EU hosting is not a yes-or-no feature. Some vendors store every customer's data in the EU; some let you pick a region at sign-up; some keep EU hosting for higher plans or contract customers. This list separates the three, from each vendor's own documentation.
tawk.to and Chatwoot Cloud host in the United States and are not listed; Smartsupp's own pages contradict each other on where data is stored. Hosting location is only one part of GDPR: live chat, privacy and the law covers the rest.
Quick picks
- EU, every plan: Crisp — Crisp documents EU hosting and a DPA on every plan, the Free plan included.
- EEA at sign-up: Freshchat — Choose the EEA data location at sign-up; SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 held.
- EEA, every plan: Tidio — All data stays in the EEA on every plan; SOC 2 Type II report held.
- Hosted in Germany: Lime Connect — Chat data stored on servers in Germany; the AI processing region is not stated.
The ranking
Tidio
Small teams with low, predictable chat volume7.2- Paid plans from
- US$24.17 per workspace per month, billed annually
- Pricing model
- Tiers by conversation volume
- Free plan
- Yes — Free
- EU data hosting
- Yes
Tidio is a Polish live chat and help desk suite that sells three separately metered quotas: human-handled conversations, Lyro AI Agent conversations and Flows chatbot visitors. Every self-serve plan, including Free, includes 10 seats, so the bill grows with conversation volume rather than headcount, from US$29 a month billed monthly on Starter. Tidio suits small shops and support teams with several people but modest, predictable chat volume.
The catch: The Free plan covers only 50 human-handled conversations a month, and at the limit agents can neither see nor answer new messages until the quota resets or the plan is upgraded.
Crisp
Teams wanting flat pricing and EU hosting6.9- Paid plans from
- US$45 per workspace per month, billed monthly
- Pricing model
- Per workspace
- Free plan
- Yes — Free
- EU data hosting
- Yes
Crisp is a French customer support suite (shared inbox, chat widget, CRM, knowledge base) that charges a flat monthly price per workspace with a fixed number of seats and no conversation cap. Paid plans run from Mini at US$45 a month for 4 seats to Plus at US$295 for 20, and the Hugo AI agent is metered through included USD credits. Crisp suits small and growing teams that want a predictable bill, many channels and data held in the EU.
The catch: The Crisp watermark stays on every plan below Plus at US$295 a month, and the Free plan has no full conversation history and caps you at 100 customer profiles.
Freshchat
Teams wanting many agents on a free plan6.8- Paid plans from
- US$19 per seat per month, billed annually
- Pricing model
- Seats plus AI usage
- Free plan
- Yes — Free
- EU data hosting
- Yes
Freshchat is Freshworks' live chat and messaging product, with a Free plan for up to 10 agents and paid plans billed per agent from US$19 a month on annual billing. Its Freddy AI Agent is sold in packs of 100 sessions for US$49, available from the entry paid plan. It suits small and mid-sized teams that want several people on chat for free and may later move up to Freshworks' helpdesk.
The catch: Freddy AI Agent is billed per 24-hour session whether or not the question gets resolved, and rule-based bot flows and builder previews draw from the same session pool.
HubSpot Live Chat
Two-person teams already on HubSpot CRM6.5- Paid plans from
- US$20 per seat per month, billed monthly
- Pricing model
- Seats plus AI usage
- Free plan
- Yes — Free tools
- EU data hosting
- Yes
HubSpot Live Chat is the chat widget and shared inbox that come with HubSpot's free CRM, for up to 2 users at no charge. Removing the HubSpot branding, routing chats and adding the AI customer agent all require paid Service Hub seats, billed per seat, with the agent's resolutions billed in HubSpot Credits on top. It suits small teams that already use, or plan to use, HubSpot as their CRM.
The catch: The widget keeps HubSpot's branding until you buy a paid seat, and HubSpot's own pages list three different Starter prices: US$7, US$10 and US$20 a seat a month.
LiveChat
Established teams with budget per agent5.2- Paid plans from
- US$19 per seat per month, billed annually
- Pricing model
- Per seat
- Free plan
- No free plan · 14-day trial
- EU data hosting
- Yes
LiveChat is a paid live chat and messaging platform from Text, a Polish company, billed per agent account from US$19 a month on annual billing or US$25 billed monthly. There is no free plan, only a 14-day trial, and the autonomous AI Agent is sold in Text and ChatBot.com plans rather than in classic LiveChat plans. LiveChat suits established sales and support teams that want wide channel coverage and can afford a price that rises with every seat.
The catch: LiveChat has no free plan and Starter holds a single user, so any team of two or more pays the Team rate of US$59 per person a month billed monthly, or US$49 billed annually.
