Front vs. Olark

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Front
Score 7.1 out of 10
N/A
Front is a communication hub that helps businesses keep the human touch in every interaction.
$29
per month per user
Olark
Score 10.0 out of 10
N/A
Olark is a website live chat tool for engaging website visitors while they browse. It can be used to to track leads, drive sales, provide support.
$19
Per Agent Per Month
Pricing
FrontOlark
Editions & Modules
Starter
$29
per month per user
Growth
$79
per month per user
Scale
$99
per month (billed annually) per user
Premier
$229
per month (billed annually) per seat (50 seat minimum)
Self Service
$19.00
Per Agent Per Month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
FrontOlark
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsDiscount for annual pricing on Starter and Growth plans. Scale and Premier plans are annual price only.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
FrontOlark
Considered Both Products
Front
Chose Front
Front was easier to have shared inbox. It also gave us more flexibility in tagging, both tagging users and tagging the emails to triage. It was also quick to set up and get users on boarded and trained. We found it was just a more intuitive and flexible system for us.
Chose Front
We switched to Front because of how simple it looked, then we realized we could tailor it to the type of business we have. I don't see us using any other tool to manage emails besides Front.

Chose Front
I have only used Gmail in the past and Front is any day better than Gmail in terms of the interface and ease of usage. The ability to send scheduling links and comments between the email threads makes it better than Gmail. The shared inbox also makes it easier for the entire …
Chose Front
Front's UX/UI is more intuitive. The work seems to flow better in their app.
Chose Front
A few features are very good in Front that are not in Outlook, like sharing draft content with teammates, commenting, read receipts, etc., which made us choose Front.
Chose Front
The tagging feature stands out. Their tagging can be quite deep and effective if it's set up properly. For example, I can pull out all the clients who [have] an issue with billing. Or better yet valued clients who [have] a specific MRR that has an issue with billing that needed …
Chose Front
Front is honestly an amazing blend of an email server and slack, as it allows for nimble, efficient, and immediate communication between team members without needing to forward a single email back-and-forth before finally responding to a client. Front also saves time when …
Chose Front
This is something I am not familiar but it seems like it is [available] in Gmail. Thus I cannot give any feedback about it. What I am sure about is Front works for our team and I see Zoom using the service in the Customer Success Organization in a long run.
Chose Front
Thanks to Front, it has allowed us to have smooth and effective internal communication between departments, attaching projects, problems, and endless files without any problem. It is allowing us to have practical and soft customer support.
Chose Front
Front is better than any other tool. It is a great app to use also because of its multipurpose features. Anyone can also use this app for your customized business needs and manage your work accordingly. I feel that Front is easy to use and it is also very user-friendly due to …
Chose Front
I love how scalable the software is. Also, Front comprises many good features that are needed for helping teams work efficiently and effectively for sales and support.
Chose Front
Front has been simple to implement and operate on our team. It is not possible to lose an email; it is impressive how it adapts better while being used daily. We can have excellent communication between colleagues, the percentage of evaluations, and changes in planned tasks …
Chose Front
Front is always getting the newest capabilities of the industry [and] is never behind. Instead, it provides you with features that [you] would not even think exist. Also, it is faster than other apps [and] takes just a moment for you to get started in your daily tasks.
Chose Front
Front was not designed as a ticketing system and doesn't have great reporting tools, but the commenting and draft features were important and other platforms' versions of these features were weak or unintuitive.

