Last Updated: November 2024
With live chat accounting for a 40% increase in conversion rates, and chatbots generating 35-40% response rates, it is clear that both these features can do wonders for your business! Drift is a platform that many businesses use, particularly for live chat and chatbots.
Nevertheless, many businesses are now looking for Drift alternatives mainly due to its less transparency in pricing. Surprisingly, there are a variety of choices you can find instead of Drift!
To make your job easy, we’ve compiled a list of the best 16 Drift alternatives for you to consider. Let’s get started!
Drift Alternatives: A Cost Comparison
Alternatives | Pricing Starts At | Pricing Limitation |
Saufter.io | Custom pricing | Custom pricing |
Intercom | Custom pricing according to the number of agents and the people reached out to you. |
|
Freshdesk Messaging | Free plan available |
|
Crisp | Free plan available |
|
Tidio | Free plan available |
|
Top 16 Drift Alternatives & Competitors
- Saufter
- Intercom
- Freshdesk Messaging
- Crisp
- Tidio
- Qualified
- Birdeye
- MobileMonkey
- Landbot
- Ada
- LiveChat
- Zoho Desk
- Zendesk Support Suite
- ManyChat
- Comm100 Live Chat
- LiveAgent
1. Saufter.io
Trusted by more than 1500 companies, Saufter is one of the best Drift alternatives. This CRM tool lets you manage all your customer service activities through a single platform. The live chat feature of this software works as a hybrid model of human and bot interaction.
This Drift alternative provides a 15-day free trial. After that, the pricing plans are categorized as follows:
- Custom pricing
Pros:
- Provides training to agents through AI-powered chatbots, thereby improving their skills. As per data, engaged and knowledgeable employees deliver a better customer experience and close 33% more deals.
- Helps you to set up a customized live chat widget on your website.
- One-click integration option for Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, etc.
- For all plans, unlimited tickets are provided.
Cons:
- All plans include 3 agents. Extra charges are applicable for additional users.
2. Intercom (Overall ratings: 4.4/5⭐, 2,384 reviews)
Intercom is a CRM tool that provides an all-in-one solution for your customer’s journey. It has a unified platform for your sales, marketing, and support teams. It has been shortlisted as an “Established Player” by Capterra in the categories of Live Chat Software and Customer Engagement Software in 2022.
Through this platform, you can leverage your customer engagement by getting in touch with them across every touchpoint. In addition to that, customer relationships can be maintained by employing their personalized, messenger-based experience.
The pricing plans for this tool are as follows:
- Support – Custom pricing
- Engage – Custom pricing
- Convert – Custom pricing
- Starter Plan – $74/month (special plan for very small businesses).
Major businesses using Intercom are Shopify, Living Spaces, Udemy, Unity, etc.
Pros:
- The loading speed of Intercom is just 981 milliseconds, compared to 7.2 seconds of Drift. This is highly relevant since website conversion rates drop by an average of 4.42% with each additional second of load time.
- Comes with a shared inbox feature.
- Easier to use.
Cons:
- Does not provide a free version, and the free trial option is available only for very small businesses.
- Slower to reach ROI.
- Users find the customization feature of Drift more useful.
3. Freshdesk Messaging (Overall ratings: 4.4/5⭐, 2,670 reviews)
This is one of the best Drift alternatives available since it helps you to engage with your customers through almost all messaging apps, including SMS, WhatsApp, Apple Business Chat, Telegram, Facebook, and whatnot!
Their chatbot is equipped with both artificial and human intelligence to provide exceptional customer support. Furthermore, they also guarantee their chatbots reduce handle time with optimized support and thereby improve your CSAT.
A 21-day free trial is available for this product. After that, you can opt for their free version or paid versions. The pricing categories are as follows:
- Growth – $15/agent/month
- Pro – $39/agent/month
- Enterprise – $69/agent/month
Major businesses using Freshdesk Messaging are lenskart.com, Make My Trip, Klarna, Doctaly, and many more.
