The short answer
You'll need a replacement either way. Here's who we suit.
Salesloft's website no longer offers Drift, and its Drift Sunset FAQ says the chat widget stops working after January 31, 2027, with your access ending on that date or when your contract ends, whichever comes first. So the real question is what goes on your website next.
Choose AI Chat Bot if you're a small B2B company that wants buyers' questions answered from your own pages, their work email, company and team size captured, demos booked on the calendar you already use, and each lead emailed to your team in seconds, with the page and campaign it came from, and sent to your CRM. It's live the day you paste your address, and it costs one flat monthly price from a Free plan up.
Look elsewhere if your sales team relied on Drift to name the companies visiting your site, score their intent, route them to the right rep and let that rep chat live. We do none of that. Salesloft recommends 1mind as the replacement for Drift's chat, and other sales chat platforms do those jobs too.
Try it on your site, free
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How we compared
We make AI Chat Bot, so read this as our case, with our sources. Drift facts come from Salesloft's Drift Sunset FAQ and Chat Agents page, from archived copies of Drift's pricing page (May 2024, its last published price) and product page (January 2026), and, for the 2025 security incident, from Salesloft's own trust center and Google's Threat Intelligence Group. All were read on October 7, 2026. We never used Drift for this page.
Why people switch
Why Drift customers are looking for an alternative
Drift switches off on January 31, 2027
Salesloft is retiring Drift. Access ends on January 31, 2027 or at the end of your contract, whichever comes first, and the chat widget, Drift Email and anything built on the Drift API stop working then. Data left unexported is deleted on May 1, 2027.
Salesloft has moved on to 1mind, which is sold by demo
Drift's old pricing address now leads to a Salesloft page that says “We've transitioned from Drift to 1mind”, with a Talk to Sales button and no price. On March 5, 2026, Salesloft announced a gradual sunset of Drift and said it would refer existing Drift customers to 1mind. 1mind's website asks you to get a demo and shows no prices.
Source: Salesloft: Chat Agents
Priced for a sales team, not a small business
Drift's last published price was $2,500 a month, billed yearly, for its entry plan, which it described as being for small businesses. Extra Pro and Lite seats and playbook services were add-ons on top.
The August 2025 security incident
From August 8 to August 18, 2025, an attacker used OAuth credentials from Drift to export data from Drift customers' Salesforce instances, by Salesloft's own account. On August 20, Salesloft and Salesforce revoked every active token for the Drift app and Salesforce removed Drift from its AppExchange, according to Google's Threat Intelligence Group, which on August 28 advised Drift customers to treat every token connected to Drift as potentially compromised. Salesloft brought in Mandiant, took Drift offline on September 5 and brought it back online on September 16. Salesloft's updates say the attacker had accessed its GitHub account between March and June 2025, then Drift's AWS environment, where it obtained customers' OAuth tokens. Mandiant's investigation ended on September 30, 2025 and reported no ongoing compromise of Drift.
Side by side
AI Chat Bot vs Drift, row by row
| Feature | AI Chat Bot | Drift |
|---|---|---|
| Can you buy it today | Yes. Try it on your website without an account, then sign up. | Not on Salesloft's website. Drift's pricing address now reads “We've transitioned from Drift to 1mind”, and Salesloft refers existing Drift customers to 1mind. Salesloft. |
| Price | Free for ever with 100 customer messages a month. Starter $19 a month for 1,500; Growth $49 for 5,000. No seats. Plans. | Last published: from $2,500 a month, billed yearly, with extra seats as add-ons. Archived pricing, May 2024. |
| Free plan or trial | Free plan with no end date, after a 7-day trial of 200 messages. No card, cancel any time. | No free plan on its last pricing page; buyers booked a demo. Startups under 50 people had a separate program. Archived pricing. |
| How answers are written | Only from your website, your documents and answers you write. A reply that can't point to one of them is replaced with a handoff to you. Check and correct any answer on the Test page before buyers see it. | An AI chat agent giving “accurate and instant answers”, in Drift's words. On the 2024 price list, AI-powered chatbots were an Enterprise feature; other plans used custom chatbots. Archived product page. |
| Qualifying a lead | Answers first, then asks an interested buyer for a work email, company and team size, plus up to three questions you write, and offers a demo if your site does. B2B software rules. | Qualified leads and routed high-intent buyers into the seller's Salesloft Rhythm workflow. Archived product page. |
