25 Top LiveChat Alternatives with Cutting-Edge Chat Functions

Do not index

Today’s shoppers demand fast responses to their questions and will take their business elsewhere if they don’t get prompt answers. While managing a few inquiries is easy, what happens when the volume increases? At that point, businesses need a better solution for handling customer communications. Live chat tools like LiveChat help manage real-time interactions on websites, but what if there’s a more cost-effective option with even better features? This article explores the top LiveChat alternatives and teaches you how to add a chatbot to a website.

One standout alternative is ChatBee.ai, which offers AI customer support to automate responses. With ChatBee.ai, you can integrate a customizable chat tool into your website to answer common questions. This reduces inquiry volume and allows your team to focus on more complex issues.

What Is LiveChat?

LiveChat is a popular customer support tool that offers an automated omnichannel platform to connect with customers instantly. Its colorful eye-catcher helps draw your visitor’s attention to your chat window.

Why Do Businesses Use LiveChat?

With LiveChat, you get access to the following features:

Automated greetings

Ticket tagging

Automated follow-ups to streamline support processes hassle-free

The tool offers a message sneak-peek functionality that lets your agents see what website customers are typing in real time. Its interactive reports provide insightful data on the number of chats resolved and visitor satisfaction rate at your fingertips. The tool lets you integrate with over 200 applications, such as:

HubSpot

Calendly

Salesforce

Exploring the Key LiveChat Features that Drive Customer Satisfaction

Here are some of the significant features of LiveChat:

Canned Responses: LiveChat lets you save frequently used responses as a shortcut. You can then use these responses to reply to commonly asked questions quickly and easily.

Widget customization: You can customize the live chat widget to suit your branding. Setting it up will be a breeze, taking about a minute.

Daily summary: Extract a daily summary of agents’ activities to understand better how well they converse with customers.

Staffing prediction: Assess the optimal number of agents to handle all customer chats efficiently.

Third-party integrations: Seamlessly integrate with popular third-party CRM, help desk, and e-commerce applications.

AI Chatbot Features

Chatbot for Lead Generation

How Can Chatbots Improve Customer Service

Using Chatbot for Sales

Chatbot Best Practices

Conversational AI Challenges

What Are The Benefits of Using AI Chatbots

Chatbots and Conversational Marketing

6 Reasons to Choose a LiveChat Alternative

1. Pricing

The pricing structure of LiveChat can be a barrier, particularly for small to medium-sized businesses or startups operating on tight budgets. The basic starter plan costs $20 per agent per month. While this plan offers basic reporting and chat customization options, businesses often need to upgrade to higher tiers to access features that meet their needs. By contrast, many LiveChat alternatives offer more affordable starting plans, such as Hiver, which costs $19 per agent per month and includes a live chat tool and other essential help desk features such as:

Automation

Multi-channel support

Analytics

Templates

And more

2. Learning Curve

LiveChat’s interface and features aren’t very intuitive, which can lead to a steep learning curve. Businesses may have to invest additional time and resources to train customer support agents to use the software efficiently.

The basic plan does not offer product training, so teams may have to figure it out independently. This can only hinder your support team's efficiency and productivity once they learn to use the tool effectively.

3. Limited Customization Options

While LiveChat offers a range of features, it may lack customization options. For instance, users must upgrade to premium plans to customize chat buttons according to their company’s branding. Also, users can remove LiveChat’s brand logo from their chat widget only with the enterprise package, which can be pretty expensive. This lack of customization could limit providing a unique and branded customer experience.

4. Software Lagging Issues

Having a chat tool that lags can be frustrating. Unfortunately, as many users have noted, this is a common problem with LiveChat. Sometimes, LiveChat gets stuck in a loop while trying to connect. Users have also found a noticeable delay during conversations. This can upset customers because they have to wait longer for responses.

5. Integration Requirements

Businesses relying on specific software or services may need more than LiveChat integrations. Alternatives with broader or multiple integrations can simplify workflows.

6. Complexity

Businesses may opt for alternatives to LiveChat due to its challenging user interface, which could delay implementation and require additional training for customer support agents.

Boost Operational Efficiency with AI-Powered Customer Support

ChatBees optimizes Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) for internal operations such as:

Customer support

Employee support

With our AI customer support software, you’ll benefit from:

Highly accurate responses

Seamless integration into workflows with low-code/no-code capabilities

An agentic framework that automatically selects the best strategy to enhance response quality

Improved predictability and accuracy, enabling teams to manage a higher volume of queries

Zero DevOps is required for deployment and maintenance

Supercharge your customer support with AI! Try ChatBees' AI customer support software to elevate your operations today!

