Switching guide

Switch in an afternoon. Keep what worked.

Step-by-step playbooks for moving from your current chat platform to MyLiveChat — without losing articles, agent settings, or visitor history. Free migration support included.

from Crisp from Intercom from Zendesk Chat from Drift
Common to every migration

Five steps, in this order.

Same playbook regardless of where you're coming from. The platform-specific sections below cover the export differences.

  1. Sign up + invite your team

    Create your MyLiveChat account, invite agents by email, configure operating hours and routing. Free plan covers 1 agent if you want to dry-run before paying.

  2. Export articles + visitor data from your old platform

    Each platform-specific guide below covers the exact export endpoints and formats. Most export to .zip of .md or .json in under 5 minutes.

  3. Import everything into MyLiveChat

    KB articles via our bulk markdown importer. Agents via the team page. Webhook receivers via the webhook subscriptions page.

  4. Replace the script tag on your site

    Swap your old chat snippet for the MyLiveChat snippet from the deployment guide. Optional: serve both side-by-side for a few hours so you can verify nothing is missed.

  5. Verify, then decommission the old account

    Send a test chat through MyLiveChat from a private window. Verify your AI bot answers correctly. Verify webhooks fire to your existing receivers. Then cancel your old subscription.

May 2026 buying reality

Know what maps cleanly, and what still needs a staged rollout.

Crisp, Intercom, Zendesk, LiveChat, and tawk.to all market a broader inbox now. Migrations close fastest when the team separates "website support stack replacement" from "every channel we may want later."

Replaces well today

Website chat, AI answers, and follow-up workflow are the cleanest win.

MyLiveChat is already strongest where teams want to replace the web widget plus the operational work that follows: chat, transcripts, tickets, macros, email follow-up, and AI-to-human handoff in one support flow.

  • Website chat, proactive triggers, and agent routing map directly from Crisp, Drift, or Zendesk Chat.
  • Knowledge-base migration is straightforward, so AI grounding usually improves faster than teams expect.
  • Webhook + SDK hooks make it practical to preserve existing app, CRM, and analytics connections.
Validate before cutting over

Omnichannel breadth is the real gap, so treat those channels as rollout-sensitive.

If your current shortlist depends on WhatsApp, Instagram, SMS, or a broader shared inbox on day one, confirm that requirement explicitly before migration. That is still where larger suites lead the field publicly today.

  • Intercom, Zendesk, and Crisp all position broader inbox coverage more aggressively than MyLiveChat today.
  • Shared email + ticket continuity is credible now; WhatsApp and other messaging channels should be framed as rollout sequencing, not implied GA.
  • Use the Shared Inbox explainer during evaluation so buyers understand the current queue model and next-channel path.

From Crisp

Closest peer. Most concepts map 1:1.
Typical time: ~2 hours Difficulty: Easy Avg savings: 30-50%
Reality check: Crisp now leads hard with an omnichannel inbox including WhatsApp, email, Messenger, and more. This migration is strongest when your team is standardizing on website support, AI handoff, and shared follow-up workflow first.

  1. Export your Crisp Helpdesk articles

    Crisp Helpdesk → Settings → Export Articles. Choose Markdown format. Crisp will email you a .zip containing one .md per article.

    If your Helpdesk has categories: the zip preserves folder structure. Note the category names — you'll recreate them in MyLiveChat in step 4. Tip: this works even on Crisp's free plan.

  2. Concatenate the markdown files

    Our bulk importer accepts a single text blob with documents separated by ---. Run a one-liner to concat your .zip contents:

    $ cd articles/ && printf '%s\n---\n' $(cat *.md) > combined.md Or paste articles one at a time into the importer if you prefer to review each one.

  3. Bulk import into MyLiveChat

    Dashboard → Knowledge Base → Import → paste the combined markdown. Title comes from the first # heading in each article; status defaults to Draft so you can review before publishing.

  4. Recreate categories + assign articles

    Knowledge Base → Categories. Add each Crisp Helpdesk category. The article editor's category dropdown picks them up immediately.

