# Gist Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Is Gist the right Help Desk solution for you? Explore 149 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/188710/Gist/reviews --- Gist 4.7 (149) [View alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/188710/Gist/alternatives/) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated June 3rd, 2026 # Reviews of Gist Ease of use 4.5 Customer Service 4.7 ## Pros and Cons in Reviews DI Dakotah I Co-FounderMarketing and Advertising, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “The leads trackers is super basic, but that simplicity worked for us to track the different lanes and statues of our clients and their projects.“ October 12, 2023 Patrick F CEOFacilities Services, Self-employedUsed the software for: Less than 6 months. “We have a large databases of contacts and importing them all would become very very expensive.“ June 12, 2024 Deyan K Digital ConsultantNewspapers, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: I used a free trial. “Data is gathered from many difference channels, event tracking on the website adds even more context to the profile of each individual user/contact, and this all allows for some great personalization and user experience.“ April 2, 2023 DI Dakotah I Co-FounderMarketing and Advertising, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “Gist's platform has become a bit bloated making it hard to find certain options until you get familiar with how it works.“ October 12, 2023 Teng W Co-ownerInformation Technology and Services, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “Gist plays a crucial role in our organization as a communication hub that allows us to effectively engage with leads both on our website and through email.“ March 18, 2023 Matthew J OwnerMarketing and Advertising, Self-employedUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “I wish I had access to Webhooks and reduced branding, but users who are willing to pay more won't face those issues.“ July 9, 2021 DI Dakotah I Co-FounderMarketing and Advertising, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “We started to implement it as we wanted a good overall solution for the platform and kept using it for the last two years for the business.“ October 12, 2023 WA William A ownerBroadcast Media, Self-employedUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “After I had this experience with the emails I told them to delete my billing information as I didn't want to be charged another $200 in December when the addons I purchased were due to renew.“ September 7, 2020 ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 1-25 of 149 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use Teng W. Co-owner Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Streamlining Customer Communication and Marketing Efforts with Gist" March 18, 2023 4.0 Overall experience is good. The platform is feature rich and is hardly down Pros Gist plays a crucial role in our organization as a communication hub that allows us to effectively engage with leads both on our website and through email. By using Gist's chat and email features, we are able to quickly respond to inquiries and questions from potential customers and provide them with the information they need to move further down the sales funnel.In addition to its communication features, we use Gist as a CRM to manage customer relationships. With Gist's contact management features, we can easily track customer interactions on our website and record important details such as their interest and preferences. This helps us better understand our customers and provide personalized service.Gist's email marketing platform is also a key tool for us. We use it to send out newsletters and other marketing materials to our customers and prospects. With its customizable templates and easy-to-use interface, we can create engaging and effective email campaigns that drive engagement and conversions. Cons The integration plugin on the website can slow down the website speed, as shown on Google PageSpeed Insights and GTMetrix. A few times, the platform is slow to send notifications to us when there's a lead/customer using LiveChat on our website. Alternatives considered [ActiveCampaign](https://www.capterra.com/p/79367/ActiveCampaign/) Reason for choosing Gist Before choosing Gist, we evaluated several other customer communication and marketing automation platforms, including ActiveCampaign. While both platforms had similar features, we ultimately chose Gist for its more affordable pricing. For smaller organizations or teams with limited budgets like ours, Gist is an excellent choice that provides all the features and functionality needed to effectively manage customer communication and marketing automation at a more affordable price point. Review Source Christopher M. Author, Digital Marketer Publishing Used the software for: 2+ years ### "SLICK Messenger Bot + Full Email Automation" January 26, 2021 5.0 Been using Gist for years now--replaced Active Campaign for me--and I'm able to do all the same things with a messenger bot, too! Pros Gist's messenger bot is very powerful and you're able to put it on your website as well as all your subdomains. It's become the #1 way my visitors prefer to interact with me. I had no idea how much interaction I was missing until I installed it. Then add full email marketing and you're really flying! Cons Gist is working to improve their speed through the browser. I wish the free plan allowed for use of webhooks like the paid plans do. But $29/mo isn't bad! Alternatives considered [Mailchimp](https://www.capterra.com/p/110228/MailChimp/) Reason for choosing Gist I considered many other email systems, but Gist does everything they do for less--and that messenger bot adds huge value. Switched from [ActiveCampaign](https://www.capterra.com/p/79367/ActiveCampaign/) Gist has better pricing and includes a messenger bot. Website owners don't know what they're missing