Pros:
- Best-in-class chatbots that primarily focus on intent and engagement.
- A “Single-Sign-On” feature is available.
- Comes with language detection.
Cons:
- The screen-sharing feature is not available.
- Event-triggered actions are not supported.
- Widgets are absent.
4. Crisp (Overall ratings: 4.5/5⭐, 83 reviews)
This alternative to Drift is a one-stop solution for your customer service, marketing, and sales requirements.
A 14-day free trial is provided by this software. After that, you can opt for either their free or paid plans. The pricing is categorized as follows:
- Pro – $25/month/inbox
- Unlimited – $95/month/inbox
Major businesses using Crisp are Cleartax, Appfigures, CallHippo, Boston University, AitLiquide, and many more.
Pros:
- Provides the features of knowledge base shortcuts and co-browsing that are unavailable in Drift.
- Compared to Drift, this alternative has the feature of video calls during live chat.
- Customer segmentation can be done.
- A network monitoring feature is provided.
Cons:
- A visitor identification feature is not provided by this Drift alternative.
- This Drift alternative cannot connect a calendar like Google or Outlook directly to the chatbox.
- The complaint monitoring feature is absent.
5. Tidio (Overall ratings: 4.7/5⭐, 1,231 reviews)
Tidio is the 3rd most popular live chat software in the USA. This Drift alternative combines the strengths of live chat and chatbots to provide you with strong customer service tools. Their live chat platform can be easily customized for your brand. You can also trust their chatbots for order placement, upselling, and lead generation into the bargain.
This tool has a 7-day free trial. After that, you can go for their free or paid plans. The pricing plans are as follows:
- Starter – $32.50/month
- Team – $65.83/month
- Scale – $332.50/month
Major businesses using Tidio are Vertex Aerospace, Safariland, Printpack, Inc., Falcon Pack, etc.
Pros:
- Through the “Message Sneak-Peek” option, you can see what the user is writing before they send you the message.
- You can add a contact form on your website.
- Huge selection of customizable chatbots.
Cons:
- This Drift alternative does not provide a contact import facility.
- Routing rules between teams cannot be set up.
- Cannot set up follow-up alerts.
6. Qualified (Overall ratings: 4.9/5⭐, 668 reviews)
G2 awarded Qualified as the #1 Pipeline Generation Platform purpose-built for Salesforce. The company helped achieve 400% revenue growth for the companies.
With Qualified, you can drive more sales from your company website through instant conversations. Powered by Salesforce, this software aids you in identifying your potential buyers who are live on your site and start engaging with them. Thus, convert the visitors in the pipeline through one click to start chat, voice, and video conversations.
Get buyer intent and intelligence reports on your Salesforce-connected website to analyze and optimize your outbounds and ad campaigns.
Qualified pricing plans are as follows:
- Growth – Starts at $3500/month (annual billing)
- Premier – $6000/month onwards (annual billing)
- Enterprise – Custom pricing
Major businesses using Qualified are Autodesk, Carta, Salesforce, VMWare, Adobe, SurveyMonkey, etc.
Pros:
- UI – User-friendly interface and intuitive design make the application easy to use.
- Integrations – Easily integrates with third-party tech stacks.
- Support – Customer support is very responsive. The company allots a Customer Success Manager (CSM) for all the required user support.
- Reports – In-depth analytics and help articles enable data-based learning for your support teams to enhance their performance.
Cons:
- Internal collaboration – Team communication within the chat conversation is not possible.
- No recording – Cannot record video conversations.
7. Birdeye (Overall ratings: 4.8/5⭐, 1647 reviews)
Trusted by over 90K local brands and businesses, Birdeye offers the highest-rated customer experience platform to grow your business. It creates a stellar online reputation for your brand by collecting and showcasing reviews.
