Best Website Live Chat Software in 2022 (Ranked & Reviewed)

In today's chaotic business climate, the best live chat software has a premier position in providing great customer relations and service delivery across all business types and industries. Chatbots, live agents, and AI technology have evolved chat from all angles into a must-have website feature.

In the modern era of business and customer service, clients have higher expectations and standards. For small businesses to stay competitive with other leading brands in their service niche, there is a need to offer services that combine efficiency with speed. Live chat services provide both and a host of other value add functions that help keep up with customer demand while offering personalized service and a positive experience.

What is Live Chat Software?

Live web chat refers to a type of web-based communication that takes place in real-time. With live web chat, users can exchange text messages, and other media such as web links, photos, GIFs, emojis, and videos.

The apps, software, or platforms that make it possible to have live chat on a website are typically separated narrowly by features and price point. Let's review some of the best live chat software options to help you decide what service might be best for your online needs.

LiveAgent

Best Overall

If you run or own a business and need to have a help desk assistant or live chat software to keep the customer service front functioning, one live chat software you should consider is LiveAgent – which has over the years proven to be one of the leading omnichannel live chat software of its kind on the market.

LiveAgent will help make things easier as it is an all-in-one platform offering a suite of software and live chat tools that include a call center, email ticketing, live chat, chat notifications, time tracking, and video chat among others.

In addition to its ability to seamlessly integrate with WordPress and all the other popular website builders, it is also able to integrate with CRMs, email marketing services, and marketing platforms.

LiveAgent Features  

Real-time live chat

The live chat solution is not live if you have to wait for a minute or two before getting someone to respond to your query. With LiveAgent, not only is the chat live, it takes place in real time as well so that visitors to your website get answers to their queries as soon as they start asking.

Every business with a solid strategy to capture leads cannot disregard the importance of live chat as it is essential to converting website visitors into paying customers.

Other sub-features of this include a real-time typing view that allows the agent to view what customers are typing before they hit send, and max queue length that allows the live chat support to hide the chat button once the maximum queue number is reached, and unlimited chat history retrieval, and more.  

Call center

There are lots of benefits to having a call button on your website and here, LiveAgent comes with an easy-to-setup call center built into the platform.

With this, users can simply make phone calls from their computers via a VoIP service. Also, having this on a business’s website is great in letting site visitors know they can have instant contact with the business’s customer service team – at the click of a button.

Integrations

Integrations are important for bringing the different apps and tools companies use in supporting their daily tasks together under one platform, to cut out the time spent switching between interfaces.

Apps and tools such as APIs, Slack, and Zapier easily integrate with LiveAgent so users can have their e-commerce, collaboration, email marketing, project management, CRM apps, and other tools seamlessly communicating with the platform.

Ticketing system

In LiveAgent, customer inquiries are referred to as tickets, and this feature makes it possible for users to respond to their customers whenever the latter reaches out to their company.

This is a centralized system that allows for smooth communication between customer and agent (from the business) to ensure great customer satisfaction as well as loyalty and faster inquiry resolution.

Pros of LiveAgent

• Easy to manage even with a small team
• Ability to self-host
• API is available for development
• Allows completing sales
• Self-service is easy to set up

Cons of LiveAgent

• Users get logged out too soon with inactivity
• Better real-time translation into other languages
• Better integrations with social media networks

LiveAgent User Reviews

Here’s how software review sites are rating LiveAgent

Capterra – 4.7 out of 5, based on 1,154 ratings and reviews.

G2 – 4.5 out of 5, based on 1,404 ratings and reviews.

LiveAgent Pricing

LiveAgent has three pricing plans: Ticket, Ticket+Chat, and All-inclusive. They also offer free live chat software with limited features.

LiveAgent Ticket: $15 (per agent, per month)

The benefits of this package include:

• Advanced reports in the form of area charts, bar graphs, line graphs, and pie charts.
• API and integrations
• Customer portal and forum
• Offer customer service platform
• Rules and time rules
• Unlimited email addresses
• Unlimited ticket history
• White-glove setup

LiveAgent Ticket+Chat: $29 (per agent, per month)

This package is a multi-channel ticketing and live-chat solution that comes with the following benefits and more:

• Audit log
• Chat satisfaction surveys
• Feedback management
• Proactive chat invitations
• Real-time visitors monitor
• Social networks
• Time tracking
• Unlimited chat buttons

LiveAgent All-inclusive: $49 (per agent, per month)

This omnichannel help desk comes with over 180 live chat features and has the following benefits and more:

• Call center support
• Call transfers and chat routing
• Proactive chat
• Hardware IP phone
• IVR unlimited call recordings
• Video calls

LiveAgent Support

Customers and curious inquirers can visit the LiveAgent support page to find resources including videos on getting started with the platform, technical support, customizations, billing, and payment, as well as video tutorials.

They can also be reached via email and phone which can both be accessed on the support page.

Zendesk

Best for Sales

If you’re looking to have a platform with a suite of features that come with tools for chat, knowledge bases, phone systems for customer service, and ticketing – among many others – then you should be seriously considering Zendesk for the sales and customer service side of your business.

