The best live chat software depends on who you expect to answer the chat. If you want an AI agent to answer most questions and take action, with people stepping in when needed, Bund AI is a strong fit. If you want a classic agent console for a human team, LiveChat and LiveAgent are mature choices. If budget is the main constraint, tawk.to is free for core live chat, and Tidio, Crisp, Freshchat, and HubSpot all have free plans. Larger teams that want chat inside a full help desk usually end up on Zendesk or Fin (formerly Intercom).
Below we compare eleven live chat tools on the things that actually change your bill and your workload: the free plan, the entry price, how AI is priced, and who each tool is really built for.
Quick picks
- Best AI-first chat for sales and support: Bund AI
- Best free live chat software: tawk.to
- Best for small ecommerce stores: Tidio
- Best classic live chat console: LiveChat
- Best value per workspace: Crisp
- Best for SaaS with a big support team: Fin (formerly Intercom)
- Best inside a full help desk: Zendesk
- Best free chat connected to a CRM: HubSpot
- Best free plan for a growing team: Freshchat
- Best simple, human-first chat: Olark
- Best budget multichannel help desk: LiveAgent
How we chose
We focused on tools where web chat is a core product, not an afterthought, and compared them on:
- Free plan: whether you can run real conversations without paying, and the limits.
- Entry price: the first paid tier and how it is billed (per agent, per seat, or per workspace).
- AI: whether there is an AI agent, and whether it is priced per resolution, per conversation, or included.
- Human handoff: how smoothly a person can take over.
- Fit: the business size and type the tool is actually designed for.
Pricing below was checked on each vendor's official pricing page and is shown as of September 2026. Many vendors display annual pricing by default and change prices often, so confirm on the vendor site before buying.
What makes live chat software worth paying for?
A chat bubble is easy to add. What separates good live chat software is what happens after a visitor types. The best tools answer quickly and accurately, route the conversation to the right person, keep context when the conversation moves to email, and give you data on what people ask. In 2026 the biggest difference is AI: some tools include an AI agent in a flat plan, others charge per AI conversation or per resolution, which can make the bill hard to predict as volume grows.
If you are still deciding whether chat or a help desk is the better first step, our guide to help desk vs live chat walks through the trade-off.
The best live chat software in 2026
1. Bund AI
Bund AI is a web chat widget and email agent for sales and customer support. Instead of waiting for a human to pick up, the AI answers from your own knowledge (help articles, docs, PDFs, website pages) and can take real actions through 20+ built-in actions, such as order tracking, order changes and cancellations, address changes, rescheduling, lead qualification, and booking calls through Google Calendar, Cal.com, or Calendly. You can add custom HTTP actions to connect your own systems. When a person is needed, the conversation lands in a shared inbox with the full transcript, and a teammate takes over.
- Best for: small and mid-sized businesses that want most chats answered instantly, around the clock, for both support and inbound sales.
- Key features: AI answers grounded in your content, 20+ built-in actions plus custom HTTP actions, lead capture and qualification, meeting booking, human handoff with full context, shared inbox, 40+ languages, the same agent on email, customer insights, automations, and a white-label widget and help center on Growth.
- Pricing (as of September 2026): Basic $0.99/month (50 AI replies), Starter $49/month (1,000 replies, 3 seats), Growth $99/month (5,000 replies, 10 seats), Scale $199/month (10,000 replies, 25 seats), Enterprise custom. Flat plans with no per-resolution fees. See Bund AI pricing.
- Limitations: AI-first rather than a traditional agent console, so teams that want humans to answer every chat with visitor monitoring and canned-response workflows may prefer LiveChat or LiveAgent. Web chat and email only, with no phone or voice channel. No free plan, though Basic costs $0.99.
See the full feature list on the features page or the AI chatbot for customer support overview.
2. Tidio
Tidio combines live chat, a shared inbox, chatbot flows, and its Lyro AI agent. It is popular with small online stores and has a well-known Shopify integration.
- Best for: small ecommerce stores that want chat plus simple automation.
- Key features: live chat, visual chatbot flows, Lyro AI agent, ecommerce integrations.
- Pricing (as of September 2026): Free plan with 50 billable conversations, up to 10 seats, and a one-time 50 Lyro conversations. Starter from $24.17/month billed annually (100 billable conversations). Growth from $49.17/month. Lyro AI is an add-on from $32.50/month for 50 Lyro conversations, and Flows is priced separately.
