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What Is Olark?

Olark Live Chat is the easiest way to add live chat to your website.
Over 40,000 organizations including small businesses, large businesses, non-profits, government entities, and higher education choose Olark.

Add an Olark chat box to your site and start helping more customers and closing more sales. Olark integrates with a number of CRM, eCommerce and Help Desk platforms to provide you with automation, chatbots, and key customer insights.

GDPR Ready, WCAG 2.1 AA Accessible, and NIST 800-53

Who Uses Olark?

Olark Live Chat is ideal for higher education and small- to mid-sized businesses in a wide range of markets, including retail, eCommerce, SaaS, education, and more.

Olark Software - Add accessible, secure, and privacy-aware chat in seconds
Olark Software - Create more opportunities. Capture more leads. Build relationships.
Olark Software - Keep track of important conversations with transcripts.
Olark Software - Chat from desktop or reply on the fly with our mobile app
Olark Software - Collect feedback from every chat to listen, learn, and improve.

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Reviews of Olark

Average score

Overall
4.5
Ease of Use
4.7
Customer Service
4.6
Features
4.3
Value for Money
4.4

Reviews by company size (employees)

  • <50
  • 51-200
  • 201-1,000
  • >1,001
Nathan
Nathan
Director of Client Training and Onboarding in US
Verified LinkedIn User
Computer Software, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

What Olark lacks in functionality, it makes up for in simplicity and clean UI

5.0 6 years ago

Comments: Overall, I've loved using Olark as a simple sales and support tool. However, any ticket creation or formal integrations are lacking. If you're looking for a tool that is more than a simple one-to-one, one time communication tool, then I would look elsewhere.

Pros:

The UI is clean, easy to use, and is honestly just pleasant to log into every day. Beyond that though, the shortcuts are helpful, and the storage of past chats is really advanced for the price point, and easy to sort through and keep track of. Lastly, the reporting and metrics are helpful in making informed decisions.

Cons:

There isn't a lot to Olark. It's a chat tool, pure and simple. The integrations are available, but they aren't easy to connect, and they don't provide a lot of output for the trouble.

Alan
Alan
Growth marketing gun for hire in Ireland
Verified LinkedIn User
Computer Software, 201–500 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Helped up convert bigger customers and expand customer service

5.0 6 years ago

Comments: The team had been using Olark for support before I joined and had it available for everyone looking at the website.
When I joined I did some analysis to see if it was worth keeping Olark running on the front-end of the website where non-customers could use it. Or could we save money and resources and just make the support available to customers after they logged in.
I was very nicely surprised to find that leaving it on the front of the website resulted in us converting customers x3 times the average size. I guess they liked to check us out and make sure there were real people there to talk to if any issues. The end numbers were that for every hour a support person was answering questions on the site we were earning a little over $100 in return.
These numbers resulted in us actually expanding the customer success team to make sure all time zones were covered.

Pros:

Easy to set up and run with a distributed support team across the world.

Cons:

No real downsides. The software worked exactly as advertised.

Nick
BDM in Czechia
Information Technology & Services, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: Free Trial
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Review

3.0 2 years ago

Comments: Tried it on Trial, didn't like it, because can'tbe online all the time, because they don't have an app for mobile.

Pros:

Live chat option and analik module. It's easy to use and mobile application works fine for me. I can be online all the time.

Cons:

No phone app, so I can't be online always. Not good analys and didn't like the chat module. Cancelled after trial.

Olark Response

2 years ago

Hi Nick, Thanks for your review. We're glad we could be helpful. We're regularly updating our integrations & capabilities. If you would like to learn more, please chat with us at Olark.com

Brent Lionel
Brent Lionel
Virtual Assistant in Philippines
Verified LinkedIn User
Information Technology & Services, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Olark is a great tool to respond to customer enquiries

4.0 6 years ago

Comments: Overall, it's okay but there's a lot of room for improvement.

Pros:

Olark allows you to create a pre-chat survey to get leads. The fallback message is cool too specially if you're not able to answer any chat within a span of time. You can also forward the message to the right department that must take care of any request from a possible customer or existing customers. The Pro version allows the chat support to access the scree of the customer with the customer's approval. You can also transfer the chat to another chat support member. Their cobrowsing is super duper useful.

Cons:

The chat window templates doesn't really look good and their design are not that attractive. The design of the templates should be improve so they can be attention-grabbing and appealing.

