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About Drift

Drift is a human-centric, AI-powered buyer engagement platform.

Learn more about Drift

Pros:

Customer service is just a chat ping away. They are always attentive and help you proactively.

Cons:

The other features aren't explained well, and not sure where to look if I wanted them explained. The image that can be placed with the pop-up message is very limited in customization.

Drift ratings

Average score

Ease of Use
4.4
Customer Service
4.4
Features
4.3
Value for Money
4.1

Likelihood to recommend

8.2/10

Drift has an overall rating of 4.5 out 5 stars based on 199 user reviews on Capterra.

Have you used Drift before?

Share your experiences with other software buyers.

Filter reviews (199)

Yann
Yann
Consultant in Finland
Verified LinkedIn User
Online Media, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

A solid suite of digital tools all on one platform

5.0 4 years ago

Pros:

The thing about Drift that I like the most is, without a doubt, its chatbot creation feature. There are plenty of chatbot platforms and apps out there, but what makes Drift stand out its the ability it gives you to provide website visitors with a tailored experience, answers to their questions and solutions to their needs...all on autopilot! You put in the work once – to create the chatbot – and then, you can let the platform work its magic and help you increase website visitor engagement and other KPIs in your business.

Cons:

If you're planning to put together a quite robust and sophisticated chatbot, you'll need to carve out some time. While this is to be expect, I sometimes feel that one can feel a bit overwhelmed in the chatbot creation process...

Drift Response

3 years ago

Hi Yann, thanks for your review! We're glad to see that you've used Drift to successfully create a tailored experience for your website visitors and we're excited to see your continued success in the future! - Sarah Haberman, Senior Customer Advocacy Manager

John
Director in UK
Marketing & Advertising, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Drift is the best 'customer chat' system on the market

5.0 4 years ago

Comments: Once again Drift have helped to define what companies should be using chat software for. Yes, it is for 'live chat', that much is obvious. But DRIFT define their tool as helping to deliver 'conversation marketing', and that for me really helps to define how companies should be using Chat software - to start and nurture a conversation that could lead to an ongoing relationship.

Pros:

Love Drift. It is very easy to use but more importantly, it is very easy to love using. This is important in software adoption and Drift is one of the best examples I have seen of this in recent years. They've built an awesome product, which does everything you need it to - but the fact that it is fun to use DRIFT makes it an even more compelling product.

Cons:

Hard to say. Probably the fact that although the core product is free (and you get lots of awesome features), you have to upgrade to the 'fullest licence' in order to get the 'uber cool' tools such as allowing the 'chat users' to book an appointment directly into the Calendar of the chosen agent.

Drift Response

4 years ago

Hi John, Wow! We're flattered! THANK YOU! Pls let us know how we can continue to support you, and tnx for being a customer! All the best, Julie Hogan, VP - Customer Experience

Nick
Nick
CEO in Australia
Verified LinkedIn User
E-Learning, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

A time consuming disappointment.

2.0 5 years ago

Comments: We asked very specific questions during the sales process (no trial available - this should have been a red flag) where the salesperson misrepresented the capabilities around integration, usability etc. There was plenty of 'sure it works just like that'. We would have identified this had a trial been available. Drift is expensive, has slick marketing, so I assumed it was good. I should have quit at this point, but had our developers work around the many issues and the 'ohh you need to pay 10x for that'. Support was very lackluster. Focused on upselling features already promised on the current plan. Our developers hated it (I should have listened)... Our salespeople did not like it, the bugs it Drift manifested in a form that made our salespeople look stupid to customers. They were actively creating workarounds to avoid using it. And here I am. Drift keep charging, and the support people 'can't find my cancellation request conversation' ironically, in Drift. So, let this be a warning for managers. Drift is really great at marketing, the halo effect is strong! But walk away and save time.

Pros:

Drift is a chat tool with some rudimentary marketing automation. Drift's bot workflows are conceptually good. Email 'playbooks' are similar to a basic marketing automation platform.

Cons:

I purchased Drift against the recommendation of our developers on the promise of its segment.io integration. Drift was buggy, did not work as described with segment.io and had numerous usability problems for end-users (customers).

