Drift became a household name in conversational marketing, but recently it's become something else entirely: expensive and enterprise-focused. After Salesloft acquired Drift in early 2024, the platform doubled down on serving large enterprise sales workflows. Analysis shows Drift "moved upmarket and stopped caring about SMB customers" after private equity investment, focusing on big contracts with high website traffic.
The result? Their Premium plan now starts around $2,500 per month. That's not a typo.
If you're a small or mid-size business looking for live chat software, you're probably wondering what happened to the accessible, innovative tool Drift used to be. And honestly, you're better off looking elsewhere. The good news is there are fantastic alternatives that deliver better value, more flexibility, and features actually designed for teams like yours.
Below, we've tested and compared 7 of the best Drift alternatives in 2025. Whether you need seamless integration with tools your team already uses, e-commerce-specific features, or simply an affordable way to chat with customers, there's something here that'll work better than Drift's current offering.
What Are the Best Drift Alternatives in 2025?
Here's what we're covering:
Social Intents – Best for teams using Slack or Microsoft Teams
Chatra – Best for e-commerce engagement and cart recovery
HubSpot Live Chat – Best for CRM integration with a free start
Tawk.to – Best completely free solution
Intercom – Best all-in-one chat and support platform
Freshchat – Best for omnichannel support on a budget
Terminus Chat – Best for account-based marketing teams
Let's get into what makes each one worth considering.
Social Intents: Best Live Chat for Teams and Slack Users
Quick take: Social Intents is a live chat and AI chatbot platform that lets your team answer website chats directly from Microsoft Teams, Slack, Google Chat, Zoom, or Webex. No separate dashboard. No context switching. Just conversations flowing into the tools you already live in.
Why Social Intents Works Better Than Drift
The integration advantage is real. TechRadar's review called Social Intents a "live chat platform that integrates with collaboration tools without the need for separate messaging apps." Your support team doesn't have to learn a new system or juggle another window.
Think about it: how many times have you watched teams struggle because they're bouncing between Slack, email, a ticketing system, and then a live chat dashboard? Social Intents eliminates that friction entirely.
The integration advantage isn't theoretical. When your team answers chats from within the tools they already use daily, adoption happens instantly. No training sessions. No forgotten dashboards. Just better response times.
Unlimited agents from $69/month. Unlike Drift (and most competitors) that charge per seat, Social Intents allows unlimited agents on all plans except the smallest tier. This is absolutely critical for growing teams. Want to add your entire customer success team without tripling your bill? You can.
AI that actually hands off to humans. Social Intents integrates ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini to create AI chatbots trained on your content. But here's what matters: the bot can auto-answer common questions and seamlessly hand off to a human when needed. It's hybrid AI + human support done right.
Plus, it supports features like proactive chat triggers, real-time auto-translation, and canned responses. The platform works beautifully for e-commerce too, with native apps for Shopify, BigCommerce, Wix, and WordPress.
Social Intents Pricing: How Much Does It Cost?
| Plan | Price (Annual) | Agents | Conversations/mo | Key Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $39/mo | 3 | 200 | 1 widget, ChatGPT integration |
| Basic | $69/mo | Unlimited | 1,000 | 2 widgets, shortcuts |
| Pro | $99/mo | Unlimited | 5,000 | Remove branding, cross-team transfers |
| Business | $199/mo | Unlimited | 10,000 | Real-time translation, 1,000 trained URLs |
All plans include a 14-day free trial. No credit card required to test it out.
When Social Intents Is the Right Choice
If your team already uses Microsoft Teams or Slack daily, this is arguably the easiest live chat implementation you'll find. TechRadar noted the platform "delivers an impressive solution with seamless integration" and eliminates the need to "juggle multiple platforms."
The unlimited agent policy is a massive budget-friendly differentiator. Compare that to Drift's per-seat enterprise pricing, and you're looking at savings of thousands of dollars per month.
