15+ Best Live Chat Software of 2024
February 13, 2022
In the digital world, This is where live chat software can help your online business. customers expect instant gratification. Contacting a customer by phone or email within 24 hours is no longer enough.
In fact, the worldwide live chat customer satisfaction rate is over 83{b2e062dacaa682ac06b65f50eda167b816e329330e76ab97664011f321ee08e4}.
The best live chat software can help you engage with multiple customers at the same time while simultaneously reviewing interaction history and user behavior.
And with the rise of natural language processing (NLP) and AI, chatbots make conversations easier when you’re away and help you better understand your customers.
In this guide, I have reviewed the 19 best live chat software tools. These reviews are based on help desk features , ease of use, pricing plans, third-party integrations, and more.
Let us begin.
With so many players in every industry, it’s not easy to stand out and create a space in the customer’s mind for your brand. As businesses move into the digital space, customer experience and service become essential.
That’s where live chat software comes in.
Live chat software allows businesses to serve customer needs 24 hours a day and seamlessly address their needs in real time. It is one of the main ways to improve customer communication in the digital market. You can check virtual data room review where you can also communicate with them.
Customer-centric and focused, live chat helps businesses create a personalized experience for their customers, drive sales, and build long-term relationships.
Therefore, many companies are now using live chat tools to bridge the gap between customer needs and service. More and more businesses are starting conversations with first-time website visitors, returning customers, and existing customers.
Setting up live chat software is decidedly easy. Let’s go over the process with Drift , one of the best on the market.
One of the best things about Drift is that it provides a free plan, you don’t have to enter your credit card information, and it’s pretty easy to set up.
You just need to visit the official Drift website and enter your email address; you are ready to do it.
Start selecting your live chat platform right away. Next, you’ll probably get this image flashing on your screen.
Click the “OK” button and go with the flow. You can select themes and color codes to match your company colors. Drift also allows you to set a welcome message that reflects your spirit. This is the first thing a visitor will see when visiting your website, so it should be catchy.
In the next step, you will need to add your company details and contact details so that your customers know who they are dealing with.
The final step would require you to install a code snippet for the live chat to work properly.
The process is similar when you try to use other market leading live chat platforms like Intercom and Chatfuel as well.
The requirements for each business vary. While some may focus on generating new leads and converting them into customers, some may aim to engage existing ones and foster long-term relationships.
However, here are some features that are essential for any business live chat service:
Canned responses take some of the load off the shoulders of your customer service executives and help deliver curated solutions for common and repetitive queries. Live chat platforms like Drift and Acquire.io are great options if you’re looking for this feature.
Third-party app integration with live chats helps solve business problems in real time. For example, Tidio offers integration with apps like MailChimp, Wix, Shopify, and more.
Analytics are essential to knowing if your trading strategy is working on the ground and identifying any changes needed. You can track details like chat histories, conversion tracking, visitor details, average time spent in chats, and more. For example, a live chat service like Chatfuel helps you measure KPIs and other important metrics.
If you have a visitor who frequently visits your website, there is a good chance that they are interested in what you sell. Therefore, it is essential to identify, engage and follow up on them, as they have a higher probability of becoming customers.
Keep in mind that your audience is using all kinds of devices to browse the internet, including mobile phones, tablets, laptops, PCs, etc. As a result, a live chat service that provides cross-platform compatibility is highly desirable. For example, drift.
Apart from these, there are several other essential features like offline forms, file transfers, and timeout display. You will have to choose the ones that fit the needs of your business.
Here are my top picks for the best live chat software.
Best for ticketing and automation with a live chat solution.
LiveAgent lets you communicate with customers on their preferred channels, including voice calls, email, and social media. A single window helps you manage messages from multiple channels in one place.
Customer service agents can also create custom automation rules to send custom or predefined responses.
With LiveAgent, you can take advantage of its built-in contact forms to easily collect relevant customer information. It also allows you to monitor and respond to comments and messages on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
It offers a free plan with limited features. Their paid pricing plans start from $15 per month and go all the way up to $39 per month.
