With more than 50,000 business users, Drift is a popular platform for business growth. The platform helps businesses grow by providing them with visitor intelligence, analytics, insights, and most notably, customer personalization.
Drift offers a solution for businesses to personalize communication with customers in real-time using Live Chat, email, video, marketing, assistants, and integrations with many customization tools.
However, Drift is an enterprise-level platform. The platform has no public pricing plans. Its cost depends on how many employees your business has among others.
If Drift is too expensive for you to pay for the platform and its features don’t meet your business needs, you should check out these Drift alternatives.
Best Drift Alternatives
1. HelpCrunch
HelpCrunch offers solutions for customer communication and personalization. It’s an all-in-one platform to handle support, marketing, and sales which will lead to business growth in the long run.
More than 10,000 companies and business teams use HelpCrunch. Notably, it’s an ideal Drift alternative for small businesses due to its straightforward communication features.
With HelpCrunch, you can engage with your customers via different channels including messaging, email, pop-ups, knowledge base, and help desk. As a result, you can provide your customers with support 24/7.
HelpCrunch email marketing poses a strong competition to Drift’s. The platform works for full-cycle marketing; you can send emails manually or automatically and with the chat integration, you can resend chat messages as emails.
Both HelpCrunch and Drift feature mobile apps to provide support on the go.
Just like Drift, HelpCrunch pricing plans depend on the number of members in a business team. However, the pricing plans are public, which include:
- Basic Plan: starts at $15 per month for one team member (starts at 12 with annual payment)
- Pro Plan: starts at $125 per month for one team member (starts at 100 with annual payment)
- Enterprise Plan: custom pricing
2. Tawk To
Here’s an option to consider if you want a free Drift alternative. Tawk To lets you monitor your visitors on your website and engage with them in real-time. You can Live Chat, reply to support tickets, and create a help center.
Tawk To is among the most used Live Chat applications in the world with about 20 percent of the market share. Hence, it is suitable if you exclusively want a Live Chat solution. However, Tawk To is not ideal if you want an email or video communication solution.
While Drift is only available online as a CRM, Tawk To is available online with desktop apps for Windows and macOS. The platform also features mobile apps for iOS and Android.
You’ll find Tawk To easy to use. All you have to do is add a small JavaScript snippet to your website. After that, you can monitor activities on your website via the Tawk To web, desktop, or mobile apps.
There are about 32 different features available in Tawk To. The platform fosters collaboration by assigning customers to different team members with the option to switch easily between members/customers.
3. Intercom
Intercom is all about customer communications for business purposes; many websites use this platform for Live Chat, Help Desk, and business campaigns.
The Intercom platform features solutions for customer support, management, and marketing. However, the most popular of all is customer support.
As a business, you can offer personalized support, live messaging, follow-up on dropped messages, and more with the Intercom customer support solution.
With the management solution, you can manage on-boarding, transactional messaging, announcements, re-engagement, and offer proactive support.
Intercom integrates with over 300 third-party platforms which is far more than the over 50 third-party integrations available on Drift. There are support, marketing, and sales integrations.
Examples include Jira Cloud, Stripe, Google Analytics, Zapier, Mailchimp, Slack, Salesforce, and HubSpot.
Intercom features pricing plans for businesses and very small businesses. The pricing options for businesses are all private. However, those for very small businesses include:
- Starter Plan: $67 per month
- Product Tours (add-on): $199 per month
- WhatsApp (add-on): $9 per month
The business pricing plans are Conversational Support, Conversational Customer Management, and Conversational Marketing. You’ll request a demo and then a quote from the Intercom sales team for these plans.
Find out the best alternatives to Intercom.
4. Smartsupp
Smartsupp is an ideal solution if you’re an eCommerce business owner. It offers three main solutions – Live Chat, chatbot, and video recording.
With a platform with Smartsupp, you can increase your sales even without increasing traffic. Smartsupp makes it easy to convert visitors to shoppers with automated personalization.
The chatbot works for engaging customers and helping them make buying decisions. Also, you can save time by avoiding repetitive tasks.
