4 Best Drift Alternatives – Find the Ideal One for You

Ugljesa Djuric

Ugljesa is passionate about the content market, sales, and marketing. He's has been working for several SaaS companies on similar topics.

October 11, 2019
minutes to read

Are you looking for a more affordable (or better) Drift alternative? We reviewed 4 best Drift alternatives and gave our honest feedback on it. At the end o f the article, you will be able to choose the right tool for your needs. 

Whether you want to improve your website conversions, improve sales or generate more leads, this is the only tool guide you’re going to need.

So, the 4 best Drift alternatives (by our research and opinion) are:

  • Limecall
  • lemtalk
  • Helpcrunch
  • Zendesk

In order to help you find the right Drift alternative, we actually tried all of those tools for one week and did in-depth research of them. As the end result, here we’re presenting you the most detailed feedback you can find about those Drift alternatives on the web. 

Don’t get us wrong – Drift is an amazing product. But like everything else, it has its good and bad sides.

Why only 4 Drift Alternatives? 

You’re probably wondering right now why we chose only 4 Drift alternatives from a 100s of similar apps? Well, to be honest, there are indeed a lot of similar tools like Drift out there. But not all of them are direct Drift competitors. Thus, we can’t look at them as Drift alternatives.

There are a lot of simple live chat tools or chatbots that may be considered as the Drift competitors, but the truth is – not a lot of them are delivering desired results on your doorstep.

We’ve tried more than 30 different Drift competitors, and by our standards, these four are the best on the market.

For better understanding, we evaluated each of these tools with the following scores:

  • Easy to set-up (1-5)
  • Easy-to-use (user experience) – (1-5)
  • Customization options (1-5)
  • Value for money (1-5)
  • Features score (number of features comparing with Drift) (1-5)

After the weeks of detailed planning, researching and using a lot of different Drift alternatives, we decided that the best ones are: Limecall, lemtalk, Zendesk, HelpCrunch.

Check our: Callback apps for real estate

Also, based on the different criteria (like pricing and the product’s mission overall), we gave some particular use cases for each of these Drift alternatives. This will give you the ability to choose the right product for you on a quicker and easier way.

So, here we’re going to deeply review each of these 4 Drift alternatives.

We will see what’s the best option for your particular use case, situation, strategy and goals.

Before we see the exact reviews of all Drift alternatives, let’s first see what are the good and bad sides of Drift.

Check our: Callback apps for travel agency

Drift’s advantages

Like I already said, Drift is a great product for your conversion rates, lead generation and sales.

Without a doubt, it’s definitely one of the best tools on the market. 

Overall Drift’s advantages:

  • It’s easy to use
  • Onboarding is quick and easy
  • Has a lot of features
  • It’s one of the best tools out there for doing sales on your website

But, it’s not suitable and good for everyone.

Drift is amazing for big companies that have a budget for it.

But, what about smaller companies with less than 50 employees or the companies who don’t want all of the features Drift has to offer? 

Shortcomings of Drift

There’s a couple of very important Drift’s shortcomings.

  • Very high-prices – Even if Drift has the “startup” package for $50/mo with 10 seats, it’s relatively hard to get it. They’re reviewing submissions manually, and from time-to-time, sometimes they won’t accept you. 
  • Not great customer support – Fixing some minor issues and bugs we surfaced while evaluating Drift usually took a day or so. It’s clear that Dirft’s customer success and customer support team are focusing on high-paying customers.

Now, let’s see 4 best Drift alternatives.

Limecall – Drift alternative for sales calls

If getting in touch with a human within seconds are your customer’s priority or your sales is more human-touch based then Limecall is better than Drift. 

For most industries, you can face with a complex sales cycle. But it doesn’t mean that it can’t become simpler, quicker and easier. Even more, there are some shortcuts you can use to speed up your sales cycle.

That’s the reason why Limecall can be a great way to generate and convert leads in real-time on your website. 