Lime Connect
Teams that need chat data stored in Germany5.1- Paid plans from
- €87 per month, billed annually
- Pricing model
- Seats plus AI usage
- Free plan
- Yes — Free
- EU data hosting
- Yes
Lime Connect is the product formerly sold as Userlike, a Cologne-based chat and messaging platform owned by Lime Technologies since 2021 and renamed on September 10, 2025. It covers website chat, email, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, Telegram and SMS, and the vendor says all chat data is stored on servers in Germany. The only self-serve paid plan, Pro, starts at €105 a month with a 3-seat minimum, and the Connect AI Agent is a separate add-on.
The catch: The pricing page does not say whether Pro's €105 a month is per seat or covers the whole 3-seat minimum.
Intercom
Support teams building around an AI agent4.9- Paid plans from
- US$29 per seat per month, billed annually
- Pricing model
- Seats plus AI usage
- Free plan
- No free plan · 14-day trial
- EU data hosting
- On some paid plans
Intercom is a customer service helpdesk whose live chat widget, the Messenger, comes with every plan, sold per full seat from US$29 a month on annual billing and US$39 on monthly billing. Its Fin AI Agent is available on all plans and billed separately at US$0.99 per outcome. The company behind it renamed itself Fin in May 2026 and has been owned by Salesforce since September 10, 2026; Intercom suits teams that want a full helpdesk with an AI agent built in and can pay per seat for it.
The catch: Intercom has no free plan and no included Fin allowance on standard plans, so the bill is seats at up to US$39 each plus US$0.99 for every Fin outcome, including customers who simply leave after Fin's answer.
Zendesk
Multichannel support teams wanting one helpdesk4.9- Paid plans from
- US$55 per seat per month, billed annually
- Pricing model
- Seats plus AI usage
- Free plan
- No free plan · 14-day trial
- EU data hosting
- On some paid plans
Zendesk sells live chat and messaging only as part of the Zendesk Suite, a per-agent helpdesk that starts with Suite Team at US$55 an agent a month billed annually or US$69 billed monthly; standalone Zendesk Chat is no longer sold to new customers. Zendesk AI agents are billed per automated resolution, with a small free allowance per agent each month. It suits teams that want chat, email, voice and social channels in one ticketing system and have the budget for per-agent Suite seats.
The catch: Live chat starts at Suite Team, US$69 an agent a month billed monthly, and the Zendesk branding can only be removed on Suite Enterprise, which is quote-only.
Comparison table
| Product | Score | Pricing model | Paid plans from | Free plan | AI chatbot | EU data hosting | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tidio | 7.2 | Tiers by conversation volume | US$24.17 per workspace per month, billed annually | Yes — Free | Lyro AI Agent — billed per conversation | Yes | Small teams with low, predictable chat volume |
| Crisp | 6.9 | Per workspace | US$45 per workspace per month, billed monthly | Yes — Free | Hugo — billed per credit | Yes | Teams wanting flat pricing and EU hosting |
| Freshchat | 6.8 | Seats plus AI usage | US$19 per seat per month, billed annually | Yes — Free | Freddy AI Agent — billed per session | Yes | Teams wanting many agents on a free plan |
| HubSpot Live Chat | 6.5 | Seats plus AI usage | US$20 per seat per month, billed monthly | Yes — Free tools | Customer agent — billed per resolution | Yes | Two-person teams already on HubSpot CRM |
| LiveChat | 5.2 | Per seat | US$19 per seat per month, billed annually | No free plan · 14-day trial | AI Agent (sold in Text and ChatBot.com plans) — billed per resolution | Yes | Established teams with budget per agent |
| Lime Connect | 5.1 | Seats plus AI usage | €87 per month, billed annually | Yes — Free | Connect AI Agent — billed per conversation | Yes | Teams that need chat data stored in Germany |
| Intercom | 4.9 | Seats plus AI usage | US$29 per seat per month, billed annually | No free plan · 14-day trial | Fin AI Agent — billed per resolution | On some paid plans | Support teams building around an AI agent |
| Zendesk | 4.9 | Seats plus AI usage | US$55 per seat per month, billed annually | No free plan · 14-day trial | Zendesk AI agents — billed per resolution | On some paid plans | Multichannel support teams wanting one helpdesk |
Free-plan audit
| Product | Free seats | Conversations | Chat history | Remove branding | AI on the free plan | Beyond website chat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tidio | 10 | 50 / month | Not documented | No | 50, one-off | Yes |
| Crisp | 2 | Unlimited | Not documented | No | No | Chat only |
| Freshchat | 10 | Not documented | Not documented | No | No | Yes |
| HubSpot Live Chat | 2 | Unlimited | Not documented | No | No | Yes |
| Lime Connect | 1 | 200 | Not documented | Not documented | No | Chat only |
| LiveChat | No free plan · 14-day trial | |||||
| Intercom | No free plan · 14-day trial | |||||
| Zendesk | No free plan · 14-day trial | |||||
Free-plan audit: does your team fit a free live chat plan?
