7 Best Co-Browsing Software For Support Teams (October 2023)

7 Best Co-Browsing Software For Support Teams (October 2023)

Mihael Cacic

Oct 17, 2023 • 13 min read

7 Best Co-Browsing Software For Support Teams (August 2023)

Understanding user behavior is perhaps the most difficult aspect of customer support. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the best co-browsing software that can help your support team collect information, communicate, and receive feedback from customers.

But not all tools are created equal. That’s why we’ve tried to address the three most common pain points users experience when using these tools:

  1. Does the tool offer real-time co-browsing? Many co-browsing platforms are simply screen-sharing software that only provide feedback on the user’s experience. To provide immediate solutions to your customers’ problems, you need a true co-browsing tool that allows you to annotate and even remotely control the customer’s browsing session. 
  1. Does the tool provide session replays? Sometimes you may not be available to watch the customer’s session in real-time. Or you need a complete record of every click, action, and event the user performs so you can understand how they run into issues. In such cases, having a tool that can replay pixel-perfect recordings of user sessions is a lifesaver.
  1. Does the tool offer product analysis features? A good co-browsing software helps you understand how customers use your product and why they do what they do.

This article answers these questions to help you find the best co-browsing software for your needs. Let’s get right to it!

Best Co-Browsing Software at a Glance

  • SessionStack — Best for recording and replaying user sessions
  • REVE Chat — Best for omnichannel messaging and live chatting
  • Samesurf — Best for streaming individual browsing sessions

Best Co-Browsing Software: Executive Summary

Best OverallRunner-upThird-Best Alternative
SessionStackREVE ChatSamesurf
Best for customer support teams and managers that need a lightweight, zero-latency co-browsing platform.Best for omnichannel messaging and live chatting with AI chatbots.Best for individuals that want to share and experience the same browsing session in real time.
Visit SessionStackVisit REVE ChatVisit Samesurf

Buying Guide & How We Rate The Tools

 

When choosing a co-browsing tool, you must keep in mind that each has a specialty that makes it best suited for a particular audience. For the most holistic comparison, it’s key to consider the following factors:

 

Ease of Use: This score reflects how easy the platform is to use and how quick it is to master. How easy is it to install on your website and mobile apps? Does it require your customers to download or install the software? How do you initiate a co-browsing session?

 

Features: Does it offer session recordings and replays? What co-browsing and collaboration tools are at your disposal? Does it have voice, video, and text chats? Are there AI chatbots to engage your customers 24/7? Does it offer insights and user analytics?

 

Integrations: How many communication channels does it offer? How easy is it to integrate into your existing tech stack? Does it support all major platforms? Does it offer integrations with 3rd party customer and workflow management tools?

 

Affordability: Given the number and quality of features, is it reasonably priced? Is there public information on its pricing? Does it offer a free lifetime plan? Is there a free trial or demo to test its features?

 

Note: low scores aren’t always bad.

 

Each tool has a specialty and excels in specific use cases. For example, a tool focused on live chatting is often lacking when it comes to collaborative browsing and session replays but it excels elsewhere. At the end of the day, it depends on your specific requirements and the combination of features you need out of your co-browsing tool.

 

Having said that, let’s look at a brief review of each platform.

Best Co-Browsing Software In 2023

Before going in-depth, here’s a comparison table that outlines the features, strengths, limitations, and best use cases of each platform.

SessionStack
Best for session recordings, replays, and conversion rate optimization. Offers user segmentation, sales funnels, and developer tools. 
Ease of Use:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Features:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Integrations:
⭐⭐⭐⭐ 
Affordable*:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Glia
Best for banks, credit unions, insurance companies, and other financial institutions that want to collaborate with customers. 
Ease of Use:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Features:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Integrations:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Affordable:
⭐⭐⭐
REVE Chat
Best for live chatting and omnichannel messaging. Provides AI chatbots to keep your customers engaged 24/7.
Ease of Use:
⭐⭐⭐
Features:
⭐⭐⭐
Integrations:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Affordable:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Surfly
Best for e-signatures and documents collaboration. Offers full UI customization and white labeling.
Ease of Use:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Features:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Integrations:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Affordable:
⭐⭐⭐
Samesurf
Best for individuals who want to stream their browsing experiences and collaborate socially. Allows unlimited participants to join a co-browsing session.
Ease of Use:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Features:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Integrations:
⭐⭐⭐
Affordable:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Fullview
Best for customer support teams that only need co-browsing and session replays with no additional tools.
Ease of Use:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Features:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Integrations:
⭐⭐⭐
Affordable:
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Cobrowse
Best cross-platform co-browsing software for small teams.
Ease of Use:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Features:
⭐⭐⭐
Integrations:
⭐⭐⭐
Affordable:
⭐⭐⭐⭐

