While customer support leaders are feeling the pressure from increasing call volumes, talent shortages, inflation, and rising customer expectations, customer experience is more important than ever. 

According to a McKinsey report, organizations plan to increase digital interactions by 1.5 times by 2024. Chatbots and AI tools remain among the top three areas for investment to improve customer experience (CX). 

Despite tech sharing the burden of customer service interactions, human interaction remains an important driver for CX—especially during moments that matter whatever be the channel of engagement.  

Live chat support offers convenience and facilitates quicker resolutions for customers than other options, such as emails and voice calls. Customers can quickly send a message, chat with the right agent, and proceed to the next step. 

If you’re looking for a live chat app to support digital interactions for customers who want fast, efficient, and personalized customer care, we’ve got you covered.

Let us compare the six best live chat software for customer service along with their key features and limitations so that you can choose the best one for your business. 

What are live chat apps?

A live chat app is a dynamic communication tool that enables customers and website visitors to interact directly with a human agent. They can click on the chat widget available on the mobile app or website to initiate a convenient, information-driven, and real-time conversation. 

Upon receiving the chat request, an agent is automatically assigned to offer help, answer queries, and drive the purchase intent in a relatively short time frame. 

Also, some live chat solutions are now comprehensively leveraging automation to maximize their impact. 

For instance, AI chatbots can be trained to use the company’s knowledge base to provide more accurate responses to customers’ complex questions. They can also automatically take action on connected business systems like CRMs, payment, and order management systems.

In cases of sensitive and nuanced issues, these chatbots efficiently route the conversations to the appropriate agent with previous conversations. 

Top live chat apps to elevate your customer service

We picked these six live chat tools after considering and evaluating diverse criteria like features, affordability, limitations and ratings from Reddit and trustworthy review sites so that you can be sure to find something that addresses your chat needs. 

So, here's a snapshot of our list, which will be followed by detailed breakdown of each live chat app:

Now let's look at the top six live chat apps with their key features, limitations, free trial availability, pricing, and ratings and reviews to help you choose the best one.

1. Plivo CX

Plivo CX is an omnichannel customer support platform that helps businesses deliver exceptional customer services to their users. 

The platform offers a live chat channel that allows agents to provide instant, relevant, and efficient responses to customer queries and issues. Your agents can seamlessly switch between live chat, voice, SMS, and WhatsApp or use multiple channels simultaneously to provide support to customers. 

Moreover, with Plivo CX’s OpenAI-powered self-service chatbot, you can automate answering common questions using chatbots and redirect agents toward complex queries. 

Integrating it with the CRM lets you merge your existing customer data with the chat solution, enabling your agents to send personalized responses. Overall, users experience improved response time and faster issue resolution with Plivo CX live chat, enhancing customer satisfaction and retention. 

Key features

• Embed Plivo CX live chat on your website or app and provide instant, personalized responses to customers
• Provide immediate answers to customers' common questions with AI-powered self-service, freeing up your human support team
• Offer 24/7 support with the PlivoCX chatbot, ensuring customers get help whenever they need it
• Facilitate real-time attachments of images, video, audio, and documents for swift issue resolution
• Enable data-led routing and use customer data to route live chats to the right agents automatically 
• Handle interactions across live chat, SMS/MMS, WhatsApp, email, and more in one place
• Integrate live chat into your mobile app and enjoy a seamless experience 
• Ensure clear communication and customer satisfaction by offering support in your customers' preferred languages
• Safeguard sensitive information (addresses, payment details, etc.), maintain data security, and build customer trust

Limitations

• Does not have a mobile version for support agents

Pricing

• A 14-day free trial is available.

Omnichannel annual plans:

• Growth: $29 per user per month
• Business: $69 per user per month
• Enterprise: Available on request

Voice-Only annual plans

• Growth: $25 per user per month
• Business: $40 per user per month
• Enterprise: Available on request

Chat-Only annual plans

• Growth: $15 per user per month
• Business: $30 per user per month
• Enterprise: Available on request

Ratings

• Capterra: 4.3 (80+ reviews) 
• G2: 4.5 (700+ reviews)

2. Tidio

With its AI-powered customer service platform, Tidio helps businesses provide stellar customer support and convert more leads. 

Tidio’s live chat feature is used by e-commerce brands to improve the shopping experience of their customers. 

The live chat software for customer service supports multiple languages, allowing customers to receive answers in their preferred languages. It also gives access to previous conversations, orders, and last visited pages, helping customer support reps gain better context and provide more appropriate responses. 

Key features

• Preview user messages to prepare replies in advance and improve response time
• Create a repository of pre-formulated responses to reply to customer queries in seconds 
• Turn basic responses into professional-looking ones with AI Reply Assistant 
• Send a pre-chat survey to collect customer data before the chat starts

Limitations

• The customer message notification system is not reliable, so agents need to constantly check the dashboard to not miss messages 
• The initial setup process can be overwhelming because of the number of features available.
• Integration with external platforms is very limited.

Pricing

• A 7-day free trial
• Free forever customer service plan 
• Starter: $29 per user/month (if billed annually) 
• Growth: $59 per user/month (if billed annually) 
• Tidio+: Starts at $749/month 

Ratings

• Capterra: 4.7 (450+ reviews)
• G2: 4.7 (1,500+ reviews) 

3. Zendesk

Zendesk is a popular customer support platform that offers a range of tools, including help desk, email marketing, live chat, and employee and customer engagement software to help companies enhance customer experience. 

Zendesk’s live support software enables agents to provide contextual and timely interactions and build customer relationships. The platform’s built-in automation and AI capabilities allow users to serve more customers and let agents step in when necessary. Proactive messaging features mitigate buyer dissatisfaction by sending notifications on SMS or WhatsApp for chat requests, session statuses, etc.. 

