Your customers want solutions, and they want them now.
Becoming incredibly accessible to your customers is not only a luxury that big corporations offer but a necessity for each startup and SMB.
One of the best ways to be incredibly accessible to your customers is through live chat software for business.
If you don’t invest in good live chat software today, your competitor definitely will - and you will practically be leading your customers to your competitors by hand!
Good live chat software for websites lets you connect with your customers in real-time, gives you insights about their behaviors, allows you to be proactive with your customer support, and keeps your customers engaged when you are not around!
So here I have 13 of the best live chat software that is popular in the market and their unique features, pros and cons, what we think about them, and our final judgment on which the best one among them is.
1. Tawk
Price: free forever
Tawk.to is a free tool with several features packed into it. Tawk is a unique live chat customer service tool because it is free to use and has no premium versions! When Tawk was launched back in 2013, they were already aware that they had tough competition to face.
However, they did things differently by deciding that their users would avail of all their features for free, and pay only if they wanted any extra features over and above the normal offerings. Now, who can beat ‘free’?
What to expect from Tawk.to:
- Incorporation is through HTML.
- Lets you monitor conversations in real-time.
- You can pay for extra features, such as the removal of its branding and the assignment of a trained agent to handle your business queries.
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Pros
- No premium tiers - just one free version.
- The paid add-ons are not too expensive.
- They are optimized for desktop as well as mobile.
- They can easily integrate into your software and tools.
- Getting started is as swift as a breeze.
- They are constantly adding new features and updating existing features.
Cons
- There are a few complaints about the promptness of notifications on the phone.
- You need to have expertise in HTML to use it.
Key takeaway:
Our take on this is pretty simple - Tawk.to is free and offers most features that other live chat software providers do, making it a viable choice for you.
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2. Podium
Price: contact them for pricing.
To be very frank, we are undecided about what we feel about Podium. But we are here to give you facts - perhaps you can tell us your opinion!
We have mixed feelings about Podium because some features are great, while others need to buck up - especially given the competitors they are dealing with.
At first glance, it is obvious that Podium is designed to be a super-advanced and sophisticated live chat software for websites, and they even claim that you will have an unfair advantage with them! Now that’s a very big thing to say. So let’s understand this tool in a little more depth.
What to expect from Podium:
- Specially designed for sales and has a sophisticated feature around feedback and reviews.
- Payments can be made in the chat box itself.
- Unified customer conversation view
- Team collaboration
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Pros
- Very neat, futuristic-looking interface
- Multiple contact options for your customers
- Manage conversations across numerous platforms from the same dashboard
- Easy redirection of conversations to the right persons
- Quick feedback and Google reviews as well as payments
Cons
- We aren’t sure what more it can do - it is quite vague in that area.
- There is no mention of AI or chatbots anywhere - we aren’t sure how far that would work in 2021. Perhaps it is a feature that is yet to be added.
- All conversations have to begin with a phone number. They market this as a pro, and we understand why - it’s great for business. But would customers really want to give you their numbers that easily?
Key takeaway:
The only way we can see Podium being useful right now is if you are a business with a high niche clientele, and feedback and reviews are of primary importance to you. If yes, then perhaps Podium would be great for you.
What are people saying?
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3. LiveChat
Price: starts at $16/month per agent
LiveChat focus is on helping you connect with your customers anywhere they are. Now, if you are smart, you will know how important it is to have a proactive customer approach. And if you do, you would know how important it is to be as accessible to your customers as possible.
LiveChat does exactly that - and no, we are not simply talking about live chat on your site - we mean other unique features such as keeping a tab of and replying to comments on external platforms such as Facebook!
With LiveChat, your customers can reach out to you in any digital manner that they want to - and while this would have been very cumbersome and confusing a few years ago, multichannel communication will be a piece of cake with LiveChat.
What to expect from LiveChat:
- LiveChat is specifically designed for multichannel communication - so expect everything to be driven towards this end.
- Automation with a chatbot
- An insane number of integrations
- Multiple ‘agents’ can be assigned for different kinds of customer queries.
- Highly customizable
- Analytics and reports are available.
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Pros
- Of all the pros, ‘Sneak-peek’ takes the cake: you can get a glimpse of what your customer is typing even before the message arrives! We will let you take a moment to let that sink in.
- You can show off your products and services on this live chat tool, which means you can sell while you solve!
- Integrations with over 200 tools!
- Not too expensive if you only have just one agent handling it.
Cons
- We aren’t sure if the basic versions would be of much use.
- Just a chat box may not really be enough anymore - there are no supporting features.
Key takeaway:
LiveChat is exactly what that name says - and nothing more. It may be a great live chat for a website and an app if you have only one agent handling your customer support interaction. However, if there are more, we wouldn’t recommend this product. Live chat is probably great for really small businesses with limited needs.
