Best Live Chat Software in 2026 (10 Tools, Real Prices, No Fluff)

TL;DR

• Best overall: EasyChatDesk ($17/agent/month billed yearly, free plan available). Live chat, help desk ticketing and an AI chatbot in one login, with Shopify, WooCommerce and WordPress connectors on every plan.
• Best if you only want chat and nothing else: LiveChat ($19/agent/month). Polished agent app, but AI and ticketing are separate products that cost extra.
• Best free live chat software: tawk.to ($0, unlimited agents). Pay $29/month if you want their logo off your widget.
• Best for ecommerce stores under 250 chats a month: Tidio ($29/month, billed per conversation instead of per seat).
• Best for large support departments: Zendesk Suite ($55/agent/month) or Fin, formerly Intercom ($29/seat plus $0.99 per AI resolution).
• Cheapest per-seat option with a real chatbot: Zoho SalesIQ ($7/operator/month billed yearly).
• Avoid if you’re small: Fin, Zendesk and HubSpot Professional. All three carry minimums, onboarding fees or usage meters that punish teams under ten people.

Why most “best live chat software” lists get pricing wrong

Three of the tools on this list changed their pricing pages in the last twelve months. One of them (Intercom) changed its name to Fin in May and was bought by Salesforce for $3.6 billion on September 10.

LiveChat quietly moved its AI agent into a separate $19/user product called Text. Tidio’s most-cited “Growth” price now spans $49 to $349 depending on how many conversations you handle.

So a list that says “Intercom starts at $74” or “Tidio is $29 flat” is not lying. It is just old. This article was written in September 2026 and every number was pulled from a live pricing page or a source dated within the last three months.

Comparison table: live chat software pricing at a glance

Monthly billing is typically 15 to 25 percent higher than the yearly rates above. Details for each tool are in the sections below.

How we ranked these tools

We weighted four things: what you actually pay once you add the features most teams need (AI, ticketing, branding removal), how well the tool fits a team of two to fifteen agents, whether the free plan or trial is usable, and how transparent the vendor is about limits.

We did not weight G2 star ratings. Nearly every tool here sits between 4.3 and 4.7 stars, which tells you nothing useful.

1. EasyChatDesk

EasyChatDesk is the only tool on this list that ships live chat, help desk ticketing, a knowledge-base-trained AI chatbot and custom lead forms in one product without making you buy three subscriptions.

That sounds like a small thing until you compare it with LiveChat, where chat, AI and ticketing are three separately priced products.

It is built in the EU, GDPR-ready with EU data residency options, and it installs with a single JavaScript snippet or a WordPress plugin. Connectors for Shopify, WooCommerce, Slack, Zapier and GA4 come standard. On the Business plan and above you also get an Apple iMessage channel, which almost nobody else offers at that price.

EasyChatDesk pricing (verified September 2026)

• Free plan: live chat widget, no time limit.
• Starter: $17/agent/month billed yearly ($21 month-to-month). Live chat, ticketing, 90-day history, 100 tracked visitors, 5 GB storage.
• Professional: $33/agent/month billed yearly ($41 monthly). Adds the AI chatbot (1 AI agent, 5,000 AI credits), unlimited history, 500 tracked visitors, branding removal, full widget customisation.
• Business: $199/agent/month yearly ($249 monthly). 2 AI agents, 15,000 credits, help desk system, scheduler, iMessage.
• Platinum: $349/agent/month yearly ($399 monthly). 3 AI agents, 45,000 credits, unlimited visitors.

All plans include a 14-day free trial. Enterprise options (SSO/SAML, dedicated hosting, on-prem) are quoted separately.

Pros

• Chat, tickets, AI bot and forms in one inbox, one bill
• AI chatbot is included in the plan price from Professional up, not metered per resolution like Fin
• Ticketing on every plan, including Starter
• Free tier exists and isn’t a 14-day bait
• EU hosting and a free DPA for GDPR
• One-click chat-to-ticket conversion

Where it falls short

The jump from Professional ($33) to Business ($199) is steep. If you need two AI agents but only have a few human agents, that middle gap is uncomfortable. The 100-visitor tracking cap on Starter is also tight for a busy store.

2. LiveChat

LiveChat (by Text, Inc.) has the best-looking agent app in the category and a marketplace with 200-plus integrations. For a team that wants a clean chat widget and nothing else, it’s hard to beat.

The catch is what “nothing else” means. LiveChat’s AI agent now lives in a separate product called Text ($19/user/month). Ticketing is HelpDesk.com ($29/month). A no-code chatbot is ChatBot.com ($52/month). A three-person team that wants chat, AI and tickets is looking at roughly $150 to $200 a month, not $57.