Custom AI Actions are particularly interesting. These let you build custom integrations with third-party tools to enrich chat conversations with things like order status, ticket creation, and shipping updates. Customers are very interested in these capabilities, and Social Intents delivers them without the enterprise price tag.
What to Consider Before Choosing Social Intents
Social Intents isn't a standalone helpdesk or CRM. It focuses on live chat and bots within your messaging apps. If you need comprehensive ticket queues and case management, you'd integrate it with a separate helpdesk (easy via Zapier to Zendesk or Freshdesk).
It's ideal for real-time conversations and quick deployment, not for replacing heavy-duty support software with complex workflows. But honestly? Most teams don't need that level of complexity.
Bottom line: If you're a Teams or Slack shop that wants live chat without adding another tool to your stack, start your free trial with Social Intents. It's what Drift should have remained: accessible, powerful, and focused on making your team's life easier.
Chatra: Best Live Chat for E-Commerce Stores
Quick take: Chatra is live chat software built specifically with e-commerce and small businesses in mind. It offers a clean, simple chat widget with multi-channel messaging, and it was acquired by Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) in 2023, which means stronger development and marketing platform integration.
Why E-Commerce Teams Choose Chatra
See what's in their cart. This is where Chatra gets interesting for online stores. Agents can see a visitor's shopping cart contents in real-time and which pages they're viewing. Imagine this scenario: someone's been on your pricing page for 3 minutes with two items in their cart. Your agent can proactively message: "Hey, need help with those sneakers? I can answer any questions or apply a discount code."
That's powerful. Drift doesn't do this because it's focused on lead qualification, not shopping cart support.
Multi-channel unified inbox. Chatra lets you manage conversations from your website, email, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram Direct in one dashboard. For small shops getting inquiries across multiple platforms, this saves considerable time.
Rich communication features include typing indicators, read receipts, file attachments, and screen sharing for technical support. You can also invite multiple team members into a group chat with a customer on the fly.
Chatra Pricing Breakdown
| Plan Type | Price | Key Details |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | $0 | One agent, unlimited chats (great for testing) |
| Paid plan | $25/agent/month (annual) or $31 month-to-month | All features unlocked (chatbots, advanced integrations, etc.) |
| Trial | 10 days | Free trial of paid features |
For a team of 5 agents, you're looking at around $125/month on annual billing. That's a fraction of what Drift charges.
When Chatra Makes Sense
Simplicity is the selling point. Chatra is praised for being ridiculously easy to set up and use for non-technical folks. You can install it and start chatting in minutes.
The ability to see shopper cart contents and proactively engage can directly boost conversions. For a small online business, Chatra provides significant value at a price that makes sense.
Chatra Limitations to Know
The free plan is only for one agent and quite basic. The paid plan cost scales linearly with each agent (10 agents = $250/month), which could become pricier than flat-rate alternatives like Social Intents.
Chatra also doesn't have extensive bot workflows or Salesforce automation features. It's a straightforward chat tool. For large enterprises or those needing deep customization, it might feel limiting. But for e-commerce stores focused on customer engagement and cart recovery? It's excellent.
HubSpot Live Chat: Best Free CRM Integration
Quick take: HubSpot provides live chat and chatbot capabilities as part of its free CRM platform. If you're just getting started or have a limited budget, HubSpot's offering is extremely attractive. Deploy live chat at no charge, and all visitor interactions feed into the HubSpot CRM automatically.
Why HubSpot's Free Chat Is Hard to Beat
Actually free. HubSpot's CRM is free forever and includes live chat, a basic chatbot builder, team email inbox, and calling. All integrated. When someone chats, their info is logged in a contact record automatically.
Sales or support reps can see past conversations, emails, and activities in one unified timeline. For a small business, this approach beats juggling separate systems hands down.
No-code chatbot builder. Even on the free tier, HubSpot lets you create rule-based chatbots to qualify leads or answer common questions. The bot can ask for the visitor's email, issue basic replies from a knowledge base, and route conversations to a human if needed.
It's not an AI bot like Drift's, but it covers FAQs and scheduling effectively.
