by Olark · olark.com ↗
Simple live chat software for sales and customer support teams.
Olark is live chat software built for sales and customer support teams that want a simple, dependable way to talk with visitors on their website. The product is designed to help teams answer questions in real time, capture leads, and route conversations to the right people without turning implementation into a major project. For buyers comparing live chat tools, Olark’s appeal is its mix of straightforward chat workflows, AI-assisted options, and hands-on support when a team needs more than self-service.
The platform is positioned for organizations that care about getting useful conversations started quickly and keeping the customer experience human. Olark says it can learn from your current site and documentation, show up at the right moment based on visitor behavior, and hand off to a real person in the same conversation thread. That makes it a fit for teams that want automation, but not at the expense of direct support, accessibility, or control over how conversations are managed.
Olark also serves buyers who need practical admin features such as reporting, transcripts, customization, integrations, and team controls. Across the supplied materials, the product is described as easy to use, simple to set up, and flexible enough to support established teams as well as organizations with more advanced requirements. For companies that want live chat to improve website outcomes without adopting a sprawling customer engagement suite, Olark is a focused option worth evaluating.
Olark centers on live chat conversations that help teams answer questions, qualify leads, and support customers while they are on the website. The product includes visitor-facing chat tools plus controls for routing, targeting, and proactive messages so teams can engage at the right moment. It is positioned as a simple platform, with AI options available for teams that want automated coverage as well as live handoff.
Olark gives agents a chat console to talk with visitors once the product is installed on a site. The platform also supports chat transfer, visitor details, page tracking, and chat notifications so teams can manage conversations efficiently.
Teams can use targeted chat rules and automated messages to reach visitors based on behavior such as time on page or return visits. Olark also includes automation for chat routing, canned responses, visitor targeting, automatic greeter, and offline contact forms.
Olark supports pre-chat surveys and lead capture so teams can collect names, email addresses, phone numbers, and other details before or during a chat. The pricing pages also describe lead capture and qualification as part of the AI website agent.
Olark includes reporting and transcript tools that help teams understand chat volume, visitor history, and agent performance. It also offers customization and team-management features so organizations can shape the chat experience to fit their brand and operating model. For teams with more structured needs, the product extends to custom workflows, advanced routing, and other administrative controls.
Olark saves chat conversations and transcripts so teams can review, search, and sort them later. Its reporting features are described across the site as real-time reporting, chat volume tracking, email summaries, transcript archives, and performance reports.
The product supports customizable chatboxes, custom images and themes, language selection, RTL language support, and unlimited domains. These options let teams adapt the widget and operating setup to match their websites and multilingual environments.
Olark includes agent groups, chat limits, activity monitoring, and administrative access controls. The platform also notes two role permission levels and, on higher-touch plans, team training and dedicated account support.
Olark offers a more advanced AI and services layer for teams that need automation, compliance support, and hands-on implementation help. The company frames this tier around collaboration with real people, including account managers, training, and priority support. It is intended for organizations with more complex requirements around security, legal review, integrations, and deployment.
Olark’s AI Website Agent answers unlimited visitor questions, updates FAQ and knowledge content automatically, and supports proactive engagement without token limits or overages. The company also describes a chatbot CoPilot approach for helping with the basics and says its AI agent can be trained on a site quickly.
Olark Pro includes a dedicated account manager, live training, video chat, SMS, or phone help, and first-priority support. The company also says its team can assist with legal, security, accessibility, engineering, and other professional services.
Olark highlights WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility support, GDPR and privacy features, security audits, and compliance help such as NIST 800-53 reviews and VPATs. It also integrates with CRM, helpdesk, webhooks, Salesforce, HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, Slack, and other tools.
A revenue leader who wants more qualified conversations from website traffic
A support leader who needs a simple live chat workflow for customer questions
An operations, IT, or platform owner who cares about compliance and integrations
Olark has been building live chat software since 2009 and describes itself as a fully remote, B-Corp-certified team that helps businesses connect with customers. The company positions its product around simplicity, human support, and live chat that can work with a website, docs, and connected tools.
Founded in 2009.
More than 12,000 customers worldwide / 12,000+ businesses.
Fully remote, B-Corp-certified team.
40 remote employees.
Olark’s pricing is intentionally simple for self-service buyers and sales-led for larger or more specialized deployments. The public pages show a clear entry point at $29 per agent per month for the standard live chat plan, while the AI-based website agent is billed annually at $400 per month and includes one human seat. If you need more than the published self-serve structure, Olark routes you to quote-based Pro pricing with advanced automation, custom routing, procurement-friendly payment options, and professional services. The company also offers a 14-day free trial, a limited free account after trial, and optional add-ons such as PowerUps, WhatsApp/SMS integration, and cobrowsing. For buyers comparing tools, the main cost driver is seat count and optional extras rather than message volume, because Olark publicly says its AI plan has no overages or token limits. That makes the platform easy to forecast for small teams while still leaving room for enterprise-style contracts when needed.
Olark competes in the live chat software category against products that emphasize broader customer engagement, AI automation, or support-suite depth. The measured context shows stronger visibility for Intercom, Tidio, LiveChat, Drift, and tawk.to, while Olark’s own materials emphasize simplicity, support, and managed services rather than category breadth.
These candidates come from measured co-mentions or source-backed alternatives. A full comparison is published only after both products have supporting evidence.
Olark’s review profile, based on the fetched marketplace snippets, reads like a straightforward story about simplicity. The clearest signal is that users value how easy it is to use and how quickly teams can get set up and start chatting with customers. That makes Olark feel well suited to teams that want a practical live chat layer without a heavy implementation project or a long onboarding cycle.
The downside signal is more limited, but it is still useful: the available review text points to a lack of advanced capabilities. In buyer terms, that usually means Olark is likely a stronger fit for teams that care most about basic live chat functionality, speed, and usability than for organizations trying to consolidate a larger customer engagement stack. The pricing snippets also show that entry pricing varies across review-platform sources, so shoppers will probably want to confirm current plans directly before making a shortlist decision.
Examples of how assistants answer real buyer questions in this category.
View all Live Chat Software prompts →For live chat tools, the best choice depends on whether your primary goal is customer support or sales, though some platforms offer robust features for both. ### Best for Customer Support For optimizing customer support, look for tools that emphasize efficient issue resolution, knowledge base integration, and agent productivity. * Zendesk for Customer Service is a leading choice for multi-channel customer support, offering AI-powered chatbots, email, phone, and social media integrations for comprehensive coverage. It excels at managing high-volume support operations and provides a unified ticket view for all customer interactions. * ProProfs Chat is highly recommended for 24/7 customer support, featuring AI chatbots that can automate tasks, provide answers from your knowledge base, and offer co-browsing for direct assistance. * LiveAgent is a feature-rich option that includes a ticketing system to organize inquiries from various sources and offers gamification elements to motivate agents. * Freshdesk provides affordable automation for growing teams, with solid omnichannel capabilities and streamlined ticket-based support. * Tawk.to is a strong free option for small businesses, offering basic live chat features, visitor tracking, and a knowledge base builder. ### Best for Sales For driving sales, prioritize tools with strong lead qualification, proactive engagement, CRM integration, and meeting scheduling capabilities. * Drift is a top-tier conversational marketing platform specifically designed for B2B sales teams. It excels at engaging website visitors through live chat and AI chatbots, qualifying leads, and booking meetings directly within the chat interface. Drift's focus is on converting website traffic into qualified sales pipeline. * HubSpot Live Chat is excellent for converting sales and engaging customers, especially for those already using the HubSpot CRM ecosystem. It integrates with the CRM for lead qualification and uses
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