  5. Migrate visitor identity

    If you used Crisp's $crisp.push(["set", "user:email", "..."]) to identify visitors, replace with mylivechat("identify", { email: "..." }). Our SDK syntax is similar enough that a global find-replace handles 90% of cases.

  6. Replace the script snippet + cancel Crisp

    Snippet from the deployment page. Both can run side-by-side briefly; once you've sent a test chat through MyLiveChat, cancel Crisp from their billing settings.

From Intercom

Different mental model. Some features fold up, some need re-configuring.
Typical time: ~half a day Difficulty: Moderate Avg savings: 70-90%
Reality check: Intercom bundles AI, ticketing, and omnichannel inbox breadth more deeply than MyLiveChat today. The savings story is strongest when you do not need phone, WhatsApp, or social channels to stay first-class inside the same queue on day one.

  1. Export your Help Center articles via the Intercom API

    Intercom doesn't have a one-click export. Use their GET /articles endpoint with your access token. Most teams just use a 10-line script:

    $ curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" \ https://api.intercom.io/articles?per_page=200 \ | jq -r '.data[] | "---\ntitle: \(.title)\n---\n" + .body' That outputs combined markdown ready to paste into our bulk importer.

  2. Import into MyLiveChat

    Knowledge Base → Import. Paste the markdown. Done in under 30 seconds.

  3. Migrate Fin AI to MyLiveChat AI

    Fin trains on your Help Center automatically; ours does the same with no extra step. Once articles are imported, the AI bot is already trained — no separate "Fin onboarding" required.

    Cost note: Intercom's Fin charges $0.99 per resolved conversation. Our managed AI charges $9 / 500 replies, no per-resolution fee. Most teams save 60-90% on AI alone.

  4. Migrate proactive Series + Workflows to Smart Triggers

    Intercom Series → MyLiveChat Smart Triggers. The visual rule builder covers the same conditions (page URL, time on page, returning visitor, etc.). Use the starter pack templates to skip configuration.

  5. Migrate identify() / track() calls

    Intercom's Intercom('update', { user_id, email, name }) becomes mylivechat("identify", { user_id, email, name }). Field names are identical; just rename the global. Our SDK is at /assets/js/mlc-visitor-sdk.js.

  6. Replace the script + run side-by-side briefly

    Lots of teams keep Intercom live for the first 24 hours alongside MyLiveChat to compare conversation quality. Once you're satisfied, downgrade Intercom to their free plan first (preserves your transcripts), then cancel after 30 days.

From Zendesk Chat

Decide first whether you're keeping Zendesk Support too.
Typical time: ~3 hours Difficulty: Moderate Avg savings: 50-80%
Reality check: Zendesk is still the safer choice for teams that need mature multi-channel service operations out of the box. MyLiveChat wins when chat, AI, and follow-up workflow matter more than suite-level channel breadth.

  1. Decide: chat-only migration, or full Zendesk replacement?

    If you only used Zendesk for chat (and not the ticket / call / email channels), MyLiveChat replaces the whole stack. If you're keeping Zendesk Support for tickets, you can run our chat alongside — webhooks bridge any chat handoff into a Zendesk ticket on demand.

  2. Export Help Center articles via Zendesk Guide API

    If you have Zendesk Guide articles to migrate: GET /api/v2/help_center/articles.json. Same shape as the Intercom command above — pipe through jq to combined markdown.

  3. Import into MyLiveChat

    Bulk importer handles it. Note: Zendesk articles are HTML, so use a converter like turndown or pandoc to convert HTML → markdown first.

    $ pandoc -f html -t markdown article.html -o article.md

  4. Migrate triggers + agent shifts

    Zendesk Chat triggers → MyLiveChat Smart Triggers. Operating-hours from Zendesk → our Operating Hours page (timezone settings carry over).

  5. Bridge to Zendesk Support (optional)

    If keeping Zendesk Support for tickets: add a webhook subscription on the handoff event. Your receiver creates a Zendesk ticket when MyLiveChat hands off. Your team works in two consoles but the data flows are wired.

  6. Replace the Zendesk Web Widget snippet

    Standard install. Cancel Zendesk Chat seat-by-seat as agents are onboarded onto MyLiveChat — Zendesk allows partial-month proration on most plans.