HubSpot Live Chat Pricing Structure
| Tier | Price | What You Get |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | $0 | Unlimited chats, unlimited users (basic features) |
| Starter plans | ~$20/month | Removes branding, adds automation |
| Professional | ~$890/month | Advanced features for growing teams |
| Enterprise | ~$3,600/month | Full suite for large organizations |
The beauty is you can accomplish a lot without paying anything. And if you need to upgrade, HubSpot's $890/month professional plan is roughly one-third the cost of Drift's base plan.
When HubSpot Live Chat Works Best
Value and integration. For $0, you get functional live chat tied into contact management and email marketing. That's genuinely tough to beat.
HubSpot is ideal for small businesses or startups who need to manage customer communications holistically (chat, email, CRM) without enterprise software investment. The tools are polished and user-friendly, backed by extensive documentation.
If Drift's appeal was capturing leads and tracking them, HubSpot achieves that within a single platform. Visitors who chat can automatically be enrolled in email nurture sequences. The ecosystem of integrations is massive.
HubSpot Chat Considerations
Advanced features require paid plans. The free chatbot is fairly basic (rules-based, not AI). To get conditional chat logic, CSAT surveys, or AI-powered features, you'll need professional or enterprise tiers.
Some users find HubSpot's all-in-one nature overwhelming to configure. It's a broad platform, so setup, pipeline customization, and team training can take time. If you only want simple chat and nothing else, HubSpot might feel like overkill.
Also, HubSpot charges per contact and per upgrade. As your contact list grows or you need extra bot sessions, costs can climb outside the core chat feature.
Still, for many teams, the ability to start free and only pay for added functionality is a fair trade-off.
Tawk.to: Completely Free Live Chat Software
Quick take: Tawk.to is unique because it's completely free. Over 5 million websites use it globally. The company makes money through optional add-ons (like removing branding or hiring live agents through their service). If your budget is literally zero, Tawk.to is where you start.
How Tawk.to Offers Everything for Free
Unlimited everything. Tawk.to's core offering is 100% free with unlimited agents, unlimited concurrent chats, and support for multiple websites. This is extremely rare in the industry.
Industry reviews confirm it includes "unlimited agents, unlimited chat volume, and unlimited history" at no cost.
Most "free" plans cap you at one agent or 50 chats per month. Not Tawk.to.
Real-time monitoring and visitor intelligence. Tawk.to shows you who is on your site in real-time, with their location, pages viewed, and how they found you. This guides agents to proactively reach out. It's comparable to Drift's visitor intelligence features, except free.
Built-in extras. Even in the free version, you get a knowledge base, ticketing system, and customizable chat widget (colors, text, position). Integrations with WordPress, Shopify, Magento, and others make installation straightforward.
Tawk.to Optional Upgrades
Tawk.to's revenue strategy is selling enhancements:
• Remove Branding: $19/month to take off the "Powered by tawk.to" logo
• Video/Voice + Screen Sharing: $29/month for those capabilities
• AI Assistant (Apollo): ~$29/month for AI chatbot functionality
• Hire Chat Agents: ~$1 per hour to outsource chat staffing
None of these are required. They're à la carte if you need them.
When Tawk.to Is the Right Solution
Cost. Obviously. A tiny business can have live chat with as many agents as needed for $0. Compare that to Drift's $2,500/month starting price.
It's also quite feature-rich in its free form. You're not getting a "lite" version. You get triggers, canned responses, file sharing, departments, and a mobile app for agents to reply on the go.
The huge user base means lots of community knowledge and third-party tutorials on using Tawk.to effectively.
Tawk.to Trade-Offs to Consider
"You get what you pay for" catches up in a few areas:
① Support is mainly through knowledge base and community. You won't get a dedicated customer success manager or likely even fast responses if something breaks.
② Security and compliance transparency are concerns for larger companies. There's less public documentation about security practices compared to enterprise-grade platforms.
③ Analytics and reporting are relatively basic, making it harder to measure performance beyond simple metrics.
