ChatBots

Combining the best live chat software with chatbots has proven to be one of the most effective ways to increase revenue, generate leads, and offer real-time support.

• Live chat increases conversions on your website by 45%.
• Website engagement gets a 3x boost when a chatbot is present.
• Consumers are 63% more likely to return to a website that has web chat.

Chatbots are fantastic pieces of software programmed by humans to automate certain business practices and offer help to customers. But they can’t do everything. Most importantly, they can’t be human.

And some scenarios simply call for real live human support. That’s where live chat integration comes in -- when a situation is too complex, too specific, or simply calls for a human hand adding a bit of personalization to the chat.

Live chat integration involves integrating your chatbot solution with the option to offer live chat support from a human operator. This can be when the chatbot reaches the extent of its functionality, when the customer simply wants to speak with a human, or when the user is flagged as a hot lead and needs a personal touch in order to more successfully convert.

Table of Contents

What are the benefits of using live chat software?
#1. Best Live Chat Software: MobileMonkey
#2. Best Live Chat Software: Gobot
#3. Best Live Chat Software: PureChat
#4. Best Live Chat Software: Bold360
#5. Best Live Chat Software: WP-Chatbot
#6. Best Live Chat Software Tidio
#7. Best Live Chat Software: Smartsupp
#8. Best Live Chat Software: ChattyPeople
#9. Best Live Chat Software: Userlike
#10. Best Live Chat Software: Chatra.io
#11. Best Live Chat Software: Chaport
#12. Best Live Chat Software: SnapEngage
#13. Best Live Chat Software: Acquire
#14. Best Live Chat Software: Kayako
#15. Best Live Chat Software: Freshchat
#16. Best Live Chat Software: Drift
#17. Best Live Chat Software: Helpcrunch
#18. Best Live Chat Software: LiveChat
#19. Best Live Chat Software: Zendesk Chat
#20. Best Live Chat Software: ClickDesk
#21. Best Live Chat Software: Intercom
#22. Best Live Chat Software: Formilla
#23. Best Live Chat Software: Olark
How to choose the best live chat software for your business

#1. Best Live Chat Software: MobileMonkey

MobileMonkey is an all-in-one chatbot platform that supports web chat, live chat, SMS and Facebook Messenger bots, and omnichannel marketing. The platform is rare in that it has very suitable solutions for both small business and enterprise-level clients, as well as both marketing and customer support teams.

• Multi-channel chatbot platform on web and mobile app
• Advanced live team features
• Native web chat, Facebook Messenger, and SMS marketing tools
• Visual-flow chatbot builder and editor
• Chatbot templates
• Multilingual
• Zapier and other integrations
• Always mobile-friendly
• AI bots route requests and automate repetitive FAQs
• Custom live chat handoff triggers
• Analytics and reporting

• Extensive suite of chatbot tools and automation.
• Mobile chat app with advanced support features.
• Surprisingly easy to use for such a robust platform.
• Chatbot builder and workflows.
• Works across many channels (SMS, web chat, Messenger) and unifies all conversations in one inbox.
• Unlimited contacts and leads on all plans.
• Huge user community.
• Live bot to human handoff triggers for web and mobile inboxes.
• Mobile chat app with advanced support features.

• Frequently updating user interface due to new features.

MobileMonkey Pricing: You can get started building bots with a non-expiring version of MobileMonkey for free. If you need advanced automation and integrations, pricing then starts at $14.25/mo, and goes up to $299/mo.

#3. Best Live Chat Software: PureChat

PureChat is a quick and easy way to get live chat and a chatbot up and running on your website. Although PureChat isn’t a robust platform, they do live chat well, and allow for you to bolt on many of the other tools in your tech stack.

• Live chat and chatbot
• Store live chat transcripts
• JavaScript API
• SMS notifications
• Realtime analytics

• Platform is intuitive and simple to use. The chat window isn’t obtrusive and it can be customized on the free plan.
• PureChat is big on calling themselves a “free live chat software,” but that’s mostly just to get clicks. However, the Free plan is rather generous with up to 3 operators that can use the platform for free.
• Good integrations with social media, ecommerce services, Shopify, Etsy, Zapier and others.

• Their chatbot is not top quality and you’re not getting an AI/machine learning powered bot with PureChat. If you have the money to spend, find something more powerful.
• If you’re looking for an “all-in-one” chatbot platform, PureChat isn’t for you. However, if you want a cheap and easy to use live chat tool that you can bolt all your other tools onto, this is a solid choice.
• Many of the best features are only available on PureChat’s paid for plans.

PureChat Pricing: PureChat has one of the better free plans out there with up to 3 users for no charge. Once you have 4 users, pricing starts at $39 per month with an additional $13 per month for additional users up to 9 total users. When you hit 10 users, pricing goes to $79 per month with an additional $8 per month for each additional user.