Drift Alternatives

Intercom Alternatives

Cost of Chatbot

Chatbot Evaluation Metrics

Glean Competitors

Chatbot Customer Journey

Best Chatbot Software

Rule Based Chatbots

Enterprise Chatbot Solutions

How To Train An AI Chatbot With Custom Knowledge Base

Zendesk Alternatives

Add Chatbot to Website

Tidio Alternative

Qualified Chatbot

Tidio Alternative

The Criteria for Choosing LiveChat Alternatives

Multichannel Support: The Key to Reaching Customers on Their Own Terms

Your customers use various channels to communicate. The best LiveChat alternatives let you interact with your customers on multiple platforms, such as messaging apps like:

Social media

This way, you can reach customers on their preferred channel, providing a more convenient experience that can boost customer satisfaction and retention.

Integrating With Other Tools: Seamless Workflows Save You Time and Money

If you already have marketing tools, CRM systems, and other software, you want your Livechat alternative to integrate for a seamless workflow. This will help you track key metrics for your live chat solution. You can save time by automatically transferring data to your existing systems instead of manually exporting and importing files. These integrations will allow you to utilize your live chat data better to improve customer service.

Pricing Flexibility: Find a Plan That Fits Your Budget

Your live chat solution must have flexible and transparent pricing plans to fit your needs now and in the future. As you start using the software, you might need additional features or functions, and you don’t want to have to switch to a different solution to get them. Instead, look for a live chat alternative with scalable pricing to accommodate your growth.

Scalability: Prepare for Growth

The platform must grow with your brand so that you can accommodate higher chat volumes and more agents without a performance issue. As your business grows, you want to ensure customer communications remain steady and efficient. If you suddenly have to deal with a surge in customer inquiries, you don’t want your live chat solution to lag or crash. Instead, look for a platform that can seamlessly support your operations during periods of growth.

Ease of Use: Get Up and Running Quickly

You want your live chat platform to be easy to use. This might include offering training and support to your team as you integrate into the new system. The quicker you can get up and running with your new live chat solution, the better. Look for alternatives with intuitive dashboards that can help you start with templates and customization features.

25 Best LiveChat Alternatives

1. ChatBees

ChatBees optimizes Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) for internal operations such as:

Customer support

Employee support

With our AI customer support software, you’ll benefit from:

Highly accurate responses

Seamless integration into workflows with low-code/no-code capabilities

An agentic framework that automatically selects the best strategy to enhance response quality

Improved predictability and accuracy, enabling teams to manage a higher volume of queries

Zero DevOps is required for deployment and maintenance

Get started with AI customer support for free—no credit card required. Sign in with Google and start your journey with us today!

2. ProProfs Chat

ProProfs Chat is a modern and comprehensive solution you can set up in minutes to provide

real-time proactive customer support. The tool empowers chat operators to see what the visitor is typing, which helps them provide quicker responses. Also, operators can send personalized greetings and share product announcements with ease.

You can deploy pre-chat forms that enable you to derive contextual information about a customer and offer customized support. The tool lets you set chat routing rules so website visitors are effortlessly connected to the right department. ProProfs stands out from LiveChat with its user-friendly design. The tool is intuitive and easy to master for your team’s daily workflows.

3. Intercom

Intercom is a feature-packed platform that allows you to scale customer support easily. Its chatbots involve no code and are easy to build from scratch, customized to your unique use cases. Using this tool, you can access an AI-powered shared inbox that lets you create:

Tickets

Configure settings

Trigger actions

Manage teams

Support omnichannel conversations

In terms of usability, Intercom outshines LiveChat as the clear winner. Its intuitive interface and seamless user experience make it a standout choice for businesses seeking a highly user-friendly communication platform.

4. Zendesk

Zendesk, a popular customer support platform, lets you connect with your customers in real time. You can customize the live chat widget to complement your brand’s tone and personality. The tool enables you to reach out to your customers via:

Mobile

Social media channels

Its one-to-many interactions enable you to serve multiple customers simultaneously. Unlike LiveChat, this tool goes above and beyond by offering exceptional customer service to support you if you encounter difficulties navigating its features.

5. Freshchat

Freshchat allows you to solve customer queries, whether self-serve or agent-assisted, via:

Messaging

Live chat

Emails and more

Affordable and Efficient

You can create and deploy a bot across your native apps, website, or other messaging channels. The platform offers agents key information like a customer’s past purchases and open issues, enabling them to impart superior services quickly. The tool provides budget-friendly plans, making it ideal for those seeking a more cost-effective alternative to LiveChat.

6. Zoho SalesIQ

Zoho SalesIQ is another notable live chat alternative that lets your customers reach out to you on your:

Website

Product

Mobile app

Social media

SalesIQ’s Advantage

The tool offers a voice note capability that enables customers and agents to communicate complex problems and solutions without the need to type long paragraphs. You can also optimize agents’ time by configuring pre-defined responses to commonly asked questions. Unlike LiveChat, SalesIQ empowers you to connect with your users through advanced features like audio calling and voice notes. This modern-day functionality sets SalesIQ apart, offering a cutting-edge solution for more personalized and engaging customer interactions.

