There are dozens of solutions developed for Live Support software. However, your needs and the budget you have allocated for this business are very important here. When I needed that kind of software, I started searching alternatives and I couldn’t find a solution that would satisfy my needs. I created a system myself using the NodeJS environment and the Socket.IO library.

There were different aspects of my need. The first was ReactNative support or API support that we could integrate because we wanted customers to write via the app. Our second main requirement was that live support was linked to our current membership system and that the agent could easily access user information when he/she entered the conversation. Apart from these, we had general requests such as using a Socket, storing past conversations in a database, and being able to answer different people simultaneously as an agent. The alternative that provided all of them was scarce, and the providers offered them in different packages. The budget that had to be paid to have it all was a lot for our project. Then I asked why I don’t code my system according to my needs.

Screenshot from both the agent and user chat screen.
Screenshot from both the agent and user chat screen.

different packages. The budget that had to be paid to have it all was a lot for our project. Then I asked why I don’t code my system according to my needs.

I have created a system that meets my needs by using the Socket.IO library in the Node.js backend. I have now uploaded this to Github in general and I am making it available to those who have trouble like me. Maybe it is not a full product, but at least it can be a good starting point, and afterwards, customizations can be made.

Key Features of this Live Desk Service

  • Users can open a chat and agents can join different users’ chat and answer them.
  • You can connect your own authentication system from web service since this software doesn’t use its own.
  • Uses Node.Js as backend
  • Stores general information on MongoDB.
  • Uses sockets to send and receive messages with the help of Socket.IO library
  • To have persistent storage after the chat ends, it writes messages to MongoDB as well.
  • It has sample HTML interfaces that you can try the chat system directly. You can later customize it with your own authentication and design if you want.

Where to start?

You can follow the readme file on my Github repository to start using it now: https://github.com/burakgzt/Live-Desk-Nodejs