The Live Chat solution lets you set up and manage multiple channels across your website, email, and social media via Facebook Messenger. With video recordings, you can capture customers’ behavior and understand what affects their buying decisions.
You have access to more third-party integrations with Smartsupp than with Drift. However, they are mainly eCommerce platforms with examples including Shopify, Magento, Drupal, BigCommerce, OpenCart, and WordPress (WooCommerce).
You can use Smartsupp for free with access to only the Live Chat. You need a subscription to access email and Facebook messenger among other solutions. The pricing plans include:
- Standard Plan: starts from $22 per month (starts from $15 with annual payment)
- Pro Plan: starts from $108 per month (starts from $72 with annual payment)
- Ultimate Plan: $2,000 per year
5. LiveAgent
LiveAgent is described as a simple customer support software for teams. You can use the software irrespective of your business industry and use case.
The available features include an advanced ticketing system, fast Live Chat, and a built-in call center. In addition, you can create a customer portal, knowledge base, and manage your social media accounts.
The advanced ticketing system is LiveAgent’s standout feature. It comes with more than 130 ticketing options for seamless customer care on multiple channels. It supports about every major communication platform.
According to LiveAgent, their Live Chat is the fastest in the market. While arguable, the Live Chat is indeed fast and saves time with smooth website integration.
LiveAgent has more third-party integrations. You can connect with more than 200 third-party tools including Salesforce, WordPress, Magento, Pipedrive, Jira, Zapier, Slack, and many social media platforms.
A LiveAgent free account comes with major limitations. The platform is more or less completely premium and the pricing plans include:
- Ticket Plan: $15 per agent per month
- Ticket+Chat Plan: $29 per agent per month
- All-Inclusive Plan: $49 per agent per month
6. Chatwoot
Chatwoot is an open-source SaaS for customer engagement. Being open-source makes it ideal if you need a platform you can self-host. Nevertheless, you can still host on Chatwoot Cloud.
With Chatwoot, you have everything you need to manage conversations, build relationships, and satisfy customers. This includes Live Chat, chatbots, and mobile apps.
Notably, Chatwoot lets team members collaborate easily using a shared inbox and also engage customers via multiple channels thanks to the supported integrations.
If you need a solution for managing customers on social media; you can also try Chatwoot. The platform supports all major social media platforms including Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, and Twitter.
To self-host Chatwoot, the recommended cloud solutions include Amazon AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Linux VM, and Digital Ocean among others.
Chatwoot features different pricing plans for hosting with the native cloud platform and self-hosting.
Chatwoot Cloud Pricing
- Hacker Plan: $0 per month (max of 2 agents)
- Startups Plan: $19 per agent per month
- Business Plan: $39 per agent per month
- Enterprise Plan: custom pricing
Self-hosting Pricing
- Community Edition: $0 per month (unlimited agents)
- Premium Support: $19 per month
- Enterprise Plan: custom pricing
Note that all Chatwoot pricing plans are billed annually.
7. Chaskiq
Chaskiq is a 100 percent free and open-source messaging platform for sales, marketing, and support teams. You only pay if you need premium support. The source code is available on GitHub.
Chaskiq works mainly via its plugin architecture. You can connect with about 30 different tools. Although this is less than what is available on Drift, Chaskiq supports all the major platforms you’ll need.
This includes integration with Zoom, Zapier, Calendly, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Gumroad to name a few. However, Chaskiq has the open-source advantage which means you can always add more communication options if you can program.
Furthermore, Chaskiq features Live Chat, routing bots, and an Omni-channel inbox. The Chaskiq Live Chat is a unique one; it handles text messages, multimedia messages, and even video calls.
The routing bots work for outbound & inbound automation, audience targeting, and you can compose complex conversation paths using the route editor. You can launch a campaign with the Chaskiq newsletter and mass emails.
Also, you can set up banners and pop-up messages. With the Omni-channel inbox, you can handle communications across different plugins from one central dashboard.
8. Zendesk
Self-acclaimed “Champions of customer service”, Zendesk is another very popular solution among businesses. The platform focuses mainly on customer service and sales.