out on until they install one of these and see their visitor interactions skyrocket! Review Source BM Bart M. Founder Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "The all-in-one copy cat solution (and that is not necesarilly bad)" March 10, 2021 3.0 We liked it at first, we used it quite a lot, but got annoyed by its "beta" status. We wanted something that worked perfect or at least good, not just OK most of the times. I still believe they have a promising product and it probably improved quite a bit, but - although I have a lifetime subscription - I am not going back given I got so used to dealing with their alternatives. Pros I discovered Gist (when it was still called differently) and immediately bought a lifetime subscription. Its promise was to build the next Hubspot / Intercom killer solution at a way more affordable pricing point. We started off using all that was on offer: sending emails, chatbot integration, interaction tracking, building profiles, ... The team is very responsive and helped me out with multiple questions or remarks in the past. Today, we are using it only for the knowledge base solution it has on offer - which works as you expect. We switched to a more expensive alternative, Hubspot, but were not satisfied with the overall Gist experience. Cons Many of the features I have come to discover had its quirks from time to time. It was clearly a work in progress, a very promising one, yet a product that fails from time to time remains a product that fails. On the other hand, I found it sometimes hard to set things up. Once I understood how it worked, there was no issue, but being a copy cat at heart, they could have taken some of the typical flows for setup from their competitors as well. Alternatives considered [HubSpot CRM](https://www.capterra.com/p/152373/HubSpot-CRM/)[Intercom](https://www.capterra.com/p/134347/Intercom/) Reason for choosing Gist Pricing won us over, yet features & performance drove us away again (towards Hubspot). Review Source Andrew B. Andrew Beach Management Consulting Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Course Creator's Dream: marketing, customer service, booking, knowledge base - It's all here" July 23, 2019 4.0 Pros Love that everything is integrated and works together. Chat is cross platform with twitter, facebook and your website (javascript can be placed on any website that allows it including many 3rd party apps). Email product is maturing really well compared to others in the market in just 2 short years. Cons Having an all-in-one product is really ambitious. Doing that in 2 years is spectacular. Although some features aren't yet fully developed, the product is definitely a player against others in the space. Also needs updates to customer service/communications especially in the area of product updates. Reason for choosing Gist Cost/feature sets. Review Source Vinson Matthew L. SEO Specialist Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "A Marketing Suite anyone can use" July 25, 2019 4.0 So far I'm very happy with Gist and their support team was outstanding. They will definitely guide and help you if your stuck into a feature or experiencing some problems or issues with a certain technology that you think is not working the way it should be. Pros Really love their live chat feature as we are seeing a lot of enquiries compared to any other communication channels such as email, and phone call. We also love how you can segment all the leads who have contacted your website using their livechat, plus the other features will help you nurture your leads. Cons Their basic lead capture forms, pop-ups. Hope they can create a better editor for this one so that we can build good looking forms that are enticing for our website visitors. Alternatives considered [HelpCrunch](https://www.capterra.com/p/225716/HelpCrunch/) Reason for choosing Gist More flexibility and more features Switched from [tawk.to](https://www.capterra.com/p/167792/tawk-to/) Gist is way more powerful and it comes with a lot of features Review Source Dan W. Founder Media Production Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Great set of features, replaces a handful of other services" October 19, 2019 5.0 I'm using Gist in a SaaS product to welcome and on-board new users and to send new feature emails. Also using automations to trigger messages based on certain user actions.. Users of Intercom will likely see a cost reduction by switching to Gist, and also get a handful of other integrated features included too. Pros The integration of all the features is killer. Contacts, leads, marketing emails, automation emails, knowledge base, all tie together really well. The UI is nicely laid out and easy to use. As is the APPI, if you need to dive that deep. Well thought and full featured. Cons I had a couple of issues importing contacts from my app but the support team sorted me out in a few minutes. I'd also like to see some more backend integrations, like a Ruby gem for Rails applications. Alternatives considered [Drift](https://www.capterra.com/p/227417/Drift/)[Intercom](https://www.capterra.com/p/134347/Intercom/)[Zendesk Suite](https://www.capterra.com/p/164283/Zendesk/) Reason for choosing Gist Everything integrated into one software platform is much more efficient than having customer information and interactions spread out across several other (more expensive) SaaS products. Review Source Alvaro Luis A. CEO E-Learning Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Best benefit-cost ratio software" July 27, 2020 4.0 Gist is well suited to build relationships with leads and customers, to offer better support. And because of its marketing automation features could be very handy for improving collaboration in, as an example, the provision of educational services. We have worked with the companion iOS App and it is great for both the customer service team and the support team. Pros Good live chat tool. Easy to create custom chat bots robots. Capabilities