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4. Intercom
Price: starts at $59/per month
Intercom is one of the most popular live chat software out there - and with good reason! They are perhaps the oldest players in this market, giving them the leverage of having advanced and well-designed features that most newer competitors find it hard to match up.
Besides having been in the market for a long, this live chat for business has deeper insights into what the market demands, being better able to adapt to those demands faster.
What to expect from Intercom:
- They have a live chat for the website and app, shared inbox, support box, etc.
- Customer analytics is available.
- Easy integration with existing software and tools.
- Engineered to take care of the complete life-cycle of the customer - from onboarding to handling issues and complaints.
- Designed for easy use for both external as well as internal entities.
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Pros
- Integrations with over 250+ apps!
- Knowledge base to help you and your customers
- Sophisticated messaging campaigns
- Ability to hyper-personalize the experience for your customers.
- Ability to advertise your new initiatives in the chatbox itself.
- Amazing support
Cons
- Packing too many features may have rendered the tool a little too heavy and complex to master.
- Pricey
Key takeaway:
If you just want a trusted, robust live chat software tool and have deep pockets, then Intercom is for you.
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5. Dixa
Dixa has some great reviews out there as one of the live chat tools that give you great features even with their lower tiers.
Dixa is designed for superior team collaboration and ticket management, letting you seamlessly take over a conversation that your colleague just left without you having to ask for any details whatsoever from the customer. What’s more, one of their unique add-ons lets you add collaborators who could be of help in solving issues without them having to talk to the customer directly!
What to expect from Dixa:
- Automated and live chatting are both available.
- Collaborative customer support is possible.
- Easy to get started.
- It can be integrated with a number of tools and software.
- Workflow SLAs can be set, and rerouting can be done based on priority.
Pros
- The basic tier has most of its useful features.
- Easy to use and neat interface.
- Experts from different departments can be added as collaborators to solve technical issues without facing the customer.
- Chat history is maintained, and all agents can monitor all conversations.
Cons
- Knowledge Base is an add-on that you have to purchase.
- It might be a bit on the expensive side.
Key takeaway:
Dixa has focused on the smoothness of conversations and problem-solving. We would highly recommend Dixa to companies that deal with products that can have issues that are highly technical in nature, needing experts to solve them.
What are people saying?
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6. Hubspot
Price: starts at $19/per month
Hubspot is a well-known live chat software; no list of this kind can ever be complete without mentioning it. After all, they do offer a free version which is probably why it is popular! Hubspot has all the classic features you would expect from live chat support of this kind - ticketing, live chat box, templates and so on.
So why should Hubspot deserve mention on this list?
Because the other tools that HubSpot sells go well along with their live chat software, tremendously boosting your business communications. Some of them are Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Operations Hub and so on. Let’s see what Hubspot’s live chat software, called “Service Hub,” has to offer:
What to expect from Hubspot:
- Robust live chat for website and app with canned responses and templates
- Easy integration with other Hubspot tools
- Integration with Messenger
- Scheduled meetings and emails
- Shared inbox
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Pros
- Hubspot’s free tier has everything you need if you are a small company.
- Customization of the widget's look and feel is available
- It can prove to be a powerful CRM when used with other Hubspot tools
Cons
- While it may be a pro to some, the fact that you have to pay for other Hubspot tools may be a con to others.
- You have to pay for the watermark to be removed.
Key takeaway:
Our recommendation would be to take a bunch of Hubspot tools instead of just one, as that is when you will be able to leverage this live chat support to its full potential.
What are people saying?
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7. ThriveDesk
Price: freemium. Starts at $6.67 USD/user per month
ThriveDesk live chat assistant is the simplest and most lightweight live chat solution designed exclusively for eCommerce businesses. As a result, you can serve more online store customers with speedy replies, file sharing, appropriate emoticons, cheerful surveys, and reporting.
ThriveDesk's live chat is geared toward creating more individualized customer experiences; therefore, the live chat assistant only appears when a representative is available to answer questions or provide assistance. ThriveDesk also provides entire order data for WooCommerce merchants, allowing you to cancel/refund orders and manage your eCommerce without interruption.
The agent interface of ThriveDesk is finely tuned to provide quick responses. You can also personalize every facet of the communication process, including the colors, the sounds of notifications, the addition of your company logo and welcome message, and much more.
- Live chat for humanly customer support
- Work with WooCommerce without leaving the chat
- Easy Agent interface for maximum efficiency
- Automated reply to instant customer support
- CRM with Help Desk
- Support for advanced markdown and formatting to improve readability and expression
- Customers' satisfaction rating system
- Support for conversation history to ensure faultless customer service
- The capacity to keep track of customer conversations via email
Pros
- Efficient support for app integration.