SessionStack is being reshaped to meet the growing demands of its existing and future customers. The team is laser-focused on helping e-commerce businesses streamline their conversion rate optimization efforts for faster revenue growth. This is done through an industry-first AI capability – SessionStackAI, which is based on the rich session data the platform is already built to collect.

 

As part of the ongoing change, SessionStackAI is currently offered only as a paid pilot service with a 21-day free trial. To find out how SessionStackAI can help optimize your e-store with no effort, book a demo today 👉

SessionStack — Best for recording and replaying user sessions

Ease of UseFeaturesIntegrationsAffordability
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

SessionStack’s founder, Alexander Zlatkov, a software engineer at Progress, noticed a lack of tools to help businesses understand customer interactions with their digital products. So he created one!

Top SessionStack Features

SessionStack combines world-class session replay technology with robust developer tools, recently earning it a top spot in G2’s session replay category

It stands out with its lightweight, tagless, and performant auto-capture that:

  • tracks user behavior,
  • spots conversion opportunities,
  • and enhances onboarding to drive growth.

But, its biggest differentiator is co-browsing, which allows support teams to watch what the customer is doing in real-time and even take control of the session with the customer’s permission. It’s far more than simple screen sharing! And to cap it all, SessionStack is free to use until you need to scale up your business. 

SessionStack’s co-browsing and low-latency session replay tools make it the perfect platform for customer support teams that need to quickly identify and resolve errors, and user frustrations. That way, they can improve the overall customer experience on their sites and web apps.

SessionStack ProsSessionStack Cons
✅ SessionStack AI tips & insights❌ No chat features
✅ Custom pricing plans❌ No mobile app support
✅ Advanced insights and behavior analysis
✅ User segmentation and sales funnels
✅ Pixel-perfect session replays
✅ Lots of integrations

Session Replay: Record and replay user sessions with pixel-perfect precision

Session replay is SessionStack’s specialty, allowing customer support teams to identify areas of confusion and easily reproduce UX issues.

Its user interface is designed to be simple and intuitive, with a two-column layout, bold icons, and large buttons for easy navigation.

Along with other events, the action log on the left records clickmaps — a digital representation of user mouse activity. This way, you can detect user experience issues, like clicking non-interactive elements or navigating to unintended web pages.

On top of that, event auto-capture allows you to see the full picture of user behavior and gain unbiased feedback on the real-life usage of your products, while the crisp, low-latency session recordings help you fix bugs and see the results in real-time.

SessionStack also has a tool called SessionStackAI. It’s a timesaver when you’re analyzing lots of session replays because it summarizes them into bite-sized summaries — highlighting the most important events and suggesting easy UX improvements.

Finally, SessionStack stores recordings in human-readable HTML or JSON format, which customer support managers can share with team members and other experts for collaboration.

Co-browsing: Collaborate with customers and take over the session in real-time

SessionStack’s co-browsing is much more than screen sharing or web conferencing. It allows you to start live remote sessions with customers without installing any additional apps or changing your website whatsoever.

Not only can you view browsing activity, SessionStack provides several collaboration tools, including real-time cursor control, pointers, and screen annotation tools.

The pointer tool attaches a brightly colored pointer to the cursor so you can attract the user’s attention to different portions of the screen, but it doesn’t perform any action for the user. Meanwhile, the pen tool annotates the customer’s screen with pen strokes.

With user approval, you can take complete control over their browsing session and perform actions like:

  • clicking, 
  • scrolling,
  • data entry, 
  • and page navigation.

Developer Tools: Debug customer issues with state-of-the-art dev tools

SessionStack dev tools automatically collect all network requests during a session. This allows you to inspect web traffic based on URL, request method, and status code. Rather than play the entire session recording, simply click on a network request and resume from that point.

While the session is ongoing, the browser console collects data, including:

  • errors, 
  • warnings, 
  • network data, 
  • and debug messages. 

It also provides filters and navigation tools that help you find specific error messages and replay the particular moment when the issue was logged.

