Best Live Chat Software in 2026

Intercom was founded in 2011 and in 2026 the company renamed itself Fin, after its AI customer-service agent; it reports that more than 30,000 companies use its products. The Intercom Helpdesk, which includes the website and in-app Messenger used for live chat, continues to be sold under the Intercom name. Prices are per seat on annual billing: Essential at US$29 per seat per month, shown at US$19 for new customers with a 35% discount; Advanced at US$85, which adds workflow automation and round-robin assignment and includes 20 free Lite seats; and Expert at US$132, with 50 Lite seats and service-level agreements. The Fin AI Agent is charged separately at US$0.99 per resolved outcome, a 14-day trial requires no card, and qualifying start-ups can receive a 93% discount.

Zendesk is a customer service platform with headquarters in San Francisco and offices worldwide, and a marketplace of more than 1,800 apps and integrations. Messaging and live chat for websites and mobile apps are part of its Suite plans. The entry Support Team plan, at US$19 per agent per month paid yearly (US$25 monthly), covers email ticketing for teams moving beyond a shared inbox; Suite Team, at US$55 per agent per month yearly (US$69 monthly), unifies channels including messaging and adds AI agents; and Suite Professional costs US$115 yearly or US$149 monthly. Annual billing saves 20%, and add-ons such as the Copilot AI assistant cost US$50 per agent per month paid yearly. Zendesk is generally adopted by organisations that need chat as one channel within a broader ticketing and service operation.

LiveChat is a dedicated website chat product published by Text, Inc., and its pricing page now presents it as Text Live Chat; the company states its products are used by more than 30,000 customers worldwide. The Essential plan costs US$19 per user per month billed annually and includes chat and an omnichannel inbox with ticketing. The Growth plan, at US$79 per user per month billed annually, adds chat supervision and takeover, unlimited chat history, proactive campaigns, team performance reports, and AI agents with 200 AI resolutions a month. An Enterprise plan is custom-priced, extra AI resolutions are sold in packages of 50 for US$49.50, and paying yearly saves up to 24%. LiveChat is focused on sales and support conversations on websites, for organisations that want a chat-first tool rather than a full help desk.

Freshchat is the messaging product of Freshworks, which states that it is trusted by more than 74,000 businesses. Its Free plan supports up to 10 agents and includes a chat widget for websites and mobile apps, a shared inbox and email connection. Paid plans, billed annually per agent per month, are Growth at US$19, which adds social media messengers, text messaging, reporting and the Freddy AI Agent at US$49 per 100 sessions; Pro at US$49, which adds intelligent routing, multiple service-level policies and the Freddy AI Copilot as a US$29 add-on; and Enterprise at US$79, which adds audit logs and security controls. Annual billing saves 20%, and occasional users can be added with day passes. Freshchat is a common choice for small teams that need several agents on a free plan before moving to paid tiers.

Help Scout is a help desk built around a shared email inbox, with live chat and self-service delivered through Beacon, an embeddable support widget that offers chat on a website or in an app. A Free plan covers five users, one inbox, one Docs knowledge-base site and 100 contacts per month. Paid plans are Standard at US$25 per user per month, which includes live chat and SMS, Plus at US$45 and Pro at US$75, the last sold through a demo; the pricing page offers a 16% discount for annual billing. An AI assistant add-on resolves enquiries at US$0.75 per resolution. Help Scout is generally chosen by teams whose support is mainly email-based and who want chat as a complementary channel rather than the centre of their operation.

Tidio combines a help desk, live chat, rule-based chatbots called Flows and an AI agent called Lyro. A Free plan is available. On annual billing, which gives two months free, the Starter plan costs US$24.17 per month for 100 billable conversations, Growth starts at US$49.17 per month for 250 conversations, and Plus starts at US$300 per month plus usage, with Premium priced by sales. Lyro can also be bought as a standalone product from US$32.50 per month for 50 AI conversations, and the Flows chatbot from US$24.17 per month for 2,000 visitors reached. Paid plans have a seven-day free trial. Tidio's conversation-based pricing differs from per-seat models and can be economical for small teams with modest chat volumes.

Crisp was created in 2015, is headquartered in Nantes, France, is self-funded without venture capital, and reports more than 600,000 users. It prices per workspace rather than per agent. The Free plan includes two agents and 100 customer profiles; Mini costs US$45 per month for four agents and 5,000 profiles; Essentials costs US$95 per month for ten agents and 50,000 profiles and adds connections to WhatsApp Business and other channels; and Plus costs US$295 per month for 20 or more agents and 200,000 profiles, with additional agents at US$10 per month. Each paid plan includes AI credits worth US$5, US$25 or US$75 respectively, with an estimated number of automated conversations. The per-workspace model favours teams with several agents.

tawk.to provides live chat, a hosted knowledge base and ticketing free of charge, financing itself through optional paid services rather than subscriptions. Removing the "Powered by tawk.to" branding costs US$29 per month, and an AI Assist bot that answers chats using a knowledge base and shortcut answers starts from US$29 per month, with a free tier for sites with limited chat volume. Businesses that do not want to staff chat themselves can hire trained agents from tawk.to for US$1 per hour. The company contrasts this model with traditional per-seat live chat subscriptions. tawk.to is therefore a common choice for small organisations, non-profits and sites that need basic chat without licence costs, although organisations with complex routing or reporting needs may require a fuller help-desk platform.

Olark is a website live chat product that states it has been trusted by more than 12,000 businesses since 2009. Its human-only Live Chat plan costs US$29 per agent per month. The Standard AI Website Agent, powered by its Aiden AI engine, costs US$400 per month billed annually (US$4,800 per year) and includes unlimited conversations without token limits or overages, together with one human agent seat; further human agents cost US$29 per agent per month, so two agents on the AI plan cost US$429 per month. Larger customers can negotiate custom service levels, legal reviews and single sign-on. Olark's flat-fee AI pricing contrasts with per-resolution charges used by several competitors.

LiveAgent is help desk and call-centre software for small and growing support teams, offered since 2004, combining email ticketing, live chat, telephony with interactive voice response, social media messages and a knowledge base in one inbox. At the time of review it was running a promotion on annual billing: Small at US$11 per agent per month (regular US$15) for up to five agents, a mid-tier plan at US$22 (regular US$29) for up to 15 agents including phone, and a top per-agent plan at US$38 (regular US$49) with more AI agents. An Enterprise plan costs US$3,199 per month billed annually with 80 agents included. AI usage is billed at the AI provider's cost with no LiveAgent fee, and a 30-day free trial requires no credit card.

Gorgias is a help desk for e-commerce brands, integrating with Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce and Magento and handling email, chat, social and help-centre channels; it is priced by monthly ticket volume rather than per agent. The Starter plan costs US$40 per month on monthly billing only, with 50 tickets per month; Basic costs US$90 per month or US$77 billed annually (US$924 per year) for 300 tickets; Pro, which the company says is used by more than 12,400 brands, costs US$550 or US$471 annually for 2,000 tickets; and Advanced costs US$1,430 or US$1,227 annually for 5,000 tickets. Tickets beyond the limit cost US$0.36 to US$0.40 each, and automated AI interactions beyond the included amount cost US$1.50 each. Custom plans are available above 5,000 conversations per month.