Live Chat Software Review: 7 Tools Compared

Tidio — for ecommerce teams combining agents and AI

Tidio suits teams that want live chat and an AI chatbot in the same support motion. Its free plan lists 50 live chat conversations and 50 Lyro AI conversations, alongside separate allowances for chatbot visitors and email. That separation matters: an AI conversation allowance is not the same thing as the number of live chats an agent can handle. The reported Starter plan begins at $29 per month and includes 100 live chat or ticket conversations; Growth is reported from $59 per month with an allowance of up to 2,000 conversations. Those figures and limits should be checked against the current plan before purchase. The practical trade-off is that you need to understand which quota applies to the work your team actually does.

tawk.to — for small teams prioritizing free human chat

The evidence describes tawk.to as free live chat for small businesses, with visitor tracking, collaboration tools, and a knowledge base builder. Its help content can serve visitors looking for answers and agents using internal articles. A documented escalation path lets a visitor search for an answer, then create a record that can be assigned to a rep, prioritized, and answered by email. That makes it a useful example of human-first chat with a route to follow-up. Video and voice are described as paid add-ons. The trade-off is operational: a free chat tool still requires people to monitor incoming conversations and respond when the self-service search does not resolve the question.

LiveChat — for teams focused on an agent chat console

LiveChat is described as having a clean, modern chat console, with options to connect other channels through Twilio. A reported Team price is $41 per agent per month when billed annually or $49 month to month. Another supplied price reference differs, so treat those figures as a starting point to verify rather than a current quote. Its per-agent model makes staffing an important part of the cost calculation: include the agents who need access, not just the widget. The trade-off is that a polished live-agent workflow does not remove the need to plan coverage or decide how repeat questions will be answered when agents are busy.

HubSpot — for teams already working in its CRM

HubSpot Live Chat is described as part of its free basic CRM, with chat conversations stored in a shared inbox enriched with CRM context. That can suit a team already managing leads or customer conversations in HubSpot. Paid HubSpot Sales Hub seat prices apply to those plans, not as a universal live-chat price. Its practical trade-off is that the value and cost depend on the wider HubSpot tools a team uses; compare the specific subscription and seat requirements for your workflow.

Zendesk — for support teams looking across several channels

A reported Zendesk Suite Team plan starts at $55 per agent per month and includes live chat, email, voice, social media, and a knowledge base. That breadth can suit a support operation that wants more than a website chat widget. The per-agent price means team size is part of the entry cost. Check the exact plan before deciding whether the included channel set matches your queue and whether you need a wider support suite or a more focused chat setup.

Olark — for teams that want agent routing controls

Olark’s reported Standard plan costs $29 per month per seat. Olark offers round-robin routing to the next available agent or a mode where chats stay open until someone responds. Teams can also limit how many chats an agent handles at once. Those controls make it relevant to teams that manage live-agent capacity closely. The trade-off is a seat-based cost and a workflow centered on staffing and routing. Optional PowerUps are also reported at extra monthly prices, so include any add-ons you need when estimating spend.

AI-first option — for teams grounding replies in their own content

The flat-fee option is for teams that want AI to answer from business knowledge and route uncertain questions to a human inbox. It retrieves relevant passages, drafts an answer, and checks the draft against those sources. Confident replies go out with citations; below the confidence line, the visitor is told the AI is not sure and a ticket is opened. A teammate can take over live, and a human answer can later be saved as approved knowledge through the Teach step. Knowledge can come from a website crawl, PDFs, Word files, plain text, and Q&A pairs. The trade-off is that it is an AI-first front line, not a live-agent-only chat product; its current channels are the website widget, email, and Slack, while Shopify is in preview.

Choose by team size, channels, and budget

For a small store, first decide whether you can staff live chat during the hours customers ask for help. A free human-chat option and an AI-first option solve different problems: one puts an agent at the center of the conversation, while the other attempts to answer repeat questions from business knowledge and routes uncertain cases to a person. Do not compare a live-chat allowance with an AI conversation allowance as though they measure the same workload. Tidio, for example, reports separate free limits for live chat and Lyro, as well as separate chatbot-visitor and email figures. Check how the vendor counts each type of interaction and what happens at the limit.

For a growing support team, count the people who need seats and the channels the team actually monitors. Zendesk’s reported Suite Team price is per agent and includes chat, email, voice, social media, and a knowledge base. Olark’s reported Standard price is per seat, with routing and agent chat controls. LiveChat is also described with per-agent pricing references, though the supplied figures conflict. Ask whether the plan and its price fit the team you have now, not just the widget you want to install. For a team already using HubSpot, weigh the convenience of chat in its CRM context against the exact HubSpot subscription and seat terms.

Then test the handoff rather than stopping at a demo answer. Use real unanswered customer questions: a policy exception, a missing detail, or a request that calls for judgment. See whether the visitor can reach a person, what information is collected, where the conversation lands, and what context the agent receives. A useful AI workflow should make uncertainty visible instead of inventing a refund promise or a delivery commitment. For live-agent tools, test how the team assigns and follows up on an unattended conversation.

Finally, check the specific channels and knowledge inputs on the plan you will buy. It currently offers a website widget, email, and Slack; Shopify is in preview, while WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger are coming soon. Growth and Scale include Slack, API, Zapier, and webhooks; Shopify should not be treated as a shipped integration. The Free plan has a one-time allowance of 30 AI conversations, one agent, one team member, a widget, and up to 10 knowledge sources. Paid monthly allowances are 500 on Starter, 2,000 on Growth, and 6,000 on Scale. Match those limits to expected support work, then compare the flat plan fee rather than looking for a per-resolution charge.