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Olark Live Chat Software logo
Olark
Seamless Live Chat Solutions
4.3

( 223 )

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Olark Reviews: 4.3/5 — Solid Choice

Olark Overview
What is Olark?

Olark is WCAG 2.0 AA compliant, accessible, and GDPR-ready platform touted as the best way to help boost business sales, solve issues and understand your customers. It gives customers the answers they need immediately and helps deliver powerful insights about what they want to build lasting customer relationships.

Company Olark
Year founded 2009
Company size 11-50 employees
Headquarters Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States
Social Media
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What are the pros and cons of Olark?
Olark Product Details
Capabilities
API
Segment
Small Business
Mid Market
Enterprise
Deployment Cloud / SaaS / Web-Based, Desktop Chromebook, Desktop Mac, Desktop Windows, Mobile Android, Mobile iPad, Mobile iPhone
Support 24/7 (Live rep), Chat, Email/Help Desk, FAQs/Forum, Knowledge Base, Phone Support
Training Documentation
Languages English
Olark Features
Agent Collaboration
Agent Performance Analytics
Audio and Video Chat
Automated Responses
Canned Responses
Chatbot Integration
Chat Encryption
Chat History
Chat Routing
Chat Tags
Chat Transcripts
Chat Transfer
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Disclaimer
Our research is curated from diverse authoritative sources and meant to offer general advice. We don’t guarantee that our suggestions will work best for each use-case, so consider your unique needs when choosing products and services. Feel free to share your feedback.
Last updated: November 04, 2026
Olark Live Chat Software logo
223 Olark Reviews
4.3 out of 5
Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
May 05, 2016
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"I love using Olark!"
What do you like best about Olark?

I like that you can.... -See the customer's screen -See info about what browser/system they use -Easily learn the ropes of how it works

What do you dislike about Olark?

I don't like that you can't do a shift/enter in the chat so that you enter within a comment. It just posts it no matter what

What problems is Olark solving and how is that benefiting you?

Easy access to Customer Support. HUGE HUGE benefit!

Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
Apr 26, 2016
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Solid live chat platform"
What do you like best about Olark?

Nice and simple web chat plugin. It's affordable and (so far) I've found it relatively simple to customize.

What do you dislike about Olark?

Whilst I'm in trial mode, I've not found anything that I don't like. So far so good!

What problems is Olark solving and how is that benefiting you?

Looking for ways to get visitors to stay on the website for longer and capture their attention.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Apr 11, 2016
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
JD
Jacco D.
Owner
Share
"Simple chat functionality for immediate use"
What do you like best about Olark?

Olark is the simplest chat website plugin on the market. We were able to add the code and get started affordably while customizing the chat to fit our website. After upgrading from the free version we were able to adjust the account and prospect engagement based on our needs. We now also added the chat functionality to our marketing pages and blog as we're generating leads and moving them along in the sales process.

What do you dislike about Olark?

No major things to dislike. We've already upgraded and moved to more advanced functionality.

What problems is Olark solving and how is that benefiting you?

Capture attention of website visitors to ask their questions as they have them before you lose them. This results in both new lead generation and lead nurturing for existing ones.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Feb 29, 2016
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
Dallas K. avatar
Dallas K.
Vp Marketing
Share
"Good solution"
What do you like best about Olark?

Flexibility of setup options. Easy integration with our website. Generally high service availability. And accessibility (via live chat), responsiveness and technical ability of the vendor's customer service agents.

What do you dislike about Olark?

A very nitpicky feature request, but one I personally find disappointing that it's not there: Would prefer audio notifications of new chats only until chat is accepted; is not necessary (for us) to have an audio notification of every chat transmission sent by a website visitor once the chat is accepted. Leads to a lot of muting of agents' computer sound, which causes them to miss notifications of new chats.

What problems is Olark solving and how is that benefiting you?

I believe we have better engagement with users and prospects with this system.

Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
Jul 22, 2015
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"The product is easy to use and efficient. "
What do you like best about Olark?

Easy and friendly user experience allows for a seamless chat experience.

What do you dislike about Olark?

That the messages are broken up into segments when shown on the screen.

What problems is Olark solving and how is that benefiting you?

First had experience with students, parents, educators allows for another form of interaction.

Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
Jul 07, 2015
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Speak with potential students/parents/teachers about our college program"
What do you like best about Olark?

I like the enabled notifications. It is extremely helpful to have a popup notifying me of a new chat. I also enjoy the feature of putting my status in away if I am idle for a certain amount of time. I like being able to see which pages the guest has visited on our website.