Along with the pre-chat form and other awesome features, Zendesk is a solid chat module with lots to offer without leaving a dent in your bank balance.

Zendesk Features

Chatbot integration

Using the Zendesk API, users can integrate AI-powered bots into chat while automating canned responses to FAQs. To save time for both website visitors and customer support agents, the chatbot software connects inquirers with the right service member by gathering information from them and using that data to determine the appropriate customer agent for that query. Also, this feature makes it possible for chatbots to hand over conversations to an agent when the query involves complex or sensitive tasks.

Chat routing

With this feature, incoming calls automatically get assigned to active agents, ensuring that customers promptly receive support and protecting the service agents from getting overburdened with the workload.

Zendesk chat widget

The thing about Zendesk is that it doesn’t come with a chatbot out of the box. Instead, it is a chat widget that needs humans to operate it. The user would need to work with a developer to have a chatbot built with the Zendesk API as well as third-party AI chatbot providers to give it that extra live chat functionality.

Chat integrations

Zendesk Chat works well with most of the popular CMS including Drupal, Joomla, Prestashop, Shopify, WordPress, Squarespace and Wix.. With Zendesk building most of the add-on live chat support apps (Zendesk Suite) you can incorporate into your chat, there are only a few integrations one can execute. This means the user would need a developer to help with any other integration that may be needed.

Zendesk SDKs

Zendesk Chat comes with a web and mobile SDK. The mobile SDK allows users – with the help of a developer – to add live chat to the mobile app. The web SDK on the other hand allows users to build customized chat widgets for the front end, so visitors to the website get to have a consistent and unique experience.

Pros of Zendesk

• Advanced analytics of visitors
• File transferring during the chat
• Customizable chat windows which help with branding
• Integration with CRM like Zoho, Zendesk, and Salesforce

Cons of Zendesk

• Few integrations
• Outdated look and feel
• Developers needed
• Complex in total for new users

Zendesk User Reviews

Here’s how software review sites are rating Zendesk

Capterra – 4.4 out of 5, based on 3,092 ratings and reviews.

G2 – 4.3 out of 5, based on 4,948 ratings and reviews.

Zendesk Pricing

Zendesk has two pricing types – for sales, and service. There are three pricing plans for individuals: Suite Team, Suite Growth, and Suite Professional. For enterprises, there’s a Suite Enterprise and an additional custom-designed tier in that category.

Zendesk Suite Team: $49 (per agent, per month)

The benefits of this package include the following features:

• A single help center
• Automation and workflows
• Industry-leading ticketing system
• Email marketing, live chat, SMS, and voice support
• 50 AI-powered automated answers
• Messaging across mobile, social, and web spaces
• Unified agent workspace
• Prebuilt reporting and analytics
• Standard data and file storage
• 1,000+ apps and integrations

Zendesk Suite Growth: $79 (per agent, per month)

This package comes with the following benefits:

• Automation and workflow with additional options
• Email, live chat, SMS, and voice support
• Industry-leading ticketing system
• Intermediate data and file storage
• Prebuilt research and analytics
• Multiple help centers
• Messaging across mobile, social, and web
• Up to 100 AI-powered automated answers
• Unified agent workspace
• 1,000+ custom and prebuilt apps and integrations

Zendesk Suite Professional: $99 (per agent, per month)

The benefits of Zendesk Suite Professional include the following:

• Advanced voice capabilities
• AI-powered knowledge management
• Chat routing (based on agent’s skill)
• Customizable (and shareable) dashboards
• Customizable ticket layouts
• Data location options
• Events connector for Amazon Web Services
• HIPAA compliance
• Integrated community forums
• Multilingual content and support
• Private conversation threads
• Service level agreement (SLA) management
• Up to 100 light access agreements

Zendesk Suite Enterprise: $150 (per agent, per month)

The benefits that come with signing up for this suite include the following:

• Advanced knowledge management
• Custom team roles and permissions
• Customizable agent workspaces
• Customizable branding for web conversations
• Live data and external dashboard sharing
• Robust APIs with enterprise rate limit
• Sandbox environment for change management
• Up to 1000 light access licenses

There’s also a custom Enterprise Suite that is billed at $215 per agent, per month and you’ll have to talk with the sales team to agree on a plan that works for your organization.

Zendesk additionally has plans for sales teams and they are as follows:

Zendesk Sell Team: $19 (per user, per month)

This gives your team the following benefits:

• Calendar integration
• Call tracking, recording, and chat messages
• Document storage at 2GB per user
• Email integration and tracking
• Offline mobile access
• Onboarding and adoption resources
• Pre-built dashboards
• Public apps and integrations
• Robust APIs
• Task and appointment setting
• Up to 2 customizable sales pipelines

Zendesk Sell Growth: $49 (per user, per month)

Here are some of the benefits of this package:

• Advanced activity reports
• Calendar integration
• Call tracking and recording, and text messages
• Custom sales reports and dashboards
• Document storage of up to 5GBper user
• Email integration with unlimited templates, tracking, and bulk emailing
• Offline mobile access
• Onboarding and adoption resources
• Pre-built sales dashboards
• Product and price book
• Public and private apps + integrations
• Robust core and premium APIs
• Sales forecasting and goal tracking
• Task and appointment setting
• Up to 10 customizable sales pipelines
• 25 prospecting credits per user, per month
• 1000 enrichment credits per user, per month

