Best Live Chat Software 2021

LiveChat Competitors & Alternatives

Are you considering LiveChat for your customer service team? Before committing to LiveChat, make sure you know the other tools on the market! We’ve written this guide comparing and contrasting LiveChat with its competitors to provide you with a sense of the different solutions and their unique features.

LiveChat is one of the most popular live chat solutions available today. However, there are many worthwhile live chat tools worth considering. Before you purchase LiveChat, we recommend reading this article to see how it stacks up against its competitors.

Below, we’ll provide an analysis of the top LiveChat competitors and give detailed insight into their features and pricing. To fully understand the features that LiveChat offers, you can also read our in-depth LiveChat review.

All of our recommendations are based on research, product demos with the software companies, and dozens of hours spent hand-testing these live chat solutions. More details regarding our research process can be found on our live chat category page.

Table of Contents

LiveChat Features

Before we discuss the top LiveChat competitors, we’ll provide a table of LiveChat’s main features. LiveChat is one of the most powerful and widely-used live chat softwares available today. Details concerning the six most important features are outlined in the table below.

FeatureDescription
Chat Inbox and WidgetLiveChat has a chat inbox and chat widget that have a modern and simple user interface. There is no lag time between sending and receiving messages.
Chat Capabilities and Tools
  • Widget customization
  • Canned responses
  • File uploading
  • Message sneak peek
  • Chat transferring
Chat HistoryWith all plans except the starter plan, LiveChat offers unlimited chat history. These archives are searchable, allowing for easier review of past chats.
TicketingLiveChat includes a ticketing system to track customer concerns. LiveChat customers can create tickets directly from current chats or manually create them.
AnalyticsLiveChat has a notably rich analytics section with the ability to drill down into specific metrics. The metrics, charts, and graphs update in real time, which is not true for many competitors.
IntegrationsLiveChat has built integrations with more than 170 applications. This is one of the most extensive integrations lists across all live chat solutions that we’ve reviewed. Some of the most valuable integrations include Zapier, Google Analytics, Salesforce, Facebook, and Zendesk.

LiveChat Competitor Overview: Pricing & Features

LiveChat was established in 2002 and has over 30,000 customers, making it one of the oldest and most popular live chat solutions. It’s one of the top solutions on the market and is ranked highly in our live chat category.

LiveChat pricing operates on a per-agent basis and starts at $19 per agent per month. Their pricing model is fairly standard when compared with competitors and sits somewhere around the mid-to-high range in terms of overall cost. It falls short compared to competitors because there is no basic free plan, which many alternatives offer. There are a few details to know about LiveChat’s pricing:

  • LiveChat’s additional products—ChatBot, HelpDesk, and KnowledgeBase—come at an additional cost, where others will have these included in monthly pricing
  • Monthly per-agent prices are nearly identical to Freshchat and Zendesk Chat prices

Overall, LiveChat is one of the top live chat solutions. It is reliable and we found no software issues while testing the product, which we did find in a couple competitors. It’s feature-rich, though undeniably expensive given its add-on features, which many competitors will not charge extra for. Unlike some competitors on this list, LiveChat is better suited for larger teams.

LiveChat Competitors Feature Chart

LiveChat Competitors

The live chat market is fairly saturated, with many different solutions that cater to organizations of all types and sizes. We’ve listed seven LiveChat competitors based on features, power, and pricing.

HelpCrunch
HelpCrunch
Rating 93
HelpCrunch
HelpCrunch
Rating 93
Intercom
Intercom
Rating 93
LiveChat
LiveChat
Rating 91
LiveChat
LiveChat
Rating 91
Drift
Drift
Rating 90
tawk.to
tawk.to
Rating 90
Drift
Drift
Rating 90
tawk.to
tawk.to
Rating 90

Some of the main LiveChat competitors are:

  • Intercom
  • HelpCrunch
  • Freshchat
  • Zendesk Chat
  • Crisp
  • tawk.to
  • Tidio

#1: Intercom

As another heavy hitter in the live chat arena, Intercom competes with LiveChat in terms of power and market influence. We ranked Intercom higher than LiveChat because, though it generally has a higher upfront cost, it offers more advanced marketing features. We recommend Intercom for large technology-forward companies, whereas we recommend LiveChat for teams looking to focus on chat and customer support.

To learn about Intercom's competitors and alternatives, check out our Intercom competitors article.

You'll prefer LiveChat if:

  • You’re focused on customer support instead of marketing features
  • You’d prefer straightforward, per-agent pricing
  • You want advanced and interactive reports
You'll prefer Intercom if:

  • You want advanced features like A/B testing
  • You’re a large company with the budget for a pricey tool
  • You want chatbots and Help Center included in pricing
Intercom
Rating: 93
Starting Price: $39 per month

Intercom is a customer messaging software with over 30,000 customers. It offers features like cross-channel messaging, A/B testing, and chatbots. Intercom is ideal for large and technology-forward companies looking to improve customer engagement.