The best fast live chat tool across multiple channels.
Userlike turns instant chats into long-term customers. It stands out for its omnichannel capabilities, providing real-time chats on websites, messaging, SMS, Whatsapp, and more.
When agents are online, Userlike works like a classic live chat tool. When they’re not active, it works like a familiar messaging app: Customers message the business, leave an email address, and agents get notified that a message is waiting for them.
It also comes with some advanced CRM features.
With Userlike, you can filter and search for customers, post customer ratings, and view comparative analysis. This helps sales teams better understand who they are talking to and how they can best address their pain points.
For customers, intuitive menus allow them to quickly choose the department they want to chat with for instant results.
Its inclusive chat feature never interrupts navigation and quickly pushes buyers through the customer journey. Your chat transcripts help provide faster issue resolution so customers never ask questions again.
Additionally, Userlike helps you deliver a unique brand experience through its highly customizable design elements.
their paid plans start from $29 per month and go all the way up to $299 per month. You also get a free plan with some basic features.
Best for businesses looking to maximize their lead generation.
Drift is one of the leaders in the marketing industry and coined the term “conversational marketing”.
According to Drift, conversational marketing is a way to move buyers through your sales funnel with real-time conversations. This builds relationships by creating authentic experiences with shoppers and customers.
In addition to your standard live chat tools, you can take advantage of routing features to connect customers with the right person at the right time.
You can give your VIP website visitors a special treatment by giving them a fast track to your sales team. Drift also makes sure you never miss a message through notification alerts – you can automatically book meetings with VIP visitors in case you’re not available in chat.
It comes with a freemium plan that provides all the basic features. The Essential and Premium plans cost $400 and $1,500 per month, respectively. There is an Enterprise plan that you can request a quote for.
Overall, Drift is a fantastic chat tool that makes it easy for online businesses to create more engaging instant interactions with their customers.
Best for omnichannel customer support ($29 per agent/month).
Comm100 is a kind of one-stop communication tool that provides a live chat tool as one of its products. It allows you to control your live chat with customers through the web as well as through a mobile app.
Some of the prominent features include shared browsing, automatic translation, audio and video chat, customizable chat window, spell checker, and more.
Here is a list of all Comm100 live chat features: app
You can also ban unwanted visitors from chatting and only serve leads or customers you want.
To handle more than one chat in real time, Comm100 allows access to multiple chat operators simultaneously. Live chat software also allows users to send images, screenshots, and other files for convenient chatting.
You can also integrate your live chat tool with other channels like email, social media, and SMS to provide omnichannel customer support.
Plus, you get access to an extensive knowledge base and free online training to integrate the software with the website.
Comm100 live chat tool comes with three pricing plans:
You also get a freemium plan with all the necessary features and a free trial with all paid plans.
The Team plan offers features such as configurable chat buttons and window, real-time monitoring of visitors and agents, data storage for 1 year, etc.
On the other hand, the Business plan includes additional features like multi-language chat and machine translation, canned messages, audio and video chat, etc.
The best marketing solution with live chat support.
Intercom is a customer messaging platform for sales, marketing and support teams.
It offers a modern user interface that provides smooth navigation, typing indicators, and the ability to send emoji and GIFs. It also allows you to easily customize your messages based on your branding requirements and across iOS, Android, and the web.
Over 30,000 businesses use Intercom, including Shopify, Atlassian, and Y Combinator.
Additional tools include a mobile app that enables instant screen sharing, meeting booking, and voice or video calling. It also allows sales teams to seamlessly collaborate with support teams. They can be easily synchronized to answer difficult technical questions more efficiently during conversations.
their paid plans start from $39 and go up to $999 per month.
Ideal for companies that need automated support on Facebook.
Chatfuel is one of the leading chatbot platforms for Facebook Messenger. It is more suitable for increasing your sales and lowering the conversion cost of leads.
Your chatbot engages with visitors 24/7. You can automate your pre-planned answers with frequently asked questions to increase customer satisfaction and reduce support cost.
