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Olark
- 14-day free trial
- 30+ integrations
- AI automation
- Easy to use interface
- No mobile apps
- Limited data/reporting metrics
Olark is a live chat client with an automated chatbot option to greet visitors and answer common questions. Answer some questions and the chatbot builder automatically generates the bot for you.
Here’s what you need to know about pricing, features, comparisons, and more.
SMB Guide’s Verdict for Olark
At SMB Guide, we use a comprehensive set of evaluation criteria to ensure our reviews are detailed, unbiased, and deliver value to our readers.
Olark is a reasonably priced live chat widget for those businesses with a customer service team. Add-ons and/or a custom plan add extra features for additional fees, including a chatbot.
We rate Olark 8 out of 10. It’s a straightforward live chat widget with a ton of integrations. chatbot for small to medium organizations of any size who want better communication with visitors and higher lead conversions, but it can be pricey if you exceed your limits.
Here’s a detailed breakdown of key features, pricing, and more.
Pricing & Plans
With Olark, it’s complicated. After a 2-week free trial, there’s a per-user base plan and a custom Pro plan with more features.
However, some of the most useful features incur additional monthly fees.
Standard
Olark’s live chat widget is relatively inexpensive and can be deployed over multiple sites. Here are the base rates and prices for add-on services.
Price
- $29/agent/month
- $23/agent/month paid annually
- $19/agent/month for a two-year contract paid in advance
Powerups (add-on services) flat rate fees, not per user
- Cobrowsing: View, annotate, and control your visitor’s screen. $99/month
- Non-branded chat box: Remove ‘Powered by Olark’ branding from your chatbox. $59/month
- Live chat translation: Automatically translate messages in 100+ languages. $29/month
- Visitor insights: Social: Collect visitor data from public websites & social profiles.$59/month
- Visitor insights: Social & Professional: Collect visitor data from business websites & social profiles. $99/month
Features
- Unlimited chat history
- Customizable chatbox
- Comprehensive data security
- Advanced reporting
- Advanced privacy features
- Real-time reporting
- Agent groups
- Targeted chat
- Convenient integrations
Who it’s for: Olark’s Standard plan is a good fit for any size business that wants to offer personal online service by real humans.
Pro
Bigger organizations may need an automated chatbot to cover their needs. Olark’s Pro plan offers a chatbot, enhanced support, and more.
Price
- Custom pricing (powerups are still extra)
Powerups (add on services) flat rate fees, not per user
- Cobrowsing: View, annotate, and control your visitor’s screen. $99/month
- Non-branded chat box: Remove ‘Powered by Olark’ branding from your chatbox. $59/month
- Live chat translation: Automatically translate messages in 100+ languages. $29/month
- Visitor insights: Social: Collect visitor data from public websites & social profiles.$59/month
- Visitor insights: Social & Professional: Collect visitor data from business websites & social profiles. $99/month
Features
- CoPilot Automation: Custom-built chatbot automation tailored to your business goals
- Training: Hands-on support to get your team started
- Personal Account Manager: Personal help from Olark’s support team with video chats or phone calls
- Payment options: Pay via a vendor management system with an invoice or purchase order
- Compliance: Support for compliance issues such as NIST 800-53 security reviews, VPATs, WCAG AA 2.1 accessibility compliance, security audits, and processing customer EU contractual clauses
- Olark API: Get access to API experts who can help you customize your reporting, integrate with your software, and optimize Olark for your business goals
- Integrations: Integrate Olark into your website, CRM, helpdesk, and other software
- Priority support: Same business day response time for all support requests
Who it’s for: The Pro plan is best for organizations that want live chat plus a custom chatbot and need ongoing priority support.
Make your business human by using live chat software for sales, marketing and customer support on your website.
Real-Time Messaging & Canned Responses
Olark’s standard plan includes only live chat. If you want an AI chatbot to handle routine inquiries and route conversations, you’ll need the Pro plan.
With the Pro plan, you can use a combination of pre-written responses for FAQs and live agent responses.
Live Chat AI & NLP
Olark does not have Natural Language Processing (NLP) but does offer translation services for 100 languages for a $29 additional flat rate fee per month.
The Live Chat Translation PowerUp feature automatically detects your visitor’s language from their text, then translates both agent and visitor chats in real-time, so both people in the conversation see the chat in their native language.
If you choose the custom Pro plan, an AI chat widget is included. It can be configured to answer routine or complex questions or route users to a live agent.
Customizable Chat Widgets
Olark creates your widget for you, but you can choose the colors, shape, position, home language, and graphics to customize your display.
The initial setup involves just answering a few questions.
Next, you can customize appearance, select language, add integrations, and more.
Here are a few examples:
You’re also allowed limited HTML and CSS to post links and change text attributes for your online and pre-chat welcome messages.
Note: Unless you pay the additional fee, “Powered by Olark” appears at the bottom of your chat window.
Visitor Tracking and Analytics
Olark has a limited range of native analytics. You can see the number of chats, overall and individual success, and user-reported metrics such as friendliness and knowledge.
