Is Drift or Olark better?

Neither clearly leads. Drift starts at $2500/month and Olark at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Drift or Olark?

Olark has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $2500/month for Drift and Free for Olark.

Does Drift or Olark run on more platforms?

Both run on Web, so platform support will not decide this one for you.

Can I use Olark for free?

Yes. Olark has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Drift starts at $2500/month.

What is Drift best used for?

Drift is most often used for lead qualification, meeting booking, customer support, account-based marketing. Of those, lead qualification and meeting booking are not what Olark is typically brought in for.

What can Drift do that Olark cannot?

Drift covers AI chatbots, Meeting scheduling, Email sequences, Visitor intelligence. Olark covers Chat transcripts, Visitor insights, Customization, Offline messaging. Both handle Live chat, Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack.

SaaS · head to head

Drift vs Olark

Drift

SaaS

The Conversation Cloud

From: $2500/month
Rated: -

Full review Website

Olark

Live Chat & Chatbots

Make your business human

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Only Olark has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
Each has a real cost: Drift product is being sunset by Salesloft with successor service (1mind) recommended; Olark the AI website agent is a $400 a month flat plan billed annually at $4,800, which is a large step from the $29 per agent human only plan
They diverge on capability: Drift covers AI chatbots, Olark covers Chat transcripts.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Drift and Olark actually diverge.

Attributes where Drift and Olark differ
Attribute	Drift	Olark
Starting price	$2500/month	Free
Pricing model	Unknown	subscription
Free tier	No	Yes
Category	SaaS	Live Chat & Chatbots
Founded	2015	2009

Identical on both: platforms (Web), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Drift

AI chatbots
Meeting scheduling
Email sequences
Visitor intelligence
Conversation routing
Mobile app
Analytics dashboard
Marketo

Only in Olark

Chat transcripts
Visitor insights
Customization
Offline messaging
Shortcuts
Zendesk
Mailchimp
SSL

Both cover

Live chat
Salesforce
HubSpot
Slack
GDPR

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Drift

Lead qualificationnot Olark
Meeting bookingnot Olark
Customer supportnot Olark
Account-based marketingnot Olark
Sales accelerationnot Olark

Olark

Live chat on a website with a small support teamnot Drift
Running an AI agent on website conversations with human handoffnot Drift

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Drift

Product is being sunset by Salesloft with successor service (1mind) recommended
Mandatory bundling within Salesloft increases cost
No free tier available
Customer support and knowledge base have been deprioritized
Limited to enterprise B2B pipeline generation focus

Olark

The AI website agent is a $400 a month flat plan billed annually at $4,800, which is a large step from the $29 per agent human only plan
That flat price covers only one human seat, with each additional seat at $29 a month
Regional routing, SSO and custom SLAs require a custom enterprise plan with no published price

Pricing, plan by plan

Drift

$2500/month

No published plan breakdown. See the Drift review.

Olark

Free

FreeFree
- 20 chats/month
- 1 agent
- Basic customization
Standard$29/month
- Unlimited chats
- Chat transcripts
- Integrations
Pro$undefined/month
- Co-browsing
- Chatbot
- Priority support

Which should you pick?

Choose Drift if

You need ai chatbots.
You also want meeting scheduling.

Drift review

Choose Olark if

You need chat transcripts.
You want to start without paying.
You also want visitor insights.

Olark review

Questions people ask

Is Drift or Olark better?: Neither clearly leads. Drift starts at $2500/month and Olark at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Drift or Olark?: Olark has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $2500/month for Drift and Free for Olark.
Does Drift or Olark run on more platforms?: Both run on Web, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
Can I use Olark for free?: Yes. Olark has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Drift starts at $2500/month.
What is Drift best used for?: Drift is most often used for lead qualification, meeting booking, customer support, account-based marketing. Of those, lead qualification and meeting booking are not what Olark is typically brought in for.
What can Drift do that Olark cannot?: Drift covers AI chatbots, Meeting scheduling, Email sequences, Visitor intelligence. Olark covers Chat transcripts, Visitor insights, Customization, Offline messaging. Both handle Live chat, Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Drift: What is the current status of Drift in 2026?

On March 6, 2026, Clari and Salesloft announced the gradual sunset of Drift's conversational marketing solution, with 1mind named as its exclusive AI successor. Drift remains available but its future is limited.

Source

Drift: How much does Drift cost?

Drift pricing starts around $2,500/month ($30,000/year) for Premium chat-only capabilities, with Enterprise plans exceeding $80,000/year. Drift is bundled within Salesloft and billed annually only.

Source

Drift: What features come with Drift Premium?

Premium plans include live chat widget, custom chatbot flows, meeting scheduling with calendar integration, basic playbooks, email sequences, and standard integrations.

Source

Drift: Does Drift offer a free plan?

No, Drift no longer publicly advertises a free plan as of 2026. All plans require annual billing through Salesloft.

Source

Drift vs Olark

Drift

Olark

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Drift

Only in Olark

Both cover

What people use each for

Drift

Olark

Where each one falls short

Drift

Olark

Pricing, plan by plan

Drift

Olark

Which should you pick?

Choose Drift if

Choose Olark if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Drift

More on Olark

Keep looking

Other head to heads