HubRocket, a brand new live chat software

[Artashes]

Well, what do you know! Apparently our very own member has been quietly working on a live chat software that totally deserves a mention, even though the app is still in beta and Alex is too shy to talk about it yet (Alex, I hope you don't kill me for spilling the beans). This will, at the very least, make him work harder. Ha ha.

I usually never talk about services/products this way, but Alex is a great member who has been very helpful to others and to this community through the years, so he deserves a little love back.

So, www.hubrocket.com is a live chat software that is super lightweight and yet highly customizable in looks. I've played around with it and there are quite a number of features I really liked about it that I didn't immediately see elsewhere. I thought it was very clever to integrate social media (Twitter and/or Facebook) into the widget. The user engaged even if you aren't available for a chat online. And they can also always check if you tweeted any support/promotional messages. Love that. The analytics look really really nice and there are a number of variables to tracks.

As I understand, the website is in open beta mode, you gain access immediately after signing up.

If you are looking around for a cool live chat software that is free, I highly recommend to check it out. Made by one of our own, who understands the needs of the market very well, it promises to become a solid new support tool.

Good job, Alex! I hope HubRocket is a success. :thumbup:

 

[SenseiSteve]

Lots of love, love, love to Alex :thumbsup:

Just installed and tested it on one of my websites. Thanks for the link and heads up, Artashes.

 

[Alex - A2 Hosting]

Well, what do you know! Apparently our very own member has been quietly working on a live chat software that totally deserves a mention, even though the app is still in beta and Alex is too shy to talk about it yet (Alex, I hope you don't kill me for spilling the beans). This will, at the very least, make him work harder. Ha ha.

I think I can let this one slide :smash:

But really, thanks for the mention and for all of the positive feedback!

Lots of love, love, love to Alex :thumbsup:

Just installed and tested it on one of my websites. Thanks for the link and heads up, Artashes.

Thanks Steve! Any issues (or feedback) do let me know . Oh and of course, lots of love back to you!

There is still quite a bit in the pipeline so got a long road ahead but it is getting there!

 

[stackltd]

Looks very promising!

Wanna give a try but the page loads a bit slow here (Hong Kong), where is the website hosted?

 

[Alex - A2 Hosting]

Looks very promising!

Wanna give a try but the page loads a bit slow here (Hong Kong), where is the website hosted?

Sorry to hear that! We host the site in the states (Chicago for the main site and Florida for the actual software). We also utilize CDN which has a pop in Asia.

I've sent you a PM so we can hopefully get to the bottom of the slowness for you.

 

[xtm_mike]

Thanks for the sharing.. the back end looks great, I'll install it on a test site this week to give it a good.

Couple of questions.

- Why isn't the chat available on your own website? I've tested lots of live chat software and all of them offer support through the product they are trying to sell.

- Is it only free during beta? if so, how much will it cost when out of beta? if it's going to remain free how will you be funding it?

- What do you think HubRocket is offering over other live chat software, which at the moment is a massively crowded space.. new chat services are popping up every day? I absolutely love your analytics which seems to be rather unique in this space.

Looking forward to testing it properly

 

[Alex - A2 Hosting]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for checking us out! Answered your questions below

Thanks for the sharing.. the back end looks great, I'll install it on a test site this week to give it a good.

Couple of questions.

- Why isn't the chat available on your own website? I've tested lots of live chat software and all of them offer support through the product they are trying to sell.

Live chat is available on our website though given it is just me and Jimmie, it isn't yet covered 24/7. It is something we'll be making happen in the future. In the meantime, we'll have the offline message form in the event we're off.

- Is it only free during beta? if so, how much will it cost when out of beta? if it's going to remain free how will you be funding it?

It is free during the beta, we'll have a free package alongside paid packages (so we can keep the lights turned on). I can say it will be competitive though prices are not yet set in stone so that is all I can say right now .

- What do you think HubRocket is offering over other live chat software, which at the moment is a massively crowded space.. new chat services are popping up every day? I absolutely love your analytics which seems to be rather unique in this space.

Great question! We are focusing on becoming a multi-channel live chat software. For example, a visitor will be able to send you a message through their most preferred channel and they will all get routed into HubRocket. An example is FB messenger, Viber etc.

We also built HubRocket because of the pricing model at other companies. Want departments? Pay +$xx per agent. Oh want to remove our branding? Yup, thats another plan, add +$yy per agent. It seemed like every little feature was justification for a higher pricing tier which is something we disagreed with and wanted to change.

