I spent an entire weekend installing and testing close to 20 different live chat plugins on a WordPress test site to figure out which ones are currently the best on the market. After using each one and comparing their features and pricing, I finally managed to distill it down to the 10 options you see here. They are presented in no particular order, but rest assured that they are all excellent in their own way. It just depends on why you need a live chat plugin and what features you’re looking to get out of it.
Oh, and did I mention that almost all of them have a free plan? 💰 Take a look!
Quick summary 🏆
Before we get into the fine details, I put together two handy visuals to give you a top-level overview of the plugins we’ll be looking at.
The first is a comparison table, which you can see below. Then underneath that is a slideshow that shows the user interface of each of the ten plugins.
They are both useful, but I advise you in particular to spend some time looking at the screenshots, as they will give you great insight into many of the on-screen functionalities you can expect to have access to.
Plugin | Free plan | Paid plans from $/month | Free trial period | Installs / Rating | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
3CX | ✅ | 10 users Unlimited chats | 2 months | 🔌 90,000 ⭐️ 92% | |
Chaty | ✅ | ❌ | 🔌 300,000 ⭐️ 100% | ||
LiveChat | ❌ | ❌ | * | 🔌 20,000 ⭐️ 94% | |
Tidio Live Chat | ✅ | Unlimited users 50 chats | 7 days | 🔌 100,000 ⭐️ 96% | |
Chatway | ✅ | 1 user Unlimited chats | 14 days | 🔌 8,000 ⭐️ 100% | |
Crisp | ✅ | 2 users Unlimited chats | 14 days | 🔌 20,000 ⭐️ 92% | |
Jivo Chat | ✅ | 1 user Unlimited chats | 14 days | 🔌 30,000 ⭐️ 100% | |
Chaport | ✅ | 2 users Unlimited chats | 14 days | 🔌 2,000 ⭐️ 80% | |
Live Chat Unlimited by Screets | 2 users 10 chats | * | ❌ | * | |
Formilla Live Chat | ✅ | 1 user Unlimited chats | 15 days | 🔌 3,000 ⭐️ 94% |
The interfaces compared
If you’re here just for the looks, I’ve prepared the screenshots of the user interfaces for all ten plugins:
Click on any of the images in the slideshow to view it in fullscreen format. To return to the slideshow:
- On Desktop: Press the ESC button on your keyboard.
- On Mobile: Tap the close button (usually an “X” or a back arrow) in the corner of the screen.
The plugins in detail
⚠️ Note: For eight out of the ten plugins, I’ve included a link to TasteWP (a free WordPress test site), with the plugin pre-installed. This will let you take whichever ones you want for a trial run. However, TasteWP limits you to only two free test sites if you’re not logged in. If you create a free account, that limit gets raised to six. If you really want to try all eight, then you can always use one of the six accounts and deactivate whichever chat plugin was pre-installed. Once it’s deactivated, then manually find, install, and activate the seventh. Repeat the process to try the eighth.
1. 3CX
🆓 Free plan: YES (10 users; unlimited conversations per month)
💰 Entry-level paid plan starting price: $16.25 per month, billed annually at $195
💻 Free trial on paid plans: 2 months
☁️ Customizable chat box: YES
⏳ Chat history: YES
🔌 Integrations: WhatsApp available on all plans, Facebook Messenger and SMS available on paid plans only, and other CRM tools
3CX offers the following features:
- Multi-channel support (live chat, WhatsApp, Facebook, SMS/MMS)
- Queue-based routing for incoming chats
- Quick response message templates
- Chat transfer capabilities
- File and image sharing
- User information viewing and interaction history
- Ability to block users or end chat sessions (for website live chat)
- Archive and resolve chat conversations
3CX offers a free plan that supports up to 10 users.
They also have several paid plans. The initial paid tier is called 3CX SMB. It supports up to 20 users and costs $16.25 per month, billed annually at $195.