Drift Response

5 years ago

Hi Nick, Wow, we really let you down. I'm really sorry for all of the places along the way we didn't deliver on the experience you expected. Thanks for taking the time to detail this feedback and share it. If there is any interest, I'd love the opportunity to talk live ([email protected]) ... or simply feel free to email me directly if there's more you'd like to share with me. Thank you again, and a sincere sorry for the poor experience you had with us. All the best- Julie Hogan, VP Customer Experience

Jessica
IT Specialist in US
Construction, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Gets the Job Done

4.0 11 months ago

Comments: Over the experience has been middle of the line. We have been considering other applications due to Drift being pretty expensive for what it offers. There are other applications out there that offer a lot more functionality in the chat flow.

Pros:

I really like that is it easy to navigate. There are not a lot of places you need to go looking around to figure out what you need to do in order to change or update the flow of something.

Cons:

Their customer support is not great. They do not really offer any assistance when it comes to setup, or help with any of the technical processes or procedures. When we first started using this application we were unfamiliar with the targeting, and it would have been beneficial to have someone assist us with that.

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Marketing & Advertising, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source
Source: GetApp

Alternatives Considered:

The best chat AI.

5.0 4 years ago

Comments: Using this for sales as well as support automation, and it's paid off well and works with our sites.

Pros:

The driftbots and playbooks (how their AI, automation is done). We have used this to automate sales workflows and schedule meetings and save time.

Cons:

I have no complaints that wouldn't be something out of my control - some of the rules I've set up in boys seem to be a bit too picky when leads respond with anything besides a picklist item.

Drift Response

4 years ago

Hi there, Wow. Thank you so much, for all of this. We're thrilled to hear you're happy with your platform experience, as well as your experience with us both in pre sales and support . Please reach out if there's anything else we can do to help or support you. All the best, Julie Hogan, VP - Customer Experience

Guru
Co-Founder in Canada
Computer Software, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Best Realtime communication chat tool

5.0 5 years ago

Comments: We really had good opinion on drift and we're happy to serve our customers realtime with the help of drift chat widget and qualify the leads instantly.

Pros:

We love the way how Drift chat helps our customers to get in touch instantly within our product. When customers get into issue or questions to be answered, they don't have to wait for email support, all the questions can be answered instantly within the chat. Additionally, it's easy for our teams to use mobile app to instantly attend customer chat from anywhere. We usually get lot of questions and leads from landing page and drift helped us to automate leads and push into our CRM systems. Integrating the chat widget within the application is also easy and simple.

Cons:

The web app ( dashboard ) is too slow to load initially but the chat is super fast and reliable. I wish they had android sdk to initiate conversation within the application.

Amit
Growth Manager in Israel
Internet, 501–1,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Powerful buy pricey

5.0 4 years ago

Comments: Honestly, it's the best software out there for that purpose. It's east to implement and start using, the results are coming fast and everything is measurable.

Pros:

The ease of getting started and implementation

Cons:

If you want to enjoy most of the features, you need big pockets because it's pricey

Drift Response

4 years ago

Amit, Thank you so much for sharing this, and I'm thrilled to know you've found Drift powerful, and easy to implement, and start using. Please let us know how else we can be helpful to you! All the best, Julie Hogan, VP - Customer Experience

Ramon
Ramon
CEO in Germany
Verified LinkedIn User
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source

One of the most appealing, beautiful and expensive website chats on the market

4.0 6 years ago

Comments: - Providing a beautiful and direct contact option directly on my website
- Direct targeting of specific customers groups with chat messages, emails and pop-ups
-> Increasing the number of leads & sales

Pros:

- The design of the chat widget is gorgeous. It works on any browser and every mobile phone, I've tried, like a charm. With other chat widgets, I had lots of issues that it hasn't been displayed always correctly. - Advanced bot and automation capabilities based on tags and other attributes - Live view of prospects on your website with direct contact via web chat functionality - Outbound marketing (sending sequences and tracking of emails) with their drift Gmail extension.