It should be noted that we ended up developing our own messaging …
Chose Front
It offered newer features and more ways to control user communication inflow, as well as team roster management. The Front app also had a presence on the app, mobile web, and web, which was helpful for on-the-go email queue management. In short, at the time we made this …
Chose Front
We have used Yesware. It's a really good lead prospecting tool, but doesn't have the shared inbox, or collaborative capabilities of Front.
Chose Front
Zendesk is by far the market leader here and offers a tremendous solution. It is, of course, very expensive -- especially if you require multi-brand support. Many of the other solutions (except Groove) offer some flavor of multi-brand support but they are not as good as …
Chose Front
We had all our leads going to a gmail account before front. Front solved so many problems that Gmail had. It was much more user friendly for somethings and it was a much more flexible software that we were able to use to meet our needs. It also has a reporting feature that …
Chose Front
Front is a flexible and quickly growing tool that integrates with almost every system we use. Front have been our go-to support system since we started and will continue to be for the foreseeable future.
Chose Front
Front is cleaner from an email communication standpoint. Less details are sometimes better. Hubspot is more of a CRM and that focus is key. While Front is more of a communication channel.
Olark
Chose Olark
I actually have not utilized any other products similar to Olark at this point in my career.
Chose Olark
Our organization just made the switch over to Zendesk and Zendesk Chat less than a month ago, so it is difficult to provide an accurate comparison. I will say though, that Zendesk has more robust reporting and far more options for integration. I am confident that Zendesk Chat …
Chose Olark
We did use Zendesk chat for a short time but switched to Olark when a colleague suggested Olark was simpler. We were looking for a chat solution that was easy to understand and use visually, plus easy to switch between multiple people when taking turns monitoring chat. And we …
Chose Olark
We have only used Olark, due to the pricing and ease of use.
Chose Olark
Olark is more user friendly and very affordable for our purpose of use.
Chose Olark
Olark has an easier implementation process and has better functionality such as the ability to send commands through the platform to either create a ticket in your CRM or push an opportunity to salesforce; you're even able to 'push' the end user to a web page. Implementing …
Chose Olark
Olark really doesn't stand up against these options. It feels outdated compared to most of them. All of the competition offers page breaks, while Olark does not. I don't really understand why they don't have this simple feature. I can only guess that it's a methodology thing, …
Chose Olark
I have not used other chat software
Chose Olark
Olark is on another level, but still not the optimal product - it's on its way.
Chose Olark
I have not used zopim extensively, but my company has been looking into converting to ZenDesk. The one positive difference I did notice with zopim was the ability to easily email a transcript of a chat - and the user has the option to request it independently of the operator.
Chose Olark
I haven't personally evaluated other sites. Olark is the only one I've used and I like it quite a bit. To this point price and ease of use has given me reason to stay and I don't see that changing.
Chose Olark
The main reason was that we had a really hard time integrating the Zendesk chat function into our UI, and once we discovered that Olark would not only integrate seamlessly with our website, but also automatically produce Zendesk support tickets, we were sold.
Chose Olark
I actually haven't tried out any similar products at this time, unfortunately.
Features
FrontOlark
Chat Analytics and Reports
Comparison of Chat Analytics and Reports features of Product A and Product B
Front
-
Ratings
Olark
10.0
Ratings
15% above category average
Chat history and transcripts00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Chat reporting00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Chat and web analytics00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
FrontOlark
Small Businesses
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Gist
Gist
Score 9.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Genesys DX (discontinued)
Genesys DX (discontinued)
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
SysAid
SysAid
Score 9.1 out of 10
Genesys DX (discontinued)
Genesys DX (discontinued)
Score 10.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
FrontOlark
Likelihood to Recommend
6.5
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
8.6
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.8
(0 ratings)
9.8
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
FrontOlark
Likelihood to Recommend
I think Front is very useful for every company with multiple teams working together on different emails from clients. Not so useful if a lot of different teams need to work on a request at the same time, because when an email is sitting in multiple shared inboxes things can get messy. Also would not recommend for teams that work is individualized, as team work is the main point of Front.
Read full review
If you want to have the option to chat on your company website and keep track of those chats, the customer's satisfaction, your employees' capabilities and the repetition of certain inquiries, Olark can truly help your business. We have 4 employees at any given time dedicated to our chat function during business hours. After hours if offers the option to send our customer service team an email with your question on your behalf. Everyone wins.
Read full review
Pros
  • I call them "sticky notes" but Front calls them Comments. It's a way to collaboratively make comments on messages sent to joint inboxes for folks to coordinate a response before it goes back to the sender.
  • When exchanging with someone using the Comments feature, someone can create a draft reply and then share it before it goes out. It also includes the typing indicator letting you know they are not just replying, but specifically working on a draft reply. These things are really great for individuals, or teams, that don't sit next to each other.
  • Tagging. It's a fairly simple concept, but very useful for classifying notes and being able to manage, what could be, a messy inbox. Additionally, the ability to have your own personal tags really allows the user to manage their own messages in a way that works best for them.
Read full review
  • Its ease of use and simple design is a huge plus.
  • Their customer support is top notch. They have always been super responsive and helpful.
  • Past chats are stored and easy to search.
  • It's easy to customize to fit the look and feel of your website.
Read full review
Cons
  • Zoom Meeting Integration as there are some clients who want to have a call immediately.
  • Tagging can be improved - looks scattered.
  • Calendly Integration, they have their own calendar appointment but it would be good if I don't need to leave the front to set up [calendar] appointments.
Read full review
  • There is not a way to add a queue. We have guests that get a little impatient when we are very busy. This would allow for the guest to know that we are working on getting to them and not ignoring them.
  • We have experienced outages this past year, and the communication in regards to what is happening is not the best.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
We are very happy with Front and don't anticipate changing
Read full review
I think it's a great feature to be more in touch with a customer base - it saves time, money, and is often extremely effective in terms of answering customer questions and addressing concerns. Although the subject of product renew is not necessarily in my hands, I strongly advocate for the program's future use
Read full review
Usability
It's very easy to understand and use by new customer support agents as well. Be it a technology, product, or marketing person, we have trained most of the company folks to read and respond to customer conversations in their free time with the help of the Front app. It is also easy to set up for an admin and manage his/her team with communication rules.
Read full review
It is simply easy and customizable to be exactly what you need it to be
Read full review
Support Rating
The support is good, and it's definitely prompt, but still lags when it comes to technical requirements, as I guess they are slow in developing newer features fast. So no complaints in terms of responsiveness, but yeah, at times it's not very helpful when you need certain features or are blocked on things which can't be unblocked.
Read full review
I've used the Olark knowledge base and searched online for help on questions I had. The help section is easy to use. I have found most of the answers I need within minutes. Plus their help section has a chat feature in a box on the same level as the answers so when I did need more help it was right there for me. (didn't need to search for it on another part of the page) This box has a link to open a support ticket, twitter link for quick answers, and a systems notice
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
This is something I am not familiar but it seems like it is [available] in Gmail. Thus I cannot give any feedback about it. What I am sure about is Front works for our team and I see Zoom using the service in the Customer Success Organization in a long run.
Read full review
We did use Zendesk chat for a short time but switched to Olark when a colleague suggested Olark was simpler. We were looking for a chat solution that was easy to understand and use visually, plus easy to switch between multiple people when taking turns monitoring chat. And we liked how it fit on the screen of the website - easy to see but not intrusive
Read full review
Return on Investment
  • Quality- with all the benefits given, in just matter of time, all your organization will find it familiar and less effort is needed when composing emails.
  • Effectiveness- no one wants to miss an email, or never respond to a possible customer. Front will help you that. If you do not want to send that email now, you can set a timer and Front will send it for you later on.
  • Simplicity- Front is not the most difficult app to handle, indeed, it is too easy to learn. From the first moment you will have a guided tour and will learn all the good things that it has for you.
Read full review
  • Positive impact on employee payroll. We would have to hire at least 1 or 2 more employees if we no longer offered Live Chat support.
  • I don't believe that Olark had any negative impacts on the business. We simply outgrew the platform.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Front Screenshots

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