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GrowthSupermarket compares:

Live Chat Providers

Compare tools to help you chat with your customer directly on your website as they browse

?Our page editors are carefully selected for their expertise and knowledge for this product.
Page Editor
Last Updated November 26, 2018
Photo of byron-tassoni-resch
Byron Tassoni-Resch

Byron Tassoni-Resch is the Search Engine Marketing Manager for Deliveroo in Europe. With over 12 years in the digital marketing industry, his main focus is on paid search, video and display campaigns. He has worked both in-house and agency side, managing multiple millions of pounds in the span of his career.

GrowthSupermarket adheres to strict standards of editorial integrity to help you make decisions with confidence. We spent over 95 hours researching Live Chat Software. And in order to help you find the best our Page Editors highlight their pros, cons and if they have any current offers.
Editors Rating
?
Ease of Use
4.5
Price
4.5
Customer Support
4.5
Features
5
4.6 out of 5
Visit Site Read our Review

Intercom

IN A NUTSHELL

Modern messaging for sales, marketing and support – all on the first platform made with customers in mind

PRICING

Accounts start from $53 per month

KEY FEATURES

  • Send one-off and automated email, push, and in-app messages to people
  • See the performance of messages and test variants to improve results
  • Connect Intercom with other tools like Salesforce, Segment, and more

Great for

  • Segment users and target messages based on behaviour and time spent on site
  • Send one-off or trigger auto messages
  • Have the ability to send manual messages to users
  • See how well messages perform by viewing open, clicks and replies

Be aware that

  • Early stage companies may be eligible to get all the products for only $49 a month
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Editors Rating
?
Ease of Use
4.5
Price
5
Customer Support
4.5
Features
4.5
4.6 out of 5
Visit Site Read our Review

LiveChat

IN A NUTSHELL

Premium live chat software and help desk software for businesses. Over 24 000 companies from 150 countries use LiveChat

PRICING

Accounts start from $19 per month

KEY FEATURES

  • Mobile and web messaging
  • Engage customers on your website
  • Integrate your LiveChat account with your Facebook Messenger account

Great for

  • The Message sneak-peek feature will allow you to see what your users are typing even before they hit send
  • You can create a canned response: a pre-made answer to a popular question that can be recalled with just a few keystrokes
  • LiveChat gives you all the necessary visitor information you need to close a sale or solve a support case
  • Tagging your chats will give you access to a whole new level of customer data
  • All chats are stored and can be accessed later on
  • Your agents can work as a team and exchange chats when necessary

Be aware that

  • The account fee is per agent

SCREENSHOTS

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A.i chatbot
Editors Rating
?
Ease of Use
4
Price
4.5
Customer Support
4
Features
4.5
4.3 out of 5
Visit Site Read our Review

Freshchat

IN A NUTSHELL

Freshworks Live Chat Software is an innovative, AI-driven tool that facilitates real-time, personalized customer interactions. Equipped with intelligent chatbots, targeted messaging, and a collaborative inbox, it seamlessly integrates with other Freshworks products to deliver a comprehensive customer service experience. Ideal for businesses of all sizes, it provides an efficient solution for boosting customer satisfaction and engagement.

PRICING

Free tier available. Paid accounts start from $12 per user per month

KEY FEATURES

  • Categorize conversations into topic-based message channels (E.g., refunds, feedback, price page views) for setting expectations or for routing to the right groups
  • Create a Priority Inbox in order to discover and respond to conversations that are vital, with filtered views to sort based on time for which responses are due
  • Use emojis, videos, or words in your chats
  • Link your chat system with your CRM system to you can get context into every conversation you have

Great for

  • Create triggered messages based on event and attribution targeting
  • You can create a bot that responses to messages when your team are offline
  • Auto-assign the right conversation to the right team member by creating assignment rules
  • You can set up pre-formatted responses to common queries which will reduce time for your team and optimize your resolution time
  • Get Read Receipts which gives your team members clarity on the conversation status by displaying the customer read status of a message
  • Get access to a real-time dashboard and track your team's performance