- Limitations: the plan, conversation limits, and separate AI and Flows add-ons make total cost harder to predict as volume grows.
3. LiveChat
LiveChat (livechat.com) is one of the longest-running live chat products, built around a fast, polished console for human agents.
- Best for: teams where humans answer most chats and want a mature agent workspace.
- Key features: agent console, canned responses, chat routing, reports, AI Copilot with reply suggestions and summaries, a large marketplace of integrations.
- Pricing (as of September 2026): no free plan, 14-day trial. Starter $19/agent/month billed annually ($25 monthly), Team $49 ($59 monthly), Business $79 ($89 monthly), Enterprise custom. A separate Text AI Agent product starts from $19/user/month.
- Limitations: per-agent pricing adds up for larger teams, and the AI agent is a separate product.
4. tawk.to
tawk.to is the best-known free live chat software. The core chat, ticketing, and knowledge base are free, and the company makes money from optional add-ons.
- Best for: very small businesses and nonprofits that need free live chat and have people to answer it.
- Key features: unlimited agents and chats on the free product, ticketing, knowledge base, mobile apps, optional hired chat agents.
- Pricing (as of September 2026): core live chat free. Removing branding is $29/month. Hired agents are $1/hour. AI Assist is listed from $29/month; see vendor site for current tiers.
- Limitations: free does not mean automatic. Without paid AI or hired agents, someone on your team still has to answer every chat.
5. Crisp
Crisp bundles chat, a shared inbox, a knowledge base, and chatbots, and prices per workspace rather than per agent.
- Best for: small teams that want a lot of features for a predictable workspace price.
- Key features: chat widget, shared inbox across channels, knowledge base, chatbot builder, AI features on paid plans.
- Pricing (as of September 2026): Free with 2 seats and 100 contact profiles (no AI). Mini $45/month (4 seats, $5 AI credits included), Essentials $95/month (10 seats, $25 AI credits), Plus $295/month (20+ seats, $75 AI credits).
- Limitations: AI usage draws from credits, so heavy AI use can cost more than the included amount.
6. Fin (formerly Intercom)
Intercom has rebranded as Fin, after its AI agent, and was acquired by Salesforce in September 2026. It remains one of the most complete customer service platforms, with a strong inbox, help center, and a capable AI agent.
- Best for: SaaS companies and larger support teams that want a full platform and can budget for per-outcome AI pricing.
- Key features: Fin AI agent, shared inbox, help center, product tours and messaging, Copilot for human agents.
- Pricing (as of September 2026): no free plan, 14-day trial. Essential $29/seat/month billed annually, Advanced $85, Expert $132. The Fin AI agent is billed at $0.99 per outcome, and Copilot is $29/agent/month.
- Limitations: per-seat plus per-outcome pricing gets expensive at volume, and it is more platform than a small business usually needs.
7. Zendesk
Zendesk is a full help desk where messaging and live chat sit alongside email, voice, and ticketing.
- Best for: mid-sized and enterprise support teams that want chat inside a heavyweight ticketing system.
- Key features: messaging widget, omnichannel ticketing, help center, AI agents, workforce and reporting tools.
- Pricing (as of September 2026): no free plan. Support Team $19/agent/month billed annually, Suite Team $55, Suite Professional $115. AI agents are billed per automated resolution; see vendor site for the current rate.
- Limitations: setup is a project, and the per-agent plus per-resolution model is costly for small teams.
8. HubSpot (Service Hub)
HubSpot includes free live chat with its free CRM tools, which makes it attractive if you want chat conversations to land straight in a CRM.
- Best for: businesses already using, or planning to use, the HubSpot CRM.
- Key features: live chat and chatbot builder connected to CRM records, shared inbox, ticketing on paid plans, Customer Agent AI.
- Pricing (as of September 2026): free tools for 2 users (live chat with HubSpot branding). Service Hub Starter from $7/seat/month on a promotional price. Professional is $90/seat/month billed annually ($100 monthly) plus a $1,500 onboarding fee. The Customer Agent uses HubSpot credits, 50 credits per resolved conversation.
- Limitations: the jump from Starter to Professional is steep, and the best automation sits on higher tiers.
9. Freshchat (Freshworks)
Freshchat is Freshworks' messaging product, with a free plan and its Freddy AI agent.
- Best for: growing teams that want a generous free plan and a path into the Freshworks suite.
- Key features: web and app messaging, bots, Freddy AI agent, routing, integration with Freshdesk.
