Pre-flight: when Boei is the right call

Boei is the right Drift replacement if all four are true:

  • You used Drift mostly for the chat widget and AI auto-reply, not the heavy Playbook scoring.
  • Your inbound is more "support / FAQ deflection" than "sales qualification".
  • You want predictable monthly billing rather than per-lead pricing.
  • You are happy with a generic chat AI rather than ICP-tuned personas.

If any of those are not true, evaluate LeadingPilot or Intercom Fin instead. Boei is a great product for a narrow use case; migrating to it when you needed the other tool is a worse outcome than staying on Drift one more quarter.

Step 1: account + workspace setup

  1. Sign up at boei.help. The 7-day trial requires no credit card.
  2. Create a workspace. Use the same name as your Drift workspace for clarity.
  3. Invite team members at the same access tier they had on Drift (admin / agent / read-only).
  4. Set business hours. Boei uses these to switch between AI-first and live-chat-first modes.
  5. Brand the widget: colour, position (bottom-right is default), greeting message.

Allow 30 minutes for this. The defaults are good; do not over-customise on day one.

Step 2: widget install + script tag swap

Boei provides a one-line script tag, same shape as Drift\'s. The install pattern:

  1. Copy your Boei script tag from Settings → Widget.
  2. In your CMS or site template, paste it before </body>.
  3. Decide on parallel-running strategy: keep Drift live for one weekend while Boei runs alongside, or cut over immediately. We recommend parallel for one weekend.
  4. Test in incognito: load your site, both widgets should appear. Submit a test conversation to each. Confirm both notify your team.

Common issue: CSP. If you have a Content-Security-Policy header on your site, you may need to add script-src + connect-src entries for boei.help. Same shape as the entries you have for Drift today.

Step 3: conversation history (the manual import)

Boei does not have an automatic Drift importer. Three options:

  1. Archive only. Keep your Drift export as a historical archive. Search it manually when you need to reference a prior conversation. Most teams choose this for under 1,000 historical conversations.
  2. Manual paste for active opportunities. If you have 10-50 active deals, paste the relevant Drift transcript into a note attached to the Boei contact. Time: 1-2 minutes per conversation.
  3. CSV-side-load (advanced). Boei accepts contact CSV imports. You can pre-populate contacts from your Drift export so the email-to-conversation match works on first inbound. Skip the actual transcripts.

Step 4: parallel weekend + cutover

Run both widgets on a Friday-to-Monday window. On Monday morning:

  1. Compare the weekend\'s conversations from both tools side by side.
  2. Score each Boei conversation against what your team would have rated it.
  3. If 80%+ of the rating is aligned, cut over: remove the Drift script tag, leave Boei.
  4. If not, tune Boei\'s AI prompts (Settings → AI behaviour) and run one more weekend.
  5. Notify your team in Slack: "Drift is off; route everything through Boei from today."

What you gain and lose vs Drift

What you gain:

  • Flat €14/month bill, predictable.
  • Faster, simpler admin UI.
  • No annual contract.
  • 7-day free trial for ongoing experiments.

What you lose:

  • ICP-specific scoring rubrics. Boei does not score 0-100 on budget/timeline/authority/fit.
  • Tight Salesforce + HubSpot integration. Boei integrates broadly but less deeply.
  • Account-based marketing features. Boei does not target accounts; it engages visitors as they come.
  • Voice and video. Drift\'s premium tier included these; Boei is text + live chat only.

For most SMBs migrating from Drift Standard, what you lose was features you were not using anyway. For Drift Premium customers, the loss is real.