7. Tidio

With Tidio, you can turn your prospects into customers with real-time engagement and prompt communication. Its visitor tracking capabilities allow you to check who has been on your website and which pages they have gone through. This way, you have a 360° perspective of where your customers are coming from and what they are looking for on your website, facilitating improved support experiences.

Unlike LiveChat, Tidio excels in its ease of use for seasoned live chat tool users and those new to the system. Its user-friendly interface guarantees effortless navigation, regardless of your prior experience with similar tools, ensuring a smooth and intuitive user experience.

8. Crisp

Crisp is one of the feature-rich LiveChat alternatives and probably the easiest to use on this list. You can engage with customers through:

Video calling

Co-browsing

Targeted messaging

The tool also lets your agents collaborate via its Shared Inbox. The inbox helps centralize all conversations across:

Emails

Messenger

Instagram DM and others

You can even set reminders for chats so that nothing slips through the cracks. Regarding tracking agent activity, Crisp emerges as the better choice over LiveChat. Crisp provides this valuable feature, allowing you to monitor and analyze the performance and productivity of your agents effectively.

9. HelpScout

Help Scout is among the most popular LiveChat competitors in the market. The tool helps simplify everyday customer service operations by offering a single platform for handling all customer conversations. You can set up workflow rules to filter emails and automate actions. You can even use custom reports to track data across different channels.

SalesIQ’s Edge

You can also view KPIs the way you like using custom report views. The tool is renowned for its excellent customer support, a critical feature differentiating it from LiveChat. It goes the extra mile to provide proactive assistance, ensuring that your customers receive prompt support whenever they need it.

10. JivoChat

JivoChat is a user-friendly live chat solution. Using this tool, you can customize the chat widget to translate text into the local language that your agents understand. The tool utilizes relevant data from your knowledge base to provide canned responses, accelerating resolution times for common customer issues.

Efficient Chat Transfers and Superior User Experience

Also, JivoChat allows you to transfer a chat to a suitable agent to cater to customer needs quickly and ensure the resolution time is a bare minimum. While LiveChat users frequently encounter bugs and technical issues, JivoChat has established a track record of delivering a superior user experience, making it a dependable choice for hassle-free communication.

11. tawk.to

One of the free alternatives to LiveChat, tawk.to let you set up a live chat widget within one minute without coding knowledge. You can access visitors' previous chat history and provide them with personalized support right from the tool’s dashboard. With the entire customer journey on display, you can monitor how often people visit your site and what they seek.

So if you’re searching for a powerful free tool that won’t strain your budget, tawk.to is your optimal choice. Unlike LiveChat, tawk.to provide a robust solution without any financial burdens, making it the best bet for those seeking both affordability and functionality.

12. LiveAgent

With LiveAgent, you get a fast live chat widget to connect with customers instantly. You can track visitors and proactively chat with them to drive conversions and engagements. This helps boost your conversational marketing and customer retention rate. The tool’s intelligent chat routing allows you to direct chats to the correct department.

Also, chat analytics features allow you to analyze and improve operator performance. LiveAgent excels over LiveChat regarding product direction support, a crucial aspect that users highly appreciate. The clear focus on guiding product development in response to user needs ensures that users receive the necessary support and enhancements to meet their evolving requirements.

13. Ocelot

Ocelot is a student-centric live chat platform that provides 1:1 assistance for critical issues. Students can access personal, consistent, impactful guidance and support when needed. This user-friendly platform offers preloaded content that allows you to cater to students’ queries before they’re even asked.

Efficient Support and Easy Setup

You can respond with text and video across 20+ departments. When it comes to ease of implementation, Ocelot surpasses LiveChat. Ocelot offers a streamlined implementation process that minimizes complexity and ensures a seamless setup, making it an ideal choice for businesses seeking a hassle-free integration solution.

14. Podium

Podium is an intuitive live chat platform that is considered one of the most worthwhile LiveChat competitors. Its automated workflows help you drive more leads by simplifying customer communication. With personalized setup and onboarding, you can quickly start a conversation and address customer requirements effectively. The platform’s reporting capabilities also help you monitor customer behavior with ease. Owing to its simplicity, Podium emerges as the preferred business partner over LiveChat.

15. Olark

Olark is a chat platform that allows businesses to effectively communicate with their customers in real time, providing instant support and assistance. By centralizing customer data, this platform offers businesses insights from chat interactions that they can use to enhance their products and services. With Olark, businesses can improve customer engagement and create a better user experience.