What do you dislike about Olark?

I wish that from the main chat page I could easily click a button to review previous transcripts instead of having to open a new page and make a few clicks.

What problems is Olark solving and how is that benefiting you?

I work at a college, and a lot of high school students prefer a live chat option so for us it is extremely beneficial to have this as an outlet for them to contact us. It is also convenient for parents who work 9-5 to just hop on our website and ask their questions instead of having to make a phone call. Typically the questions are simple enough that we can simply send them a link.

Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
Apr 08, 2015
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"It works!"
What do you like best about Olark?

Olark is a great chat tool. Simple to use, great features, customizeable. The UI is intuitive and easy to use. This tool is very helpful in facilitating business for my organization. The ability to also pull data from the web application for the users that are signed is very useful.

What do you dislike about Olark?

Wish there was the ability to tag users so you know when they come back. Also an easier way to block certain users, we had issues of someone coming on as a prank repeatedly. A more automated way of logging off of chat.

What problems is Olark solving and how is that benefiting you?

Allows us to serve potential clients while they are on our website, this is extremely valuable. We have had many great prospects that were generated because of Olark. Having chat is a necessary business tool.

Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
Apr 08, 2015
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
LR
Lindsay R.
Account Executive
Share
"Easy to use, overall good tool"
What do you like best about Olark?

Easy to use platform. I like that the message can be customized by the page. I think we get some good engagement with prospects/customers.

What do you dislike about Olark?

I dislike that there's no pop-up or notification if the prospect goes to another tab and I reply. This can often lead to the person leaving and forgetting to come back. Perhaps this feature is available and I'm not aware of it.

What problems is Olark solving and how is that benefiting you?

Many people have questions when they stop by the website but don't want to fill out a form with all of their information. I think we're able to engage with people earlier and make sure their questions are answered.

Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
Mar 20, 2015
 Source
Overall Rating:
4.0
VJ
Vicky J.
Supporter Care Manager
Share
"Simple and effective tool "
What do you like best about Olark?

Able to utilise this tool on your website straight away, agent interface really ease to adopt

What do you dislike about Olark?

Improvements in reporting for analysis of chats, notifications on chats could also be improved

What problems is Olark solving and how is that benefiting you?

Transparency of the online journey, instant audience insights, real-time improvements to the website, technical problems instantly highlight, delivering great online experiences

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Dec 08, 2021
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.5
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Serviceable Live Chat Program"
What do you like best about Olark?

Being able to assign an agent as accepting or not accepting new chats, with the automatic email notification of chats when no one is available to take them

What do you dislike about Olark?

It's a little boxy and customization is not very intuitive

What problems is Olark solving and how is that benefiting you?

we're able to offer a live chat option to our membership which helps drive down incoming call volume

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Feb 21, 2019
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.5
AK
Ann K.
Excutive Producer
Share
"Olark Review"
What do you like best about Olark?

Quick notifications via email when someone leaves a question or inquiry about our website

What do you dislike about Olark?

Plenty of SPAM Bots can operate the form and get by, but that's not to big a deal.

What problems is Olark solving and how is that benefiting you?

Customers and Clients reaching out to us when we are away from the website and during off-peak hours. Chat-to-Email works great and we can respond via email vs having to sign into the site to respond.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Dec 16, 2018
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.5
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Simple to learn"
What do you like best about Olark?

Easy to understand interface. Great introduction to chat support.

What do you dislike about Olark?

There were several instances of okay being down, much so customers accused us of lying about or chat support hours.

What problems is Olark solving and how is that benefiting you?

Connecting in real time with customers. Quicker solutions without the as immediate pressure of over the phone support.

Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
Nov 19, 2018
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.5
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Olark works awesome most of the time "
What do you like best about Olark?

Their customer service is amazing. Whenever they mess up or it fails( which isn’t often), they always reach out and let us know and try to fix it as soon as possible. It’s really user friendly and efficient

What do you dislike about Olark?

It would be nice if you could see more info on what the customer is doing. Also it’ll look like the customer is typing for a really long time when their not. If they could change that to where it says customer stopped typing or something that would be better

What problems is Olark solving and how is that benefiting you?

We deal with a lot of info and showing customers where links are on our website. It’s really nice because it’s very efficient and easy to use

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Aug 20, 2018
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.5
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Easy to use and effective live chat experience!"
What do you like best about Olark?

I like the shortcuts Olark provides to deliver a quick response to the customer.