to send broadcasts and drip marketing campaigns. Has a lightweight form creator that allows me to create 6 different types of forms and set the display conditions to have them show up whenever and wherever I choose. Build relationships with leads and customers. Support. Marketing automation. Cons shortcomings such as no crm are manageable. Alternatives considered [Freshchat](https://www.capterra.com/p/158117/Freshchat/) Reason for choosing Gist Gist is better because easy of use and pricing. Hands down. It has an unbeatable cost-benefit ratio. Customer service has been with us since we started using it. That's great. For us, shortcomings such as no CRM are manageable. We like its front end appearance and customization features. With Gist we have "All The Tools To Build A Successful Online Business." We say that's for real. Review Source Dev H. CEO Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "A very promising Marketing Automation platform" February 24, 2020 5.0 If you are considering marketing automation, Gist will fit in well. It really streamlined my entire customer journey right from traffic stage to customer stage Pros Using Gist for: a) Live Chat b) Forms c) Email Sequences d) Event Tracking e) Help Desk It is handling our entire marketing automation needs Loved these features: Visual Workflow designer Live Chat performance and appearance Email Deliverability Cons No cons as such. They need more maturity and time to be comparable with Intercom Alternatives considered [Intercom](https://www.capterra.com/p/134347/Intercom/) Reason for choosing Gist Gist is far more affordable as compared to Intercom so I went for it. If you need the extra features that Intercom offers Gist might be a little early Review Source Oliver B. SEO Strategist Financial Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Gist is a powerhouse in the making" August 26, 2019 5.0 Pros The fact that EDMs, transactional emails, support chat, bots and knowledgebase features are all in the one place, connected by automation triggers and workflows is very useful. The scope of personalisation you can achieve by combining all these elements on top of a single user database which includes user behaviour is powerful. Cons Some features a still underdeveloped such as the pop-ups, but I do see the Gist team making steady progress and am sure these items will be developed. Alternatives considered [Mailchimp](https://www.capterra.com/p/110228/MailChimp/)[Intercom](https://www.capterra.com/p/134347/Intercom/) Switched from [Mailchimp](https://www.capterra.com/p/110228/MailChimp/) I liked the option to combine website chat with EDMs. Review Source Kejda G. Founder Cosmetics Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Get the Gist: one tool to rule them all" March 5, 2020 5.0 Very good, waiting for them to put some more finishing touches to WooCommerce integration. But already very useful and support is outstanding. Pros How it rolls multiple need to have tools into one: customer support, lead gen, lead nurture, marketing automation for both email and FB retargeting. Great UI and professional chatbot / LiveChat solution on the front and back end. I love the unified inbox feature too. Cons The extent of its integration with WooCommerce. Can't send proper cart abandonment emails because so far it can't generate an abandoned cart link. They're working on it though. I also don't love the extent / clarity of documentation for the automation features. A lot of power under the hood but to use very complex automations you need to ask support to clarify how various triggers / conditions work. On the flip side support is great at doing this and will help you out almost immediately. Alternatives considered [ActiveCampaign](https://www.capterra.com/p/79367/ActiveCampaign/)[Mailchimp](https://www.capterra.com/p/110228/MailChimp/) Reason for choosing Gist better features, more tools rolled into one, better pricing, hands on support, I like to support promising startups Review Source MO Michael O. CEO Computer Software Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Gist Customer Contact - Ideal for SaaS companies" May 6, 2020 5.0 We use Gist as our unified customer contact system. Customers can use integrated Gist chat in our app for immediate contact both before and after purchase. We use the strong email automation to drive our onboarding of customers and for ongoing customer engagement. Gist is fast and the UI is beautiful to use. Pros Gist integrates the three customer contact modules required by SasS companies. It has strong chat, email automation and help desk CRM. Cons We've yet to find a limiting feature for our business. Alternatives considered [Customerly](https://www.capterra.com/p/173977/Customerly/)[Help Scout](https://www.capterra.com/p/136909/Help-Scout/)[Dashly](https://www.capterra.com/p/175471/Dashly/)[Intercom](https://www.capterra.com/p/134347/Intercom/) Reason for choosing Gist Gist a more integrated and unified product for Sass companies. Some competitors don't have strong chat + email automation + help desk. Other competitors have the features, but they are not well integrated. Gist has integrated complete customer contact with a very finished product. Lastly, the Gist App is simply better designed than the competitors. It is fast and simple -- a joy to use. Switched from [Drift](https://www.capterra.com/p/227417/Drift/) Drift was eliminating their email automation features, so we would have to use multiple products for our Sass business. Review Source VS Vibhor S. Founder Retail Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Gist - One stop live chat and support solution" July 22, 2019 5.0 Been using gist for a while now and it has been amazing in our testing phase and we have evolved over this time as we tested and implemented all the templates that we created and knowledge base that we increased. It has the potential and capabilities to handle the incoming influx and can render the information contained