To avoid denial-of-service attacks and bot traffic, SessionStack allows you to filter out IP addresses you don’t want to monitor. You can also improve recording performance by specifying which URLs and page sections you want to monitor.

What’s more, the SessionStack API lets you create start and end rules for session recordings. You can also track custom events and only log specific activities.

User Segmentation: Collect user information to understand behavior at scale

SessionStack can filter user sessions based on common attributes, session details, and events. You can also create custom filters and view the results on a user-friendly dashboard that visualizes user trends and activities.

Of course, this data isn’t very useful on its own. That’s why SessionStack allows you to create and refine conversion funnels that optimize your product’s conversion rates.

Use SessionStack if:

  • You want the best session recording and replays platform on the market.
  • You want advanced developer tools to improve user experience.
  • Your product team needs advanced insights and user analytics.

2. Glia — Best customer support platform for financial institutions

Ease of UseFeaturesIntegrationsAffordability
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Glia’s customers include some of the biggest names in the financial sector, such as Mercury Insurance, Deutsche Bank, and Ascentra Credit Union. Its founders, while working for a Fortune 50 company, realized that in-person customer service is the key to company growth.

Top features include:

  • Real-time observation mode,
  • Omnichannel co-browsing,
  • Voice, video, and text chat,
  • AI-powered customer management,
  • Applets for unified customer support operations.

Glia is best for banks, insurance companies, credit unions, and other financial institutions that want to engage customers through voice, video, and chat.

Glia ProsGlia Cons
✅ AI-powered messaging❌ No session replays
✅ Three-layer security and privacy stack❌ Pricing model isn’t transparent
✅ Live browsing session observation

Glia Overview:

Glia seamlessly connects your support reps and visitors across different channels, such as websites, portals, and mobile apps. And, thanks to Glia’s co-browsing feature, which shows real-time browsing sessions, website navigation, and form submissions, you have a headstart in any conversation.

Unlike most co-browsing software, Glia offers AI-powered chatbots and virtual agent assistants, allowing you to communicate with customers 24/7. These AI agents can even respond to real-time interactions and participate in co-browsing themselves.

Glia Pricing:

Glia doesn’t provide public information about its pricing model or subscription plans, so you’ll have to request a demo and negotiate a price. While you’re going in blind with no expectations, this approach allows you to create a custom-fit co-browsing solution for your business.

Use Glia if:

  • You’re in banking, insurance, investment, or other financial institutions.
  • You want to supplement a small support team with AI agents.
  • You want expert advice and white-glove onboarding.

3. REVE Chat — Best live chat, omnichannel messaging, and AI chatbots

Ease of UseFeaturesIntegrationsAffordability
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

REVE Chat is a Singapore-based multinational company, with development offices in UK, USA, India, Hong Kong, and Bangladesh. It helps support teams get customer feedback, provide real-time assistance, and build brand loyalty.

Top Features Include:

  • AI chatbot for self-service,
  • Live chat,
  • Video calls,
  • Omnichannel messaging,
  • Ticketing system.

REVE Chat is best for technical support teams that need to communicate with customers quickly and on different fronts. The AI chatbots and multi-channel communication ensure that customers receive prompt replies to their messages. You get a whole contact center in one platform.

REVE Chat ProsREVE Chat Cons
✅ Machine learning training for chatbots❌ Requires technical expertise to set up
✅ Real-time insights and analytics❌ Limited co-browsing functionalities
✅ API and SDK for custom integration❌ No session replays

REVE Chat Overview:

As the name implies, REVE Chat specializes in live chatting. That’s why it offers the best omnichannel messaging of any co-browsing platform. It also allows you to record voice, video, and text chats to gain real-time insights about your website visitors.

But that’s not all. The platform also provides powerful chatbots that run 24/7, answering FAQs and working with customers to resolve their issues. You can even train these bots with data from past conversations and create fallbacks for complex interactions.

Due to its specialization, REVE Chat falls short in other aspects of co-browsing, but it does have an available feature for it. For instance, it doesn’t offer native remote screen control or session replays. And, implementing these features in your mobile apps requires the SDK and technical know-how. 

REVE Chat Pricing:

REVE Chat pricing plans start at $15/month per agent for 3 concurrent live chats, Facebook Messenger, and 90-day chat history. Upgrading to higher plans gets you unlimited chat history along with video chats, Telegram Messenger, WhatsApp business, and advanced chat features.