16. Hiver

Hiver is a customer service tool that simplifies customer communication by integrating chat into its existing email management tools. This allows businesses to provide multichannel customer support, enabling support agents to respond to:

Inquiries

Resolve issues

Engage with customers in real-time through email and chat channels

Unlike LiveChat, Hiver manages your customer support operations without requiring you to run several systems.

17. Userlike

Userlike is a live chat software that integrates with websites and mobile apps to enhance the customer experience. It is designed to bring businesses closer to customers by generating leads, improving satisfaction, and boosting service efficiency.

18. Rocket.Chat

Rocket.Chat is an open-source communication platform that helps businesses have:

Secure real-time chat

Audio calls

Video chats

File sharing

It is designed to be fully controllable by the user, with options for self-hosting and secure cloud deployment to meet various security and compliance needs.

19. LivePerson

LivePerson is a conversational AI platform enabling businesses to personalize customer communication. It leverages the power of AI to create more meaningful and efficient interactions between companies and customers.

20. Drift

Drift is a conversational marketing platform that combines chat, email, video, and automation to remove communication barriers between buyers and businesses. With its AI-driven approach, Drift aims to help companies to provide their customers with a personalized path to purchase in real time.

21. Pure Chat

Organizations and companies widely use Pure Chat for proactive live chat interactions with customers. It provides agents with information and users' contact history. This LiveChat alternative assists support teams in the following:

Solving technical issues

Navigating online products

Processing order requests

Pure Chat’s interface allows you to gain insights into website visitors' activity and determine the effectiveness of your marketing strategy. Visitor notifications and trigger-based chat functionality can also qualify promising leads to prospects and increase real-time sales.

22. Acquire

Acquire is a great live chat platform that offers live messaging to support teams. This software allows agents to handle multiple conversations. Managers can optimize support team efficiency using workflows. Employees can manage communications seamlessly by implementing queues and service level agreements (SLAs).

The platform allows for voice and video calling, which customers need to have face-to-face conversations. In fact, according to the Deloitte digital report, organizations have increased the use of voice from 62% in 2020 to over 80% in 2023.

23. HelpCrunch

HelpCrunch is a hybrid CRM that combines the following:

Live chat

Sales

Marketing automation for enterprises

The LiveChat alternative helps online shopping stores consolidate all communication in one place and provide seamless navigation across many channels. Its helpdesk solution allows team members to solve support requests proactively. The platform involves automatic:

Email marketing

Other support features

The solution is trendy because it can provide helpful insights through data analysis. HelpCrunch’s chat widget is valuable for channeling consumer feedback to sales and marketing managers.

24. Chatway

Chatway is an excellent LiveChat alternative because it helps you talk to your website visitors in real time. Here are the key features to enjoy:

Live Chat Widget: With an intuitive widget that improves communication, you’ll offer your customers immediate and personalized assistance.

Mobile Apps: You and your agents don’t have to be at your desk to respond to customer inquiries. You can download the app to your mobile device.

Multiple Agents: Reduce wait times and offer instant solutions because you have numerous agents helping others.

25. Gorgias

Gorgias offers these features:

Ticket Management: AI can help you assign, prioritize, and tag tickets when they hit your inbox.

Instant Resolutions: You can automatically process your returns, generate discount codes, send tracking data, and more. Get Insights on Customers – Understand your customer’s ordering history, subscriptions, loyalty status, and more.

How to Choose the Best Livechat Alternative?

Assess Your Needs: What’s Missing with Your Current Live Chat Software?

Start your search for the best LiveChat alternative by identifying your current system’s gaps or the features you wish to have. For instance, if your team is overwhelmed by inquiries, look for a solution with robust automation capabilities.

Consider User Experience: Focus on Both Agents and Customers

The tool should offer a seamless experience for both customers and agents. For instance, you can try out Hiver if your team already uses Gmail. It can be an excellent fit since it operates within the familiar Gmail interface, minimizing the learning curve.

Check for Customization and Integration: Maintain Your Existing Workflow

Customizing and integrating the chat interface with your existing tools, like CRM or analytics software, is essential for maintaining a cohesive workflow.

Look for Quality Support: Get Help When You Need It

Good customer service and support from the platform provider are crucial, especially during the initial setup and as you scale.

Use ChatBees’ AI Customer Support Software to 10x Customer Support Operations

ChatBees enhances Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) for internal operations such as:

Customer support

Employee support

Our AI customer support software offers:

Highly accurate responses

Easy integration into workflows with low-code/no-code functionality

An agentic framework that automatically selects the best strategies to improve response quality

Increased predictability and accuracy, allowing teams to handle a higher volume of queries

No DevOps is required for deployment and maintenance

Try our AI customer support software today to boost your support operations by 10x. Get started for free—no credit card required. Sign in with Google and begin your journey with us today!