LiveChat pricing

Starter $19/agent/month billed yearly ($25 monthly), one user only, 60-day history. Team $49/agent ($59 monthly), unlimited history and users. Business $79/agent ($89 monthly) adds work scheduler, staffing prediction and SMS. Enterprise is custom. There is no free plan; the trial is 14 days.

Pros

• Excellent agent UX, fast desktop and mobile apps
• 24/7 support on every plan
• Shopify, WooCommerce and BigCommerce integrations with cart visibility
• WCAG 2.1 AA compliant widget
• Data centre choice (US or EU)

Where it falls short

The Starter plan is one seat. The moment you hire a second agent you’re on Team at $49. And everything beyond plain chat is an add-on with its own bill.

3. Tidio

Tidio bills per conversation, not per seat, which flips the usual math. A store with five staff but only 200 chats a month pays less on Tidio than almost anywhere else. A store with two staff and 3,000 chats a month pays a fortune.

Tidio pricing

The free plan covers 50 billable conversations. Starter is $29/month ($24.17 billed yearly) for 100. Growth starts at $59/month ($49.17 yearly) for 250 and climbs to roughly $349 as your volume grows. After that there’s nothing until Plus at $749/month, and Premium starts around $2,999. All self-serve plans cap you at 10 agents.

Lyro, Tidio’s AI agent, is a separate add-on starting at $39/month for 100 AI conversations. AI chats don’t count toward your billable conversation limit, so you’re effectively paying two meters.

Pros

• Free plan is usable for a very small store
• Lyro AI is one of the better out-of-the-box bots for ecommerce FAQs
• Native Shopify integration with order lookup
• Visual Flows builder for triggers and automations
• Help desk included on all plans

Where it falls short

The $59-to-$749 cliff. Tidio auto-upgrades your tier at 95 percent of your conversation limit, so a good month can surprise you on the invoice.

4. Fin (formerly Intercom)

Two things happened to Intercom this year that you need to know about before signing a contract. In May 2026 the company renamed itself Fin, after its AI agent. On September 10, Salesforce closed a $3.6 billion acquisition, and Fin now sits inside Salesforce’s AI Labs. The help desk product is still called Intercom; the company and the AI are Fin.

Fin pricing

Pricing is per seat plus per AI outcome. Essential is $29/seat/month billed yearly ($39 monthly). Advanced is $85 ($99 monthly). Expert is $132 ($139 monthly). Fin AI Agent costs $0.99 for every conversation it resolves on its own, with a 50-resolution monthly minimum. There is no free plan.

Do the math for a real team: five seats on Essential with 300 AI resolutions a month is about $440. Fifteen seats on Advanced with 2,000 resolutions is over $3,200 a month.

Pros

• Fin AI Agent is the most capable resolution bot in the category, claiming 76 percent autonomous resolution
• Proper omnichannel: chat, email, WhatsApp, SMS, Slack and voice in one inbox
• Product tours, outbound messages and a help centre in the same platform
• Lite seats (free, read-only) on Advanced and Expert

Where it falls short

Cost, unpredictability, and now an ownership question. If you run Zendesk or Freshdesk alongside Fin, ask for written integration commitments before you sign anything post-acquisition.

5. Zendesk Suite

Zendesk is the default for support departments with 25 or more agents, and the reasons are boring but real: skills-based routing, SLAs, a 1,500-app marketplace and reporting that survives an audit.

Note that the $19/agent “Support Team” plan you’ll see advertised is email ticketing only. Live chat starts at Suite Team, $55/agent/month billed yearly ($69 monthly). Suite Growth is $89, Suite Professional $115 ($149 monthly) and Suite Enterprise is quoted, historically around $169. The Copilot AI add-on is another $50 per agent. A 10-agent team on Growth with Copilot is $1,390 a month.

Pros

• The deepest ticketing workflow engine available
• Skills-based routing and SLA management on Professional
• HIPAA support on Professional and above
• Massive integration marketplace
• Sandbox environment on Enterprise

Where it falls short

For a team under ten people, Zendesk is paying for a fire truck to water the garden. Live chat is also a channel within a help desk, not the focus of the product.

6. HubSpot Live Chat (Service Hub)

HubSpot’s free live chat is the reason a lot of small companies never buy anything else. It’s free for up to two users, includes rule-based chatbots, and drops every conversation straight into the CRM contact record.

Paid tiers are where it gets expensive. Service Hub Starter is $15/seat/month billed yearly ($20 monthly) and mostly buys branding removal and routing. Professional is $90/seat/month with a mandatory $1,500 onboarding fee. Enterprise is $150/seat with a $3,500 onboarding fee and a 10-seat minimum. AI runs on Breeze credits (500 on Starter, 3,000 on Pro) and extra credits cost about $10 per 1,000.