Zendesk Sell Professional: $99 (per user, per month)

Zendesk Sell Professional comes with the following benefits and more for sales teams:

• Advanced activity reports
• Advanced roles and permissions
• Calendar integration
• Call tracking, recording, and text messages
• Company hierarchy
• Custom sales reports and dashboards
• Document storage of up to 10GB per user
• Email integration with unlimited templates, tracking, and bulk emailing
• Lead and deal scoring
• Offline mobile access
• Onboarding and adoption resources
• Pre-built sales dashboards
• Product and price book
• Public and private apps + integrations
• Robust core and premium APIs
• Sales forecasting and goal tracking
• Task and appointment setting
• Task automation
• Up to 20 customizable pipelines
• 150 prospecting credits per user, per month
• 3500 enrichment credits per user, per month

Zendesk Support

Customers with inquiries can visit the Zendesk support page to find resources such as the guide and community forum to discuss community topics. To contact Zendesk, your options are to search the knowledge base, ask the community, or submit a ticket (assuming you are a paying customer).

Chaport

Best for eCommerce

Chaport is a modern solution for website chat for small business owners. It has a nice UI interface and is loaded with features. It allows users to communicate with their visitors in real time and change the chat agent if required very quickly.

Users can also share files and images using the chat window and also visitors can message the user even when they are offline. The user will get notified via email when a visitor leaves a message.

Chaport Features

Chat transfer

The user can choose to transfer the chat to another agent to answer a specific query. It is a very useful feature that can be used to make sure that the appropriate agent handles a specific query the right way.

Offline messaging

Visitors coming to your website can message you can even if you are offline, you would get notified and get back to the user immediately. This feature helps not to lose leads just because you were not online when someone visited your website.

File sharing

Chaport users can send files of different formats which helps in making the chat more interactive and allows visitors to share more information with the user. The chat agent also sees detailed information about the visitor that helps the agent provide a better service to the visitors.

Chaport users can send their target audience automatic chat invitations which help them get more conversions.

Multilingual chat

The multilingual chat widget allows visitors to see the messages in their local language. Even when the agent is typing in another language the message would be automatically translated to the language based on the visitor's location, resulting in more effective communication.

Pros of Chaport

• Offline messaging and multilingual chat are available
• Scheduling meetings and saving responses are possible
• No training is needed to use the Chaport

Cons of Chaport

• Instructions to install Chaport are confusing to some users
• Limited options like not being optimized for iPhone X
• The free account is not very functional

Chaport User Reviews

Here’s how software review sites are rating Chaport

Capterra – 4.8 out of 5, based on 50 ratings and reviews.

G2 – 4.7 out of 5, based on 17 ratings and reviews.

Chaport Pricing

There are three pricing plans that are offered by Chaport including a free live chat software option.

Chaport Free: $0/month

The features that are included in the Chaport Free plan are:

• Unlimited chats
• Unlimited websites
• Basic widget customization
• Web, desktop, and mobile apps

Chaport Pro: $19/month

The Chaport Pro plan includes the following features:

• Unlimited chat history
• Auto invitations
• Advanced widget optimization
• Pre-chat forms
• Detailed reports

Chaport Unlimited: $75/month

The Chaport Unlimited plan comes with the following features:

• Chatbots
• Knowledge base
• Custom fields
• Shared save replies
• Advanced reports

Chaport Support

Chaport offers support to its users through its help centers, blogs, API, integrations, and other alternatives. The help center contains detailed documentation about all the features and how-to guides you might need to read to use Chaport properly.

You can also contact their support using their live support option or you can email them your query.

Zoho SalesIQ

Best for SMBs

Zoho Chat, which is referred to as Zoho SalesIQ by Zoho, is an affordable live chat service that is a very good option for small business owners to build a conversational relationship platform without spending too much on technology. For a very affordable price, Zoho SalesIQ offers exclusive features for users that make it easier to convert your website visitors into leads.

Zoho Sales IQ is regarded as one of the best live chat software solutions available for its numerous features and easy integration with content management systems as well as its integrations with other Zoho products.

Zoho SalesIQ Features

Lead Scoring

Zoho provides lead scoring based on the amount of time spent on a website, the number of visits, traffic sources, and other useful data. With lead scoring, you can manage your resources to give more attention to users who have a higher chance of conversion.

Zero coding

You don't need to know coding to manage the Zoho chatbots. The UI interface is very easy to use and you can design the chat flow easily replacing the live chat agent for initial greeting and customer onboarding.

AI answer bots

The AI answer bots are created using NLP technology. The answer bots get smarter as the number of queries increases. It is connected to the knowledge base which helps it learn answers to common queries to provide the best live chat solutions at an affordable price.

Real-time chat translation

The chats can be translated into 28 languages in real-time making communication much easier with the global audience. It is easier to convert leads when chat agents are able to communicate with people worldwide in their local language.

