There are several free live chat software solutions out there, and most of them offer functional solutions for businesses.
Using live chat on your website is vital for customer retention and increasing revenue.
It is an ideal online support service tool because it combines real-time interactions with the ability to provide immediate help to customers.
We have brought together the 20 best free live chat software solutions for websites in this blog post so that you can select one to use for your business and improve your customer support.
Let’s check them out!
Live chat is a customer support channel that allows customers to have text-based online conversations with support teams.
Companies embed live chat boxes on their website so customers can instantly receive answers to their questions.
Live chat software allows businesses or organizations to communicate with their customers or website visitors in real-time through a chat interface.
These tools enable companies to create chat widgets that are functional and customizable to form better relationships with visitors.
Companies can deliver live chat support through a website or mobile messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and SMS, and live chat software makes it easier.
Here, we listed top 20 free live chat software that can help you form better relationships and connect with your visitors.
We have investigated user reviews and included their best for, top features, pros, cons, and G2 ratings so you can select the proper one for you quickly!
Best for AI-driven Customer Support
If you want to build an AI bot assistant on your website, LiveChatAI might be a good option.
LiveChatAI reduces support volumes and increases customer satisfaction in minutes with the GPT4-powered AI bot that is trained with your own docs and content.
This tool allows you to use ChatGPT capabilities by integrating with your website. Besides, you can combine AI bot & live chat features to power up your customer support works.
Top Features of LiveChatAI:
LiveChatAI uses your documents or linked content to conduct a quality conversation with the visitors. Moreover, it is free up to ten thousand messages.
Create Your Custom AI Bot with LiveChatAI
Pros:
Cons:
LiveChatAI G2 Rating: 5 out of 5.
Best for Advanced CRM Users
HubSpot’s live chat software comes as a part of HubSpot’s CRM, allowing incoming chats to get logged to customers’ contact profiles.
This way, your team can look up recurring customer issues and offer different solutions.
Top Features of HubSpot's Free Live Chat:
It is a perfect free live chat solution if you are using HubSpot’s CRM.
However, if you are not using its CRM, you can sign up for free and install its customized live chat widget on your website.
Get Started with Hubspot Free Chat
Pros:
Cons:
HubSpot Free Live Chat G2 Rating: 4.4 out of 5.
Best for E-commerce
Tidio is a live chat software solution for websites that enables you to connect with visitors in real time.
You can create chatbots with Tidio, just like HubSpot, to automate your messages.
It has many other features, such as canned responses for quick responses and an all-in-one shared inbox.
You can integrate Tidio with various software, including Shopify, WordPress, and Wix.
Tidio offers premium plans as well as a free plan. Its free plan is best for micro and small businesses as it allows only up to 3 chat operators and chatbots to have unlimited chats with 100 unique visitors per month.
What’s notable about Tidio’s free plan is that you send 500 automated emails a month.
Considering all, Tidio can support CRMs and email automation tools to provide your customers with a tailored customer support experience.
Top Features of Tidio Live Chat:
Pros:
Cons:
Tidio G2 Rating: 4.7 out of 5.
Bonus: Tidio- Lyro
Lyro - the first conversational AI chatbot for small and medium businesses.
Best for Small Business
FreeChat is a live chat software that is 100% free and requires no coding.
Its best feature is that you can add live chat to your site without slowing down your website speed.
Top Features of FreeChat:
With this free live chat software solution, provide your customers with immediate responses and increase customer retention without relying on costly software solutions.
Pros:
Cons:
Create a Free Live Chat Box with FreeChat
Best for Comprehensive Customer Engagement
Intercom is an innovative live chat software that aims to bridge the communication gap between businesses and their customers.
With a user-friendly interface and advanced messaging features, it provides real-time support, facilitating seamless conversations and quicker resolutions.
Top Features of Intercom:
Intercom is a popular choice for businesses looking to improve their customer experience and build lasting relationships.
Pros:
Cons:
Intercom G2 Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
Best for Omnichannel Customer Engagement
Respond.io is a business messaging platform that allows your customers to contact you via any channel.
Customers can message you using Respond.io live chat on your website or your social media pages.
This live chat software provides a 360° view of your customer base to your team.
Top Features of Respond.io:
Omnichannel chat history, contact import, and real-time analytics can help you gain a clearer insight into each customer profile.
Respond.io includes an AI feature that guides your chatbot responses by using “Smart Replies.”