| Knowing who's visiting | It doesn't name companies or score intent. Each lead does show the page the buyer asked from, the site or Google ad that brought them, and any campaign tags. | Identified the companies behind visits, with account data, and scored their engagement in real time. Archived product page. |
| When a buyer wants a person | A Talk to a person button under every reply. Up to five people get the question and the buyer's details by email in seconds, and a Slack, Microsoft Teams or Google Chat channel if you set one. If nobody taps “Got it” on a lead, one reminder follows after 5 minutes, then your backup contact is told. A buyer who left an email gets a copy of what they asked. | Live chat with a rep, routing to the right seller, and real-time notifications. Archived pricing. |
| Booking a demo | Calendly, Cal.com, Acuity, Setmore and YouCanBookMe pages open inside the chat, with an alert to you when a demo is booked through Calendly or Cal.com. Or it offers your real free times from Google Calendar and emails the buyer a reminder the day before. Bookings. | Buyers booked a meeting with a rep from the chat, with routing to the right seller on its higher plans. A tie for one calendar; Drift was ahead for a team of reps. Archived pricing. |
| CRM | A webhook sends each lead to Zapier or Make, then HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive or anything else, or straight into a Google Sheet. We never ask for a CRM login. CRM guides. | Dozens of native integrations, Zapier and an open developer platform, plus Salesloft's own workflow. Archived pricing. |
| Setup | Paste your address: it reads your pages in about a minute, then one line of code or a WordPress plugin puts it live. | Its 2024 pricing page listed a dedicated customer success manager, strategy sessions and training as included services, and playbook building and optimization as paid add-ons. Archived pricing. |
| Channels | Your website and a hosted chat page. A chat follows the buyer from page to page for three hours. | Website chat, conversational landing pages, Drift Video and Drift Email. Archived pricing. |
| Measuring results | Compares visitors who saw the chat with a held-back group, and shows the low end of the difference in money at the customer value you enter. Each lead carries its page and campaign tags. Results. | Engagement metrics and attribution to pipeline and revenue. Archived product page. |
| After January 31, 2027 | Keeps running on your plan. If you leave, download your leads and conversations as a spreadsheet and delete your account yourself. | The widget stops. For contracts that run past that date, data is held offline through April 30, 2027 for export requests; what's left is deleted on May 1, 2027. Sunset FAQ. |
| Best fit | B2B companies that want their website to answer buyers and book demos at a flat price. | Existing Drift customers on Salesloft, until their contract or the sunset date ends. |
Checked October 7, 2026, on Salesloft's Drift sunset FAQ.
Try it on your own website
See it answer as your business
No account needed · No card · Free plan forever
Where we're the better pick
Where AI Chat Bot is the better choice
Live today, with no playbooks to build
Paste your website address and it reads your product, pricing, integrations, trial terms and security pages in about a minute. There are no bot flows to draw or keep up to date: when your site changes, it re-reads it each week, or every day on Growth and Pro. How it works.
Answers about your product that stay true to your site
Choose B2B software as your business type and the assistant follows rules written for it: it never claims SOC 2, an integration or a feature your site doesn't state, quotes prices only as published, and passes custom quotes and account questions to your team. B2B software.
Demos booked on the calendar you already use
Point it at your existing booking page: Calendly and Cal.com open inside the chat, and you're alerted when a demo is booked there. Or connect Google Calendar and it offers your real free times, at the length and notice you set, and emails the buyer a reminder the day before. Bookings.
Leads in your CRM without handing over its keys
Each lead goes to a webhook address you choose, with the page it was asked from and its campaign tags, and from there through Zapier or Make into your CRM. We never hold a login to HubSpot or Salesforce. Step-by-step guides for HubSpot and Salesforce.
A price a small sales team can approve
One flat monthly price by customer messages, no seats and no annual contract, with a Free plan to start. Compare plans.
Where they're the better pick
Where Drift is the better choice
Naming the companies on your site
Drift identified visiting companies and scored their intent before anyone typed. We know what a visitor tells the chat, plus the page and campaign that brought them, never the company behind an anonymous visit. If account-based selling depends on that signal, look at a sales chat platform that has it.
A team of reps chatting live
Drift routed buyers to the right seller, let reps take over chats and booked meetings across several reps' calendars. We alert up to five people by email and a team chat channel, with no routing between them, and whoever picks it up follows up by phone or email.
