Having a live chat option for customer service can make a world of difference to those who may purchase products or services from you. Of course, it requires those representing your brand to have a thorough understanding of standard conversational procedures.
Once you get the mixture right, you’re looking at better customer retention, a smoother communication flow, and overall tremendous business value.
A couple of the popular customer support tools that fall under this live chat umbrella are JivoChat and Smartsupp. Today, the idea is to compare the two against each other. Note that the comparison criteria will include features, performance, customer support, user feedback, pricing, and more.
Feature Comparison
User Interface and Ease of Use
The JivoChat user interface is well-designed with logical options in strategic places that produce the expected results. The default color palette, which is customizable, is a good design choice. Note, however, that in some areas, such as sales lead listings, things can start to look a little cramped and confusing.
Smartsupp also has a logically designed user interface with a commendable color scheme, leading to a predictable and smooth experience for the user. Unlike JivoChat, however, regardless of where you may navigate, there is still an air of simplicity and intuitiveness.
With all that said, Smartsupp takes the edge here, though JivoChat does not have an unpleasant interface by any stretch of the imagination.
Core Features
JivoChat’s core features include live chat for websites, team chats, an AI assistant, and Jivo Marketing. Smartsupp, on the other hand, has live chat, chatbot, lead generation, and AI engagement as parts of its feature set. Check out the table below for a quick comparison.
| Feature | JivoChat | Smartsupp |
| Live chat | Yes | Yes |
| Chatbot | Yes | Yes |
| Multiplatform support | Yes | Yes |
| Multiple integrations | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Branding customization | Yes | Yes |
| CRM | Yes | No |
| Email management | Yes | No |
JivoChat has a slight edge here, as it provides more functionality for its users.
Integration and Compatibility
JivoChat gives you a series of integration capabilities with many of your favorite platform types. The categories include chatbots, CMS, CRM, and analytics. On the Smartsupp side of things, social media, CMS, and analytics are all supported.
Both come with a similar limitation. While some integrations are a little easier to get into, others are going to require a bit of coding knowledge to get them working and to derive the kind of value you are likely looking for. This means the setup can get a bit prohibitive for the less technical users.
Customization and Branding
Ironically, this is a repeat of the problem expressed in the previous section. JivoChat and Smartsupp both allow you to easily modify the aesthetic of things to a limited extent.
You can go beyond that level, taking greater control of placement, layout, branding, etc. However, if you are going to do so at the most optimal level, modifications will need to be made to the underlying code.
If you or someone else on your team has the skill set, then it’s a non-issue. However, if you see where heavy customization is needed, and code adjustment is not something anyone around you can easily do, it may introduce the need to pay for outsourced labor.
Performance and Reliability
When adding a chat widget to your existing page, prepare for it to introduce some level of performance overhead. However, the idea behind these things is an optimized design should prevent any notable load on your site.
The FCP on both platforms is equal, standing at 1.0s. In other words, it takes just a second for your regular content to be displayed on the page. Things start to differ at the JS time metric, with JivoChat coming in at 612ms and Smartsupp registering 1000ms. Bear in mind that a lower number is better here.
Each extension weight is also different, and again, you want this figure to be less. JivoChat comes in at 299 KB, while Smartsupp is only 164 KB.
All of this comes together to create a situation where your JivoChat display comes up in about 5.5 seconds. Smartsupp comes out on top here, as it registers only 4.4 seconds.
Pricing and Value for Money
Pricing Plans
Pricing for JivoChat comes in three different flavors. The first is the basic tier, which is free for the lifetime of its use. If you want to go beyond just responding to customers though, you will need at least the professional license that costs $19.00 per agent per month when billed annually. At this point, advanced features start to become available.
The next step up is the enterprise license, which is intended for companies with 10 or more agents. Additional features are added, and the cost is $38.00 per agent per month with annual billing. Both paid plans offer a 14-day free trial.
Smartsupp offers four different options. There’s the free tier, which is intended for testing since it doesn’t offer much. Early-stage businesses are expected to go for the standard option that supports up to three agents and starts at $19.50 monthly when billed annually.
Smaller customer care teams are meant to leverage the pro license, which supports three agents, but is upgradable to 10. The cost here starts from $48.00 monthly when yearly billing is used.
There is also an ultimate tier, which is a tailor-made solution with many limitations removed. No defined pricing is provided since the sales team would need to quote it based on requirements. Paid plans, excluding the ultimate license, offer a 14-day free trial.
Value Proposition
The value you will get from each option highly depends on the number of agents and your expectations. For example, Smartsupp’s price tags may look higher, but the cost is not a per-agent one. Therefore, it may be a situation where at each level, JivoChat would appear to provide more value until you get to the maximum number of agents Smartsupp supports.
However, JivoChat does not force you to move to another tier just because you want more agents. This move by Smartsupp can be wasteful since additional features may not be needed.
Customer Support and Resources
Support Channels
The support channels available are mostly the same, with a couple of exceptions. Both platforms are going to offer documentation, chat, e-mail, and forum-based options. However, if you’re looking to get phone or 24/7 support, only JivoChat offers this.
Documentation and Learning Resources
As indicated before, there are documentation-based resources on both sides of the fence. Different features and how to set them up are well explained, including the coding modifications that would be necessary for customization. Apart from that, there are also blogs offered by both platforms for a little extra information.
User Feedback and Reviews
The user sentiment is pretty positive overall. JivoChat tends to be praised for its omnichannel convenience, as well as its proactive approach to engagement. On the other hand, the mobile app is said to not be stable, and limited customization also presents a pain point.
Users love Smartsupp’s tremendous mobile friendliness and intuitive interface. Like its competitor, Smartsupp also receives negative feedback for its limited customization. Apart from that, reporting features are said to lack a certain level of depth.
Chatway: An Alternative to JivoChat and Smartsupp
Another option you may want to consider is Chatway. It includes all the quality-of-life features you would want, including live chat, team collaboration, high degrees of customizability, multiplatform support, canned responses, analytics, segmentation, etc.
It only has two pricing tiers with the first being free and only limited to a single agent. Apart from that, there is the pro tier that comes in at $9.00 per agent per month, making it the most cost-effective option so far. A 14-day free trial of the pro license is available.
Give These Chat Apps a Try Today!
Provided that you are strategically implementing these live chat platforms, both JivoChat and Smartsupp can drive higher levels of engagement. They are also excellent for customer retention. Both platforms offer similar features, though each will have small advantages in certain areas.
For example, Smartsupp’s interface is more accessible, and it seems to have better load times. JivoChat, on the other hand, doesn’t restrict the number of agents at each subscription tier, and it has more support options available.
Why not give both options a try to see what works for you? Finally, don’t forget about Chatway, as it has all the typical features you may like for a price you will love. Signup for Chatway today!
