Moving from Drift (Salesloft)
Migrating from Drift (now Salesloft) to Crisp? You're in the right place.
For many teams, Drift has been the tool used to engage website visitors, qualify leads, and turn conversations into pipeline.
That is why switching away from it can feel like more than just changing chat software.
If you're considering Crisp as an alternative, the real question is not whether you will still be able to engage and qualify visitors. It is whether you can do it in a simpler system that also connects conversations, campaigns, customer data, and AI in one place.
This guide is here to make that transition easier. It will show you how Crisp approaches conversations differently, how your current Drift habits translate, and how to migrate step by step without losing momentum.
You'll find:
- Moving from buyer engagement to a unified conversation platform
- How your Drift workflow maps to Crisp
- How AI works in Crisp
- How to migrate step by step
- Ready to make the switch?
Moving from buyer engagement to a unified conversation platform
Drift is designed first and foremost to help revenue teams engage website visitors, qualify leads, and create pipeline through conversation.
Crisp can support the same types of interactions, but it organizes them inside a broader system built around the conversation itself.
Instead of separating chat, qualification, campaigns, and customer context across different layers, Crisp brings them together into one platform.
A conversation-first model
In Crisp, conversations are the central layer.
This means the same environment can be used to:
- engage new visitors
- qualify leads
- continue sales conversations
- and support existing customers
Rather than treating these as separate workflows, Crisp lets your team manage them through one shared conversation system.
One system for chat, data, and follow-up
Crisp does not stop at the chat widget.
Conversations are connected to your contacts, your campaigns, your knowledge base, and your inbox workflow.
This makes it easier to move from a website conversation to a follow-up action, a campaign, or a support exchange without leaving the same platform.
AI is part of the same flow
Crisp also includes Hugo, an AI agent that can handle incoming conversations before they reach your team.
This means visitor engagement, qualification, routing, and escalation can all happen inside the same conversation flow, instead of being managed as separate layers.
Navigating the Hugo interface and features
How Drift maps to Crisp
A Drift setup does not disappear when moving to Crisp, but it does change shape.
The same goals remain: engage visitors, qualify leads, and direct conversations to the right place. What changes is the structure behind those actions.
The five elements below are the clearest way to understand that shift.
1. Conversations (vs Drift Chat)
Drift is centered around website conversations designed to engage visitors and move them further down the funnel.
In Crisp, the same conversation entry point exists, but it lives inside a broader inbox environment where sales, support, and follow-up can continue in the same place.
This means a lead conversation does not stay isolated from the rest of the customer journey.
2. Routing and handoff (vs ownership logic)
In Drift, a key part of the experience is deciding who should receive the conversation once a visitor is qualified.
In Crisp, that logic appears directly inside the conversation through routing and assignment. Conversations can be routed to the right operator, team, or inbox depending on how your workspace is configured.
This gives you a clear way to manage handoff once a visitor needs human follow-up.
How does Routing / Assign work?
3. Workflows / AI Agent (vs Playbooks and AI flows)
Drift is strongly associated with playbooks, qualification bots, and automated chat flows.
In Crisp, this logic is handled through workflows and the AI Agent. Instead of building separate layers around the chat experience, automation lives directly inside the same conversation system.
This is where qualification, routing, and escalation rules can be configured.
Navigating the Hugo interface and features
How to start Workflows situationally with Hugo AI routing
How to integrate Hugo in your Workflows
4. Lead and visitor context (vs lead data in Drift)
Drift is often used to identify visitors, enrich lead profiles, and qualify people based on form answers or behavioral signals.
In Crisp, this context is available directly in the conversation sidebar through contacts, user data, segments, and other visitor details.
This makes it easier to understand who the person is, what is known about them, and what should happen next.
What is a segment and how can it help your team?
How can I automatically set custom data?
5. Inboxes (vs the broader handoff environment)
Once a conversation has been engaged, qualified, or escalated, it still needs to live somewhere your team can work from clearly.
In Crisp, that structure is handled through inboxes and sub-inboxes. This lets you separate conversations by team, use case, or workflow without breaking the continuity of the exchange.