#5. Best Live Chat Software: WP-Chatbot

WP Chatbot is probably the best WordPress chatbot on the market, which is why it comes in at #3 on the list. It’s a quick and easy way to get a sophisticated web chat app onto any WordPress site.

• One-click-install for WordPress
• Custom greeting messages
• Add Messenger customer chat in web applications
• Multiple languages supported
• Traditional live chat and robust chatbot builder

• Super easy to install.
• Team-friendly inbox for your marketing, sales and support teams
• Full integration with MobileMonkey
• Complete chat history and contacts storage
• Detailed positioning, customization and branding

• Requires Facebook Messenger

WP-Chatbot Pricing: WP-Chatbot is free to get started. If you want the enhanced website chat widget for WordPress, pricing starts at $48/year total.

#7. Best Live Chat Software: Smartsupp

Smartsupp chat is an easy to use tool, built for smaller companies, that enables you to engage in personal conversations with your customers on your website or online store.

• Live chat for your website and ecommerce
• Web dashboard with visitor information
• Smartsupp mobile app for iOS and Android
• Rule based automatic messaging
• Google Analytics integration
• Ecommerce integrations
• Chat history

• One of only a few chat apps that offers video recordings where you see the movement of each visitor on your website. This gives your live agents a better understanding of customer behavior, and lets your identify bottlenecks in your website.
• Easy to integrate with all major ecommerce platforms including Shopify and Magento.

• Limited number of features outside of their one differentiating feature - video recordings.
• Lacks ability for prospects to have the agent call them directly or browse alongside them.
• Customization is limited.

Smartsupp Pricing: Smartsupp has three plans, including a free plan for up to 3 agents. The Standard plan is $10/mo per agent, and the Pro plan is $19/mo per agent.

#9: Best Live Chat Software: Userlike

Userlike is an interesting platform with some unique features that make a lot of sense for live chat and customer support teams.

• Live chat
• Website chat
• Facebook Messenger, Telegram and WhatsApp integrations
• Chatbots
• Customer messaging
• Bot to human handoff
• Ticket creating by bots
• Integrations and API

• Operator groups allow the visitor to select which department they want to talk to with a click.
• Operator skills allow your visitors to be connected to the support rep best qualified to answer their question. All you have to do is add relevant skill categories and assign them to the reps that have those skills.
• Userlike’s internal chat logic favors the build-up of relationships between customers and agents. If a visitor has chatted with one of your agents in the past, they will be more likely to be assigned to that visitor.

• Pricing is a bit high for what the platform offers, but if you like their unique features, this is a great choice for you and your team.

Userlike Pricing: Userlike has a free plan for 1 user. After that, there are four pricing tiers that start at $29/mo, and go up to $299/mo for up to 10 users. If you need more than 10 users, you’ll need to contact Userlike for pricing.

#11. Best Live Chat Software: Chaport

Chaport is a live chat widget that you can place on your website to answer visitor and customer questions.

• Live chat
• File sending
• Saved replies and chat history
• Detailed visitor information
• Multilingual chat widget
• Auto-invitations
• Group chats
• Zapier integration
• Reports
• JavaScript and REST APIs

• Typing insights allow you to read visitor messages even before they are sent or deleted. If you have live agents monitoring this, they’ll have a much better idea of what the person is really thinking, as most people who use a chat window assume operators can only see what is sent.
• Lots of live chat features at a low cost.

• Very limited or non-existent chatbot automation, AI/machine learning, NLP.
• Although a Zapier integration is nice, there are no native integrations available.

Chaport Pricing: Chaport has a free version for 1 user, which isn’t very useful, but at least you’ll get to see what you think of the tool. After that, pricing is very simple: $9.80 per user / per month.

#13. Best Live Chat Software: Acquire.io

Acquire helps support teams solve customer issues quickly and easily chatbots and automation. They refer to themselves as an all-in-one customer service platform. Acquire is designed to streamline customer conversations for sales, support and onboarding.

• Unified agent view
• Live chat and chatbot automation
• Route chats to sales team
• Integrations with 40+ applications
• Sales, support, and onboarding tools
• Analytics
• Video and voice calls
• Web and in-app controls

• In addition to live chat, Acquire also has profile management, user records, as well as video and voice call functionality for conversations that require escalation.
• Recently, Acquire has added many more integrations, making the platform much more scalable and useful to a wider range of users.

• Many reviews find Acquire to be expensive and have less features when compared to the competition.

Acquire Pricing: Book a demo meeting with Acquire in order to obtain pricing details.