Pros of Zoho SalesIQ

• AI answer bots and lead scoring is available
• Individual chats, group chats, and automation is available
• It is very easy to use and build custom chatbots
• Advanced routing of chats
• Internal system to set up KBs, canned responses, and much more

Cons of Zoho SalesIQ

• Limited options for custom coding
• Support takes a long time to respond
• Visitor records are restricted to only 1000

Zoho SalesIQ User Reviews

Here’s how software review sites are rating Zoho SalesIQ

Capterra – Not available

G2 – 4.4 out of 5, based on 234 ratings and reviews.

Zoho SalesIQ Pricing

Zoho Chat has 4 plans which include a free plan for life. Zoho offers Basic, Professional, and Enterprise to the Free option.

Zoho SalesIQ Free: $0/month

Three users can be added using this package, which is perfect for a small business. Users also get the following features:

• A single chat window
• File sharing
• 100 Chat sessions per month
• Canned replies
• Daily reports

Zoho SalesIQ Basic: $7/month

The Basic plan provides users with the following features:

• Email signature chat
• 1000 Chat sessions/month
• 1 Custom chatbot
• Chat routing
• Branding

Zoho SalesIQ Professional: $12.75/month

With the Professional plan you get the following features:

• Data and actions widgets
• 5 Custom chatbots
• Unlimted chat sessions
• Block IP
• Data and action widgets

Zoho SalesIQ Enterprise: contact sales

The Enterprise plan comes with the following features:

• Chat translation
• Engagement tracking
• Abusive content management
• 10 Custom bots
• Answer bots

To get the Zoho SalesIQ Enterprise plan, you need to contact their sales team.

Zoho SalesIQ Support

Zoho SalesIQ offers a knowledge base where users can get answers to common queries without having to wait. They also have resources like blogs, tutorial videos, ebooks, guides, and webinars to learn more about Zoho.

You can get instant support using their live chat option. Email and phone support are also available and if you're a customer, you can submit a support ticket.

HelpCrunch

Best for Marketing

HelpCrunch may be the best live chat software for marketing teams looking for a smart communication platform with which they can drive more sales by turning prospects into paying customers. HelpCrunch excels in helping acquire new prospects and nurture them to paying customers.

With lots of features that make it possible to automate emails, conduct incoming chats as well as track tickets, HelpCrunch is a rich toolbox with which a lot can be done.

HelpCrunch Features

Automated and manual marketing messages

With this feature, businesses can set up marketing campaign messages – automatically or manually. Users can craft personalized messages needed by their businesses and send them out regularly as required or display them directly on the website to keep visitors informed.

This is a feature with which brands personalize customer communication as well as their live chat services.

HelpCrunch knowledge base

The knowledge base is the platform’s information database which contains all the information users will need to be able to set up their HelpCrunch account.

Important functions such as customizing the live chat software so it fits the communication style of the business as well as its agents and bringing all conversations together under the same umbrella – and more – are all catered for in the HelpCrunch knowledge base.

Reports 

Businesses need to pay close attention to their customer communication, and by using HelpCrunch reports, they can react quickly to any changes detected in the customers’ behavior or the team’s communication.

HelpCrunch reports are important in providing better support to customers as well as making improvements in customer satisfaction.

Integrations

Integrations are important when it comes to using live chat on your website, and with HelpCrunch, there are a good number of third-party services that can easily be integrated with the platform.

These include Facebook Messenger, Slack, Telegram, Viber, and WhatsApp for messaging and communication services. Also, HelpCrunch can be integrated with CRM systems such as Salesforce and Zoho. In addition, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media apps can be used with this live chat software via integration. 

Businesses having the intention of expanding their reach as well as broadening their customer base should consider HelpCrunch as a possible solution. 

Pros of HelpCrunch

• Pre-chat and offline chat is available
• Multi-channel messaging is available
• Advanced chat widget integration
• Email marketing automation

Cons of HelpCrunch

• The live chat software does not come with a desktop app
• Reporting functionalities are basic
• Integrations are limited, overall
• Doesn’t come with 24/7 chat support

HelpCrunch User Reviews

Here’s how software review sites are rating HelpCrunch

Capterra – 4.8 out of 5, based on 176 ratings and reviews.

G2 – 4.7 out of 5, based on 171 ratings and reviews.

HelpCrunch Pricing

HelpCrunch has three pricing plans: Basic, Pro, and Enterprise.

HelpCrunch Basic: $12 (per member, per month)

This package comes with these benefits:

• Basic live chat automation
• Full customization
• HelpCrunch branding
• Help desk
• Knowledge base
• Live chat support
• 3 auto-messages
• 3 popups
• 1 widget

HelpCrunch Pro: $20 (per member, per month)

The Pro package from HelpCrunch comes with the following benefits and more:

• Advanced automation
• Advanced customization
• Help desk
• High-priority live chat support
• Knowledge base
• No HelpCrunch branding
• Unlimited auto-messages
• Unlimited popups
• 5 widgets

HelpCrunch Enterprise

The enterprise package of HelpCrunch comes with these benefits:

• Everything in Pro
• Personal onboarding assistant
• Unlimited emails
• Unlimited team members
• Unlimited widgets

Companies who want to subscribe to the Enterprise package will have to reach out to the HelpCrunch sales team for a customized setup.