Staying inside Salesloft
If your team works in Salesloft, its recommended successor, 1mind, feeds chat signals into Salesloft's own system. Our only CRM link is a webhook. Salesloft announcement.
Everything AI Chat Bot does
What you get, on every plan
Answers you can trust
Answers from your website and documents
Paste your address and it reads your key pages in about a minute. Free keeps 10 pages; paid plans learn from up to 200, 1,000 or 2,500. Add price lists or brochures as PDF, Word or text files, and write your own answers to common questions. How it works.
Says when it doesn't know
An answer has to come from your facts or quote your own pages word for word. When nothing covers a question, it says so and passes it to you instead of guessing. Custom chatbot.
Stays up to date
It re-reads your website every week, or every day on Growth and Pro, and emails you when a price or policy it quotes has changed.
Answers in your customer's language
It replies in the language the visitor writes in, from the same facts, and the chat's buttons switch to that language too.
Leads, bookings and handoffs
Captures the lead
It answers first, then asks for a name, a way to reach them and what they need, plus up to three questions you choose, and keeps the full conversation with the lead. Lead generation.
Shows where each lead came from
Each lead shows the page it was asked from, the site or Google ad that brought the visitor, and any campaign tags. It's in the alert, the spreadsheet download and the webhook too.
Checks your service area
List the ZIP codes, postcodes and towns you serve. Each lead says whether it's inside or outside your area, and you choose what the assistant tells someone outside it.
Alerts in seconds, for up to five people
Each lead arrives by email with a one-line summary, at up to five addresses, and can post to a Slack, Microsoft Teams or Google Chat channel. Unanswered, one reminder follows after 5 minutes, then your backup contact is told. Urgent leads are marked urgent. Text alerts aren't live yet. Lead alerts.
Booking pages inside the chat
Calendly, Cal.com, Acuity, Setmore and YouCanBookMe pages open inside the chat, and any other booking page opens from a button. You get an alert when someone books through Calendly or Cal.com. Bookings.
Real free times from Google Calendar
Connect Google Calendar and it offers your real free times. You set the appointment length, minimum notice, how far ahead and the gap between appointments, and name your services. A customer who gives an email gets a confirmation with a calendar file, and a reminder the day before.
A person is always one tap away
A Talk to a person button sits under every reply. The assistant tries to answer first; a visitor who still wants you leaves their details, and you're emailed the question. There's no live-chat inbox: you reply by phone or email. Human handoff.
Writes back to your customer
A customer who leaves an email gets a short copy of what they asked, saying a person will follow up and, if you're closed, when you next open. When you answer a question it couldn't, you can email that answer to the customer who asked.
Sends leads to your CRM
A webhook passes each lead to Zapier or Make, and from there into HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, Google Sheets or anything else. CRM guides.
Control and proof
Check answers before customers see them
The Test page shows its answers to the questions your customers ask. Fix one in a step, and preview what an edit changes before you save it. Test and correct.
Rules for your kind of business
25 business types each come with their own rules: a roofer's assistant never promises what insurance pays, a dentist's never gives clinical advice. Each has a sample assistant you can talk to on its page. Business types.
Results measured against a control group
Hold back a small share of visitors from seeing it, and Results compares the two groups, so you see what it adds rather than every lead it touched. Enter what a customer is worth and it shows the low end of the measured range in money, with the sum written out. Customers' ratings of their chats show there too. Results.
Your data, yours to take
Download your leads and conversations as a spreadsheet, choose how long they're kept, and delete your account yourself. Security and privacy.
On your website
One line of code, or a plugin
Paste one line into any website, install the free WordPress plugin, or share your own chat page link. It's website chat: no WhatsApp, Instagram or Messenger. Chat widget.
Stays with the visitor
A conversation carries on as the visitor moves from page to page, and can be picked up again for three hours after their last message, in the same browser.
Placed where you want it
Put the bubble on the left or the right, add a line of your own text above it on desktop, hide the chat on pages you choose, and set different suggested questions for different pages.
Never in the way
It never pops open by itself, takes your colors, and goes full screen on phones so it's easy to use.
Answers around the clock
Evenings and weekends get the same answers as office hours, and urgent leads can wake you if you want them to. After hours.
Knows your holidays
Add holidays and one-off closures to your opening hours. It tells customers, offers no appointment times on a closed day, and holds your lead reminders until you next open.
Plans: Free for ever with 100 customer messages a month, after a 7-day trial of 200. Paid plans from $19 a month, no setup fee, cancel any time. Compare plans.