- Neat and clean interface in ThriveDesk 2.0
- Automated responses from the knowledge base to keep communication moving quickly.
- The workflow is easy to figure out for operators.
- Customer Relationship Management software shows all of a customer's data in one place.
Cons
- No app for Mac and Windows.
Key takeaway:
ThriveDesk live chat offers a freemium plan with every possible feature you need most compared to its competitors.
What are people saying?
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8. Olark
Price: starts at $19/per month
When you check out different live chat software options, you will notice that most of them are similar - after all, what more can live chat support of this kind offer? The only thing that a live chat tool can do differently is to amplify your experience to a whole new level - and Olark does just that.
The one thing you will notice about them is their emphasis on ‘ease.’ They believe your customer conversations, team collaborations, and analytics should be easy for you. That, along with their customization options, is probably why they are one of the most popular live chat software out there - with over 12,000 customers across 178 countries!
What you can expect from Olark:
- Highly customizable live chat support
- Chats and conversations are saved in a transcript archive.
- Reporting and analytics are available.
- Automated responses are available based on three scenarios - the customer’s location, the web page the customer is on and the customer’s browsing behavior.
- Team collaboration is available.
- Integrations are available.
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Pros
- Clean and neat interface
- A super intuitive and functional dashboard lets you get in touch with your customers and collaborate easily from the same place.
- You can pick up conversations from the customer's page - for example, if your customer is stalling on the ‘pricing’ page, you can initiate a conversation about pricing with them.
- They have add-ons that you can use.
- Inexpensive
- They have a free trial
Cons
- Not everyone is happy that the add-on features have to be paid for.
- While the appearance of the chat can be customized, the widget itself doesn’t offer much there.
Key takeaway:
Olark is a very simple and rather basic live chat customer service tool. But at those prices, it would be a pretty great option if you are a small business with only the most simple but vital requirements.
What are people saying?
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9. LiveAgent
Price: the paid version starts at $15/per month
Before you read on, let’s save some time and tell you that LiveAgent wouldn’t really be our recommendation if you are looking for a great, all-around live chat software. So if you want to skip this one, you can. Read on if you still want to know why this tool is mentioned here.
LiveAgent is all about essentials. Rather than present themselves as an all-in-one solution, they have more or less broken down their services, offering you only things that your business really wants. Say, for example, that you don’t need live chat - and only want to register complaints. You have an option for just that. For the sake of convenience, we will see what LiveAgent offers on the whole. Please remember that the features will differ for each plan.
What to expect from LiveAgent:
- Robust ticketing option
- Team collaboration is possible along with a shared inbox.
- Automation workflow is available.
- You can send canned and automated messages.
- Not too many integrations
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Pros
- Really cool ticketing system
- You can choose the basic option if you don’t need Live chat.
Cons
- You shouldn’t have to pay more for live chat - live chat is normally offered by default by other live chat software providers.
- Not enough integrations
Key takeaway:
Well, yes, the starting price does look very small. But it doesn’t have the most basic feature - live chat. If you’re looking only for ticket management, this would be a great option for you. Not otherwise.
What are people saying?
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10. Pure Chat
Price: Starts at $39/per month
Pure Chat places a special focus on reports and analytics. With Pure Chat, you can be sure of having better, more effective conversations thanks to the deep insights that you will get.
Pure Chat has auxiliary features such as real-time visitor analytics and contact history that can help you know how well your marketing strategies are working. This will help you shape better conversations and customer support protocol, making Pure Chat a great live chat software for a good overall experience.
What to expect from Pure Chat:
- Has multiple integrations
- Customizations are available.
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Pros
- All integrations and unlimited chats are available for all tiers.
- The ability to send canned responses lets you save time.
- Visitor tracking
- You can extract chat history transcripts.
- Even the basic plan lets you add up to 4 operators, which is pretty great!
Cons
- 1. You must choose the more expensive option to remove their branding.
Key takeaway:
For the prices they offer, Pure Chat is definitely great - especially for small businesses.
What are people saying?
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11. Zendesk
Zendesk is a leading name in live chat software. Yet another contender that provides all-around services that you would require to enhance your customer experience, Zendesk has carved a niche for itself thanks to the quality and simplicity of its live chat support software. It is super easy to get started, has a dashboard, and lets you create and manage tickets and analyze reports.
What to expect from Zendesk:
- You can assign roles to people managing the tool.
- Lets you gauge performance from the dashboard itself.
- Is able to integrate with a number of CRMs and tools.
- Personalization and customization are possible.
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Pros
- Canned responses and automation
- Sophisticated ticket generation and management
- Workflows and SLAs can be easily set.
- More than a hundred integrations.
- The knowledge base is always a plus!