within. Live chat, email responses, inter-team connectivity, bots, behaviour you name it it has it Pros All in one feature is amazing. Love chat, email automations, funnels, email templates, integration and the list goes on. Cons Nothing so far. However a live call feature would be a plus. Switched from [Freshchat](https://www.capterra.com/p/158117/Freshchat/) Value for money and respectful Support from team at gist. Review Source MT Mark T. Chief Information Officer Professional Training & Coaching Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "A fantastic team, committed to the product - already great and getting better every day!" June 27, 2019 5.0 Live chat allows us to understand where our customers need help, when they may not have reached out through other methods. Automation allows us to communicate better without a large investment of time. Pros I primarily purchased Gist for live chat, and it does that really well. The chat interface is clear, simple and great looking for the end user and makes chat management really straightforward for the organisation. What was a real bonus for me is the work the team has put in around marketing automation, email and rules. Being able to schedule emails to be sent based upon user actions is a game changer (the user does not need to have engaged in live chat and the system for defining these actions is really flexible). It's a great tool - and one of the most promising that I've seen - but what really stands out is that the team behind it are a great bunch of people. They're really good on live chat (as you would hope!) and you do get to know them individually. They really care about delivering the best experience possible and the pace they are moving at with new features is admirable. It is that, above everything else, that gave me the confidence to go live with a deployment on our primary business website. I'm a very happy customer. Cons If there is one dislike, it's simply that there is so much (extra) promise in the tool but I can't have it all now! ;-) They are a young company, relatively, so there are still features which I would love to have (better notifications on stale chats, better handling of "out of hours", more automation features) but those are small things and it's the confidence that these things will come quickly that makes this a non-issue. The team really listen and act on feedback, so that's a massive bonus. I'd encourage you to get on-board at this stage. The tool is ready for prime-time use, and you have a real opportunity to actually shape the way it develops that you just wouldn't get with a more established tool. Review Source DH David H. Director Professional Training & Coaching Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Email and Chat Auto-Responder Great All-Rounder" June 2, 2020 5.0 They are saving me time with automated emails that are triggered by tags and that drip out to customers and prospects. They provide the capability that means when you send out emails they are branded correctly and come from your own company's domain. The chat widget on my website looks very professional. Pros The flexibility of sending automated emails and broadcast HTML emails that look great. They are always looking to develop the product. They have a ton of features including Automation Workflows, Email alerts, and importantly are GDPR compliant. They listen to their community and provide video training and a knowledge base. They do Time Zone Sending which is useful as I send to people outside my timezone. You can copy-paste images directly into your emails. The tags can be automated to alert when someone abandons a page or shopping cart. email count time timers, API integration, and did I mention the excellent form builder? The price is very reasonable for all the love, care and attention to development the Gist team put in. Cons Nothing really. They don't have any bad points as they keep open-minded about development and are customer-led in terms of what you can upvote as being what they should concentrate on developing next. Sometimes they have such a can-do attitude that they used to be tempted to take on more than they can realistically deliver but even this has improved in the last year. I have a hard time keeping up with all the latest developments but I periodically go into educating myself on the latest update. Review Source Razvan G. Founder & CEO Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Feature rich CRM" October 20, 2022 5.0 Pros Trial emails and customer support messenger with behavioral targeted emails and messages. Cons Occasional bugs, but they are usually fixed fast by customer support. Switched from [Intercom](https://www.capterra.com/p/134347/Intercom/) price Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Founder E-Learning Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "All In One solution for your website which does not break the bank." December 7, 2019 5.0 If you are serious about your online business, make sure you have Gist on your website. It allows you to keep in touch with your customers in multiple ways, with all customer info neatly available in the dashboard. The folks at Gist are all set to rule this space in time to come. Pros \- Chat solution. Conversation continuity provides a great touch. - Email marketing solution which lets us precisely target the customer. - Plethora of automation and events automation which allow us to target every single element on the website. - The best Intercom alternative out there. Cons \- Some of the emails still continue to go in Spam. Even some of the Gist communication emails land in spam. - Founder's attitude on going back on his words underhandedly. He would promise one thing and then go back on his words, even of you show him a written proof. Review Source JB Jason B. CEO Computer Software Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Gist helps convert leads into customers!" April 22, 2021 5.0 Pros We primarily use Gist as a live chat tool