Their Pro plan costs $15 per month. It also offers a freemium plan and a quote-based plan.
The best for a seamless omnichannel customer experience.
Acquire.io is one of the most popular live chat programs available. Provides extensive integration with over 50 leading chat services, including Skype, Facebook Messenger, Line, and Twitter.
You can take advantage of its intelligent chatbots to automate your responses to common questions and customer requests. And whenever your chatbot gets stuck, it will instantly route the chat to a human agent to help your customers.
It also allows you to view and interact with your customer’s browser through screen sharing, helping you provide excellent customer support. On top of that, it allows you to lock down critical information like credit card information to maintain absolute security during screen sharing.
You can also take advantage of on-screen markers and highlighters to easily guide customers.
their pricing models are available upon request.
The best customer engagement tool for local businesses.
Podium is an all-in-one small business customer messaging tool that includes great web chat features.
Their software helps local businesses manage reviews, collect payments by text message, receive feedback, and chat with customers via text, video, and more.
The best smooth and fast live chat solution.
Tidio Chat offers several cool features to help you provide better customer support and make you more responsive and responsive with customers.
They boast that you can “communicate faster than ever.” By combining live chat, email, and messaging on one platform, it only takes seconds to respond to customers, no matter how they contacted you.
Also, its email notification feature allows you to easily track your missed live chat messages and reply to them via emails.
Tidio Chat also helps you eliminate spam and useless messages through an IP-based user ban. You can also stay connected with your real customers even when you’re not in the office through its native iOS and Android apps.
It comes with a free plan for up to 3 users and unlimited chats. Their paid plans start from $10 per user per month.
Ideal for companies that want a powerful balance between artificial intelligence and human contact.
LiveChat offers many unique features to help businesses deliver a great customer experience. Your chatbots can create help tickets, chat across multiple channels, and generate valuable business leads.
On top of that, its AI engine helps you quickly route your chats to the relevant customer executive by automatically segmenting them based on their behavior on the website.
It also helps you display your products on intuitive product cards, leading to a significant increase in sales. You can also use your custom form fields and marketing automation software integrations to qualify leads more efficiently.
Additionally, it allows sales teams to create goals and track revenue directly attributed to live chat.
offers a 14-day free trial and a custom Enterprise plan. Their regular paid plans start from $16 per month and go all the way up to $50 per month.
Ideal for businesses looking for a powerful data tool with supporting software.
Olark is a SaaS tool that gives businesses the ability to chat in real time, organize customer data, and leverage customer insights to optimize the user experience.
With Olark, you can store your chat transcripts and notes and then store them in your CRM software. This helps organize data so you better understand your customers.
In a nutshell, Olark helps its clients “feel heard”.
You can leverage your custom pre-chat forms to get context before you start chatting with customers to provide better response and service. You can also delight the customer by sending product suggestions and automatic offers at the right time.
In addition to that, Olark allows you to receive messages offline via chat and reply to them via email whenever you are unable to reply to chat messages.
Olark comes with a simple pricing plan available at $19 per month.
The best live chat software with a long free trial.
Pure Chat offers unlimited chat support to help you engage your customers. Their AI-enabled chatbot is capable of efficiently automating appointment scheduling, lead capturing, and receiving payments.
You can also leverage customer contact history and real-time analytics to gain actionable insights into traffic trends, marketing campaign efficiency, and user experience.
Plus, it offers seamless integration with leading apps like Google Analytics, Infusionsoft, HubSpot, and Axosoft. You can also use it in conjunction with Zapier to integrate with over 1,000 apps.
Pure Chat has two paid plans namely Growth ($39/month) and Pro ($79/month). It also provides a 30-day free trial.
Ideal for businesses looking for a powerful omnichannel live chat solution.
SnapEngage offers the perfect blend of chatbot and conversation features for a seamless customer experience. It comes with several advanced features, including the ability to let customers share their screens for more efficient support.
