Are you searching for the finest live chat software for your website?
If you are using WordPress or any other website builder, there are numerous helpful live chat tools available that can assist you in engaging with your customers.
In order to assist you in selecting the most suitable choice for your website, we have compiled a collection of the best five options that cater to various budgets and feature requirements, including a few live chat software options that are available for free indefinitely.
We will provide information on the following aspects for every tool.
- A quick summary table
- General introduction to the tool
- How you can chat with visitors
- Pricing information
- Pros and cons
Shall we start?
9 Best Live Chat Software Providers Compared In Detail
1. LiveChat – Best Live Chat Software for Powerful Features
LiveChat is widely recognized as a leading SaaS live chat service, renowned for its comprehensive range of features aimed at enhancing productivity, optimization, and various other aspects. Additionally, LiveChat provides meticulously crafted interfaces across all areas.
When concentrating solely on its functionality and user experience, LiveChat emerges as one of the top live chat tools available. However, it should be noted that it is also among the more expensive choices, particularly for those with a large number of agents, so individuals with budget constraints might consider exploring alternative live chat software.
In general, we strongly suggest LiveChat as the leading choice for enterprises that have significant requirements for live chat.
However, if you are solely looking for a basic chat tool for your website, you can easily discover cost-effective or free alternatives that effectively fulfill your requirements.
Advantages:
- Packed with features. You get a ton of useful features for productivity, optimization, and so on.
- All of the frontend and backend interfaces and apps are well-designed.
- The ChatBot service is very nice and easy to use (though it costs extra).
- There’s an app marketplace with 200+ apps. This gives you unparalleled flexibility compared to other live chat plugins when it comes to features and integrations.
- Multichannel chat support for WhatsApp, FB Messenger, and more.
- If you have an eCommerce store, LiveChat offers special eCommerce features.
Drawbacks:
- There’s no free version, though you can try it with a 14-day free trial.
- It can be expensive if you have a lot of agents because it uses per-agent pricing.
2. tawk.to – Best Forever Free Live Chat Software
Tawk.to stands out as a highly sought-after live chat plugin/tool due to its irresistible value proposition: providing free and unlimited access to all live chat features.
However, it also offers a comprehensive range of features that are comparable to those found in paid SaaS tools. These features include productivity and optimization tools, such as canned responses and agent transfers, which are essential for efficient operation.
If you are specifically seeking a free live chat tool, tawk.to is undoubtedly one of the top choices available.
Advantages:
- Access to all live chat features for free forever.
- Despite being free, tawk.to offers just as many advanced features as paid tools.
- Add unlimited agents for free.
Drawbacks:
- No chatbot support, so it’s not a good option if you want to create chatbots. Tawk.to does have automation on its roadmap, though.
- No multichannel chat support for other platforms like FB Messenger.
3. Tidio – Best Live Chat User Experience
Tidio, which is a widely used live chat tool, is compatible with all kinds of websites, including WordPress.
Tidio impresses with its contemporary chat interface, which is equally impressive on both the frontend and backend. Although design opinions may vary, we believe that Tidio offers one of the most aesthetically pleasing chat experiences.
Tidio showcases robust chatbot features, similar to LiveChat, but distinguishing itself with a significant distinction – Tidio offers a perpetually free plan with full functionality.
Advantages:
- Has a pretty solid forever-free plan.
- The interface is very well-designed and creates a good experience for your customers.
- While you need to pay extra for the chatbot plans, they allow unlimited chatbot interactions, which is pretty unique. For example, LiveChat’s similarly priced chatbot plan only supports 1,000 chats per month.
- Multichannel chat including support for Messenger and Instagram.
Drawbacks:
- The paid plans are a bit expensive with the new per-agent pricing. It now works out to be about the same as LiveChat.
- Despite costing the same as LiveChat, you don’t get quite as many features, nor do you get access to the app marketplace.
4. Support Board – Best Self-Hosted Live Chat for WordPress
Support Board is one of the limited WordPress live chat plugins that provides a genuinely native, self-hosted WordPress chat solution wherein all data remains on your website’s server.
Alternatively, if you are not utilizing WordPress, you can opt for the PHP app version to host your chat system on different kinds of websites.
If having a self-hosted approach is significant to you, we believe this is one of the top choices available as it retains many of the expected features of a SaaS tool.
Pros:
- It’s 100% self-hosted and all your data stays on your server. This is surprisingly hard to find and it’s the biggest advantage of choosing this plugin.