Easy-to-use and scalable tools help you engage with your customers efficiently and grow sales. This is an all-in-one messaging platform across various channels including Google, social media, and more. Digital payments, surveys, and insights give you a detailed analysis to understand and deliver improved customer experience.
You can try Birdeye Social for free by signing up on their website.
The pricing plans of Birdeye are as follows:
- Standard – Custom quote
- Professional – Custom quote
- Premium – Custom quote
Major businesses using Birdeye are Southern Career Institute, Hughston Clinic, Saxton Group, Custom Lawn and Landscape, etc.
Pros:
- Review automation – Use automated review collection and management tools to build brand trust. Now you can respond to hundreds or thousands of reviews in auto-mode.
- Integrations – Connects with over 3000 software for seamless messaging conversations.
Cons:
- Subscription – Requires additional third-party subscription for some integrations like Woocommerce, etc.
- Cancellation – No cancellation of any subscribed plan is possible with Birdeye.
- Support – Often users have reviewed that the company support team does not respond promptly.
8. MobileMonkey (Overall ratings: 4.9/5⭐, 301 reviews)
“A Chatbot report estimates that using Chatbots save $390 Billion from the total costs of customer service in the whole of the US.” – MobileMonkey.
MobileMonkey allows you to instantly chat with your customers using its Omnichannel technology, on multiple messaging channels like Messenger, Instagram, web chat, and SMS. It also lets you build chatbots easily without using any code.
These chatbots interact with your customers in a conversational tone. They automatically respond to messages, capture leads, and route messages to the right team.
There is a free forever special edition which you can claim by clicking here. Additionally, get free access to MobileMonkey Omnichat tools for a week.
For the pricing plans of MobileMonkey, you need to contact the company. We have given the links for the same, below.
Major businesses using MobileMonkey are Carloans Canada, SEO.US, Yogaclub, Hush Puppies, Toyota, etc.
Pros:
- UI – The platform is easy to use.
- Automation – Sends mass messages automatically.
- Building SMS bots – It gives you the ability to build personalized SMS chatbots easily.
- Integrations – Zapier integrations, webhook connections, and Chatbot API connect with all your marketing stack.
Cons:
- Integrations – Unfortunately, MobileMonkey does not connect with WhatsApp.
- Live chat – You will not receive live chat updates in real-time.
- Support – No onboarding support is available at the time of software installation.
9. Landbot (Overall ratings: 4.7/5⭐, 250 reviews)
Individuals, startups, and small to enterprise-size businesses can avail of Landbot solutions to cut down their operational costs. Similar to MobileMonkey, with Landbot too, you can build codeless chatbots that are mobile and web-optimized. Deploy this Drift alternative in your own website, applications, and channels using comprehensive API and SDK.
Website chatbot and WhatsApp automation tools help you engage with your visitors instantly and increase conversion rates. This software has won Leader, High Performer, Fastest Implementation, and Easy to Use awards from G2 for the current year.
A free trial is available on all the paid plans of Landbot to test and try its features with your business. Need not give your credit card info. We have given the trial link below.
Landbot pricing structure offers two tiers for the website and WhatsApp individually. Also, the pricing is given in Euros. But here we convert it into USD for your convenience. When you opt for annual billing, you get an additional 20% offer.
Website plans are:
- Sandbox – Free forever
- Starter – $32/month
- Pro – $85/month
- Business – Custom pricing starting from $320/month.
WhatsApp plans are:
- Pro – $160/month
- Business – Custom pricing starting from $320/month.
Major businesses using Landbot are Nestle, Cocacola, Hotelbeds, Allianz, etc.
Pros:
- Integrations – Native integrations with HubSpot, Slack, Google Sheets, Stripe, and more are available within Landbot. Other connections are also possible using Webhooks and APIs.
- Workflows – Simplifies even the complex workflows for you to use easily.
- Support – The team renders excellent customer service.
Cons:
- PayPal – Direct PayPal integration is yet to be available.
