Digitally impatient customers don’t want to wait for long and frustrating customer service lines. It is not surprising that 79% of customers prefer live chat over any other support channel.

Live chat can be a great tool for online support because it allows customers to interact with each other in real time. According to Forrester’s report 1 out of 5, customers would abandon a product or service if they were not able to get a response via live chat.

Live chat is essential to increase customer retention and revenue.

Then, you can add it to your website. What’s the catch?

Although there are many live chat options, most are too costly, especially for small businesses.

There are also no-code, free live chat options. Before we dive into the details of the software, let’s discuss live chat and its benefits for websites.

Skip the section on comparisons if you don’t wish to read it.

Chat Support

Live chat lets customers communicate with their support team using text. Live chat can be embedded into websites by companies to allow customers immediate answers.

Chat support via live chat can be provided either by an AI, or a human via a chat box. It all depends upon the company’s preferences and working hours.

Companies can provide live chat support via a website or mobile messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, or SMS.

The one thing every website visitor likes is

Don’t let speed crazes fool you. 95% of customers value high-quality support over speed.

Customers are more concerned about how fast you answer their questions than whether or not you can solve their problems. 

Live chat support can be a quick and efficient way to get valuable solutions.

What You Need to Know About Live Chat

Positive word-of-mouth is a powerful way to build brand loyalty, and help businesses grow. Customers love to share their live chat experiences.

According to a study, 29% of consumers enjoy positive chat experiences.

There are other benefits to live chat support.

• Live chat can be a great way for customers to communicate. It’s not surprising.

• It’s easy to find.

• It provides quick solutions to customers’ problems and allows them to continue with their everyday tasks

• Live chat support is more conversational than email support.

• Live chat is available on the checkout page to decrease abandonment rates.

The Best Free Live Chat Software Solutions

1. Tidio Live Chat (Our favorite)

Tidio lets you communicate with visitors in real-time using live chat software. This will allow you to automate your messages.

Tidio is compatible with many software like Shopify, WordPress, Wix, and Wix. This free plan is great for micro and small businesses. It offers:

• Up to three chat operators

• Chatbots let you chat with unlimited visitors and up to 100 people per month.

Tidio’s free plan is the best. Tidio’s free plan allows you to send 500 emails per month.

Pros:

• Excellent customer support
• A simple and flexible interface
• Quick setup

Cons:

• You cannot use multiple triggers for the same bot
• You cannot change the chatbox’s position on the site.

Tidio G2 Rating & Reviews 4.8/5

Get started with Tidio

2. FreeChat

FreeChat lets you chat online with customers. It’s completely free and doesn’t require any programming.

Outstanding Features:

• With its sleek, modern chat design, you can match your chat button to your website’s design. 
• In just a few moments, you can set up your website
• You can add Live Chats to many social media channels. 

This chat software is free and allows you to respond instantly to customers. It also helps to increase customer retention without requiring expensive software.

Pros:

• It is super simple to set up and use your website

• Great for small businesses

• You can answer customers’ messages from your mobile apps like Instagram and WhatsApp Business.

Cons:

• For small and medium-sized businesses, this would not suffice. You can also continue to browse our list to find the right option for your company.

3. HubSpot Live Chat

HubSpot CRM includes HubSpot chat software. This software allows chats to log into customer contact records, allowing your team to identify customer issues and offer different solutions.

HubSpot CRM offers a great live chat feature. 

Start HubSpot Live Chat

It also contains features such as:

• Branding services
• Bots
• Targeted greeting messages
• Canned solutions
• HubSpot provides a chatbot creator that lets you keep your chat going even after hours.

Cons:

• There is a limit to the customization you can do without upgrading. Upgrades let you change the color of the chat widget and remove the HubSpot branding.
• HubSpot branding

4. Respond.io

Respond.io lets customers reach you through any channel. Customers also have the option to message you via Respond.io live chat from your website or social media accounts.

Live chat software provides a 360-degree view of your customer base. Omnichannel chat history, import of contacts, and real analytics can help you gain a better understanding.

Respond.io offers an AI feature that guides chatbot replies using “Smart Replies”. Smart replies enable you to communicate more quickly and solve recurring problems based on repetitive questions.

Respond.io has both paid and unpaid plans. 

• 5 members of the team
• Contacts Up to 100
• Unlimited messages
• All channels

Cons:

• There are a few missing features
• Mobile apps are not currently available. They are only compatible with desktop computers.

G2 Rating: 5/5 (2 reviews)

5. Tawk. to

Tawk. to is a free chat solution that uses a JavaScript code snippet embedded on your site.

Track customer activity and see who responded to which customer in real-time. 

• Chat in your native language with foreign customers using localized messages
• Tawk. to provides IOS and Android apps that let you chat with customers from your mobile device.
• Canaled messages

Pros:

• Tracks the user’s location and activities, as well as the places they click.
• It is browser-based so you don’t need any software
• There are many customization possibilities

Cons:

• Inconsistent notifications
• It can be difficult to connect with websites or create an account.