HelpCrunch Support

Customers and inquirers can visit the HelpCrunch blog to find important info about the platform. Also, there are eBooks available onsite for users who want to learn more about the platform, its uses, as well as use cases.

Support can be reached via email as well as telephone; with phone numbers accessible from the website.

Acquire

Acquire is a multi-channel communication platform that enables customer care, sales, and support staff to reach out to and interact with clients in order to address issues they encounter, provide support, and convert prospects into paying clients.

In today's business world, customer satisfaction is key to success. Providing high-quality customer service typically translates into customer satisfaction, which translates into customer retention and repeat business.

Website visitors want to be attended to promptly by flexible and personable support staff – and with the live chat capabilities of this live chat software, sales and customer service agents have an ally in the live chat solution space.

Acquire Features

Analytics

Using insights from chat analytics, users learn better ways through which they can serve their customers. Also, the live monitoring board makes it possible for line managers or supervisors to monitor their team’s performance against set goals.

With analytics, metrics such as customer happiness, conversions, and other chat metrics such as average response and handle time can all be measured. Also, businesses that send messages out to clients can optimize test, and report on campaigns as well as measure performance by tracking click, open, and response rates to identify canned messages that have been the most successful with prospects as well as clients.

Live chat

The entire point of having website chatbots is to enable agents to communicate with website visitors instantly and in real-time. With Acquire’s services, the live chat tool automatically detects the customer’s language and based on that, translates the chat to enable the customer to converse in the language they understand and are comfortable with.

Also, the system is designed such that it can automatically distribute chat duties evenly among customer relation agents while assigning chat requests to relevant departments to prevent overburdening some agents while others are having a low-pressure day.

Video & voice call

For some instances of customer support, agents will need to be more involved than they would have with the live chat. For moments of that sort, agents will have to help customers through visual support and this is where Acquire’s audio and video call solution for customer support comes in handy.

This feature allows agents to initiate video chat and call sessions with iOS and Android apps and web users of one’s services right from the Acquire dashboard. Also, these conversations can be recorded for training and record-keeping purposes.

Chatbots

Of course, we cannot talk about website live chat software without mentioning chatbots as a feature of Acquire.

Using AI and machine learning, Acquire’s chatbots use smart responses to provide answers to customers’ basic inquiries – solving as much as 80% of such queries without having to fall on real-time human expertise. With chatbots taking care of basic queries, customer service agents are then left with providing solutions to the really complicated issues being encountered by the business’s clients.

Bots are upgraded or trained in the Bot Camp, where they use internal data in training for customer service chats. In situations where the bot encounters an inquiry that’s beyond its scope, the request gets routed to human representatives to provide advanced canned responses.

Co-browsing

The co-browsing feature is a browser-based solution that enables customer support agents to collaborate in real-time with the customer’s browser. While taking advantage of this feature, the customer service agent is able to view the customer’s browser window in order to identify the issue. This same solution can be used to guide clients during customer support or sales assistance.

Co-browsing takes real-time support up a notch as it has proven to be a solution that gives meaning to what an interactive end-to-end customer experience can be.

Acquire has three types of co-browsing methods and they are:

Contact-base co-browsing

Gives users unique identification codes with which they can initiate co-browse sessions from their dashboard.

On-chat co-browsing

With this co-browsing type – during live chat sessions – there is effective support in the form of visual engagement tools such as video chat.

On-phone co-browsing

With this variant of co-browsing, agents enter the caller’s details or request a unique PIN with which they get to instantly view a caller’s screen to verify where they are stuck in order to provide help.

Integrations

Integrations are important in the modern age of business and Acquire makes it possible to integrate the live chat software with over 40 apps and tools including Facebook, Freshdesk, Google Analytics, and Magneto. Others are Salesforce, Mailchimp, Shopify, Telegram, and Twitter – with Viber, WeChat, WhatsApp, Zapier, and Zoho Desk completing the line-up of apps and other tools. 

Although Acquire functions well with WordPress, the platform does not have a live chat plugin for the popular CRM.

Pros of Acquire

• It is very easy to use and integrate with websites
• Features like chatbots, live chat, and profile management are available
• Video and voice calls are also available
• It is easy to use for both the customers and live chat agents

Cons of Acquire

• Does not have a live chat plugin for WordPress
• Doesn't reveal pricing on the website

Acquire User Reviews

Here’s how software review sites are rating Acquire

Capterra gave it 5.0 out of 5, based on 20 ratings and reviews.

G2 gave it 4.2 out of 5, based on 41 ratings and reviews.

Acquire Pricing

Acquire has three pricing plans: Starter, Commercial, and Enterprise. Unlike the other live chat software in this list that shows pricing information, Acquire requires prospective customers to contact sales.

Here are the packages and some of the benefits for the user.

