7 Alternatives to Live Chat that you must try now!

Comparison

Updated at Sep 16, 2024

15 min to read

BotPenguin AI Chatbot maker

BotPenguin

Content Writer, BotPenguin

BotPenguin Blogs

Interaction is all that matters now, be it a chatbot Or a human. More than 82% of US and 74% of non-US clients want to use more chatbots in the future. It is the main reason why using the right technology in the service of customers is so crucial.

You can reduce cart abandonment on a website by 25% if the right live chat aligns with your business goals. 

Suppose you are looking for the best alternative to live chat. Live chat may not fit your business because you need to outgrow it or need a more advanced solution. In that case, you can check out some available alternatives below. 

Stay with this blog. This will help you to shortlist the best among all, considering their features and prices. 

What is live chat?

LiveChat is an online customer service software launched in 2002, currently developed in a SaaS business model by LiveChat software. It engages the website visitors with business in real-time through messaging. 

What does live chat offer?

Here are some advanced features of Live Chat.

  1. Browse chat history with a particular customer
  2. Enable customers to queue and begin chats with specific clients
  3. Get notifications about chats and conferences
  4.  Invite available agents to chat and organize conferences. 
  5. Proactively engage your customers to chat
  6. Manage and request a customer's desktop using Remote Desktop functionality
  7. See customers' details, including page and geolocalization
  8. Spell check in real-time using suggestions and custom dictionaries support
  9. Supervise chats
  10. In a real-time talk with unlimited customers at the same time
  11. Transfer customers to another agent
  12. Whisper to other helpdesk team agents and help with the sales process
  13. Fill out the Post-chat Survey and assess a team agent's service 

Pricing of Live Chat.

Starter

$16/mo

Per agent billed annually

Or $19 month to month

  1. 60-day chat history
  2. Basic widget customization
  3. Ticketing system

Team

$33/mo

Per agent billed annually

Or $39 month to month

  1. Unlimited chat history
  2. Full widget customization
  3. Ticketing system
  4. Data security
  5. Automated greetings
  6. Basic reporting
  7. Agent groups
  8. Multiple brandings

Business

$50/mo 

Per agent billed annually

Or $59 month to month

  1. Unlimited chat history
  2. Full widget customization
  3. Ticketing system
  4. Data security
  5. Automated greetings
  6. Advanced Reporting
  7. Agent groups
  8. Multiple brandings
  9. Staffing prediction
  10. Work scheduler

Enterprise

  1. Unlimited chat history
  2. Full widget customization
  3. Ticketing system
  4. Data security
  5. Automated greetings
  6. Advanced Reporting
  7. Agent groups
  8. Multiple brandings

Top 7 alternatives to Live Chat.

The Top 7 alternatives to Live Chat are: 

Freshdesk

Freshdesk is an online cloud-based customer service software. It includes live chat, email, phone, and social media and is easy to use. 

Freshdesk features:

  1. Self Service Portal
  2. Satisfaction Surveys
  3. Multi-product/Multi-brand Support
  4. Multiple Service Level Agreement policies
  5. Multi-language & Multi-time zone support
  6. Multi-channel support, including Facebook & Twitter
  7. Leaderboard & gamification
  8. Knowledge Base
  9. Integrations: Freshbooks, Google Apps, Harvest, CapsuleCRM
  10. Email to Ticket Conversion
  11. Community Portal with Idea Management & Voting
  12. Automations – Ticket routing, scenario automation

Freshdesk pricing:

Free

Up to 10 agents

  1. Email & Social Ticketing 
  2. Ticket Dispatch 
  3. Knowledge Base 
  4. Ticket Trend Report 
  5. Data Center Location

Growth

For fast growth

₹999 /agent/month, billed annually

₹1199 /agent/month, billed monthly

  1. Everything is Free and
  2.  Automation 
  3.  Collision Detection 
  4.  Marketplace Apps 
  5.  Helpdesk Report 
  6.  SLA & Business hour 
  7.  Custom Email Server
  8.  Custom Ticket Views
  9.  Ticket Fields & Status
  10.  Custom SSL
  11.  Customer Fields
  12.  Timesheet summary report
  13.  Time tracking