3CX is an excellent choice for small-to-mid size businesses that are looking for a robust low-cost (or free) solution for their customer service needs. The ability to have up to 10 agents on the free plan is an enormous benefit, as are the additional relationship management tools like phone call and video conferencing support.
💡 Note that for voice calls, you do have to pay extra to get a phone number, but 3CX provides a recommended list of global partners they work with for this purpose.
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2. Chaty
🆓 Free plan: YES
💰 Entry-level paid plan starting price: $4.08 per month, billed annually at $49
💻 Free trial on paid plans: NO, but there is a 30-day money back guarantee
☁️ Customizable chat box: YES
⏳ Chat history: Depends on the app, but in general, yes
🔌 Integrations: 23 different integrations, including WhatsApp, LINE, WeChat, Slack, Instagram, X (Twitter), Telegram, and more
Chaty’s free plan offers the following:
- Connect to a variety of chat apps, social media apps, and other tools
- Select the location of the chat widget (bottom left/right)
- Add a custom call-to-action beside your widget
- Choose between seven different colors
- Show different channels for mobile and desktop. For example, you can display a call now button and an Instagram button on mobile, but show a different widget combination like a WhatsApp and Telegram button on desktop
The paid plans offer additional features.
The basic Chaty plugin is free.
There are three paid plans, with options to pay annually, every two years, or to purchase a lifetime license. The lowest tier is called the Basic plan. It starts at $49 per year, which comes out to a little under $4.10 per month.
Chaty is a bit different than the other solutions on this list because it doesn’t actually come with its own live chat software. Instead, it acts as a bridge to connect to popular apps that have chat functionality. This makes it a great solution for anyone who wants to have live chat available on their website and use their existing communication channels. You can connect up to 23 different apps, ranging from chat apps like WhatsApp and LINE, to social media apps like Instagram and X (Twitter). You can activate as many as you’d like to give your audience a variety of options to reach you.
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3. LiveChat
🆓 Free plan: NO
💰 Entry-level plan starting price: $20 per month, billed annually at $240 ($168 with our coupon)
💻 Free trial on paid plans: 14 days (30 days with our coupon)
☁️ Customizable chat box: YES
⏳ Chat history: 60 days on the starter plan; forever on all higher plans
🔌 Integrations: WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, SMS, Zoom, Stripe, Mailchimp, Dropbox, and more (many are free, some cost additional)
LiveChat offers the following baseline features in all plans:
- Chat history (up to 60 days in the Starter plan and forever in higher plans)
- Chatbox customizations like dark mode, right-to-left support, and themes
- Accessibility configurations (e.g., screen reader support, keyboard navigation, contrast adjustments)
- Security features such as 256-bit SSL, banned visitors list, credit card masking, and two-factor-authentication (2FA)
- Daily and weekly summaries of agents’ performance
- Weekly insights showing trending topics among visitors and the most popular questions being asked
Higher level plans unlock additional features.
The entry-level plan is called Starter and it costs $20 per user, per month, billed annually at $240. If you use our coupon, you’ll get 30% off of that price when you sign up for your initial contract. The Starter plan includes the following:
- Track up to 100 visitors
- 1 recurring campaign
- 60-day chat history
- Basic widget customization
- 24/7/365 Support
- 1 user
- One AI tool for suggesting responses
There are three additional tiers above this one, each offering higher limits on tracked visitors and extra features.
LiveChat is an ideal tool for businesses of various sizes that are looking to enhance their customer service, increase sales, and improve overall customer satisfaction.
It’s designed for companies that want to proactively engage with customers, manage their support team effectively, and integrate their customer service platform with other business tools.
Additionally, LiveChat’s emphasis on security measures means that it’s a suitable choice for businesses handling sensitive customer information, including those in regulated industries.