- Landbot branding – Despite subscribing to advanced plans, you cannot remove the Landbot branding.
- Integration limitations – To connect Landbot with any CRM solution, then you need to use Zapier as an intermediary tool.
10. Ada (Overall ratings: 4.5/5⭐, 141 reviews)
Services in common between Drift and Ada are Conversational support, conversational marketing, Chatbots, and customer self-service. Yet, Ada can also be considered as an alternative to Drift as it offers tailor-made conversational AI solutions in any language across channels.
Ada bot enables conversations through web chat, Facebook Messenger, Voice calls, and SMS. So far, Ada users have automated 4+ Billion conversations with a 77% resolution rate and 10x faster training. G2 recognized Ada as the leading customer service automation company for the year 2022.
It has 3 different pricing plans with varied functionalities.
- Core – Custom quote
- Advanced – Custom quote
- Pro – Custom quote
Major businesses using Ada are AirAsia, BFA Industries, Balsam Hill, Top Hat, Wattpad, Qapital, etc.
Pros:
- Set up – Requires zero technical knowledge to build bots using an easy drag-drop feature.
- Self-service – Easy to create and train answers into the workflow. This automation resolves most of the simplest customer queries.
- Support – Get an exclusive success manager providing you with ongoing support.
Cons:
- Functionality limitations – Image sharing over the Ada chat requires Zendesk or Salesforce integration.
- Report limitations – Does not generate in-depth reports. Neither custom reports generation is available. Even, exporting reports directly to Excel sheet format is not possible with this Drift alternative.
11. LiveChat (Overall ratings: 4.5/5⭐, 743 reviews)
Automate your customer service using LiveChat AI along with ticketing and knowledge base tools. This Drift alternative also enables seamless omnichannel messaging through email, SMS, social apps, web chat, and more.
Using LiveChat tools, you can even boost your store sales through chats by displaying products effectively. Its intelligent machine-learning algorithm anticipates your customer’s questions and solves them proactively.
Look at the LiveChat pricing structure below. A 14-day free trial period is allowed on all these paid plans. No need to give your credit card info.
- Starter – $20/month per agent (annual billing) or $24 for month-to-month.
- Team – $41/month per agent (annual billing) or $49 for month-to-month.
- Business – $59/month per agent (annual billing) or $69 for month-to-month.
- Enterprise – Custom pricing and individual contract on annual billing.
Major businesses using LiveChat are McDonald’s, Mercedes Benz, Adobe, PayPal, Unilever, etc.
Pros:
- Integrations – 200+ connections are available in the LiveChat marketplace to combine CRM, payments, analytics, and more tools you use.
- Analytics – Comprehensive reports including your daily website visitors, chat support metrics, etc help you make informed decisions.
- Feedback – Collect real-time feedback from the customers through chat surveys.
Cons:
- Chatbot – There is no in-built chatbot feature available with LiveChat. It requires a paid third-party integration.
- Pricing – Users feel LiveChat is highly priced comparatively with stringent limitations on the number of agents log in.
- Routing issues – For an enterprise-size organization, this software automatically redirects support conversations to different channels during high volumes.
12. Zoho Desk (Overall ratings: 4.4/5⭐, 4393 reviews)
Over 100K businesses around the world use Zoho Desk for their customer service purposes. It has won Crozdesk’s Quality Choice badge and G2’s Highest Satisfaction award in 2022, apart from featuring on Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for CRM in 2021.
Similar to Drift, Zoho Desk offers you omnichannel support solutions along with self-service tools. In addition to the regular analytics reports, get insightful customer sentiment analysis that is useful to prioritize and provide prompt solutions. Perfect SLA management helps you streamline your support workflows and achieve a faster resolution rate.
At Zoho Desk, there are no hidden charges or initial setup fees. They do not ask you to sign any contracts and even plan switching is hassle-free. Moreover, go for the annual billing cycle and get an additional 35% discount. And so, you can try the following plans free for 15 days before subscribing.
