Best Free Live Chat Software (2026): 7 Plans Compared

AnveVoice

Best Free Live Chat Software (2026): 7 Plans Compared

Seven live chat tools with a genuine free plan, compared on agent seats, chat limits and what you must pay for later. All figures from vendor sites, 2026-10-14.

Best free live chat software: seven free plans compared

Live chat means a person on your team answers visitors in real time. Seven tools publish a free plan for it: tawk.to, Freshchat, HubSpot, Crisp, Tidio, Zoho SalesIQ and Smartsupp. The main differences are how many people can answer and how many chats the plan allows. Researched from the sources below on 2026-10-14. AnveVoice is our product. It is left out of the ranked list because it does not fit this use case, and the page says so. Other tools are described from their own websites, checked on 2026-10-14. We do not receive payment from any tool listed.

How we chose

This list is about human-staffed chat with a free plan, so tools without a free live chat plan are excluded. AI features are noted but are not the deciding factor here.

Free seats (weighted most): how many team members can answer on the free plan.
Chat or conversation limits and history limits on the free plan.
What the free plan leaves out, such as AI, branding removal or integrations.
Fit with the rest of your stack, for example a CRM or helpdesk you already use.
A clearly priced next step when the business grows.

The shortlist at a glance

Tools are ordered by fit to the criteria above, not by price or popularity. Pricing columns describe how each vendor charges, using the vendor's own pricing page checked on 2026-10-14.

Tool | Best for | Voice on website | Pricing basis | Free plan
tawk.to | Solo owners who want free chat and ticketing | Not published | Free core chat; paid extras from $29 per month | Yes: core live chat free
Freshchat (Freshworks) | Small teams where several people share chat duty | Not published | Per agent, from $19 per month billed yearly | Yes: up to 10 agents
HubSpot (live chat & chatbot) | Teams that want every chat saved to a contact record | Not published | Free chat; Service Hub per seat | Yes, with the free CRM
Crisp | Teams that expect to add channels later | Not published | Per workspace, paid from $45 per month | Yes: 2 agent seats, no AI credits
Tidio | Online stores that want chat plus light AI | Not published | Flat tiers by conversations, from $24.17 per month | Yes: 50 billable conversations a month
Zoho SalesIQ | Teams already working in the Zoho ecosystem | Not published | Per operator; prices not shown on the page checked | Yes: 3 operators
Smartsupp | Single-operator shops starting out | Not published | Flat tiers; paid from $17 per month | Yes: 25 conversations a month

1. tawk.to: free chat with no stated conversation cap

tawk.to offers core live chat, a knowledge base and ticketing free, with 24/7 support listed on the pricing page. You paste one JavaScript snippet, and it lists Squarespace, Shopify and WordPress. Native apps exist for iOS, Android, macOS and Windows, which helps if you answer from a phone. Money comes from extras: removing 'Powered by tawk.to' branding is $29 a month, and you can hire live chat agents from $1 an hour. Limitation: Facebook, RCS, Telegram and SMS channels are labelled beta or coming soon, and the pricing page claims 27 languages while the site selector shows 8.

2. Freshchat: the biggest free team: up to 10 agents

Freshchat's free plan covers up to 10 agents with a chat widget, shared inbox and email. That is far more seats than most rivals give away, so a five-person shop can all answer from day one. Paid plans are per agent per month billed annually: Growth $19, Pro $49 and Enterprise $79. The Freddy AI Agent starts on Growth and costs $49 per 100 sessions after the first 500. Limitation: the free plan is limited to chat, inbox and email, and voice is a separate product, Freshcaller, with its own pricing.

3. HubSpot Live Chat: free chat that feeds a free CRM

HubSpot offers live chat and a no-code chatbot builder free with its CRM, no credit card required, and chats land in a shared inbox with ticketing. The widget code is generated for you, and HubSpot says setup takes hours, not days. Paid seats on Service Hub start at $20 per seat a month at regular price (shown as $10 under a new-customer discount); Professional is $100 and Enterprise $150 per seat. Limitation: the main value is the CRM link, so it suits you best if you adopt HubSpot more widely, and its Customer Agent AI is a Professional-tier feature.