- If you’re using WordPress, you can respond to chats directly from your WordPress dashboard.
- It’s cost-effective since there are no per-agent fees and you get lifetime updates. Basically, it’s pay once and done.
- Special WordPress integrations, such as automatically syncing user accounts.
- Multichannel chat support for WhatsApp, FB Messenger, Twitter, Telegram, and more.
Drawbacks:
- There’s no free option.
- You don’t get dedicated mobile or desktop apps, though the plugin does offer a progressive web app version so that you can respond to people while on the go.
5. 3CX Live Chat – Best Budget Live Chat Software for Lots of Agents
Some of the other live chat software on this list have a nicer interface and more features compared to 3CX Live Chat.
Despite not having the absolute best interface and features, it offers flexible setup options and highly affordable pricing, particularly for large teams. As a result, it can be an excellent choice for individuals with financial constraints.
There are two options available to you for using 3CX: either utilize their cloud-hosted version called StartUp, similar to a SaaS, or set up your own dedicated instance on AWS or another cloud hosting platform to have full control over your server.
Advantages:
- The free version doesn’t have any branding, which isn’t the case for almost all other plugins. For example, while tawk.to is free, it still adds its own branding. 3CX Live Chat doesn’t do that.
- The free plan is very generous – you can have up to 10 agents without paying.
- Even if you need the paid plan, it’s still cheaper than most other tools and doesn’t have per-agent pricing.
- Also supports FB Messenger chat (though not other platforms).
Drawbacks:
- The backend user experience isn’t as nice as other tools. It definitely doesn’t feel as polished as something like LiveChat.
- It lacks some basic productivity features such as canned responses. This might be an issue if your chat channels are very busy.
6. OLARK
What sets Olark apart from the other options in this list of top live chat WordPress plugins is its unique chatbox design section that allows you to customize the color scheme, button style, and more. Additionally, the visually appealing Olark Dashboard provides comprehensive data on Team metrics and Agent activity, along with easy access to recent transcripts and other important information related to your chats.
In addition to that, Olark provides superb automation choices, such as sending greetings to visitors, connecting them with the appropriate agent, and additional features. Moreover, it allows you to leave an offline message along with a contact form for users to reach out to you beyond your business hours.
Olark’s advanced chatbox design allows you to create a branded live chat experience, while the automation allows you to streamline conversations. The reporting is less robust than what other options on this list of the best live chat WordPress plugins offer, but there’s still enough to help you understand what makes a chat or an agent successful.
Notable features
- Live chat automation
- Chatbox customization
- Real-time chat reporting
- Team management tools
Notable integrations
- WooCommerce
- Salesforce
- Slack
- Help Scout
Limitations
- Offline messaging is limited
- Chatbot is only available via Olark Pro
7. SUPPORT BOARD
Getting started with Support Board is extremely simple. Just purchase the plugin, install it on your website, and navigate to the Support Board section in your WordPress dashboard to initiate the chat. Additionally, if you are visiting this area for the first time, logging in might be required as well.
One of the best aspects of Support Board is its ability to allow you to perform all tasks directly from your WordPress dashboard, which encompasses:
- Manage your chats in the main area.
- View information about your visitors, including who’s online, so that you can proactively open a chat with them. You can access this area by clicking on the button shaped like a person’s head and shoulders.
- Control how and when your chat box appears, plus create custom messages for things like welcoming new visitors, asking people to subscribe to your newsletter, and letting people know your business hours when you’re offline. These settings can be accessed via the gear-shaped button.
- Create automated messages to share with visitors in certain situations. For example, if you have a time-sensitive promotion, you might automate a message promoting it to people who visit your website while the promotion is running. Again, these settings can be managed via the gear-shaped button.
In the Reports section of Support Board, you can access comprehensive analytics for conversations, visitors, agents, and other relevant information.
If you are in search of a user-friendly live chat plugin that allows you to manage your live chats directly in the WordPress dashboard, Support Board is the perfect choice. Moreover, the fact that it offers a one-time payment model makes it an affordable option for small businesses.