You'll carry Tawk.to's branding unless you pay to remove it. Some businesses mind this for professionalism reasons.
Bottom line: Tawk.to is fantastic for budget-conscious needs, but large enterprises or those needing bleeding-edge features might outgrow it. Think of it as the scrappy alternative: powerful and free, but with some trade-offs in polish and enterprise capabilities.
Intercom: Best All-in-One Customer Communication Platform
Quick take: Intercom is often mentioned alongside Drift because both pioneered conversational business chat. The key difference? Intercom is more of a customer communications platform spanning marketing, support, and product engagement. It's versatile and robust.
What Makes Intercom Different from Drift
More than just sales chat. Intercom provides live chat widgets for your website or inside your product (perfect for SaaS companies). Through the same tool, you can send targeted popup messages, product announcements, or onboarding tips to users.
It's not just for sales leads on your marketing site, but also for engaging existing customers in-app. This is where it differs significantly from Drift's sales-focused approach.
Powerful automation. Intercom has "Resolution Bot" for support FAQs and "Custom Bots" for lead qualification that can automate a large portion of interactions. You can design conversation flows with multiple paths.
The bots aren't as AI-driven as Drift's newest offerings, but they're quite powerful rule-based bots that integrate with your knowledge base.
Intercom's Built-In Help Desk Features
This is huge: Intercom includes team inboxes for support where you can manage tickets from chat and email together. It also has a built-in knowledge base (Help Center) to deflect questions with articles.
This makes Intercom a more comprehensive customer support solution than Drift, which has no built-in ticketing. Essentially, Intercom can serve as your all-in-one support platform.
Extensive integrations connect with CRM systems, Slack, ticketing tools, payment systems, and more. You can integrate Stripe to see a user's subscription status while chatting, or log conversations into Salesforce.
Intercom Pricing: What Does It Cost?
| Pricing Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Entry-level | ~$39 per month, per seat for basic functionality |
| Scales based on | Modules and usage |
| Complex structure | Base package + charges for number of contacts or additional products |
For a small team, it can be reasonable (e.g., $39/seat for support agents). But as you scale to many seats or contacts, it can become expensive (sometimes thousands per month).
Still far cheaper than Drift. A small business could use Intercom for maybe $100-$200/month for a couple seats, whereas Drift's minimum is $2,500/month.
When to Choose Intercom Over Drift
Versatility and depth. Intercom is like a Swiss Army knife for customer communication. It can capture leads like Drift, manage support tickets like Zendesk, and send email campaigns (on a smaller scale) like HubSpot.
If your team wants one system to handle chat with both prospects and customers, Intercom is compelling.
For product-focused companies (SaaS apps), Intercom's in-app messaging and product tour capabilities are huge advantages over Drift. It accompanies customers across their lifecycle, not just at the top of the funnel.
Intercom Pricing Considerations
Cost at scale. Intercom might start affordable, but as your user base or team grows, bills can ramp up quickly. They charge per active contact (after a certain limit) and per feature module.
Some alternatives (like Social Intents or Tawk.to) have flat or predictable pricing. Budgeting with Intercom can be tricky.
Also, Intercom's breadth means it can be a lot to configure if you only needed simple live chat. There's feature bloat if you don't plan to use it fully.
Bottom line: Intercom is undoubtedly one of the strongest alternatives to Drift for those who need a support-centric and multi-functional solution and are willing to invest in it.
Freshchat: Best Budget-Friendly Omnichannel Support
Quick take: Freshchat is the live chat and messaging product in the Freshworks ecosystem (which includes Freshdesk for helpdesk, Freshsales CRM, etc.). It's a competitor to Intercom that offers affordability and a free plan, coupled with the ability to grow into a larger support platform.
Freshchat's Omnichannel Advantage
Manage everything in one place. With Freshchat, you can manage conversations from your website, mobile app, WhatsApp, Apple Business Chat, and more in one team inbox.