Limecall is a callback software that asks your website visitors for an instant call.

You certainly don’t want to leave your visitors unanswered. The team behind a successful business must ensure quality customer support.

If someone wants to find out more about your business, you should aim to give them the right information as soon as possible. Otherwise, there are good chances that they will go with your competitor’s solutions. 

Limecall has an innovative callback widget. When a website visitor wants to ask a question, the widget appears as a window with a simple question: „Do you want us to call you in 28 seconds?“.

drift alternative_limecall

People don’t expect such a rapid reaction and you will surprise them with your organization, professionalism and willingness to help.

Long story short, Limecall can help you to both generate more leads on your website and convert them into trial or paying customers. 

You can use a Limecall callback software to maintain the interest of your website visitors and give them the answers they seek. Make great and powerful connections between your real estate business and qualified leads.

Advantages of Limecall over Drift

Limecall is definitely the simple Drift solution with more human touch/voice call feature. But the thing is, it has all the necessary callback software features you need for having successful sales on your websites.

Before all, last time we checked, Drift doesn’t have a callback solution – and this is a huge benefit of Limecall over Drift.

In terms of pricing (we will see Limecall’s pricing later), you will realize that Limecall doesn’t charge you per seat, but per the number of calls per month. In other words, if you go with Limecall, you will pay only for the results you make.

Shortcomings of Limecall

If you’re seeking for the Drift alternative that’s exactly the same like Drift but cheaper, then Limecall is not for you.

But if you’re looking for more affordable Drink alternative that can do exactly the same job but with different features and in different ways, then Limecall can be the best option for you.

Limecall doesn’t offer you chatbots or live chat, instead, it offers you personalized human element through real-time calls with your website visitors.

Limecall pricing

In terms of pricing, Limecall offers different packages. There is a Starter Pack that is absolutely free and has up to 20 calls per month. Pro plan costs $35 per month and includes 100 calls via Limecall, widget installation on unlimited domains and more. The Advanced package is bigger and costs $75 per month. If you want to make a custom solution for your business, there is an option for the Enterprise package.

Limecall’s score as the Drift alternative

  • Easy to set-up – 5
  • Easy-to-use (user experience) – 5
  • Customization options – 5
  • Value for money – 5
  • Features score (number of features comparing with Drift) – 3

TOTAL: 23/25

Is Limecall the right Drift alternative for you?

Like we mentioned above, if you’re looking for a similar product like Drift but just cheaper, then Limecall is not the tool you’re looking for.

But if you’re looking for the more affordable Drift alternative that does the same (or an even better) job but on a different way, than Limecall is your go-to tool.

Lemtalk – Drift alternative helpdesk Slack app for SMBs

Lemtalk can be a great choice for SMBs who are looking for simplified drift alternative that’s integrated into Slack.

Lemtalk is the customer support and live chat app that’s built for Slack. In other words, it doesn’t have its own dashboard for receiving and answering tickets. It uses Slack for that.

With lemtalk, you can receive your messages and answer them directly from Slack (whether they came from email, SMS, Facebook or Live Chat).

It looks like this:

drift alternative_lemtalk

Integrating live chat to your website takes less than 1 minute while creating your FAQ and Knowledge Base pages is quick and simple.

But, lemtalk is more like a customer support solution. So, why we think it’s the Drift alternative?

Lemtalk has powerful live chat automatic messages that can be triggered by website visitor’s behaviour and context on your website.

In other words, it can help you to start and engage meaningful conversations with your potential customers.

Advantages of lemtalk over Drift

  • All customer’s messages will be placed, stored and answered from one space – no need for the hundreds of tabs and confusing navigation through different products. All messages will be stored directly into your Slack workspace.
  • It’s super easy to use – just type your message like you would do while writing to your colleague
  • You can use it on-the-go – If you have Slack mobile app, you can quickly and easily answer your inquiries whether you’re on the beach, on the train or in your office
  • From one place send answers to multiple locations – just type your answer in Slack, and the message will be sent to your customers, whether they contacted you through Facebook, Live Chat, Email or SMS.