Smart replies enable communicating faster and troubleshooting recurring issues based on repetitive questions.
Pros:
Cons:
Respond.io G2 Rating: 4.8 out of 5.
Best for Real-Time Customer Monitoring
Tawk.to is a free live chat software that operates with a small JavaScript snippet on your site.
It works on your website, within your mobile app, or from a customizable page.
Top Features of Tawk.to:
You can monitor customer activity in real-time and see which team member responded to a customer.
Pros:
Cons:
Tawk.to G2 Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
Best for Multichannel Management
When it comes to multichannel management in one place, Smartsupp is a good option.
With this live chat software, you can respond to your customers’ emails, chats, and Facebook messages in one place.
It comes as a mobile app as well to chat with your customers on the go.
Top Features of Smartsupp:
What we like about Smartsupp is that it has a file-sharing feature that allows sending a photo or document with drag and drop.
Also, it has a chatbot that can send personalized messages to customers. Another prominent feature of Smartsupp is the video recording feature, which records visitor behaviors.
Pros:
Cons:
Smartsupp G2 Rating: 4.6 out of 5.
Best for Game-Based Customer Engagement
Crisp.Chat is a live chat software that brings together all your channels with its shared inbox feature. You can build chatbot scenarios, create GIFs and video previews, and share files.
Also, Crisp.Chat allows you to connect your live chat to social networks like Messenger and Twitter.
What caught our attention is that they offer a feature called CrispyBird, which is a game to keep your customers engaged while they wait for your response.
Top Features of Crisp.Chat:
This live chat software has free and paid plans. Forever free plan is best for personal websites and anyone who wants a basic live chat to communicate with customers. It covers 2 seats, a team inbox, and mobile apps.
Pros:
Cons:
Crisp G2 Rating: 4.5 out of 5.
Best for Mobile Customer Support
Being the top-rated mobile customer support app at the App Store, JivoChat empowers support teams to handle chats from various platforms.
Top Features of JivoChat:
Various platforms that JivoChat works are websites, emails, Telegram, Facebook, and WhatsApp.
Pros:
Cons:
JivoChat G2 Rating: 4.8 out of 5.
Best for Automated Customer Engagement
Chatra is a live chat software that enables you to initiate conversations with visitors on your website automatically.
It comes with features like read receipts and typing indicators so that customers can know when you are responding.
Top Features of Chatra:
One notable feature is that Chatra has an offline chat widget. Offline chat widgets let customers know that your team is busy and will get them back soon.
Pros:
Cons:
Chatra G2 Rating: 4.2 out of 5.
Best for Multichannel Support Automation
Zoho Desk is more than you think. With different kinds of channels, like SMS, phone calls, emails, and more, Zoho Desk is effective.
In addition to claiming to provide more ROI than its competitors, Zoho Desk gives importance to automating tasks and expanding the impact.
Top Features of Zoho Desk:
Also, Zoho Desk is a transparent and helpful company with its policies by sharing its release notes and resources.
Pros:
Cons:
Zoho Desk G2 Rating: 4.4 out of 5.
Best for Multichannel Support Integration
Userlike has a free live chat software option and paid plans.
The free plan of Userlike includes one widget and one seat.
Top Features of Userlike:
Its live chat window for web and mobile has various features like image and video support, feedback options, and conversation tagging.
With conversation tagging, you can tag conversations with topics and better organize them.
Also, setting up canned messages for common questions is another positive feature.
Pros:
Cons:
Userlike G2 Rating: 4.4 out of 5.
Best for Simultaneous Chat Sessions
With MyLiveChat, agents can have multiple simultaneous chat sessions. Sessions run in separate room tabs.
You can customize the visitor popup messenger by adding your company logo and agent photo, which is cool for matching the live chat to your brand image.
Top features of MyLiveChat
MyLiveChat also has a spell checker feature to eliminate spelling mistakes.
One outstanding feature is the proactive chat, which allows you to initiate a one-on-one chat with your website visitors.
Pros:
Cons:
My LiveChat Capterra Rating: 4.3 out of 5.
Best for Centralized Customer Engagement
With Gist, businesses have access to an all-encompassing platform that centralizes their marketing, sales, and customer support efforts.
Features include live chat, email marketing, and a comprehensive dashboard.
Top Features of Gist
Thanks to its ABM, forms, chatbots and automated scheduling on your website, you can turn visitors into leads and customers.
Pros:
Cons
Gist G2 Rating: 4.6 out of 5.
