7 Best Zoho SalesIQ Alternatives & Competitors

Zoho SalesIQ is a customer engagement platform that provides tools for businesses to interact with their website visitors.

But it has a few downsides that might bother you. First, Zoho SalesIQ’s chatbot setup is hard to understand and set up, which makes it tough for users to get their chatbots working smoothly.

Then, some users reported that Zoho SalesIQ’s customer self-service feature often has bugs.

Plus, the chat window in Zoho SalesIQ isn’t very customizable which restricts users’ ability to tailor the chat experience to match their brand.

I’ll introduce 7 Zoho SalesIQ alternatives that offer simpler chatbot setup processes and greater flexibility in customizing the chat window.

1. Freshchat

Best for: customer support, sales, and marketing teams and eCommerce businesses

Pricing: Free – $95/user/mo

Freshchat is a leading customer messaging software designed to facilitate communication between businesses and their customers.

It enables companies to offer customer support, engage in marketing conversations, and provide a seamless customer experience across multiple channels.

Features

• AI-powered chatbots
• Multi-channel messaging
• Chat routing
• Custom web widget
• Team inbox
• Live translate
• Collision detection
• Canned responses
• Bulk action (add, edit, delete, etc.)
• Internal chat
• Screen sharing
• Visitor information (e.g., navigation path)
• Self-service portal
• Real-time dashboard
• Bot builder for data collection
• WhatsApp integration

Freshchat vs. Zoho SalesIQ

Criteria	Freshchat	Zoho SalesIQ
Best For	Enterprises seeking ways to engage with potential leads	Startups, eCommerce businesses, and customer success teams
Standout Feature	Cutting-edge AI technology	Advanced visitor information
Pricing	Free – $95/user/mo	Free – $25/user/mo

Conclusion

Customer support teams like Freshchat because it’s easy to use. It helps you quickly understand customer needs and solve problems thanks to features like tracking customer info and creating support tickets right from chats.

Plus, it’s great for talking to customers on various platforms (Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger & Telegram).

Start free trial of Freshchat today!

Try Freshchat for free

2. LiveChat

Best for: sales departments, customer support teams, and eCommerce businesses

Pricing: $20/user/mo – $59/user/mo

LiveChat is a customer service platform that provides businesses with live chat support, enabling them to communicate with customers in real-time through their websites.

It offers features such as chat tools, ticketing, and integrations with other software to help improve customer service efficiency.

Features

• Real-time messaging
• Message sneak-peek
• Private canned responses
• Pre-chat & post-chat surveys
• Customizable chat widget
• Chat takeover
• Agent rating
• Routing rules based on URL & geolocation
• Private comments in a chat
• Chat transcripts
• Proactive chat triggers
• In-chat voice, video & screen-sharing
• Extensive list of integrations

LiveChat vs. Zoho SalesIQ

Criteria	LiveChat	Zoho SalesIQ
Best For	Sales departments, customer support teams, and eCommerce	Startups, eCommerce businesses, and customer success teams
Standout Feature	AI-powered chatbot	Advanced visitor information
Pricing	$20/user/mo – $59/user/mo	Free – $25/user/mo

Conclusion

Teams appreciate using LiveChat for its seamless integration of features like canned responses and auto-routing, which enhance efficiency in customer communication.

The ability to establish routing rules based on URL further tailors the support experience, ensuring customers are connected with the right team member based on their needs.

Sign up to LiveChat for free today!

Try LiveChat for free

3. Zoho Desk

Best for: customer support, sales, and marketing teams

Pricing: €20/user/mo — €50/user/mo

Zoho Desk is a cloud-based customer service software designed to help businesses manage their customer support activities efficiently.

It offers tools to support ticketing, agent productivity, and multichannel communications through email, live chat, phone, and social media.

Features

• Ticketing system
• Automated workflows
• Sentiment analysis
• Self-service options
• Advanced web forms
• Facebook widget
• Customer satisfaction ratings
• Knowledge base management
• Customizable help desk
• SLAs & escalations
• Time tracking
• Branding options

Zoho Desk vs. Zoho SalesIQ

Criteria	Zoho Desk	Zoho SalesIQ
Best For	Customer support, sales, and marketing teams	Startups, eCommerce businesses, and customer success teams
Standout Feature	Sentiment analysis	Advanced visitor information
Pricing	€20/user/mo — €50/user/mo	Free – $25/user/mo

Conclusion

Teams use Zoho Desk to communicate with customers across multiple channels, including email, live chat, and social media.

They also use Zoho Desk to automatically assign tickets to the appropriate agent or department based on predefined criteria.

Start your free trial of Zoho Desk today

Try Zoho Desk for free

4. Olark

Best for: customer support teams and eCommerce companies

Pricing: $29/user/mo

Olark is a web-based live chat software enabling businesses to interact with customers on their websites.

It’s designed to improve customer service, increase sales, and enhance the overall customer experience by providing real-time support.