Cons:

- Drift is quite expensive for what they offer. I'm one of the happy customers, which has gotten a startup license of the pro plan for a fraction of the normal price. Even with the pro plan, you have unnecessary restrictions like customization of the chat widget with CSS and using the smaller version. Most of the enterprise features as account-based marketing are great for any startup. Why isn't just the support by Drift and the quantity of usage restricted? Why do I have to see the restrictions within your account always and cannot just hide them if I cannot afford? Are they in need of that kind of marketing? - The calendar cannot be completely translated into the language of your choice and you can't use a custom domain. - Help center is branded with drift, even if your plan support branding free chat widget. - I've received lots of emails from Drift about their Hypergrowth Conference (at least 10 in the last few months), which is quite annoying, no matter how personal and funny they have been written. - I receive quite some emails regarding extensions of the core product like Drift Signature and Drift Help Center, but I've never gotten an update what has changed in the core product. After a while looking into the bot creation section, I've been flabbergasted that the whole design of the visual builder has changed, without me receiving any message about the advantages the new design and process brings with it.

Marco
IT Expert in US
Consumer Services, 1,001–5,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Drift is a Sensational Marketing Automation Solution

5.0 8 months ago

Pros:

The reliability of Drift has been making it a top and reliable solution. I like the efficiency of this marketing automation software.

Cons:

This marketing automation tool works so well for us. No cons for Drift.

Valentina
Marketing Manager in US
Hospital & Health Care, 1,001–5,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

A Great Tool that Makes Marketing Effective

5.0 7 months ago

Pros:

I like the effectiveness of the features of Drift. Drift has been reliable and easy to use.

Cons:

I see no challenges when using Drift. Drift is sensational.

Georgi
Demand Generation Manager in UK
Computer Software, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Chatbots and Livechat capabilities that will transform the way to use your website

5.0 2 years ago

Comments: Phenomenal value from day 1, very user friendly and great for adoption.

Pros:

Incredibly easy to setup, implement and actually start having conversations on your website. Very user friendly UI and bot building + super easy to train users on the platform.

Cons:

Some of the ABM functionality and audience building is a bit unintuitive and hidden in parts of the platform that you wouldn't think to look.

Drift Response

2 years ago

Hey Georgi! I'm pumped to see you're enjoying and having success with using Drift. I'd love to hear more about the ABM and audience building functions that aren't easy to find. This feedback is important to our product team for improvement. You can email me at [email protected]

steffanie
Manager in US
Entertainment, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Easy to set up - Great for quick chats with customers

5.0 2 years ago

Comments: In 2020, when our festival was forced to go online, this software saved us. We were able to easily explain schedule changes to customers, answer their questions, and walk them through set up. We continue to use this software, which has cut down on phone calls, and allowed us to more efficiently assist our customers.

Pros:

I really like that we can have private conversations between staff members in order to confirm we are giving up-to-date information. It is also very helpful for us to see the location of the customer in order to better / properly assist them.

Cons:

We use the free version of the software and I cannot think of a single issue we have not been able to easily resolve ourselves.

Drift Response

2 years ago

Hi Steffanie! ���� Thank you for leaving this awesome review. There are so many positives here from being able to more efficiently help customers to collaborate with team members all in the same tool. ���� Please don't hesitate to reach out if you ever need any help with anything Drift related. My email is [email protected] --Joshua Morgan: Customer Advocacy @ Drift

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Computer Software, 501–1,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Best Live Chat Software On the Market

5.0 5 years ago

Comments: Drift is a great product that generates a lot of website leads for our business which more than pays for itself.

Pros:

Drift is an amazing tool that helps you communicate directly and seamlessly with your website visitors. It tracks a lot of information about any given person on your site so you can understand who they are before you even have a conversation with them. It also makes it easy to schedule meetings which automatically flow to your calendar.

Cons:

Sometimes Drift can be too automated and frustrate people on your website who are trying to obtain quick answers to questions and wish to speak to a human.

Karunyaa
Demand Gen Marketer in India
Real Estate, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Drift- Chatbot automation made simple

4.0 2 years ago

Comments: We have received decent number of leads in past years using drift. It is good to use on a holistic way.

Pros:

Past 1 year usage of drift was made simple by making the navigation between creating playbooks & viewing analytics/reports easy. We have integrated it with freshsales CRM for storing leads captured in chat. Creating playbooks for chatbot on our website is structural. Just by selecting dates, it is easy to view the data captured through chatbot for that duration.