An agent could see and reply to a customer's WhatsApp message in the same dashboard as a live chat. Drift doesn't do this (Drift mainly focuses on website and email).
AI and bot options. Freshchat includes Freddy, an AI engine that powers chatbots and provides agent assist suggestions. On paid plans, you can deploy Answer Bots that use your FAQs to respond, plus flow-based bots for lead generation.
They also offer AI to suggest replies to agents or detect customer sentiment. It's useful for support scenarios to deflect common queries.
How Freshchat Integrates with Freshdesk
If you use Freshdesk (the Freshworks helpdesk ticketing system), Freshchat integrates natively to escalate chats to tickets, share data, etc. Even standalone, Freshchat has basic priority and assignment features to manage a support queue.
You can also integrate with CRM systems. Since Freshsales CRM is an option, it provides an all-in-one stack alternative to Drift + Salesforce.
Freshchat Pricing That Actually Makes Sense
| Plan | Price | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | $0 | Limited features/users but functional |
| Paid plans | Start around $15-19 per agent/month | Basic tiers |
| Top tier | ~$69 per agent/month | Advanced features |
Importantly, there is a free plan (something Drift doesn't have). Freshchat's free plan includes a small number of agents and basic features, which already covers live chat and a bot for FAQs.
To get advanced workflows or more agents, you'd move to paid plans, but even those are an order of magnitude less than Drift for moderate team sizes.
When Freshchat Is the Right Choice
Cost-effective support toolkit. Freshchat is built by the same company as Freshdesk, one of the leading customer support platforms. It's oriented to helping teams handle customer conversations efficiently.
The free plan and low-cost options make it attractive to startups and mid-size companies that found Drift unaffordable.
If you want a blend of live chat and traditional ticketing, Freshchat + Freshdesk combo is powerful. You can chat in real-time, then convert to a ticket if an issue needs long-term tracking. Drift requires integration to a separate support system to achieve that.
Freshchat vs Drift: What to Know
Freshchat is improving rapidly, but it may not have the same brand polish or cutting-edge AI features that Drift (paired with Salesloft) is pushing for enterprise sales teams.
Drift's chatbot is known for qualifying leads in a very sales-oriented way, and its integrations with Salesforce or Marketo are geared towards revenue teams. Freshchat is more generic and support-focused.
Some users note that Freshchat's interface isn't as slick as Intercom's and that certain advanced features (like detailed behavioral triggers or multi-language bot training) aren't as mature.
Bottom line: Freshchat delivers tremendous value for service and support use cases at a fraction of Drift's price. It's an excellent alternative for businesses focused on customer support.
Terminus Chat: Best for Account-Based Marketing
Quick take: Terminus is an account-based marketing (ABM) platform, and its "Chat Experiences" module is essentially a Drift alternative aimed at companies doing ABM and B2B sales. It's best suited for mid-to-large B2B organizations pursuing account-based marketing strategies.
Why ABM Teams Choose Terminus Chat
Account-based routing that actually works. Terminus Chat recognizes when a visitor is from a target account (by email domain or IP lookup) and can immediately route that chat to the specific account owner/sales rep responsible.
Your top prospects get VIP treatment. The person who handles that Fortune 1000 account can jump in with full context, rather than a generic sales rep.
Chat from Anywhere™ lets you turn any digital touchpoint into a chat prompt. You could embed a chat link in an email or an ad, and when the recipient clicks, it opens a chat with your team (either on your site or a chat landing page).
This collapses the funnel by moving conversations directly from marketing campaign to live interaction.
Terminus Playbooks and Sales Workflows
Terminus offers both linear and visual chatbot builders. Marketers can design chat flows that qualify visitors, ask questions, or book meetings using either a straightforward form-like flow or a branching diagram style.
Pre-set playbooks for common scenarios (like greeting a target account by name, offering them a demo scheduler, etc.) accelerate pipeline creation.
How Terminus Integrates with Sales Tools
Since Terminus is an ABM platform, it ties into CRM (Salesforce), marketing automation (Marketo or HubSpot), and analytics. Chat data syncs to your CRM, and you can trigger Slack alerts to the account owner when their key account is on the site chatting.