Acquire Starter: contact sales

The Starter package is for companies whose existing workflow is simple, as well as those just starting out with digital customer engagement. Acquire Starter includes these benefits and more for the user:

• Acquire Academy
• General support
• Out-of-the-box features
• Pre-built integrations

Acquire Commercial: contact sales

The Commercial package is suitable for mid-sized companies that are looking to add to their interactive existing workflows with a new system. Benefits for the user include the following and more:

• Annual reviews
• API access
• Conversational bot
• CSM onboarding
• Custom attributes
• Custom reports
• Custom roles and skills
• General support
• SLAs

Acquire Enterprise: contact sales

The Enterprise package is designed for large companies whose security and vendor requirements are rigid. The benefits for the user include:

• Audit logs
• Contract terms
• Data deletion
• Dedicated CSM
• “Enterprise” support
• Quarterly reviews
• Specified server
• SSO and 2-factor authentication
• Technical contact

Acquire Support

Acquire’s help center is rich in valuable material and has enough resources for the user to get familiar with the live chat widgets. Users can go on the self-taught journey by accessing the help docs to teach themselves about the Acquire platform.

There’s a library with ebooks, guides, fact sheets, and more. Users can access the webinars and events page to familiarize themselves with expert ideas, tips, and know-how among many others.

Support requests can be via chat, email, or a support ticket entry via form submission. They have offices in the U.S., U.K., and India.

HubSpot Chatbot

If you are a marketer looking for live chat companies that help your marketing and sales team close deals and convert more leads while at the same time building better relationships with your customers by providing stellar online support then, HubSpot Chatbot is one of the best live chat software to have on your shortlist.

HubSpot's platform makes it possible for users to automate customer support requests as well as send auto emails or canned responses to trigger events. Live agent support is also an option and allows for multiple agents and routing.

With HubSpot's live chat software, users get to send notifications, automate customer support requests, add contacts, create leads, and more. And users can set up trigger events to save time by making HubSpot automatically send emails or text messages whenever these events are triggered.

HubSpot Chatbot Features

Chatbot builder

The HubSpot chatbot builder is an easy-to-use live chat feature integrated into the live chat support software. This is connected to the CRM, which enables the bot to assist in booking meetings, generating leads, and providing answers to users' questions.

The bot can learn the information on record regarding your contacts and based on that, be able to deliver canned responses – freeing your team to focus on the conversations that matter and that need extra human attention.

Chat console

The console is a minimalistic chat widget that was designed to be simple and easy to use. There are customization options with which you can change its look to fit that of your brand if the stock template does not work for you.

Offline mode

Response staff may not always be available at all hours of the day, which is why you get to either design a bot from scratch or use the Offline Bot template to build one that serves the purpose.

With the bot you built, you can create a Chatflow to route the site’s visitors to the customer service team members available during working hours, and also the chatbot after business hours. This will ensure that site visitors receive unlimited virtual support.

Conversations Inbox

This live chat feature is convenient for customer service, marketing, and sales teams as it provides them with a universal inbox from which they can view, manage, and reply to all conversations from live chat, bots, or team email aliases.

Here, the options available to users are dependent on the subscription – as some packages allow users to create multiple inboxes for various teams.

Pros of HubSpot Chatbot

• Easy-to-use chat interface
• Offline chat and chatbot builder is available
• A live chat feature is available

Cons of HubSpot Chatbot

• Users find customer support to be difficult at times
• Mobile app has been reported to be not-so-friendly
• The price of HubSpot as a whole makes the chat tool's use less desirable

HubSpot Chatbot User Reviews

Here’s how software review sites are rating HubSpot

Capterra gave it 4.5 out of 5, based on 5,033 ratings and reviews. (Note: Reviews are for HubSpot Marketing Hub)

G2 gave it 4.4 out of 5, based on 8,860 ratings and reviews. (Note: Reviews are for HubSpot Marketing Hub)

HubSpot Pricing

HubSpot Chatbox is a free live chat tool that comes as an add-on with HubSpot’s other sales and marketing software; Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, and Service Hub. Users who have no HubSpot subscription can simply install HubSpot’s WordPress live chat plugin or they can manually add the chat service code to the page that should have the chat widget.

HubSpot Marketing Hub Starter: $45/month

HubSpot Marketing Hub has three plans and you get live chat for free even with their most basic plan. Other exciting features you get with this plan are:

• Form automation
• Email automation
• Landing pages
• Email marketing
• Forums

HubSpot Sales Hub Starter: $45/month

HubSpot Sales Hub has 3 sales plans, Starter, Professional, and Enterprise. With the Starter plan, you get live chat along with other features like:

• Meeting scheduling
• Documents management
• Payment
• Task management
• Goal setting

HubSpot Service Hub Starter: $45/month

With the Starter plan of Service Hub, you get live chat and additional features like:

• Shared inbox
• Mobile inbox
• Team email
• Ticket pipelines
• Slack integration

HubSpot CMS Hub Starter: $23/month

Like other HubSpot plans, the CMS Hub also offers 3 plans based on our needs. The Starter plan includes live chat with other features like:

• Premium hosting
• Content delivery network
• Standard SLL certificate
• Website themes
• Drag-and-drop editor

HubSpot Support

Depending on the plan a user subscribes to, HubSpot support options will vary. For users on a free plan, access to the HubSpot community is all they get. Starter packages come with email and chat support. Professional and Enterprise subscribers get phone support in addition to email and chat.

