Live chat: Should you build or buy?

Live chat is a popular customer service tool that increases customer satisfaction and retention. Businesses can implement live chat through three main routes: building their own, using a chat-as-a-service (CaaS) product, or using a platform-as-a-service (PaaS). Building a live chat system from scratch offers control and flexibility but requires substantial engineering effort and infrastructure investment. Using a CaaS provides minimal engineering effort and quick time to market but may have limitations in terms of features and fees. A PaaS allows for feature flexibility, fast time to market, guaranteed performance and security, and simple integration while maintaining low latency, guaranteed delivery, scalability, elasticity, and reliability. Regardless of the approach, successful live chat requires foundational elements such as low latency, guaranteed delivery, scalability, elasticity, and rich features.