5 Best Freshchat Alternatives for Graphic Design

Intercom is a well‑established customer messaging platform that blends live chat, automated bots, and an integrated help center. While it is often praised for its conversational marketing capabilities, Intercom also offers a robust knowledge base through its Help Center feature, allowing designers to pre‑populate FAQs, tutorials, and brand guidelines that the chatbot can reference. The platform’s visual editor lets you create branded chat windows, but customization is limited to color schemes, button styles, and basic layout options rather than full WYSIWYG control. Intercom’s product includes a suite of tools such as product tours, targeted messages, and in‑app conversations that can be triggered by user behavior or custom events. The platform is built to scale, providing automated workflows, lead capture forms, and integration with major CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot. For design teams, Intercom can serve as a single hub for client support, internal help, and marketing outreach. Intercom’s pricing starts at $39/month for the Starter plan, which includes up to 2,000 contacts and basic chat features. The Standard plan costs $74/month and adds live chat, email, and integration capabilities, while the Premium plan at $199/month offers advanced automation, product tours, and analytics. All plans support unlimited messages, but the number of active users and contacts is capped. Intercom is best suited for design agencies and studios that need a comprehensive customer engagement suite, especially those already using Intercom’s marketing tools and CRM integrations.

Drift focuses on conversational marketing and sales, offering live chat, chatbots, and meeting scheduling directly within the chat window. The platform excels at qualifying leads and routing them to the right team members, a feature that can be invaluable for design firms looking to convert website visitors into project inquiries. Drift’s chatbot can be customized with a visual editor, but the customization options are centered around conversational flows rather than full visual styling of the chat window. The knowledge base in Drift is built around FAQs and content suggestions that the bot can surface during a conversation. The platform also integrates with major CRMs and marketing automation tools, enabling the transfer of conversation data for follow‑up. However, Drift does not provide a dedicated knowledge graph or RAG system; it relies on static FAQ content. Pricing for Drift starts at $400/month for the Starter plan, which includes up to 500 contacts and basic chat functionality. The Standard plan at $800/month adds unlimited contacts, advanced automation, and integrations, while the Enterprise plan is custom‑priced. All plans include unlimited messages within the plan limits. Design agencies that prioritize lead qualification, appointment scheduling, and sales conversations may find Drift an effective tool.

Tidio combines live chat with AI chatbots in a single platform, offering a lightweight solution for real‑time customer support and automated messaging. The platform’s visual editor lets users choose from pre‑designed themes, upload logos, and adjust colors, giving designers a degree of brand alignment without deep technical knowledge. While it doesn’t provide a full WYSIWYG editor for intricate style changes, the available customization is sufficient for most small‑to‑mid‑size design businesses. Tidio’s knowledge base feature allows the chatbot to answer FAQs; however, it is limited to static content and does not include advanced RAG or knowledge graph capabilities. The platform also supports e‑commerce integrations with Shopify and WooCommerce, enabling product recommendations and order status updates. Pricing is tiered: the Basic plan is free for up to 3 agents, the Standard plan costs $18/month, and the Pro plan is $49/month. All paid plans include unlimited messages and access to custom bots, but the number of agents and the level of automation increase with each tier. Tidio is ideal for freelance designers and small studios that need an inexpensive, easy‑to‑set‑up chat solution with basic AI and e‑commerce support.

LiveChat is a long‑standing live‑chat platform that offers real‑time messaging, ticketing, and automation. The platform includes a knowledge base module that allows teams to create searchable articles and FAQs, which the chatbot can reference during conversations. While LiveChat does not provide a full WYSIWYG editor for chat widgets, users can customize colors, chat bubble shape, and branding elements to match their site’s design. LiveChat’s automation features enable routing of conversations to specific agents or teams based on tags and rules, and the platform supports integrations with popular CRMs, help desks, and e‑commerce platforms. The chat widget can be embedded with a single line of code, and the dashboard offers insights into chat volume, response times, and agent performance. Pricing starts at $16/month per seat for the Standard plan, which includes live chat, ticketing, and basic automation. The Plus plan at $20/month adds advanced features such as custom bots and integrations, while the Enterprise plan is custom‑priced. LiveChat is suitable for larger design firms that need robust ticketing, multi‑agent support, and analytics.