It bridges the gap between marketing and sales in real time. Terminus also provides ad retargeting and email signature marketing, making it a broader platform around chat.
Terminus Chat Pricing
→ Terminus doesn't publicly list pricing
→ Third-party estimates suggest plans start around $500 per month for a 10-seat package
→ Larger contracts could bundle in ads, email experiences, etc.
Compared to Drift's enterprise plans, Terminus positions itself as "a fraction of the price," though costs can still be significant for small companies.
If you're considering Terminus, you probably have a marketing budget for ABM (think hundreds or low thousands per month at minimum). Always engage their sales for a custom quote.
When Terminus Makes Sense
Account-focused engagement. If your marketing and sales strategy is ABM (targeting specific high-value companies), Terminus is tailor-made.
When someone from Acme Corp hits your site, your team knows instantly and can act (routing chats, personalizing messages, tying interactions back to ongoing ad campaigns and email outreach to that account).
Drift can do some of this with larger packages, but Terminus is arguably more laser-focused on it.
Consolidation advantage. Rather than have separate tools for ABM ads, website personalization, and chat, Terminus offers a one-stop shop. This leads to better data consistency.
Terminus Limitations
Terminus Chat is relatively new compared to incumbents, so some features might not be as mature. The polish of the chat UI or depth of analytics might not yet rival standalone platforms like Intercom.
Terminus is not aimed at customer support. It's very much a sales/marketing tool. If you need robust ticketing or community forum integration, this isn't it.
Terminus is best if you adopt their broader platform. If you only use the chat portion and none of their other products, you might not realize full value.
Lack of transparent pricing can be a barrier. Some customers prefer knowing costs upfront.
Bottom line: Terminus is a strong Drift alternative for marketing teams with an ABM mindset, but it's probably overkill for small support teams or any use case outside B2B marketing.
How to Choose the Right Drift Alternative for Your Business
Choosing the best live chat platform comes down to your specific priorities and use case:
| Your Situation | Best Alternative | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Budget-conscious or just starting? | Tawk.to or HubSpot's free chat | Zero software costs with functional features |
| Your team lives in Slack or Microsoft Teams? | Social Intents | Answer from tools they already use, unlimited agents from $69/month |
| Need a full customer support suite? | Intercom or Freshchat | All-in-one platform (Intercom) or helpdesk + chat combo (Freshchat) |
| Focus on sales and marketing conversations? | Chatra (e-commerce), HubSpot (CRM), or Terminus (ABM) | Specialized features for your specific sales context |
| Running an e-commerce store? | Chatra | Cart visibility and proactive engagement features |
| High volume or global teams? | Tawk.to (free unlimited) or Social Intents (unlimited agents) | No per-seat or volume penalties |
Why Social Intents Is the Best Drift Alternative for Most Teams
While we've covered seven solid alternatives, let's be honest about which one solves the most common pain points for the most teams: Social Intents.
Here's why it's become the go-to Drift alternative for thousands of businesses:
How Social Intents Solves Team Adoption Problems
The biggest challenge with any new software isn't the features or the price. It's getting your team to actually use it consistently.
When you implement a standalone chat dashboard, you're asking agents to:
→ Learn a new interface
→ Remember to keep it open
→ Switch contexts constantly between chat, Slack, email, and their actual work
This is why so many live chat implementations fail. Social Intents eliminates this friction entirely by meeting your team where they already are: in Teams or Slack.
Social Intents vs Drift: Pricing That Makes Sense
Let's do the math on a typical 10-person support team:
Drift: $2,500/month minimum (likely more with 10 seats) = $30,000/year
Social Intents Pro Plan: $99/month with unlimited agents = $1,188/year
That's a $28,812 annual savings for essentially the same core functionality (live chat, AI bots, proactive messaging, analytics).
AI Integration That Actually Works
Social Intents integrates with ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini for AI chatbots. But here's what matters: the implementation is hybrid AI + human from the start.