What do you dislike about Olark?

I dislike that it sends your message when you hit Enter. It's easy to send before you are finished typing your response.

What problems is Olark solving and how is that benefiting you?

Minimized calls we receive by answering customer questions via live chat. Customers appreciate the fast response to questions rather than calling or emailing in.

Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
Jul 30, 2018
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.5
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Great UI/UX"
What do you like best about Olark?

The interface on all pages is clean and well thought out. The controls are all extremely easy to manage as well.

What do you dislike about Olark?

The reporting is a bit difficult to play with and to export into our home grown system.

What problems is Olark solving and how is that benefiting you?

It allows us to handle multiple customers at the same time instead of being on the phone. It also allows us to freely pass customers to different agents which is a nice perk.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Jun 24, 2018
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.5
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Works for Small Business Loads"
What do you like best about Olark?

Olark has all of the functions you need to help customers quickly as long as you do not have a huge workload.

What do you dislike about Olark?

The aoftware seems to be down more often than I would like. Many times your 3 maximum customers turns into 1 for no apparent reason as well.

What problems is Olark solving and how is that benefiting you?

Having Live Chat is always a bonus for customers because they want their problem or question solved ASAP.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Apr 18, 2018
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.5
Harshita K. avatar
Harshita K.
Member
Share
"Value for money"
What do you like best about Olark?

The simplicity of the product that provides a seamless user experience.

What do you dislike about Olark?

There's not much innovation within the product while the competitors who charge way higher, seem to be adding a new feature with time.

What problems is Olark solving and how is that benefiting you?

We used Olark for support within the product and engagement with users who came on our website. We were able to succeed solving both using Olark.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Jan 08, 2018
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.5
KM
Kwik Boy M.
Order Fulfillment Manager
Share
"Overall pretty good free live chat program"
What do you like best about Olark?

Easy to use and communicate with customers

What do you dislike about Olark?

Integration is kind of a pain and you need to use a third party app to utilize

What problems is Olark solving and how is that benefiting you?

It's helpful to quickly communicate with customers and either close sales or offer support

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)
Dec 22, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.5
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"A great chat program"
What do you like best about Olark?

It's easy to use, and it's easy to implement. I think we were up and running within a week of buying the software.

What do you dislike about Olark?

It'd be nice to be able to attach files, as when we work with students, we often need to send them documents, so it'd be nice to do that via chat.

What problems is Olark solving and how is that benefiting you?

It's a great way to communicate. People don't always want to call or email, so this gives them another option. It's widely utilized.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Dec 14, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.5
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"A great experience that could use some tweaks"
What do you like best about Olark?

Incredibly customizable, with an easy-to-use interface.

What do you dislike about Olark?

No native Windows app, which makes it hard to use some of the features that they only offer on web.

What problems is Olark solving and how is that benefiting you?

Giving customers an option for live contact with support representatives, in a format that is more efficient for the team to handle.

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)
Dec 08, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.5
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Great for team chats "
What do you like best about Olark?

It's easy to use and ping in. I like that it gives me the option at the end to send a copy of the chat transcript to my email in case I need to reference it later.

What do you dislike about Olark?

When it goes down, it's impossible to get in touch with the person I need.

What problems is Olark solving and how is that benefiting you?

Chat with resolution team

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Dec 05, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.5
Carlin T. avatar
Carlin T.
Next Steps Coordinator
Share
"Helpful database and support "
What do you like best about Olark?

Ease of use is probably the #1 likability factor I have using Olark.

What do you dislike about Olark?

System preferences would be what I would describe as what I dislike most.

What problems is Olark solving and how is that benefiting you?

Communication division between customers and employees.

Small Business (50 or fewer emp.)
Jun 19, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.5
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"A great chat tool!"
What do you like best about Olark?

Olark was easy to setup and even easier to use. Customers can quickly get a response and interaction with them makes it a friendly experience.

What do you dislike about Olark?

There's not much to dislike - maybe some more custom options would be nice.

What problems is Olark solving and how is that benefiting you?

Olark gives a business a great solution to communicate with their clients at a moment's notice. Everyone understands how chat works and this solution gets the job done.

Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
Feb 22, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.5
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Simple, Easy to set up LIve Chat Service"
What do you like best about Olark?

Olark is super simple to implement and get running with. Once you initially set up your preferences this is pretty plug and play and works as you would expect. Interface is wonderfully customization and the company n general is a delight to work with due to their fantastic customer support and documentation.

