Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

GoCardless VS Drift

Compare GoCardless VS Drift and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

GoCardless logo GoCardless

UK's leading online direct debit provider

Drift logo Drift

A messaging app that helps you grow your business.
  • GoCardless Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-02-10
  • Drift Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-23

Drift

Website
drift.com
Release Date
2015 January
Startup details
Country
United States
City
Boston
Founder(s)
David Cancel
Employees
250 - 499

GoCardless features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    GoCardless offers an intuitive user interface that simplifies the process of setting up and managing recurring payments.
  • Cost-Effective
    GoCardless charges a competitive fee for its services, making it an affordable option for small to medium-sized businesses.
  • Seamless Integration
    It integrates easily with various accounting and invoicing software like Xero, QuickBooks, and Zuora, which helps streamline business operations.
  • Global Reach
    GoCardless supports payments in multiple currencies and countries, allowing businesses to reach a broader audience.
  • Automated Workflows
    Its automation features enable the setting up of advanced workflows for recurring payments, reducing the administrative burden.
  • High Security
    It provides robust security features, including data encryption and compliance with major financial regulations, ensuring your transactions are secure.

Possible disadvantages of GoCardless

  • Limited Payment Methods
    GoCardless primarily supports direct debit payments, which might be limiting for businesses that need a variety of payment options like credit cards.
  • Geographical Restrictions
    While GoCardless has a global presence, it is not available in all countries, which may limit its utility for some businesses.
  • Setup Time
    Initial setup and verification might take some time, potentially delaying the start of using the service.
  • Transaction Limits
    There are limits on the transaction amounts that can be processed, which might be restrictive for larger businesses.
  • Customer Support
    Some users have reported slow or subpar customer support, which can be frustrating when issues arise.
  • Refund Process
    The refund process can be cumbersome and slow, creating potential issues for businesses that need to handle refunds frequently.

Drift features and specs

  • Real-time Customer Engagement
    Drift allows you to engage with website visitors in real-time through live chat, helping to convert leads faster and improving customer service.
  • AI-Powered Chatbots
    Drift provides AI-powered chatbots that can handle basic customer inquiries and route them to the appropriate representative, saving time and resources.
  • Advanced Analytics
    Drift offers comprehensive analytics tools to track chat performance, customer behavior, and conversion rates, which helps businesses make informed decisions.
  • Integration Capabilities
    Drift integrates well with popular CRM systems, marketing tools, and other third-party applications, enhancing overall workflow and data synchronization.
  • Customizable Chat Widgets
    Drift provides customizable chat widgets that can be tailored to match the branding and specific needs of your website, offering a cohesive user experience.

Possible disadvantages of Drift

  • Cost
    Drift can be relatively expensive compared to other live chat solutions, making it less accessible for small businesses or startups with limited budgets.
  • Complexity
    The platform has a steep learning curve, especially for those who are not tech-savvy, which can make the initial setup and usage challenging.
  • Limited Features in Free Plan
    The free version of Drift offers limited features, which may not meet the needs of businesses looking for more advanced functionalities.
  • Performance Issues
    Some users have reported occasional performance issues, such as lagging or downtime, which can disrupt customer engagement efforts.
  • Over-Reliance on Automation
    While AI-powered chatbots are a significant advantage, an over-reliance on them can sometimes lead to a lack of personal touch, potentially alienating customers.

Analysis of GoCardless

Overall verdict

  • Overall, GoCardless is considered a good choice for businesses seeking an efficient and cost-effective way to handle direct debit payments. Its reputation for reliability and ease of use makes it a favorable option among small to medium-sized enterprises.

Why this product is good

  • GoCardless is widely regarded as a reliable and user-friendly online payment solution specializing in recurring payments, such as those needed for subscriptions or invoicing. It offers simple integration with various billing platforms, competitive pricing, and strong security measures, making it an attractive option for businesses looking to streamline their payment processes.

Recommended for

  • Small to medium-sized businesses
  • Companies needing recurring payment solutions
  • Businesses seeking direct debit options
  • Firms looking for seamless integration with existing financial tools

Analysis of Drift

Overall verdict

  • Drift is considered a good option for businesses looking to enhance their customer communication and streamline their sales processes through conversational marketing. Its robust features and user-friendly interface make it a worthwhile tool for many organizations.

Why this product is good

  • Drift is a well-regarded conversational marketing and sales platform that focuses on enhancing customer engagement, lead generation, and customer support. It is praised for its live chat features, AI-driven chatbots, and seamless integrations with other marketing and sales tools. These features can help businesses improve their customer interactions and increase conversion rates.

