Our guide on live chat support described the potential and ad­van­tages of this modern support solution. It’s clear that al­ter­na­tive support services are becoming more important and already play a crucial role when gen­er­at­ing and retaining customers. This improved customer service is quick and easy to set up; like the web analytics tool, Google Analytics, live chat software can be in­te­grat­ed into your web project using a line of code and then easily managed through the dashboard. If you plan to enhance your web project through a live chat, you’ve probably asked yourself: which live chat provider offers the best software?

What is live chat software?

In order to compare the various live chat software providers, you first need to know the basic criteria for such services. It depends on your needs, your expertise, and the size of your project. The tool boasting the most functions isn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly the best solution for your website. A free live chat is not nec­es­sar­i­ly inferior to a chat that you have to pay for, but the latter is usually as­so­ci­at­ed with more effort and know-how regarding server con­fig­u­ra­tion and pro­gram­ming. The four eval­u­a­tion criteria are:

  • Costs: programs can be roughly divided into paid and free. Different payment options such as monthly sub­scrip­tions or a one-time license purchase play an important part. Some of the fee-based live chat tools come with free lite versions.

  • Scope: the scope is all about what options the software offers regarding chat design and pre­sen­ta­tion to website visitors. It’s important to decide whether contact is made au­to­mat­i­cal­ly, whether files are trans­ferred via the chat, or whether a ticket system is included.

  • Usability: this is an important factor here, as with any other software. A feature-rich program that is too complex or difficult to un­der­stand can be trou­ble­some for beginners. This also applies if the software is to be installed on your own webserver, for example.

  • Security: chat data is only located on your own server with self-hosted tools. If the data is located with your chosen live chat provider, the provider should take the relevant safety pre­cau­tions. En­crypt­ing con­ver­sa­tions with SSL is also rec­om­mend­ed. 

Overview of the main live chat providers

LiveChat Zopim LiveAgent tawk.to Mibew Lime Talk
Monthly sub­scrip­tion X X
One-time license X X X X X
Price tag high high medium free free low
Free lite version X X - - X
Chat history
Ticket system X X
SSL en­cryp­tion X X X
Visitor mon­i­tor­ing
File transfer X X
Proactive chats X
Pop-up chats X
Embedded chats X X X
Com­mer­cial chats X X X X X X
Automatic chat in­vi­ta­tions X
Chat for mobile devices X
Design templates X
Mobile apps
Desktop version X X X
Transfer chats/tickets to col­leagues
Offline mode
Video chat X X X X X

Con­clu­sion

The overview of the seven very different live chat options il­lus­trates just how versatile the pos­si­bil­i­ties are for website operators. The quality of the functions also varies among the different items mentioned above, e.g. regarding data analysis or the retention period of chat messages. Once you’ve defined your goals and abilities, it will be easier to search for the relevant software.

For example, if you’re looking for a program that you can host on your own server, LiveAgent or the free program, Miweb, are your best options. You need to be familiar with in­stalling and managing the tasks. If you really can’t decide which program to choose, you can register for a trial version, which generally lasts between two and four weeks.

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