Best for Omnichannel Help Desk
Rocket.Chat is designed to provide seamless interactions with your customers no matter how they choose to connect with you.
With this tool, you can manage all customer collaboration from a single central location, whether it's through phone, email, chat, or social media.
Top features of Rocket.Chat:
This platform makes it easy to respond quickly to inquiries and track interactions to ensure a positive experience every time.
Pros:
Cons:
Rocket.Chat G2 Rating: 4.2 out of 5.
Best for Social Channel Support
Freshchat is mostly outstanding with its availability in terms of social channels, like WhatsApp, Instagram, and iMessage.
Like most of its competitors, Freshchat provides multilingual support for a wider range of experience.
Top Features of Freshchat:
Freshchat offers reactive and proactive solutions at the same time to meet the needs of customers. That’s how you will learn how to know when your customers need you.
Pros:
Cons:
Freshchat G2 Rating: 4.4 out of 5.
Best for GDPR Compliance Guarantee
Chaport is a no-code chatbot that lets you create chatbots with easy-to-use scenarios.
With Chaport’s chat widget, it is possible to generate leads, boost sales, and increase engagement with your customers.
Top Features of Chaport:
The best part about Chaport is that it provides reports by integrating Google Analytics and complies with GDPR.
Pros:
Cons:
Chaport G2 Rating: 4.7 out of 5.
Best for Workflow Automation
ThriveDesk is an all-in-one customer support platform with its live chat, email, contact form, live chat providers, integrations, and API.
It allows you to create seamless workflows to reduce the burden of workload, and that is how you can easily manage the steps and subjects.
Top Features:
Besides, ThriveDesk serves email and in-app notifications in addition to help of increasing team efficiency.
Pros:
Cons:
ThriveDesk G2 Rating: 5 out of 5.
Best for Pre-built Chatbot Structures
Re:amaze is another software that can be counted as a free live chat software with its impactful free trial.
Various integrations that can help customer service stand out at a great scale.
Top Features:
As a GoDaddy brand, Re:amaze helps you build custom chatbots with its pre-built structures.
Pros:
Cons:
Re:amaze G2 Rating: 4.6 out of 5.
Best for GMail Integration
Hiver is the world’s first helpdesk built for Google Workspace.
With Hiver’s live chat widget, support managers can delegate incoming chat queries to agents and track their status till the point of resolution.
Top features:
Since Hiver’s live chat feature works within Gmail’s native interface, your support team can get started in minutes with minimal training.
Hiver is a great option for teams looking for an intuitive solution to manage email and chat queries together.
Though Hiver is not fully free, you can give it a try for learning the tool and deciding to use it for websites.
Pros:
Cons:
Hiver G2 Rating: 4.6 out of 5.
Positive word of mouth is a super-effective trick in creating brand loyalty and helping businesses grow. But what does it have to do with live chat?
Customers love talking about their live chat experiences.
According to Kayako's live chat study, 29% of consumers spread a positive live chat experience.
Besides, here are some benefits of using live chat as your support channel:
Increased customer satisfaction: Imagine having a magic wand that could make your customers happy with a quick wave. That's what live chat can do for your business! It's like having a personal assistant that's always available to help your customers out.
Improved sales: Picture a shopping cart that's just about to roll away, with a customer hesitating to buy. Live chat is like having a superhero on standby, ready to jump in and save the sale with a quick chat.
Cost-effective: Live chat is often less expensive than traditional customer service methods such as phone support.
Greater efficiency: It allows multiple customers to be assisted simultaneously, increasing the efficiency of customer service.
Insight into customer needs and preferences: Live chat transcripts can give you a glimpse into their thoughts and desires, helping you make better business decisions.
Increased accessibility: Live chat is like a bridge that connects you to your customers, no matter where they are. Customers get help at any time and from any device, increasing accessibility for customers who may have difficulty reaching a business by phone.
Better engagement: Think of live chat as the ultimate ice-breaker for your business. It allows customers to engage with your business in real-time, which can help build stronger relationships and increase loyalty.
And that's a wrap for our best free live chat software suggestions you can add to your website.
Live chat support on your website greatly improves your brand's trustability.
However, if you are starting your business or have a small business, most well-established live chat software can burden your budget.
No need to worry. You can still provide real-time support to your customers with free live chat software.
We gathered 15 best free live chat software in this blog post so you can choose the one that suits your business needs.
Have another free live chat solution for websites or further ideas on this topic?
Tell us in the comments below!