Cons:

Similarly playbooks creation could be made more user friendly by bringing in different format for editing them as it is currently bit difficult to navigate between one node to another in the tree like representation of the playbook.

Drift Response

2 years ago

Hi Karunyaa! ���� Love seeing how Drift is helping make processes easier for customers especially when you're creating opportunities from chat. I would love to hear what formats you'd like to see with our playbooks so I can pass it on to the product team. You can email me at [email protected] --Joshua Morgan: Customer Advocacy @ Drift

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

Alternatives Considered:

A solid component in your marketing automation strategy

4.0 2 years ago

Comments: Overall, I think it's a great tool

Pros:

I really loved how super easy Drift is to both implement and use as chatbot tool (that does way more than that) we've rolled it out for our SDRs to be able to capture leads and respond to any presales questions quickly. and the integration with Hubspot and salesforce makes it really easy to not only capture but also to personalise our response as a part of our overall marketing automation strategy.

Cons:

- it's not cheap - the stage that you'd be importing the lead into Sales Cloud (SFDC CRM) can be tricky as the definition of stages aren't really aligned.

Drift Response

2 years ago

Hi, thanks for taking the time to review your experience with Drift and sharing your feedback on how we can improve our lead importing! - Sarah Haberman, Senior Customer Marketing Manager

Farhan
Product Manager in US
Information Technology & Services, 5,001–10,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Drift review

5.0 2 years ago

Comments: Overall I am very satisfied with Drift and it has been the great experience integrating this with zoominfo for lead generation

Pros:

Drift is extremely easy to configure and there is a launchpoint integration available via Marketo Engage that makes it easy to integrate and push lead gen data into Marketo

Cons:

I think Drift gets the job done and is the best live chat out there in market. I cant think of any con

Drift Response

2 years ago

Hi Farhan! Thank you so much for leaving a review. I'm super pumped to see that you're finding Drift easy to configure, easy to use, and integrating so well with your tech stack. Please let us know if we can ever assist with anything Drift related. --Joshua Morgan Customer Advocacy @ Drift

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Computer Software, 1,001–5,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Great communication interaction with prospects

4.0 4 years ago

Comments: Extremely pleased. I'll admit that as an admin onboarding this software, it takes sometime to get familiar with the new set up of chatboxes and playbooks. Overall though, it proves to bring results to our team.

Pros:

The simplicity of scheduling phone calls. Drift also makes the chat's very personalized and fun to interact with. That feelings gives our prospects and sense of comfort when they visit our site.

Cons:

There are a few bugs such as syncing issues with our crm, or syncing issues with BDR calendars. The majority of the time, the internal team is able to fix these issues. But there have been some cases not as urgent that I've had to put aside for now.

Drift Response

3 years ago

Hi there, We're so glad to hear that your website visitors feel a sense of comfort when they visit your site! That's the experience we strive for. Thanks for providing some feedback, as well - we'll make sure it gets in the right hands. - Sarah Haberman, Senior Customer Advocacy Manager

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Internet, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Simple setup and hassle-free website chat solution

4.0 5 years ago

Pros:

Easy to set up and inject directly into your homepage. Can set up routes and automated conversations (albeit this process can be streamlined/cleaned up a bit)

Cons:

Software can get a little clunky - leading to significant amount of resources rendering and setting up the chat button/bubble upon website load.

Lokeshkumar
Lokeshkumar
CEO in India
Verified LinkedIn User
Marketing & Advertising, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

My favourite auto marketing platform

4.0 2 years ago

Comments: Businesses should use Drift to personalise customer service when solving problems. Companies should evaluate their customer discussions and use the Conversation Cloud to contact the appropriate customers at the right time. Drift analytics should also be used to assess customer service initiatives. Businesses may maximise customer service and Drift value by doing so.

Pros:

Best auto marketing platform for meI use Drift's AI-powered Conversation Cloud to simplify customer experience personalisation. With it, I can increase lead conversion by sending dialogues to the right client at the right time and with the right message using AI. I also get access to solid analytics capabilities to measure and track customer service initiatives.

