7 Best Ruby Alternatives & Competitors

Do the integration limitations of Ruby and pricey plans make you second-guess subscribing?

Try these 7 best Ruby alternatives we’ve handpicked after thorough testing and researching.

LiveChat is our best choice as a Ruby alternative as it offers a good balance of pricing and features.

However, what makes the other platforms unique? Let’s find out.

1. LiveChat

Best for: Service agents looking to use a helpdesk with a chatbot to capture and qualify leads.

Pricing: $20/user/mo – $59/user/mo

LiveChat is a customer service platform that offers a help desk and chatbot to turn visitors into customers.

Features

• Chat widget – LiveChat allows agents to tweak the chat widget to match their brand voice. Agents can also add the widget to their website or mobile app. Through it, agents can capture, nurture, and convert customer leads.
• Integrations – LiveChat has over 200+ integrations, allowing agents to add a platform that can help improve their productivity. They include payment gateways, e-commerce, CRMs, support, communication, and more.
• Ticketing system – LiveChat consolidates all communication channels in one central spot and manages them through AI. It helps improve team collaboration and quickly resolve customer inquiries.
• Message sneak peek – LiveChat lets agents view what customers are typing in the chat before sending messages. It is handy in allowing the agent to research for the answer to the queries and reply in seconds.

LiveChat vs. Ruby

Criteria	LiveChat	Ruby
Best For	Sales and customer support teams	Customer service teams
Standout Feature	Advanced queue management	Bilingual receptionist
Pricing	$20/user/mo – $59/user/mo	$235/mo – $1,640/mo

Conclusion

LiveChat fits customer service agents looking to capture, nurture, and convert leads to customers. Its APIs, helpdesk, and customizable chatbots are its standout points.

Sign up to LiveChat for free today!

Try LiveChat for free

2. LiveAgent

Best for: Service agents looking for an all-inclusive help desk for ticketing and live chat.

Pricing: $15/user/mo – $85/user/mo

LiveAgent is an all-in-one customer service solution providing a help desk for better support delivery.

Features

• Ticketing system – LiveAgent consolidates its communication channels into one interface to improve the efficiency of the customer service workflows. The system has other sub-features that help streamline the conversations.
• Live chat – LiveAgent provides a live chat with 15+ features to improve customer service. Adding it to the website helps generate leads and enhances conversions.
• Call centre – It is a built-in feature allowing service teams to make or receive calls from the dashboard. The call center permits automated call distribution, contact management, call transfers, and more.
• Social media help desk – It is a feature that integrates all social networks into one help desk to improve service agent’s productivity. It provides a unified inbox that simplifies communication and saves time.

LiveAgent vs. Ruby

Criteria	LiveAgent	Ruby
Best For	Customer service agents	Customer service teams
Standout Feature	Unified inbox	Bilingual receptionist
Pricing	$15/user/mo – $85/user/mo	$235/mo – $1,640/mo

Conclusion

The social media help desk and the powerful ticketing system are the features that make LiveAgent stand out. Customer agents looking for an all-rounded help desk will find this software suitable.

Start your free trial of LiveAgent

Try LiveAgent for free

3. Zoho SalesIQ

Best for: Sales and service teams looking for customer service tools to streamline communication in the sales funnels.

Pricing: Free – $25/user/mo

Zoho SalesIQ is an all-in-one live chat and analytics platform that promotes proactive customer service.

Features

• Live chat – The live chat uses automated triggers to spark and engage the customer’s interest. The widget is also customizable; agents can tweak it to match their brand.
• Visitor tracking – It allows service teams to get real-time visitor insights like their source and browsing behavior. It then enables service teams to route them to the sales funnel easily.
• CRM – Zoho SalesIQ integrates with Zoho CRM to fuel engagement and provide a better context on the customer journey. Through it, service agents can have an overview of prospect data in the live chat.
• Abuse management – Agents can create bots and configure them to detect inappropriate words or terms and close sessions that have them. The best part is that the bots can do it without triggering agent hand-off.

Zoho SalesIQ vs. Ruby

Criteria	Zoho SalesIQ	Ruby
Best For	Customer service teams	Customer service teams
Standout Feature	Zoho ecosystem	Bilingual receptionist
Pricing	Free – $25/user/mo	$235/mo – $1,640/mo

Conclusion

Due to its all-inclusive customer engagement tools, sales, marketing, and service teams will find Zoho SalesIQ suitable. Its unique selling points are its integration with the Zoho ecosystem and smart chatbots.

Give Zoho SalesIQ a try for free

Try Zoho SalesIQ for free

4. Pure Chat

Best for: Entrepreneurs and small service teams looking to improve communication with their leads and customers.

Pricing: $49/user/mo – $99/user/mo

Pure Chat is a live chat software that helps businesses add a chatbot to their website easily.

Features

• Chat widget customization – Pure Chat allows agents to customize the chat widget using a native editor to match their brand. Agents can change the font, and theme color, upload a logo, and more.
• Integrations – Pure Chat has several pre-installed software for agents to improve their workflows. Some common integrations include Zoho, Mailchimp, Google Analytics, HubSpot, and more.
• Money-back guarantee – When you subscribe to any plan on Pure Chat, you’ll get a month-long money guarantee refund. This is great as it gives you peace of mind if the software doesn’t meet your needs.
• Transcripts and contact details – Pure Chat stores the transcripts of all conversations in the live chat. The feature also has filters for searching a chat, based on ratings agents and feedback.

