LiveChat vs Help Scout

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Our analysts compared LiveChat vs Help Scout based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Help Desk Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Product Basics

LiveChat is a live chat software designed to improve customer engagement and support. It allows businesses to engage with website visitors in real-time, providing immediate assistance and resolving queries efficiently.

LiveChat is ideal for businesses looking to enhance their customer experience, increase conversion rates, and streamline support processes. Its key benefits include improved communication, reduced response times, increased customer satisfaction, and valuable insights into customer behavior.

Popular features of LiveChat include customizable chat widgets, proactive chat invitations, offline messaging, chat routing, and analytics. It integrates seamlessly with popular CRM and help desk systems, ensuring a comprehensive customer support solution.

LiveChat offers flexible pricing plans based on the number of agents and features required. Its pricing ranges from a basic plan for small businesses to enterprise-level plans for large organizations, with payment options including monthly and annual subscriptions.

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Help Scout's help desk software offers a streamlined solution for businesses seeking to enhance their customer support capabilities. It's particularly well-suited for small to medium-sized teams that prioritize efficient and personalized communication. Help Scout centralizes all customer interactions, including email, live chat, and social media, into a unified inbox, enabling teams to respond promptly and effectively.

Key benefits of Help Scout include its intuitive interface, customizable automation, and reporting features. Popular features encompass shared inboxes for collaborative support, pre-built templates for faster responses, and detailed analytics for performance monitoring. Compared to other help desk software, Help Scout is known for its user-friendliness and excellent customer support. Its pricing ranges from $20 to $65 per user per month, billed annually.

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$20/User, Monthly
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Tailored to your specific needs
$20 Monthly
Get a free price quote
Tailored to your specific needs
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Windows
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Android
Chromebook
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Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile

Product Assistance

Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Reduces Costs: LiveChat helps companies cut costs by employing a smaller staff. It allows customer service agents to talk with multiple visitors at once to maintain efficiency. 
  • Boosts Customer Satisfaction: The software provides customer information like name and current page viewed so agents are able to operate with full context. This visibility, along with customer feedback surveys and chat ratings, helps companies increase CSAT (customer satisfaction) scores. 
  • Enables Faster Responses: The software facilitates timely responses through real-time interactions, canned responses and chat previews that show what a customer is typing before they hit send. 
  • Offers Free Trial: Users can test the software for 14 days to see if it works for them before committing to a purchase. The free trial offers the features included with the Team package. 
  • Provides 24/7 Support: Companies can provide round-the-clock support via integration with ChatBot, allowing customers to get their questions answered at any time. 
  • Lightens Workloads: Integration with a knowledge base reduces the number of queries that agents need to handle by allowing customers to find answers in the company knowledge base directly from the chat. 
  • Lets Users Customize: Configurable widgets enable the creation of personal experiences that are on-brand. Users can change colors, upload the company logo, add introductions and agent headshots, set chat button types, and optimize for web and mobile interfaces. The chat window also supports 45 languages. 
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  • Easy Collaboration: Send private notes to teammates and discuss problems to find solutions together before replying to customers. Create a searchable library of frequently asked questions and insert them into replies in two clicks.  
  • Deliver Instant Answers: Allow customers to access knowledge base articles from anywhere on the website with Beacon (virtual agent). Embed the knowledge base content on any web page, so customers don’t waste time searching. 
  • All Time Availability: Work on any device including, desktop, mobile or tablet. Include SSL support on every site for free and offer peace of mind to customers. Allow customers to take advantage of configurable options and auto-generated sitemap for each article in knowledge base software. 
  • Easy Escalation: Allow customers to start a live chat from where they accessed the knowledge base. Direct customer support request to email queue when live chat isn’t available. Offer choice to reach out from any mode of communication that works best for them.  
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  • Ticketing System: This module streamlines and simplifies the process of managing tickets. Users can create tickets from email or chat, group related cases with tags, assign tickets, schedule automated follow-ups and track open cases via a dashboard. Any messages sent after hours are saved as a ticket so no conversations are left untouched. 
  • Chat Routing: This feature ensures that customers speak to the most suitable agent based on department (sales or service, for example). Incoming chats can be routed automatically based on criteria like URL, or they can enter a queue for agents to manually select from. 
  • Reporting: A range of reports and analysis tools grant visibility into support efforts for a better understanding of performance. Managers can project staffing needs, monitor agent activity, track effectiveness via ticket statistics, drill down based on tags or groups and view high-level metrics like number of chats. Reports can be scheduled and delivered in multiple formats including CSV and XLS. 
  • Marketplace: LiveChat offers integration with more than 170 third-party tools for CMS, CRM, help desk, analytics, email marketing and e-commerce. Integrations include Slack, Calendly, Dropbox, Salesforce, Google Analytics, Facebook Messenger, ChatBot and MailChimp. 
  • Eye-Catcher: This tool increases engagement with chat widgets by letting users add visuals like images and GIFs that help draw attention to the chat. 
  • Notifications: This feature prevents messages from going unanswered via visual and audio alerts. Users can select the type of notifications to receive — new messages, new chats, etc. 
  • File Sharing: Reps can provide information when needed through this feature, such as sharing tutorials or marketing collateral. Visitors can also share files. 
  • Chat Archives: Users don’t have to worry about losing historical information with the ability to refer to chat histories. This feature is included in all plans, but the Starter package has a limit of 60 days. 
  • E-Commerce: Managers are able to estimate and measure the effectiveness of LiveChat with tools for goal setting and sales tracking. 
  • Security: LiveChat provides robust security via SSL encryption, single sign-on (SSO), two-step authentication, credit card masking, access restriction and audit logs. It’s hosted on U.S. or E.U. data centers and supports IP blocking. 
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  • Collision Detection: See who replies or views comments in real time. Allow users to collaborate internally via notes and @mentions. Use tagging to trigger automation and categorize conversations. Use saved answers for most common queries through two-click access. Automate all actions, create custom folders and send bulk replies.  
  • Reports and Analytics: Measure team performance, monitor customer satisfaction rates and identify issues clearly to prevent complexities and issues without opening an Excel spreadsheet. Integrate the help desk platform with services such as Snap Engage and Olarkto. Store every chat automatically in the customer's profile.  
  • Shared Inbox: Manage all support requests in a shared inbox. Get all the collaboration features such as multichannel support, notification, advanced search, mobile apps, satisfaction ratings and developer tools to stay productive and deliver world-class support. 
  • Knowledge Base: Reduce support volume by 20% and encourage fewer conversations and happier customers with easy-to-add text, hyperlinks, images, tables, and videos to articles. Customize SEO details by selecting categories and adding related units.  
  • Messages: Offer proactive support, engage leads and onboard new customers with trigger-based messages. Send SMS from any blog, website, store, or Beacon-installed app. 
  • Customer Management: List customer data, app activity and previous conversations alongside every request to deliver more personalized and faster support.  
  • Live Chat: Help customers find help center content or chat with agents easily from the same tool. Recommend resources depending on the pages clients view, so they don't waste time looking for answers. 
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Product Ranking

#15

among all
Help Desk Software

#20

among all
Help Desk Software

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Analyst Rating Summary

88
75
90
62
91
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96
75
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Team Collaboration
Mobile Capabilities
Dashboards and Reporting
Live Chat Management
Platform Security
Integrations and Extensibility
Platform Security
Team Collaboration

Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

LiveChat
Help Scout
+ Add Product + Add Product
Agent Productivity Call Center Management Dashboards And Reporting Email Management Live Chat Management Mobile Capabilities Platform Capabilities Team Collaboration Ticket Management 90 91 96 80 94 98 93 100 50 62 50 75 66 74 83 73 85 63 0 25 50 75 100
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80%
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20%
71%
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89%
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11%
64%
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36%
100%
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80%
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71%
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29%
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67%
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33%
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53%
6%
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Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

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User Sentiment Summary

Excellent User Sentiment 1298 reviews
Excellent User Sentiment 654 reviews
93%
of users recommend this product

LiveChat has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 93% when considering 1298 user reviews from 1 recognized software review sites.

90%
of users recommend this product

Help Scout has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 90% when considering 654 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

n/a
4.3 (260)
4.65 (1298)
4.67 (183)
n/a
4.7 (168)
n/a
4.0 (43)

Awards

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated LiveChat and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Team Collaboration. LiveChat stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award
Team Collaboration Award