Cons:

The primary downside of using Drift is its cost. While the platform does offer a free trial and a few different pricing plans, the cost of using the full-featured version of Drift can be prohibitive for some businesses. Also, companies may find that some of the features offered by Drift are not necessary for their customer service needs.

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

Great way to engage with prospect on your site!

4.0 6 years ago

Comments: Drift has allowed us to interact with folks browsing our website and capture valuable lead data that we didn't have access to before Drift.

Pros:

Drift is really great for qualifying and chatting with clients that are browsing your website. The ability to create bots that capture data and qualify a prospect our SDR team a lot of time and allows them to only spend time on folks that are really ready to have a conversation. Their meeting scheduler tool is also really great.

Cons:

The backend admin panel can be a bit confusing at times. I'd also like them to work on their SalesForce integration more so custom fields can be captured in Drift and sent to SFDC.

Lana
Lana
Business Development Manager in US
Verified LinkedIn User
Information Technology & Services, 10,000+ Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Wonderful product with interesting features

5.0 5 years ago

Comments: From my point of view this product is absolutely complete that ensures all my working tasks going on in a steady way. Moreover, I can easily view the status if my agents through its magnificent properties and features to accommodate all the tasks in a required time period.

Pros:

This useful tool has third party integrations that allow me to access data in a more useful way in order to get beneficial outcomes from it with less time spent. Another feature that is of my interest is the unique playbook feature of this amazing product that helps me to lessen the workload from my shoulders and enables me to have a concentration on all the important tasks.

Cons:

By getting all the unique features and functionalities I can not think of anything offensive in it that could worsen my experience on it. I failed to find anything to complain about it.

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

Over promise, under deliver

1.0 6 years ago

Comments: For a Robot feature on your website,​ they are not good at following up on their own tickets. This includes robot chat questions that they say they will get back to you. This forces you to email and they will get back to you, but then when there are more questions its radio silence. Then I pushed to get a call and there were takeaways and my contact was supposed to return my call post TWO conference calls and I had to push to get them to follow thru. The system causes duplicates, all the people coming to the site are listed as site visitor with no history.

Pros:

The ideas of what they wanted to software to do.

Cons:

They made promises that they can't live up to

Ian
Ian
Brand Services Manager in UK
Verified LinkedIn User
Marketing & Advertising, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Needs work

3.0 3 years ago

Comments: This has the ability to be a brilliant tool, and I'm impressed by the idea behind it, but the UX on the website is all over the place. I would've rated this so much higher, if the UX was better!

Pros:

Writing about Drift video in specific - this has the ability to be a fantastic tool for generating leads, pitching more complex sales, and showcasing to your customers that you appreciate that they are busy people, and can watch your video at any point that they have some time.

Cons:

The login process to Drift video if you've already got Drift Chat set up is so clunky, and it kicks me out nearly every single time. It's a shame as I would use this tool so much more, but sometimes it just doesnt want to let me in, and even with the correct login, it just glitches and sends you back to the login screen

Drift Response

3 years ago

Hi Ian, Thanks for your candid feedback. I'm sorry to hear that the UX is less than you'd expect from us - I'll share this feedback with the team, but should you have more specific feature requests, feel free to share them with me at [email protected] at any time. All the best, Sarah Haberman Senior Customer Advocacy Manager

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Computer Software, 201–500 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Capitalize each visitor of your website

5.0 5 years ago

Comments: It has helped us connect better with prospects and customers visiting our website.

Pros:

Drift is an intelligent way to get the most out of every visitor on your website. This leads to more sales and insights passed to our Sales and Customer Success team.

Cons:

Sometimes it thinks you are someone you are not. Most of the time everything works seamlessly though.

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Internet, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Not my Favorite Chatbot

4.0 6 years ago

Pros:

It syncs well with our CRM (Salesforce).

Cons:

I find it not very user-friendly. As someone who came into the administrator role after the account was already set up, I had a difficult time navigating. The chatbot script creator could be much cleaner. I find myself having to write the script in an excel document with a complex numbering system in order to easily input it into Drift. I also wish it had more features that some other chatbots have, like heat and click maps.