on our website and have received very high user engagement with it. We love that even if our users don't enter their email address, Gist is often able to identify the lead that has reached out to us and we are able to follow up with them directly through Gist. It's been a really helpful tool for turning leads into customers! Cons Gist has so many powerful features that I know I'm underutilizing it. We're a small startup, and I haven't taken the time to review all of the functionality they offer and how it would very likely help our business. Nonetheless, we get so much value out of what we are using that it is totally worth using as is. Review Source Paul T. eMarketing Strategist/Consultant Internet Used the software for: 2+ years ### "My new CRM" July 1, 2019 5.0 Excellent particularly their customer support. Pros Generous subscriber and email sending plans. Easy to use and has now replaced my last email marketing solution too over and above its CRM and customer support features. Excellent app. Cons They are a startup so some features I want are lacking but projected to come in future. Switched from [ActiveCampaign](https://www.capterra.com/p/79367/ActiveCampaign/) Lifetime plan Review Source Uwe D. Founder Computer Software Used the software for: 2+ years ### "All-in-one marketing and customer support tool" December 17, 2019 5.0 Pros The Gist team created a feature-rich, thought-through and affordable tool for customer support, live chat and marketing automation. We mainly use the live chat, contacts/segmentation and email features. They also offer a Knowledgebase feature that we will soon implement. I love their speed of development and the brand-new user interface redesign. Cons So far it ticks all the boxes. Sometimes support replies within minutes, other times it might take a day or so. Could be more consistent. Review Source NaveenKumar N. Performance Test Lead Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Convert Visitors to Customers with Gist" January 25, 2020 4.0 Its been very useful solution for all marketing needs. Pros Easy to setup, clean user interface, excellent customer support, help documents, and the automation flows helps my visitors to connect with me. Chat user interface, mobile apps, drip campaigns are easy to implement and manage. Cons More subscribers needs more investment. I wish the pop-up templates are more. No RSS to email feature. Switched from [WhatsApp](https://www.capterra.com/p/180345/WhatsApp/) WhatsApp doesn't actually solve my problem. Review Source Chet N. President & CEO Marketing and Advertising Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great product with amazing features that continue to develop!" July 22, 2019 5.0 It's been great. It's nice using it and having it be reliable. Pros How easy it was to implement and start using on our website. Cons There aren't any that i can think of. The kinks have been worked out. Alternatives considered [LiveAgent](https://www.capterra.com/p/102188/LiveAgent/) Reason for choosing Gist All in one solution. Helped us streamline. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer CEO Cosmetics Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Powerful and affordable CRM " February 4, 2020 4.0 Pros It offer a lot of feature that a business needs: live chat, customer support, email marketing, automation workflow... The price is very affordable (with me it's no-brain). Cons Gist doesn't have the embedded form so I cannot integrate with my landing page to capture leads. Switched from [HubSpot CRM](https://www.capterra.com/p/152373/HubSpot-CRM/) Price Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Founder Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 2+ years ### "I have been a super early user and they have turned out to be amazing" April 23, 2020 5.0 Had been fantastic. I did not find a reason to look for alternatives Pros An easy plug and play solution that helps you setup chat and email for your website. Instantly interact with your visitors Cons There was a lot of back and forth regarding the removal of the branding on their chat box but not a deal-breaker. Review Source João Paulo B. Founder Computer Software Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Best all-in-one app for SaaS support" September 11, 2022 5.0 When we found Gist, we were amazed at all its features. Now we reduced 3 apps to just one. That's a huge money saver, also their support channel is excellent. Pros As a SaaS company, we need to offer good support and app onboarding to our users. Gist is doing it perfectly. Cons We are just missing a better-tailored company x user assignment Review Source Lewis H. Head of ICT Music Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Jack of all trades, master of?" August 27, 2019 5.0 I really want to love Gist, in theory it is very good, it offers a wide toolset of features that enable you to do some really cool internet marketing, live chat and user behaviour analytics, however in reality i'm not sure if I fully trust it's ability to do any of those things to a particularly high standard. I always feel a little overwhelmed when I log in, but having said that I did manage to create some interesting visitor flows that signed people up for a mailing list after a conversation with a chatbot which delivered a free digital product via email. Recent changes to name and overall direction seem like Gist may just be able to pull off its vision. Pros At the time I purchased got an incredibly good value deal Has shown lots of improvement in recent months, especially since changing name Can do email marketing Can do live chat Cons Doesn't seem to have a clear focus on doing one thing particularly well Switched from [Mailchimp](https://www.capterra.com/p/110228/MailChimp/) Gist was cheaper Review Source Similar Products Featured ## Send me user reviews about this product ### Fill out the form and we'll send a list of the top-rated software based on real user reviews directly to your inbox.