What it costs
What each costs at B2B website volumes
| Customer messages a month | AI Chat Bot | Drift |
|---|---|---|
| 300 (about 75 chats) | $19 a month on Starter, or $17 billed yearly. | No longer offered. Its last published price started at $2,500 a month, billed yearly, whatever the volume. |
| 1,500 (about 375 chats) | $19 a month on Starter, which covers 1,500. | No longer offered. Same last published starting price, $30,000 a year. |
| 5,000 (about 1,250 chats) | $49 a month on Growth, which covers 5,000, or $43 billed yearly. | No longer offered. Same starting price, before add-on Pro and Lite seats. |
Drift's figure is from its pricing page as archived in May 2024, the last time it published a price; later product pages asked buyers to request a demo. Salesloft's recommended successor, 1mind, publishes no prices on its website. Checked October 7, 2026. A chat of about four customer messages is our assumption, the same one our pricing page uses.
Try it on your own website
See it answer as your business
No account needed · No card · Free plan forever
For whoever signs off
- Cost
- A flat monthly plan from $19, or the Free plan. No setup fee, no per-resolution charge. An optional top-up adds 2,000 messages for $20.
- Risk
- Try it on your own site with no account, then a 7-day trial with no card. Cancel any time; your data downloads as a spreadsheet.
- Security
- Conversations are stored in named regions with named providers, kept as long as you choose, and deleted when you delete your account. Security and privacy.
- Effort
- About a minute to read your site, a few to check its answers, one line of code or a plugin to go live.
Switching
How to move from Drift before it switches off
Ask for your Drift data
Exports go through your Salesloft account manager or Support. If your contract ends before January 31, 2027, your access to the data ends with it, so ask first. For contracts that run past that date, data is held offline through April 30, 2027, then deleted on May 1. Sunset FAQ.
Run it on your website
Paste your address on our home page and chat with it straight away. Choose B2B software as the business type, upload your security overview or pricing sheet as PDF or Word, and write answers for anything your Drift playbooks said that your site doesn't. Up to three of your playbooks' qualifying questions can go in as questions the assistant asks.
Connect your calendar and CRM
Add your booking page or Google Calendar, up to five emails for lead alerts, a Slack or Teams channel if you want one and a backup contact, then point the webhook at your CRM using the HubSpot or Salesforce guide.
Swap the script
Remove the Drift script from your site and paste our one line, or install the WordPress plugin. Playbooks, routing rules, visitor identification, conversation history and Drift Email don't carry over.
Questions
Questions buyers ask
Is Drift shutting down?
Yes. Salesloft retires Drift on January 31, 2027, and your access ends then or when your contract ends, whichever comes first. The chat widget stops working after that date. Source: Salesloft's Drift Sunset FAQ, updated September 22, 2026.
What does Salesloft recommend instead of Drift?
1mind for chat and allGood for Drift Email, according to the Drift Sunset FAQ. 1mind is an AI sales agent sold by demo; its website showed no prices on October 7, 2026.
Is there a free Drift alternative?
Yes. AI Chat Bot's Free plan answers 100 customer messages a month with no end date, after a 7-day trial of 200, and needs no card. See pricing.
Can AI Chat Bot book demos like Drift?
Yes, on one calendar. It opens your Calendly or Cal.com page inside the chat and alerts you when a demo is booked, or offers your free times from Google Calendar. It doesn't round-robin meetings across a team of reps. Bookings.
Does AI Chat Bot connect to Salesforce or HubSpot?
Yes, through a webhook and Zapier or Make, not a built-in sync. Each lead arrives with the buyer's details, their answers to your questions, the page and campaign it came from, and a link to the conversation in your dashboard. Setup steps are in our CRM guides.
Can AI Chat Bot tell me which companies visit my site?
No. It doesn't identify companies or score intent. What it adds to each lead is the page the buyer asked from, the referring site or Google ad, and any campaign tags. If you need account identification, choose a tool built for account-based sales.
Will it make things up about our product?
It's built not to. It answers only from your pages, documents and your own answers, and on the B2B software rules it never claims a certification, integration or feature your site doesn't state. Check its answers on the Test page before buyers see them.
Drift is a trademark of its owner. AI Chat Bot isn't affiliated with or endorsed by Drift. Competitor details come from their own public pages on the date shown and can change; tell us if something is out of date and we'll correct it.