Smith.ai Chatbot vs. Zendesk Chat

Compare features and see how your business can better capture leads and serve clients with the fully automated Smith.ai Chatbot.

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The Smith.ai Advantage

Capture leads 24/7
No staff
needed
Free & unlimited chats

Smith.ai: The best alternative to Zendesk Chat

Smith.ai
Zendesk Chat
INCLUDED FOR FREE
Unlimited chat conversations
100% bot-answered chats, 24/7
Captures email on every conversation
Captures phone number if desired
Automated lead qualification
Smart Q&A database
Custom AI bot
Pre-chat disclaimer
Mobile-friendly
Custom branding
Public API
Email support
Activity Dashboard
BOOSTED SERVICE
Seats for your staff
0
No seats needed
1</br>More seats with premium plans
Add professional live-chat agents
From $140/mo
Totally optional
X – live chat is staffed by your team
Unlimited Q&A and knowledge base
$50/month
X – you'll have to go elsewhere for this feature
Unlimited conversation playbooks
$50/month
X – you'll have to make your own
CRM integrations
$0.50/chat
One permitted with each plan type
Zapier integration
$0.50/chat
Free
White-glove setup option
$150 one-time fee
Totally optional
X – you'll have virtual support, but the work will be yours to do
Custom programming
$200/hr
Totally optional
Limited on cheaper plans
Read our reviews
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Automated Chatbots vs. Live Chat Software

Automated Chatbot
Live Chat Software
Answers messages w/o extra staff
Yes
No
Quick one-time setup
Yes
No
Responds immediately 24/7
Yes
No
Automates lead qualification & intake
Yes
Sometimes
Triages chats automatically
Yes
No
100% consistency
Yes
No
Screens spam & sales
Yes
No

Smith.ai Chatbot offers a fully-automated lead capture solution. Zendesk Chat has a lot of competitive features, but lacks the “human” resource.

Today’s users want instant answers. They want omnichannel communication, and they want to be able to reach you in their way and on their time. Using chatbots and live chat are part of your new conversational marketing strategy, which is changing the game when it comes to building your brand and expanding your audience. 

When you engage Zendesk Chat or the Smith.ai Chatbot, you’ll be able to capture and qualify all the best leads without having to lift a finger yourself. Plus, you’ll be providing your audience with the opportunity to find support, book services, and stay engaged. Choosing the right chat tool, of course, is what makes all the difference. 

Who really can say what’s “right” for a brand? We’ve taken the time to create this apples-to-apples comparison of Smith.ai’s own chatbot and the Zendesk Chat service. As you’ll read below, Smith.ai pulls ahead in this arena for its affordable, transparent pricing and the machine learning that manages the chatbot for a totally hands-free customer support solution.

The Zendesk chatbot is only available with Enterprise plans, which means it’s nowhere near free, nor is it accessible to the modern SMB that needs a quality chat tool.

When you enlist the Smith.ai Chatbot, you will get access to real-time reporting and analytics, monitoring, and more. Zendesk Chat only offers those services to premium and enterprise plan members. Zendesk also limits the number of integrations you can use. 

Basically, Zendesk Chat has a decent offering, but it falls short in all the wrong places. The question is, are you going to embrace smart answers and automated workflows, or will you pay for the live chat software and the staff that you need to operate it? 

25% of leads come in after hours, which means you need to rely on someone who’s always there — and that is why the Smith.ai Chatbot wins this round.

THE BASICS!

Live chat agents on duty 24/7
Real-time lead qualification & intake with CRM integration for complete workflows
Appointment & call-back scheduling with calendar integration
AI technology powers automatic responses, real-time English-Spanish translation, and more.
Payment collection with online billing and invoice links
Instant chat transcripts via email. Contacts and chat conversations logged in your CRM.

What our customers are saying

“Great customer care and functionality. I love using Smith.ai. They do such a great job in following instructions on how I'd like my cases handled. I especially love the fact that I get email transcripts of all chats. I have never had incorrect information obtained (contact info) from any potential clients by Smith.ai. They are very detail oriented!”
Justie Nicol
"Smith allows us to converse with website visitors and turn them into potential clients. They've made it easier for us to be there at all times, even when we're not. We've worked with other vendors in the past and have found Smith.ai among the easiest to use. They're very responsive, they communicate well, and serve as our front lines for client communications."
Scott Peterson
“Simple way to start a great client experience. There are a lot of Chat options available, but this was a no brainer for us because of our great experience with Smith.ai as a company. Everything they do is focused on simplicity. Stuff just works. They make everything easy and have focused on hiring great people, which is evident by the way they treat us as a customer and the people that they chat with on our behalf.”
Brian Waller
“Love Smith.ai Chat! There is no way that I could staff a feature like that in house with my small business. Smith.ai makes the chat feature available around the clock. I am a lawyer and this feature is great for clients who are nervous or shy about making that initial phone call, or who are up thinking about the problem that they need help with outside of business hours. The Smith.ai Website Chat also integrates perfectly with my CRM/case management software. It has really been a boost to my business. I have tried other companies. Smith.ai is the best!”
Nicole G.

Unlimited chats answered 24/7/365

FREE AI
CHATBOT

$0
Per Month
Unlimited
chat conversations
includes
4 q&A and 1 playbook

ADD-on
Pricing

Unlimited playbooks - $50/mo
Unlimited Q&A - $50/mo
CRM Integrations - $0.50/chat
White-glove installation - $150

We integrate with your software

Contacts and chat transcripts are instantly logged in your systems
Clio
Clio Grow
Salesforce
HubSpot
Zapier
PracticePanther
Capsule CRM
Lawmatics
Lead Docket
Wealthbox

Small businesses trust Smith.ai Chatbot to capture more leads