Drift vs Intercom vs Olark

Overview

Olark

Stacks411

Followers72

Votes70

Intercom

Stacks6.7K

Followers3.2K

Votes604

Drift

Stacks156

Followers99

Votes0

Drift vs Intercom vs Olark: What are the differences?

Introduction: In the realm of customer communication and support platforms, Drift, Intercom, and Olark are popular choices for businesses to engage with their audience. Each platform offers its unique features and benefits, making it essential to understand their key differences to make an informed decision.

Messaging Approach: Drift is primarily a conversational marketing platform that focuses on real-time conversations with customers, allowing businesses to engage with prospects instantly. Intercom, on the other hand, provides a comprehensive customer communication toolkit that includes live chat, email, and marketing automation. Olark is a live chat platform that enables businesses to communicate with customers in real-time directly on the website.
Automation Capabilities: Drift emphasizes the use of AI-powered chatbots for automating customer interactions, qualifying leads, and scheduling meetings. Intercom offers robust automation features through its chatbots, allowing businesses to streamline customer support and marketing processes. Olark, while lacking advanced automation features, provides a straightforward live chat solution for instant customer communication.
Integration Options: Drift seamlessly integrates with popular CRM systems, marketing tools, and email marketing platforms, enabling businesses to unify their customer communication channels. Intercom boasts a wide range of integrations with third-party applications, allowing for a more customized and integrated customer experience. In comparison, Olark offers fewer integrations but still supports essential connections like CRM platforms and helpdesk software.
Pricing Structure: Drift's pricing is based on a tiered model, with different plans offering varying features and capabilities to cater to businesses of all sizes. Intercom's pricing is also tiered, with different packages tailored to the needs of startups, growth-stage companies, and enterprises. Olark, on the other hand, offers a straightforward pricing model based on the number of operators, making it a cost-effective choice for smaller businesses.
Analytics and Reporting: Drift provides in-depth analytics on conversation metrics, lead generation, and customer interactions to help businesses track and optimize their conversational marketing efforts. Intercom offers advanced reporting capabilities, including customer segmentation, engagement metrics, and user behavior insights. Olark provides basic reporting on chat volume, response times, and customer satisfaction ratings, allowing businesses to monitor their live chat performance.
Customer Support: Drift offers email support and a knowledge base for troubleshooting issues, along with dedicated customer success managers for higher-tier plans. Intercom provides 24/7 live chat support, in-depth documentation, and community forums for users to seek help and guidance. Olark offers email and live chat support during business hours, as well as a knowledge base for self-service assistance.

In Summary, understanding the specific strengths and focus areas of Drift, Intercom, and Olark can help businesses choose the right customer communication platform for their needs.

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Detailed Comparison

Olark	Intercom	Drift
Olark is a lightweight tool to chat with visitors to your website using your existing instant messaging client. Visitors to your website appear as buddies on your Buddy list, their messages to you appear as IMs.	Intercom is a customer communication platform with a suite of integrated products for every team—including sales, marketing, product, and support. Have targeted communication with customers on your website, inside apps, and by email.	Drift is a messaging app that makes it easy for businesses to talk to their website visitors and customers in real-time, from anywhere.
CRM & Helpdesk Integration;Concurrent chats;Phone support;Operator groups;White label;SSL;Conversation transcripts;Hide Olark unless an operator initiates a chat;Popout;Customizable Olark branding;Pre-chat name/email survey;Hide when offline;Hide on close;Chat statistics and reports;Custom CSS;Standard Olark features;Use any desktop IM client;Mobile device support;Use Google Talk;Google Apps for Your Domain integration;Attention Grabber image;Welcome Assistant proactive chat;Operator-initiated chat;Visitor details;Offline messages;Incredibly fast email support;Customize/internationalize all text;Customize colors and themes;Google Analytics integration;Javascript API	Live customer data;Rich user and company profiles;Real-time customer segments;Email and in-app messages;Auto-messages based on time or behavior;Custom email templates;Rich, personalized message composer;Performance metrics;Event tracking;A/B testing;Web & mobile compatibility;APIs and webhooks	Know who your users are and what they are doing with live customer data;Segment in real-time with up to date data from your app or 3rd party integrations;Enhanced User and Company profiles;Email capture widget;Email and in-app messages (mobile & web);Auto-messages based on time or behavior;Messaging performance metrics;Event tracking;Open APIs, SDKs and webhooks
Statistics
Stacks 411	Stacks 6.7K	Stacks 156
Followers 72	Followers 3.2K	Followers 99
Votes 70	Votes 604	Votes 0
Pros & Cons
Pros 28 Easy to communicate with customers 14 Simple setup 11 Good interface 8 Free 4 Chrome/Safari notifications about new messages	Pros 169 Know who your users are 115 Auto-messaging 107 In-app messaging as well as email 88 Customer support 68 Usage tracking Cons 7 Changes pricing model all the time	No community feedback yet
Integrations
Segment Zendesk Help Scout Highrise Salesforce Sales Cloud FreshDesk Unbounce Desk.com KickoffLabs	Stripe Zendesk Zapier Segment Salesforce Sales Cloud Mailchimp GitHub Slack HipChat	WordPress Segment Twilio SendGrid Slack Mixpanel Zapier Mailchimp Shopify HubSpot HipChat

