Live Chat is the fastest and the easiest way to reach a prospective customer. When customers increasingly demand immediate attention, businesses relatively take action through Live Chat facility. According to recent research, 58% of companies in the United States of America use live chat systems for both sales and support. With the help of the live chat software these companies are able to help with lead generation and support services to both for their existing and prospective customers.
Are Live Chat Software Solutions Free and Open Source?
Yes! In fact, the majority of live chat system comes as free and open source live chat software solutions. The reason being, the free version is not time-limited. A majority of product developers consistently focus on enhancing the product. The technical infrastructure is never compromised. Instead, the emphasis is given over delivering effective, reliable, and client-centric collaboration and communication solutions.
Ease of use, customization, automation, integration, mobile readiness, analytics, and reporting and all other features are widely available in many free and open source software solutions too.
So, let’s now discuss the best 4 free and open source live chat solutions.
Also, have a look at the comparison chart of the above-listed software solutions that will help you to know each of them comparatively.
You can check out each of these software solutions in detail.
1. LiveHelperChat
(Source: LiveHelperChat)
LiveHelperChat is one of the most prominent open-source live support chat program for your website. It is a PHP based software that works on all platforms i.e. Windows, Mac, and Linux. It supports multiple chats at the same time in multiple languages.
Features:
- The LiveHelperChat software facilitates XMPP support that includes iPhone, iPad, iPod, Android, Blackberry, and Gtalk or any device that supports XMPP messages.
- It shows what users are typing before the message is received.
- Delayed canned messages are sent as it was real user typing.
- Chat transcript print, chat archive, chat statistic generation, chat transferring, and chat search features are available with the software.
- The software gives an option to generate JS for different departments.
- XML, JSON export module, SMTP support, HTTPS support, and GEO detection is possible using three different sources.
2. HelpCenterLive
(Source: HelpCenterLive)
HelpCenterLive is a leading open source live chat application that is dedicated to provide the best and quality support to help their clients meet their chat and support demands. It is a community-driven live chat and support system and its stable version 2.1.7 has been released on June 28, 2008.
Features:
- The HelpCenterLive requires PHP 4.3.2 or greater and MySQL 1.3 or greater to be installed before installing the software.
- Before the software is installed, you should also make sure that you have created a database for HCL including user name, password, and database name.
- After installing the software, you can edit the config.php file to set various options. This will be depreciated in future with containing no settings in it.
- Version 2.1.3 of the software is going to be released shortly.
3. LiveZilla
(Source: LiveZilla)
LiveZilla is one of the most promising free and open source live chat platforms that is flexible and independent in it. It is a PHP/MySQL based software program that can be downloaded as LiveZilla 8.0.1.0. It is the most trusted software of the Fortune 500 companies and more than 15,000 users and top universities.
Features:
- LiveZilla is the next generation live help and support system integrated to real-time chatting and monitoring.
- It works on all modern browsers, Windows 7/8/10, Apple Mac OSX, Linus, iOS, and Android.
- The software facilitates Co-browsing and screen sharing.
- Security filters are made available to ban and hide visitors if there comes some issues.
- All communication processes are streamlined in an organized workflow involving chats, tickets and phone calls to resolve client issues.
4. SimpleChat
(Source: SimpleChat)
SimpleChat is an amazing open source live chat app. It is very simple and also provides a package for the Meteor apps. The SimpleChat software facilitates a standard free plan for a maximum of 3 client apps and 3-day chat history.
Features:
- ‘Open Chat’s button is given on the software dashboard to see chat sessions.
- Flag icon is there to manage the ban list of IP addresses.
- E-mail notifications are sent to inform you of a new chat session.
- The software supports SaaS-like model under its domain.
- Absolute privacy and security policy is available with the software and no consumer can view data for any other customer.
If you are already using one from the software solutions listed above, you can freely share your reviews here.
Conclusion
Live chat platforms have become the imperative tools for all businesses to build better relationships and close more deals.
Chatbots are often used by the businesses to streamline their customer journey and AI is infusing personalized canned responses and sentimental analysis in the customer conversations.
Augmented Reality, 3D holograms, and intelligent voice recognition are likely to bring new trends in live chat solutions in the near future.