The Chatbot pricing model starts at $49/month for 1 active chatbot and 1000 engaged visitors. Higher plans increase the number of active chatbots and visitors and provide unlimited chat history.

REVE Chat offers a 10% annual discount and a 20% discount for the 2-year plan. 

Use REVE Chat if:

  • You want to engage customers across multiple channels and messaging platforms.
  • You want advanced chatbots that can engage your customers.
  • You want full control over the implementation of co-browsing features.

4. Surfly — Best for e-signatures and online document collaboration

Ease of UseFeaturesIntegrationsAffordability
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Surfly’s founder, Nicholas Piël worked in tech support and experienced first-hand the difficulties with helping customers remotely. That’s why he created a proprietary interaction middleware that allows anyone to add co-browsing and other collaboration tools to their online platforms.

Top features include:

  • E-signing on documents,
  • Screen sharing,
  • File sharing,
  • Video chat,
  • Record of events in the meeting (audit logs, actions, signed documents…),
  • Collaborative document editing,
  • Customizable UI.

Surfly is best for businesses that handle a high volume of digital documents and want to collaborate with customers on them. 

Surfly ProsSurfly Cons
✅ Fully customizable features❌ Pricing model isn’t transparent
✅ White-labeling of the user interface❌ No automatic session replays
✅ Automation of masking sensitive customer data

Surfly Overview:

One feature that sets Surfly apart is e-signing and collaborative document editing. This makes it a great option for co-browsing sessions where documents, such as contracts, quotes, and invoices, must be reviewed.

Surfly is extremely easy to integrate into your tech stack. With a simple URL, customers can join your session and switch seamlessly between video chat, co-browsing, and screen sharing. However, unlike SessionStack, you can’t monitor user activity in real-time. 

Surfly Pricing:

Surfly offers three pricing plansSurf, Stoked, and Snap, which offer 200,000, 500,000, and 10,000,000 co-browsing minutes per month, respectively. However, it does not provide public information on the exact costs, forcing you to contact the sales team and negotiate a price.

Use Surfly if:

  • You want to collaborate on documents over the browser.
  • You need a white-labeled user interface.
  • You want to integrate with other workflow tools like Salesforce, Amazon Connect, and Cisco.

5. Samesurf — Best for individuals and social collaboration

Ease of UseFeaturesIntegrationsAffordability
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Samesurf was created by co-founders K. David Pirnazar and Jerry A. Greenberg to help people share their browsing experiences in real-time. Unlike most platforms that almost exclusively target businesses, Samesurf also empowers individuals to collaborate from any device.

Top features include:

  • Low-latency video streaming with pause/play/skip,
  • Private and public rooms with invite links,
  • Control passing,
  • Text-based instant messaging,
  • File uploads and sharing,
  • Unlimited conference calls,
  • Analytics.

Samesurf is best for individuals who want to share their browsing sessions with friends and trusted experts. For example, visitors can shop online, stream movies, and book travels together.

Samesurf ProsSamesurf Cons
✅ Private rooms with invite-only sessions❌ Limited session replays
✅ Seamless video sharing with pause/play❌ Limited amount of available storage
✅ Pass leader controls to any participant

Samesurf Overview:

One feature that sets Samesurf apart from competitors is the ability to pass leader controls so users can take turns navigating content. This is in stark contrast to other tools where sessions are strictly between one agent and a customer.

With Samesurf, anyone can join a session through an invite link, upload video and audio, and share their screen. There are no limits on the number of participants, and anyone can request session control.

Samesurf Pricing:

Samesurf pricing starts at $10/month/user for co-browsing, instant messaging, HD video sharing, and file uploads. 

The Premium and Pro plans (costing $20 and $30, respectively) provide additional features, such as:

  • audio conferencing, 
  • screen sharing and recording, 
  • session scheduling, 
  • HD video chat,
  • and cloud storage.

Samesurf also offers a custom-fit Enterprise plan that provides API integration, white labeling, domain whitelisting, and many more at a negotiated price.

Use Samesurf if:

  • You’re an individual that wants to share your browsing experiences with others.
  • You need a co-browsing session with unlimited participants.
  • You want multiple people to take leadership control of the co-browsing session.