From Drift

Drift's strength is BDR routing. Migrate only if you're shifting from sales-engagement to support.
Typical time: ~3-4 hours Difficulty: Moderate Avg savings: 90%+
Reality check: Drift is a better fit when conversational sales routing and meeting-booking automation are still the core job. This switch makes sense when the team is consolidating around support, AI answers, and lower ongoing software cost.

  1. Inventory your Playbooks

    Drift's main asset is the Playbook library. List every active Playbook (their proactive bot scripts). Most map to Smart Triggers with a pre-written message.

  2. Export Drift Help articles

    If you used Drift's Help integration: their API at https://driftapi.com returns articles as JSON. Convert to markdown with the same jq pipe pattern shown for Intercom.

  3. Recreate Playbooks as Smart Triggers

    For each Playbook, create a Smart Trigger with the matching URL/timing condition + the playbook's opening message as the trigger message. The starter-pack templates cover most common patterns.

    Limitation to flag: Drift's interactive bot flows (multi-step conditional branches) don't have a 1:1 equivalent. Most teams collapse these into a single AI chatbot trained on the underlying content.

  4. Plan your meeting-booking story

    Drift's inline Calendly-style booking doesn't migrate directly. Easiest path: paste your Calendly / Cal.com link into a Smart Trigger message and let visitors book from there. Or use a webhook to fire your existing booking flow.

  5. Migrate identify() calls

    Drift's drift.identify(user_id, attrs) becomes mylivechat("identify", { user_id, ...attrs }). Same pattern as Intercom — rename the global, payload shape is compatible.

  6. Replace the script + cancel Drift

    Drift contracts are typically annual. Mark your renewal date and time the migration so you don't pay for an unused year. Their cancellation is by talking to the CSM.

Common gotchas

Five things every team trips on.

Visitor history doesn't transfer

Past chat transcripts stay locked in your old platform. We can store new transcripts as of switch-over date, but historical data needs to live on at the old vendor (or be exported to CSV first).

Visitor cookies will reset

Returning visitors will be treated as anonymous on first contact after switch — they'll need to re-identify (give email, etc.) once. Mitigate with the SDK identify() call from your authenticated app session.

AI bot needs warm-up

Your AI bot is only as good as your KB. Import all your articles BEFORE switching the script tag — otherwise visitors hit a half-trained bot for the first hour.

Webhook receivers need updating

If your Slack / CRM / email systems were wired to your old platform's webhooks, point them at our webhook subscriptions. Payload shapes differ — have your dev team review one delivery before going live.

Saved replies / canned messages

No automatic export from any of the four platforms. Plan an hour to copy-paste your top 10-20 saved replies into the Saved Replies page. The rest can be added as needed.

Cancel only after verification

Never cancel your old plan before sending one full real-world chat through MyLiveChat end-to-end (visitor → agent reply → email transcript → webhook fired). Hold the old plan open as a fallback for at least one full day.

Built-in tools

Migration helpers we ship out of the box.

We built these specifically because every team migrating from a competitor was hitting the same walls.

Bulk markdown importer

Paste a giant blob of markdown with documents separated by ---. Frontmatter for title / category / status. Idempotent on re-import.

AI source migration

One click pulls your legacy AI training rows into the new KB Articles store. Backwards-compatible — old + new both feed the AI bot.

Visitor identity SDK

mylivechat("identify", {...}) — same shape as Intercom / Drift / Crisp identify calls. Find-replace usually does it.

Webhook subscriptions

HMAC-signed outbound events with retry queue + delivery log. Bridge into your existing Slack / Salesforce / email tooling without rewriting your receivers.

Want a real human to walk you through it?

Free 30-min migration call for any team switching from a paid plan. We'll review your current setup, plan the import order, and watch the first chat go through together.

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All in one platform

What you're switching to.

Live Chat Platform

Real-time messaging, agent console, smart triggers.

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AI Chatbot

Grounded in YOUR knowledge base. Smart handoff to humans.

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Knowledge Base

Public help center + AI training data, in one editor.

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