What do you dislike about Olark?

The dislikes I have mainly stem from our organizations outgrowing of the platform. We are in desperate need of a queue which Olark does not have and I don't foresee them having for some time. They also do not have a robust API which would allow us to create custom dashboards and tap into data housed within Olark to display to our team. Uptime has also been lacking in the past 6 month. We rely on our live chat for our customer support and when customers are not able to get in to chat with us it's not a pretty sight. Olark is always very responsive and great about updating when they have an issue, sadly this has been more often than one would expect. And finally we have seen buggy issues with the way chat times are calculated resulting in statistics such as average chat time really worthless as chats do not close properly and thus it seems they continue forever.

What problems is Olark solving and how is that benefiting you?

We use Olark to handle our on site live chat in support of our SASS product.

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)
Aug 12, 2016
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.5
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Good lightweight chat solution"
What do you like best about Olark?

Quick deployment, clean interface, minimal learning curve for both admins and users.

What do you dislike about Olark?

Mediocre support, no option to modify pre-chat survey questions to help qualify users. Fairly feature-limited.

What problems is Olark solving and how is that benefiting you?

We are using this platform to engage with prospects - we've been quite surprised at the volume of questions that exist, and are actually working to find ways to scale this tool internally.

Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
May 31, 2016
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.5
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Inbound leads! "
What do you like best about Olark?

Great for tracking new customers. Allows them to ask questions with sales representatives and set up meetings immediately. Setting meetings immediately allows us to get them into our pipeline much faster.

What do you dislike about Olark?

It looks a little out-dated. It could be easier to read. The chat features (info shown about person chatting) its hard to read as well.

What problems is Olark solving and how is that benefiting you?

Solving inbound emails going straight to chat. Instead of support getting the emails the sales team gets them all directly. It allows us to set meeting much faster and get them to the buying stage faster.

Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
Apr 07, 2023
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.0
Jayanth R. avatar
Jayanth R.
Project Manager
Share
"Olark chat was easy to configure & use"
What do you like best about Olark?

- Simple chat Setup - Teams feature - Business hours

What do you dislike about Olark?

- Lack of advanced features - Fewer integrations

What problems is Olark solving and how is that benefiting you?

Olark helped us setup chat on our website & customers were chat agents were able to assist customers that reached out via chat

Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
Nov 13, 2018
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.0
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Olark has some helpful features "
What do you like best about Olark?

I like the ability to transfer chats, see analytics on the team and chat into their support team.

What do you dislike about Olark?

Olark does not easily integrate its analytics into Salesforce.

What problems is Olark solving and how is that benefiting you?

Customer Support, live chat on our website to help customers with their issues in our software.

Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
Mar 20, 2018
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.0
AG
Verified Reviewer
Founder
Share
"Good basic live chat system"
What do you like best about Olark?

The design is simple and easy to use, nice integrations with other products and services (like CloudApp and Slack), and easy customization. Great for most businesses and a way to test how effective a live chat feature could benefit your company website. Includes nice reports on how well your conversations with customers went and highlights areas of needed improvement. Olark customer support is great and super responsive.

What do you dislike about Olark?

Lack of customization options and minimal changes can be made by a developers standpoint. "One size fits all" function does not work for every business. We have run into some bug issues with responsiveness and overall function, but hasn't completely disabled use. It would be nice to have a better "team" experience where Olark users can join the same chat and take over the discussion if needed. Transferring the chat doesn't work as well.

What problems is Olark solving and how is that benefiting you?

A quicker and easier way for online customers to get questions answered and to voice concerns. Olark chat has easily boosted sales. We have recently launched a new website and had it not been for this live chat feature, we would not have been able to identify sales-impacting bugs in our site.

Mid Market (51-1000 emp.)
Dec 28, 2017
 Source
Overall Rating:
3.0
SC
Sommer C.
Sales Development
Share
"Olark gets the job done but needs some work."
What do you like best about Olark?

- Olark is great for chatting prospects via instant messaging. - It is easy to log a chat into the CRM I use with a simple command. - Transcripts from previous conversations are accessible within the platform.

What do you dislike about Olark?

- If a chat ends before using the command to log it into my CRM, you are unable to push the transcript into your notes easily. In order to log it at that point, you would have to copy and paste it into the CRM which just does not make any sense to me. - Olark's automatic log out feature is not very convenient. It logs you out after 5 mins of inactivity.

What problems is Olark solving and how is that benefiting you?

- Olark allows me to communicate with customers easily and quickly.