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Mass digitization of customer journeys is great for most people. But when online users, customers or prospects need help or support, things are more tricky. In these situations, using co-browsing software is often the best solution.
Co-browsing software lets you completely share and take control of a digital experience. This lets you make support journeys better through real-time assistance. Or you can use co-browsing software to help prospects buy complex products (remotely).
Below, we’ll introduce you to 5 of the best co-browsing software tools available right now.
Here’s what to look out for when comparing co-browsing software
When choosing co-browsing software, first check how easy it is to start using. See if you need to download plugins or other software. It's better to go with something that works right in the browser without extra downloads or lengthy implementation time. This way, everyone can join quickly without hassle.
Also, think about security and privacy. Make sure the software has good encryption and follows data protection rules. Look for features like session recording, audit logs, and user permission controls.
These help keep users’ data safe and make your co-browsing sessions run smoothly. Lots of sensitive information can pass through the software, so be mindful of how you want this to be handled.
Best current co-browsing software at a glance
- 1. Surfly - Best overall and the only true universal co-browsing software
- 2. Fullview - Good for simple troubleshooting on your website
- 3. Glia - Good if your looking for an entire platform for CX
- 4. Upscope - Good as a screen sharing replacement
- 5. Cobrowse.io - Good for mobile SDK integrations
Top 5 co-browsing software tools
Here are the 5 best co-browsing software tools available to forward-thinking product, sales and support teams, right now.
1. Surfly
Surfly – that’s us, by the way – is the only true universal co-browsing software available on the market to date. Most co-browsing tools work well on your website but offer a reduced experience elsewhere.
This means external elements on your website (think payment portals, external links, PDFs, etc) don't work very well. Surfly has no limitations and works on everything, everywhere, completely codelessly.
Setting up is simple: you don’t have to make any changes to the target website in order to start co-browsing. You just need a URL, and both you and the user need a web browser. Here’s an interactive demo of how simple co-browsing with Surfly can be.
But there’s more. Our co-browsing software isn’t limited to adding collaborative features to web pages. You can use Surfly to design collaborative user journeys for any digital product or app, too.
This lets you build your collaborative workflows around your users, instead of having to force your users to deal with the limitations of your co-browsing solution.
For instance, Surfly integrates with popular sales and support tech like Salesforce, Zendesk, Cisco Finesse and more. Outside of our prebuilt integrations, we offer all the tools you need to effortlessly link co-browsing into your tools exactly the way you want to.
Your teams shouldn't have to work around a new tool. Our broad integrating capability means you can easily make the tool work around your teams.
Website: https://www.surfly.com/
Clients: Product, sales and support teams in insurance, banking, healthcare and more
Key features:
- Completely codeless, no website changes required
- Universal (iFrame, 3rd party content & offline documents)
- Enables multi-user video calls
- Native e-signing & fully compatible with web e-signing tools (e.g. Docusign)
- Data security - absolutely no session data retained by Surfly
- Fine-grained control switching
- Completely lossless rendering
- Advanced field and element masking
- Secure audit log to monitor actions
- Integrates with popular sales and support tech
- Compliant with AICPA SOC, ISEO/IEC 27001, HIPAA and more
2. Fullview
Fullview offers a comprehensive co-browsing and screen control solution for real-time support and seamless integration with existing workflows. Designed with modern support teams in mind, Fullview allows instantaneous co-browsing and full screen control.
Fullview is particularly notable for its integration with existing CRM and support tools, enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of support teams. It also provides in-depth session recording and playback, so all interactions are documented and can be reviewed for quality and training purposes.
For the session recordings, there’s a separate product called Session Replays, which is free up to 1000 monthly sessions, but for more features, pricing starts at €89 per month. The Co-browsing product you can try for free for 4 calls per month. Priced packages start from €49 per agent per month.
Website: https://www.fullview.io/
Clients: Customer support teams across various industries
Key features:
- Instantaneous co-browsing
- Integration with existing CRM / support tools
- In-depth session recording and playback
- Seamless handover between agents
3. Glia
Glia is a robust digital customer service platform specifically built for financial institutions. It combines co-browsing with AI and various communication tools for more efficient customer interactions.
You can use it for seamless co-browsing, allowing agents to guide customers through complex processes in real-time without the need for any downloads or installations. Glia integrates with a variety of banking and customer service platforms, making it a versatile addition to any financial institution's toolkit. Pricing is only available on request.
Website: https://www.glia.com/
Clients: Financial services, including banks, credit unions, and insurance companies
Key features:
- AI-powered virtual assistants
- Secure, compliant, and scalable solution
- In-depth analytics and customer insights
- Enhanced customer engagement and support efficiency
4. Upscope
Upscope is a screen sharing software tool and visual communication tool that lets support and sales teams instantly share their screens. Quite simple, really. With Upscope, these teams can see what their customers see in one click. They can then draw on their customers’ screens to guide them or take over control.
There are several other options for co-browsing. You can use the co-browsing extension which works well for doing remote sales, as it allows you to share your own browser tab. Or you can play around with their full co-browsing API, based on an iframe embed.
Website: https://upscope.com/
Clients: Support and sales teams that need to share screens
Key features:
- Supports multiple participants
- Customizable API
- Secure co-browsing
- Embed with iframe
5. Cobrowse.io
Cobrowse promises better communication between customers and agents through their co-browsing software for web, mobile and desktop. It enables agents to browse and navigate digital platforms with customers in real time. These platforms include mobile apps, third-party websites and PDFs.
Co-browsing sessions can be initiated through SMS, deep links, 6-digit codes, and smart buttons. The SDK you use to install the co-browsing solution is extremely lightweight. For instance, for mobile apps, Cobrowse boasts < 0.6MB SDKs, so your apps won’t get bloated.
Website: https://cobrowse.io/
Clients: Sales and customer service teams
Key features:
- Mobile camera share
- Supports PDFs and third-party content
- Agent present mode
- 100% white label by default
Co-browsing software FAQs
We’ve compiled answers to some of the most frequently asked questions regarding co-browsing software below.
What are co-browsing tools?
This one’s quite simple. In a nutshell, co-browsing software tools let two or more people use and interact with the same webpage at the same time. It's mainly used in customer support, sales, and other collaborative contexts to provide real-time assistance, guidance, and demonstrations.
The same collaborative features used in co-browsing can also be applied to other digital experiences (think apps or other digital products), which is what Surfly facilitates.
Is it safe to use co-browsing?
Short answer: it depends on the co-browsing software you use. For one, look for certifications like ISO 27001, which deals with secure management of information. But other than that, the general information architecture of the co-browsing tool is important to consider.
At Surfly, security is really a core design principle of our product. Surfly’s technology has been designed to act as infrastructure, with information only passing through but never stored. And when no data is stored, no data can be lost or leaked.
What is the difference between co-browsing and screen sharing?
Screen sharing works by sharing your entire desktop and takes a pixel based approach, which means that snapshots of your entire screen are being taken and streamed over and over again.
Co-browsing technology only streams events, which doesn’t require much bandwidth, and is much more secure.
In the case of Surfly: our co-browsing software offers a higher quality experience that is faster and more secure than screen sharing. This is because we employ an advanced proxy technology that shares the website’s code. While screen sharing tools force you to stream the entire contents of your screen, and code is way smaller than pixels.