HubSpot’s help center – which includes resources like the customer blog, knowledge base, and live chat demo videos – is accessible to all members.

Smith.ai

This is an AI-powered virtual receptionist service and chatbot which can be configured by the user to carry out customer service functions such as answering questions, collecting information, and screening leads. Smith.ai provides a free plan for chat if you use their Receptionist plan.

If you’re looking for a live chat solution that offers excellent real-time translation from English to Spanish, provides transcripts of chats, and enables you to support customers on live chat 24/7, while making it possible to schedule appointments and callbacks then, Smith.ai is the best live chat support software you might want to be considering.

Smith.ai Features

AI technology

From the language-translation capabilities to qualification playbooks, agents use Smith.ai’s proprietary live chat technology in assisting clients with efficiency as well as exceptional customer care. The AI Chatbot as stated earlier, for example, is able to screen leads, as well as answer queries, and collect information. AI carries out a lot of functions in this live chat platform that many refer to as a virtual receptionist.

Integrations

The Smith.ai live chat seamlessly integrates with Acuity Scheduling, Agile CRM, Calendly, Capsule CRM, Clio, and other third-party software and applications such as HubSpot, PracticePanther, Salesforce, Slack, Zapier, and more.

Live agents

Smith.ai has friendly and professional live agents ready to qualify leads and answer questions for your business throughout the day. With many years of service and experience under their belts, it is safe to say your business will be in good hands when it comes to working with the Smith.AI agents.

Real-time translation

By leveraging Neural Network AI, this live chat provider is able to instantly translate the chats written in Spanish in case the agent (or receptionist in Smith AI language) is not bilingual. Here, the AI translates the receptionist’s English chats into Spanish to benefit the Spanish-speaking web visitors – helping to bring some fluency to chat conversations.

It is important to know here that although Smith.ai has Spanish-speaking receptionists, not every receptionist is bilingual.

Facebook Messenger

Depending on what a user prefers or has consented to, the live agents from Smith.AI can answer Facebook messages on behalf of the business. This is done by following the client’s custom instructions for handling new leads as well as current clients – with Facebook Messenger being a free addition to the user’s live chat plan.

Custom-built knowledge base and Q&A

Users can have a knowledge base built to make answers to common questions accessible to the live agents (or receptionists) as well as the full-time chatbot

SMS and text answering

Aside from responding to site visitors’ queries via web chat, live agents can also answer text messages sent to a client’s business. This again is done with the client’s consent and is carried out by following their custom instructions for capturing, screening, and scheduling new leads.

SMS text answering can be added to the client’s Live Chat free plan.

Pros of Smith.ai

• Virtual assistants, live chat, and transfers are available
• Calls can be handed over to humans from bots
• Offline form and multi-channel communication are offered

Cons of Smith.ai

• Users cannot have their own customer agents running the chat box. The show is run by Smith.ai’s remote receptionists and bots
• Calls cannot be recorded either by the client or at Smith.ai’s end. This can be inconvenient for users who would like such recordings for quality and training purposes

Smith.ai User Reviews

Here’s how software review sites are rating Smith.ai

Capterra – 4.9 out of 5, based on 27 ratings and reviews.

G2 – 4.9 out of 5, based on 19 ratings and reviews.

Smith.ai Pricing

Smith.ai has four pricing plans: Starter, Basic, Pro, and Custom.

• Smith.ai Starter: $140 (per month, 20 live chats)
• Smith.ai Basic: $300 (per month, 50 live chats)
• Smith.ai Pro: $600 (per month, 120 live chats)

Organizations wanting to sign up for Smith.ai’s Custom package have to contact the sales team in order to have an assessment and custom quote prepared for their business.

Smith.ai Support

Customers and curious inquirers can visit the Smith.ai blog to find valuable resources. Also, there’s documentation on getting started with Smith.ai as well as resources for support and training. Support can be reached via email, chat, and phone.

Pure Chat

The interface of Pure Chat is very simple and easy for anyone to use. The live chat software is packed with advanced features like real-time analysis, automation, offline mode, and team management which makes it very easy to manage different communication channels.

With affordable pricing plans and an extensive support team, small businesses can use the software to capture leads and get higher conversions using their extensive insights.

Pure Chat Features

Integrations

Pure Chat lets you integrate with powerful tools like Google Analytics, Zapier, Jira, Freshdesk, Zoho, and many more. In total it is possible to integrate that platform with over 1000 apps which include Slack, Hubspot, Infusion soft, MailChimp, and other apps.

Simple Interface

It is very easy to set up and the software is reported to be very intuitive by past users. It is very simple to set up workflows and add widgets to get the most out of the software. You can control everything from the central dashboard.

On the left, you get data and incoming chat alerts. Features like visitor tracking and canned responses can also be accessed for unlimited sites to create a positive live chat experience very easily within this software.

Automation

You can set up chatbots to appear after the users have taken a particular action or spent a fixed amount of time on the website. This feature helps reduce cart abandonment and helps confused users navigate the website easily.

Analytics

You get access to unlimited chat history with this software. With this live chat support software, you get important analytics like keyword sorting, chat duration, response time, customer ratings, and other useful information to qualify leads that are more likely to convert.