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Help Scout and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Integrations and Extensibility. Help Scout stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award
Integrations and Extensibility Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Seamless Customer Support: LiveChat enables real-time communication, allowing businesses to resolve customer queries promptly and efficiently, enhancing customer satisfaction.
Personalized Interactions: Agents can access customer history and context, facilitating personalized interactions that build stronger relationships and drive loyalty.
Increased Conversion Rates: LiveChat provides an opportunity to engage with website visitors proactively, addressing objections and guiding them through the conversion funnel.
Improved Team Collaboration: LiveChat fosters collaboration between agents, allowing them to transfer chats seamlessly and share customer information for effective problem-solving.
Comprehensive Analytics: LiveChat offers robust analytics that provide valuable insights into customer behavior, enabling businesses to optimize their live chat strategy and measure its impact.
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Intuitive Interface: User-friendly design simplifies navigation and ticket management, making it easy for support teams to get up to speed quickly.
Shared Inbox: Collaborative workspace allows multiple agents to manage tickets efficiently, ensuring seamless handoffs and faster resolution times.
Automated Workflows: Customizable automation rules streamline repetitive tasks, freeing up agents' time for more complex issues.
Powerful Search: Robust search capabilities make it easy to find specific tickets, customer information, and knowledge base articles, reducing time spent on manual searches.
Excellent Customer Support: Responsive and knowledgeable support team provides prompt assistance, ensuring a positive user experience.
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Inconsistent Agent Availability: Users experience frustration when they are unable to connect with a live agent during critical moments, leading to unresolved queries and dissatisfaction.
Limited Customization Options: Predefined chat templates and inflexible chat window designs restrict businesses from tailoring the live chat experience to match their brand identity and specific needs.
Data Security Concerns: Users are hesitant to provide sensitive information through live chat platforms due to concerns about data privacy and the potential for security breaches.
Delayed Response Times: Slow response times can lead to frustration and abandonment, especially during peak hours when users expect immediate assistance.
Lack of Proactive Engagement: Live chat software that lacks proactive engagement features limits the ability of businesses to initiate conversations and proactively address customer needs.
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Limited Customization: Help Scout offers limited customization options, which can restrict businesses from tailoring the software to their specific needs and branding.
Lack of Automation: Compared to other Help Desk Software, Help Scout lacks robust automation features, such as automated ticket assignment and escalation rules, which can hinder efficiency.
Pricing Structure: Help Scout's pricing plans can be perceived as expensive for businesses with a large number of agents or high ticket volume.
Limited Reporting Capabilities: Some users have reported that Help Scout's reporting capabilities are not as comprehensive as they would like, making it challenging to extract valuable insights and track performance.
Mobile App Limitations: The Help Scout mobile app has been criticized for its limited functionality compared to the desktop version, making it less convenient for remote or on-the-go support teams.
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LiveChat is often praised for its user-friendly interface and ease of setup. It seamlessly integrates with various platforms and offers a wide range of customization options. One of its strengths is the ability to create automated chatbots, which can handle simple inquiries and free up agents for more complex tasks. LiveChat's analytics and reporting capabilities provide valuable insights into customer interactions, allowing businesses to optimize their support strategies. It compares favorably to similar products due to its comprehensive feature set, intuitive design, and robust reporting functionality. These factors are crucial for businesses seeking a reliable and efficient live chat solution. However, some users have expressed concerns about occasional technical glitches and limited customization options for chatbots. Additionally, LiveChat's pricing can be a consideration for smaller businesses or those with limited budgets. Despite these minor drawbacks, LiveChat remains a top choice for businesses seeking a comprehensive and user-friendly live chat solution. Its strengths in ease of use, automation capabilities, and reporting functionality make it particularly suitable for businesses looking to improve customer support efficiency and gain valuable insights into customer interactions.

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Help Scout, a popular help desk software, has received consistent praise from users in the last year. Many users emphasize its user-friendly interface, which makes it easy to set up and use, even for those new to help desk software. The software's intuitive design and customizable features allow users to tailor it to their specific needs, making it a versatile option for businesses of all sizes. When comparing Help Scout to similar products, users often highlight its superior customer support and documentation. Help Scout's dedicated support team is highly responsive and knowledgeable, providing valuable assistance to users. Additionally, the software's comprehensive documentation and tutorials make it easy for users to find answers to their questions and troubleshoot any issues they encounter. One of the key differentiating factors of Help Scout is its focus on email support. The software seamlessly integrates with email, allowing users to manage all their customer interactions from a single platform. This streamlines communication and improves efficiency, particularly for businesses that rely heavily on email support. Overall, Help Scout is highly recommended for businesses looking for a user-friendly, customizable, and reliable help desk software. Its strengths in customer support, email integration, and intuitive design make it an excellent choice for companies of all sizes that prioritize efficient and effective customer service.

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