Live Chat & Chatbots
467 martech vendors in Live Chat & Chatbots, part of Customer Service & Success. Each record carries the date we last verified it, so you can see how current it is before you rely on it.
Last verified:
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Live chat and chatbot software puts a chat window on a site or app for real-time messages with an agent or a bot, instead of email or a phone queue. Support teams use it to answer questions fast; procurement reviews it because chat logs often hold personal data and, increasingly, an AI doing the answering.
Who it is for
- Customer support leads adding or replacing a chat channel who need transcripts, routing, and agent handoff to fit the team's existing workflow.
- IT security reviewers checking how a widget embedded on the public site handles the personal data a visitor types into it.
- Legal and AI governance teams confirming what a chatbot may say, and when it must hand off to a human.
What your No-Committee will ask
- IT security
- Is chat transcript data encrypted at rest, and can access to past conversations be limited by role instead of shared across the whole team? We record encryption and access control as two separate claims, each checked against the vendor's own docs.
- Data governance
- Where are chat transcripts stored, and is a Data Processing Agreement offered for the personal data a visitor types into a chat window? We check data residency and DPA availability on the vendor's own legal pages, not a sales deck.
- Architecture
- Can the chat widget be blocked or delayed by a visitor's browser privacy settings, and does the vendor explain how that's handled? We note that behavior when documented and mark it not found otherwise.
- AI governance
- Is a visitor told they're talking to a bot rather than a human, and does the bot train on past chats by default? We track disclosure and training-data policy as one evidenced claim, not assumed from a generic chatbot description.
- Legal / finance
- Is there a published rule for when the chatbot must hand off to a human agent, and can a buyer set that threshold themselves? We record that escalation rule with a source link wherever the vendor actually states it.
How we verify
Each claim above is pulled straight from the vendor's own security page, privacy policy, or public product pages, not from what a chat widget is generally assumed to do. Read the full bar behind verified, self-attested, and not-found on our methodology page.
Frequently asked questions
How is live chat and chatbot software different from a full helpdesk and ticketing platform?
Live chat and chatbot tools focus on the real-time conversation happening right now, on a website or in an app. Helpdesk and ticketing platforms manage a whole support request across email, chat, and phone, often over days rather than minutes. Many vendors offer both, but a team can run a standalone chat widget without a full ticketing system underneath it.
Do live chat and chatbot vendors typically publish SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certification?
Vendors selling into larger support teams that handle real customer data at scale more often publish a SOC 2 report, since buyers increasingly ask for one before a chat widget goes live on the public site. Smaller or younger chatbot tools more often rely on a general security page instead, which we mark self-attested.
Is pricing usually public for live chat and chatbot platforms?
Most live chat tools list per-agent, per-seat pricing right on their website, at least for smaller teams. Plans built around higher chat volume or advanced AI features more often move to a custom quote, which we note rather than estimate.
What should I check beyond response time and widget design before shortlisting a vendor?
Confirm where transcript data is stored, whether a bot discloses itself before a chat starts, and what triggers a hand-off to a human. Those three checks catch the issues a security and legal review raises after the widget is already live on the site.