The bot handles common questions. When it detects complexity or the customer requests a human, it hands off seamlessly to your team in Slack or Teams. No awkward "please hold while we transfer you" messages. Just smooth transitions.
Custom AI Actions take this further by letting you build integrations with your specific tools. Want the bot to check order status in Shopify? Create a support ticket in Zendesk? Send shipping updates from your warehouse system? You can build these custom actions without needing a development team.
E-Commerce Integration Without Complexity
Social Intents has native apps for:
• Shopify
• Wix
• Webflow
Installation takes literally 5-10 minutes. No developer required. The chat widget automatically matches your site's branding.
Compare this to Drift's enterprise implementation process (which often requires professional services and weeks of setup), and you see why smaller teams choose Social Intents.
What Users Say About Social Intents
TechRadar's independent review concluded: "Social Intents delivers an impressive solution with seamless integration that eliminates the need to juggle multiple platforms."
The unlimited agents feature gets consistent praise. One Shopify store owner put it perfectly: "We went from paying $400/month for 5 seats with our old chat tool to $99/month for our entire team with Social Intents. Same functionality, better integration, way lower cost."
How to Try Social Intents Risk-Free
Social Intents offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card required. You can set it up, test it with your team, and see if it solves your specific needs before spending a dollar.
Start your free trial here and see why thousands of teams switched from Drift and aren't looking back.
Common Questions About Drift Alternatives
Is Drift Still Worth It for Any Business?
Honestly? Only if you're a large enterprise with a complex sales organization and budget isn't a concern. After the Salesloft acquisition, Drift doubled down on enterprise sales orchestration features. If you're doing high-touch B2B sales with deal sizes in the hundreds of thousands, and you need deep Salesforce integration with advanced routing and analytics, Drift makes sense.
For everyone else (small businesses, mid-market companies, customer support teams, e-commerce stores), the alternatives we've covered deliver better value and more appropriate features.
Can I Migrate from Drift to Another Live Chat Tool?
Absolutely. Most platforms (Social Intents, Intercom, Freshchat, HubSpot) offer migration assistance. You'll typically export your chat transcripts and customer data from Drift, then import into the new platform.
The trickiest part is usually retraining your team on the new interface, which is why Social Intents' approach (using tools your team already knows) makes migration smoother. Most businesses complete the switch in 1-2 weeks.
How Do Drift Alternatives Compare for AI Chatbots?
Drift has invested heavily in AI chatbots, and their newest features are impressive. However, alternatives have caught up:
• Social Intents integrates ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini with custom training on your content
• Intercom has their Resolution Bot with machine learning
• HubSpot offers chatbot workflows (though more rule-based)
• Freshchat has Freddy AI for support automation
The key difference is implementation approach. Drift's AI is very sales-focused (lead qualification, booking meetings). Alternatives like Social Intents and Freshchat focus more on hybrid AI + human support, which often works better for customer service scenarios.
Which Drift Alternatives Integrate with Salesforce?
Yes, most do:
| Alternative | Salesforce Integration |
|---|---|
| Intercom | Native Salesforce integration |
| HubSpot | Connects to Salesforce (with some setup) |
| Freshchat | Integrates via Freshsales or direct connection |
| Social Intents | Connects through Salesforce integration via Zapier |
| Terminus | Deep Salesforce integration (built for it) |
If Salesforce integration is critical, verify the specific sync capabilities with each vendor. Intercom and Terminus probably have the deepest native integrations.
What's the Best Drift Alternative for Small Businesses?
For budget-conscious small businesses:
→ Tawk.to (completely free)
→ HubSpot (free CRM + chat)
→ Social Intents Starter ($39/month)
For small businesses that want room to grow:
→ Social Intents (unlimited agents as you scale)
→ Freshchat (affordable per-agent pricing)
→ Chatra (if e-commerce-focused)
The honest answer is Social Intents hits the sweet spot for most small businesses because you can start on the Starter plan ($39/month) and scale to unlimited agents on Basic ($69/month) without the bill exploding as you grow.