- Standard – $15/month per user
- Professional – $25/month per user
- Enterprise – $39/month per user
Major businesses using Zoho Desk are Daimler, Zomato, Godrej, Essilor, McAfee, etc.
Pros:
- Integrations – Zoho Desk has got over 45 native apps and 200+ third-party extensions.
- Support desk – Automation and ticket management system eases customer service operations.
- Team collaboration – This software makes internal collaboration among the teams easy.
- Customization – Easy ‘White Label’ functionality and other devices per se customizations are also available with Zoho Desk.
Cons:
- Analytics – You need to integrate with an advanced analytics application to get a detailed breakdown of all helpdesk metrics.
- Mobile app – The mobile version of the Zoho desk app is not optimized to give a browser-like performance.
- High price – Some small business entrepreneurs say that a few advanced features are highly priced.
- SSO – Single sign-on is not available by default.
13. Zendesk Support Suite (Overall ratings: 4.3/5⭐, 5485 reviews)
As you can see above, Zendesk Support Suite is one of the highly rated applications on G2 with a Best Software award for the current year.
Like all the other Drift alternatives, the Zendesk support suite also lets you have customer conversations over multiple channels including email, call, SMS, social, Apple Business chat, and more. Yet, it organizes all the customer context in one unified agent workspace as tickets.
It is a CRM helpdesk platform where you can create and customize AI-powered self-service portals including Knowledge Base, forums, etc. When you subscribe to advanced Zendesk Suite plans like Suite Professional and Suite Enterprise, you will get additional data security.
Zendesk Support Suite pricing plans are categorized into two segments. Find them below. There is a free trial available with all of them.
Foundational support plans are:
- Support Team – $19/month per agent [annual billing].
- Support Professional – $49/month per agent [annual billing].
- Support Enterprise – $99/month per agent [annual billing].
Zendesk Suite plans are:
- Suite Team – $49/month per agent [annual billing].
- Suite Growth – $79/month per agent [annual billing].
- Suite Professional – $99/month per agent [annual billing].
- Suite Enterprise – $150/month per agent [annual billing].
- Enterprise-ready plan – Custom pricing starting from $215/month per agent [annual billing].
Major businesses using the Zendesk support suite are Dev Factory, Siemens, HotDoc, Trust & Will, Furlenco, etc.
Pros:
- Automations – Seamless canned responses and bot resolutions help you achieve a faster support resolution rate.
- SLA – Prioritizes and alerts your agents timely to ensure all the tickets are responded to.
- Help-center – Public and internal help documentation enhances both your agents’ and customers’ learning.
Cons:
- Chat – The chat widget developed by Zopim is very complex to adapt, as it requires double configuration on two different dashboards. This also confuses the agent permission settings.
- High price – Users feel that the company keeps increasing the plans’ prices.
- Support – Phone support is not available to the users. You can only raise tickets.
14. ManyChat (Overall ratings: 4.6/5⭐, 133 reviews)
Automate interactive conversations over Instagram DMs, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and SMS using this Meta partner, ManyChat. This can be a good Drift alternative as it provides AI-enabled conversational marketing and support tools.
Like a couple of other tools here, ManyChat too allows you to build automated workflows using a simple visual drag-drop builder. It keeps your conversation continuous across channels and also captures potential leads.
Over 1 million businesses trust ManyChat for their customer engagement purposes. According to G2, ManyChat is the #1 omnichannel platform preference for D2C businesses, retailers, non-profit organizations, and restaurants, globally.
ManyChat offers two plans and they are:
- Free – $0/month to engage up to 1000 contacts for free. No charges on your card too.
- Pro – Starts from $15/month. This cost varies depending on your contacts count.
Major businesses using ManyChat are TBS, Benefit Cosmetics, Superstar Bots, etc.
