Kayako vs LiveAgent vs Jitbit

Kayako

Kayako and LiveAgent both combine live chat and ticketing in one inbox, but Kayako has moved its focus to AI. The single Kayako One plan includes the shared inbox, Kayako Messenger, public and private help centers, SLA policies and reporting, with Kay, an AI agent, resolving tickets on its own for $1 per resolution. The customer timeline, which shows every channel's history for a person in one view, is still one of Kayako's nicest features.

Pricing is the weak point. Kayako One is quote-only; at the reported $79 per agent per month a 5-agent team pays about $14,200 over 3 years before AI usage. That is close to three times LiveAgent's cost, and there is no self-hosted version anymore. SSO is JWT-only and the integration list is short.

LiveAgent

LiveAgent gives you more channels for less money. Email, live chat, a built-in call center, Facebook, Instagram, X, WhatsApp and Viber all go into one inbox, and it costs around $5,200 over 3 years for 5 agents. The automation rules, SLA settings and knowledge base are solid, and the integration marketplace is larger than Kayako's. It's also one of the few products here that can still be installed on your own servers.

The interface packs in a lot, so it feels busier than Kayako's, and some advanced features need higher tiers. But if phone and social messaging matter to your team, or you need a self-hosted option, LiveAgent covers it at a much lower price.

Detailed feature comparison

	Kayako	LiveAgent	Jitbit
	Veteran help desk rebuilt around an AI agent	Powerful support suite with ticketing and chat	Help Desk Software built for email. Trusted by thousands of companies across 50+ countries.
Pricing: 3 years / 5 agents	$14220	$5220	$3897
Pricing: 3 years / 10 agents	$28440	$10440	$8367
Active Directory	❌	✅ AD catalog integration, but no Windows-integrated authentication	✅ Integration via a script for your server or ADFS and SAML
Activity Dashboard	✅ Real-time dashboards for team workload and SLA status	✅ There's a dashboard report, but it's not live-updated	✅ Live overview dashboard
Asset Management	❌	❌	✅ A complete asset management module tightly integrated into the rest of the app
Canned Responses	✅ Macros that insert replies and update ticket properties	✅ 'Canned answers' are available on the $15/mo/user plan	✅ You can also assign canned responses to specific ticket categories if you need to
Community Forums	❌	✅ Customer forum is included with all plans	✅ Ideas Forum comes out of the box
Custom Fields	✅ Custom fields for conversations, users and organizations	✅ Multiple custom field types available	✅ Many custom field types, including dependant fields. Various privacy options.
Custom Statuses	❌	✅ Custom statuses are available, but no permission control	✅ Add custom statuses, customize how your customers see them and assign different colors to them
Customer satisfaction survey	✅ Built-in satisfaction ratings after conversations are completed	✅ For chats only	✅ Optional CSATs in email notifications and a report
Design Customization	✅ Help center and Messenger branding; the agent interface is not customizable	✅ You can customize customer portal and knowledge base but not the ticketing system	✅ Unlimited customization options. Change colors with a live preview, add custom CSS and JS
Email Notification Templates	✅ Customizable email templates	✅ Editing email templates available on paid plans only	✅ You are able to completely change a template for any notification type
Escalation	✅ Escalation via SLA breach triggers and monitors	✅ Escalating manually or via routing rules	✅ Possible to set up various escalation scenarios via automation
Exchange Integration	❌	✅ IMAP only	✅ Native EWS support instead of IMAP. oAuth support for Office 365
Import and Export	✅ Migration from other help desks via the API or Kayako's onboarding team; no self-service CSV export	✅ Tickets CSV export, users CSV import	✅ Import and Export tickets via CSV files
Internationalization	✅ Multilingual help center and localized customer-facing content	✅ Yes, with the ability to add custom languages	✅ Available in 16 different languages
ITIL Compliance	❌	✅ Yes	✅ Support for most ITIL processes
Knowledge Base	✅ Public and private help centers	✅ Knowledge Base and customer portal	✅ Customizable Knowledge Base optimized for search engines
Live Chat	✅ Included in Kayako Messenger	✅ Live chat button is included	✅ A free live chat component in the web widget
Mobile Apps	❌	✅ Both iOS and Android	✅ iOS and Android
Multi-channel support	✅ Email, live chat, Facebook and X (Twitter) in one shared inbox	✅ Email, chat, social networks	✅ Possible to add unlimited channels via integrations and API
On-premise Version	❌	✅ Downloadable license available	✅ A full on-premises version that runs on Windows Server
Reports and Analytics	✅ Pre-built and custom reports; some users find custom reports hard to build	✅ Multiple reports and analytics included	✅ 13 reports with an ability to build your own and to export everything to Excel
REST API	✅ REST API covering conversations, users and organizations	✅ API covers all the app features	✅ API covers all the app features
Single-Sign-On	✅ JWT-based SSO only. No SAML or Active Directory support in the current version	✅ Custom-built PHP solution	✅ SAML, Google login, Windows-integrated etc.
SLA Management	✅ SLA policies with targets per priority and automated breach triggers	✅ Full SLA management	✅ Full SLA automation via actions/triggers
Support Widget	✅ Kayako Messenger widget with chat and help center search	✅ Chat widget for websites	✅ Two different versions of a web widget
Third-party Integrations	✅ Salesforce, Shopify, Slack, Stripe and others; no large app marketplace	✅ API and Integrations on $15/mo/user plan and higher	✅ 30 native integrations and 500 more via Zapier
Ticket Collaboration	✅ Private notes, @mentions and collision detection	✅ Reply-history, CC	✅ See when other techs are viewing tickets in real-time, assign multiple people to a ticket
Workflow Automation	✅ Triggers, monitors and macros, plus AI actions via the Kay agent	❌	✅ Automation Rules are very powerful and can go beyond simple if-this-then-that logic

Looking for help desk software? Check out Jitbit. We offer a fully-featured app at a very affordable price. It comes with all the must have features like knowledge base, two-way email integration (including native Exchange and Office 365 support), automation, hundreds of integrations with third-party apps and much more. Available both as a hosted "SaaS" version and an on-premises version you can install on your own server.