FAQ

Can I customize the Olark CSS?

We don’t offer custom CSS, primarily because our customization tools already provide extensive control over your chatbox size, shape, location, text, colors, and more. We also offer advanced control of your chatbox appearance and behavior via our Javascript API.

Can I resell Olark?

Yes! You can join our Referral Program to earn commissions for every new customer you refer.

Already an Olark affiliate? Log in to your account via our Partner Portal.

Can I use Olark on multiple domains?

Yes! You can add Olark to as many domains and subdomains as you want, manage chats across all domains from one account, and use automation rules to route chats and keep your agents organized.

Do I have to be online all the time?

Nope! You can staff chat whenever it’s convenient for you — in our experience, customers appreciate having access to chat even if it’s just a few hours per week. When you’re not around, you can choose from multiple offline settings, including a customized away message, a contact form, or hiding the chat box entirely.

Do I need a developer to install Olark?

Probably not. If you have edit access to your website HTML, you can simply follow our HTML installation guide to add the Olark code. If you’re using a popular CMS or eCommerce site like BigCommerce, or Wordpress, you can install an Olark plugin. To get started, see our full list of plugin installation guides.

Even if you do need help from a developer, you won’t need much of their time. Installing Olark is a quick copy-and-paste task that should take less than five minutes.

Do you offer video chat?

No — but we do have other visual tools. All of our paid plans include file upload functionality to allow you and your visitors to share images, screenshots, and documents. We also offer a Cobrowsing PowerUp as a monthly paid add-on. Cobrowsing allows agents to view, highlight, and control a visitor’s screen, and is an invaluable tool for guiding visitors through purchase decisions and complex interactions.

Does Olark have an API?

Yes! We offer a JavaScript API that allows you to further customize the the appearance and functionality of your Olark chat box. Explore our API documentation to get started.

Want to use our API to create an integration with your platform? Contact developers@olark.com.

Does Olark offer any bots?

Maybe? Depends on what you mean by “bot” :) We get lots of questions about bots, and we’ve found that what most folks are really asking is something along the lines of: Does Olark offer any way to automate interactions, so the humans on my team can focus on higher-value chats?

The answer to that question is a resounding “yes”! Our goal is to empower the humans on your live chat team to be as effective and efficient as possible. To make that happen, we offer lots of handy automation options — from greeting visitors with custom messages, to selectively showing and hiding your chatbox based on visitor behavior.

To learn more about automating interactions with Olark, check out our automation guides and API documentation.

How much does Olark cost?

Olark uses per-agent pricing, so the exact cost of your Olark plan will depend on the size of your chat team.

One big benefit of per-agent pricing is that you only pay for the number of agents you need. You can adjust your team size at any time, and the price adjustment will be applied to your next billing cycle. Another benefit is that all plans include the same features — you don’t need a special upgrade to get access to unlimited chat conversations, offline messages, visitor profiles, automation tools, or canned responses.

You have three plan options when you sign up for Olark: $29 per agent/per month with no required contract. You can cancel at any time with no fee. $23 per agent/per month (a 21% discount) with a 1 year contract that is paid in full when you sign up. $19 per agent/per month (a 35% discount) with a 2 year contract that is paid in full when you sign up.

We also offer several PowerUps for teams that need extra features not included in our basic plans. PowerUps are billed monthly as a flat fee, the number of agents in your plan does not affect PowerUp pricing, and prices range from $29 to $99 per month.

Is Olark free?

All accounts start on a free 14-day trial of our paid plan. If you decide at the end of your trial that the paid plan isn’t right for your business, you can choose to downgrade your account to a free plan. The free plan includes one agent login, a maximum of 20 chats per month, and limited feature access.

During your trial you will have access to all of Olark’s basic features, including canned responses, automation, and reporting. You can add as many agents as you want during your trial, so your whole team can experience Olark — simply remove any agents who won’t be using Olark regularly before your trial ends.

How you use your trial is entirely up to you! If you’re not ready to install Olark or start chatting, you can still learn a lot about our features and functionality just by exploring our settings options, dashboards, admin tools, and chat console. We’ll provide resources, tutorials, and recommended steps to help you learn your way around Olark’s features.

If you decide to downgrade, we’d love to hear your feedback on what might make a paid plan a better fit for your business! Email your feedback to support@olark.com, or join us on live chat to share your thoughts.

Is there an Olark mobile app?

We do not have a native mobile app, but you can connect Olark with several third party mobile apps so your agents can chat on the go.

Once I sign up for Olark, how do I get help when I have a question?

On chat, of course! Live chat support is available Monday through Friday, from 10am EST until 7pm EST or Tweet us at @OlarkSupport. If you need help outside those hours, you can email support@olark.com, and we’ll respond as quickly as possible — usually within one business day.

Wait...What's an agent?

A superhero! Agents are the people who use Olark to chat with visitors on your website; they are on the front line helping customers and closing sales.

Olak has two permission levels for each agent in your account: Agent and Administrator. Administrators have access to all of your account settings, user profiles, and chat ratings. Agents have limited access and can only view ratings for their own chats.

What is All Hands Support?

At Olark, we not only have an award-winning customer support team dedicated to helping our customers — we also practice something we call All Hands Support.

Every Olarker, all the way up through our executive and management team, takes regular chat support shifts. This gives the entire organization the opportunity to connect with our customers, so that we all have direct insight into the challenges you’re facing and the goals you’re working to achieve with live chat.

If your team practices All Hands Support, we’d love to hear about your experience! Email us at support@olark.com to share your story.

What is Olark?

Olark is a people-first software company committed to helping businesses achieve sustainable long-term growth. We offer an easy-to-use live chat tool that helps businesses boost sales, provide support, and build valuable relationships with customers on their websites.

Olark helps connect you to the right customer, in the right place, at the right time. Sign up for a free 14 day trial to start exploring how we can help you grow your business with every conversation.

What is Orlak?

Orlak and Oalrk are common misspellings of Olark. It may also be a mythical, good-natured troll that wanders the hills of Norway looking for lost souls to help. Orlak can be found hanging out with Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, and the Yeti.

Where are you located?

We are a fully remote team!

Our employees hail from California, Maine, Brazil, the UK, and everywhere in between. Being fully remote has allowed us to build a diverse and exceptionally talented team that’s truly committed to helping our customers grow their businesses. Our team stays connected on Zoom and Slack, and yes, sometimes we work in our pajamas.

Where does Olark store my data? Is it secure?

Yes, your data is secure. All data that is collected is stored in an encrypted format. All chat transcript data and visitor information (IP address, browser, referring page) is stored in access controlled databases in the United States. For more information, refer to our features and security information (RFI/RFP) and our Privacy Policy.

Who handles my chat? Does Olark answer chats for me?

We don’t answer chats for you. We provide software that makes it easy for you to answer chats! Once you install Olark on your site, how you staff agents is up to you. The businesses that use Olark have many different approaches to staffing agents depending on their companies specific resources and goals. Some have a team with agents who just chat, others have multi-tasking agents who not only chat but also manage other aspects of the business, or help customers in-person.

If you’d like to talk through possible options for staffing and managing your agents, feel free to chat with us or email support@olark.com — we’d be more than happy to share our perspective!

If you’re interested in learning more about customer service, or if your team needs a little more training before hopping on chat, we highly recommend exploring Olark Courses. Our own award-winning customer service team designed these courses to help you improve your existing skills, learn new best practices, and really understand what makes great customer service.