Smith.ai vs. Zendesk Chat

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Smith.ai
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Smith.ai is a call answering platform for businesses of all sizes. The AI Receptionist from Smith.ai handles call scenarios, such as qualifying leads, answering questions, and scheduling appointments 24/7. Smith.ai Virtual Receptionists aim to maximize meaningful interactions, with the goal of moving a business forward with a professional human touch. With its integration ecosystem of over 7,000 platforms — like HouseCall Pro, ServiceTitan, MyCase, and HubSpot— call data flows directly into a…
$95
per month
Zendesk Chat
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Zendesk Chat (formerly Zopim) is a live chat tool developed by the Singaporean company also called Zopim, acquired by Zendesk in April 2014.
$0
per user
Pricing
Smith.aiZendesk Chat
Editions & Modules
Starter
$95
per month
Basic
$270
per month
Pro
$800
per month
Enterprise
Custom
Lite
$0
per user
Basic
$14
per user
Advanced
$25
per user
Premium
$55
per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Smith.aiZendesk Chat
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional DetailsAll plans include: - Lead screening - Lead qualification - Appointment booking - Intake - Call transfers & routing - Live agents on standby 24/7 - Instant call summaries - Bilingual English/Spanish call handling - Comprehensive dashboard with rich business insights - Dedicated phone number - Phone and e-mail support Additional features available: - Integration with CRM software - including ServiceTitan, HubSpot, and Clio), Zapier, Slack and othersThe pricing above is price per user per month. You will get a discount when you opt for annual payment.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Smith.aiZendesk Chat
Considered Both Products
Smith.ai
Chose Smith.ai
I have priced services with Ngage and Apex Chat. Smith.ai is more cost-efficient than these competitors.