In terms of features, Zendesk and Drift aren’t very different. With Zendesk, you can engage customers from anywhere and enjoy seamless flow across communication channels.
Thanks to the AI-powered bots, you can personalize the service experience for each customer. In addition, the platform lets you build a help center and community forum so customers can get self-support.
The Zendesk sales CRM is useful for sales teams. It features unique solutions to win more customers, close deals, and increase revenue.
Zendesk offers two categories of pricing plans – customer service pricing and sales pricing.
Plans For Everyone
- Suite Team: $49 per month
- Suite Growth: $79 per month
- Suite Professional: $99 per month
Plans For Enterprises
- Suite Enterprise: $150 per month
- Enterprise-ready plans: starts at $215 per month
- Sell Team: $19 per user per month
- Sell Professional: $49 per user per month
- Sell Enterprise: $99 per user per month
Zendesk is a recommended solution if you want transparent pricing and affordability.
Find out what other alternatives you can consider in place of Zendesk.
9. Consolto
Here’s an alternative to Drift to consider if you prioritize customer communication using video chat. With Consolto, you can integrate video chat into any website.
All you need to do is install the video chat widget plugin. The video chat supports screen sharing, screen recording, and you can customize it as you want.
Consolto also works as an all-in-one platform to personalize remote communication. From the Rich Backoffice, you can access all customer data via a single location.
In addition to video chat, Consolto supports Live Chat, voice messaging, SMS, Contact Form, and social media communication via Facebook and WhatsApp links.
Just like Drift, Consolto integrates with third-party apps. It integrates with Backoffice, Google Analytics, Zapier, and Webhooks. The platform also comes with an API.
Consolto features three pricing plans and they include:
- Smart Plan: $10 per month ($8.20 per month with annual payment)
- Clever Plan: $20 per month ($16.40 per month with annual payment)
- Genius Plan: $39 per month ($32 per month with annual payment)
Notably, the higher the number of agents, the greater discount you get with Consolto.
10. Plumm
Plumm was launched to help business teams manage time and increase productivity. Although similar to Drift, Plumm follows a unique approach for customer engagement.
What you get from the Plumm app is a single shared inbox from where you can handle all customer conversations. With this, you’re sure to not miss any info about a customer’s request.
Furthermore, a shared inbox makes it easy for team members to collaborate. Plumm may not have as many integrations as Drift, but it doesn’t lack the important ones.
The main integration is with GSuite email accounts for connecting the shared inbox. You can also use Plumm’s Live Chat widget on your website.
Notably, Plumm supports both outbound and inbound communication. Team members can chat with each other, even at the same time as they chat with customers. 
Plumm offers a free plan and a premium plan:
- Single User: Free
- Premium Plan: $10 per user per month
Plumm is an affordable solution. You only pay if you’re a business team that requires multiple customer service staff.
11. Chaport
Chaport is described as an all-in-one messaging software, combining chatbots, Live Chat, knowledgebase, and more. Unlike Drift, Chaport comes with desktop apps for Mac and Windows.
The Chaport multi-channel solution is ideal for social media communication. It supports Facebook, Telegram, and Viber. You can manage messages from the platform from within the Chaport app.
The knowledge base is one of Chaport’s latest features. You can also design a FAQ bot to auto-direct customers to relevant knowledgebase articles.
Chaport highlights Zapier as its main integration. Via Zapier, you can connect Chaport with over 2000 other third-party apps. Drift also supports integration with Zapier.
Like many other alternatives to Drift, Chaport offers a free plan. However, the free plan only supports one user and chat history is wiped after 30 days.
For more users and up to a one-year chat history retention among other premium features, you can subscribe to any of the following pricing plans:
- Premium Plan: $19 per user per month ($15 per month with annual payment)
- Business Plan: $29 per user per month ($23 per month with annual payment)
12. User.com
User.com is an advanced marketing and sales automation software that is ideal for medium to large businesses and enterprises.
