Live Chat Software for AI and Human Support

Social Intents: for Teams- or Slack-based support

Social Intents is worth considering if your team wants website conversations handled from collaboration tools or a web inbox. Its described routing choices include AI answering first with a handoff, AI and the team answering together, team-only handling, or team-first handling with AI after hours. The site also describes a built-in help desk that can turn a conversation into a ticket with status, assignment, and email or SMS follow-up, plus offline message collection. This gives a small support team options for deciding who replies and how missed conversations are followed up.

Check the plan's price and agent or conversation limits against your expected volume. Also ask whether visitors can start a chat as guests. A routing mode or follow-up capability does not tell you what a plan costs, so check the limits that matter to your expected volume.

Tidio: for small teams testing free live chat

Tidio suits a small team that wants a free starting point for website conversations and a defined agent allowance. Its Free plan allows up to 10 live chat agents and 50 conversations per month. When the limit is reached, the team is notified and cannot see or respond to further incoming communication. That cap is consequential if customers depend on chat for time-sensitive help.

The free allowance is limited. Tidio describes conversations broadly across channels, so distinguish the live-chat conversation cap from any separate AI allowance before estimating capacity. Check what counts toward the plan and what visitors experience at the limit. If cited AI answers matter to your workflow, confirm that capability directly.

Help Scout: for an inbox-led team adding website chat

Help Scout is a fit for teams that want a shared customer conversation workspace alongside email support. Its Free plan includes 5 users, 1 Inbox, and 1 Docs site. Help Scout also offers live chat on websites or in apps, and AI Answers uses knowledge-base content and custom sources to answer customers.

The Free plan facts establish an inbox and Docs site, not free website chat. Check the tier and AI charging model against your workflow rather than assuming that the presence of a shared inbox includes every channel, and ask whether AI Answers is billed per resolution.

Chatbase: for a content-trained website chatbot

Chatbase is a candidate for teams prioritizing an AI chatbot built from their own content. A review describes using website URLs, PDFs, and knowledge bases to create a chatbot, and describes escalation to a human when the bot reaches the edge of what it knows. That makes it relevant when the first requirement is answering repeat questions from business material.

A chatbot with human escalation is not automatically the same as a shared inbox where agents can take over and manage tickets. Check that distinction if your team needs a place to work unresolved conversations, not just an escalation path, and confirm whether it includes the agent inbox, offline messages, follow-up email, and answer citations you need.

momo: for a docs-grounded front line and shared human inbox

This tool is for store owners and support leads who want an AI front line grounded in business content, with a human inbox for conversations that need a person. It retrieves relevant passages, drafts an answer, and checks the draft against those sources. Confident answers go out with citations; when the system is not confident, the visitor is told it is not sure and a ticket is opened for the team. Teammates can take over a conversation live, and a human answer can be saved as approved knowledge through the Teach step.

Match the plan to the traffic and channels you actually need. Its plans use flat fees in euros and include a set number of AI conversations; they do not charge per resolution or sell credit packs. The website widget is available today, email and Slack are also live channels, and Shopify is in preview. momo is source available under the PolyForm Internal Use License: companies can run and modify it for their own use, but cannot resell it, host it for others, or redistribute it.

Choose by team size, channels, and monthly budget

Start with the people who will answer conversations. If you are a small team, compare the free limits carefully: an allowance described as monthly conversations is different from a one-time AI conversation allowance. Tidio Free has up to 10 live chat agents and 50 conversations per month, but incoming communication stops being visible and replyable after the limit is reached. Help Scout Free includes 5 users, an Inbox, and a Docs site, but those facts alone do not establish that website live chat is included in Free. The Free plan includes one team member, one agent, the website widget, an inbox, and 30 AI conversations once.

Next, map the channels customers actually use to the channels available on the plan you are considering. Its live channels are the website widget, email, and Slack. Shopify is in preview, and WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger are marked coming soon. Social Intents describes website chat answered through Teams, Slack, or its web inbox, as well as ticketing and offline messages. Help Scout describes email and live chat on a website or in an app. These are not identical channel sets, so match them to your existing support workflow rather than choosing by a broad label such as omnichannel.

Then decide how AI should fit around agents. If you mainly need an AI chatbot trained on website and document content, Chatbase's described website, PDF, and knowledge-base inputs may be relevant. If support needs a shared inbox for agents to take over uncertain conversations, ask how escalation becomes work the team can see and answer. Uncertain questions are sent to a ticket in its inbox; Social Intents describes conversations becoming tickets; Help Scout provides shared inboxes. Ask each vendor how an unresolved chat reaches an agent and becomes work the team can see and answer.

Finally, model the fee against your expected workload. The flat-fee option charges in EUR and includes AI conversations, with no per-resolution fee or credit packs. On paid plans, an AI conversation can contain up to 25 AI replies; Free allows up to 10. Tidio's stated Free cap measures conversations monthly, so compare each plan's usage measure, limit behavior, and human seats before you pick a plan. Compare the definition of a conversation, what happens at the limit, and the human seats your team needs before you pick a plan. For a broader setup checklist, see this guide to choosing website live chat, or read our live chat application guide for practical setup considerations.