Pros:
  • Powerful for cross-channel messaging and data tracking
  • Unique marketing features like product tours and A/B testing
  • Ability to create custom-built apps for Intercom Messenger using API
Cons:
  • Missing some basic live chat features like message sneak peek
  • One of the most expensive solutions on the market
  • Lacking in customer support availability

#2: HelpCrunch

HelpCrunch is newer on the live chat scene, having been founded in 2016. We found it fairly similar to LiveChat in terms of interface and power. Like Intercom, HelpCrunch has additional marketing features such as email campaigns and website pop-ups. We rated HelpCrunch and LiveChat very similarly. The main difference is that HelpCrunch includes email marketing, pop-ups, a help desk, and a knowledge base for around the same monthly price as LiveChat’s Business plan, which doesn’t include any of those.

You'll prefer LiveChat if:

  • You would like a ticketing system
  • You’re interested in more integrations (170+ compared with ~20)
  • You prefer a more responsive customer support team
You'll prefer HelpCrunch if:

  • You would like included help desk and pop-up features
  • You’d like up to five separate chat widgets
  • You want arguably more bang for your buck
HelpCrunch
Rating: 93
Starting Price: $15 per month

HelpCrunch is a modern and powerful customer communication platform. With features that help streamline customer support and marketing, it’s a solution that will benefit most teams, ecommerce organizations in particular.

Pros:
  • One of the most powerful and intuitive tools we tested
  • Includes website pop-ups, which few live chat solutions offer
  • Helpful and detailed metrics regarding campaigns and knowledge base
Cons:
  • The Chat + Email plan can get expensive if you have a large team
  • The chat widget was somewhat slow to load during our testing
  • Slightly limited integrations list and doesn't integrate with Zapier

#3: Freshchat

Freshchat is a chat solution offered by Freshworks. The tool has the same monthly pricing per agent as LiveChat. The biggest difference between the two is that Freshchat will be able to easily connect with other products offered by Freshworks. All plans also come with an automatic Freshdesk integration, which enables a ticketing solution.

You'll prefer LiveChat if:

  • You need advanced integrations and a Zapier integration
  • You don’t need email marketing
  • You prefer a slightly more updated inbox appearance
You'll prefer Freshchat if:

  • You already use Freshworks products and want to streamline platforms
  • You want a free plan with 100 seats included
  • You’d like email campaigns to be included
Freshchat
Rating: 84
Starting Price: $19 per agent per month

Freshchat is a messaging software offered by Freshworks, a company with a wide variety of products. Its main features include live chat and email campaigns; Freshchat also includes advanced in-house reports. Overall, Freshchat is a solid yet slightly expensive live chat solution.

Pros:
  • Advanced in-house reporting metrics
  • Free plan comes with 100 seats - more than most competitors offer for free
  • Effective and user-friendly
Cons:
  • Chatbot is expensive and only included in most expensive plan
  • Lacks integrations found in similar tools
  • Comes at a higher cost than similar competitors

#4: Zendesk Chat

Zendesk Chat is one of the most intuitive live chat tools on the market. It’s very easy to install and use, even more so than LiveChat. The included features are fairly similar, with both tools focused on live chat rather than marketing. Zendesk’s customer support availability varies depending on how much you pay, however, so it should be noted that you won’t have as much customer support access if you’re on a cheaper plan.

You'll prefer LiveChat if:

  • You have a larger team and can pay for advanced add-ons
  • You’d like the ability to have chatbots
  • You need advanced reports
You'll prefer Zendesk Chat if:

  • You already use Zendesk and want to streamline platforms
  • You’re a smaller team with no advanced marketing requirements
  • You don’t want there to be a learning curve
Zendesk Chat
Rating: 84
Starting Price: $19 per agent per month

Zendesk Chat is a live chat software offered by Zendesk, a software company with a wide variety of products. The chat tool works efficiently with only minor drawbacks. With features like live visitor monitoring, proactive chat functionality, and conversion tracking, it will benefit companies that want to engage website visitors.

Pros:
  • Live visitor monitor allows you to monitor website visitors and proactively chat with them
  • Exceptionally intuitive to install and use
  • Will easily integrate with other products from Zendesk
Cons:
  • Free plan is lacking compared to competitors
  • Lack of marketing features like email campaigns
  • No customer support available for free plans

#5: Crisp

Crisp is currently utilized by over 200,000 brands. Like LiveChat, Crisp is well-designed, modern, and powerful. Crisp has a basic free plan for two agents and essential live chat capabilities. Crisp has an edge on LiveChat in terms of unique features with tools like MagicMap, which provides a live map view of website visitors and allows you to proactively chat.

