combination of instant messaging/chat, video, and survey forms. With live chat software maintaining the spotlight, many live chat vendors are also branching into “webchat” which can take live chat conversations into other modes of communication, namely SMS/text messaging. This is a great development for organizations looking to work with only one vendor to manage both website chat and text-based chat.
The two major use cases for these tools are sales qualification and customer support. The majority of leading live chat software functions both as live chat for lead generation and live chat support software.
At minimum, live chat software should include the following capabilities:Live Chat Software Features & Capabilities
- Real-time messaging
- Canned responses and greetings
- Notifications
- Chat transfer
- Ticket forms
- Chat history and transcripts
- Customization tools for branding, agent profiles, languages, etc.
- Chat reports
- Encrypted messaging
- Access restriction
- Visitor banning
- Single sign-on
- Compliance
More advanced features include:
- Pre-built AI bots to handle conversations without a human agent
- Customized AI bots for the same purpose
- Intuitive FAQs
- Unified inboxes
- Integrations with scheduling and client management applications like Freshdesk, Google Calendar, Zapier, etc.
- iOS and Android versions
Live Chat Software Key Use Cases: Sales & Support
Using live chat software, salespeople can answer prospects' questions or initiate a consultative conversation--at a key point in the buyer's journey, when the prospect is already engaged with the website or free trial (for online software products). They can also collect the prospect's contact information to follow up based on the prospect's readiness/likelihood to buy, for example trying to set up a call vs. entering them into a marketing nurture drip sequence.
Used by support or customer success teams, live chat software allows customers who have questions or problems to connect with an individual agent and receive a response in real-time, without having to call in and navigate an automated phone tree or submit a support ticket. (Although sometimes the agent on the other end of the live chat will end up submitting a support ticket for them.)
Like social customer service tools, proponents of live chat support consider it to be a better customer service experience, because recognition is immediate, there's a personal connection, and help can be delivered in context of the website or application. Also, issues addressed via IM are kept more informal than filing a help desk ticket, and more discreet than a social support case.
Live chat point solutions for the support use case are lighter-weight and easier to implement than a full help desk, but using an integrated live chat/help desk solution has its advantages, since the customer interaction history can be stored in one unified record, and tickets can be created/routed directly from the chat interface.
Live Chat Software Comparison
To compare different live chat tools, consider these factors for each product offering:
- Automation: This will not be applicable for all use cases, but you should determine whether the live chat software you are considering supports automated messages or not, should you choose to utilize them. Automated messaging can save your agents time and route people to the appropriate resources to keep your support team and sales agents from handling requests that do not need human assistance.
- Integrations: Choose live chat software that integrates with your existing sales engagement and CRM tools. Do not assume that any given live chat platform supports the other tools you'd like to import data into. This is likely one of the most important factors to consider. If a tool doesn't already have an integration designed for the tools you'd like, it should at least give you the option to set one up.
- Security: Users often share personal information via live chat programs, so invest in tools that are transparent about the security features of their software. You also want to make sure that it complies with both your local and international cybersecurity regulations.
Start a Live Chat software comparison
Pricing
Unlike a lot of SaaS tools, live chat software options do not proliferate free versions. However, a few tools like Gist and Freshchat feature totally free starter options. You can expect pricing tiers to be differentiated by the size of your contact list and the number of account managers. Paid plans can start as low as $16/mo with enterprise plans starting at $79/mo on the lower end. Enterprises looking into live chat software should keep in mind that many live chat vendors do not offer pre-designed plans for larger organizations and require that you reach out to them for a quote and estimate of what your account may actually cost.
Related Categories
Frequently Asked Questions
What is live chat software?
How much is live chat software?
While most live chat software is only available as paid plans, Gist and Freshchat have free versions available. Enterprises will get the most out of paid plans, as free plans do not typically support advanced features that the nature of their operations require.
Paid plans can start as low as $16/mo to as high as $100/mo. This pricing is usually by number of "seats", or agents you would like to have utilizing the software at any given time. So be mindful of your team size when budgeting for live chat software.