11 Best Freshchat Alternatives & Competitors Worth Considering in 2024

With a highly saturated market, finding the best Freshchat alternatives for your business is a task. 

Does that mean you have to do it alone?

Nope.

We’ve compiled a list of the best Freshchat alternatives available in the market that are ripe with the necessary features you’d require from a live chat support tool. 

But, before we dive deep into the list, we still need to answer one question – Why do you need to look for alternatives to Freshchat? 

Well, this question alone deserves a section. So, let’s take it from the top.

What Is Freshchat?

Freshchat is a live chat support tool by Freshworks that aims to enhance the customer service game of its users. It offers automated chat solutions that allow companies to communicate with customers and provide real-time assistance. It offers chat rooms and keeps chat logs to track customer conversations on its secure server.

Why Look for a Freshchat Alternative?

Before moving any further, we need to discuss the purpose behind this blog: Why should you even consider looking for Freshchat competitors and alternatives?

So, here are a few reasons why many people look out for Freshchat competitors and why you should too.

1. Limited Integration Options

If you need a tool that seamlessly integrates with your CRM and business ecosystem, Freshchat is not the best choice. It only integrates with FreshDesk, and there are no other third-party integrations available.

2. Issues in Automation

Compared to Freshchat competitors, the tool doesn’t offer seamless automation. The functionality becomes complicated at times to use and is very limited in its features. You can get better automation functionality with Freshchat alternatives.

3. Unpredictable Minor Bugs

There are a few minor bugs in the tool, however small. For example, it doesn’t have a vast selection of GIFs, has time and response accuracy issues, message templates with typos, and doesn’t allow you to block or delete messages.

What Are the Best Freshchat Alternatives?

With the basics out of the way, let’s discuss in detail which Freshchat alternatives are worth considering for your live chat requirements.

1. ProProfs Chat

ProProfs Chat is a live chat and customer service solution among the top Freshchat alternatives available in the market. 

It’s a great tool to proactively approach customers and strike up conversations to engage and help them with their issues in real time. You can leverage canned responses to reduce your wait time and offer instant assistance. 

This Freshchat alternative allows you to create intuitive and powerful chatbots for your team according to their needs. It helps them take control of customer interactions.

It also offers incredible features like detailed reports, chat routing, third-party integrations, and more.

Also Read: A Quick Guide on What is a Chatbot & How it Works

Features:

• Canned responses to speed up issue resolution.
• Has 50+ third-party integrations.
• Automates customer support through chatbots.
• Intelligent chat routing helps route chats to concerned departments.
• Allows you to personalize and announce greetings and chat announcements.
• Integrates with other ProProfs tools.
• Helps you link self-help articles via integration with the Knowledge Base. 

Pricing:

Essential: $20/month

Premium: $60/month

Enterprise: Available on request

Choose it for: Post-chat surveys, visitor tracking, proactive chat invitations, chat announcements

3rd party integrations allowed: Yes

Suited for: Small to large businesses

Pros:

• Great analytics
• Helpful customer service
• Manage routing conditions
• Track key pages

Cons:

• Doesn’t collect tickets from social media

Case Study

A family-owned horse saddle company, HorseSaddleShop, wanted to interact with its customers to understand their experience, satisfaction level, and issues with the company’s products. Their priority was to respond to the customers with problems instantly. 

They turned to ProProfs Chat for help and established a real-time process of communication and resolving customer issues 24*7.

2. LiveChat

You must have heard about the LiveChat tool as it’s popular among businesses. It’s an incredible tool to replace Freshchat since it’s packed with useful features.

It has features like Eye-Catcher toggle to encourage customers to approach you for help, chat assignments, and targeted texts.

It’s rich on the customization front as it allows you to manage agent profiles and change the appearance of the chat widget. This alternative to Freshchat also offers integration with different messaging apps to facilitate the teams even more.

Features:

• Comes with a message sneak-peek functionality allowing your agents to see what customers write in real-time.
• Live editor that allows you to personalize branding.
• Offers archives with filters to help you sort through past chats.
• Comes with 200 integrations to improve your workflow with tools like HubSpot, Calendly, and Salesforce.
• Has customer reports to track risky customers.