Shortcomings of Lemtalk

Like everything else, Lemtalk also has a couple of flaws and shortcomings.

  • It doesn’t have too many features like Drift – If you’re looking for the Drift alternative that can do exactly the same things like Drift, then lemtalk is not the right tool for you. It doesn’t support pop-ups or chatbots. Lemtalk team believes in the human element and thus, their mission is to help people convert website visitors on a personalized way with human-touch. 
  • It’s not built for Enterprise companies – If you’re an enterprise – lemtalk can’t be the right fit for your company. Lemtalk is the simplified live chat solution built for the Slack teams. If you’re looking for some robust Drift alternatives, then look somewhere else.
  • It can’t work without Slack – Unfortunately, lemtalk can’t work if you’re not using Slack. Lemtalk is built for Slack, and thus, it’s useful only for the Slack users. But at the end of the day, if you want to use lemtalk but you’re not using Slack at the moment, you can always take the Slack’s free forever plan.

lemtalk pricing

Unlike other live chat solutions, lemtalk doesn’t bill you per agent or per monthly conversations. It has three different plans all with unlimited agents, conversations and priority customer support:

  • Startup plan $48/mo
  • Business plan $96/mo
  • Agency plan $249/mo

Drift vs lemtalk – how are they different?

lemtalk comes as a simplified Drift alternative. Drift has much more features than lemtalk (like chatbots for example), but lemtalk is super-focused on two things – lead conversion through live chat and offering great customer support. The biggest difference between Drift and lemtalk is in Slack integration.

When it comes to pricing, lemtalk is definitely more affordable than Drift. The lowest plan costs $48/mo, and it doesn’t have any hidden fees. Also, in all plans, there is an unlimited number of seats, agents and customers.

lemtalk’s score as the Drift alternative

  • Easy to set-up – 5
  • Easy-to-use (user experience) – 5
  • Customization options – 3
  • Value for money – 5
  • Features score (number of features comparing with Drift) – 3

TOTAL: 21/25

Is lemtalk the best Drift alternative for you?

If you’re looking for very simple Drift alternative appropriate for SMBs that has an incredible Slack integration, then you’re on the right spot.

But if you’re looking for a more robust platform, then lemtalk definitely isn’t for you. 

HelpCrunch – Affordable Drift alternative

If you’re looking for a similar product like Drift, but more affordable, then HelpCrunch can be a great option for you.

A Short overview of HelpCrunch

HelpCrunch is the customer communication platform that’s very similar to Drift.

drift alternative_helpcrunch

Basically, HelpCrunch is the simplified Drift alternative – but just more affordable.

Advantages of HelpCrunch over Drift

HelpCrunch also has a couple of advantages over Drift:

  • It has deep integration with your product – HelpCrunch provides you with really in-depth information and data about your customers. You can see entire customer’s data while chatting with them
  • It’s easier to use – by our experience, UX is cleaner, simpler and easier to use 🙂

Shortcomings of HelpCrunch

Although HelpCrunch is a great tool, it has a couple of flaws:

  • You can’t customize subdomains – Although HelpCrunch’s development team is working on this right now, you can’t customize your subdomains at the moment.
  • Chatbot workflows are a little bit less advanced – Although HelpCrunch has the chatbot solution, it’s workflows are a little bit less advanced than Drift’s ones.

HelpCrunch pricing

Overall, Helpcrunch is much cheaper than Drift:

  • Standard – from $15/mo per seat
  • Premium – from $25/mo per seat

Drift vs HelpCrunch – how are they different?

Although HelpCrunch has a little bit fewer features than Drift, its price perfectly positions HelpCrunch as similar Drift alternative but for small and medium businesses.

In terms of pricing, HelpCrunch is more affordable than Drift. In terms of features, Drift has more functionalities – but in HelpCrunch you have everything you need to generate more leads and close more deals.