#15. Best Live Chat Software: Freshchat

Freshchat is an omnichannel, AI-driven, self-service chatbot solution for customer service that has solutions for both small business and enterprise clients.

• Email and chat support solutions
• Omnichannel, AI & self-service
• SLA management and custom ticket status
• Canned responses
• Dashboard comes with event timeline, user info and social profiles
• Reporting and analytics
• (New) Automate acquisitions with sales and support bots

• Streamline customer conversations in one place.
• Automate your repetitive work and save time.
• Good team collaboration with Team Huddle, Shared Ownership, Linked Tickets, and Parent-child Ticketing features.

• Hard to transfer chats and poor timely notifications have been reported as issues. One user reported a 10 second lag time from trying to start a chat with a visitor, to the chat box actually appearing in front of the visitor.
• Analytics dashboard can become unreliable without proper maintenance.
• Freshchat is apparently not of the same quality as Freshworks other tools, such as Freshdesk.

Freshchat Pricing: Freshdesk has five pricing tiers, starting with a free plan. The free plan is enough to get an idea of what the platform looks like, but it won’t provide you with enough power for a sales or support team. After the free plan, pricing starts at $15 per agent / per month (e.g. 2 agents = $30/mo), and then goes up to $109 per agent / per month, which is their Enterprise level pricing. Features needed is what will move you and your team into higher pricing tiers.

#17. Best Live Chat Software: Helpcrunch

Helpcrunch is a multi-language live chat tool that has intriguing marketing automation features, but does not yet have bots and bot automation. However, bots are soon to come, so we’ve added this to the list, as they have a promising future that’s worth taking note of.

• Build chatbot with visual flow builder and editor
• Live chat
• Email marketing
• Knowledge base
• Mobile aps & SDK
• Auto messages
• Help desk
• Pop-ups
• Integrations

• Automation for customer segmentation and email.
• Ability to offer live chat in different languages.
• Easy to use and get started, yet has a backend with many options and features.

• Still no chatbot or chatbot automation available (coming soon)
• No real-time view of current site visitors
• No integration with Facebook or other major social platforms

Helpcrunch Pricing: Unlimited contacts on all plans. Plans start at $15/mo per team member for 1 chat widget, and $25/mo per team member for 5. Must speak with them for Enterprise accounts.

#19. Best Live Chat Software: Zendesk Chat

Zendesk is a help desk software that uses live chat as a communication feature.

• Organize customer requests into tickets
• Prioritizing tickets
• Team cooperation
• Set up predefined responses to queries
• Mobile application
• Track chat volume

• Good live visitor tracking
• Lots of useful triggers
• Affordable pricing
• Monitor data in real-time
• Track operator productivity

• Too advanced if you’re looking for a simple live chat app
• Not a native WordPress plugin
• Limited features in the free version
• Extremely expensive

Zendesk Chat Pricing: Zendesk Chat has a free trial, after that the platform can become quite expensive, but starts at $14/mo per user (just for the chat feature), and then quickly goes up to $199/mo per user and beyond.

#21. Best Live Chat Software: Intercom

Intercom is a live chat and automation platform that you can use to identify and qualify leads, provide real-time prospect and customer support, and build custom chatbots.

• Native mobile applications
• Conversation performance and analytics
• Automated messaging
• Store data about visitors
• Integration with other business systems

• Robust platform
• Supports bots and live chat
• Options to create custom chatbots

• Limited to your website only
• Custom chatbots are very expensive (additional $500/mo)
• Non-flexible pricing model
• Customer support is only through chat - frustrating for such an expensive platform

Intercom Pricing: Pricing is complicated with Intercom. There are a-la-carte products available, however, you almost always need multiple products to achieve your business goals. To have all the features listed here, and to qualify Intercom in the web chat apps category, you’re looking at at least $1,000/mo or more just to get started.

#23. Best Live Chat Software: Olark

Olark is slightly different than other platforms and tools on this live chat software list. Olark is a live chat plugins and integrations platform for Salesforce, WordPress, CRMs, help desks, Slack, ecommerce sites, and more.

• Live chat
• Real time reporting
• Automated messaging
• Team management tools
• Live chat reports and analytics
• Chat transfers and routing
• Auto greeter
• Visitor details

• Ease of use, real-time reporting, automated messages, and simple team management tools.
• Highly customizable to fit your live chat needs.
• All live chat transcript on the platform are searchable.
• “PowerUps” allow you to pay only for the features you need each month.

• Integrations aren’t very well developed. However, there are a lot of them.
• Limited automation features, but not completely bare bones.
• Chatbot is not “smart”, meaning it’s not using any AI/machine learning, and automation of the bot is very limited.

Olark Pricing: Pricing for Olark is very straightforward. It’s $19 per agent / per month.