The Best Live Chat Software of 2020

Chief among the reasons LiveHelpNow stands above their counterparts in our research is the long list of supported features that not only streamline the front-facing conversation with customers but also makes things more manageable for operators and managers.

One of those features aimed at making things easier for the general public is real-time language translation. The internet is used by billions of people around the world, so in the event that someone from another part of the world is interested in your business, LiveHelpNow relies on its integrated Google Translate functionality to parse what's being said. Customers type in their preferred language, and the application translates instantly into your implementation language.

To ensure customers receive the best service in other ways, LiveHelpNow also has a routing system that filters guests according to needs such as sales, billing or technical support. If a customer has a question, but there are no available operators to field it, an offline form can be offered to send the question in to the team. Once received, a team member can answer the question and reply at their earliest convenience.

On the other side of the conversation, operators and managers can leverage LiveHelpNow's tools to better understand their customers' needs and wants. Powered by an intuitive dashboard interface, LiveHelpNow comes with some of the more expected features like canned responses and proactive chat, which help kick-start a conversation with web visitors. When a conversation starts, LiveHelpNow can provide operators with information on the person they're talking to: their geographical location, what pages on the site they've visited and a look at their public social profiles. With that kind of information on hand, a good operator can tailor their responses to the person they're serving.

Along with LiveHelpNow's chat functionality, the service allows for users to fully customize their chat's aesthetics to match the business's branding. For businesses that rely on a range of commercial software, LiveHelpNow integrates with dozens of today's top software options. Security-minded users can also rest easy, thanks to LiveHelpNow's use of 256-bit SSL encryption and transparent data encryption as well as their adherence to HIPAA and PCI regulations.

LiveHelpNow's pricing structure is based on the number of agents who will use the service. Their website has a handy calculator to figure out the price based on your needs. For a team with just one agent accessing the service, businesses can expect to pay $21 per month, or $226.80 if billed annually. The price goes up as more people get access to the system.

While we found their prices to be a little higher than some other options, we felt that LiveHelpNow's overall excellence warranted the slightly higher price tag. For anyone on the fence about the service, the company can schedule a live demo, though it also provides a free 30-day trial if you want a more hands-on approach.

Along with their video capabilities, Comm100's general live chat functionality also excels compared to their competitors. The overall system supports the use of ready-made responses, proactive chat, an offline form for customers to use when they need an answer after regular business hours, and automatic translation services covering 13 languages.

With a mobile-friendly interface that supports Android and Apple devices, users and operators alike can converse wherever they may be. The system supports Mac, Windows and Linux installations, with the option to be used as an onsite piece of software to be hosted on a physical server at higher service tiers. An AI-powered chatbot is also available for use in the system, though that requires an additional fee. Other nonstandard features can be added to the platform through one of its many supported software integrations.

Managers can also benefit from the use of Comm100's communications suite, since it offers message-routing features, a pre- and post-chat survey of a customer's experience, and real-time agent and visitor monitoring functionality at all service levels. Through the service's comprehensive data reporting system, managers can quantify and understand how their customers are interacting with the company site, the live chat agents on staff and their likeliness to commit to a purchase after their chat, among other items.

As for the platform's security measures, managers can further bolster security by banning specific IPs or IP ranges from the website altogether. Furthermore, Comm100 is SOC 2 Type II compliant, ISO 27001 certified, PCI and HIPAA compliant, and has the options for credit card masking and visitor single sign-on. The platform is hosted in a secure data center and is TLS encrypted.

While we liked what we saw with Comm100, we were somewhat disappointed that the video chat feature required a business account. Like many live chat providers, their pricing is based on service tiers and the number of users expected per month. Comparing their monthly per agent rate of $49 for a Business Live Chat account versus their Team Live Chat account at $29 per month, per agent, it's a more expensive option than other live chat service providers.

Along with their deep roster of integration options, LiveChat offers a solid multiplatform SaaS chat solution. The service offers many of the main features you would expect from a live chat solution, such as canned responses, geotargeting functionality, proactive chat and customizable branding.

A clean and understandable dashboard is available for operators and managers alike. Its host environment enables operators to access the tools, webpages, canned messages and background information it needs to properly engage customers. Additional tools allow operators to add multiple tags to chat logs so that answers to frequently asked questions can be used to reply to new queries. Visitor tracking allows operators to see when someone visits the site, which web browser they're using and the customer's native language. Operators can also call up any past chat history and the search terms used that brought them to the site in the first place.

Through LiveChat's data reporting features, managers can view chat ratings given through customer-run surveys, check up on an operator's efficiency and even monitor ongoing chats to keep a close eye on how the company is being represented. In that last example, managers can then take advantage of LiveChat's Whisper function, which allows you to type comments directly into the chat window that only the operator will see. Other reports include things like how many times an operator offers a coupon or incentive and turns a hesitant visitor into a purchasing customer. Customer satisfaction can be charted based on post-chat surveys, and you can see how an operator has been rated by customers, among other reports made available through the software.

Aside from features found in LiveChat's backend, more front-facing features make the experience of chatting with a company representative easier for web visitors. While chatting with a representative, users can have their conversations on most Apple or Android devices, as well as PC, Mac and Linux-powered desktop computers. Files can easily be transferred in the chat window, though screen sharing and co-browsing functionality require additional integrations.

Every chat is SSL 256-bit encrypted and stored in the cloud. You can personalize access for individual operators by allowing them to see as much or as little information as is appropriate or by disabling their ability to share files. If you notice spamming or inappropriate visitor chats, LiveChat lets you block a visitor's IP address, barring that person from further contact with the company.