HelpCrunch’s score as the Drift alternative

  • Easy to set-up – 4
  • Easy-to-use (user experience) – 4
  • Customization options – 5
  • Value for money – 5
  • Features score (number of features comparing with Drift) – 4 

TOTAL: 22/25

Is HelpCrunch the best Drift alternative for you?

If you’re looking for almost the same solution like Drift, but just a cheaper one, then you’re on the right spot.

So, if you’re looking for a product that’s almost the same like Drift, but more affordable than Drift, then HelpCrunch can be the best Drift alternative for you.

Zendesk – Drift alternative suited for customer support

If you’re looking for the Drift alternative that’s more focused on support than on sales, then Zendesk might be a good fit for you.

A Short overview of Zendesk

Zendesk is the Drift alternative that’s built for customer support. It’s one of the oldest customer support solutions on the market, and hence, it’s probably the most robust product out there.

One of the biggest differences between Zendesk and Drift is that Zendesk offers a 30-day free trial, while Drift doesn’t offer trial at all.

drift alternative_zendesk

Advantages of Zendesk

  • It has more customer support features than Drift – As we mentioned, Zendesk is more “customer support” than “sales” oriented. Thus, you can expect to have more customer support features – like phone support.
  • It has better customer support -In our opinion, Zendesk has far better and more friendly customer support than Drift. They’re answering the questions pretty fast.

Shortcomings of Zendesk

Although Zendesk is great software, it has a little bit more shortcomings than any other Drift alternative.

  • Outdated UX/UI – UX/UI is very outdated. While using Zendesk, you will feel like you’re living at the beginning of the 21st century.
  • Fewer customization options in Live Chat – Live Chat looks so 00’s. Zendesk doesn’t have too much customization options like other Drift alternatives
  • Harder onboarding and bigger learning curve – It’s relatively hard to start using Zendesk. It has a lot of technical things you need to learn in order to use Zendesk.

Zendesk Pricing

Zendesk is the perfect Drift alternative for enterprise companies that are looking for some customer support solution.

At Zendesk, the basic plan starts at $5/mo, while the all-in-one basic plans are starting at $89/mo/seat.

Drift vs Zendesk – how are they different?

Even if Zendesk has a little bit outdated UI/UX, its customer support capabilities are way better than Drift’s ones. If you’re looking for the all-in-one customer support software, and if you don’t mind paying more than for Drift, in that case, Zendesk can be a great tool for you.

Zendesk’s score as the Drift alternative

  • Easy to set-up – 3
  • Easy-to-use (user experience) – 3
  • Customization options – 3
  • Value for money – 4
  • Features score (number of features comparing with Drift) – 5

TOTAL: 18/25

Is Zendesk the best Drift alternative for you?

If you’re the enterprise company that’s looking for the Drift alternative that’s more suitable for customer support than doing sales and CRO, then Zendesk can be a perfect tool for you.

Which Drift alternative is the best for you?

So, we’re at the end of this detailed comparison. So, let’s see what’s the best Drift alternative for you:

If you’re looking for the product that’s almost similar like Drift but just more affordable, then HelpCrunch will be the best Drift alternative for you.

If you’re looking for the Drift alternative that has a lot of customer support options and you don’t mind paying more than for Drift, then Zendesk will be the best Drift alternative for you.

If you’re looking for the live chat Drift alternative that’s fully integrated into Slack, then lemtalk can be the right fit for you.

If:

  • You’re looking for the Drift alternative with fewer features (but with only the most important ones that will help you to kickstart your website sales and CRO)
  • You’re looking to improve your website conversions
  • You’re looking for the more sales-oriented Drift alternative
  • You’re looking for immediate human touch in your sales

then Limecall will be the best Drift alternative for you.

If this is the case, feel free to try Limecall right now

, October 11, 2019, Ugljesa Djuric

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