Be aware that

  • The free tier is limited to 100 Campaign Contacts

SCREENSHOTS

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Start Chatra for FREE
Editors Rating
?
Ease of Use
4
Price
5
Customer Support
3.5
Features
4
4.1 out of 5
Visit Site Read our Review

Chatra

IN A NUTSHELL

Chatra: Personalizing Customer Support - Chatra is all about personalizing your customer support. It provides detailed visitor information, allowing you to tailor your interactions based on your customers' behavior. With Chatra, you can provide personalized support, improve customer satisfaction, and ultimately, drive business growth.

PRICING

Free tier available. Paid accounts start from £21 per agent per month

KEY FEATURES

  • Complete conversation history. Chatra keeps the conversation history forever for you and your visitors, so a visitor can come back to your website anytime and continue the conversation
  • Create automatic triggers when certain conditions are met, and triggers can work even when you are offline
  • The group chats feature allows multiple agents to chat to a single visitor, this can help them solve more complicated questions
  • Typing insights allow you to see what your customers are typing before they send their message

Great for

  • Provide support in real time or use the offline messenger mode and reply to chats at your own pace
  • Let your customers know that you are there to help with proactive chat invitations or messaging them manually
  • Collect valuable feedback to identify weak spots of your website or business
  • Greet customers with faces of your team and add a personal touch to your service
  • Have unlimited conversations with complete conversation history even on the free plan

Be aware that

  • The free plan allows only one agent online
  • You pay only for active agents and not for all registered agent accounts

SCREENSHOTS

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Helper Tool
Editors Rating
?
Ease of Use
4
Price
4.5
Customer Support
4
Features
3.5
4 out of 5
Visit Site Read our Review

HelpCrunch

IN A NUTSHELL

HelpCrunch is an all-in-one customer communication platform that enhances customer support and sales. Its features include live chat, email support, a self-service knowledge base, automated messaging, pre-made responses, and detailed analytics, all designed to streamline customer interactions and drive business growth. Suitable for businesses of all sizes, HelpCrunch elevates customer communication and satisfaction.

PRICING

Basic: £15/month (or £12/month if billed annually)

KEY FEATURES

  • Acquire and convert more leads with live chat and proactive messages
  • Communicate with product users thanks to an in-app messenger
  • Nurture and support customers with manual and targeted email automation campaigns
  • Organize and prioritize your customer base with ticketing functionality

Great for

  • Personal on-boarding assistant included free of charge
  • Customer support, marketing & sales teams since it's an all-in-one customer communication platform
  • Online businesses, SaaS products, and e-commerce platforms
  • Talking to your visitors and users in real-time, and making your customers happier

Be aware that

  • The free tier is limited to 1 user, 30 day chat history and 500 contacts
  • Knowledgebase and chatbot features aren't yet available, but they are currently on the product roadmap

SCREENSHOTS

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Editors Rating
?
Ease of Use
4
Price
2.5
Customer Support
4.5
Features
4.5
3.9 out of 5
Visit Site Read our Review

LivePerson

IN A NUTSHELL

LivePerson transforms customer care at large brands, by moving analog voice calls to digital messaging and bots

PRICING

Contact LivePerson for a quote

KEY FEATURES

  • Mobile and web live chat system
  • Robust reporting and analytics
  • Enterprise level security

Great for

  • message consumers through the channel of their choice. Whether on your website, app, or mobile web
  • There is zero installation or setup: You can be up and running in under four minutes
  • Integrates directly with Facebook Messenger, letting your brand tap into the millions of consumers who want to connect on the social platform
  • Integrate LivePerson with your Google AdWords message extension and get the right message to the right person
  • Add messaging directly in your app
  • Data and reporting are presented in context, per person, and per need

Be aware that

  • LivePerson has been created for large companies
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Editors Rating
?
Ease of Use
4
Price
4
Customer Support
4
Features
3.5
3.9 out of 5
Visit Site Read our Review