It creates a clearer environment for managing qualification, follow-up, and handoff inside one shared system.
How can I create sub-inboxes in my Crisp Workspace?
How AI works inside Crisp
If you're coming from Drift, you're already familiar with the idea of an AI agent handling conversations at the beginning of the journey.
In Crisp, Hugo plays that role inside the same conversation system used by your team.
AI acts from the first visitor message
Like Drift’s AI chat agent, Hugo can step in as soon as a visitor starts a conversation.
It can analyze the request, use the available context, and decide how the conversation should continue depending on how your workspace is configured.
Getting started with Hugo AI Agent
AI can handle conversations before handoff
In many Crisp setups, incoming conversations are first processed inside the Automated inbox.
This is where Hugo can qualify, answer, or route requests before they are passed to a team member.
If human follow-up is needed, the conversation is then sent to the appropriate inbox.
How Hugo handles conversations automatically?
AI stays connected to the same inbox environment
In Drift, AI, qualification, and routing are primarily part of the website engagement layer.
In Crisp, once Hugo escalates a conversation, the exchange stays inside the same inbox environment.
Operators can review what happened, access the context, and continue the conversation from there.
Migration: step by step
Once you understand how Crisp works, the next step is to migrate your Drift setup.
The goal is not to rebuild your playbooks exactly as they were, but to recreate your lead engagement and qualification flow inside Crisp, while keeping your data and routing logic intact.
Here is the recommended approach.
Step 1: Import your leads and key data
Start by importing your contacts so your team keeps access to the leads captured in Drift.
In most Drift setups, this includes:
- email addresses
- basic qualification data
- custom attributes collected during conversations
You can import this data using a .csv file or sync it via API if needed.
The goal is not to rebuild a full CRM, but to make sure your team keeps access to the essential lead information used during conversations.
How can I automatically set custom data?
Step 2: Rebuild your qualification and routing flow
Drift playbooks are central to how you qualify visitors and route them to the right person.
In Crisp, this logic is rebuilt using:
- workflows
- the AI Agent (Hugo)
- routing and assignment rules
Focus on:
- the key qualification questions you ask
- how answers are stored (custom data or segments)
- how conversations are routed after qualification
The objective is to recreate your core qualification and handoff logic, not to copy every playbook step by step.
How to integrate Hugo in your Workflows
How to start Workflows with Hugo routing
How does Routing / Assign work?
Step 3: Rebuild your follow-up and engagement flows
If you used Drift to continue the conversation after qualification (for example through follow-ups or outbound messages), you can recreate similar flows in Crisp.
This is typically done through:
- campaigns
- workflows
- integrations with your existing tools
The goal is to continue engaging leads after the first interaction and guide them toward the next step in your funnel.
How to use automated campaigns
Step 4: Reconnect visitor identity and manage the transition
Drift often relies on identifying visitors across sessions and linking conversations to known users.
In Crisp, you can reproduce this behavior using:
- session continuity
- custom user data
This ensures conversations stay connected to the same person over time.
At the same time, define how you handle the transition:
- keep Drift active during migration
- start new conversations in Crisp
- progressively move your team workflow
This allows you to switch without disrupting your lead generation activity.
How to restore chat sessions with a token
Recommendation
You don’t need to migrate everything at once.
Most teams start with:
- importing leads
- rebuilding qualification workflows
- setting up routing and AI
Then refine the rest over time.
The goal is to restore your lead engagement flow quickly, without overcomplicating the setup.
Ready to make the switch?
Switching from Drift to Crisp does not mean giving up your ability to engage visitors, qualify leads, and move conversations forward.
Those same goals remain, but inside a system that connects conversations, routing, customer data, campaigns, and AI more directly.
Instead of managing visitor engagement as a separate layer, Crisp brings it into a broader conversation platform where sales, support, and follow-up can work together in the same flow.
If you’re considering the switch, the best way to understand the difference is to try it with your own setup.
Our team is here to guide you. Don’t hesitate to reach out directly from your workspace or through our website.
Updated on: 31/03/2026
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