Looking forward to testing it properly

Thanks! Looking forward to having you on board. If you have any issues or questions please feel free to reach out to me personally - alex@hubrocket.com

 

[whmcsguru]

While it looks promising, can't say as it's that appealing to me.

Requiring someone to keep a browser window open just for a 'live chat' service, no thanks... Sorry

No native apps (Windows, iOS, Android), again, a big miss.

I understand it's a beta thing right now, so do keep the work up, it looks good, and hopefully those two things will be addressed, as I desperately need a reliable system, since tawk.to is just turning to garbage lately

 

[Alex - A2 Hosting]

While it looks promising, can't say as it's that appealing to me.

Requiring someone to keep a browser window open just for a 'live chat' service, no thanks... Sorry

No native apps (Windows, iOS, Android), again, a big miss.

I understand it's a beta thing right now, so do keep the work up, it looks good, and hopefully those two things will be addressed, as I desperately need a reliable system, since tawk.to is just turning to garbage lately

Hey,

We're a small team (2 of us to be exact!) so we have to allocate resources carefully . Sadly we're not in a position to be building apps for every platform (all desktop and mobile variants).

With all that being said, we are working on XMPP support which should be pushed very soon. This should make it possible to integrate with any desktop and mobile client that supports XMPP.

However if you're on Windows, you can also use Chrome to create a 'desktop' app.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions on XMPP or the Chrome alternative provided above.

A more native approach is in the pipeline and will likely happen shortly after our beta phase.

May I ask why you feel Tawk.to has gone downhill?

 

[xtm_mike]

Alex, thanks for answering my questions. I do have one small feature request that I think may be helpful to others.

I can live with always being in the browser, but the deal breaker for me is notifications. When relying on the browser it is easy to get distracted..

It would be good if you had the ability to send notifications to apps like Slack when a message is received... or a webhook url that is pinged when a message is received... we can then write our own implementations.

We automate a lot of our system by writing implementations for services like IFTTT and Boxcar, we receive notifications so that we never miss anything.

I can see your app allows browser/desktop notifications but it would essentially break our workflow.

I've seen some apps that feed the full conversation (send and reply) into a Slack channel so you never need to load the browser.

 

[Alex - A2 Hosting]

Alex, thanks for answering my questions. I do have one small feature request that I think may be helpful to others.

I can live with always being in the browser, but the deal breaker for me is notifications. When relying on the browser it is easy to get distracted..

It would be good if you had the ability to send notifications to apps like Slack when a message is received... or a webhook url that is pinged when a message is received... we can then write our own implementations.

We automate a lot of our system by writing implementations for services like IFTTT and Boxcar, we receive notifications so that we never miss anything.

I can see your app allows browser/desktop notifications but it would essentially break our workflow.

I've seen some apps that feed the full conversation (send and reply) into a Slack channel so you never need to load the browser.

Hey Mike!

I agree completely and I'm happy to say that is already something we've got planned .

We intend on supporting this over 2 updates, the first being simple notifications into HipChat and Slack for various events.

The second update is much larger (we're calling it Channels) and will enable you to receive and reply to chats directly within Slack but won't stop there. You'll be able to integrate several apps into HubRocket such as Facebook messenger. If enabled, when a visitor messages you on your Facebook page it'll be routed directly into HubRocket (and if you have Slack enabled, it'll also route to Slack).

Overtime we'll expand Channels to support more services. The goal is to make HubRocket the only app you'll need to speak with your customers regardless of which channel they contact you on.

I'll be sure to reach out to you once we've got things rolled out .

 

[zomex]

Great work Alex.

The live chat looks fantastic and your website does a great job of displaying the features and is branded well.

I look forward to testing it when it's launched.

 

[whmcsguru]

You'd be surprised at the number of people that would pay for an iOS app for this, honestly.. Still, no app, no dice.

Good luck

 

[Alex - A2 Hosting]

Great work Alex.

The live chat looks fantastic and your website does a great job of displaying the features and is branded well.

I look forward to testing it when it's launched.

Thanks Jack!

I'll send you a PM once we hit stable .

You'd be surprised at the number of people that would pay for an iOS app for this, honestly.. Still, no app, no dice.

Good luck

When native apps arrive, they will be free. XMPP is a good middle ground to cover desktop + mobiles. A couple companies are actually much, much larger than us and also don't have native apps (instead opting for XMPP). We do plan to have them, just not right away.

Of course there are some great companies that have some great apps so if a native app is essential for you then I can recommend a few companies for you to check out.

Else I'll be sure to let you all know once native apps launch .

 

[Sohan.RS]

Looks Promising, will try it out soon