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4. Tidio Live Chat
🆓 Free plan: YES (unlimited users; up to 50 conversations per month)
💰 Entry-level paid plan starting price: $24.17 per month, billed annually at $290
💻 Free trial on paid plans: 7 days
☁️ Customizable chat box: YES
⏳ Chat history: Approximately 5 years on the free plan; forever on all paid plans
🔌 Integrations: Meta’s products (Facebook Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp), popular email marketing tools (MailChimp, Brevo), ecommerce platforms (WooCommerce, Ecwid), and more
All Tidio plans include:
- AI chatbot responses
- Integration with numerous third-party apps and tools
- Custom domain support for email messages
- Mobile app and desktop app
- Customer support (email-only on the free plan, via live chat on all paid plans)
The free version of Tidio allows you to have unlimited agents and up to 50 conversations per month. A conversation counts as any interaction where a human agent responds. This could be via live chat, a ticket, an email, or a social media channel.
The first paid plan is called Starter. It has a 7-day free trial, supports up to 100 monthly conversations, and costs $29 per month. You can also choose to pay annually and receive a discount ($24.17 per month).
Tidio makes an excellent choice if you don’t anticipate a lot of chat volume. The features are truly first-class and the interface has just about everything you’d need to provide a positive chat experience. Not to mention that it’s easy to navigate and has an aesthetic, modern design. Unfortunately, because the plans are structured around the number of conversations, they aren’t very budget-friendly for websites with heavier traffic.
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5. Chatway
🆓 Free plan: YES (1 user; unlimited conversations per month)
💰 Entry-level paid plan starting price: $9 per user, per month, billed on a monthly basis
💻 Free trial on paid plans: 14 days
☁️ Customizable chat box: YES
⏳ Chat history: 30 days on free plan; forever on paid plan
🔌 Integrations: Email, Facebook Messenger, and other platforms (non-WordPress ones like Shopify, etc)
Chatway’s free plan includes the following:
- Facebook Messenger integration
- Widget customization
- 30 days chat history
And the higher level Pro plan unlocks even more:
- Email integration
- Private notes
- Custom data, tags and segments
- Multilingual widget
- Unlimited chat history
Chatway offers a free plan. It supports 1 user and unlimited conversations.
There is also a paid plan called Pro, and it costs $9 per agent, per month. You can try the Pro plan for free for 14 days.
Chatway offers an easy set up process with a solid range of features on the free tier. If you want a middle-of-the-road solution that’s not barebones simple but that’s also not going to drown you in every kind of customization imaginable, then Chatway is an excellent choice. It’s particularly good for small businesses that only need a single agent, though the Pro plan can hold its own for heavier usage.
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6. Crisp
🆓 Free plan: YES (2 users; unlimited conversations per month)
💰 Entry-level paid plan starting price: $25 per month (50% discount for nonprofits and students)
💻 Free trial on paid plans: 14 days
☁️ Customizable chat box: YES
⏳ Chat history: NO on the free plan, YES (forever) on all paid plans
🔌 Integrations: WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, X (Twitter), LINE, WooCommerce, Cloudflare, MailChimp, Zoho, Salesforce, Trello, and more
Crisp’s free plan comes with the following:
- Shared inbox for easier team collaboration
- Push notifications
- Mobile app
And the entry-level paid plan unlocks even more:
- Chat triggers
- Messenger integration
- Email integration
- Shortcuts
- Slack integration
Crisp has a free plan that supports up to 2 users with unlimited conversations.
There are also two standard paid options and a third custom option for enterprise users. The entry-level paid plan is called Basic. It runs for $25 per month and supports up to 4 users. In addition, Crisp has a 50% discount for nonprofits and students.
Crisp is perfect for small businesses that want a good free live chat plugin with the option to scale up to a more robust paid plan later on. Its support for up to two users on the free plan is perfect for this purpose and its modern interface makes it easy to navigate.
In addition, it has some fairly unique features that might resonate with your needs. For example, it lets your visitors send voice notes (like on WhatsApp and similar messaging apps) in addition to the usual text. I didn’t see this feature with any of the other chat plugins that I tested.
