Drift Is Winding Down. Here's What to Use If You Don't Have a Sales Team

Drift is being wound down, and its owners are sending existing customers to a company called 1mind. If you never had a team of sales reps working your chats, though, 1mind probably isn't your fit either. Drift was built to hand website conversations to reps who book meetings, so for a business without those reps, most of what you paid for never showed up. What you want instead is a website that asks visitors the right questions, works out who is a real buyer, and tells you who is worth calling.

Short answer: the best Drift alternatives depend on who will handle the conversations. Pick Intercom if you need a support help desk, Tidio if you want people answering live chat, HubSpot if you already run your business in its CRM, Qualified or 1mind if you have a team of sales reps, and Gravity if you want the website to qualify and score leads for you.

What Is Happening to Drift, and Who Is 1mind?

In March 2026, Clari and Salesloft, the companies behind Drift, announced a "gradual sunset" of the product. They also announced an exclusive agreement to refer existing Drift customers to 1mind as its successor, according to the Salesloft newsroom (checked November 7, 2026). 1mind builds AI agents for business-to-business sales teams that qualify buyers, run demos and book meetings (checked November 7, 2026).

Two details matter if you use Drift today. First, you are referred to 1mind, not moved over automatically, so nothing changes unless you choose it. Second, the announcement gives no end date. Some vendors, Tidio among them, report that Drift retires on January 31, 2027 and that customer data is deleted on May 1, 2027. Those dates come from third parties, not from Salesloft. Check your Drift admin for the date that applies to your account, and export your conversations and contacts now, whatever you end up replacing it with.

What Did Drift Actually Do, and Do You Need That?

Drift was built for sales development reps, usually called SDRs. Their job is to answer website chats, decide who is a real buyer, and book meetings for the salespeople who close deals. Drift's routing, its meeting booking and its connection to Salesloft all assume someone is on the other end, ready to pick up the conversation. When nobody is, the chat window turns into a box where visitors type a question and wait.

For a lot of owners who bought Drift or looked at it, the problem was simple. It was a machine that needed operators they never had. If you're being moved off it now, it's fair to be annoyed that someone else picked your replacement, especially one built for an even bigger sales team.

We run our own business, and we've had good leads sit in an inbox overnight because nobody was on chat to answer them. That's why we built our own website to have the first conversation itself.

What most businesses without reps actually need is narrower and more useful. The website asks a visitor what they need, listens, works out whether they're a fit, and hands you a short list of people worth calling. If you're thinking of going back to a plain contact form, read why contact forms convert under 3% of visitors before you settle for one.

Which Drift Alternative Fits a Business With No SDR Team?

Start with who will actually handle the conversations, then match the tool to that.

1. If most of your chats come from customers asking for help, pick a support tool like Intercom.
2. If you or your staff will answer chats live during the day, pick a live chat inbox like Tidio.
3. If your contacts, emails and deals already live in HubSpot, start with its free chat and forms.
4. If you have reps whose job is to book meetings from the website, look at Qualified or 1mind.
5. If nobody will be watching the chat and you want the website to qualify and rank leads for you, look at Gravity.

Drift Alternatives Compared: Price, How Each Works, and Who It Fits

One disclosure first: we make Gravity. We've described it in the same terms as the others and said plainly where each competitor is the better choice.

Prices checked November 7, 2026, from each vendor's own pricing page.

Gravity vs Intercom Fin: When Does a Support Agent Beat a Lead Qualifier?

Intercom wins when most of your website traffic is existing customers who need help. Fin is an AI support agent built to resolve questions, and it's priced per resolved conversation: $0.99 per resolution, with a monthly minimum when bought on its own, according to Intercom's pricing page (checked November 7, 2026). It sits inside a help desk with tickets and seats for your team. Gravity has none of that. There's no ticketing, no help desk and no shared inbox.

Gravity is built for the other kind of visitor, the one who hasn't bought yet. It talks with them, gives them a personal result such as a summary or a diagnosis, and scores how good a fit they are. If you're weighing support bots, our piece on why scripted chatbots keep failing at support explains what separates the ones that work.

Gravity vs Tidio: Live Chat Inbox or Lead Qualification?

Tidio wins if you or your staff want to talk to visitors live. Its free plan covers 50 billable conversations, paid plans start at about $24 a month billed annually, and the Lyro AI agent is an add-on starting at about $32.50 a month, according to Tidio's pricing page (checked November 7, 2026). Lyro handles routine questions, and a person can step in when a conversation matters.

Gravity has no live chat takeover. When a visitor asks for a human, it gives them your email or phone number. That trade makes sense if nobody is free to watch a chat window. It's the wrong one if your team likes being there in the moment.

Is HubSpot's Free Chat and Forms Enough?

If your contacts, emails and deals already live in HubSpot, it's probably enough to start with. HubSpot's free tools include forms, live chat and a chatbot builder. AI features are billed through credits, and Starter is about $20 per seat billed monthly ($15 billed annually), with a lower promotional price shown on HubSpot's pricing page (checked November 7, 2026). Everything lands in the CRM you already use.

Gravity has no native HubSpot or Salesforce sync and no Zapier connection. It sends leads out through webhooks, so if your whole day runs inside HubSpot, its own tools will fit in more easily. Keep in mind that a chatbot builder is something you design and maintain yourself, and HubSpot's forms are still forms.

Do You Need Qualified or 1mind Instead?

You do if you have SDRs. Qualified's Piper and 1mind are built for sales teams that want visitors qualified and meetings booked straight onto reps' calendars. Neither publishes its prices (see Qualified's pricing page and 1mind's site, both checked November 7, 2026), so expect a sales call before you get a number.