Steve
Steve
IT Manager in US
Verified LinkedIn User
Consumer Goods
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Olark has been our trusted customer chat software for years.

5.0 7 years ago

Pros:

Easy to install. Both desktop clients as well as web clients available. Can set up default response templates. Nice back end reporting. Various configurations are available for the customer user interface depending on your preference.

Cons:

Needs an auto responder. If it has one, I don't know where it is. I want it to auto-reply to the customer with a message such as, "Thank you for your message. Please give us a couple minutes to reply." We have customers who expect an immediate response and don't want to wait more than 15 seconds.

ELDHOSE
ELDHOSE
CEO in India
Verified LinkedIn User
Computer Software, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

A best solution to chat with customers on live website

4.0 6 years ago

Comments: With Olark we can manage all our customers and to have reduce our issues on the website in a higher manner. Olark is a great tool to manage all our needs.

Pros:

Olark is the best application to chat with customers and to engage with them so that we can generate more sales, Olark is also a great tool to manage the users who are currently visiting our website and to have their issues solved on real time. We are using the tool to solve issues which our customers raise when they visit the website. Olark seems to fulfill all our needs are we are happy with it.

Cons:

The main issues is that the chat has a delay of more than 2 minutes, this makes the customers annoying. Please try to fix this issue asap.

Brandie
Brandie
Director of Sales & Marketing in US
Verified LinkedIn User
Financial Services Software, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Olark = powerful tool for teams

5.0 6 years ago

Comments: Very easy to use. Great visibility to customer experience with your business.

Pros:

Olark was simple to install, integrates well with our Wordpress website, and it was easy for our service reps to use. The best part about Olark from a business standpoint is the chat log. You can audit all chats, which will allow you to train operators on best practices for chat. You can also see how many chats go unanswered and when, and try to figure out why.

Cons:

My only complaint is that I wish it integrated better with HubSpot.

Sean
Sean
Social Media Manager/Marketing & End-User Support in US
Verified LinkedIn User
Internet
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Easy to use and very open-ended

5.0 7 years ago

Comments: Customers have full access to get help right away. Huge bonus for our product. Aside from social media, this is an immediate way for people to get assistance.

Pros:

UX is easy to follow. Love that we can use extensions such as Upscope. Integrates right into our website and customers love it too. Definitely, recommend this one to anyone looking for a great chat service for direct contact with your users.

Cons:

Can't think of anything. It's been down one time since I started using it and it was a very short down period. There was a small popup to explain. If I had to recommend one thing, I wish the alert was a bit larger. At first glance, it looks just like something not important so you skip over it but they do attempt to tell you. So I give them points for that.

Anmol
Anmol
Sr. Analyst in US
Verified LinkedIn User
Health, Wellness & Fitness, 1,001–5,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

A good value for money tool

4.0 5 years ago

Pros:

I used Olark daily while working at my first company. I used it almost daily and the good thing about Olark is it isk very simple, easy to learn/understand UI and gets the work done. It would be great for a small company/start up.

Cons:

Overall, it does get the work done but I didn't see any advanced functionalities like getting analytics of usage. May be text analytics to understand the most common type of concerns etc.

Olark Response

2 years ago

Hi Anmol, Thanks for your review. We're glad we could be helpful. If you have any questions around additional support or around analytics we'd be happy to chat with you at Olark.com

Abiola
Abiola
Consumer Relations Analyst in Nigeria
Verified LinkedIn User
Consumer Goods
Used the Software for: Free Trial
Reviewer Source

Excellent helpdesk solution.

5.0 7 years ago

Pros:

I have tried and administered a few helpdesk solutions over the years and I think Olark stands out for me at this time,it could be different in future though. I love Olark's simplistic approach ,everything from its user interface ,add-on services and features are simplified for teams and organizations to have a perfect understanding of how they work ,and how best to maximize their impact on an organizations sales(customer service) activity. With Olark ,I am able to measure the performance of all agents reporting to me , set a limit on the amount of chats an agent can respond to at one time ,access vital analytic which becomes very important to helping my organization better prioritize chats,score our leads and modify our sales strategy by leveraging on the insights in visitor data collected from social profiles and on our website by Olark.

Cons:

Olark needs to continuously innovate the Olark helpdesk solution. Over the last year ,Olark hasn't undergone any major change or upgrade in terms of features. An overly confident organization,yea?