Capterra Rating: 4.6/5

6. Smartsupp

Smartsupp allows multichannel management. You can respond to customer messages and chats in one place.

It can be used as a mobile app to communicate with customers. Smartsupp’s File-sharing feature lets you send a file or photo by drag and drop.

Smartsupp has a chatbot that can send customers personalized messages. Smartsupp has a video recording function that records the behavior of visitors.

You have the option to choose between a monthly or annual plan. 

• 3 Chat agents (Live chat agents) are customer service representatives that answer chats.
• Unlimited number of websites
• 3 chatbots
• All core features

Pros:

• Chat session participants can email when they are done.
• User-Friendly Interface
• Track user sessions on the screen
• Do you have a mobile app?

Cons:

• Some users have complained about notifications not appearing on their Android apps.
• You can’t set up office hours with the free version.

Capterra Rating: 4.7/5

7. Crisp.Chat

Crisp. Chat is live chat software that allows you to create chatbots, preview videos, and GIFs, as well as share files. 

Crisp. Chat allows you to connect live chat with social media networks like Twitter and Messenger. 

LiveTranslate lets you instantly translate messages right from your smartphone.

You can choose from both paid and free plans for live chat software. This plan includes: 

• 2 seats
• Team inbox
• Mobile apps

Pros:

• Auto-translate feature
• Do you have a mobile app?
• Great sync between web, mobile, and desktop apps

Cons:

Users reported the following cons to

• It is impossible to have more than one conversation with a customer.
• The message history is for the free plan and lasts 30 days
• PipeDrive integrations were problematic and didn’t work for all users.

Capterra Rating: 4.5/5

8. JivoChat

JivoChat is the top-rated mobile customer service app on the App Store? JivoChat allows support teams to access chats from multiple platforms, including email, Telegram, and Facebook.

• Chats with Color Codes
• Sneak-Peek at Message
• Canned responses
• Hotkeys
• Chat proactive

This basic version is available for free to the first five agents. However, it allows unlimited chats and websites.

Pros:

• Subject to certain conditions, visitor information (location and name, email address, and email address)
• Call back
• View what users typed before clicking “send”.

Cons:

• Chat customers that quit the chat after they’ve stated that it is not possible to reach them
• SMS features are restricted
• Some users may find the chat box appearing on websites annoying.

Capterra Rating: 4.5/5

9. Chatra

Chatra lets you start conversations with visitors automatically. This feature allows you to send out read receipts and indicate when you are responding.

Chitra’s offline Chat widget is a noteworthy feature. Customers can see the team is busy and will return shortly with an offline Chat widget.

Chatra offers both a free forever plan as well as paid plans that offer more features.

Pros:

• The mobile app is amazing. 
• Connect with your customers via Facebook and email
• Chatra integration is quick and easy.
• A free version is available for small businesses.

Cons:

• Sometimes the chat may lag.
• HTML support cannot be found in messages
• Incapacity to manually send chat transcripts

Capterra Rating: 4.8/5

10. OnWebChat

OnWebChat offers live chat services that aim at improving customer satisfaction.

What is the free onWebChat Plan?

• 100 chats/month
• Chat history 1 year
• Monitoring of visitors
• Shortcuts, speech-to-text

It’s not well-known that this tool was reviewed and tested by many people. 

11. Userlike

Userlike provides a free chat option as well as paid plans. Live chat on mobile and the web offers many features including image and video support, feedback, and conversation tagging.

Conversation Tagging allows you to tag conversations and organize them better. You can also set up canned messages to address common questions.

Pros:

• Chat with Messenger and WhatsApp with live chat
• Integration options for other tools like Pipedrive, Salesforce, and Slack
• Optimal user interface

Cons:

• Chat sessions with broken English
• The chat window will close automatically and the operator can’t send the message back.
• No smartphone app

Capterra Rating: 4.6/5

12. MyLiveChat

Agents have the option to chat in multiple sessions with MyLiveChat. Sessions take place in separate rooms.

You can personalize the visitor messenger by adding your company logo or agent pictures. This allows you to match your live chat with your brand’s image.

MyLiveChat includes a spell-checker to help you correct spelling mistakes. Additional features include

• Typing indicator
• Transfer files
• Support for Firewall
• Geolocation
• Multilingual support
• Canned responses

Pros:

• It’s easy to implement
• Set working hours to ensure availability

Cons:

• No bot function to send automated replies 
• Lacks proper product onboarding
• Unable to modify the chat button in the free version
• Unhelpful customer support

Capterra Rating: 4.4/5

Which live chat software is best for my website?

Having a live chat support system on your website can help make your brand more trusted. 

You don’t have to worry. Website owners can still use the free software. 

FreeChat can be a great option if you are focusing more on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Instagram business.

Websites that have high traffic should invest in a paid service such as Intercom and Zendesk.