10 Best Live Chat Software of 2026

LiveChat leads this list because it is built specifically for website chat and keeps sales features front and center. The Essential plan at $19 per user a month, billed annually, already includes an omnichannel inbox, a ticketing system, selling through Shopify, workflow automation, an AI agent and AI Copilot with 10 AI resolutions a month. Proactive campaigns let you open a chat with visitors on key pages, and the live visitor list shows who is on the site. Growth at $79 per user adds chat supervision and takeover, shared canned responses, unlimited chat history, 30 campaigns, 400 tracked visitors, team performance reports and 200 AI resolutions a month, with extra packages of 50 resolutions at $49.50. The trade-offs are the lack of a free plan and the large step between the two published plans, so growing teams should check whether Essential limits will hold before they add seats.

HubSpot ranks second because it gives live chat away and ties every conversation to its CRM, which matters when chat is a lead source. The free tools route website chatters to the right people, include a no-code chatbot builder for qualifying leads and answering common questions, and put conversations in a shared inbox next to the contact record. Agents can reply from the mobile app or through the free Slack integration, and chat office hours tell visitors when someone is available. Service Hub Starter is listed at $10 a month per seat on a limited-time offer for new customers, down from $20, and adds simple ticket automation, multiple ticket pipelines and data enrichment. Professional starts at $100 per seat and adds a help desk workspace, custom objects, a customer agent and a knowledge base. The main caveats are the temporary nature of the Starter discount and the large price step to Professional.

Tidio takes third place because it is quick to install, has a usable free plan and prices by conversations rather than seats. The free Customer Service plan includes 10 seats and 50 billable conversations, which is enough to test chat on a small store. Starter costs $24.17 a month on annual billing and covers 100 billable conversations, live chat and ticketing, the live visitors list, operating hours, basic analytics and 50 one-off Lyro AI Agent conversations. Growth starts at $49.17 a month and adds advanced analytics, user permissions, automatic chat assignment, automatic replies, the live typing preview, viewed pages history and macros. Tidio also sells Lyro and its Flows automation as stand-alone products, and it connects with Shopify and WordPress. The limits show up as traffic grows: conversation quotas are tight on Starter, and routing features sit on Growth.

Freshchat stands out for a free plan that covers up to 10 agents, more than most rivals allow. The free tier includes the chat widget for websites and mobile apps, a shared inbox, email connection and roles and permissions. Growth at $19 per agent a month, billed annually, adds social media messengers, text messaging and reporting dashboards, with the Freddy AI Agent available at $49 per 100 sessions. Pro at $49 per agent adds multilingual conversations, custom dashboards, intelligent routing, multiple SLA policies and an agent availability dashboard, and Enterprise sits at $79. Freshworks lists add-ons clearly, including Freddy AI Copilot at $29 per agent a month, day passes for occasional agents and connector app tasks. The limitation is that routing and reporting, which many sales and support teams need early, sit on paid tiers, and AI usage adds a separate bill.

Intercom has the deepest support feature set here, which is why it scores highest on features, but it costs more as you grow. The Essential plan lists the Messenger live chat, a shared inbox and ticketing system, pre-built reports, a public help center and basic automation. New customers see Essential at $19 per seat a month on annual billing, down from $29. The Fin AI Agent works on every plan and is billed at $0.99 per outcome, and Intercom says it never charges when Fin cannot answer. Advanced at $85 per seat adds a workflow automation builder, multiple team inboxes, round robin assignment, a private and multilingual help center and 20 free Lite seats. Expert at $132 adds SSO, HIPAA support, SLAs and multibrand Messenger. Startups under $10M raised with 15 or fewer staff can apply for Early Stage pricing. Total cost depends heavily on AI volume.

tawk.to earns its place on value: the core live chat product is free with unlimited team members, and the company funds itself through optional add-ons. Smart triggers fire on URL, behavior or referrer, and the dashboard shows who is on the site and what they are reading before they send a message. Agents reply with shortcuts and canned replies, get AI Assist suggestions, share files, tag chats and auto-translate across more than 50 languages, and native apps cover iOS, Android, macOS and Windows with transfers between teammates. Paid options are listed plainly: $29 a month to remove the Powered by tawk.to branding, an AI Assist chatbot from $29 a month that answers from your knowledge base, and hired chat agents at $1 an hour. The trade-off is depth, since reporting and CRM links are lighter than in the paid platforms higher on this list.

Smartsupp is built for small online shops and prices by plan rather than by seat at the low end. The free plan gives 1 operator a combined inbox for live chat, WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram, limited to 25 conversations a month and a 14-day history. Solo costs $17 a month on annual billing and adds unlimited conversations, email accounts, basic automated messages and 50 AI reply assists a month that can also translate messages. Plus at $25 a month covers 3 operators and adds Flows automation, MCP and API access and 250 AI reply assists, and Expert costs $83 a month. An AI shopping assistant can answer when the team is offline, and the widget supports proactive engagement and lead generation. The drawback is scale: the operator counts are small, so larger teams will pay for extra operators or look elsewhere.

LiveAgent bundles live chat into a full help desk and keeps the seat price low. Starter lists a regular price of $15 per agent a month on annual billing, with a special offer of $11 shown until November 22, and covers up to 5 agents with email, live chat, contact forms, a knowledge base, 2 live chat buttons, AI answer drafts and an AI chatbot. Team at $29 per agent covers up to 15 agents and adds Facebook, Instagram, X, Viber, WhatsApp, Telegram and phone calls, plus reports on agents, departments, channels and SLA compliance and CSAT surveys. Business at $49 adds more AI agents and MCP access. LiveAgent says AI is included on every plan without per-resolution fees, offers free migration from tools such as Zendesk and Intercom and lets you keep data in Frankfurt, the US or Singapore. The catch is that Starter has no reporting, and the wider help desk takes more setup than a simple widget.

Zendesk is a strong option when website chat must plug into a mature help desk, but it is not the cheapest way to add a chat widget. Messaging and live chat appear first on Suite Team, which costs $55 per agent a month billed yearly or $69 monthly, because the $19 Support Team plan covers email and ticketing only. Suite Team also brings AI Agents, an AI Knowledge Base, the AI Action Builder, omnichannel routing and telephony. Suite Professional at $115 per agent adds skills-based routing, an IVR phone tree, AI writing tools and quick reports, and the Copilot add-on costs $50 per agent a month. Automated resolutions are priced separately, at $1.50 committed or $2.00 pay-as-you-go. Zendesk says more than 80,000 companies use it and offers more than 1,800 marketplace apps. Small teams will find the price and setup heavy for chat alone.

Olark keeps human live chat simple: $29 per agent a month for the full live chat product without AI, with a 14-day free trial and no credit card. Agents see a visitor's location, pages viewed and visit history before replying, use saved responses, and work within agent groups, routing rules and per-agent chat limits. Pre-chat and offline forms collect details before a chat starts or when the team is away, and the chatbox can be branded to match the site. Olark lists HubSpot and Salesforce integrations that send leads with full transcripts, plus Google Analytics events and WordPress, Shopify and BigCommerce plugins. Its Standard AI Website Agent costs $400 a month billed annually and includes one human seat. Olark says it serves more than 12,000 businesses and has run since 2009. It ranks last because rivals offer free plans or more features at a similar seat price.