4. Crisp: free chat with workspace-based pricing later

Crisp's free plan is $0 forever with two agent seats and 100 customer profiles, with no AI credits. The paid ladder prices per workspace rather than per seat, which helps as teams grow: Mini is $45 a month, Essentials $95 and Plus $295, with extra seats at $10 a month. It lists a broad channel set (WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, Telegram, SMS and more) and gives nonprofits and students 50% off. Limitation: the free plan is tight on seats and profiles, and AI features need paid AI credits.

5. Tidio: free chat with ten seats and a taste of AI

Tidio's free plan allows 10 seats and 50 billable conversations a month, with the first 50 Lyro AI conversations free on a lifetime basis. Connections are listed for Shopify, WooCommerce and WordPress. Starter is $24.17 a month for 100 billable conversations. Limitation: the 50-conversation cap arrives quickly for a busy storefront, and the pricing page does not say whether the Starter price assumes annual billing.

6. Zoho SalesIQ: free chat with visitor tracking

Zoho SalesIQ's free plan gives 3 operators, 10,000 visitors a month, 100 operator chat sessions a month and 3 profiles. It adds visitor tracking, a bot builder and lead scoring, and paid tiers allow connecting Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek or self-hosted models from Basic upward. Limitation worth knowing: dollar prices were not visible on the pricing page we fetched, so we cannot quote the first paid step. Paid tiers carry a 15-day trial and a yearly discount of two or more months free.

7. Smartsupp: small free plan with cheap upgrades

Smartsupp's free plan is $0 with one operator, 25 conversations a month and 14 days of history, and it still includes live chat, WhatsApp and Messenger. Paid plans are low-priced: Solo is $17 a month with unlimited conversations for one operator, Plus $25 for three. Its Mira AI agent is a separate $16 a month for 100 conversations. Prices exclude VAT. Limitation: 25 free conversations is the smallest allowance on this list, and the site's own integration count is inconsistent (80+ in one place, 40+ in another).

Where AnveVoice fits

AnveVoice is not a live chat tool: it is an AI voice agent that answers visitors without a person on shift. It is a different job from the plans above, and is not listed. If your problem is that nobody can reply at night, consider pairing a free live chat tool with an AI agent rather than expecting one to do both.

Questions to settle before choosing

How many people will actually answer chats? If it is more than three, the seat limit decides.
Do you need a record of each visitor in a CRM? If yes, HubSpot or Zoho deserve a closer look.
Will you need WhatsApp or Instagram soon? Check the channel list and whether it is free or paid.
Do you need to hide the vendor's branding? Several vendors charge for that.

Sources

tawk.to: tawk.to pricing (https://www.tawk.to/pricing/) — checked 2026-10-14
tawk.to: tawk.to home (https://www.tawk.to/) — checked 2026-10-14
Freshchat (Freshworks): Freshchat pricing (https://www.freshworks.com/live-chat-software/pricing/) — checked 2026-10-14
Freshchat (Freshworks): Freshchat product (https://www.freshworks.com/live-chat-software/) — checked 2026-10-14
HubSpot (live chat & chatbot): HubSpot live chat (https://www.hubspot.com/products/crm/live-chat) — checked 2026-10-14
HubSpot (live chat & chatbot): HubSpot Service Hub (https://www.hubspot.com/products/service) — checked 2026-10-14
HubSpot (live chat & chatbot): HubSpot Service pricing (https://www.hubspot.com/pricing/service) — checked 2026-10-14
Crisp: Crisp pricing (https://crisp.chat/en/pricing/) — checked 2026-10-14
Crisp: Crisp home (https://crisp.chat/en/) — checked 2026-10-14
Tidio: Tidio pricing (https://www.tidio.com/pricing/) — checked 2026-10-14
Tidio: Tidio home (https://www.tidio.com/) — checked 2026-10-14
Tidio: Lyro page (https://www.tidio.com/lyro/) — checked 2026-10-14
Zoho SalesIQ: Zoho SalesIQ pricing (https://www.zoho.com/salesiq/pricing.html) — checked 2026-10-14
Zoho SalesIQ: Zoho SalesIQ homepage (https://www.zoho.com/salesiq/) — checked 2026-10-14
Smartsupp: Smartsupp pricing (https://www.smartsupp.com/pricing) — checked 2026-10-14
Smartsupp: Smartsupp homepage (https://www.smartsupp.com) — checked 2026-10-14

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