Pricing:

Starter: $16/month

Team: $33/month

Business: $50/month

Choose it for: Agent reports, pre-chat surveys, file sharing

3rd party integrations allowed: Yes

Suited for: Small to large businesses

Pros:

• Canned responses
• Chat reporting
• Supports 45+ languages

Cons:

• Has a learning curve

Case Study

Sephora is a multinational retailer of beauty products that wanted to translate its in-store customer experience into its online experience. 

Using LiveChat, the team at Sephora could be in touch with its customers and help them with their queries. They were able to offer product consultations online like they do in stores. 

3. Zendesk

Zendesk is an all-in-one customer service software that’s easily one of the best Freshchat alternatives. It offers personalized experience and support along with real-time communication with customers. 

Zendesk offers integration with its other features, such as Zendesk CRM, with which you can access customer data and track their tickets to ensure you make each customer happy and issue-free.

Zendesk Suite also enables you to create chatbots and capture leads on your website. And, if you’re looking for a tool that can track tickets from social media, this Freshdesk alternative is your way to go.

Features:

• Allows you to regulate a help center for your support system.
• Comes with a Sunshine Conversation feature that automates responses most naturally.
• Offers canned responses so the agents can resolve as many tickets as possible.
• Has a Zendesk app framework that allows you to create custom apps for added functionality.
• Integrates with tools like Jimbo, ZohoCRM, Salesforce, etc.

Pricing:

Suite Team: $49/month

Suite Growth: $79/month

Suite Professional: $99/month

Suite Enterprises: $150/month

Choose it for: AI-powered chatbots, intelligent chat routing, automatic responses

3rd party integrations allowed: Yes

Suited for: Medium to large businesses

Pros:

• Easy to send bulk emails
• Offers a wide variety of integrations

Cons:

• Exporting data is not easy

Case Study

An online learning platform, Udemy, needed an enterprise-level customer support solution. The team leveraged Zendesk to offer users preemptive, reactive, and proactive customer support. As a result, the satisfaction level rose to 97% from 90%.

4. Drift

Another Freshchat similar software on our list is Drift. According to them, ‘everything starts with a conversation,’ and they are not wrong. A conversation gone wrong (or no conversation) significantly affects how customers see your business.

Thanks to Drift, you can automate your support process and assist your customers in real time. At the same time, it provides a human touch with its responses. This alternative to Freshchat can significantly shorten the sales cycle and boost conversions.

It allows you to switch between chat, call, and Zoom to engage prospects and helps them in the ways they require.

Features:

• Offers features like personalized messaging to target customers. 
• Comes with ABM initiatives that help direct specific accounts to your sales team.
• Helps simplify automation with chatbots.
• Allows you to schedule callbacks by integrating with multiple calendar apps.

Pricing: Get in touch with the company for a quote.

Choose it for: Booking meetings, account-based marketing, building chatbots

3rd Party Integrations allowed: Yes

Suited for: Medium to large businesses

Pros:

• Personalized messages 
• Reporting dashboard

Cons:

• Limited multiple team support
• Bugs and glitches

Case Study

Not available

5. Tidio

Tidio poses as an exceptional Freshchat alternative because it is feature-rich. It’s an amazing customer communication software that facilitates quick responses and real-time typing. These features significantly reduce the response time, and agents can resolve more tickets.

This free Freshchat alternative also allows your support agents to see the customer journey each customer has taken and gather the context behind the ticket to offer tailored solutions.

Features:

• Helps reduce cart abandonment with its Abandon Cart bots.
• Comes with a native mobile app that allows you to help customers anytime and from anywhere.
• Supports personalization using custom chat widgets.
• Effectively reduces chat response time with canned responses.

