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Offering live chat on your website is a no-brainer if you want to provide accessible and fast support to your customers. It’s fast become the most popular digital channel for customers and agents alike whose experiences are both improved by it.
But before you jump into choosing your live chat software, you need to decide if you want hosted or self-hosted live chat. It’s important to understand the difference because some live chat vendors only offer the one deployment option.
This article breaks down what self-hosted and hosted live chat are, how they differ, and what their benefits are so you can be sure you’re choosing the right live chat software for your business.
Hosted (or cloud-based) live chat means that the live chat software and data within it is hosted on a remote cloud server that is owned and operated by a third-party. The customer will typically pay a small license fee. This is the most common deployment option.
Here’s a list of what hosting your live chat on the cloud could mean for you:
• Easy to set up & get running
Hosting on the cloud requires very little tech set up for the customer. Your live chat can be set up and running in minutes, even for those with very little technical skill.
• Lower set up costs
With hosted live chat, the customer doesn’t need to set up their own server or other related infrastructure, which means they don’t have large upfront set-up costs that are associated with self-hosted live chat.
• No maintenance costs
If you host on the cloud, maintenance and service requirements are taken care of by the provider who owns the infrastructure, saving you a considerable amount of time and money. You can also expect prompt service and maintenance if you choose to partner with a reliable provider – so you can focus on delivering superb customer experience!
Self-hosted live chat means that you run the live chat software on your server, often referred to on-premise live chat. You don’t rely on information being stored in the cloud owned by a third-party.
There are several upsides to hosting your live chat solution yourself:
• Data security
With self-hosted live chat software, you can rest assured that the data of your business and its customers are safe with your local server that is on-premise. The promise of this data security can be compelling, especially for industries that have tighter data regulations such as banking, finance, and healthcare.
• Independent hosting
With on-premise live chat, you no longer have to rely on a third-party to host your live chat tool for you. This gives you control over every aspect of its performance. Not only do you own the software and the information, but you also can schedule prompt maintenance and make sure that your live chat is always online and reduce downtime.
• Owning infrastructure
By owning hosting infrastructure on-site, you can explore avenues to scale and expand the operations of your site. It does involve an upfront investment but can save you money in the long run since you won’t have to pay monthly fees to a cloud-based hosting service.
Recommended reading: When the Cloud Won’t Cut It: Deploying Self-hosted Live Chat Software
Comm100 Live Chat has multiple deployment options to give you the flexibility to choose how you want to host your live chat software depending on your needs.
Our shared cloud hosting options gives you an easy, quick, and economical way to get your live chat up and running quickly. This means your Comm100 live chat software will be hosted on a remote cloud server dedicated to Comm100 customers. You can rest easy knowing your data is safe on our servers that are reinforced with industry-leading security measures.
If your business requires a higher degree of compliance and you need self-hosted live chat that is hosted locally on your infrastructure, Comm100 will be happy to help you with it. With our on-premise live chat, you can choose to store all your data and information on your servers at a location of your choice, with your own IT team taking care of maintenance.
To find out more about Comm100 Live Chat deployment options, take a look at our solution sheet.
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