Most services charge a very high per qualified lead basis. Sometimes $35 or higher per lead. Considering that not all qualified leads convert, client acquisition costs can …
Chose Smith.ai
Came down to pricing. Smith.ai Live Website Chat did not have the same level of customization and support as other alternatives but there are enough customization and tools that it was clear it would solve the problems and at a good price.
Chose Smith.ai
  1. Better support in setting up.
  2. Better service now that I'm using their system.
  3. Very professional sales team talking and chatting with my prospects.
Chose Smith.ai
We use the Smith.ai Receptionist services. We selected website chat after having a conversation with our account manager who explained the features. We started off with a free trial, but when we saw how many visitors actually use the chat feature and how many relevant chats we …
Chose Smith.ai
We have tried a number of free and annual price chat solutions on the website but this is the first one that is great on mobile devices and intelligent enough to match questions to answers. This has been a hidden gem in delivering new client leads with a lead to client close …
Chose Smith.ai
  • Ruby Receptionist - Used it for 1 year. Poor service, not as many features. Smith.ai is light years beyond Ruby.
  • Back Office Betties - Investigated, did not use, mainly because Smith offered 24/7 service and way more chat and text options.
  • Various Virtual Office Services that …
Chose Smith.ai
I have not used other chat services. I use Smith.ai Receptionists and that service from Smith.ai has been flawless, so I went with them for chat as well.
Chose Smith.ai
Quick turn around in providing our office a transcript of the chat. Easy set up for automatic responses.
Zendesk Chat
Chose Zendesk Chat
In one of my previous organizations, our client migrated the support tool from Zendesk Chat to Helpshift. I felt Zendesk Chat was a more user-friendly support tool than Helpshift. Zendesk Chat is so beginner friendly, whereas the other tools were so confusing compared to …
Chose Zendesk Chat
Zendesk Support Suite, Zendesk Sell (formerly Base CRM), Stella Connect, by Medallia, Quip and Slack
Chose Zendesk Chat
Zendesk Chat [(formerly Zopim)] has a better UI/UX, and it is part of the Zendesk enterprise tools which we also use for: Zendesk Talk, etc It is always great to have this kind of channel together in one platform.
Chose Zendesk Chat
Significantly better. Better options for AI chat. More fully featured product.
Chose Zendesk Chat
I prefer Zendesk Chat (formerly Zopim) over Talkdesk, as it provides customers with written proof of their conversation and customers are able to rate the conversation once it is done. Also, it's easier to find a previous conversation in Zendesk Chat (formerly Zopim) than in …
Chose Zendesk Chat
I have been using this system for one year, and today I can continue saying that this system does not have any faults that I can complain about. Thanks to this system, I have been able to have direct communication with each of our customers or clients, since it allows me to use …
Chose Zendesk Chat
Zendesk is one of the most expensive providers on the market, but also the most functional one. We have 6 business facts. Based on them we composed 17 needs (functions) from the chat provider. Zendesk was one of the leaders in the overall evaluation, while it was cheaper than …
Chose Zendesk Chat
I like about Zopim is that it has numerous devices and choices. I like the way that you can associate with other individuals, inside and remotely. Also, I like that I can redo my notices. It coordinates with significantly other joint effort and the workplace instruments I …
Chose Zendesk Chat
I used Peoplesoft chat in another position with another company, and I'm floored by the difference. Peoplsoft chat seemed to be down regularly and wasn't nearly as fast. Zopim has a modern and streamlined feel.
Chose Zendesk Chat
Olark Chat - Not as many customization options as Zendesk
Salesforce - More expensive
Syntellect - Old application based system instead of a cloud based software
Chose Zendesk Chat
ZD chat is much better at being streamlined with ZD email, obviously. but the functionality of Intercom and the way it worked was a lot cleaner. However, we use a round-robin style of messaging with our CSRs, and ZD chat does this much better.
Chose Zendesk Chat
Zendesk Chat is far more user friendly than some of the other competitors on the market. It has a very all the features that you require to ensure your customers are contacted in 'real time'. Its main tools include a live chat interface for quick communication, customisable …
Chose Zendesk Chat
Zoho has limited features and is incomparable to the features that Zendesk Chat have. Also, I find Zoho to be very difficult to use, not to mention it's too many restrictions, which I find to be counterproductive and not cost efficient. I'd still use Zendesk Chat over anything …
Chose Zendesk Chat
Nice software not too much complications and easy to use
Chose Zendesk Chat
I didn't explore other options as Zendesk has big market share
Best Alternatives
Smith.aiZendesk Chat
Small Businesses

No answers on this topic

Gist
Gist
Score 9.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies

No answers on this topic

Genesys DX (discontinued)
Genesys DX (discontinued)
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises

No answers on this topic

Genesys DX (discontinued)
Genesys DX (discontinued)
Score 10.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Smith.aiZendesk Chat
Likelihood to Recommend
9.1
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.6
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(0 ratings)
8.4
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Smith.aiZendesk Chat
Likelihood to Recommend
Their chat monitoring is useful to anyone who wants to provide fast communication to prospects. I see so many companies with horrible response times for their chats. They are very professional and helped me create scripts that help them convert more leads. It is basically a virtual sales team. Their phone service saves companies time on wasted calls and fills in when they can't answer the phone. They say that over 50% of leads are never followed up because of a poor phone strategy. Smith.ai Live Website Chat fixes this
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[Zendesk Chat (formerly Zopim) is well suited for] any business with online services that want to improve their direct communication with their customers. But please make sure this is just a tool for communication with the customer, the team behind this chat is much more important.
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Pros
  • Smith.ai Live Website Chat agents are immediately available to address questions and collect information from new clients.
  • The agents are warm and personable.
  • In addition to collecting a new lead's contact information and case details, the chat agents also collect referral sources.
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  • Extremely fluid chat interface allows for easy communication.
  • It can be used directly on a website page or as a widget.
  • Allows the end user to translate the chat into their own native language.
  • Notifies you with pending chats via on-screen notifications and sound effects.
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Cons
  • I have not seen any area for improvement. These people have a great service backed by an even better level of support.
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  • Zendesk/Zoopim is right around an entire Live visit programming .There isn't an approach to compel the client to answer certain inquiries preceding entering the talk. The talk transcripts some of the time take long to appear in the visit history .
  • Exhausting outline for the talk message box
  • No work area warnings
  • Warning sound just played once. Since we are not at the front counter constantly, it would make our work more troublesome since we expected to continue checking the site.
  • No portable application
  • In the event that we shut program window we would be promptly disconnected.
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Likelihood to Renew
No answers on this topic
Due to staffing issues, we have temporarily stopped offering chat as an available channel. We're also interested in the best ways to integrate chat with our FAQs and AI to provide quick responses, either during off-hours or prior to speaking with a live agent. I've also found that reporting is rather limited where some of the interesting and useful data made available and visible during the chat cannot be pulled post-chat; it would be great to pull a high-level report so we can analyze this data.
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Usability
Smith.ai Live Website Chat allows you to provide a script for when they answer prospective clients. The script is customizable as your needs change. However, the script only goes so far, as they do not know your business personally. Once they do go through that script, they send you an email with the caller's contact information so you can reach out personally if they seem interested. They do so with efficiency.
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As mentioned previously, it's a clunky product that lacks user-friendliness. It feels old and behind the times compared to other products we have used. The inability to have a wrap-up time before a new chat comes in is also a big issue for our team.
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Support Rating
Smith.ai pays for itself if we can help one site visitor move down our lead funnel to being a client. We have averaged over 50+ new leads each month since implementing the chat and with a close rate for becoming new clients that is double what our advertising PPC new client closing rate has been.
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Getting assistance and/or troubleshooting anything with Zendesk can be quite frustrating. In my years of experience with Zednesk, I have almost never found the answer to my question without going through multiple articles, ultimately getting frustrated and reaching out to our contact for more assistance. So for a consumer, the support is not as relieving as Zendesk Chat is to our customers in getting the questions answered by us.
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Alternatives Considered
I have priced services with Ngage and Apex Chat. Smith.ai is more cost-efficient than these competitors. Most services charge a very high per qualified lead basis. Sometimes $35 or higher per lead. Considering that not all qualified leads convert, client acquisition costs can still be very high. Smith.ai only charges approximately $8 live chat sessions with low monthly flat rates. A completely automated chatbot is even less per month, and in some instances free.
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In one of my previous organizations, our client migrated the support tool from Zendesk Chat to Helpshift. I felt Zendesk Chat was a more user-friendly support tool than Helpshift. Zendesk Chat is so beginner friendly, whereas the other tools were so confusing compared to Zendesk Cha.
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Return on Investment
  • Positive - Smith.ai has easily saved me $25k+ in receptionist costs. They probably helped me land another $50k in new business I would otherwise not have brought in the door because they immediately grabbed the client on our website so they didn't get away or have to wait 2 days for a call back. Great ROI (100 to 1 ROI is probably not an exaggeration for my law firm).
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  • Positive impact - Compared to our old system, this newly updated system provides features and functionality that has increased our agent productivity and provided customer insight like we've never had before. This has resulted in fewer hold times and higher customer satisfaction.
  • Negative impact - Our reporting team still struggles with obtaining the right information from time to time with the chats. This leads to loss of productivity and more resources dedicated to reporting.
  • Positive impact - Due to Zopim's embed, we are able to more successfully place them on the appropriate self-service portals and pages, reaching a larger audience, and being more readily available to answer our client's questions. This has resulted in an increase in our self-service portal usage, driving down the phone and email support channels, which in turn reduces support costs.
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ScreenShots

Smith.ai Screenshots

Screenshot of the Smith.ai dashboard, which provides real-time insights that illustrate the bigger picture of a firm's inbound calls.Screenshot of where each Smith.ai call generates an instant call summary, displaying caller contact information, call duration, actions taken during the call, and call recording & transcription.

Zendesk Chat Screenshots

Screenshot of How Zopim Chat Widget looks on the website.Screenshot of This is how the chat window looks like to your visitorsScreenshot of This is a screenshot of the visitor list.Screenshot of