What are some alternatives to Olark, Intercom, Drift?

Customer.io

Customer engagement platform for tech savvy marketers sending personalized, data-driven marketing, product, and transactional messages. Ideal for mid-market SaaS, FinTech, EdTech, mobile apps, marketplaces companies, and more.

Zopim

Zopim is focused on serving the needs of web users that hasn’t been met by other chat solutions: the need for usability, convenience and simplicity of design

tawk.to

It is a live chat support & messaging application that focuses on successful communication between businesses and their customers.

Crisp

Chat with website visitors, integrate your favorite tools, and deliver a great customer experience.

Pimcore

It is a software vendor for free and open-source customer experience management, digital asset management, product information management, multi-channel publishing and e-commerce software.

Vero

Vero is an event-driven email marketing platform for engineering, marketing, and product teams - it gives you the visibility and clarity to help you collaborate and move faster in designing and sending emails using real-time customer data.

Chatlio

You don't need yet another chat client. Talk with your customers using your existing Slack service.

saastoast

Saastoast sends real-time push notifications for key SaaS events, trial signups, upgrades, feature usage, churn risks, and more, keeping founders motivated and customer-centric by showing momentum as it happens.

LiveChat

LiveChat provides a live chat application with help desk and web analytics functionalities, allowing online businesses to communicate with visitors in real time.

Tidio

It is a live chat service which allows you to communicate with your customers easily, also with the help of chatbots. It is designed specifically for the WordPress community.

Related Comparisons

Drift vs Intercom vs Olark: What are the differences?

Messaging Approach: Drift is primarily a conversational marketing platform that focuses on real-time conversations with customers, allowing businesses to engage with prospects instantly. Intercom, on the other hand, provides a comprehensive customer communication toolkit that includes live chat, email, and marketing automation. Olark is a live chat platform that enables businesses to communicate with customers in real-time directly on the website.
Automation Capabilities: Drift emphasizes the use of AI-powered chatbots for automating customer interactions, qualifying leads, and scheduling meetings. Intercom offers robust automation features through its chatbots, allowing businesses to streamline customer support and marketing processes. Olark, while lacking advanced automation features, provides a straightforward live chat solution for instant customer communication.
Integration Options: Drift seamlessly integrates with popular CRM systems, marketing tools, and email marketing platforms, enabling businesses to unify their customer communication channels. Intercom boasts a wide range of integrations with third-party applications, allowing for a more customized and integrated customer experience. In comparison, Olark offers fewer integrations but still supports essential connections like CRM platforms and helpdesk software.
Pricing Structure: Drift's pricing is based on a tiered model, with different plans offering varying features and capabilities to cater to businesses of all sizes. Intercom's pricing is also tiered, with different packages tailored to the needs of startups, growth-stage companies, and enterprises. Olark, on the other hand, offers a straightforward pricing model based on the number of operators, making it a cost-effective choice for smaller businesses.
Analytics and Reporting: Drift provides in-depth analytics on conversation metrics, lead generation, and customer interactions to help businesses track and optimize their conversational marketing efforts. Intercom offers advanced reporting capabilities, including customer segmentation, engagement metrics, and user behavior insights. Olark provides basic reporting on chat volume, response times, and customer satisfaction ratings, allowing businesses to monitor their live chat performance.
Customer Support: Drift offers email support and a knowledge base for troubleshooting issues, along with dedicated customer success managers for higher-tier plans. Intercom provides 24/7 live chat support, in-depth documentation, and community forums for users to seek help and guidance. Olark offers email and live chat support during business hours, as well as a knowledge base for self-service assistance.

In Summary, understanding the specific strengths and focus areas of Drift, Intercom, and Olark can help businesses choose the right customer communication platform for their needs.

Drift vs Intercom vs Olark

Overview