Key features

• Add live chat to your website, mobile app, or social media channels and deliver instant support to customers
• Centralize customer conversations and information in one place to help agents with the context they need to provide tailored responses 
• Collate information from important systems like order management, inventory ledger, and CRMs to boost efficiency and provide self-service options to buyers

Limitations

• Lacks smart typing feature, so agents cannot anticipate the customer's potential messages or replies.
• The platform doesn't send pop-up notifications for customer messages, making agents check the app frequently to provide instant responses to users.

Pricing

• A 14-day free trial
• Suite Team: $55 per user/month (if billed annually) 
• Suite Growth: $89 per user/month (if billed annually) 
• Suite Professional: $115 per user/month (if billed annually) 
• Suite Enterprise: Custom pricing 
• Suite Enterprise Plus: Custom pricing 
• Startups can apply and get Zendesk free for six months.

Ratings

• Capterra: 4.4 (3,900+ reviews) 
• G2: 4.3 (5,800+ reviews)

4. HubSpot

HubSpot’s customer platform offers marketing, sales, and customer service tools—giving teams a unified view of customers at every stage of their journey. 

HubSpot’s live chat software for customer support helps agents enhance customer experience by offering a dialog-driven and interactive experience. 

This live chat is integrated with a chatbot builder so that you can easily create bots to automate routine tasks such as qualifying leads, booking meetings, providing answers to common questions, and focusing on complex conversations. 

Users can customize the chat widget on their website to align with business-specific design themes and send messages that correlate with their brand voice. 

Key features 

• Store all conversations in a universally accessible inbox to facilitate contextual discussions and tailored responses
• Set chat office hours to help customers know when you're available to chat 
• Carry out conversations via Hubspot's mobile app and Slack integration when you're out of the office 

Limitations

• It doesn't automatically send customer chat transcripts via email, and this requires manual effort 
• You cannot see stickers that customers send via WhatsApp chat, and the owner of the CSAT score is not visible in WhatsApp chats 

Pricing

• Get started free
• Hubspot Service Hub for individuals and small teams some text
  • Free: $0 (free for up to 2 users) 
  • Starter: $15/month per seat 
  • Professional: $90 / month per seat 

• Hubspot Service Hub for businesses and enterprisessome text
  • Professional: $90 /month per seat 
  • Enterprise: $150 /month per seat 

Ratings

• Capterra: 4.4 (150+ reviews)
• G2: 4.4 (2,400+ reviews)

5. Intercom

Intercom is an AI-first customer service solution that helps businesses deliver exceptional customer experiences to their users. Intercom’s live chat support system facilitates real-time customer interactions, allows file exchange, and streamlines support operations. 

The live chat customer support software retains the conversation with a buyer, which can be easily resumed even if they drop from a conversation. The live help software also seamlessly integrates with Intercom’s suite of tools, such as email marketing and help centers, providing a unified customer experience. 

Key features

• Bring together support teams, tickets, channels, and customer data in a single workspace (inbox) and enhance collaboration by breaking data silos
• Generate actionable insights from customer history to provide personalized support 
• Advanced automation for tasks such as routing, snoozing, and closing out conversations 

Limitations

• Search functionality needs work since accessing a customer conversation can get time-consuming.
• The platform doesn't notify agents about incoming live messages consistently.

Pricing

• A 14-day free trial
• Essential: $29 per seat/month (if billed annually) 
• Advanced: $85 per seat/month (if billed annually) 
• Expert: $132 per seat/month  (if billed annually) 

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The pricing is for one seat, and you can use Intercom’s pricing calculator to determine the exact pricing for your business. 

Ratings

• Capterra: 4.5 (1060+ reviews)
• G2: 4.5 (3,170+ reviews)

6. Olark

Olark is a live chat and chatbot platform for support teams to enhance customer relationships by providing real-time, hands-on help. With its simple yet functional live chat features, you can engage customers better and move closer to your business goals, such as increased leads, sales, and revenue. 

Collect customer data using customized chatbox forms and empower sales and support teams with powerful contexts such as name, email, team size, product preferences, and problems. 

What separates it from other live chat software solutions is that Olark is an inclusive communication tool. It enables businesses to offer customer support to people with different abilities and promotes diversity, equality, and inclusion.

Key features

• Customize the live chat box according to your brand’s requirements in just a few tweaks.
• Use live chat reports to monitor chat volume, customer satisfaction, and agent activity.
• Get full access to live chat transcripts and uncover insights such as product feedback and customer information.

Limitations

• Olark’s mobile app is limited and not feature-rich, and agents cannot respond to customers using their mobiles.
• Lacks functionalities such as stickers and file sharing options 

Pricing

• A 14-day free trial
• Olark Standard: Starts at $29/month per agent 
• Olark Pro: Custom Pricing

Ratings

• Capterra: 4.5 (470+ reviews)
• G2: 4.3 (220+ reviews)

Why is Plivo CX’s live chat solution the future of business interaction?

Instant and intuitive responses, comprehensive automation, seamless integration, and top-notch security—Plivo CX offers all of these through its robust live chat solution, making it a preferred solution for SMBs and enterprise businesses. 

• Its OpenAI-powered AI chatbot serves as agents’ personal assistant, tackling a wide range of queries
• You can train the chatbot based on your custom company dataset to ensure relevancy and accuracy
• The file-sharing capabilities take the service one step further, helping agents provide targeted solutions
• The enterprise-grade security allows customers to feel comfortable sharing private information
• With features like unified agent desktop, your teams can offer a more impactful customer service experience with less effort

If you are looking to give your customer service a major boost, explore Plivo CX’s live chat solutions.

‍Book a demo today.