You can put live chat on a website for nothing. Here are the main free plans side by side, as each vendor describes them, and a five-question test to tell you when free stops being enough.
Free live chat for websites is available from Tawk.to, Tidio, Crisp, HubSpot, Zoho SalesIQ and, for online stores, Shopify Inbox. Free plans cover human-answered chat; AI that answers for you, branding removal and extra seats are usually paid. Free is enough when someone can reply within a couple of minutes during chat hours. If chats arrive when nobody is free, a paid AI chat agent is usually worth it.
| Tool | What’s free | What you pay for |
|---|---|---|
| Tawk.to | Human live chat, unlimited agents, apps | Branding, AI features and hired agents are paid add-ons |
| Tidio | Live chat with limits, a small number of AI conversations to try | AI conversations and more seats on paid plans |
| Crisp | Basic chat for a small team | AI, automation and more seats on paid plans |
| HubSpot | Live chat and simple chatbot inside the free CRM | HubSpot branding; advanced bots on paid tiers |
| Zoho SalesIQ | Live chat for a small number of operators | Visitor and chat limits; AI on paid plans |
| Shopify Inbox | Chat for Shopify stores, answered by you | Shopify stores only |
Mostly no: a free plan will do. Two or more yes answers: free is costing you enquiries.
Aaron is a sole-trader landscaper in Ballarat. A free chat tool suited him for a year: he answered between jobs and it became a form at night. When spring quote requests doubled, half his chats sat unanswered until the evening and three went to someone else. That’s the point where “free” started costing him jobs.
Illustrative composite based on common patterns, not a single client.
Already on Tawk.to or Tidio? Read the Tawk.to keep-or-switch checklist or the DIY jobs a Tidio build leaves you. Installing on WordPress? Use the WordPress install guide. When free isn’t enough, see our done-for-you AI chatbot.
Yes. Several tools have free plans for human-answered live chat, Tawk.to being the best known. What's rarely free is AI that answers for you, removal of the vendor's branding, or extra seats and features.
Most chat tools include a small number of free AI conversations to try, then charge for more. A fully free AI chatbot usually means building one yourself on a developer platform and paying for the AI usage anyway.
Someone has to answer it, the vendor's branding usually shows, and AI and automation sit on paid plans. Free tools also store your visitors' chats with their provider, so check where, for your privacy policy.
When a person can reply within a couple of minutes in the hours the chat is on, and you're comfortable turning it into a message form the rest of the time. Answer the five questions on this page: if most are no, free is fine.
Yes. Free tools give you a snippet or a plugin. On WordPress, Wix, Squarespace or Shopify you can paste it in through the site settings; our WordPress guide shows the safest way.
Free or paid, every widget adds script. Install only one, load it after your page, and check mobile speed before and after.
We build and run a custom AI chatbot for your website: $299 one-off setup, then from $29.99 a month (AUD, ex GST), month-to-month. See what our custom website chatbot includes.