Notable features
- Ability to manage chats within the WordPress dashboard
- Highly customizable chatbox
- Rich message types & customer surveys
- Sorting tools to separate leads from regular visitors
- User registration and login tools
- Tools for creating a Support area & knowledgebase
- Saved messages
- Single-message automations
- Chat and agent ratings
- Detailed analytics
- Easy translation into over 41 languages
Notable integrations
Support Board only offers integration with WordPress for free. However, a small one-time fee allows you to combine Support Board with various services, including:
- WooCommerce
- ZenDesk
- Facebook Messenger
- Slack
Notable limitations
- Most integrations are paid add-ons
- The number of integration possibilities is somewhat limited
8. CHAPORT
Chaport provides a comprehensive range of tools for effective communication with your customers, whether it’s within office hours or beyond them. These tools encompass a user-friendly chat area that enables seamless management of multiple chats, complemented by a visitor information panel. Additionally, Chaport boasts the Pre-chat form feature, allowing the collection of customer information such as name, email, and more prior to initiating the chat. Furthermore, Chaport offers diverse automation capabilities, including the ability to initiate conversations with Auto-Invitations when online, and to send autoresponders to inform customers that their messages are still being received during offline periods.
With the Unlimited plan, users have access to additional automation tools, such as an FAQ chatbot that can handle frequently asked questions. This allows users to allocate more time to addressing complex inquiries and guarantees that customers receive assistance even when the team is unavailable. Moreover, Chaport provides live reporting on conversations, including chat ratings, enabling users to evaluate the performance of their team, including chatbots.
Chaport stands out as an excellent live chat WordPress plugin for cost-conscious businesses, offering a satisfactory free option and reasonably priced premium options. Moreover, its affordability does not come at the expense of features, as Chaport boasts top-notch tools for both live chats and automation.
Notable features
- Free plan
- Automated invitations for customers to interact with you
- Ability to customize what information you collect about visitors
- Chat ratings to help you determine how successful conversations are
- Typing insights
- Offline messenger mode
Notable integrations
- Google Analytics
- Zapier
Limitations
- Limited ability to customize the chatbox
- You must run most integrations through Zapier
9. SMARTSUPP
From the very beginning, Smartsupp prioritizes automation by requesting you to configure your chatbox and personalize a concise FAQ. Additionally, using a user-friendly visual editor, you have the ability to generate countless chatbots on any paid plan. Naturally, you can directly engage with customers whenever you are available. By utilizing the Smartsupp Conversations section, conveniently view all ongoing and completed chats and seamlessly shift between various conversations when necessary. In the absence of online visitors, Smartsupp will guide you towards establishing automation and carrying out other marketing responsibilities.
In addition to its user-friendly features for live conversations and automated customer service interactions, Smartsupp provides integration with Smartlook. This integration enables video recordings of visitors’ activities on your website, allowing you to determine which areas they spend the most time on and identify any difficulties they may encounter. Moreover, Smartsupp stands out as one of the cost-effective choices among the top live chat WordPress plugins by offering the inclusion of three operators in its base plan.
Notable features
- Free plan
- Unlimited chatbot creation
- Apps for Android and iOS
- Contact form for gathering leads when you’re offline
- Tag system for organizing conversations
Notable integrations
- Google Analytics
- Smartlook
Limitations
- Limited integrations
- Limited chatbox customization options
How to Choose the Best Live Chat Software
Prior to delving into our compilation of the top live chat software and plugins, we would like to provide you with some handy advice on selecting the most suitable plugin for your specific circumstances.
- SaaS vs self-hosted – most live chat tools are actually hosted SaaS tools that you can integrate with your website via code snippets or WordPress plugins. That means your data lives on the service’s server instead of your website’s server. The advantage of this approach is that you’re able to have a more reliable, always-on chat. However, if you really value the self-hosted approach, you can find self-hosted live chat software (but again, most are SaaS tools).
- Number of agents – if you’re the only chat operator, this one doesn’t matter. But if you plan to have a lot of agents responding to chats, the plugin’s billing model is an important consideration. Some plugins bill you based on each individual agent, while others are a little more generous if you have lots of agents.
- Branding on the live chat – do you care if there’s a small logo from the service on your live chat widget? If you don’t, you can find some great free options. But if you don’t want a third-party logo on your chat box, you’ll typically need to pay (with one exception).
- Chatbot support – if you want to set up automated chatbots in addition to live human agents, some live chat tools are stronger than others in that respect.
- Omnichannel support – will you only chat via your website? Or do you also want a tool to help you respond to chats from other platforms such as FB Messenger or WhatsApp?
- General productivity features – if you’ll be chatting a lot, you’ll likely want to look for productivity-boosting features such as canned responses, agent transfer, and more.