Pricing:

Free: Free

Chatbots: $39/month

Communicator: $19/month

Choose it for: Visitor live preview and shared team inboxes

3rd party integrations allowed: Yes

Suited for: Small to large businesses

Pros:

• Gives a peek into what customers are writing in real-time
• Reliable mobile apps

Cons:

• Reporting can improve

Case Study

Not available

6. LiveAgent

One of the best free alternatives to Freshchat on our list is LiveAgent. It offers an intuitive chat widget helpful in boosting customer engagement, retaining customers, and conversion rate.

Compared with Freshchat, this tool comes with intelligent chat routing, visitor tracking, and a real-time typing view.

Features:

• Has chat invitations to enhance customers’ chat experience.
• Helps avoid assigning two agents same tickets with advanced ticket managing functionality.
• Allows you to export tickets in HTML and PDF format.
• Comes with pre-built contact forms so customers can reach you easily.
• Enables you to send GIFs in chat.
• Sends email notifications every time you receive a new ticket.

Also Read: 18 Best Live Chat Welcome Messages to Improve Conversion

Pricing:

Free: Free

Ticket: $15/agent/month

Ticket+Chat: $29/agent/month

All-Inclusive: $49/agent/month

Choose it for: Pre-built contact form, chat distribution, website visitor tracking

3rd party integrations allowed: Yes

Suited for: Small to large businesses

Pros:

• Better management with hybrid ticket
• Allows your customers to request call backs

Cons:

• Android app can use some improvement
• Spam filter isn’t always accurate

Case Study

Not available

Also Read: 10 Best LiveAgent Alternatives to Upgrade and Improve Customer Support

7. Intercom

One of the best alternatives to Freshchat is hands down, Intercom. This customer support solution successfully automates the support service and helps you take a proactive approach to help customers 24*7 with its intelligent chatbots.

You can also send personalized messages to target customers based on their behavior on the website. You can also send outbound messages for conversational support. This alternative to Freshchat can also assist in offering product tours to boost engagement.

Features:

• Integrates with the knowledge base to establish self-help services.
• Has a team inbox to answer and resolve customer queries collaboratively.
• Targeted messages to capture prospects.
• Allows you to create customized chatbots and boost lead generation.
• Captures service feedback using surveys so that you can improve your chat support.
• Integrates with tools like Qualaroo, Marketo, Segment, Salesforce, Jeera Cloud, and more.

Pricing:

Starter: $74/month

Most Businesses: Available on request

Choose it for: Product tours, in-chat surveys, help center articles

3rd party integrations allowed: Yes

Suited for: Medium to large businesses

Pros:

• Run successful A/B tests
• Automatically triggers bots
• Create and take feedback surveys

Cons:

• Chargeable add-ons
• Doesn’t have a message preview

Case Study

Pitch is a Germany-based presentation software company that has seen significant growth in recent years. And so, it needed a tool to maintain personal touch while communicating with the customers in real-time.

With Intercom, Pitch was able to set up channels and get detailed reports on the interactions. As a result, the company reaped a 100% customer satisfaction rating.

Also Read: 11 Best Intercom Alternatives to Upgrade Customer Service

8. Smartsupp

Another great alternative to the Freshchat platform on our list is Smartsupp. This customer conversation tool poses as an incredible online shopping assistance tool offering a robust combination of chatbots, live chat, and video recording.

This free Freshchat alternative facilitates the transfer of files to customers in real-time to speed up issue resolution. Additionally, support agents oversee website visitors and how they engage on the website to offer them tailored solutions for their unique problems.

Features:

• Offers pre-defined shortcuts so agents can send responses faster.
• Supports creating chatbots as per unique business requirements.
• Has pre-built contact forms to collect crucial customer information and feedback.
• Offers customer analytics so you can make data-backed business decisions.
• Provides a mobile app so your agents can resolve tickets whenever.
• Integrates with tools like Shopify, Shiplet, Joomla, Drupal, Instapage, and more.

Pricing:

Free: Free

Standard: $19.5/month

Pro: $48/month

Ultimate: Available on request

Choose it for: Automated messages, customer analytics, video recordings 

3rd party integrations allowed: Yes

Suited for: Small to large businesses

Pros:

• Simple and quick setup
• Has multiple social media tool integrations

Cons:

• Offline mode isn’t functional

Case Study

An on-demand vehicle cleaning service, Schmiko, needed a tool to help them establish different communication channels to be in touch with the customers. Smartsupp did just that for them and more. 

