My company, Blazecore was researching live chat solutions for a client and I thought I would share what I found. The requirement is to support 5 chat operators during normal business hours. Site visitors would be able to click a link to get access to an operator if one was online. Bear in mind that I did not use these applications. I have no idea if they can really deliver. That level of detail is for another day. What I can share is the list of what companies I researched, what they have to offer and what it costs.
The first thing I wanted was a hosted solution. It seemed like the way to go so that we did not have to host servers, communication lines and so on. So far, all the live chat solutions I researched are hosted. This means they use the software-as-a-service business model. One of them has an option to buy the software and install on your own server. I will list that one as well.
The one thing to note is that all these services have an enormous number of features. They do things like letting the operator and site visitor see the same page and let the operator help the visitor to put the right information into forms on the site. They have features like live monitoring who is accessing what pages. Some let you customize the window that pops up and in some cases they charge extra for that. I had no need for these types of features so I ignored them. I have calculated what this would cost on an annual basis so that I could compare similar situations. All of them have monthly payment options.
| Service | Number of Operators | Price | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| http://www.live2support.com/ | 5 | $380.00 a year | The price you are seeing is accurate.(This one has a free 15 day trial) I actually chatted online with a support person to verify the price. I am skeptical. Will have to research some more to see if anyone has some feedback. |
| http://www.etalkup.com | 5 | $1800.00 a year | (max 10) operators |
| http://www.volusion.com | 5 | $1797.00 a year | |
| http://boldchat.com | 5 | $1332 per year | These are concurrent operators. Can actually have more than 5 operators but only 5 may be online at a time. |
| http://www.websitealive.com | 5 | $718 per year | |
| http://www.sightmax.com | 5 | $2388 a year | |
| up to 10 users | $599 one time purchase | Self hosted. | |
| http://liveperson.net | 5 | $5940.00 | $99 per seat per month. No contract. Cancel any time. Concurrent licenses. Seems to be the highest regarded in this category. |
I know there are some more providers. I will update this posting as I get more info.
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I am the Director of Marketing at Bravestorm (we make the BoldChat software listed above.) We recently commissioned a study to compare top live chat vendors. No such study was available so we commissioned an Ex-Gartner analyst to perform the analysis. A copy of the study can be downloaded for free at http://www.livechatcomparison.com. The study does not include pricing information but it does have a thorough analysis of feature sets.
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