Drift

What is drift

Drift is a conversational marketing and conversational sales platform that helps revenue teams capture and qualify leads on websites and in apps using live chat, automated chatbots, and scheduling. It’s designed to replace static lead forms with interactive conversations that can qualify visitors, route high-value prospects to reps, and automatically book meetings.

The platform is commonly used by marketing, sales development, and account-based marketing (ABM) teams to shorten response times, improve lead routing, and surface buying intent signals. Drift focuses on B2B use cases where conversations and quick scheduling materially affect pipeline velocity.

Drift combines several modules — conversational bots, playbooks, meetings/scheduling, email and video integrations, and CRM connectors — to create an end-to-end conversational sales workflow that ties conversations back to the lead and account data in the CRM.

Drift features

Drift provides a suite of features aimed at converting site visitors into qualified leads and meetings.

• Conversational chat: Persistent website chat that supports both live agents and automated bots with customizable welcome messages and targeted routing.
• Playbooks and bots: Visual playbook builder to design bot flows that qualify leads, collect information, and route conversations; supports conditional logic and personalization using account data.
• Meetings and scheduling: Built-in meeting scheduling that syncs with reps’ calendars and lets visitors book time directly from chat without back-and-forth email.
• Routing and workflows: Rules to route conversations by account, product interest, geography, or intent signals; integrates with routing logic in CRMs and engagement platforms.
• Drift Email and Drift Video: Tools to send personalized email and video outreach linked to conversational records, so asynchronous outreach ties back to the conversation history.
• Intent data and website analytics: Prospecting signals and intent scoring that identify accounts exhibiting buying behavior and surface them in real-time.
• CRM and martech integrations: Native connectors for major CRMs and marketing automation systems to sync leads, contact records, and conversation history.
• Reporting and analytics: Conversation-level analytics, funnel reports showing conversion from chat to meetings, and activity streams for reps and marketers.
• Security and administrative controls: Role-based access, SSO, and audit logs designed to support enterprise deployments.

Each feature includes configuration options to align chat behavior with campaign goals and sales process. For example, playbooks can be targeted to pages, campaigns, or account segments; meeting links can enforce buffer times and booking rules; and routing can leverage CRM data to prioritize named accounts.

What does drift do?

Drift facilitates real-time conversations between website visitors and your revenue team, replacing static forms with interactive experiences that capture intent and qualify prospects. It automates the first steps of lead qualification using scripted flows and machine-assisted routing so sales reps focus on high-value conversations.

The platform also reduces friction in scheduling by allowing visitors to book meetings directly in the chat interface, which improves conversion rates for high-intent users. Drift stores conversation transcripts, qualification fields, and booking records and syncs them to CRMs to maintain a single source of truth for pipeline activities.

Drift additionally provides tools for identifying target accounts showing buying signals, surfacing those accounts to both marketing and sales teams to prioritize outreach and tailor messaging. Marketers can use Drift to run campaigns that initiate conversational experiences tied to specific content or campaigns.

Drift pricing

Drift offers these pricing plans:

• Free Plan: $0/month with core chat features, basic playbooks, and limited meeting scheduling suitable for individual users or small teams
• Starter: $400/month (approx.) — adds expanded playbooks, more advanced routing and reporting, and additional seats; pricing typically billed annually and depends on feature set
• Professional: $1,250/month (approx.) — commonly includes advanced automation, intent data, deeper CRM syncs, and higher quotas for conversations and seats
• Enterprise: Custom pricing — enterprise-grade SLAs, advanced security, dedicated support, and custom integrations priced on request

Drift historically provides custom quotes for many paid tiers, so the exact cost depends on usage, seat counts, and chosen modules. Check Drift's pricing and plans for the latest published tiers, available add-ons, and enterprise options.

How much is drift per month

Drift starts at $0/month for the Free Plan. For teams that need expanded conversational automation, routing, and intent features, paid plans commonly start in the low hundreds to multiple thousands per month depending on seats and modules. Many mid-market customers report paid starting points around $400/month for core conversational marketing packages, while feature-rich professional packages move into higher ranges.

Pricing is typically quoted on an annual contract and varies by the number of seats, volume of conversations, and whether you select additional products such as Drift Email, Drift Video, or advanced intent modules.

How much is drift per year

Drift costs vary by plan and contract length; paid plans are typically billed annually. If a paid plan begins around $400/month, the equivalent annual cost would be roughly $4,800/year for a single-seat scope, while higher-tier packages commonly run into the tens of thousands per year for full-team deployments. Enterprise contracts include custom pricing and discounts for multi-year commitments and large seat counts.

Always confirm annual billing terms and any onboarding or professional services fees when obtaining a quote; those can materially affect the first-year cost.