Customers could now reach out to the company using messaging instead of emails and calls. The result? Schmiko’s 20% of the bookings are now done on the Smartsupp chat.

Bonus read: 17 Live Chat Best Practices For Sales & Customer Support

9. Pure Chat

Look no further if you want a Freshchat alternative with unlimited chat functionality. Pure Chat is an incredible customer support tool that offers awesome features like chat box customization, customer data analysis, and mobile support, to name a few. 

The tool also offers you chat transcription so that agents can check up on previous interactions with a customer and offer them the best and most tailored solutions. And the cherry on top is its amazing integrations with third-party tools.

Features:

• Helps improve conversions using chat transcripts and analytics.
• Allows you to personalize your chat widget.
• Comes with a powerful dashboard to easily analyze customer insights.
• Offers mobile apps for both Android and iOS.
• Integrates with tools like Zapier, Infusionsoft, HubSpot, and more.

Pricing:

Grow: $39/month

Pro: $79/month

Choose it for: Unlimited chats, multiple third-party integrations, chat transcripts 

3rd party integrations allowed: Yes

Suited for: Small to large businesses

Pros:

• Multiple integrations
• Customer data reporting

Cons:

• Screen layout needs improvement

Case Study

Not available

10. Tawk.to

Another free tool on our list of best Freshchat alternatives is Tawk.to. It’s known for providing a secure line of communication to agents so they can assist customers with issues in real time. 

You can track website visitors to understand their experience better and offer them real-time solutions. It supports 45 languages, which is great if you get international customers or plan to take your business global. 

Features:

• Enables you to offer personalized customer service.
• Allows you to initiate a chat with customers using the chat widget.
• Helps you monitor website traffic to collect customer behavior insights.
• Offers widget projects to engage customers. 
• Integrates well with tools like Shopify.

Pricing: Free to use

Choose it for: Domain restriction, group messaging, mail notifications, Widget projects

3rd party integrations allowed: Yes

Suited for: Small to medium businesses

Pros:

• Data encryption for security
• Automated translation in 45 languages

Cons:

• Very limited integrations
• Has a learning curve

Case Study

Not available

Also Read: 11 Best Tawk.to Alternatives for Enhanced Customer Service

11. Crisp

One of the best alternatives to Freshchat we found is Crisp. It is a feature-packed tool that helps businesses connect with their customers via targeted messaging, video calls, and co-browsing. It comes with other features aimed at improving customer engagement and related metrics. 

This free Freshchat alternative is great for designing sophisticated chatbots to improve the customer onboarding experience. You can also integrate this tool with social media platforms like Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and more.

Features:

• Offers canned responses.
• Supports help-desk management, interaction tracking, and remote access.
• Allows you to set triggers of scenarios based on what customers type.
• Two-way audio and video functionality.

Pricing:

Basic: Free

Pro: $25/month

Unlimited: $95/month

Choose it for: Social media integrations, audio and video interactions, real-time chat

3rd party integrations allowed: Yes

Suited for: Small to large businesses

Pros:

• Screen sharing
• Website visitor tracking
• Reporting and analytics

Cons:

• Can’t mark chats as unread

Case Study

Not available

Also Read: 10 Crisp Chat Alternatives for Improved Customer Support

Conclusion

Choosing an ideal tool is not a walk in the park, as you need to consider many factors. But we hope our list of best Freshchat alternatives can lessen your load.

Each tool has a set of features that will suit your different live chat needs. For example, if you need integration with social media platforms, then Zendesk is a perfect match. You can consider Intercom if you want messaging functionality. 

If you need features such as intelligent chat routing or a tool with exceptional integrations, ProProfs Chat is the way to go. So, it’s best to analyze your business requirements in reference to the must-have features for a Freshchat alternative and pick the best fit for your company.