It is a reliable live chat software that offers 99.98{b2e062dacaa682ac06b65f50eda167b816e329330e76ab97664011f321ee08e4} uptime. Like other tools, it helps you collaborate with team members across departments to convert leads and retain customers.
their paid plans start from $16 per month and go up to $40 per month.
Ideal for eCommerce businesses looking for a live chat assistant.
Smartsupp is a great way to engage with customers for eCommerce store owners.
It integrates with many of the leading eCommerce platforms and website builders , allowing for real-time personal conversations.
Smartupp also offers personal touches. There is a customizable window that allows you to embed the image of a customer support operator to show that humans are behind every chat interaction. It also offers detailed visitor information on its web dashboard to help you track customer behavior and traffic.
Smartsupp has native iOS and Android mobile apps to allow your support staff to stay connected with your customers on the go. You can also create your own rules to trigger automated custom messages on the right to drive sales.
offers a free version for small businesses with up to 3 users and limited features. Their paid plans, Standard and Pro, cost $10 and $19 per month, respectively.
Ideal for businesses looking for live chat as part of a marketing toolkit.
HubSpot offers its free live chat software as part of its free CRM tool. Therefore, it is a great option for startups and small businesses looking for a comprehensive set of marketing tools. By having your own CRM, you offer seamless integration and generate more credible customer data for actionable insights.
Record transcripts of each chat to help you use them for user behavior, training, and agent performance. This feature also allows you to engage in contextual conversations and help provide better support and assistance for purchases.
is available for free.
Best for managing large remote teams.
Formerly known as Zopim, Zendesk offers an efficient internal help desk solution. One of its standout features is proactive engagement, which allows chatbots to communicate in real time before a customer has a question.
It also offers AI, automation, and efficient workflows to scale messages faster and serve a large number of potential customers. Its data reporting tools provide actionable insights into satisfaction scores, trends, and response time to help you improve your customer experience.
you must first use their free trial version before viewing the pricing plans.
The best option for companies that have a WordPress website.
Zoho Desk is a context-aware, customer-facing help desk software for agents and managers. Allow agents to turn any live conversation into a ticket if they can’t resolve customer issues. It also allows agents to instantly save the context of their live chat.
You can assign your tickets to trusted experts across multiple channels to enable efficient resolution of customer issues. You can also set a timeout for all chats, so if you miss one, it will automatically turn into a ticket.
Their paid plans start at around $10 per month and range up to $30 per month billed annually.
Great for AI-enabled real-time customer support.
LivePerson offers powerful live chat solutions, including automated messaging, canned messages, conversational AI, and more. Multi-language support provides live chat capabilities in different countries.
It also comes with a lead generation bot that can help you run effective email campaigns and send out newsletters. Their AI-powered chatbots continuously store customer information to help you facilitate accurate customer service.
offers a price plan based on quotes.
Best for managing live chat tasks in one window.
Chaport is an easy to install live chat widget that you can install on your website. It comes with a modern user interface and allows you to easily manage your chats, emails, and calls from a single window.
You can also use Chaport to chat with multiple clients at once to increase efficiency and get more leads.
With Chaport, you can modify the chat widget by changing its color, font, operator photos, and more. It currently supports 29 languages and the widget determines your customer’s language and switches to your language automatically.
It also offers a smartphone app, which allows you to engage with customers via live chat on smartphones and never miss an opportunity.
Their paid plan costs $9.80 per carrier/month. Chaport also comes with a freemium plan that offers all the necessary features.
Note: Tools not yet reviewed for this list include FreshChat, ClickDesk, and Chatra.
Naturally, responding quickly to a customer will increase their loyalty to your business. This is why it is crucial to use a live chat tool to meet your needs faster.
All of these live chat tools offer some unique features that might better align with your requirements.
For example, if you have a small business and are on a low budget, you might go for a free live chat solution like HubSpot that also comes with a free CRM tool. On the other hand, companies looking for a premium tool may choose SnapEngage or LiveChat to meet business requirements.
Be sure to check out all of its features carefully and choose the one that gives you the live chat features you need.
Which of these live chat tools do you like the most? Are there any missing from the list? Let me know your comments below.