Pros of Pure Chat

• Very affordable pricing
• Instant notifications, offline chats, and personal chat pages
• Customization is available for the chat box.

Cons of Pure Chat

• No free trial or free plan is available
• No premium consulting service is available
• Customization is very limited
• Many users complained of the software getting disconnected often

Pure Chat User Reviews

Overall Trustpilot Rating – 2.8 out of 5, based on 3 ratings and reviews.

Here’s how software review sites are rating Pure Chat

Capterra – 4.6 out of 5, based on 320 ratings and reviews.

G2 – 4.3 out of 5, based on 204 ratings and reviews.

Pure Chat Pricing

There are a total of three pricing plan options; Free, Growth, and Pro.

Pure Chat Free: $0/month

With the Free plan you get features like:

• Unlimited chats
• 3 users
• 1 website integration

Pure Chat Growth: $39/month

With the Growth plan, features included are:

• 1 website
• 4 users
• Unlimited chats
• 100 SMS notification
• Engagement hub
• File transfer

Pure Chat Pro: $79/month

With the Pro plan, users get features like:

• Unlimited websites
• 10 users
• Unlimited chats
• 1000 SMS notifications
• Remove branding

Pure Chat Support

Live chat support is offered and they respond within seconds to any user queries. You can also leave them an email or open a ticket for the support team to get back to you. It is also possible to contact their team via phone support.

Features of the Best Live Chat Software

While you may not find, or even expect live chat software solutions to have all the features you want, there are some essential features or qualities that one should expect to find in any live chat software vying for their consideration. The best live chat software shares the following features and functionality.

Analytical data

One of the benefits of having AI-powered live chat software is the valuable insights it provides the user – presented in simple visual formats by the AI-driven analytical dashboard – for easy consumption and understanding.

Having a good conversational live chat tool on your website gives you access to important metrics such as agent status, bot-to-human percentage, CSAT, hourly customer demand, KPIs tied to departments, and team capacity, among others.

With such metrics, the business or website owner can gauge the performance of their support team against that of the live chat widget – using the latter in identifying key factors contributing to reduced efficiency on your website to improve the on-site customer experience as well as refine the product you have on sale.

There are many things the analytics dashboard enables the business or website manager to know on-demand – and it is important in effectively managing and maintaining live chat software. With this, the user can identify the bottlenecks stalling workflow and leaving customers with issues, so they can be optimized to correct the issue.

Real-time monitoring

Real-time data delivery is important, and for chat software, it's considered a top feature. Real-time monitoring enables the user to oversee customer conversations just as they are happening – which can come in useful when there’s a need for proactive strategic decisions to be taken.

This feature also allows for the optimal delegation of tasks to live agents – helping track agent ability as well as their chat statuses to keep the support cycle in motion and encourage productivity among agents.

Beyond live chat conversations, real-time monitoring can come in handy when there’s a need for visitor tracking within the user’s account in real-time.

Team management

Across industries, team management is critical for success. Improving your agent capabilities and providing ample team support can ensure better customer engagement and interaction.

With insight from an AI-powered chat widget, support tickets can be routed to the appropriate department to resolve issues beyond the scope of the chatbot. Difficult queries can also be routed to live agents who are skilled and have the required expertise to satisfy customers with the right solution.

Omnichannel support

Brands need to find ways to serve clients on their platform of choice. People have different and genuine reasons for their preferences and to ensure that no loss of information, it is important to make use of a live chat widget that has omnichannel capabilities.

Having omnichannel support allows agents to provide customer support on communication channels meaningful to the user. A live chat widget on mobile apps is also beneficial to ensure customers are met where they shop.

Also, with most mobile apps and live chat tools being hosted in the cloud, there’s always the possibility of a system being offline for some time. The presence of omnichannel support ensures there’s a smooth transition of data between platforms even in periods of downtime.

Unified customer view

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where a change in customer service agents meant the loss of your initial inquiry and you have to start all over again? The unified customer view helps avoid this.

With this feature, all of the previous customer interactions with the system (whether live chat support or chatbot) are stored on a single and easy-to-access interface; making it possible for customer relations agents to pick up a conversation with the client from where the live chat widget left off.

The unified customer view ensures that communication between customers and agents is simple, personalized, and quick – ensuring that communication between both parties is effective.

With a unified customer view dashboard, users get an extensive overview of customer profiles – including contact information and historical chat data. The data can be used in personalizing conversations and providing relevant resolutions to solve problems, as well as for personalizing outbound campaigns. 

Best Live Chat Software Wrap Up

The best live chat software is going to look different from one user to another. Each business type has distinct needs and applications; any chat solution needs to align with these. Some organizations are simply looking for a simple live chat widget, while others are looking for the live chat window to be a gateway to more sophisticated customer support software.

The evaluation of options is critical to ensure you select the appropriate solution. Regardless of what others may say, live chat platforms are not all created equal. Take time to go through free trials, demos and leverage review sites to find out what people say about the best live chat software options.

Live chat solutions are incredibly useful, but only if they meet your business needs. Your reasons for implementing live chat should be clear before you move forward in your search.