Less unique, but still valuable and not ubiquitously available, is the option to create your own knowledge base and set up an AI chat responder that’s trained on your website content. This is a huge timesaver once you get it up and running and is another strong reason to consider using Crisp.
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7. Jivo Chat
🆓 Free plan: YES (1 user; unlimited conversations per month)
💰 Entry-level paid plan starting price: $19 per user, per month, billed annually at $228
💻 Free trial on paid plans: 14 days
☁️ Customizable chat box: YES
⏳ Chat history: YES (2 months on free plan; forever on paid plans)
🔌 Integrations: WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, Facebook, email, SMS, WooCommerce, Ecwid, Zoho CRM, Google Analytics, Webhooks, and more (some of these incur an extra monthly charge)
Jivo Chat offers an impressive list of features. The following are included in the free plan:
- Integrations with social media and messenger channels: Viber, Apple Business Chat, Telegram
- Unlimited chats and use on unlimited websites
- Customizable chat widget with two-way translation in 25 languages
- Integration with email
- Customer callback feature
- Pre-chat or in-chat contact info collection
- Accept orders from an online store or web-form on your website
- Desktop, mobile and browser agent apps
- Basic stats on chats and agent activity
Jivo has a free plan that supports 1 user and unlimited chats.
To add more users and unlock additional features, you can upgrade to one of the paid plans, starting with the Professional plan. That one costs $19 per user, per month and is billed $228 on an annual basis. You can also choose to pay on a month-to-month basis ($29) or every three months ($27 per month; $81 in total).
JivoChat is an ideal platform for ecommerce stores or anyone who takes their business seriously and wants to do everything possible to provide excellent customer service.
The analytics inside the dashboard let you see important information like how much time a visitor has spent on your website, how many pages they’ve visited, how many times they’ve visited in the past, and more.
Teammates can communicate on the internal chat channel and leave comments about individuals for future reference. This helps to provide a seamless experience for repeat visitors and makes them feel valued.
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8. Chaport
🆓 Free plan: YES (2 users; unlimited conversations per month)
💰 Entry-level paid plan starting price: $29 per month, billed annually at $348
💻 Free trial on paid plans: 14 days
☁️ Customizable chat box: YES (color choices on free plan; additional options on paid plans)
⏳ Chat history: YES (60 days on free plan; forever on paid plans)
🔌 Integrations: NO on free plan; YES on paid plans (Facebook, Telegram, Ecwid, Zapier, and more)
Chaport’s free plan includes the following:
- 60 days chat history
- Basic reports that show the total number of chats served and missed in the previous 30 days
- Automatic pop-up messages to pro-actively initiate chats
- Multilingual chat support that automatically switches to visitor’s browser language
- GDPR compliant
And the higher level Pro plan unlocks even more:
- Unlimited chat history
- Messaging app integration (Facebook, Telegram, Viber, etc)
- Autoresponder for when you or another agent aren’t available
- Pre-chat form to request visitor info before starting a chat
- Typing insights to see what visitors type before they send the message
- Email transcripts of chats
- Canned responses to frequently asked questions
Chaport is available as a free plugin. It supports up to 2 users and unlimited conversations.
There are also two paid plans available. The entry-level one is called Pro and costs $29 per month if you pay up front for the year or $39 per month if you choose to pay monthly. It supports up to 4 users.
Chaport is a good choice if you’re running a two-person operation and you’re mainly looking for a live chat feature with some basic analytics. It can also be an attractive option to websites based in the European Union or those who get a lot of traffic from there because it’s GDPR compliant.
It’s worth noting that if you’re looking for an option that will also let you integrate external messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, Telegram, etc, then you’ll have to upgrade to a paid plan. However, even on the paid plan that unlocks those integrations, the list is somewhat limited compared to some of the other plugins featured here.