You'll prefer LiveChat if:

  • Your efforts are focused on live chat
  • You need a ticketing system
  • You want a more robust list of pre-built integrations
You'll prefer Crisp if:

  • You want unlimited support seats for $95 per month
  • You’d like rich visitor information with MagicMap feature
  • You want to streamline email campaigns with your live chat tool
Crisp
Rating: 88
Starting Price: $25 per month

Crisp is a live chat and email marketing software with over 200,000 customers. Its notable features include chatbots, which are very intuitive to build, and unlimited seats in the most advanced plan. Crisp is a reliable software at a relatively low price, especially for for startups and small businesses.

Pros:
  • Prompt and reliable mobile application notifications
  • Chatbots are more intuitive to configure than competitors' bots
  • Good value for the price, particularly with the Unlimited plan
Cons:
  • MagicBrowse tool requires a strong Internet connection to function properly
  • Agent-specific reports must be custom-built with API
  • Email editor is slightly more complicated than in competitors' tools

#6: tawk.to

Tawk.to and LiveChat are similar in terms of features, though tawk.to has a more outdated interface and does not work as seamlessly. However, the tradeoff is that tawk.to is entirely free. We recommend tawk.to for those who don’t require advanced, quick-to-update reports or a modern tool.

You'll prefer LiveChat if:

  • You want the ability to add chatbot features
  • You’ll want a tool that updates faster and works more efficiently
  • You want a more modern interface
You'll prefer tawk.to if:

  • You’re interested in a free yet moderately detailed solution
  • You’d like to hire chat agents to handle chat on your behalf
  • You don’t mind a more dated interface
tawk.to
Rating: 90
Starting Price: Free

Tawk.to is a free live chat solution with over 3 million users. It focuses solely on live chat, with features like ticketing and screen sharing, and tawk.to also allows customers to directly hire virtual assistants and chat agents. Tawk.to is the best free live chat software and would benefit any company searching for a free option.

Pros:
  • Entirely free
  • More robust than competitors' free plans
  • Tawk.to customers can directly hire chat agents and virtual assistants
Cons:
  • Not quite as user-friendly as paid competitors
  • No chatbot or email marketing features
  • Must pay to remove "Powered by tawk.to" branding

#7: Tidio

Tidio is a live chat tool that’s used on over 300,000 websites worldwide. It has one of the top free plans on the market. It competes with LiveChat because it’s valuable for the relatively low price. However, it has a few technical problems like slow reports and unreliable notifications, which LiveChat does not.

You'll prefer LiveChat if:

  • You’re interested in ticketing
  • You want more advanced reports and integrations
  • You want a reliable, hassle-free live chat experience
You'll prefer Tidio if:

  • You want inexpensive buildable chatbot features
  • You won’t be bothered by sometimes-unreliable notifications
  • You want flexible pricing options
Tidio
Rating: 85
Starting Price: $18 per month

Tidio is a live chat and email marketing software that’s used by over 300,000 websites. It offers features like chatbots and email marketing templates. Given its ease of use, Tidio is ideal for those searching for a hassle-free live chat solution.

Pros:
  • Advanced and varied chatbot workflows that are still easy to build
  • Interface is user-friendly
  • Flexible pricing options give customers the chance to pay for only the features they want
Cons:
  • Chat notifications can be unreliable, so you may not always get notified when you have a message
  • Included reports are fairly basic
  • Somewhat limited integrations list, especially compared with competitors

Bottom Line

LiveChat is one of the oldest and most-utilized paid live chat solutions. It can be beneficial for teams of all sizes, and we recommend it most for larger companies or those with a larger budget to spend on a chat tool. Overall, LiveChat is modern, relatively easy to use, and has a reliable customer support team.

Before making your choice, we recommend that you read through our reviews of each LiveChat competitor to determine each solution’s strengths, notable drawbacks, and what type of organizations we recommend each for.

If you’re interested, you can sign up for a 14-day free LiveChat trial today.

Katelyn Anderson

Katelyn is a Junior Research Analyst at SoftwarePundit, where she conducts in-depth analyses of technology markets & products and writes software-related content. She graduated summa cum laude with degrees in English and Psychology. Her main areas of interest are content creation, user experience, and search engine optimization. You can connect with Katelyn on LinkedIn.

Katelyn is an expert in several software categories including:

  • Accounting software
  • Integration software
  • Live chat software
  • Vacation rental software
  • Video conferencing software

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