Pros:
- UI – Easy to set up and has a user-friendly interface. Out-of-the-box Instagram DM automation lets you start instant chat support.
- Tutorials – Video tutorials are available to guide you right from the installation to usage and updates.
- Integrations – Shopify, Google Sheets, MailChimp, HubSpot, and a thousand more connections to combine and streamline your daily workflows.
Cons:
- Free version limitations – Very limited integrations are available with the free plan.
- Translation – Language translation tools need some improvement.
15. Comm100 Live Chat (Overall ratings: 4.2/5⭐, 27 reviews)
Yet another Omnichannel customer engagement platform Drift alternative, Comm100 serves education, government, and commercial organizations. Your agents can now serve your customers from anywhere over any device – desktop/laptop or mobile phone.
There are some add-on features like AI Chatbots, Voice Bot, Outreach, and Agent Assist within this software. These tools help you in providing automated and proactive solutions to your customers 24/7 even when you are not around.
Try this software free for 15 days where you can test the Live Chat Plus edition tools with your business format.
You will get three pricing packages to choose from. Besides, avail of the above-mentioned add-ons for extra charges. For more info on this, click the check pricing button below.
- Live Chat Startup – $39/agent/month
- Live Chat Plus – $69/agent/month
(If you choose annual billing on both the above plans, you can save an additional 20%)
- Live Chat Ultra – Custom quote
Major businesses using Comm100 Live Chat are Thompson Rivers University, Stanford University, Colgate, Lake Michigan Credit Union, etc.
Pros:
- Security – With Comm100 your data is tightly secured under AICPA, HIPAA, PCI, GDPR, and ISO guidelines.
- UI – This software too seems to have impressed many users with its easy-to-use interface.
- Dashboard – View your real-time visitors’ info on the dashboard to enable instant messaging assistance.
- Team collaboration – Tools like team chat help your agents and teams render coordinated support.
Cons:
- Language customization – Manual switching of languages is not possible. It works only in auto mode.
- Customizations – Not many widget visual customization options are available.
16. LiveAgent (Overall ratings: 4.5/5⭐, 1426 reviews)
The last on the list of Drift alternatives, LiveAgent is an omnichannel helpdesk software with live chat, automation, social integrations, and call center capabilities. LiveAgent is recognized as a popular software on Sourceforge, Capterra, and Software Advice platforms.
Get to try the Professional plan features for a free trial period of 7 days by providing a free email or 30 days with company email. You don’t have to give credit card information.
When you check their website, you will find four pricing plans that can be upgraded or canceled at any time. You can start without paying any set-up fees or contracts.
- Free – Forever free plan that offers you basic support tools.
- Ticket – $15/agent/month
- Ticket + Chat – $29/agent/month
- All-inclusive – $49/agent/month
Major businesses using LiveAgent are Forbes, Airbus, NASCAR, University of Southern California, eSKY, etc.
Pros:
- UI – Though the software is packed with features, it is still easy to install and use
- Integrations – LiveAgent can readily connect with 216 CRM, marketing, billing, monitoring, eCommerce, and chatbot tools.
- Geolocation – Identifies and shows you the location of your customers.
- Push notifications – The ability to send instant chat notifications to your live website visitors helps you offer instant proactive support.
Cons:
- Pricing structure – You need to pay extra money for every social channel separately, to integrate and use. Some users claim that the software is highly priced.
- Custom domain – Requires you to manually install SSL in case you use your custom domain.
- Idle account – If you don’t log into your LiveAgent account for a long time, then it will become inactive automatically.
To Sum It Up:
Even though Drift is one of the best customer service tools, it has its shortcomings. If you are currently using Drift and want to switch from it, we have provided you with the top five options you can choose from. Prioritize your customer service and business needs before finalizing one and achieving better leads.
If you are on the lookout for a trusted name to outsource your customer service, Saufter is just a phone call away. Our customized pricing plans are budget-friendly and personalized for your business needs. Feel free to reach out!