Pure Chat vs. Ruby

Criteria	Pure Chat	Ruby
Best For	SMBs service teams	Customer service teams
Standout Feature	Real-time analytics	Bilingual receptionist
Pricing	$49/user/mo – $99/user/mo	$235/mo – $1,640/mo

Conclusion

Pure Chat fits small service teams looking for a simple live chat solution to add to their website. Its unique selling points are its mobile app, unlimited chats, and integrated dashboard.

5. LivePerson

Best for: Customer service teams looking to enhance productivity through AI.

Pricing: Request a quote

LivePerson is a conversational platform that supports businesses in automating customer service through AI.

Features

• Integrations – LivePerson integrates with many platforms, including CRMs, CMSs, payment gateways, and more. The integration is handy in driving efficiency and delivering better customer experience.
• Self-service – LivePerson live chat offers self-service tools that guide customers in finding answers to their inquiries. The chatbot usually generates responses from the knowledge base content.
• Service legal agreements (SLA) – LivePerson provides SLAs in the messaging conversations. One thing to note is that accessing advanced capacity management requires contacting an account manager.
• Reporting and Analytics – It provides in-depth analytics on the conversations that happen in the live chat. Integrating analytics tools like Google Analytics can help provide better insights.

LivePerson vs. Ruby

Criteria	LivePerson	Ruby
Best For	Customer service agents	Customer service teams
Standout Feature	Voice AI	Bilingual receptionist
Pricing	Request a quote	$235/mo – $1,640/mo

Conclusion

LivePerson provides automated customer service that agents will find helpful. Its generative and voice AI are its selling points.

6. Ada

Best for: Service teams looking for a code-free live chat to automate customer service at scale.

Pricing: Request a quote

Ada is a customer service platform that provides AI chatbots to automate support and resolve inquiries faster.

Features

• Canned messages – Agents can use a client name in the canned message to give it a human touch. Depending on client data or input, an agent can use conditional logic to tweak the responses.
• Chat widget customization – Ada’s customizable aspects are the chat button, live agent avatar, and window. Agents can also tweak the position, color, size and add a logo or reply format (carousel or stacked). 
• Visitor tracking – The visitor tracking feature is dynamic, allowing the filtering of visitors by status, such as offline or online. An agent can also see the name, device, referral source, and browser visitors are using. 
• Integrations – Ada integrates with CRMs, analytics, and marketing tools like Zendesk, HubSpot, and more. However, one thing to consider is that Ada relies on its API for integration.

Ada vs. Ruby

Criteria	Ada	Ruby
Best For	Customer service teams	Customer service teams
Standout Feature	NLP	Bilingual receptionist
Pricing	Request a quote	$235/mo – $1,640/mo

Conclusion

Ada offers teams a powerful customer service platform that uses AI to automate customer support. Its standout points are NLP, visual chat flow builder, and API.

7. Zendesk

Best for: Large service teams looking for an all-rounded help desk with inbound voice calling.

Pricing: $25/user/mo – $149/user/mo

Zendesk is a well-known all-in-one customer service solution that provides a help desk, live chat, and CRM.

Features

• Integrations  – Customer service agents will find an extensive integration stack on Zendesk with 1000+ platforms in the marketplace. Zoho CRM, Zoom, and Team Viewer are some of the popular integrations.
• Zendesk guide – Think of it as a smart knowledge base with answers to most customers’ FAQs. The feature also allows a team leader to assign tasks to team members, such as writing and updating the knowledge base.
• Mobile app – Customer service agents on the go can use the Zendesk mobile app (iOS & Android) to access the workflows and monitor the tickets. They can also generate detailed reports and display the analytics on the dashboard.
• Collaboration tools – If an agent wants to communicate with other team members, they can use the “Side Conversation” function in the Agent workspace. Not only that, an agent can add a “Light Agent” license to give key team members limited access to tickets.

Zendesk vs. Ruby

Criteria	Zendesk	Ruby
Best For	Large service teams	Customer service teams
Standout Feature	Advanced widget customization	Bilingual receptionist
Pricing	$25/user/mo – $149/user/mo	$235/mo – $1,640/mo

Conclusion

Zendesk fits large customer service teams looking for an all-inclusive help desk with a ticketing system and live chat. Its agent workspace and 1000+ integration stack are its selling points.

Which Ruby alternative should I use?

Ruby’s bilingual agent support, robocall filtering, and HIPAA compliance make it one of the best virtual receptionists.

A combination of these and other features makes it provide powerful live chat and call tools for customer service delivery.

However, Ruby falls short in some aspects, such as integration limitations and high price points in its plans. 

That’s why we recommend these 7 Ruby alternatives. They offer a blend of simple platforms for small service teams and all-inclusive tools for larger teams.

Rest assured that within this comprehensive list, you’ll discover the perfect software to suit your requirements and budget.

Recap of Ruby alternatives:

1. LiveChat
2. LiveAgent
3. Zoho SalesIQ
4. Pure Chat
5. LivePerson
6. Ada
7. Zendesk