Features

• Fully custom chat widget
• Live chat automation rules
• Custom chatbox forms
• Canned responses
• Live chat transcripts
• Team management
• Offline forms
• Chat ratings
• File sharing
• Proactive chat invitations
• White-labeling options
• Visitor co-browsing
• Live chat analytics

Olark vs. Zoho SalesIQ

Criteria	Olark	Zoho SalesIQ
Best For	Customer support teams and eCommerce companies	Startups, eCommerce businesses, and customer success teams
Standout Feature	Live chat automation rules	Advanced visitor information
Pricing	$29/user/mo	Free – $25/user/mo

Conclusion

Teams value Olark for its live chat automation rules, which enable them to automatically manage chat engagements based on specific criteria such as browsing behavior, location, or referring URL, ensuring that high-priority inquiries are addressed promptly.

Start 14-day free trial of Olark today

Try Olark for free

5. HubSpot Live Chat

Best for: sales, marketing, and customer support teams, and SMBs

Pricing: Free – $90/user/mo

HubSpot Live Chat is a communication tool integrated within HubSpot’s marketing, sales, and service software that enables real-time conversations between businesses and their website visitors.

Features

• Customizable chat widget
• Automated chatbot workflows
• Conversation history
• Chat history logging
• Real-time messaging
• Appointment scheduling
• Saved replies for quick responses
• Conversation routing
• Visitor segmentation 
• File sharing
• Feedback surveys
• Post-chat feedback survey
• Live chat reporting

HubSpot Live Chat vs. Zoho SalesIQ

Criteria	HubSpot Live Chat	Zoho SalesIQ
Best For	Sales, marketing, and customer support teams, and SMBs	Startups, eCommerce businesses, and customer success teams
Standout Feature	Automated chatbot workflows	Advanced visitor information
Pricing	Free – $90/user/mo	Free – $25/user/mo

Conclusion

Leveraging features like automated chatbot workflows and integration with HubSpot CRM, different teams use HubSpot Live Chat to offer personalized interactions and improve overall customer satisfaction and sales outcomes.

Try HubSpot Live Chat today!

Try HubSpot Live Chat for free

6. Intercom

Best for: sales, marketing, and support teams

Pricing: $39/user/mo – $139/user/mo

Intercom’s live chat is a customer messaging platform that allows businesses to communicate with customers in real-time on their websites, apps, and via email.

Intercom combines the use of chatbots and human support to provide a personalized and efficient way to engage, support, and convert visitors into customers.

Features

• AI-powered chatbot
• Chatbots for automated responses
• Proactive messaging
• Customer data platform
• Custom workflows
• Message tagging
• User feedback collection
• Scheduled messaging
• Team inboxes
• Answer suggestions
• Inbox for real-time oversight
• Message forwarding
• Collaborative chat
• Self-service options
• Reporting & analytics
• Offline messaging

Intercom vs. Zoho SalesIQ

Criteria	Intercom	Zoho SalesIQ
Best For	Sales, marketing, and support teams	Startups, eCommerce businesses, and customer success teams
Standout Feature	Customer data platform	Advanced visitor information
Pricing	$39/user/mo – $139/user/mo	Free – $25/user/mo

Conclusion

Teams choose Intercom for its user-friendly messaging tools that easily integrate into their existing systems.

This choice often comes down to Intercom’s ability to streamline customer interactions across sales, marketing, and support in a single platform.

7. Drift

Best for: customer support, sales, and marketing teams

Pricing: Starts at $2,500/mo

Drift is a conversational marketing and sales platform that uses live chat, chatbots, and other digital messaging tools to help businesses connect with potential customers in real-time on their websites.

Features

• Saved replies
• Real-time messaging
• Appointment scheduling
• Lead qualification & routing
• Customizable chat widget
• Targeted messaging
• Conversational ratings for feedback
• Contact profiles
• Playbooks
• A/B testing for bot playbooks
• Conversational analysis for insights
• Internal notes for team communication
• Conversation history

Drift vs. Zoho SalesIQ

Criteria	Drift	Zoho SalesIQ
Best For	Customer support, sales, and marketing teams	Startups, eCommerce businesses, and customer success teams
Standout Feature	Lead qualification and routing	Advanced visitor information
Pricing	Starts at $2,500/mo	Free – $25/user/mo

Conclusion

Teams use Drift’s lead qualification feature to automatically sort and direct incoming leads to the appropriate team member based on predefined criteria.

Through A/B testing for playbooks, teams can experiment with different conversation flows and messages, optimizing their chatbot interactions.

Which Zoho SalesIQ alternative should I use?

For customer support teams and eCommerce businesses wanting to talk to customers on various platforms, including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Telegram, Freshchat is a perfect fit.

It also comes with advanced features like screen sharing, live chat translation, and collision detection.

If you’re looking for a live chat solution that offers features like post-chat surveys, chat takeover, and extensive third-party app integrations, then I recommend that you check out LiveChat.

A quick recap of Zoho SalesIQ alternatives:

1. Freshchat
2. LiveChat
3. Zoho Desk
4. Intercom
5. Drift
6. Olark
7. HubSpot Live Chat