Top 7 Drift Chat Alternatives for SaaS Companies in 2024 Sarah Chan Rejante March 01, 2024
Personalization matters.
The shift to digital over the past few years has made consumers hungrier for a personalized experience—more so than ever before.
McKinsey & Company conducted a study that revealed that the majority of consumers (71%) expect companies to provide them with personalized interactions, and an overwhelming majority (76%) become agitated when this does not occur.
It's crucial for businesses to get to know their customers in order to provide them with a unique customer journey tailored to their needs.
One of the best ways to gain valuable customer insights is by implementing a live chat software because the majority of customers (73%) consider live chat to be the most pleasant way to interact with a company, based on Invesp's research.
Including a live chat tool on your website encourages visitors who express buying intent to connect with you and provide key customer information such as their ideal features, pain points, and more.
Today, we'll be focusing on Drift, a popular live chat software provider, and the best Drift alternatives for you to try in 2024.
What is Drift?
Drift is a conversational marketing platform, which they refer to as their "Conversational Marketing Cloud," geared towards B2B SaaS and ecommerce companies.
Their three main products are:
Drift Conversational Marketing—a customer messaging platform that connects marketing teams with website visitors in order to provide personalized experiences and qualify leads in real-time.
Drift Conversational Sales—a sales tool that promotes sales growth by providing real-time buyer insights, promoting collaboration within sales teams, and helping sales reps start more conversations.
Drift Conversational Service—a personalized customer care tool focused on connecting live agents with the most complex cases by using AI chatbots to service low-level issues and answer frequently asked questions.
Drift is ideal for reaching customers interested in your product who may have questions but are not yet ready to take the plunge and jump on a sales call.
Pros
Seamless integration with a wide variety of third-party software
Improves productivity amongst sales and customer support teams
Easy to use and user-friendly interface
Cons
Pricing options can get quite expensive
Chatbot solution does not support social media integrations, SMS Messaging, Facebook messenger or WhatsApp
Multi-team support is only available for Enterprise plan members
Ideal for: Companies looking for streamlined customer support, rapid growth, and the ability to field large numbers of questions efficiently and effectively.
Integrations: Drift integrates with a wide variety of websites and applications including Zapier, Salesforce, Marketo, Hubspot and more.
Price: Drift offers three plans. Premium, which is recommended for small businesses, costs $2,500 per month when billed annually. For larger businesses, Drift recommends reaching out to their team to discuss pricing for their Advanced and custom Enterprise plans.
What are the best drift alternatives in 2024?
Drift's high price point may not make this ideal for everyone. For those looking for Drift chat alternatives to improve B2C or B2B sales, check out our top 7 picks!
1. Glass.io
An innovative Drift chatbot alternative, Glass.io is a way to interact with people who visit your website. It enables you to view their screens in real time and begin a conversational experience with video, audio, and chat. This provides a more individualized experience than what Drift offers by allowing face-to-face interaction.
Pros
Easy to install (a Javascript)
Currently, the only service that allows you to see visitor screens in real time
Also allows for instant video and voice conversations within your website or app
Provides higher response rates vs. email outreach and marketing bots
Fraction of the cost of Drift
A great option for customer onboarding
Cons
The product is in an early-access program
Does not have as many integrations as other live chat tools
Ideal for: Businesses wanting to provide personalized attention at critical stages in a customer journey (purchase evaluation, demo booking, concierge onboarding, etc.).
Integrations: Slack, Salesforce, Pipedrive, and Hubspot CRM.
Price: Starts at $200/mo.
2. RightDesk
RightDesk is an AI live chat support web app for small businesses in need of a free, easy-to-use ticketing system with powerful automation and reporting features.
A robust yet simple help desk solution that excels in ticket management and automation, RightDesk is designed with small business needs in mind, it allows teams to manage support tickets effectively across multiple channels and offers tools to streamline workflows with minimal technical setup.
Pros
RightDesk’s ticketing system allows for easy creation, assignment, prioritization, and tracking of tickets.
Build a self-service repository to help customers find answers to common questions, reducing repetitive inquiries.
Always be available to customers in real-time, offering immediate support when needed through always-on AI live chat support
RightDesk integrates seamlessly with CRM and project management tools, creating a connected ecosystem that enhances workflow and data flow.
Cons
The tool is relatively new to the CRM landscape and has few user reviews at the point of writing this.
Ideal for: RightDesk is an ideal choice for small businesses seeking a no-cost solution with robust ticketing, automation, chatbot contact system, and reporting capabilities. Its straightforward design and powerful tools help small teams manage support efficiently without a hefty price tag.
Price: Free!
2. Qualified
Another alternative to Drift chat is Qualified. Revenue teams that use Salesforce will love Qualified. Qualified is a pipeline generation platform that uses analytics and insights from your website to qualify leads and help sales teams start more effective conversations.
