The best live chat support software for your brand in 2023

2. Zendesk

Zendesk is a well-established customer service platform that includes live chat support as one of its core offerings. Here are some benefits of using Zendesk for live chat support:

• Seamless integration: Zendesk’s live chat integrates smoothly with other Zendesk products as well as third-party apps and integrations, enabling businesses to consolidate their customer support operations in one platform.

• Ticketing system: Zendesk's chat support seamlessly integrates with its ticketing system, allowing agents to convert chat conversations into support tickets for follow-up.

• Extensive reporting and analytics: Zendesk provides comprehensive reporting and analytics features, enabling businesses to gain insights into customer interactions, agent performance, and customer satisfaction levels.

A drawback to consider when considering Zendesk for your brand is complexity. Some users find Zendesk to be complex and overwhelming, especially for smaller businesses that may not require all of its advanced features.

3. Intercom

Intercom is a popular live chat support software that focuses on personalized customer engagement. Here are the advantages of using Intercom:

• Conversational support: Intercom has recently announced the release of Fin, an AI bot powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4 AI model which provides personalized and human-like conversations with customers, enabling businesses to build strong customer relationships.

• User segmentation: The software allows businesses to segment their user base based on various attributes, enabling targeted messaging and customized support experiences.

• App ecosystem: Intercom offers an extensive app ecosystem, allowing businesses to integrate with other tools and systems for seamless workflow management.

Despite its advantages, Intercom's pricing structure can be both complex and expensive depending on the features your business uses and may include hidden costs not fully visible before use.

4. Salesforce Service Cloud

Salesforce Service Cloud is a comprehensive customer service platform that offers live chat support capabilities. Here are the pros of using Salesforce Service Cloud:

• Complete customer view: Salesforce Service Cloud provides a 360-degree view of customer interactions, enabling agents to deliver personalized and contextually relevant support.

• Robust integration: The software integrates seamlessly with other Salesforce products, allowing businesses to leverage a complete ecosystem of customer relationship management tools.

• AI-powered automation: The Digital Engagement add-on to your Service Cloud subscription leverages Einstein, Salesforce’s homegrown AI, to automate routine tasks, provide intelligent suggestions to agents, and deliver proactive support.

When compared to the vast functionalities of Salesforce Service Cloud and the greater Salesforce ecosystem, Salesforce Service Cloud’s live chat capabilities are limited to web or webview on mobile, thereby limiting the seamless interaction that brands look for when integrating live chat into their web or mobile applications.

5. Sendbird Support Chat: Salesforce Connector

Sendbird Support Chat: Salesforce Connector is a powerful live chat support software that integrates seamlessly with Salesforce, offering the following benefits:

• Seamless integration: By integrating with Salesforce, Sendbird Support Chat allows businesses to manage their customer interactions and support operations from within the Salesforce ecosystem.

• Real-time Messaging: Sendbird’s Salesforce Connector enables real-time messaging between customers and agents, promoting instant and efficient support that includes all the advantages of Sendbird Chat features including push notifications, delivery receipts, typing indicators, auto-translation, moderation, ability to send/receive attachments, and more.

• Customization and scalability: Sendbird Support Chat: Salesforce Connector not only provides chat embedded within a case for Service Cloud agents to use without any learning curves, it offers extensive customization options for chat widgets on platforms such as Android, iOS, React, React Native, and Flutter, allowing businesses to tailor the chat widget to their brand's identity. It also provides scalability, accommodating businesses of various sizes.

However, since Sendbird Support Chat is a Salesforce Connector, businesses that do not use Salesforce may not be able to benefit from this software. To take full advantage of live support chat powered by Sendbird Chat without dependency on Salesforce, Sendbird offers a full-fledged support tool called Sendbird Desk.

6. Hubspot Live Chat

Hubspot Live Chat is a free-to-use chat service included in Hubspot’s CRM. It provides a no-code live chat and chatbot builder that lets you install live chat on your website quickly.

• Hubspot integration: Hubspot Live Chat integrates with Hubspot CRM and other hubs like marketing, sales, and operations. It saves every chat transcript to Hubspot, giving agents context and visibility into every interaction.

• Customizable widget: You can change the look of the Hubspot chat box to match your branding and website design for a unified brand experience.

• Tailored messaging: The Chatflows feature lets you create chat messages to engage different visitors. You can target messages by sender type (all visitors, segments) and where visitors will see the messages on the site.

Hubspot Live Chat is an excellent option for businesses using the free Hubspot CRM. It provides a feature-rich, seamless lead generation, and customer support solution. The free version doesn’t offer the same depth of features as other chat solutions, and other hubs (Sales, Marketing, Service) require a paid subscription.

7. Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk is a leading live chat customer service solution with many features and tools to automate and streamline the customer support and sales process. Here are some of the critical features of Zoho’s solution:

• Advanced AI assistant: Zia, Zoho’s AI assistant, improves customer support with features like sentiment analysis, automated FAQ and knowledge base sharing, and ticket auto-tagging.

• Self-service: Zoho enables customers to solve their problems quickly with guided conversations, community management, and knowledge base features.

• Process automation: Zoho automates ticket assignments, SLAs, notifications, and workflows so agents can focus on serving customers.

Zoho is a feature-rich and versatile customer support solution that provides an excellent live chat package at a good price. It’s not as customizable or user-friendly as other live chat solutions, and although it offers a wide range of features, many of them aren’t as deep as the market leaders.

8. Tawk.to

It’s said the best things in life are free. Tawk.to, the “100% FREE live chat software for your website!” certainly think so. Tawk.to offers an impressive array of features only available in paid packages, such as:

• Unlimited chat agents: Add as many users as you want–tawk.to doesn’t charge for additional users.

• Real-time monitoring: tawk.to lets you monitor site visitors in real-time, and track which pages they are visiting, what they are searching for in your knowledge base and other metrics.

• Group chat: Agents can speak to decision makers and other agents without leaving the tawk.to platform. They can also open a group chat and enable screen sharing to engage prospects and customers better.

Tawk.to is a great tool, especially for small businesses. However, there’s another saying: “Nothing in life is free.” Although tawk.to’s live chat platform is free to use, many of its features aren’t. Be prepared to pay extra for features like video chat, voice, and screen sharing–or to remove the tawk.to branding from your chat window.

9. LiveAgent

Omnichannel help desk software solution LiveAgent facilitates native live chat support with a hybrid ticketing and automated chat routing system. Its productivity-focused features include these benefits:

• Gamification: LiveAgent’s gamification feature improves agent morale and engagement by letting them earn badges, achievements, and levels for support performance.

• Social media integration: Facebook and X (Twitter) integration help agents respond to posts and messages, monitor mentions, and create support tickets.

• Omnichannel support: LiveAgent’s hybrid ticket stream lets agents engage with customers on multiple channels and store interactions as tickets in a universal inbox.

LiveAgent’s focus on agent productivity and engagement makes it an excellent solution for customer service and support, however it can get pricey as you add additional features and third party integrations.