Olark
Straightforward live chat for SMBs — one flat per-agent plan with every feature included.
About
Olark is a simple live-chat platform founded in 2009 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, aimed at small and mid-size businesses that want real-time website chat without tier-hopping. Its pricing model is the differentiator: one flat per-agent plan (listed at $29/agent/month on the official pricing page) with all features included — no locked premium tiers. Agents get a clean dashboard with desktop notifications, page tracking, and canned messages; the platform offers automated messages and routing rules triggered by visitor behavior, referral URL, or geographic location, plus transcripts, real-time reporting, shortcuts, and full chatbox customization. Integrations cover Salesforce, HubSpot, Shopify, WordPress, and over 2,000 apps via Zapier and webhooks. The vendor claims 10,000 customers (provider-claimed). There are no published independent benchmarks of chat-to-sale impact, so conversion claims should be treated as provider-claimed.
What it can do
- Live chat widget with real-time visitor tracking and page details
- Automated messages and routing triggers by behavior, referrer, and geography
- Searchable chat transcripts and real-time agent performance reporting
- Canned messages, shortcuts, and offline contact forms
- Full chatbox customization to match brand styling
- Integrations: Salesforce, HubSpot, Shopify, BigCommerce, WordPress, Zapier (2,000+ apps), webhooks
Setup
- Sign up and paste the Olark snippet into your website.
- Customize the chatbox colors, text, and behavior rules.
- Set up automated message triggers (time on page, exit intent, geo).
- Add agents and configure canned messages and shortcuts.
- Connect your CRM via built-in integrations, Zapier, or webhooks.
Prerequisites
A paid per-agent subscription; a website to embed the chat snippet.
Use cases
Works with
Trust score — 6/10
Scored 6/10 (METRICS tier, metrics-v1). Evidence: operating since 2009 with continuous service, single transparent per-agent plan confirmed on the official pricing page. Strengths: refreshingly simple pricing (every feature in one plan), reliable core chat tooling, broad Zapier integration. Docked for: (1) a much smaller brand footprint and community than Intercom/LiveChat-tier competitors; (2) no published independent benchmarks; (3) no native mobile app or video chat. License: proprietary SaaS, closed-source.
How the trust score is built
Full methodology →- Adoption · stars/downloads, log-scaled vs peers
- 6.0/10
- Maintenance · recency, releases, issue load
- 6.0/10
- Openness · license + docs
- 4.0/10
- Manual review · sanity read + red-flag check
- 6.0/10
- · Founded 2009, Ann Arbor, US; vendor claims 10,000 customers (provider-claimed)
- · Single flat per-agent plan (~$29/agent/mo), all features included
- · No native mobile app, no video chat
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these sources. Where a claim comes from the provider and couldn't be independently verified, the text says so.