Custom branding is a basis requirement of any live chat app, and the majority will include this. However, some branding functionality may be limited unless you pay for a certain subscription level.

Auto-responses within a live chat app help to engage a user either before an agent is available to talk to them, or to create pre-chat questions to direct them to the right place.

Visitor prompts within a live chat application help to engage users to direct them to start a conversation. This can be as simple as a pop-up hello message, or more advanced to only trigger once a user has visited a set number of pages.

Offline data capture helps to turn live chat app users into viable leads, even when your agents are offline. This is typically in the form of an email and name sign-up which then triggers an email response instead of live chat in the future.

Geo-targeting enables marketers to select for which users they’d like the live chat app to appear. For example, if you’re only interested in gaining customers from the UK or US, you can turn the live chat app off for the rest of the world.

Visitor tracking enables smarter conversations and initial engagement. The live chat software will match users to previous sessions, remember their name contact details for if they strike up a new conversation. 

Most live chat app providers will offer a free trial to get to grips with the platform, the UI and actively compare it to another provider.

For live chat apps, we’ve chosen to show the starting price as the simplest way of comparing each provider. Remember though that some will require upgraded subscriptions based on functionality and usage.