Perry
Operations Manager in US
E-Learning, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Olark is a very reliable and easy to use platform with limitations

5.0 6 years ago

Comments: 8 out of ten, with the two points really just all about limitations from an "AI" or Automated Response stand point of view and the inability to send graphics.

Pros:

Olark has been our chat platform for three plus years and has proven itself to be a time saver, a great sales tool, and it has been an easy resource for our existing clients and CS Agents to utilize. Their ";" shortcuts are the easiest tools to use on many platforms we have tried. Aside from a few short outages, they are extremely reliable and their support team is responsive and very helpful.

Cons:

The limitations of Olark include the lack of ability to share graphics with our clients. We can receive images from them, but not being able to respond has been a severe limitation on our staff as we have to switch to email in order to send graphics. Their Screen Share option is nice, but with new contacts, this is a hard proposition to sell on letting a new company "take control" of your PC. If Olark allowed us to send graphics, screen caps, images, it would be the perfect platform as my team loves the ease of use and friendly tools.

Chris
Sales Development Manager in Canada
Construction Software, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source

Good functionality for website chat

4.0 2 years ago

Comments: Olark had nice functionality for communicating with live chat with website users. We used the product within a team of sales reps through rotation and it was fairly easy to use and it did the job we needed it to.

Pros:

Olark was an easy-to-use platform that integrated with website chat with a former company. Chats came through in real-time and there were no specific disruptions and it did the job we needed it to connect with website visitors.

Cons:

Was sometimes difficult to manage chats by conversation in the dashboard. This was a few years ago so product improvements may have already happened.

Olark Response

2 years ago

Hi Chris, Thanks for your review. We're glad we could be helpful. If you have any questions around additional support please chat with us at Olark.com

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Apparel & Fashion, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

A customization chat function for e-commerce

4.0 6 years ago

Comments: A simple way to add live chat and messaging to any e-commerce website

Pros:

A lightweight async chat client that does not slow down your website load times, the UI can be customized to match your brand. Many plans and features including team management, transcripts, visitor page and cart tracking.

Cons:

For our free legacy installation the visitor page and geolocation tracking is no longer working, not sure the reason.

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Computer Software, 201–500 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

We love Olark

5.0 6 years ago

Comments: Great! We love it

Pros:

We use Olark for our online chat software. We love the ease of use especially the short cuts. We have experienced no downtime with the software and our clients love that they can chat in if they have a quick question versus calling or emailing us!

Cons:

There are no cons to speak of for Olark software.

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Food Production, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Love this tool!

4.0 6 years ago

Pros:

Amazing, responsive customer support. Stats are helpful and easy to follow. Ability to manage and monitor employees is top notch.

Cons:

My company uses iMessage via Olark. Love the integration and ease of use, but inability to upload attachments to send to customers is frustrating.

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Internet, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Keep connected with your clients

4.0 6 years ago

Comments: I set up Olark for a web page where the user was an adult from 50 to 60 years old. With Olark we managed to help many people to understand the page and the possibilities.

Pros:

With Olark you can be connected with your potential customers in a simple way. You can know what part of the web they are visiting, their operating system, their browser and even share a screen to help in a direct way. You can also configure different questions / answers for different pages. It is very useful! In addition, it is very easy to configure!

Cons:

The design system is limited and often does not adapt to the needs of the website.

Travis O
Travis O
Founder and CEO in US
Verified LinkedIn User
Management Consulting, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Large player in crowded field

4.0 6 years ago

Pros:

For web chat between customer service and customer it works and has the same features everyone else has. Above that it has granular control over push notifications for instances. For example it can identify when a user is likely to leave your page.

Cons:

Doesn't have KB, chat, and offline email integration the way it should be. No one does and their is an opportunity for someone to come up with a single website widget that integrates all 3 of those functions so you don't have to clutter your site with lots of different messaging apps.

ALLY
ALLY
Auditor in India
Verified LinkedIn User
Computer Software, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

A good tool for talking to live customers on the site

4.0 6 years ago

Comments: Its a great tool and we got a lot of customers through this, great tool for products on all types !

Pros:

Olark is a good tool, which we use on some of our websites. It has good features that is very much needed for engaging with customers. We are happy with their support and their new UI is really good. Olark also has really good features in which we can gain insights about customer behaviors and actions they took on our website.

Cons:

They are really slow in some cases and in some times the chat gets delayed and we began to loose customers.