What If I Need More Than Just Live Chat?
If you need a full customer support platform (ticketing, knowledge base, chat, email):
• Freshchat + Freshdesk combo
• Intercom (all-in-one)
• HubSpot Service Hub (if using their ecosystem)
If you need chat + CRM + marketing automation:
• HubSpot (most comprehensive free-to-paid path)
• Intercom (if budget allows)
If you only need chat and want it to work seamlessly with your existing tools:
• Social Intents (Teams/Slack integration)
• Tawk.to (free standalone)
How Do These Platforms Handle Mobile Chat?
All the major alternatives offer mobile apps for agents:
• Social Intents: Agents use Slack or Teams mobile apps (which they likely already have)
• Intercom: Dedicated mobile app for agents
• Freshchat: Mobile app for Android and iOS
• Tawk.to: Mobile apps for both platforms
• Chatra: Mobile app available
• HubSpot: Mobile app for the full CRM
Social Intents has an interesting advantage here because most support agents already have Slack or Teams on their phones, so there's nothing new to install.
Can I Use Multiple Chat Tools at the Same Time?
Technically yes, but we don't recommend it. You'll confuse customers if different chat widgets appear on different pages, and your team will have to manage multiple dashboards.
If you need different functionality, look for an all-in-one solution:
• Intercom (marketing + support)
• HubSpot (CRM + chat + marketing)
• Social Intents (chat + AI bots + multi-channel)
Or choose one primary chat tool and integrate it with your other systems via Zapier or native integrations.
Do Any Drift Alternatives Support WhatsApp and SMS?
Several alternatives support WhatsApp Business API:
• Freshchat (native WhatsApp integration)
• Social Intents (WhatsApp AI chatbots)
• Intercom (WhatsApp channel)
For SMS specifically:
• HubSpot (via integrations)
• Freshchat (via Freshdesk)
• Intercom (via third-party apps)
If omnichannel messaging (web + WhatsApp + SMS + social) is critical, Freshchat probably has the most comprehensive native support. Social Intents focuses more on website chat and WhatsApp bot capabilities.
How Important Is the Free Trial Period?
Extremely important. Never commit to a chat platform without testing it with your actual team and customers.
Trial lengths by platform:
| Platform | Trial Length | Credit Card Required? |
|---|---|---|
| Social Intents | 14 days | No |
| Intercom | 14 days | Yes |
| Freshchat | 21 days | Yes |
| HubSpot | Permanently free tier | No |
| Tawk.to | Permanently free | No |
| Chatra | 10 days for paid features | No (free tier available) |
| Terminus | Contact sales for trial | N/A |
We recommend testing with at least 2-3 platforms to compare how they fit your specific workflow. Pay attention to how often your team actually checks and responds to chats. That'll tell you which interface works best for them.
The Bottom Line: Better Alternatives Exist
Drift was innovative when it launched. But the 2024 Salesloft acquisition fundamentally changed what the platform is for and who it serves. The focus shifted to enterprise sales orchestration with pricing to match.
For most businesses, that's actually good news. It forced the market to evolve and created space for alternatives that are:
→ More affordable
→ More flexible
→ Better integrated with tools teams already use
→ More focused on customer support (not just sales)
Whether you choose Social Intents for its Teams/Slack integration and unlimited agents, Tawk.to for its free-forever model, or Intercom for its all-in-one platform approach, you'll likely end up with a better solution for your specific needs than Drift would have provided.
The best live chat software is the one your team will actually use and your customers will appreciate. Take advantage of free trials, test with real conversations, and choose the platform that fits your workflow, not the one with the biggest marketing budget.
Ready to switch from Drift? Start your free trial with Social Intents and experience live chat that actually integrates with the tools your team lives in. No credit card required. No complicated setup. Just better customer conversations.
Data and pricing accurate as of January 2025. Always verify current pricing and features on each vendor's website as offerings evolve.
