Is the free live chat plan real?
We read each vendor's pricing page, help center and legal pages, store every limit with its source, and work out what you pay when you add agents and AI. We have not installed these widgets: the free-plan audit shows what vendors document, and marks what they leave out.
See the 2026 ranking Open the free-plan audit- 11 products, one public rubric
- Every figure linked to its source
- Prices in the vendor's currency
Free-plan audit from vendor documentation
| Product | Free seats | Conversations | Remove branding | AI on the free plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tidio | 10 | 50 / month | No | 50, one-off |
| Crisp | 2 | Unlimited | No | No |
| tawk.to | Unlimited | Unlimited | Paid add-on | 100 / month |
| HubSpot Live Chat | 2 | Unlimited | No | No |
| Freshchat | 10 | Not documented | No | No |
| Smartsupp | 1 | 25 / month | No | 10, one-off |
| Lime Connect | 1 | 200 | Not documented | No |
| Chatwoot | 2 | 500 / month | No | No |
| LiveChat | No free plan · 14-day trial | |||
| Intercom | No free plan · 14-day trial | |||
| Zendesk | No free plan · 14-day trial | |||
Read from each vendor's pricing and help pages on the verification date shown on this page. We have not installed these plans. "Not documented" means the vendor does not say.
Open the free-plan audit →Quick picks by situation
tawk.to
Unlimited agents, chats and history on the free core; branding removal is an add-on.
Read the review →Freshchat
Freddy AI Agent is billed per session: $49 per 100 sessions.
Read the review →HubSpot Live Chat
Free for 2 users with no documented conversation cap; HubSpot branding stays.
Read the review →Best live chat software in 2026
Scored on the public rubric below. Every page is also available as Markdown.
| # | Product | Score | Paid plans from | Best for | Free plan | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | tawk.to | 8.5 | Free | Budget teams wanting unlimited free agents | Free | Read the review → |
| 2 | Tidio | 7.2 | $24.17 per workspace per month, billed annually | Small teams with low, predictable chat volume | Free | Read the review → |
| 3 | Crisp | 6.9 | $45 per workspace per month, billed monthly | Teams wanting flat pricing and EU hosting | Free | Read the review → |
| 4 | Freshchat | 6.8 | $19 per seat per month, billed annually | Teams wanting many agents on a free plan | Free | Read the review → |
| 5 | HubSpot Live Chat | 6.5 | $20 per seat per month, billed monthly | Two-person teams already on HubSpot CRM | Free tools | Read the review → |
| 6 | Smartsupp | 6.1 | €14 per workspace per month, billed annually | Small online stores with up to three people | Free | Read the review → |
| 7 | Chatwoot | 5.4 | $19 per seat per month, billed monthly | Technical teams willing to self-host, or US-based teams | Hacker | Read the review → |
| 8 | LiveChat | 5.2 | $19 per seat per month, billed annually | Established teams with budget per agent | No free plan | Read the review → |
| 9 | Lime Connect | 5.1 | €87 per month, billed annually | Teams that need chat data stored in Germany | Free | Read the review → |
| 10 | Intercom | 4.9 | $29 per seat per month, billed annually | Support teams building around an AI agent | No free plan | Read the review → |
| 11 | Zendesk | 4.9 | $55 per seat per month, billed annually | Multichannel support teams wanting one helpdesk | No free plan | Read the review → |
Head-to-head comparisons
Alternatives to popular tools
- The best Intercom alternativesalternatives
- The best LiveChat alternativesalternatives
- The best Tidio alternativesalternatives
- The best Zendesk alternativesalternatives
- The best tawk.to alternativesalternatives
Live chat software reviews
tawk.to
8.5Budget teams wanting unlimited free agents
Tidio
7.2Small teams with low, predictable chat volume
Crisp
6.9Teams wanting flat pricing and EU hosting
Freshchat
6.8Teams wanting many agents on a free plan
HubSpot Live Chat
6.5Two-person teams already on HubSpot CRM
Smartsupp
6.1Small online stores with up to three people
Chatwoot
5.4Technical teams willing to self-host, or US-based teams
LiveChat
5.2Established teams with budget per agent
Lime Connect
5.1Teams that need chat data stored in Germany
Intercom
4.9Support teams building around an AI agent
Zendesk
4.9Multichannel support teams wanting one helpdesk
Pricing, plan by plan
- Tidio pricing explainedpricing
- Crisp pricing explainedpricing
- LiveChat pricing explainedpricing
- tawk.to pricing explainedpricing
- HubSpot Live Chat pricing explainedpricing
- Freshchat pricing explainedpricing
Guides for buyers
- Is a free live chat plan enough for your team?guide
- Per-seat vs per-workspace pricing: what your team size does to the billguide
- How live chat vendors bill for AIguide
- Live chat vs chatbot vs AI agentguide
- Does a chat widget slow your site?guide
- Live chat, privacy and the law: what a US business should checkguide
How the scores are built
Each product is scored on five weighted criteria using only public vendor documentation: pricing pages, help-center articles, and legal and security pages. The rule behind every level is published, so you can check any score yourself. Nothing on this site has been measured on a live website yet.
- Read from vendor documentation, not from installs
- Undocumented limits are marked unknown, never guessed
- Contradictions between vendor pages are reported
Score weights
Recently updated
- Rubric v2.0. Added a sixth criterion, seats included at the entry price, and flattened the weights so no single criterion decides a ranking. No product was re-scored on the original five criteria; the rankings moved because what the rubric weighs changed. Full rationale on How we review.
- Site published with 11 products. Every price, free-plan limit and AI rate was read from the vendor's own pages on this date.
- Rubric v1.0 published on How we review. It rates public documentation only; widget speed is not scored until we have measured it.
- Recorded two vendor contradictions instead of picking a side: tawk.to lists two different prices for removing its branding, and HubSpot shows three different Starter seat prices. See the tawk.to and HubSpot Live Chat pricing pages.
Spotted a price or limit that has changed?
Vendors change plans without notice. Send us the page that shows the new figure and we will check it, update the product database and log the change.
Report a change