7 Best Drift Alternatives for SaaS Companies

Intercom has grown from a simple live‑chat tool into a full‑featured customer engagement platform. It offers a conversational inbox that aggregates chat, email, and in‑app messages, and its AI chatbots can be trained to answer common questions, book demos, or qualify leads. Intercom’s “Product Tours” feature guides new users through a SaaS product’s key functions, while the “Messages” tool lets marketers send targeted, automated sequences across email, in‑app, and push notifications. The platform’s integration ecosystem includes Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zapier, making it easy to sync data and trigger downstream actions. Intercom’s pricing is tiered by active users: the Essentials plan starts at $39/month for up to 200 active users, while the Pro plan adds more automation and reporting for $99/month. Intercom’s strengths lie in its robust customer data platform, omnichannel messaging, and a developer-friendly API that allows custom extensions. However, the platform can become expensive as your user base grows, and it requires a moderate amount of configuration to fully leverage its AI capabilities.

Zendesk Chat, formerly known as Zopim, is part of the Zendesk customer service suite and provides real‑time live chat for websites and mobile apps. The platform focuses on simplicity, offering a lightweight chat widget that can be embedded with a single line of code and customized via CSS or the Zendesk Chat UI. Key features include proactive chat triggers, chat routing to the right agent, and integration with Zendesk Support to turn chat transcripts into tickets. Zendesk Chat also offers a bot builder that can answer FAQs and capture lead information. Pricing is split into three tiers: the Basic plan is free with limited agents, the Essential plan starts at $14/month per agent, and the Professional plan adds advanced routing and analytics at $25/month per agent. Zendesk Chat is ideal for companies already using Zendesk Support or other Zendesk products, as it seamlessly shares customer data across the ecosystem.

Tidio combines live chat and chatbot automation in a single, lightweight platform that can be added to any website with a simple script. The interface is user‑friendly: a visual bot builder lets you create flows using pre‑defined blocks, and the chat widget can be customized via a visual editor or CSS. Tidio’s bots use natural language processing to answer FAQs, collect emails, and trigger email sequences. The platform also offers a shared inbox that aggregates all chat, email, and messenger messages, making it easy to manage conversations from one place. Pricing starts with a free plan that supports one chatbot and basic live chat, while the Premium plan costs $18/month per user and adds advanced chatbot logic, AI-powered responses, and integration with Zapier. Tidio is popular among small to medium‑sized SaaS companies that need an affordable, all‑in‑one chat solution without a steep learning curve.

Freshchat, part of the Freshworks product suite, offers a modern live‑chat platform designed for SaaS and e‑commerce sites. The chat widget can be embedded with a single script tag and customized through the in‑app settings panel. Freshchat’s AI layer, powered by Freshworks’ proprietary engine, can answer FAQs, capture leads, and route conversations to the right agent. The platform supports multi‑channel messaging, including web chat, email, and mobile push, and it integrates seamlessly with Freshsales and other Freshworks apps. Freshchat’s growth plan, priced at $15/month per user, includes advanced automation, AI chatbots, and detailed analytics. For larger teams, the Enterprise plan adds additional users, custom branding, and priority support. Freshchat’s strengths lie in its tight integration with the Freshworks ecosystem and its AI‑enhanced bot capabilities, while it may lack some of the deep customization options of standalone chatbot builders.

ManyChat is a chatbot platform that started as a tool for Facebook Messenger marketing but has expanded to support web chat, SMS, and email. The visual flow builder uses drag‑and‑drop steps to create conversational paths, and the platform can integrate with Zapier, Shopify, and HubSpot to push data into other systems. ManyChat supports broadcast messaging, drip campaigns, and bot‑driven lead qualification. Pricing is split into a free tier that allows one broadcast and basic bot flows, while the Pro plan starts at $10/month and adds unlimited broadcasts, tag management, and advanced integrations. ManyChat’s focus on marketing automation makes it ideal for SaaS companies that want to nurture leads through conversational sequences, but it lacks native customer‑support features like a shared inbox or ticketing system.

Crisp is a lightweight live‑chat solution that offers a suite of collaboration tools for support teams. The chat widget can be added to any website with a single script and customized via the Crisp dashboard. One of Crisp’s highlights is its shared inbox, which aggregates all chat conversations, email, and support tickets into a single interface, improving agent productivity. The platform also supports chatbots built through a visual builder, knowledge‑base articles that can be published as a help center, and real‑time notifications for new messages. Crisp’s pricing is tiered: the Free plan supports up to 10 agents, the Plus plan starts at $25/month per user, and the Enterprise plan adds custom features and priority support. Crisp is particularly well‑suited for SaaS teams that need a clean, all‑in‑one chat, bot, and knowledge‑base solution without a steep learning curve.