Key takeaway:
Zendesk is expensive - especially if you want to unlock its full potential. If you really want reliable live chat software to work with, regardless of the cost, Zendesk could be great! Integrate a best-in-class Zendesk chatbot to make live chat more powerful.
What are people saying?
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12: SnapEngage
Price: Starts at $16/per month
We won’t bore you with the usual features with this last name on this list because SnapEngage, like any good live chat software out there, has all the usual features you would want. But it requires a special mention because, with HIPAA compliance, it becomes an especially useful tool for healthcare companies.
This added assurance of patient information protection comes as a boon to healthcare companies that are looking for solutions that are suited to their needs - and let’s face it, even though each business’s needs are different, it’s all the more different for a healthcare setup.
Apart from this, you can expect the usual features such as ticketing, automation, integrations, team collaboration, etc.
What to expect from SnapEngage:
- You have different plan tiers, as well as add-ons you can purchase.
- Team collaboration, chat transfers and ticket rerouting are available.
- SnapEngage offers plenty of integrations.
- Removal of SnapEngage branding is included in some tiers while available as an add-on for others.
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Pros
- They have a number of safety certifications even apart from HIPAA.
- Single sign-on and audit logs
- Knowledge-base
- Easy to get started - some tiers also have guided assistance.
Cons
- All their automated bot features are only available for their highest tier.
- The lower tiers have very little to offer.
Key takeaway:
We recommend this live chat for businesses to only large healthcare setups and hospitals. And to them, we would say, just go for their Enterprise option as the lower two tiers wouldn’t be of much help. If you are a smaller business, go with any of the other options we have listed here.
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13. ProProfs Chat
Price: starts at $10/per month
ProProfs Chat allows you to connect and engage with customers in real-time. You can proactively initiate conversations with customers at the perfect moment and delight them with instant solutions.
The highlight of this tool is its reporting capabilities and chat routing features. It has detailed reports that help you measure operator performance and customer satisfaction. With chat routing, you can automatically transfer chats to the right operator, ensuring that customers do not have to wait endlessly for a response.
You can keep customers engaged at every stage with greetings and announcements. These greetings can be configured for customers' pages, making personalization easier. You can inform customers about new product features and service updates with announcements.
You can also integrate ProProfs Chat with your knowledge base and give customers access to self-help articles in your chat widget. In addition to this, the tool supports integrations with popular CRM, CMS, and email marketing tools.
What to expect from ProProfs Chat:
- Mobile app for on-the-go support.
- AI-powered chatbot for 24x7 support.
- Seamless integration with your knowledge base and help desk.
- Detailed customer satisfaction and operator performance reports.
- Canned responses for instant issue resolution
Pros
- Insightful reports to track operator performance.
- Intuitive user interface
- Seamless transfer of chats to the right operators
Cons
- It has limited integrations with social media tools.
- There aren’t enough chatbot templates.
- Needs more customization features for the live chat window.
Key takeaway:
If you want a live chat solution that is packed with features and comes at a competitive price, ProProfs Chat is a good bet.
What are people saying?
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It’s very hard to pick on. On the one hand, you have something so futuristic and advanced like Dixa that would make your customers feel pampered, while on the other, there is Tawk which is entirely free - and what can beat free? And Tawk is one of the best live chat software among the free options.
It comes down to two fundamental questions - how deep your business needs are, and what are you ready to pay? If you need some high-end and all-around customer support and can deliver to make that significant investment, Dixa is the way to go. However, if you are a smaller business with less budget but still need the essentials that live chat software offers, go for Tawk!
Concluding thoughts
Congratulations! You are now a pro at knowing what the best live chat for business software out there is and which are the ones that will suit you best. Remember, our verdict is based purely on a general idea of each live chat support software. So it is now on you to get in touch with them, try out their free versions, and see what is right for you.
Don’t forget live chat software is an investment, not an expense - so don’t let prices deter you from making the right decisions.
You can always contact us if you want further guidance in choosing the best live chat software for your website.
FAQ
What is live chat for business?
You can use live chat software to assist clients on your website, mobile site, and apps. Real-time communication with clients is made possible with live chat for businesses. In addition, consumers can interact with your staff and immediately receive support when accessing your live chat app.
Is live chat a natural person?
Yes, live chat typically has a live person on the other end. It is a direct line of communication with a firm employee. Before connecting clients with natural agents, businesses may deploy chatbots, but if the service is branded as live chat, you should be able to speak with a live person.
What are the pros and cons of live chat?
The pros: Good experiences spread through word of mouth Live chat can increase purchases Live chat can boost customer loyalty The cons: Live chat has a poor user experience Scripted responses are frustrating Waiting for an agent fuels frustration Customers hate having to repeat themselves