Pro

For high performance

₹3599 /agent/month, billed annually

₹4299 /agent/month, billed monthly

  1.  Everything in Growth and…
  2.  Round-robin Routing 
  3.  Custom Reports and Dashboards 
  4.  Versions in Knowledge Base 
  5.  Multiple Products (up to 5) 
  6.  Includes up to 5000 Collaborators 
  7.  Extendable API Limits
  8.  CSAT Survey & Reports
  9.  Multiple SLA & Business hours
  10.  SLA Reminder & Escalation
  11.  Multilingual Knowledge Base
  12.  Custom Apps
  13.  Average handling Time (AHT)

Enterprise(POPULAR)

For Enterprise-grade support

₹5699 /agent/month, billed annually

₹6899 /agent/month, billed monthly

  1. Everything in Pro and…
  2. Skill-based Routing 
  3.  Sandbox 
  4.  Audit Log 
  5.  Knowledge Base Approval Workflow 
  6.  Agent Shifts 
  7.  IP Range Restriction 
  8.  Email Bot  
  9.  Includes 5000 bot sessions/month 
  10.  Assist Bot  
  11.  Auto-triage  
  12.  Article Suggester 
  13.  Canned Response Suggester  
  14.  Multiple products (Unlimited)
  15.  Social Signals 
  16.  Flexible Hierarchy 
  17.  Custom Objects 

BotPenguin 

BotPenguin is an AI-powered chatbot software which easily builds incredible chatbots to engage with your customers on various websites, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and other platforms.

BotPenguin features:

  1. Natural Language Processing
  2. Zero Development Time
  3. Zero Setup Cost
  4. Conversational UI
  5. Deep Analytics
  6. Easy to Integrate
  7. Cost Effective
  8. Easily Customized
  9. Strong Validation
  10. Human Handover
  11. Multiple Messaging Channels
  12. Branching
  13. Capable of Being Trained
  14. Chatbot
  15. Code-free Development
  16. Live Chat
  17. Multi-Language
  18. Pre-Configured Bot
  19. Speech Recognition

BotPenguin Pricing:

Baby – Free

  1. 1 Bot
  2. 2,000 Messages Per Month
  3. 1 Team Member
  4. 1 Facebook Page
  5. Live Chat
  6. Conditional Flow
  7. 30 Days of Data Storage

King – $5/month ($4.17/month if billed annually)

  1. Unlimited Bots
  2. 3,000 – 500,000 messages/month
  3. Unlimited Team Members
  4. 10 Facebook Pages
  5. Live Chat
  6. Conditional Flow
  7. Book Appointments
  8. Reports & Analytics
  9. Email and Call Support

Emperor – By quote

  1. Live Chat
  2. Conditional Flow
  3. Book Appointments
  4. CSV Export
  5. Customer Success Officer
  6. Google Calendar, Bitrix, and Zoho CRM Integrations
  7. Reports & Analytics
  8. Remove BotPenguin Branding

Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk derives from the Zoho corporation, a cloud-based help desk solution. It provides large integration. 

Zoho Desk features:

  1. Case Management
  2. CRM integration
  3. Customer Support
  4. Knowledge Management
  5. Mobile Support
  6. Mobile App
  7. Call Recording
  8. Call Management
  9. Self Service Portal
  10. Assignment Management
  11. Customer Feedback
  12. Workflow Management
  13. Email Management
  14. Call Center Management
  15. Call Monitoring
  16. Call Logging
  17. Ticketing System
  18. Social Support Software
  19. Agent Productivity
  20. Company-wide Collaboration
  21. Knowledge Base and Forums
  22. Help Desk Essentials
  23. Reporting and Insights

Zoho desk pricing:

FREE

₹0

3 Free Agents

  1. Email Ticketing
  2. Customer Management
  3. Help Center
  4. Private Knowledge Base
  5. Predefined SLAs
  6. Macros
  7. Multi-language Help Desk
  8. Mobile Apps
  9. 24x5 Email Support