Zendesk Chat

IN A NUTSHELL

Add chat to your website or connect your messaging channels and start talking to customers in minutes. Chat and Message let you help customers in real time, which increases customer satisfaction

PRICING

Free tier available. Paid accounts start from $14 per month

KEY FEATURES

  • Send targeted and behavior-based messages to customers based on triggers
  • Share any file with your customer—a screenshot, a product guide, even an animated GIF
  • Monitor live data on chat volume, visitor experience, and agent performance

Great for

  • Send targeted and behavior-based messages to customers
  • Ask your visitors for their contact information before starting a chat. This helps you triage chat requests and prioritize high-value customers
  • Use Chats to monitor its website visitors and the pages they are browsing. This lets them target specific users and offer help when they need it
  • Leave offline forms enabled on your website and ensure customers can contact you while you are away
  • Use chat ratings to gather feedback and continue to improve your performance

Be aware that

  • The free tier is limited to 1 concurrent chat and 30-day chat history

SCREENSHOTS

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Get a 14-day free trial
Editors Rating
?
Ease of Use
4
Price
3.5
Customer Support
4
Features
3.5
3.8 out of 5
Visit Site Read our Review

Olark

IN A NUTSHELL

Make your business human by using live chat for sales, marketing and customer support on your website. Start talking to your customers today

PRICING

Accounts start from $17 per month

KEY FEATURES

  • Automated Messages
  • Simple interface
  • Real-time reporting

Great for

  • There is no limit to the number of conversations you can have each month
  • You can set up automated messages to be sent when a user triggers certain actions on site
  • Filter your transcripts with keywords to find important chats
  • Talk to people who are browsing your website so you can answer questions in real-time
  • Integrate Olark with a range of 3rd party tools

Be aware that

  • The account fee is charged per agent

SCREENSHOTS

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Free chat software
Editors Rating
?
Ease of Use
3.5
Price
3
Customer Support
4
Features
3.5
3.5 out of 5
Visit Site Read our Review

Pure Chat

IN A NUTSHELL

Pure Chat is the preferred live chat solution for small to mid-sized teams

PRICING

Free tier available. Paid accounts start from $39 per month

KEY FEATURES

  • Unlimited chats and users
  • Create canned responses
  • SSL Security Built In

Great for

  • Customize your chat widget using the convenient editor
  • Use canned responses to quickly and accurately reply to frequently asked questions
  • Reference a previous conversation by accessing all of your chat historical transcripts
  • Receive chat alerts

Be aware that

  • The free tier includes the Pure Chat logo

SCREENSHOTS

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Editors Rating
?
Ease of Use
3.5
Price
5
Customer Support
2.5
Features
2.5
3.4 out of 5
Visit Site Read our Review

Tawk.to

IN A NUTSHELL

tawk.to is a free live chat app that lets you monitor and chat with visitors on your website or from a free customizable page

PRICING

Free

KEY FEATURES

  • Proactively engage visitors with Triggers
  • Monitor website visitors in real time
  • Customize your Visitor Widget to suit your site

Great for

  • Rich in Features and completely free
  • Copy a simple line of Javascript in to the html of your website and the chat widget starts working instantly
  • Monitor and track you and your teams progress over time, review chat history, and check performance in analytics
  • Hire chat agents for your business through tawk.to
  • Respond quickly with Predefined Shortcuts
  • Answer chats from your Mobile Device

Be aware that

  • In order to add your own branding to the chat widget it will cost up to $15 per month

SCREENSHOTS

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What is live chat software?

Emerging in the mid-2000’s, live chat has become an incredibly important channel for direct customer communication, and for good reason: it has the immediacy of a phone call combined with the convenience of an email.

Customers have come to expect convenience at all times. When done well, live chat is one of the most convenient communication channels out there – customers can get answers to their questions, receive a timely response, and continue to do other things while waiting. Say goodbye to brain-melting hold music and “Your email is very important to us” auto-replies.

 

Which companies should use live chat software?

