20 Min
Drift starts at $2,500/month. Central starts free.
Multi-platform live chat, lead qualification, and appointment booking. Built for your business, not enterprise sales teams.
Never miss another call.
Enterprise sales tool vs. service front desk.
Subheading: Enterprise sales tool vs. service front desk.
Drift is a conversational marketing platform built for enterprise B2B sales teams. Now part of Salesloft, it is designed to route high-intent website visitors to the right sales rep and accelerate pipeline. For a well-funded SaaS company with a dedicated sales team, it is capable.
For a service business that needs messages answered across WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and SMS, leads qualified, and appointments booked automatically, it was not built for that job. Central was.
Live in minutes
No commitment required
10-day free trial
Enterprise pricing. Single channel.
Drift's Premium plan starts at $2,500/month, billed annually. Advanced and Enterprise require a sales call for pricing. The platform covers website chat only. WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and SMS are not supported. It is designed for B2B enterprise account-based marketing, not service business front desks.
What this means in practice:
Entry price is $2,500/month; higher tiers require a sales conversation
Website only; WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and SMS not covered
No unified inbox for multi-platform conversations
Built for enterprise B2B sales pipelines, not service business lead qualification
Now part of Salesloft; product roadmap tied to an enterprise sales ecosystem most SMBs don't need
Every platform. Published pricing. Starts free.
Central covers every platform your customers message on, qualifies leads, books appointments, and hands off to your team, at a flat monthly rate published on the website.
Every message that comes in becomes an outcome delivered.
What this means in practice:
Web chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, SMS, email, X, Discord, Telegram, and LinkedIn in one inbox
AI qualifies intent and routes accordingly
Appointments confirmed inside the chat, no enterprise sales model required
Full conversation context handed to your team automatically
Flat monthly pricing. No sales call to see what it costs.
What each product actually does
Feature
Starting price
Pricing published online
Platforms covered
Instagram DMs
Facebook messages
SMS
Unified inbox
Appointment booking in chat
Built for service SMBs
Lead qualification
Free trial
Live in minutes
Drift
$2,500/month (Premium, annual)
— (Advanced and Enterprise require sales call)
Website only
—
—
—
—
—
✓ (sales routing model)
— (enterprise B2B sales)
✓
Free plan (basic chat only)
—
Central
Starts free; flat monthly rate
✓
Web, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, SMS, email, X, Discord, Telegram, LinkedIn
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓ (service front desk model)
✓
✓
✓ 10 days, full access
✓
Live today. No sales call. No $2,500 entry price.
Paste your URL, connect your social platforms, and Central starts handling conversations. No enterprise onboarding. Pricing is on the website before you commit. Most businesses are live the same day.
Don't take our word for it
"The first number I saw was $2,500 a month, for website-only chat built for B2B sales teams. Central covered every platform we use, went live the same day, and costs a fraction of what Drift quoted."
Ethan Brooks
Operations Manager, NovaSync
"The first number I saw was $2,500 a month, for website-only chat built for B2B sales teams. Central covered every platform we use, went live the same day, and costs a fraction of what Drift quoted."
Ethan Brooks
Operations Manager, NovaSync
"The first number I saw was $2,500 a month, for website-only chat built for B2B sales teams. Central covered every platform we use, went live the same day, and costs a fraction of what Drift quoted."
Ethan Brooks
Operations Manager, NovaSync