Research suggests that consumers are between 38% and 63% more likely to purchase from and return to a website if a store has a Live Chat Service on its website. It’s an absolute no-brainer not to have a live chat facility on your e-commerce store these days.
But with over 726 Live chat apps in the app store, where on earth do you start, and which one should you choose?
With hundreds of active Shopify clients, we know which ones are the best so this article will help you speed up your learning curve and will help you save 100’s of hours researching and testing and could save you $$$$’s in the long run.
Live chat has many benefits, so having a fast, professional, effective, and easy-to-use, easy-to-install, live chat function embedded in your Shopify store can give you a competitive advantage. It will boost your customer satisfaction levels and will increase your sales order numbers.
The following are the most popular Shopify Live Chat apps that our clients use, ranging from start-ups to Shopify Plus clients.
These are quickly and easily added to your store to help provide the best customer service experience. And please remember, not ALL of the best apps are in the app store!
1 – Tidio *** Recommended ***
In recent years, Tidio has exploded onto the customer service and live chat scene with a powerful, scalable solution that offers seamless integrations with almost every e-commerce platform you can think of including Shopify, WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, Magento, Shopware, BigCommerce, PrestaShop, WooCommerce and many many more – too many to mention.
Perhaps the app with the largest number of installs I’ve seen to date with over 300,000 installs this app seems to be one of the biggest players in the space.
Tidio has a very quick install process allowing you to enhance your customer experience and boost your sales within minutes.
It has a customizable User Interface (UI) which allows you to match your brand quickly. It allows you to engage with and reach out to returning visitors quickly.
It allows you to monitor results and automate chat with a clever AI chatbot, and it allows you to check which pages your visitors are coming from so you can tailor your response to your specific visitor’s needs and browsing history.
What I like about Tidio is that it offers pricing solutions for stores of all sizes, in particular, the ‘free option’.
This is an excellent choice for start-ups with no credit card required, no commitment and you only start paying once you have more than 50 conversations per month.
This takes you up to the next level of 19 Euros per month if you took the app monthly or my advice for those that can afford it (like with all apps) is to take an annual option which will save you two months’ fees – all the way through to their enterprise level solution starting from 240 – 289 Euros per month, depending if you take the annual option.
Tidio is also the most popular Live Chat App in the app store with over 1557 reviews.
Key Features:
- Sign-in with Shopify
- Order Management
- Chatbots
- AI response bots
- Ticketing
- Departments
- Analytics
- Messaging channels
- Customization
- Support
- Apps
- Seamless integrations
- Free up to 50 conversations
- Free trial
*** Multiple App Ratings: 4.8/5 ***
638 Reviews on Shopify
2 – Zendesk **Recommended for ShopifyPlus**
Zendesk is a customizable chat tool that can integrate with a variety of CMS including HubSpot, Wix, WordPress, Drupal, and Squarespace. It is used by over 200,000 organizations and is designed for medium to large businesses.
I personally use this solution for our own agency support for high-level customer support solution so I genuinely believe this is a perfect solution for ShopifyPlus stores.
Zendesk allows you to see which product pages your visitors are viewing and you can proactively start a conversation yourself or wait for the customer to initiate a chat. You can reply to chats via any browser, or the iOS or Android apps.
Zendesk’s other features include automated triggers, offline forms, chatbots, routing, shortcuts, tags, and analytics.
All conversations can be funneled to one location – as multiple profiles from Facebook, Twitter, and LINE can be linked together.
The analytics allow you to track chat volume, monitor individual performance, and measure conversion rates. Install directly from Zendesk themselves.
Key Features:
- Native and third-party chatbot integrations
- API
- Chat queue management
- Branding customization
- Canned responses
- Native integrations to the knowledge base, CRM, and other business systems
- Performance metrics
- Pre-built analytics dashboards
- Knowledge base management
- Free 14-day trial
- View Demo
Zendesk starts from US$49.00/month
***My Rating: 4.6/5***
3 – LiveChat
Used by over 27,000 companies in more than 150 countries, and used by some of the world’s biggest brands like Macdonald’s. Mercedes Benz and Adobe – this app is smart, reliable, and modern and keeps you connected to your customers.
LiveChat is now a complete customer service platform that helps to delight your customers and boost your sales.
One of its great features is that you can see who’s browsing your website and can actually start a chat yourself. The user interface is easy to use, it is relatively inexpensive, and the support team is always knowledgeable and always available. It can be used on desktops, notebooks, tablets, or mobile phones.
Key Features:
- Chat Tools
- Customer engagement
- Chat Widget customization
- Reports & Analytics
- Security
- 200+ integrations
- Free 14-day trial
- Team Plan Features
- No credit card required
Over 36,000 clients
Prices start from just $20.00/month & you can get a free 14-day trial.