STANDARD

₹800 /agent/month billed annually

Features from FREE +

  1. Social & Community Channels
  2. Product-based Ticket Management
  3. Help Center Themes Gallery
  4. Public Knowledge Base
  5. SLAs & Escalations
  6. Workflow, Assignment & Supervise Rules
  7. Customer Happiness Ratings
  8. Reports & Dashboards
  9. Work Modes for Tickets

PROFESSIONAL

₹1,400 /agent/month billed annually

Features from STANDARD +

  1. Multi-Department Ticketing
  2. Team Management
  3. Telephony
  4. Automatic Time Tracking
  5. Multilingual Knowledge Base
  6. Blueprint - Basic Process Management
  7. Round Robin Ticket Assignment
  8. Agent Collision
  9. Tasks, Events & Call Activities
  10. Ticket Templates
  11. Private Marketplace Extensions
  12. SLA Dashboards
  13. Ticket Sharing

ENTERPRISE

₹2,400 /agent/month billed annually

Features from PROFESSIONAL +

  1. Live Chat
  2. Help Center Customization
  3. Multi-brand Help Center
  4. Advanced Process Management
  5. Multi-level IVR
  6. Global Reports & Dashboards
  7. Scheduled Reports
  8. Contract Management
  9. Validation Rules
  10. Layout Rules
  11. Field Watching
  12. Multiple Business Hours & Holidays
  13. Role-based Data Sharing
  14. 50 Light Agents

Drift

It is a conversational marketing and sales technology company. It facilitates communication with potential customers and helps to generate leads. 

Drift features:

  1. Rep Profiles
  2. Activity History
  3. Conversation Qualified Leads
  4. Follow Contacts
  5. Enriched Data
  6. Overall Performance Metrics
  7. Dynamic Routing
  8. Smart Notifications
  9. Live View
  10. #DriftLinks
  11. Lead Bot
  12. Saved Replies
  13. Conversation Reporting
  14. Advanced Targeting
  15. Knowledge Bot
  16. Per Playbook Reporting
  17. Email Fallback
  18. Agent Reporting
  19. Email Playbooks
  20. Chat Targeting
  21. Inbound/Outbound Sales Playbook
  22. Agent Status
  23. Book Meetings

Drift pricing:

Free

  1. Great for small businesses.

PREMIUM

  1. Everything is Free, plus:
  2. Custom Chatbots: 
  3. Drift Intel 
  4. Drift for Salesforce App 
  5. Encryption at Rest 
  6. Drift Deal Room 

ADVANCED

  1. Everything in Premium, plus:
  2. Drift Fastlane 
  3. Drift Audiences 
  4. A/B Testing 
  5. Advanced Lead Routing 

ENTERPRISE

  1. Everything in Advanced, plus:
  2. Drift Workspaces 
  3. Multiple Languages 
  4. AI-Powered Chatbots 
  5. Custom RBAC 

Crisp

Crisp is a cloud-based helpdesk platform that lets you centralize and unify your customers' profiles. 

Crisp features:

  1. Data Import/Export
  2. Document Storage
  3. Email Automation
  4. File Transfer
  5. Geotargeting
  6. Group Messaging
  7. Help Desk Management
  8. Human Handover
  9. Interaction Tracking
  10. Knowledge Base Management
  11. Live Chat
  12. Macros/Templated Responses
  13. Product Recommendations
  14. Reporting/Analytics
  15. SMS Messaging
  16. Surveys & Feedback
  17. Third-Party Integrations
  18. Transcripts/Chat History
  19. Transfers/Routing
  20. Two-Way Audio & Video
  21. Auto-Responders
  22. Automated Routing
  23. CRM
  24. Campaign Management

Crisp pricing:

Basic

Free

Forever

Two seats included

  1. Live chat
  2. Team inbox
  3. Mobile apps
  4. Contact form. 

Pro

$25

Month / Per Workspace

Four seats included

  1. Triggers
  2. Unlimited history
  3. Canned responses
  4. Unlimited history
  5. Customization
  6. Audio messages
  7. Telegram

Unlimited

$95

Month / Per Workspace

20 seats included

  1. Knowledge base
  2. Status page
  3. Chat reminders
  4. Live translate
  5. Video chat
  6. Magicbrowse. 

Zendesk

Zendesk is an American company that unifies everything to support your company's needs and provides software as a service product. 

