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
(76-100 of 322)
Blinger.io allows clients to connect to their customers through popular messengers, e-mail and live chat with a single API, interface or integration with helpdesks. According to the vendor, key capabilities include: Create operator groupsAssign keywords to sort conversationsAssign…
telbee adds voice messaging to a website, or lets the create standalone voice recorder URLs to share via social media, podcasts, emails, or QR codes. Designed to enable visitors, customers and community can speak their mind easily when it's convenient, then get on with their day.…
Radiance platform is built for e-commerce. Its integration with an e-commerce platform enables the user to configure personalized marketing notifications like order & delivery status, reorder, upsell, and abandoned cart. Its conversational checkout functionality allows customers…
Explore recently added products
KAIT that stands for Kuwait Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technology is an AI-powered conversational platform in Kuwait and GCC. With its integration with social media channels, KAIT aims to take customers' businesses to the next level of customer service, marketing and sales.
CoPointer is a co-browsing tool. It allows agents / operators to join customers in their browsing sessions, interacting and collaborating with them in real time. Customer and agent can browse a website together, resolving customer issues faster. With it, the vendor states the customer…
Synthetix in Takely offers software supporting three AI-powered Customer Service channels, including FAQ web self-service, AI-augmented Live Chat and agent knowledge-base for a complete, out-of-the-box multi-channel solution for customer service, sales and support.
TelebuPop is a machine learning & AI-based conversational marketing platform that helps users connect with their visitors, prospects and leads in a human way. FeaturesChatbot & Group ChatAutomate conversation flow with bots, talk to groups and transfer chats easilyLead Capture…
Chatvisor is a combined customer engagement and analytics platform powered by Co-Browsing, designed to provide improved customer communication for companies. By bringing multiple channels under one roof, Chatvisor opens up all lines of communication between customer and agent, so…
Welcome is live chat software for eCommerce brands. It enables users to chat with shoppers on their eCommerce site in order to answer questions and provide additional product information, with the ultimate goals of increasing conversion and purchase size, and decreasing returns.
Live Chat by CustomerICare is free software for online sales and support. It features a live chat window, automated lead generation capabilities, real-time web analytics. It also allows video and audio chats.
LiveCall, from the small Polish company of the same name, is a website visitor or customer engagement tool that allows (targeted) customers to initiate a live phone call.
Proonto, from the Israeli company of the same name, is a live chat platform that also includes access to a community of eCommerce support personnel, for online sellers.
Agendize from the company of the same name in Montreal is an all-in-one suite of conversion tools including live chat with click-to-call, a form builder, and an appointment scheduler with CRM.
Client Chat Live is a live chat tool from the Austin-based company of the same name.
Watcheezy is a live chat tool with behavioral targeting, from the company of the same name with US headquarters in Palo Alto, California.
Velaro Live Chat is software that can conform to the user’s company (or website) branding. The vendor says that this live chat software is designed to be easy to implement and customize. It integrates with CRMs, ecommerce platforms; help desk software solutions, Google apps and…
ICE Chat (for Integrated Customer Engagement) from Etech Global Services in Nacogdoches, Texas is a live chat tool.
RedHelper is a live chat solution. Some key features include: Cobrowser, and Detailed Visitor Portrait.
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.