LiveChat's pricing follows the industry model of charging per month and per agent. The company's prices are relatively reasonable, with the Starter tier charging $16 per month, per agent, if billed annually, and $19 per month, per operator. Each following tier comes with more features, with the Team tier costing $33 per month, per operator billed annually ($39 if billed month to month), while Business goes for $50 per month, per operator when billed annually ($59 if billed month to month). The Enterprise tier requires an individual contract, so pricing is not available. There's also a 14-day free trial if you would like to evaluate the service before committing.

While there was plenty to like with LiveChat, some things were a little worrisome. While looking at the company's list of integrations, we noticed that many came with additional fees. When considering your needs against the total cost those needs would bring, LiveChat's reasonable rates could balloon past your business's budget.

While a predominantly SaaS platform that can run on any browser, Provide Support has apps for iOS and Android devices as well as a native Windows desktop app. In both instances, operators have access to robust features at their fingertips. With the company's real-time visitor monitoring suite, operators can immediately see how many people are visiting the website, where those visitors are located, details about their web browser and operating system, as well as things like what keywords they used to search for the site and what website they left to get there. That level of information on a customer can help inform the conversation as it happens, giving the operator the most insight into how they can help.

As for the user experience on Provide Support, the live chat window is fully customizable, letting a business set its visual style to the company's overall branding aesthetic. During setup, businesses can make it so the chat window can do things like set whether it will be embedded into the website or opened as a popup window, or movable and resizable on the screen. Throughout the conversation, both parties can see when the other is typing out a response. Additionally, the platform has multilingual support for nearly 30 languages and a spell checker for 12.

Security is also handled well by Provide Support, despite the price. All chats are handled over an encrypted connection, with additional privacy settings available in the platform's dashboard. Furthermore, Provide Support is GDPR compliant. For further security, managers can use an IP-blocking feature to either keep a single IP or an entire IP range from accessing the site, blocking potential bad actors from ever wasting your operators' time.

Like other solutions, Provide Support charges by the month and by the operator. Unlike many other platforms, however, the service allows it to be installed on an unlimited number of websites or individual webpages. According to the company's pricing structure, the Small Business tier allows for a single operator and costs $8.25 per month. At the Corporate tier, three operators are allowed for $16.50 a month. The Enterprise tier allows for 10 operators at $33 per month. It should be noted that these prices are for plans billed at an annual rate.

Though Provide Support impressed us with their feature set and low price, it is missing some key tools. There is no video chat support, nor is there a co-browsing feature. We were also a little put off by the lack of reporting functionality aside from the use of Google Analytics. Not being able to make informed decisions based on collected data is an oversight that some users may consider a bridge too far.

Still, if you're looking for an affordable live chat solution that's packed with features, you can't go wrong with Provide Support.

When chatting with a potential customer, operators using Velaro get access to a large amount of customer data that can help them better understand the needs of the other person on the conversation. Through the software's real-time website visitor monitoring functionality, operators can customize their desktop view to quickly parse that information. Once in that view, operators can determine which customers would benefit from live chat support and then deploy a proactive chat invitation. Velaro also employs "intelligent engagement," a marketing tool that gives your chat operators options to view information about your web visitors. Right from the operator dashboard, an agent can see the customer's name, browser, country and the webpages they are visiting from.

The agent can also apply filters that highlight a customer's specific needs and act as another marketing tool. With this corporate chat software, your marketing team can methodically track the search engines and keywords that bring customers to your site. In addition, the operator's chat window can focus on visitors that have lingered on a certain page, set off various SEO or site triggers, have high-volume shopping carts, or have trouble with shipment information or filling out a membership form. Whatever your visitors are doing on your site, your operators are informed and alerted immediately.

To better serve potential customers, Velaro can integrate with numerous popular commercial software suites. For example, the platform's exceptional shopping cart and CRM integration helps businesses that rely on e-commerce to encourage customers to complete their checkout process. If the sale is not completed promptly, the software allows the operator to send an incentive or coupon to help sway the customer to complete the transaction. Other major integration options include CRM, help desk systems and e-commerce applications, such as Salesforce, NetSuite, Magento, Microsoft CRM and Zendesk.

Aside from their integrations, Velaro offers several other powerful features that any business can successfully leverage, like tiered chat routing to help ensure customers get sent to the right department for help, native file-sharing capabilities, and automatic translation functionality powered by Google Translate.

Since live chat often deals with sensitive customer data, Velaro helps with enterprise security built on a Microsoft ASP.NET framework. Data is stored in a Tier 1 SAAS Type II secure data center, though you can also store data on the server of your choice. Other security features include the ability to disable file transfers as well as record and archive chat transcripts and email. You can also encrypt chat transcripts or ban a user by blocking their IP address.

As one of the more powerful solutions found in our research, Velaro also ended up as one of the most expensive. The company offers two main service tiers: Small Business and Professional. Both tiers offer varying levels of service, with Small Business costing $64.95 per user, per month and Professional charging $179.95 per user, per month. The company offers an Enterprise tier as well, though that setup is custom tailored to your company's needs and requires a consultation with Velaro's sales department for a price quote.

While we were impressed with Velaro's powerful tools, we did find the lack of video chat and co-browsing features a curious omission from such an expensive service. Ultimately, the high price tag may be the biggest deterrent for most companies since the service is really aimed at larger companies from the get-go.