Recommended for

  • Businesses aiming to improve customer engagement and lead generation
  • Companies looking to integrate chatbots for customer support
  • Marketing and sales teams seeking to streamline communication processes
  • Organizations that value integration with existing CRM and marketing tools

GoCardless videos

GoCardless - What happens when GoCardless Fails to Collect a Payment - How to Collect Money

More videos:

  • Tutorial - How to explain GoCardless and Direct Debit to your customers
  • Review - The power of gocardless

Drift videos

Drift Review | Adam LZ's 240sx

More videos:

  • Review - THE BEST CAR I'VE EVER DRIFTED! 489Whp C6 Corvette Drift Review
  • Review - YouTubers Drift Crashes

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to GoCardless and Drift)
Online Payments
100 100%
0% 0
Customer Support
0 0%
100% 100
Recurring Billing
100 100%
0% 0
Live Chat
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare GoCardless and Drift

GoCardless Reviews

The 8 Best Payment Processing Systems
GoCardless makes it quick and easy to get started, and with no contracts or long-term commitment required, thereโ€™s no risk. You can set up instant, one-off, or recurring payments in the merchant dashboard in just a few clicks, and GoCardless automatically creates and sends all the necessary forms, doing all the heavy lifting for you. You can also connect to GoCardless via...
Source: gocardless.com
Top 12 UK Open banking API Providers you must know in 2025
In the evolving landscape of payment solutions, GoCardless has established itself as a prominent provider of direct bank payment services. Leveraging Open Banking technology, GoCardless offers businesses efficient methods for collecting both recurring and one-off payments directly from customersโ€™ bank accounts.

Drift Reviews

Top 14 AI Lead Generation Software & Tools: A Detailed Comparison
CIENCE offers a complete lead generation solution, combining human expertise with AI-driven tools like MemoryAI for multi-threaded outreachโ€”something tools like Instantly.ai or Copilot.ai lack. Unlike Seamless.ai, which focuses on contact discovery, or Drift, limited to conversational AI, CIENCE covers the full process, from outreach to appointment setting.
Source: www.cience.com
10 best Manychat alternatives in 2024 (free & paid)
Drift is a platform for conversational marketing, sales, and service. You can use it to connect with your website visitors, answer their questions and get insight into their preferences, collaborate with teammates to sell faster, and more.
Source: chatfuel.com
12 Best Free Chrome Screen Recorder with audio 2022
Drift is also a noteworthy screen recorder for Google Chrome, with which you can easily record videos, screens, and GIFs. It also allows you to record voice and mouse movements from any window.
The 36 Best Marketing Automation Tools to Use in 2020
Drift is a conversational marketing and sales platform that helps you connect with the leads that are ready to buy. Drift is the first company to leverage the power of live chat and automated chatbots for sales purposes. Since their launch in 2014, theyโ€™ve established themselves as the best customer messaging platform to help you book more sales meetings, shorten your sales...
Source: encharge.io

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, GoCardless should be more popular than Drift. It has been mentiond 8 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

GoCardless mentions (8)

  • Show HN: I made a double-entry based personal finance app
    Https://gocardless.com offers a fairly generous free tier, and it can do transaction syncing with nearly every European bank. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • GnuCash Tutorial and Concepts Guide
    [ActualBudget](https://actualbudget.org/) supports open banking via [GoCardless](https://gocardless.com/). GoCardless (previously nordigen) deal with meeting the Open Banking standards and connecitng to all the banks and provide you with a fairly straightforward API for it. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Ask HN: Who is hiring? (April 2023)
    GoCardless | Software Development Engineer - Core Infrastructure | Full-Time | ONSITE | Riga, Latvia | https://gocardless.com Weโ€™re an award-winning London-based fintech, with additional offices in Riga, Paris, Melbourne and New York. Now we are searching for engineers interested in infrastructure management and the site reliability engineering problem space. Do you enjoy working with the tech stack below? - Source: Hacker News / over 3 years ago
  • Show HN: List of Stripe Alternatives
    Seems like every time there's a negative Stripe story on here, the inevitable question, "any alternatives?" gets asked. Hell, I was tempted to ask myself. Instead, I decided to search hn.algolia.com to see for myself what others have recommended in the past. Might as well share the list with y'all, make it meta. -- 2Checkout | https://www.2checkout.com Adyen | https://www.adyen.com Amazon Pay |... - Source: Hacker News / over 3 years ago
  • Is it GoCardless an accepted mean of payment ?
    I live in England as a guardian, and the agency collects the License Fee (aka rent) + Service charge through this "payment institution" called GoCardless. Https://gocardless.com/ I don't know which other services they provide, but basically what they require for me is to set up a pseudo Direct-Debit with them in which you give out your card details. The fact is that I have been in arrears for literaly one day,... Source: almost 4 years ago
View more

Drift mentions (1)

  • Why is google chrome bypassing my firewall?
    I have a ZYXEL C3000Z modem/router and setup the "Website Blocking" for drift.com. When I use IE, Edge, Firefox, all have page block site from the router which is what I want. Source: about 5 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing GoCardless and Drift, you can also consider the following products

Stripe - Online payment processing for internet businesses. Stripe is a suite of payment APIs that powers commerce for online businesses of all sizes. Use Stripeโ€™s payment platform to accept and process payments online for easy-to-use commerce solutions.

Intercom - Intercom is a customer relationship management and messaging tool for web businesses. Build relationships with users to create loyal customers.

BlueSnap - BlueSnap is a global payment service provider powering the checkout process for eCommerce merchants...

Zendesk - Zendesk is a beautiful, lightweight help-desk solution.

Chargebee - Chargebee lets you manage subscriptions and payments at scale, handle custom recurring billing scenarios, reduce subscription churn and simplify accounting.

Crisp Chat - Multi-channel customer support software