- Pricing (as of September 2026): free for up to 10 agents. Growth $19/agent/month billed annually, Pro $49, Enterprise $79. Freddy AI Agent includes 500 free sessions once, then $49 per 100 sessions.
- Limitations: AI session pricing adds a usage-based line to the bill.
10. Olark
Olark is a straightforward, human-first live chat tool that has been around for years, now with an AI website agent option.
- Best for: small sales and support teams that want simple chat without a big platform.
- Key features: clean chat widget, transcripts, chat ratings, CRM integrations, optional AI Website Agent.
- Pricing (as of September 2026): no free plan. Live chat is $29/agent/month. The AI Website Agent is $400/month billed annually with unlimited AI conversations.
- Limitations: the AI option is a big step up in price from the core chat.
11. LiveAgent
LiveAgent is a budget-friendly help desk that combines live chat with email, social, and call center features.
- Best for: small teams that want chat plus a ticketing help desk at a low per-agent price.
- Key features: live chat, universal inbox, ticketing, knowledge base, call center features.
- Pricing (as of September 2026): no free plan, 30-day trial. Small Business $15/agent/month billed annually ($19 monthly), Medium $29, Large $49, Enterprise $69 (annual rates).
- Limitations: the interface is dense, and it is built primarily for human agents rather than AI-first automation.
What is the best free live chat software?
tawk.to is the most generous free option because the core chat has no agent or chat limits. Tidio, Crisp, Freshchat, and HubSpot also have free plans, but each caps something: conversations (Tidio), seats and contacts (Crisp), agents (Freshchat), or users and branding (HubSpot).
The catch with any free live chat app is staffing. Free chat still needs a person watching it, and an unanswered chat can hurt more than no chat at all. If nobody can cover evenings and weekends, a low-cost AI agent may be better value than free software that goes unanswered. Our live chat best practices guide covers how to run chat well either way.
Best live chat software for small business
For most small businesses, the right choice comes down to who will answer:
- You have people to answer during business hours and want to spend nothing: tawk.to or the HubSpot free tools.
- You run a small online store: Tidio or Bund AI.
- You want chats answered at any hour without hiring: Bund AI, which answers from your knowledge, captures leads, books calls, and hands off to your team when needed, on a flat monthly plan.
- You want a polished console for a human team: LiveChat or LiveAgent.
If your goal is revenue as much as support, chat is also one of the fastest ways to convert website visitors who have a question before they buy.
How to choose live chat software
- Decide the human-to-AI split. If AI should handle most chats, compare AI quality and pricing first. If humans answer most chats, compare the agent console.
- Model the real bill. Add seats, conversation limits, AI add-ons, and per-resolution fees at your expected volume, not your current one.
- Check actions, not just answers. Can the tool look up an order, change a booking, or capture a qualified lead, or does it only point to articles?
- Test handoff. Make sure a person can take over with the full conversation and that the customer is not asked to repeat themselves.
- Check channels. If customers follow up by email, the chat tool should keep context across both.
- Trial on real traffic. Run it on your own site for a couple of weeks before committing to annual billing.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best live chat software?
It depends on who answers. For AI-first chat that answers, takes actions, and books calls with human handoff, Bund AI is a strong choice. For a classic console for human agents, LiveChat and LiveAgent are mature options. For free chat, tawk.to is the most generous. Larger teams often choose Zendesk or Fin (formerly Intercom).
Is there completely free live chat software?
Yes. tawk.to's core live chat is free with no agent limits, and Tidio, Crisp, Freshchat, and HubSpot offer free plans with caps on conversations, seats, agents, or branding. Free plans generally do not include much AI, so someone still needs to answer chats.
What is the best live chat app for a small business?
For a small business with limited staff, pick a tool that matches how chats will be answered. tawk.to or HubSpot's free tools work if you can staff the chat. Tidio suits small stores. Bund AI suits businesses that want chats answered instantly at any hour on a flat plan, starting at $0.99 a month.
How much does live chat software cost?
Entry paid plans in this list range from about $15 to $55 per agent or workspace per month, with free plans available from several vendors. AI is often priced separately, per conversation, per session, or per resolution, so estimate your AI volume before comparing. Bund AI uses flat plans with no per-resolution fees.
Can AI replace live chat agents?
AI can answer a large share of routine chats, such as product questions, order status, and booking, and it can do so at any hour. It should still hand off to a person for complex, sensitive, or high-value conversations. Our guide on when AI should hand off covers where to draw the line.