For an additional $59 – $99 per month, you can get Olark’s Visitor Insights powerup, which searches social profile links, company data, interest profiles, and more to provide insight into your visitors. The data collected includes:
- Interests summary
- Gender and age bracket
- Company, industry, and job title
- Social profiles
For additional data, you can integrate Olark with Google Analytics.
User Interface and User Experience
Olark’s dashboard is clean and simple. Navigation is on the left, with team metrics and chat transcripts displayed.
Users report that using Olark is simple and intuitive.
Integrations and Compatibility
You can integrate your live chat widget with a ton of popular apps, and Olark also supports Javascript API for even more functionality.
- WordPress
- HubSpot
- Salesforce
- Slack
- Zendesk
- Front
- Help Scout
- Desk
- SugarCRM
- Nutshell
- Mailchimp
- Drupal
- Google Analytics
- WooCommerce
- BigCommerce
- ActiveCampaign
- Magento
- GreenRope
- Constant Contact
- Squarespace
- Webflow
- Slate
- Zapier
- Pardot
- Shopify
- Google Meet
- Zoom
- Calendly
- Webhooks
Customer Support
Olark offers a large knowledge base with detailed instructions. You can also get help through live chat and social media channels. The Pro plan includes premium support.
Olark — Unique Features
Olark offers a really interesting feature, chat transcripts with all kinds of search options. Find the most recent chats, or search by agent, tags, or user groups.
Pick any chat and open it to see user stats, actions, and a transcript of the interaction.
What the Experts Say About Olark
- G2 rating: 4.3/5 (223 ratings)
- TrustRadius rating: 9.3/10 (36 ratings)
- Capterra rating: 4.5/5 (469 ratings)
Overall, I’ve loved using Olark as a simple sales and support tool. However, any ticket creation or formal integrations are lacking. If you’re looking for a tool that is more than a simple one-to-one, one time communication tool, then I would look elsewhere.
Nathan P., Director of Client Training and Onboarding – Verified Capterra review
I really enjoy using olark. It’s one of the most streamlined and enjoyable chat experiences (for both customer and provider). I wish there were a few more features to customize the customer’s interaction (required fields type things). The biggest problem is that our team has experienced a lot of downtime and it’s very frustrating for your users when the chat doesn’t work. Almost makes me want to turn off olark altogether sometimes.
Drew B., Director of Operations – Verified Capterra review
Olark Alternatives
Still not sure if Olark meets your needs? Consider these live chat alternatives:
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4.0
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4.5
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4.3
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Free
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$20/user/mo - $59/user/mo
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$25/user/mo - $149/user/mo
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tawk.to
tawk.to is a similar live chat widget to Olark. Key tawk.to features include canned responses, offline forms, website visitor tracking, customizable branding, file sharing, screen sharing and chat history.
Unlike Olark, tawk.to is free and loaded with features. Their revenue is generated by offering the services of live agents for hire – customers can also choose to answer chats with their own customer service team.
Download the free tawk.to widget today!
LiveChat
LiveChat is an integrated suite of customer service products, including live chat and/or AI chat widgets, help desk, and web analytics.
Although LiveChat is more well-known, users rate Olark higher on Trustradius. Olark is strictly a live chat widget with optional AI chat support.
LiveChat pricing starts at $19/agent/month billed annually, and Olark also starts at $19/agent/month, but with a 2-year commitment.
Zendesk
Zendesk is a well-known solution for non-voice customer support, and it lets users connect with visitors in real time. Prices start at $55 per agent, per month.
Its main use cases include:
- Technical support
- Multiple language support
- Customer centric chat tool
- Features like custom chat widget, smart offline hours, custom greetings, file transfer, canned response, chat transcript.
Getting Started with Olark
Olark is an affordable live chat solution for small businesses to large organizations. Add-on services can drive up the price, but you’re free to pick and choose what you really need to meet your needs, and you also have the option of using integrations instead of paid power ups in some cases.
Get your own live chat Olark widget today!
Other options: Best Olark Alternatives
FAQs
Can I use Olark on multiple domains?
Yes, Olark can be added to as many domains and subdomains as you want. Agents can manage chats across all your domains from one dashboard, and CoPilot chatbot users can set automation rules to route chats in real-time for better organization.
How much does Olark cost?
Olark basic flat-rate pricing is per agent, so your monthly price will depend on the number of agents you have and the powerups you choose.
You have three payment options when you sign up for Olark: $29 per agent/per month with no required contract. With this plan, you can cancel at any time.
Or you can pay $23 per agent/per month (a 21% discount) when paid annually upfront and $19 per agent/per month (a 35% discount) with a 2-year contract paid upfront.
What’s an agent?
Agents are your customer service team – the people who chat with your web users via the Olark chat widget.
You can assign each agent a permission level, either Agent or Administrator. Administrators have access to all of your account settings, user profiles, and chat ratings. Agents have limited access and can only view ratings for chats they participate in.
Related reading:
Make your business human by using live chat software for sales, marketing and customer support on your website.
Olark
Make your business human by using live chat software for sales, marketing and customer support on your website.
Product Brand: Olark
3.9
