I have an online retailing store and I would like to provide live chat for support. I have done a search on www.sf.net trying to find a free system. So far I've found quite a few, would you please recommend one that you think good?

The system is better to be free or cheap.

Thank you!!

I have an online retailing store and I would like to provide live chat for support. I have done a search on www.sf.net trying to find a free system. So far I've found quite a few, would you please recommend one that you think good?

The system is better to be free or cheap.

Thank you!!

My moto has always been you pay for what you get.

Personally I have only worked with Kayako, and Live Person. (The best out there) Shows alot about you also.

There's a free version of chatstat.

Or http://livehelp.stardevelop.com/ is pretty cheap

ivytony
As this is for your *business* then you really should re-evaluate the purchasing criteria - IME the free "support" systems fall into 3 categories:
1. those that are worth less than you paid for them
2. those that are acceptable, but all your clients will think you're cheap and not buy from you
3. those that are ok, but take so long to onfigure and implement you've spent more money than on a commercial application

If you are determined to go down the free route, the best-of-the-bunch is HCL.

You can look into Kayako's monthly licenses. They are affordable and you might get them at a discounted rate from one of the resellers.

Liveperson is brilliant, not cheap but good and very professional...

ivytony
As this is for your *business* then you really should re-evaluate the purchasing criteria - IME the free "support" systems fall into 3 categories:
1. those that are worth less than you paid for them
2. those that are acceptable, but all your clients will think you're cheap and not buy from you
3. those that are ok, but take so long to onfigure and implement you've spent more money than on a commercial application

If you are determined to go down the free route, the best-of-the-bunch is HCL.

I agree! If you want free, HCL (Help Center Live) is the way to go. You get nice administrator options, and can use what ever image you want customers to see (the Live Chat! image) -- its customizable.

But if you are willing to spend money, I suggest going with LivePerson and get a HackerWatch certificate. Your customers would definately consider your company to be professional and safe. I also suggest you get a SSL (if you want to spend the money) It ensures that you are a certified seller and will not "scam."

Hope it helped.

This is very professional looking and only $99.00 a year. Its what I'm using and you can monitor visitors and Co-Browse with them. There is no "Log" though to see who was on the site when your not there.

providesupport dot com ( I can't post a link yet ) I have not posted 5 times yet:)

i think liveperson.net is the most popular live chat system

I have to say Kayako LiveResponse is the best out there. The thing I like about them the most is there desktop program. The program does not over run your computer and stays in the task bar until a client requests to chat with you.

Another vote for Kayako Liveresponce....

Its also good for traffic monitoring, you can see how many people are on your site and where they have come from etc all in real time. Another nifty feature is the ability to initiate a live chat request with anyone who visits.

However if you are just starting up and low on the $£ then i would have a look at some of the open source options like http://www.craftysyntax.com/ which i believe is still free and "does the job"

Regards.

I have an online retailing store and I would like to provide live chat for support. I have done a search on www.sf.net (http://www.sf.net) trying to find a free system. So far I've found quite a few, would you please recommend one that you think good?

The system is better to be free or cheap.

Thank you!!

I strongly recommend ProvideSupport.com (http://www.providesupport.com)

We use them for over 2 years, and they are real excellent system.

ive looked aroudn at the live support and some of the free PHP system you can get arent bad at all. but paid for.. id say look at kayako or eve PHPLive.
seem to be the 2 most popular.. and for a good reason.

Another good solution is http://www.phplivesupport.com/

Even despite all the wonderful suggestions in this thread -- thank you :) -- I still have not come across a single live support system that meets my needs (including budget), especially considering I use OS X. I can't use a "Windows Desktop Client," I need something platform independent, or written for OS X, that has a small footprint/low overhead. This appears to not exist.

So I am now poking around various "web 2.0" type solutions, seeing if there is some way I can retrofit AIM/YIM/MSN etc. to work for me, or... ???

The trouble is, there are two sites I would like to offer live support on simultaneously, with a single operator. One is for hosting, the other site is retail. I am admittedly a penny-pincher, I am not willing to pay double for something I will be using only part-time, as a nice little "add-on" for making customer contacts.

The free options are just so horribly UGLY ................ :rolleyes:

So I remain without live chat for now, I guess, unless I can find a W2.0 sort of deal that will work.

:D Bailey

Even despite all the wonderful suggestions in this thread -- thank you :) -- I still have not come across a single live support system that meets my needs (including budget), especially considering I use OS X. I can't use a "Windows Desktop Client," I need something platform independent, or written for OS X, that has a small footprint/low overhead. This appears to not exist.

So I am now poking around various "web 2.0" type solutions, seeing if there is some way I can retrofit AIM/YIM/MSN etc. to work for me, or... ???