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9. Live Chat Unlimited by Screets
🆓 Free plan: NO (technically there is a free plan but it only supports 10 conversations per month)
💰 Entry-level paid plan starting price: $25 as a one-time fee
💻 Free trial on paid plans: NO
☁️ Customizable chat box: YES
⏳ Chat history: YES (up to 500 MB on the entry-level plan; up to 1 GB on the higher plan)
🔌 Integrations: NO
The Screets entry-level paid plan comes with the following:
- Contact form so you can collect data directly from your visitors
- Special notice announcement that lets you communicate about delays or high volume
- Departments allow you to create teams for different customer needs
- Notifications so you’ll be pinged whenever a new chat starts
- GDPR compliant for EU based websites or those with a lot of EU traffic
Screets has a free plan, but it’s not intended for actual use. It only supports up to 10 conversations per month, which basically makes it a trial account so you can get a feel for how it works.
There are two paid plans. Both are charged as a one-time fee, with the entry-level one costing a mere $25. That one is called the Complete plan and it gives you support for up to 2 users with a maximum of 2,000 conversations per month. You’re also limited to installing it on a single website.
The more expensive plan is called the Ultimate plan. It costs $75 and supports up to 5 users with 5,000 monthly conversations. This plan also lets you install the plugin on as many websites as you want.
If you run a relatively small operation where you only need 1 to 5 users, and you want a reliable plugin with a basic feature set, then Live Chat Unlimited by Screets is a strong option. There are no app integrations or even basic analytics. While that might be a turn-off for some people, it can also be a selling point for those who want a straightforward solution with no distractions in the interface.
It’s also among the most affordable premium solutions for WordPress because both of its paid plans only charge you a one-time fee. On top of that, the fees themselves are relatively low when compared to other plugins.
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10. Formilla Live Chat
🆓 Free plan: YES (1 user; unlimited conversations per month)
💰 Entry-level paid plan starting price: $13.99 per month, billed annually at $167.88
💻 Free trial on paid plans: 15 days
☁️ Customizable chat box: YES
⏳ Chat history: YES (60 days on free plan; forever on paid plans)
🔌 Integrations: NO on free plan; YES on paid plans (Google Analytics, Zapier, and Infusionsoft CRM)
The Formilla entry-level paid plan comes with the following:
- Custom branding, colors, and themes
- Multi-language support
- Unlimited canned messages
- Ban unlimited visitors
- Auto-responder
- User/agent is typing a message notification
- Chat transcripts
- Custom fields
- Reports
Higher plans unlock even more powerful features.
Formilla has a free plan. It supports 1 user with unlimited monthly conversations.
There are three paid plans. The cheapest one is the Premium plan. It runs for $13.99 per month, paid annually as $167.88. That plan also supports only 1 user with unlimited chats, but it unlocks an array of additional features.
Formilla is another strong option for smaller operations. This is because their plans don’t support large teams by default. Even the highest level paid plan only supports 2 users. If you need to go beyond that amount, then you’ll be asked to pay extra.
Despite that, the features you get are really attractive – and that includes the free plan. For example, you can view the most active visitors on your site in real-time, and request a chat with any of them. The interface shows you the URL of the page where they initiated the chat, whether they’re a new visitor or a returning visitor, and more. The company also offers customer support via email and chat to their free users, with additional phone support available for those on paid plans.
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Final recommendations and thoughts 🏁
That concludes my roundup of ten of the best live chat plugins for WordPress. After spending some time using each one of them (and eight other ones that didn’t make the cut), I feel confident that you’ll be able to choose one that suits your needs.
If you’re still feeling undecided, my final four recommendations are below:
💪 For power users who want a comprehensive solution with business analytics, proactive outreach, AI tools, and anything else you can think of to provide the best customer service experience, then LiveChat is going to deliver.
💬 On the opposite side of the fence, if you’re running a small operation and are looking for a very simple solution that lets you communicate with your website visitors without drowning you in a sea of advanced features, then Live Chat Unlimited by Screets will make a good fit.
💰 For businesses that need up to 10 users but don’t want to spend a lot of money, 3CX will get the job done. You’ll get that on the free plan, and you’ll also get access to additional customer service tools like voice calls and video chats. Think of it like a not-as-good-but-cheaper alternative to LiveChat.