6. Fullview — Best general-purpose platform with basic tools

Ease of UseFeaturesIntegrationsAffordability
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Fullview was founded by Daniel Bakh in 2021 to help every SaaS company scale product support and technical analytics. It first started as an in-house tool but has since grown to support companies of all sizes.

Top features include:

  • Session replays,
  • Annotation tools,
  • Automatic blurring of sensitive information and customizable privacy,
  • Network, device, and user journey console information,
  • Co-browsing.

Fullview is best for customer support and product development teams that need an all-in-one platform without any supporting features. This is because it offers the same industry-standard tools as other platforms but doesn’t focus on any particular niche.

Fullview ProsFullview Cons
✅ No downloads or link-sharing❌ No generative AI to summarize sessions
✅ Automatic customer information censoring❌ Limited live chat tools
✅ Robust integrations with CRM tools❌ No mobile support

Fullview Overview:

Fullview’s records, in great detail, all user actions and browsing events. For example, it helps you identify rage clicks, spot console errors, and retrace the visitor’s navigation steps visually or through code.

Furthermore, Fullview automatically marks notable events during the sessions and even predicts future events. This allows you to jump through time to the flagged issues and resolve them instantly.

This platform offers standard co-browsing tools such as screen annotation, remote control, and automatic data privacy. There are no invite links or downloads, as the Fullview API is directly integrated into your website. It doesn’t support mobile apps, however. 

Fullview Pricing:

Fullview Cobrowsing solution offers a free lifetime plan, which allows each support agent to make up to 4 calls per month. The Pro plan costs €49/month for every support agent, but you get unlimited calls and integrations. 

Fullview Session Replays solution is free for the first 1000 recorded sessions per month. You also get up to 7 days of storage retention and 1 integration. The Pro plan, which costs $89/month for 10,000 recorded sessions, gets you 30 days of storage retention. The exact costs for this plan increase with the number of session recordings. 

Use Fullview if:

  • Your want standard co-browsing technology without any supporting features.
  • You need console logs for faster debugging with your development team.
  • You want automatic information censoring, and GDPR compliance.

7. Cobrowse — Best for small teams that need simple, cross-platform tools

Ease of UseFeaturesIntegrationsAffordability
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cobrowse is a simple and flexible co-browsing and session recording platform for sales, support, and product development. Run by a small team of 8, it understands just what a small business needs out of co-browsing software.

Top features include:

  • Mobile SDKs for Android and iOS,
  • Session recording,
  • Masking of sensitive data for customer privacy,
  • Screen annotation.

Cobrowse is best for small businesses that need a basic co-browsing solution without any extra fluff or supporting tools.

Cobrowse ProsCobrowse Cons
✅ Self-hosting❌ Limited feature set
✅ No downloads or plugins required❌ No console logs
✅ Mobile co-browsing support❌ Extra features require expert knowledge

Cobrowse Overview:

Cobrowse has a minimal feature set and is designed to be highly configurable and extensible. That’s why it is popular among individuals and small support teams. However, with limited session replays and no console logs, it isn’t the best option for enterprises.

Remote screen control with Cobrowse is effortless. Once your agent gets the customer’s permission, they can remotely control the screen, add annotations, and guide the customer through in-app calls or text.

Cobrowse Pricing:

Cobrowse pricing starts at $20/month for every agent on your support team, but you only get website co-browsing on desktop and mobile browsers. Upgrading to the $40/month/agent plan gets you co-browsing on all platforms, including Android, iOS, Windows, and MacOS.

You can try this software for free using the online demo, which provides a fully functional mobile device and a browser tab to represent the customer’s platform. 

Use Cobrowse if:

  • Your business has a small customer support team.
  • You want remote screen control on other apps besides the browser.
  • You want a co-browsing platform with full extensibility and customization.

The Final Verdict

All the tools examined in this article cover every need that product managers, development teams, and customer support would need covering. There isn’t an all-end-all app that satisfies every single user.

As we’ve highlighted in this article, each tool has its pros and cons, so be sure to try them out to see which one fits your needs the best.

With that out of the way, here’s our verdict based on our testing and personal experience:

  • SessionStack for teams of all sizes that need pixel-perfect session replays and recordings to reproduce user issues and shape exceptional user experiences.
  • Fullview for support teams that need co-browsing and session replays in a no-fluff all-in-one package.
  • Samesurf for individuals that want to surf the internet with others in a co-browsing experience. 

See what SessionStackAI can do for your business