Gravity doesn't book meetings and never sends messages for you. Its "Book a call" button opens your own scheduling link, such as Calendly. Gravity isn't the right pick if you have reps who need meetings booked automatically, or if you want an AI agent sending follow-ups without anyone reading them first.

How Does Gravity Qualify Leads Without a Sales Team?

Gravity, our AI lead capture tool, is an intelligence that talks to your visitors, scores every lead and tells you what to do next. You teach it about your business by typing in what it should know and uploading your documents, and it answers from that. You decide what it always asks (up to 20 questions), what it asks only when it fits, and whether email and phone are required, optional or left out. You can let it pursue your goal and choose its own questions, or have it follow your questions in a fixed order. It speaks English, Spanish and Portuguese.

What you get back is a short list instead of a pile of chat transcripts. Every lead has a score from 1 to 100 with the reason written out. When a lead reaches your threshold (80 by default), you get an email and a browser notification. A ranked list tells you who to call now, today and this week, and each lead comes with a first message drafted for you. You send it yourself, for example in WhatsApp with the text already filled in.

Scoring doesn't stay fixed. Gravity runs a weekly check-up of how it scores, using the leads you won, lost, or that went quiet, and suggests changes to how it describes your ideal customer and where the alert threshold sits. You approve those changes unless you switch on automatic updates, which are off by default.

Setup takes minutes. You can add a floating chat button with one script tag, embed the conversation inside a page, or put a link on a button you already have. There are step-by-step guides for WordPress, Wix, Shopify and Squarespace, and you can also share it through a link or a QR code. Leads can go out through webhooks or to ChatGPT and Claude through an MCP connection. For the bigger picture, see our guides on getting more leads from the visitors you already get and the business case for AI lead generation.

What Does a Drift Replacement Actually Cost?

Here is what each vendor publishes, all checked November 7, 2026, on the pricing pages linked above:

1. Gravity: free for 25 conversations a month with no card; Starter $79 a month for 50, Growth $149 for 200, Scale $249 for 500; extra conversations $1 each (Gravity pricing).
2. Intercom: Fin at $0.99 per resolution, with a monthly minimum when bought on its own; help desk seats from $29 per seat a month on Essential, shown at $19 as a promotion for new customers.
3. Tidio: free for 50 billable conversations; paid plans from about $24 a month billed annually; Lyro from about $32.50 a month.
4. HubSpot: free tools; Starter about $20 per seat billed monthly ($15 billed annually), with a lower promotional price shown.
5. Qualified and 1mind: not published.

Promotional prices change, so check them again before you sign. The bigger cost is what each tool needs from you: staff time for live chat, seats for a help desk, someone keeping the CRM up to date, or a sales team to work the meetings.

Common Questions About Drift Alternatives

What is happening to Drift?

In March 2026, Clari and Salesloft announced a gradual sunset of Drift and an exclusive agreement to refer existing customers to 1mind. The announcement gives no end date. Some vendors report a retirement date of January 31, 2027 and data deletion on May 1, 2027, but those are third-party reports, so confirm the date in your Drift admin and export your data now.

Who is 1mind, and is it the right Drift replacement for me?

1mind is the company Salesloft named as Drift's successor. It builds AI agents that qualify buyers, run demos and book meetings for business-to-business sales teams. It's a strong fit if you have sales reps working your website leads. If you never had that team, look for a tool that qualifies and ranks leads without one.

What is the best Drift alternative if I don't have a sales team?

Pick by who will handle the conversations. Intercom suits businesses running a support help desk, Tidio suits people who want to answer live chat, and HubSpot suits businesses already working in its CRM. If nobody will be watching the chat, Gravity talks with visitors, scores every lead from 1 to 100 with the reason, and ranks who to call now, today and this week.

How is Gravity different from Intercom Fin or Tidio?

Intercom Fin resolves support questions inside a help desk, and Tidio gives your team a live chat inbox with an AI agent. Gravity has no live chat takeover, no help desk and no ticketing. It focuses on visitors who haven't bought yet, qualifies them, scores them and drafts a first message for you to send.

Does Gravity message leads or connect to my CRM?

Gravity never sends messages itself. It drafts a first message and you send it, for example in WhatsApp with the text already filled in. It connects through outbound webhooks, an MCP connection for ChatGPT and Claude, and GA4 and Meta tracking. It has no native HubSpot or Salesforce sync and no Zapier connection.

How much does a Drift replacement cost?

As of November 7, 2026, from each vendor's own pricing page: Gravity is free for 25 conversations a month with no card, then $79, $149 or $249 a month. Intercom Fin is $0.99 per resolution, with help desk seats from $29. Tidio is free for 50 conversations, with paid plans from about $24 a month. HubSpot's tools are free, with Starter at about $20 per seat billed monthly or $15 billed annually. Qualified and 1mind don't publish prices.

Before You Migrate Anything, Talk to Gravity the Way Your Visitors Would

Before you migrate anything, talk to Gravity the way your visitors would. Open the live demo at gravity.sagulabs.ai, ask it what a real prospect would ask, and see the result it gives you at the end. That will tell you more than any comparison table.

If it feels right, the free plan covers 25 conversations a month and doesn't ask for a card, so you can run it on your own site next to whatever you use now. Everything else about AI lead capture that scores every visitor is on the product page. If your situation doesn't fit any row above, tell sagulabs what your website needs to do and we'll tell you honestly whether Gravity is the answer.