Pros

• Free plan with real CRM integration
• Every chat becomes a timeline event on the contact
• Meeting scheduling and lead qualification bots on the free tier
• Works with WhatsApp and Slack

Where it falls short

The onboarding fees. If you’re not otherwise on HubSpot CRM, the free chat tool is a nice widget attached to a very large sales funnel.

7. Freshchat

Freshchat is the messaging product in the Freshworks stack, and its free plan is unusually generous: up to 10 agents with website chat, email and a shared inbox at no cost.

Growth is $19/agent/month billed yearly ($23 monthly) and adds WhatsApp and Messenger. Pro is $49 ($59 monthly) with custom dashboards, IntelliAssign routing and multiple SLA policies. Enterprise is $79 ($95 monthly). Freddy AI Copilot is an extra $29 per agent, and Freddy AI Agent is billed per bot session.

Pros

• Free for up to 10 agents
• WhatsApp Business API on the $19 tier, cheaper than most rivals
• Pairs cleanly with Freshdesk for ticketing
• 500 free Freddy AI sessions bundled on Growth

Where it falls short

The 2024 to 2026 pricing reshuffle moved Pro from $39 to $49 and pushed several routing features up a tier. Reporting on the free and Growth plans is thin.

8. Crisp

Crisp charges per workspace instead of per seat. Mini is $45/month for 4 seats. Essentials is $95 for 10 seats. Plus is $295 for 20 seats, then $10 per extra seat. A free plan covers 2 seats.

If you happen to have exactly four or ten people, Crisp is one of the cheapest credible options anywhere ($9.50 per head on a full Essentials workspace). If you have five people, your bill doubles. Hugo, the AI agent, draws from a credit allowance ($5, $25 and $75 per month included on the three paid tiers).

Pros

• Very cheap for teams that fill a tier
• Unlimited conversations on all plans
• Omnichannel inbox with WhatsApp, Instagram and SMS on Essentials
• Co-browsing (MagicBrowse) built in
• Knowledge base included

Where it falls short

The seat cliffs. Also, ticketing only arrives on the $295 Plus plan.

9. tawk.to

tawk.to is actually free: unlimited agents, unlimited chats, unlimited websites, ticketing, a knowledge base and a contacts CRM, forever. Eight million-plus businesses use it and most of them never pay a cent.

What you pay for is the badge. Removing “Powered by tawk.to” costs $29/month billed yearly ($39 monthly), per website. AI Assist starts at $29/month for 1,000 AI messages (a free Hobby tier covers 100). Video and voice calling is another $29/month. tawk.to also rents out trained chat agents from $1 an hour, which is the actual business model.

Pros

• Fully free live chat software with no agent cap
• Ticketing and knowledge base included at $0
• Desktop and mobile apps
• Real-time visitor monitoring, including typing preview
• Add-ons can be switched on and off per site

Where it falls short

The interface looks like 2016. Mobile notifications are unreliable according to a lot of reviews. And once you stack branding removal plus AI, you’re at $58 a month, which is more than EasyChatDesk Professional.

10. Zoho SalesIQ

If price per seat is your only criterion, Zoho SalesIQ wins. Basic is $7/operator/month billed yearly ($10 monthly), Professional is $12.75 ($17 monthly) and Enterprise is $20 ($25 monthly). The free plan covers three operators and 100 chat sessions a month.

The Zobot chatbot builder is included from Basic (one bot) and you get five on Professional. Visitor scoring and Zoho CRM sync are the reasons sales-led teams pick it.

Pros

• Lowest per-operator price on this list
• Chatbots included, not an add-on
• Visitor scoring and lead routing built in
• Audio calls and screen sharing on Basic
• Native Zoho CRM and Zoho Desk integration

Where it falls short

Chat sessions are capped (1,000/month on Basic). It has no built-in ticketing; that’s Zoho Desk, a separate subscription. And if you’re not otherwise in the Zoho ecosystem, the admin experience is dense.

11. Olark

Olark is a bootstrapped, deliberately simple live chat tool that has been around since 2009. There’s one public plan, Standard, at $29/agent/month month-to-month, $23 billed yearly, or $19 on a two-year contract. A free plan allows one agent and 20 chats a month. Olark Pro is custom-priced and is where the AI chatbot, agent groups and real-time dashboards live.

PowerUps (co-browsing, translation, branding removal) are sold separately and add up fast.

Pros

• Simple, no-training-required interface
• Co-browsing PowerUp lets agents see the visitor’s screen
• WCAG 2.0 AA accessible widget
• Transparent per-agent pricing with no minimums

Where it falls short

No AI on the Standard plan at all. In 2026 that’s a real gap.

12. ProProfs Chat

ProProfs Chat offers a forever-free plan for a single operator with most features included, which is a good deal for a solo founder. Paid pricing is the confusing part: the vendor’s pricing page has been restructured several times in 2026 and currently lists Essentials and Business tiers with figures that don’t fully reconcile. The most consistently reported paid rate is around $19.99 per operator per month billed yearly ($39.99 monthly) for teams of two or more, with limited AI conversation allowances on lower tiers.