*** My Rating: 4.8/5 ***
4 – Hubspot
A live chat app that enables seamless CRM integration, Hubspot features a well-designed interface that can integrate with Facebook, Eventbrite, Adwords, Facebook ads, and Surveymonkey.
HubSpot features automated chatbots that can be pre-programmed with customized messages that appear on different pages of the site and say different things. You can also save replies to use in answer to FAQs.
HubSpot is available on iOS and Android and you can carry out live chat and access your CRM system simultaneously.
HubSpot has a free forever plan if you are happy for them to advertise (with a link at the bottom of the widget). The paid plan allows this to be removed.
23 Reviews
***Shopify App Store Rating: 3.1***
5 – Olark
Olark offers a full-featured live chat solution with customizable chat messages based on page views and also enables you to view past conversations should they have chatted before. Their message and why they are different – Listen. Learn. Improve.
Olark integrates with a number of popular business platforms including, Google Analytics, HubSpot, and Salesforce and they have some great factual case studies.
Olark is able to distribute chats across a large team, monitor performance, and create a database of FAQ responses.
Although Olark starts at $29/month, there are a number of “Power Ups” that many organizations will want to add – and these cost extra. These include visitor screen-sharing, visitor insights, and live chat translation.
Key Features:
- Customization
- Automation
- Reporting
- Searchable transcripts
- Custom Forms
- Realtime Engagement
- Power-ups
- Team Management
- Accessible Live Chat
- Free 14-day Trial
40,000+ customers in 170 countries
*** My Rating: 4.4/5 ***
6 – Intercom
Intercom’s chat software is specifically designed for sales. It allows you to route leads to specific people, carry on a chat via email, and target contacts based on their browsing behavior.
Intercom is able to integrate with numerous popular software apps including Slack, HubSpot CRM, and Zoom.
Intercom combines chatbots and live chat and focuses on lead generation, consumer engagement, and customer support. It uses chatbots to qualify leads 24/7, route them to available sales reps, and can even schedule demos.
Additionally, outbound chats/emails can be started based on the page the visitor is on and what they are looking at.
Intercom also enables you to create a library of articles in the “Help Centre” to encourage customers to troubleshoot their own issues.
Intercom is a great option for smaller companies that are growing and scaling quickly.
Prices start from $65/per month
*** My Rating: 3.5/5 ***
7 – Chatra
Answer questions, solve problems, increase conversions – that their messaging. I like the ease and simplicity of this app – I really do. You sign up and login to the app within seconds.
What I love about this app is the multi-channel dashboard which allows you to communicate over email, Instagram & Facebook all in one place, without having to switch between apps.
Like most other apps – you can see who’s on your website, how long they’ve been online, where they are from, what pages they are visiting and what operating system they are using.
As you would expect, they have a fabulous help and support docs tab which is packed full of great information on how to use the app – personally, I’d like to see a few more video tutorials in there but hey-ho, you can’t have everything can you.
They also have a unique book section so you can learn about the art if customer service – very useful and unique!
It can be a little overwhelming getting in so quick but it really is super fast to get up and running although you do need a bit of code ‘cut and paste’ skill to get the code embedded on your store.
Key Features:
- Channels
- On and offline chat widget
- Bots and automation
- Visitor intelligence
- Agent productivity
- Chat functions
- Analytics & reporting
- Integrations
- API and developer tools
- Unlimited free trial
Chatra starts at $21/month on the Essential Plan or save on the annual subscription at just $204. There is an unlimited free plan available too but you really do just get the very very basic functionality compared to what the app can really do.
*** My Rating: 4.5/5***
8 – PureChat (Ruby)
PureChat can be customized to fit with your brand and provides the option of using pre-prepared responses to answer FAQs.
PureChat’s free plan is pretty comprehensive. It offers unlimited chats, transcripts, integration with CRM systems and software such as HubSpot, Google Analytics, and Axosoft, advanced customisation, chat alerts, visitor information capture, and chat notifications.
Unlike the free plan, the paid plans offer detailed visitor tracking, real-time analytics, comprehensive account statistics and a suite of customisable reports. Additionally, the paid plans also give you more operators and enable you to integrate the app with multiple websites.
The 100% free plan includes unlimited users and unlimited chats for up to 3 websites.
Since either being taken over or rebranding as ‘Ruby’ and with no official app in the app store – I no longer recommend this app.
I am currently looking to replace this #8.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are many great options for Live Chat apps with a range of different prices. Our recommended option for small to medium-sized stores is Tidio but if you’re a much larger store ShopifyPlus store, then Zendesk is your only option.