🔌 Finally, if you’re looking for a low-cost way to integrate your existing chat apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, etc onto your website and relying on those to provide chat support (without having a dedicated live chat software), then Chaty is the best choice.
Using a different plugin than the ones I listed above? If you have a good one, drop it in the comments below and let me know. I’m curious to see what others are using.
Is there any chat plugin which enables to charge visitors per minute for using chat feature? for wordpress.
please if anyone has any suggestion
A very necessary plugin for the business owners who wants to provide information to their users right away, as when I go to goddady website, and i need to know about the packages i use live chat and they reply within seconds, so for such websites its a necessary tool, i was looking for such plugin and finally I read your article thanks !
Please, i want to know the plugin i can use for live group chat or live discusions
There is also a good JivoChat plugin
The best is zoho sales IQ, that’s what we are using
What about HelpCrunch live chat plug-in? It’s a native plug in for WordPress, easy to add and use
Epic roundup Shaun,
Can I ask how you determine which of these are the best?
I don’t think going by active install determine whether a plugin is the best option, curious to hear your thoughts?
I found (https://www.softwarefindr.com/best/wordpress-chat-plugins/) to be a much better ranking of the best plugins.
good
Can we recommend new idea of live chat for online shops: Revolivechat.com User can complete the shopping in chat window and admin can give discounts in chat widnow. Revolivechat.com is for wordpress and other platforms
Great list! However you missed some of the great products have been already launched. check out one of favourite for supporting customers in real time – http://www.chat4.website
I just wanted to recommend, no sorry I’ve got nothing to recommend wish I did. Well could recommend people ignore anyone who recommends. Just go through them, find whatever one best suits your needs and you like the most. It’s awesome!!!
Too many chat plugins, that’s fo’ sho.
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I have been using the WP Live Chat Support Pro plugin and have found it works flawlessly. I tried the free version and immediately upgraded to the Pro version for only $39.95 per year. I would never pay a month to month fee ever again for live chat products. Their tech support is also incredibly fast and their people are very knowledgeable and polite. You could not ask for any more than that.
Know any chat that’s best for medical?
thank you for post, I also want to contribute to your collection of plugins A free facebook live chat for wordpress plugins.
goo.gl/QmpAjp
I definitely recommend to try live chat from Deskun https://deskun.com/tour#tourChat. Great features and really low price.
I am using TIDIO in one of the website (www.kickassdigitalmarketing.com) , I loved the back end interface, customization and integration option.
The front end chat window can also be customized and kept different for desktop and mobile device.
The best thing is it is FREE ( for startups/ Freelancers/Entrepreneurs , this is perfect chat plugin in my view)
Hi Friends,
Do you have idea which is best chat plugin for WordPress but not live chat, I want to add chat option on every product so user can chat with sellers directly. Its for classified website!
May I share these tips for small businesses?
1. Facebook Messenger for website – FREE
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-facebook-messenger
A tool to boost customer base for your website.
2. Facebook Ads in Messenger (Pay per conversion)
You’ll get visitors’ contacts then you can run ads to their Messenger as a destination.
I agree with @kulichang:disqus It’s a nice article and helpful for beginners like me
Nice article its really helpful to beginners i just want to recommend this online chat plugin am using which has been helpful, easy to work with, the free version allows multiple chat, has a mobile application and also chrome extension. https://wordpress.org/plugins/chats/
You missed an amazing messaging app! Tawk.to is free and amazing! Check it out, seriously. They even have an android and iOS app so you can answer chats on the go.
https://www.tawk.to/
Totally agree! The Tawk.to is awesome!
I agree – tawk is the best one out there and totally free 😀
I found another good live chat with many free functions. Check http://www.chat4.website
Among all other option, it seems Tawk.to seems really good to me. Just installed on my site. Its desktop and and smart phone version is really cool. They in fact offering too much absolutely free.
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