Pure Chat Review, Pricing & Features

What is Pure Chat?

Pure Chat is a no-frills live chat software. With all the foundational features to support visitors over live chat, it’s a straightforward customer support tool.

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Table of Contents

Pure Chat Review Summary

Pure Chat was founded in 2012 by Hamid Shojaee. The company is currently headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona. In October 2020, Pure Chat was acquired by Ruby Receptionists, a small virtual receptionist service.

Pure Chat offers chat features like chat transcripts, basic reports, and widget customization. There are no marketing features, which are found in many competing chat tools. Though there are fewer features and details than found in competitors, Pure Chat’s main draw is that it’s exceptionally easy to install and use.

Pure Chat offers two plans, which are priced at $49 per month and $99 per month. The more expensive plan has higher SMS limits, includes more agent seats, and allows the widget to be installed on multiple websites. The only other feature not included in the less expensive plan is the ability to remove Pure Chat branding. Otherwise, the plans offer the same list of features.

Pure Chat customers have noted that due to the software’s basic functionality, it’s easy to manage. Nastya Kholodova from WOD Insight uses Pure Chat to answer her customers’ questions and found it budget-friendly, simple to install, and easy to customize. Customers have also noted, however, that notifications on the mobile application are unreliable.

Pure Chat is a very basic messaging software. If you want a tool that’s quick to install and easy to use, Pure Chat is an ideal option. If your requirements are more advanced or you want more value for your money, we suggest considering some of these alternatives:

  • tawk.to is an entirely free option with more robust features
  • Crisp is similarly priced to Pure Chat, but offers more advanced features
  • Gist offers a combined support and marketing plan for a similar price

Pure Chat Pricing & Cost

Pure Chat pricing ranges from $49 to $99 per month. Customers can opt to be billed annually and will receive about a 20% discount on the monthly pricing.

  • Growth: $49 per month; includes one website and four agents. Additional agents cost $15 per month.
  • PRO: $99 per month; includes unlimited websites and ten agents. Additional agents cost $10 per month.

Pure Chat Key Features

This review will walk through the key features offered by Pure Chat. We’ll discuss any notable benefits and drawbacks while describing how each feature can support your company’s live chat aims. Screenshots of the Pure Chat dashboard will be included to provide you with a sense of what the software looks like and how it works.

To learn more about how we research and rate software tools, read about SoftwarePundit’s review methodology.

Live Chat

Live chat allows organizations to connect with website visitors in real time to provide support, answer questions, and provide a better customer experience. Pure Chat’s main feature is the live chat tool. It’s very simple and works well on both ends. Though it’s simpler than many other live chat competitors, it works just fine for providing support.

Inbox

Pure Chat customers will chat with visitors within the dashboard. Depending on your settings, the chat will issue both visual and auditory notifications. Once an agent joins the chat, they will see this view:

Pure Chat Chat Page

Visitor information, which will include the visitor’s 30-day browsing history and location, are displayed on the right. Chat agents can set a pre-chat form to collect the visitor’s name and email address or ask the visitor for that information during the chat. Though nearly all basic features are included, Pure Chat does not allow agents to see what visitors are typing before the message is sent, which helps facilitate quick agent response times.

Chat Widget

The visitors will converse with agents using a small window, or widget, on the website. Pure Chat’s widget is not quite as customizable as widgets offered by other companies, but the main customizations like altering colors, setting custom messages, and mandating pre-chat forms are included.

While chatting, visitors can see when an agent has joined the chat and is typing a response.

Pure Chat Widget

Additional Chat Features

A list of additional actions chat agents can take is below.

  • Proactively chat visitors
  • Send images and files
  • Email chat transcripts to visitors and self
  • Assign tags to the chat for simple categorization
  • Send files, canned responses, and emojis
  • Invite team members to the chat

Chat Transcripts

Pure Chat stores transcripts of every chat conversation. Within the transcripts tab, you’ll see a list of transcripts with information like the date of the chat, visitor rating, and the agent who handled the chat. This section is beneficial because there is unlimited transcript history in both plans; however, a notable downside is that transcripts are only searchable by agent, website, or email, so you can’t search for transcripts by keyword.

Pure Chat Transcripts

Once you click on a specific transcript, you’ll see the full chat history, including visitor information and the timestamp of each message.

Live Visitor View

The live visitor view within Pure Chat shows the number of active website visitors, the amount of time they’ve spent on the site, their current webpages, and a number of how many times they’ve been on the site. This section within Pure Chat is helpful because it allows agents to proactively chat visitors rather than waiting for the visitor to reach out first. For example, agents might want to proactively chat visitors who are on the checkout page but haven’t completed their transactions.

Pure Chat Visitor Tracking

Reports

The reports section provides metrics on chat volume and visitor ratings. Compared with other tools, this section is weak in terms of included metrics and overall visualization. Most tools present the data in graphs and charts but Pure Chat only offers what is seen below:

Pure Chat Reports Overview

Though this section is one of Pure Chat’s weakest, it does provide the basics, so if you’re only interested in very limited reports it shouldn’t be a problem.

Mobile Applications and Integrations

Mobile Applications

We tested the iOS mobile application and found that it works instantaneously. Notifications came through when the application was both open and closed. However, many customer ratings for the Android application state that notifications come through late or not at all. Be aware of that if you have an Android device and know that this might interfere with your company’s ability to provide quick customer service.

Integrations

Pure Chat currently offers just four integrations: Zapier, Infusionsoft, HubSpot, and Google Analytics. Though Zapier allows for over 3,000 integrations, this is one of the most limited integrations lists across all live chat softwares. If you are interested in integrating your live chat solution with other softwares, Pure Chat may not easily serve that purpose unless you are comfortable using Zapier.

Pure Chat Customer Support

Pure Chat customer service responded to our chat questions instantly. They were able to provide answers to our questions and were friendly during chats.

Customer Support ChannelsLive Chat, Email
Other Support ResourcesHelp Articles, Setup Guides, Blog
Application Status PageNo

Pure Chat Alternatives & Competitors

Pure Chat is similar to other tools that are also focused on live chat, like Olark and tawk.to. The best choice for your company will depend on your budget and preferred features. For live chat solutions that include marketing features like email campaigns, pop-ups, and product tours, check out the reviews below.

Is Pure Chat Right For You?

Pure Chat is a basic, no-frills live chat software. The basic features that are included are visitor information, transcripts, and reports. It may benefit those who are not particularly tech-savvy and want an uncomplicated experience with live chat.

Pure Chat does lack a few key features that can be essential to facilitating a well-rounded customer support experience. For example, there is no hosted knowledge base or ticketing system, which competitor tawk.to offers for free. Given the price point and limited features, it’s worth considering other options unless your ultimate goal is to have a basic tool.

If you are interested in trying Pure Chat’s PRO Plan, sign up for a 30-day free trial.

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