How much is drift in general

Drift pricing ranges from $0 (free) to custom enterprise pricing that can run thousands of dollars per month. The cost depends on which modules you activate (chat, automation, intent, email, video), the number of named seats, conversation and contact volume, and the level of support and security required.

For evaluation, plan for a minimum spend if you require advanced routing, intent data, or enterprise features — these capabilities significantly increase the monthly rate compared with the Free Plan.

What is drift used for

Use cases:

• Demand capture: Convert anonymous website traffic into qualified leads with conversational playbooks that ask qualifying questions and gather contact details.
• Meeting qualification and booking: Use automated scheduling to reduce friction between discovery and booking, increasing conversion of Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) to Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs).
• Account-based marketing (ABM): Prioritize and route conversations from target accounts using CRM-backed rules and intent data so enterprise reps get faster visibility into high-value prospects.
• 24/7 coverage and lead triage: Bots handle off-hours and initial triage so reps only receive warmed leads during business hours.

Drift is often deployed across website pages, campaign landing pages, and product documentation to provide contextual help and to capture interest at key moments. Marketing teams use Drift to run campaigns that gate content via conversation rather than forms, and sales teams apply Drift to accelerate the lead-to-meeting conversion.

Because conversations are recorded and synced to the CRM, Drift is also used to maintain better sales activity records — every chat can be linked to a contact record, a company, and a campaign — which improves attribution and handoff between marketing and sales.

Pros and cons of drift

Pros:

• Immediate qualification: Real-time conversations and bots remove delay in initial outreach and increase the rate at which visitors convert to meetings.
• Tighter sales handoffs: Integrations with CRMs and direct meeting booking reduce manual tasks for SDRs and AEs.
• Account-aware routing: Ability to prioritize and route based on account lists or intent signals benefits ABM and enterprise workflows.
• Omnichannel conversational records: Conversations, emails, and meetings are tied together for clean pipeline tracking.

Cons:

• Cost for advanced features: Full-featured conversational stacks with intent data and enterprise requirements can be costly for smaller teams.
• Implementation complexity: Properly configuring playbooks, routing rules, and CRM mappings can require planning and technical resources.
• Overhead for small sites: Sites with very low traffic may not see enough return to justify paid tiers.

Operationally, Drift delivers high ROI when used by teams that are staffed to follow up on qualified conversations and when the organization has clear routing rules and a CRM-centric sales process.

Drift free trial

Drift typically provides a no-cost entry point through its Free Plan, and for paid tiers may offer time-limited trials or demos for evaluation. Prospective customers can request a demo or trial through the website to validate features such as playbooks, routing, and meeting scheduling against their real site traffic.

A trial or pilot is best run with a small set of pages and a clear success metric: meetings booked, SQL conversions from chat, or improvement in response time. During a trial, evaluate the bot’s accuracy, the quality of meeting bookings, and how conversation data flows into your CRM.

When running a pilot, include representatives from marketing, sales, and operations so that playbook design and routing rules reflect real handoff expectations. This cross-functional approach reduces ambiguity and speeds up production deployment once the trial period ends.

Is drift free

Yes, Drift offers a Free Plan that includes basic chat, simple playbooks, and limited scheduling — suitable for individuals and very small teams who want to test conversational flows. The Free Plan allows teams to try core chat capabilities without committing to a paid contract.

For teams that need higher-volume conversations, intent data, advanced routing, and enterprise controls, a paid plan will be required. Paid plans add scale, integrations, and administrative features not available in the free tier.

Drift API

Drift provides APIs and developer tools to extend conversational workflows and integrate with internal systems. The platform exposes REST endpoints, webhooks, and SDKs that let engineers create custom playbook logic, pull conversation transcripts programmatically, and push leads to CRMs.

Typical API capabilities include:

• Conversation retrieval: Fetch transcripts and metadata for storage, analytics, or compliance use cases.
• Message injection: Send messages into an ongoing conversation from an external system (for example, to surface account intelligence or campaign-specific content).
• Webhooks: Receive events for new conversations, chat messages, meeting bookings, and lead captures so external systems can react in real time.
• User and account mapping: Programmatically link conversations to contact and account records in your CRM using identifiers.

Developers can find implementation details and examples in the Drift developer documentation, which covers authentication, common endpoints, webhook formats, and sample integrations. For complex or high-volume integrations, Drift also offers partner engineering support as part of enterprise contracts.

10 Drift alternatives

When evaluating alternatives to Drift, consider your priorities: conversational depth, CRM fit, price point, or open source flexibility. Below are 10 alternatives organized into paid and open source options.