Tyler
Tyler
Director Of Client Services in Canada
Verified LinkedIn User
Telecommunications, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Solid basic chat product with nice SFDC integration

3.0 7 years ago

Pros:

The Salesforce integration is a must and they are continuing to improve the product. The latest feature release is the reporting capability which is a nice add-on.

Cons:

They do have a lot of widespread issues (though they are transparent via their status page), and support is only available through chat (which makes sense but can be frustrating).

Tessa
Customer Support Trainer in US
Retail, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Love Olark!

5.0 8 years ago

Comments: I really enjoy using Olark. I think it's fun. The bird with the its little birdhouse is so cute, and the way it turns to nighttime when you're not accepting chats--adorable! It's super easy to use. I am a huge fan of the notification systems. I like how you get both visual and auditory notifications, and well as follow-up notifications to remind you, "Hey! Don't forget about me over here! I'm still waiting!" I like how you can tag chats with whatever tag you desire; we've really had some fun with those! The co-browsing feature is pretty awesome, though I'll admit, some of our customers are rather paranoid, and the fact we can do something like that freaks them out quite a bit, so I avoid telling most people we have the ability to co-browse. Still, it's a really cool feature, and it can be SO helpful! One thing I wish they'd improve is the length of time you can block a user. When I last used Olark, the longest you could block someone was 24 hours. Some of the people who visit chat prove themselves worthy of a significantly longer blockage period.

Pros:

The cute little touches

Cons:

You can't block pervs longer than a mere 24 hours

Gourav
Gourav
Software Engineer in India
Verified LinkedIn User
Human Resources (HR) Software, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Just started loving the real-time chat

4.0 6 years ago

Comments: We're looking for Whatsapp business alternative and guess what? We found Olark. Secondly, the pre-filed chat help us in getting the genuine feedback.

Pros:

Belive it or not the real-time chat is heart and soul of the Olark. We features we really like the color customization as we changed it to Red color to match with out website.

Cons:

We wish they too have more native integrations rather the Zapier ones as available in Intercom. And ability to connect Telegram, Twitter and Facebook to continue the chat further.

Akande
Akande
Marketing Communications Specialist in US
Verified LinkedIn User
Consumer Goods, 1,001–5,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

A great website chat tool

4.0 5 years ago

Comments: Overal Olark is a great tool that will serve most website needs for a chatbox. It's geared for non-enterprise clients, from my experience, but is still a very capable chat tool.

Pros:

Olark is a simple to use and simple to set up a website chat tool that allows any website to have a custom chat. Setting it up was super easy and took no time at all aside from installing a plugin (we have a Wordpress website) and getting up and running was fast.

Cons:

Olark has some limitations around it's functionality that other competitors such as Drift have. Drift is designed for a B2B application, integrating with robust platforms whereas Olark does not. This is a pretty specific use case, but one that I noticed.

Olark Response

2 years ago

Hi Akande, Thanks for your review. We're glad we could be helpful. If you have any questions around additional support or some of our integrations we'd be happy to chat with you at Olark.com

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Computer Software, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Very good website chat option

4.0 6 years ago

Comments: We got good customer engagement and leads from chat. Our team was able to help website visitors progress further (and faster) in the funnel.

Pros:

Olark is easy to set up and get started with quickly. With minimal (to none) IT involvement you can engage your website visitors. Very good options to trigger a chat based on activities and other attributes. Screen share option is good (sometimes buggy though).

Cons:

Customization options for the appearance of chat window are limited.

Salvador
Salvador
CEO in Spain
Verified LinkedIn User
Information Technology & Services, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Easy to use, but expensive

4.0 6 years ago

Comments: I have a small team and the relation ease of use, quality and price is high.
I have it integrated with a CRM, but I cannot share all data Olark generates for my lead management

Pros:

You can have your chat online working in minutes. It is very easy to define your look and configure conversations. Staff working with Olark very, very quickly as it has a very friendly interface.

Cons:

If you want to create a complex first level desk offered by chat online it becomes complex and expensive.

Samantha
Samantha
Remote Worker in Philippines
Verified LinkedIn User
Outsourcing/Offshoring, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Excellent Live Chat Software

5.0 6 years ago

Comments: Customer chat support statistics can be monitored real-time, which makes management easier. We just found it really helpful that transcripts/messages are searchable, so we can easily refer to these as necessary.

Pros:

I love that it's simple to use, and even simpler to integrate with Wordpress. You're basically ready to go in a few minutes, even with no coding knowledge.

Cons:

The per agent pricing can be quite steep, but it's only fair given the premium features of this software.

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