Pros
Offers advertising management tools that draw customer insights from the website to maximize ad spend and focus on high-intent buyers
Offers a variety of conversational marketing tools include live chat, voice-calls, video, and chatbots
Cons
Pricing options are higher than other Drift alternatives
Social media integrations are only available for advertising features
Ideal for: Salesforce users. Qualified is built for Salesforce, on the Salesforce Platform, and founded by Salesforce executives.
Integrations: Salesforce, Hubsport, Marketo, Eloqua and more.
Price: Starts at $3,500 per month for its Growth plan.
3. Hubspot Service Hub
Wondering about Drift vs Hubspot and how they compare? Hubspot Service Hub is a free-to-use customer support software that keeps your customer conversations and data in one place. Scale your support using their ticketing feature, automation software, and self-service tools.
For anyone looking for Drift alternatives, this customer support software is worth a look.
Pros
Free to start
Easy to set up and easy to use
Comes with Hubspot's CRM
Customer reports from service analytics
Cons
No social media integrations
Limited features for the ticketing function
Less customization options than other Drift alternatives
Advanced features and support for bigger teams can get pricy
Ideal for: Existing Hubspot CRM users and small businesses looking for a free customer support solution.
Integrations: Hubspot CRM
Price: Free plan to start; paid options start at $50/month.
4. Mobile Monkey
Mobile Monkey is a great Drift alternative for businesses looking to communicate with customers in real-time using chatbots. Build chatbots, qualify leads, and gain real-time customer insights which you can re-use in your email and SMS outreach as you nurture your leads down-funnel. They also provide a mobile phone app for iPhone and Android.
Pros
No coding experience required to build chatbots
Easy to set up and easy to use
Great customer support
Chat history remains in 1 inbox
Cons
Limited AI offerings; only offers keyword recognition
No visual flow builder
No direct eCommerce integrations, but possible through Zapier
Ideal for: Those with little to no coding knowledge base who want to create chatbots for their website or Facebook messenger.
Integrations: Facebook messenger, Zapier, Google Sheets, Livechat
Price: Starts at $119/month billed annually.
5. Birdeye
Birdeye is a reputation and customer experience platform that—as its name suggests—enables businesses to have a bird's eye view of your customer's experience. Birdeye is one of the more comprehensive Drift alternatives and its offerings include ticketing, chat, customer surveys, analytics, and more.
Pros
Offers advanced reporting, analytics and website visitor insights
Integrates with Google Analytics
Chat window customization including greetings, chat icons, and colors
Offers online review monitoring and solicitation
Cons
Limited visibility from mobile app; desktop app provides full access
No free plan
Limited customer support
Ideal for: Mid/large-sized businesses looking for an all-in-one platform that offers review management.
Integrations: MailChimp, Zapier, Google Analytics, Salesforce and more.
Price: From $299/month.
6. Podium
Podium is an interaction and reputation management platform that focuses on building successful SMS message marketing campaigns. Podium is one of the more niche Drift alternatives, however, it does offer additional services including a webchat tool for your website and payment solutions.
Pros
Highly user-friendly
Reviews solicited through Podium immediately get displayed on your Google Business page
Webchat widget connects between website and app for seamless customer relationship management
Cons
Can be pricy for some small businesses
Integrations are complicated to set up and require customer support assistance
Mobile app offers less features than desktop app
Ideal for: Small business owners and marketing professionals
Integrations: Google Business
Price: Starts at $286/month. Unlimited features start at $470/month.
7. Signals
Signals is a deal-driven signal marketing platform that provides real-time intelligence by tracking engagement on your website. Signals is one of the best Drift alternatives on the market, and includes a wide variety of features including live chat software, chatbots and email management.
Signals was selected as part of G2's 2023 Best Software Awards for its focus on signal marketing.
Pros
Streamlined account engagement platform
Instant phone call feature helps qualify leads faster
Custom chatbot builder allows for increased personalization
Cons
No video chat option
No free plan, pricing on the higher side
Ideal for: Mid/large businesses looking for an all-in-one Drift alternative.
Integrations: Zapier, Salesforce and more.
Price: $499/month for Team plan, $999/month for the company plan. Custom premium plans are available.
In closing
If you’re in the market for a Drift alternative, consider trying one of the options listed here. While we recommended a number of free options for small businesses, we recommend you pay extra for more advanced features if you truly want to see improved growth, more positive customer interactions, a more seamless customer experience, and better long-term results.
Sarah Chan Rejante is a digital marketer and social media coordinator based in Toronto, Canada. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Relations from Humber College and is passionate about marketing and getting in front of customers in the right way.
About Glass.io
With Glass.io, you can reach across the screen and help visitors make a buy decision. See exactly how visitors use your website in realtime, trigger a notification to the right sales rep when they show buying intent, and start a personalized conversation (chat or video) at the perfect moment.
Plug your leaky sales pipeline by engaging with your website visitors while you have their attention. Sign up for an account here.