Paid alternatives to Drift

• Intercom — Conversational messaging with product messaging, help desk features, and multi-channel engagement. Intercom emphasizes product-led growth and in-app messaging alongside web chat.
• HubSpot — The HubSpot Conversations inbox and chatbots are tightly integrated with HubSpot CRM and Marketing Hub, offering a combined marketing-to-sales workflow and unified contact records.
• Salesforce (Service Cloud/Einstein Bots) — Enterprise-grade chat and bot features integrated with Salesforce CRM, suitable for organizations already on the Salesforce platform.
• Zendesk — Zendesk Chat combined with Support Suite provides conversational support and routing, with strong ticketing and help center integrations.
• Drift (considered here as the baseline) — Specialized in conversational marketing with intent data and ABM workflows.
• Qualified — Focused on B2B conversational marketing and ABM with Salesforce-centric workflows and targeted routing.
• LivePerson — Enterprise conversational AI for large organizations, with advanced AI routing and messaging enforcement across channels.
• Olark — Simple live chat for small to midsize businesses with a focus on ease of use and straightforward pricing.
• Tidio — All-in-one live chat and chatbot platform for smaller teams that includes email and Messenger integrations.
• Conversica — Sales assistant automation focused on outbound and lead nurturing with AI-driven assistant capabilities.

Open source alternatives to Drift

• Rasa — Open source conversational AI framework for building contextual chatbots that can be customized and self-hosted for maximum control.
• Botpress — Developer-focused open source bot-building platform with visual flow editors and extensibility for custom integrations.
• Rocket.Chat — Open source team chat platform that can be extended with chatbots and web chat widgets for website conversations.
• Chatwoot — Open source customer engagement suite with live chat, inbox, and automation features suitable for small to mid-market teams.
• Meya — While Meya offers managed services, the platform provides highly customizable bot frameworks that can be self-hosted for advanced developers.

Selecting an alternative depends on whether you prioritize an out-of-the-box conversational marketing solution (Drift, Intercom, Qualified) or a highly customizable self-hosted stack (Rasa, Botpress, Chatwoot).

Frequently asked questions about Drift

What is Drift used for?

Drift is used for conversational marketing and sales to capture, qualify, and route website leads. It replaces static forms with chat-based interactions that can qualify visitors, book meetings, and sync conversation records to CRMs to speed up sales cycles.

Does Drift integrate with Salesforce?

Yes, Drift offers native Salesforce integration. The integration syncs contacts, companies, and conversation history to Salesforce and supports lead routing, account matching, and activity logging for revenue teams.

How much does Drift cost per user?

Drift pricing starts at $0/month for the Free Plan and paid tiers vary based on modules and seats; many paid packages begin in the low hundreds per month and scale to custom enterprise pricing depending on feature needs and seat counts.

Is there a free version of Drift?

Yes, Drift provides a Free Plan that includes basic chat, simple playbooks, and limited meeting scheduling so teams can evaluate conversational workflows before upgrading.

Can Drift be used for ABM (account-based marketing)?

Yes, Drift supports ABM workflows through account-aware routing and intent signals. Teams can target playbooks to named accounts, prioritize conversations by account score, and route high-value accounts to specific reps.

Does Drift have a mobile app for agents?

Yes, Drift offers mobile apps for agents. The apps allow sales and support reps to receive chat notifications, respond to conversations, and manage meeting bookings while away from the desktop.

How secure is Drift?

Drift provides enterprise-grade security controls and compliance features. The platform offers SSO, role-based access, encrypted data transit, and options for enterprise security reviews; specific certifications and compliance options are documented on Drift’s security pages.

Can I import leads from Excel into Drift?

Yes, you can import leads and contacts into Drift through CRM syncs or CSV import tools depending on your plan and integration setup. For large-scale imports, mapping fields to contact and account properties is supported through CRM connectors or partner integrations.

Does Drift support webhooks and APIs?

Yes, Drift provides APIs and webhooks for programmatic access. Developers can receive real-time events for conversations, inject messages, and sync conversation records with internal systems using documented REST endpoints and webhook payloads.

What training resources are available for Drift?

Drift offers documentation, onboarding support, and customer success resources. Paid plans include onboarding and support tiers; documentation and developer guides are available online to help teams design playbooks and integrate with CRM systems.

drift careers

Drift has roles in product, engineering, sales, customer success, and marketing across multiple locations and remote options. Career pages list openings and describe the company culture, benefits, and hiring process. Candidates typically find position details and application instructions on Drift’s official careers hub.

drift affiliate

Drift operates partner and referral programs through a partner network that includes agencies, system integrators, and technology partners. Affiliate or partner programs often provide referral commissions, co-marketing resources, and technical enablement for partners who resell or implement Drift.

Where to find drift reviews

You can find user reviews and comparative evaluations of Drift on major software review sites and peer platforms. Look for product reviews and user feedback on sites such as G2, Capterra, and TrustRadius, which include customer ratings for ease of use, ROI, and support responsiveness.