Live chat can benefit all kinds of companies, and there isn’t really one single use-case for deploying live chat to your site. One of the most popular uses is to enhance customer service – by adding live chat to customer support pages, you can help answer customer queries directly, save them the trouble of digging through your FAQ, and delight them by explaining features they might not have known about.

Then, by analysing the volume of different kinds of queries you can improve your FAQ to feature the most commonly asked questions more highly.

Another key benefit of live chat is increasing conversion rate on key sales pages. For B2B businesses, one of the most valuable pages on your site is the pricing page – and it’s generally a good sign if you’ve got a lead browsing that page in detail. Use live chat to intercept that lead and nurture them with a free trial offer or a more detailed run-through of your product.

This is especially important for businesses with high-value leads – one good live chat can end up being worth thousands.

 

Benefits of using live chat on your website

For most digital businesses, competition is fierce amongst your target customers. Being the most convenient option is a major factor that keeps customers, and revenue, coming your way. By being to help solve customer issues immediately, that creates a lasting impression and builds brand loyalty.

Helping customers when they need it. For most digital businesses, competition is fierce amongst your target customers. Being the most convenient option is a major factor that keeps customers, and revenue, coming your way. By being to help solve customer issues immediately, that creates a lasting impression and builds brand loyalty.

Building a scalable, cost effective channel. Typical customer service channels are always one-to-one, but a good live chat operator can help multiple customers at once. Live chat can be a highly scalable channel – but don’t overwhelm your agents!

Increasing conversion rates. By anticipating the questions your customers might have about your product, and helping to on-board them faster, live chat can have significant uplift in conversion rates across your site.

Outshining your competition. Live chat is a high-touch, personalized communication channel. It can build trust in a way a well-designed landing page simply can’t. If your competitors aren’t doing it, it’s a great way to set your business apart.

Helping customers make purchase decisions. You know what sales messages convert leads to customers, and with live chat you have a lead’s full attention. Help guide them to features and differentiators, and answer any questions they might have.

Increasing customer loyalty. If you have a customer in need of assistance, and you help them quickly and effectively – you’ve earned a lot of trust from them. Every customer service ticket is an opportunity to delight and impress your customers, and keep them coming back.

 

What type of features should you expect with Live Chat Software?

To implement live chat, it’s highly recommended that you research and purchase a live chat software package. There’s a range to choose from, and they offer incredibly useful time-saving and conversion-driving features, including:

  • Proactively chatting to high-value visitors
  • Sending pre-written responses for agents to save time
  • Tracking visitors and seeing where they are on your website to help support quality
  • Mobile-optimized chat windows
  • Triggering chats based on a visitor’s location on your site
  • Inviting users to rate their chat and their agent
  • Allowing users to see the queue time before their ticket can be answered
  • Agent monitoring and performance measurement
  • Generating reports and analytics
  • File-sharing through live chats

Not every tool has each of these features, and frankly, not every business needs all these features! Think about how your business and potential customers interact and what might enhance that – then pick the tool that best fits that need.

 

What should I do next?

If you’re interested in configuring live chat for your website, we highly encourage reviewing our list of live chat providers. Each one is slightly different and serves slightly different business needs, but each one is an excellent option for providing your customers with top-notch service.

It’s worth reading through the pros and cons of each tool to find the one right for your business needs – there is often no one-size-fits-all approach!

LiveChat. An easy-to-integrate plug-in for your site that manages live chats, and has a range of features to improve efficiency (like auto-completes, macros, and ticket-tagging).

Zendesk Chat. An excellent live chat addition to Zendesk’s customer support suite – integrates seamlessly with their customer service platform.

LivePerson. An enterprise-level live chat service that funnels all of your channels through to a single live-chat platform.

Chatra. Automatically trigger live-chats when your customers complete particular criteria – very helpful for engaging high-value leads.

Intercom. An automated messaging system that allows you to schedule messages across multiple channels, and A/B test conversion messages.  

 

With live chat, delighting your customers becomes just that much more achievable – go start some conversations!