User.com has about every of Drift’s features. The features include customer tracking, CRM, mobile apps, Live Chat, email marketing, push notifications, knowledge base, call center, chatbot, calendar, and analytics.
Hence, the platform has all you’ll need to manage, engage, and convert regular visitors into returning customers.
The Live Chat is one of the best you’ll get with redefined communication and trigger-based automation.
You can make use of User.com as a marketing, support, sales, or product team. Also, User.com offers exclusive features for different industries including eCommerce, Finance, Travel, Healthcare, Real Estate, and more.
You’ll find User.com easy to install and the platform integrates with many third-party platforms; about as much as Drift.
User.com is a 100 percent premium software; there’s no free plan available. However, the pricing plans are not public, just like Drift.
To use the platform, you either request a demo or schedule a call with the sales team to discuss the price.
13. Reply Now
Reply Now is another Drift alternative for small businesses and teams with a focus on social media engagement. You should skip this alternative if you need a solution for Live Chat on your website or email.
Reply Now works as a multichannel communication app that supports Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Viber, and Telegram.
For these social media platforms, you can use the regular chat systems or automated chatbots. Notably, Reply Now supports Viber business accounts, Telegram bots, and Facebook Messenger for pages.
As a business, you can assign different social channels to different teams to fast-track the customer service. This also fosters collaboration.
Unlike Drift, Reply Now isn’t available as a web app alone. There are apps available for mobile and desktop devices.
Setting up Reply Now is easy. However, the platform works using Intercom. Therefore, to use Reply Now, you must have an Intercom account with admin permissions.
Reply Now features two pricing plans which include:
- MultiChannel Plan: $40 per month
- WhatsApp Plan: $150 per month
Both plans support up to 100,000 messages per month.
14. GoSquared
This platform offers solutions for user engagement, Live Chat for sales teams, and web analytics. The end goal is to help businesses understand and engage their customers.
GoSquared Engage works for personalized multi-channel messaging. It’s similar to Drift Email but with support for in-app messaging and Live Translate.
The Live Chat is exclusively for sales teams and will help convert visitors into customers with 24/7 lead generation. You can set up automated FAQ answers and onboard new customers via your knowledge base or prompts.
GoSquared web analytics brings all the important metrics and insights about your visitors to you. The dashboard is simple, compared to other analytics tools, and you don’t have to perform any setup.
GoSquared employs a pay-as-you-grow pricing model. Hence, payment is convenient for small, medium, and large businesses. The pricing plans include:
Web Analytics Plan
- Starter Plan: $9 per month
- Standard Plan: $24 per month
- Pro Plan: $49 per month
- Scale Plan: $99 per month
Live Chat Pricing
- Starter Plan: $29 per month
- Standard Plan: $49 per month
- Pro Plan: $79 per month
- Scale Plan: $129 per month
GoSquared pricing plans for user engagement are private.
15. Lime Talk
Last here is Lime Talk, a preferred communication solution for eCommerce teams and businesses. Already, more than a thousand eCommerce shoppers communicate with businesses via Lime Talk every day.
With automated traffic, you can increase your profits by increasing customers’ satisfaction with Lime Talk. The platform features an intuitive and highly customizable chat widget for Live Chat.
The Live Chat is fully optimized for mobile for a better customer experience. On your part, you can chat with customers on the go using the Lime Talk mobile app.
One of Lime Talk’s top features is the real-time visitor overview. You get details of every real-time visitor on your online store including the product pages they’re browsing among other information.
Lime Talk is very easy to set up. Like Drift, it supports many third-party platforms including Shopify, WordPress, WebNode, Drupal, and more.
Lime Talk offers a free trial period. Afterward, you pay depending on the number of operators in your team. The prices include:
- $4.2 per month for 1 operator ($8.10 per month without the Lime Talk watermark)
- $21 per month for 5 operators ($42 per month without the Lime Talk watermark)
- $42 per month for 10 operators ($84 per month without the Lime Talk watermark)
Conclusion
You can go with any of the 15 best Drift alternatives that meet your business needs and interests. However, HelpCrunch is recommended as the overall best Drift alternative due to its superior features.