Zendesk features:

  1. Phone, chat, email, web, and social media are all multi-channel support. 
  2. Flexible ticket management with automated workflow
  3. Branded customer-facing web interface
  4. Powerful reporting and advanced analytics
  5. Multi-brand support with linked accounts
  6. Community forums
  7. Screencasting
  8. Group rules and macros
  9. Multi locale (timezone and languages)
  10. Public and private forums
  11. Open API
  12. Real-time updates

Zendesk Pricing:

Suite Team

US$ 49 per user/month billed annually

  1. Industry-leading ticketing system
  2. Messaging across web, mobile and social
  3. Email, voice, SMS, and live chat support
  4. Easy-to-set up automation & workflows

Suite Growth

US$ 79 per user/month billed annually

  1. Industry-leading ticketing system
  2. Messaging across web, mobile and social
  3. Email, voice, SMS, and live chat support
  4. Easy-to-set up automation & workflows with additional options

Suite Professional

US$ 99 per user/month billed annually

  1. Industry-leading ticketing system
  2. Messaging across web, mobile and social
  3. Email, voice, SMS, and live chat support

Tidio

Tidio is an all-in-one customer service platform. It is powerful and helps to drive more sales. It combines both live chat and chatbot to provide super customer service. 

Tidio features:

  1. AI/Machine Learning
  2. Alerts / Escalation
  3. Augmented Analytics
  4. Automated Responses
  5. Automated Routing
  6. Live Chat
  7. Multi-Language
  8. Natural Language Processing
  9. Offline Form
  10. Proactive Chat
  11. Process/Workflow Automation
  12. Query Suggestions
  13. Canned Responses
  14. Chat/Messaging
  15. Chatbot
  16. Code-free Development
  17. Complaint Monitoring
  18. Email Management
  19. Feedback Management
  20. For Sales / Marketing
  21. Geotargeting
  22. Interaction Tracking
  23. Lead Capture
  24. Lead Qualification
  25. Third-Party Integrations
  26. Transfers/Routing
  27. Virtual Assistant
  28. Website Visitor Tracking
  29. Workflow Management

Tidio pricing:

Free

Up to 3 operators

  1. 100 users engaged with chatbots
  2. 50 users contacted on Live Chat
  3. Desktop & mobile apps
  4. Visitors Info
  5. 3rd party apps integration

Chatbots

$39

USD/mo.

  1. All the Free Features
  2. 40,000 users engaged with Chatbots
  3. Unlimited active chatbots
  4. Chatbot templates
  5. Visual chatbot editor

Communicator

$19

USD/mo.

Up to 5 operators

  1. All the Free Features
  2. Unlimited Live Chat conversations
  3. Team departments
  4. Live Typing
  5. Viewed Pages
  6. Live Visitors List
  7. Permissions

Final takeaway.

Live chat is an amazing tool for your business. It completely understands your needs and comes with a website and a mobile app. They provide you with a 14-day free trial without asking for credit information. It is not only present for chatting but also manages other support correspondences. However, it may not be the best fit for you. 

You can judge the alternatives through aspects like the size of your business and budget. Also, your needs, goals, and most importantly, what you want out of the software. 

Once you consider the following, you can narrow your choices and select the best option.

Related articles: https://botpenguin.com/livechat-review 

 

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Table of Contents

BotPenguin AI Chatbot maker
  • What is live chat?
  • BotPenguin AI Chatbot maker
  • What does live chat offer?
  • BotPenguin AI Chatbot maker
  • Top 7 alternatives to Live Chat.
  • Final takeaway.