The trouble is, there are two sites I would like to offer live support on simultaneously, with a single operator. One is for hosting, the other site is retail. I am admittedly a penny-pincher, I am not willing to pay double for something I will be using only part-time, as a nice little "add-on" for making customer contacts.

The free options are just so horribly UGLY ................ :rolleyes:

So I remain without live chat for now, I guess, unless I can find a W2.0 sort of deal that will work.

:D Bailey

Liveperson should work on OS X, just thought I would chuck that in there.

You can also use it on multiple websites, we have used it on temporary pages from time to time on other websites to explain to people if maintenance is occuring and so on.

Thanks Scott, I'll take another look at it.

:) Bailey

If you are trying to run a business I would get a professional looking chat client. If you get a free one you are going to get what you pay for. I would try looking at stardevelop. Their license is 119.00 and their client is great. Try it out and let me know how you like it.

LivePerson is way out of reach price-wise... $99-150/month per seat depending on the product you go with. Yeesh. :( We don't do that much support ... I mean, not at all ;) maybe if our clients were really labor-intensive, it'd make more sense...

:D Bailey

If you are trying to run a business I would get a professional looking chat client. If you get a free one you are going to get what you pay for. I would try looking at stardevelop. Their license is 119.00 and their client is great. Try it out and let me know how you like it.

"The Live Help Messenger Windows application" -- does not run on OS X. ;)

:D Bailey

boldchat is really good... they also provide free live chat

Even despite all the wonderful suggestions in this thread -- thank you :) -- I still have not come across a single live support system that meets my needs (including budget), especially considering I use OS X. I can't use a "Windows Desktop Client," I need something platform independent, or written for OS X, that has a small footprint/low overhead. This appears to not exist.

So I am now poking around various "web 2.0" type solutions, seeing if there is some way I can retrofit AIM/YIM/MSN etc. to work for me, or... ???

The trouble is, there are two sites I would like to offer live support on simultaneously, with a single operator. One is for hosting, the other site is retail. I am admittedly a penny-pincher, I am not willing to pay double for something I will be using only part-time, as a nice little "add-on" for making customer contacts.

The free options are just so horribly UGLY ................ :rolleyes:

So I remain without live chat for now, I guess, unless I can find a W2.0 sort of deal that will work.

:D Bailey

Im with Bithost on this issue. I still have not found a solution that can multitask for me.. any ideas?

phpOnline from Dayana Host looks good , not sure about if it has dual site capabileties though..but its definetly worth having a closer look at.

If you are just starting out with live support and do not expect too many chats, are on a budget, then the really good services that work are www.velaro.com, or www.boldchat.com, providesupport.

The open source solutions mentioned here work, but I guess lack of support & bugs make them not so easy to use for business.

Eventually, for high volumes, Liveperson or Instant service are the professional companies that should be reviewed.

I have always liked PHPLiveSupport

LivePerson is way out of reach price-wise... $99-150/month per seat depending on the product you go with. Yeesh. :( We don't do that much support ... I mean, not at all ;) maybe if our clients were really labor-intensive, it'd make more sense...

:D Bailey

I initially thought it was alittle high compared to competitors but it just works, theres no problems with it at all.

It's $150/month per seat for the pro version.

Besides, the new look chat windows of Liveperson are more Web 2.0 look for all of us who have clean sites and need something to match. For most other vendors, the frontend does not match that of live person with a few exceptions. I have noticed that having a clean chat window is as important as having a clean site.

Hi, our site is in .net with SQLServer database. I notice that the highly recommended solutions (Kayako and Stardevelop Live Help) usually need PHP and MySQL installed. Is there any good solution that can utilise .net?

If the answer is no, then can I install the chat server software on another server that has PHP/MySQL instead of the web server?

Thanks a lot in advance.

What are the requirements or specifics of your business?

We just need a way to monitor our site visitors and invite them to chat, as well as a button for them to click if they want to chat with us.

We do not need the whole support/helpdesk system since we have already custom built our own. We just need to be able to chat with our customers.

Looks like I just found the answer to my needs, the brand new (launched today) Stardevelop Live Help Messenger Hosted.

Brilliant and not overpriced.

$100 per month for just 10 operators is quite high. Does it affect the load of your own server enough to make that worthwhile?

I'll jump in and second the recommendations for Provide Support. We've been very happy since implementing it.

A case study was eventually done (http://www.providesupport.com/product/case-study.html) of our implementation of ProvideSupport after moving away from phpLive! (Don't even get me started on phpLive!).

Suffice to say, I've not looked back since switching.

ProvideSupport works great. I have used them for 2 years too.

yes, seems like providesupport has very good reviews on WHT and not only....