Pros

• Free single-operator plan with unlimited chat history
• Canned responses, routing and chat greetings included
• Co-browsing and a basic AI bot
• 24/7 support on paid plans

Where it falls short

Confirm the price with sales before you plan a budget around it. Customisation is limited compared with LiveChat or EasyChatDesk.

How to choose live chat software for your business

The right pick depends on two numbers: how many agents you have and how many chats you get. Everything else is detail.

If you have 1 to 5 agents

Start with EasyChatDesk Starter or Professional, or tawk.to if you truly cannot spend anything. Tidio is fine if you’re under 250 chats a month. Do not buy Zendesk, Fin or HubSpot Professional at this size.

If you have 5 to 20 agents

EasyChatDesk Professional at $33/agent is still the best value if you want AI included. Crisp Essentials ($95 for 10 seats) is worth a look if you fit the tier exactly. Freshchat Pro is a solid choice if WhatsApp is a primary channel.

If you have 20-plus agents or strict compliance needs

Zendesk Suite Professional or Fin Expert. Both cost a lot; both are built for it.

Ecommerce specifically

You want order lookup inside the chat window. EasyChatDesk (Shopify and WooCommerce connectors), Tidio (native Shopify app) and LiveChat (cart visibility) all do this well. HubSpot and Zoho SalesIQ do not.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best live chat software in 2026?

For most small and mid-size businesses, EasyChatDesk, because it combines chat, help desk ticketing and an AI chatbot at $17 to $33 per agent without add-on bills. For a large support department, Zendesk Suite. For a team that only wants a chat widget and has budget, LiveChat.

What is the best free live chat software?

tawk.to, with no limits on agents or chats. EasyChatDesk, HubSpot, Freshchat (up to 10 agents), Tidio (50 chats/month) and Zoho SalesIQ (3 operators) also have free plans with different restrictions. LiveChat, Fin and Zendesk do not offer a free plan.

Which live chat software is best for ecommerce?

EasyChatDesk for stores that want chat, tickets and an AI bot in one tool with Shopify and WooCommerce connectors. Tidio for very small stores with under 250 conversations a month. LiveChat if agent experience matters more than price.

What is the best live chat software for small business?

EasyChatDesk Starter at $17/agent/month. It includes ticketing, which most competitors charge extra for, and you can add the AI chatbot later by moving to Professional. Zoho SalesIQ at $7/operator is cheaper but lacks ticketing.

What is live chat software, and how does it work?

Live chat software adds a chat widget to your website or app so visitors can message your team in real time. Agents answer from a shared inbox on desktop or mobile. Most modern tools add an AI chatbot that answers common questions from your knowledge base and hands off to a human when it can’t, plus ticketing so unresolved chats become trackable cases.

How do I use live chat software for lead generation?

Set proactive triggers on high-intent pages (pricing, product, checkout) so the widget opens with a relevant question. Use a pre-chat or custom form to capture email and company. Route sales-qualified chats to a specific team. Connect the tool to your CRM so every lead is logged. EasyChatDesk, Zoho SalesIQ and HubSpot all handle this flow out of the box.

How much does live chat software cost?

Published entry prices in 2026 run from $7 per operator (Zoho SalesIQ) to $55 per agent (Zendesk Suite) on yearly billing, with several free plans in between. Realistic all-in costs for a five-person team wanting AI and ticketing range from about $165/month (EasyChatDesk Professional) to well over $1,000/month (Zendesk Growth with Copilot, or Fin with meaningful AI usage).

Is per-seat or per-conversation pricing better?

Per-seat is predictable and favours busy teams. Per-conversation (Tidio) favours teams with many agents and low volume, and punishes the opposite. Per-workspace (Crisp) is cheapest only when you exactly fill a tier. Per-resolution AI billing (Fin, $0.99) is the hardest to forecast, because your bill goes up precisely when the bot works well.

Do I need an AI chatbot in my live chat software?

If you get more than 50 or so repetitive questions a month (order status, opening hours, refund policy), yes. The break-even is quick. If your chats are mostly bespoke sales conversations, a good proactive trigger and canned responses will do more than a bot.

How do I choose live chat software for a B2C brand?

Prioritise mobile agent apps (your team will answer from their phones), channel coverage (WhatsApp and Instagram for B2C), chat-to-ticket conversion for anything that can’t be resolved live, and a free trial long enough to test a real week of traffic. Then run your actual monthly volume through each vendor’s pricing model before you decide.

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Prices are in USD and reflect vendors’ published pricing as of September 15, 2026. Monthly billing usually costs more; annual figures shown unless noted. Always confirm on the vendor’s site before purchasing.