What it costs at 2, 5 and 10 seats
| Product | 2 seats · 100 conversations a month | 5 seats · 500 conversations a month | 10 seats · 2,000 conversations a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tidio | US$29 a month (Starter) | US$129 a month (Growth) | US$349 a month (Growth) |
| Crisp | Free (Free) | US$95 a month (Essentials) | US$95 a month (Essentials) |
| Freshchat | Free (Free) if the undocumented conversations limit allows; otherwise US$46 a month (Growth) | Free (Free) if the undocumented conversations limit allows; otherwise US$115 a month (Growth) | Free (Free) if the undocumented conversations limit allows; otherwise US$230 a month (Growth) |
| HubSpot Live Chat | Free (Free tools) | US$100 a month (Service Hub Starter) | US$200 a month (Service Hub Starter) |
| LiveChat | US$118 a month (Team) | US$295 a month (Team) | US$590 a month (Team) |
| Lime Connect | €105 a month (Pro) | No published plan fits | No published plan fits |
| Intercom | US$78 a month (Essential) | US$195 a month (Essential) | US$390 a month (Essential) |
| Zendesk | US$138 a month (Suite Team) | US$345 a month (Suite Team) | US$690 a month (Suite Team) |
How to choose
If you need EU hosting without talking to sales, choose a product that documents it on every plan: Crisp, Tidio and Lime Connect store data in the EU for every customer, and LiveChat and Freshchat let you pick an EU region at sign-up.
If you are on a free plan, Crisp and Tidio are the clearest cases, because both document EU storage on every plan. HubSpot Live Chat assigns a region from your IP address, and Freshchat's region choice is not confirmed for Free, so check the account's data location before storing customer chats.
If you already use Intercom or Zendesk, budget for the higher plan: Intercom offers EU hosting on Advanced and Expert workspaces under a contract, and Zendesk on Suite Professional and above, where Suite Professional costs US$149 per agent a month on monthly billing. Intercom vs Zendesk compares the two.
If your AI chatbot must also process data in the EU, ask separately: EU storage of chat transcripts does not tell you where the AI model runs. Lime Connect, for example, names Microsoft Azure and AWS Bedrock for its AI without stating a region.
If you need an independent audit as well as EU hosting, Freshchat, Tidio and HubSpot Live Chat document SOC 2 Type II reports of their own, and Freshchat also holds ISO 27001. Crisp states that it has had no SOC 2 audit.
Verdict
Crisp is the default EU-hosted pick: the vendor is based in France, hosts data in the EU and offers a DPA on every plan including Free, and Essentials covers 10 seats for US$95 a month. Ignore it if your procurement requires a SOC 2 or ISO 27001 report, because Crisp states it has neither; Freshchat holds both and lets you choose the EEA at sign-up.
For buyers in the United Kingdom
Under PECR regulation 6, as replaced on 5 February 2026, a chat widget must not store or read anything on a visitor's device without consent unless a listed exception applies, and none of the exceptions names live chat. The practical reading is to load the widget's non-essential cookies and local storage only after consent, or when the visitor clicks to open the chat. If the vendor is in the US, the UK-US data bridge covers the transfer only when the vendor's Data Privacy Framework certification includes the UK Extension; otherwise you need the IDTA or the UK Addendum. This is general information, not legal advice.
UK GDPR then governs the conversation itself. Tell visitors who receives the transcript and how long you keep it at the pre-chat form, not only in the footer, sign a written processor contract with the chat vendor, and set a retention period for transcripts. The order that commenced the new PECR rules also commenced new ICO enforcement powers on 5 February 2026; a law firm reports the maximum PECR fine is now £17.5 million or 4% of global annual turnover, a figure the ICO's own enforcement page had not yet confirmed on 18 September 2026.
A vendor's "EU data residency" is not UK residency. Of the products in our catalogue, only Zendesk documents a UK hosting region, available on Suite Professional and above; the rest document EU, EEA, German or US hosting, which we compare in EU-hosted live chat. The UK has no statute that makes you label a chatbot, but transparency duties still apply, and the EU AI Act's disclosure rule reaches bots that serve visitors in the EU.
Live chat, privacy and the law in the United Kingdom
Frequently asked questions
Which live chat tools host data in the EU on every plan?
Crisp, Tidio and Lime Connect document EU or EEA storage for every customer. LiveChat and Freshchat let you choose an EU region at sign-up, and HubSpot Live Chat lets any paid account, from Starter up, move to its EU region.
Is tawk.to EU-hosted?
No. tawk.to offers a DPA with standard contractual clauses, but its help centre says data is stored in the United States, and no EU region is offered. See tawk.to alternatives.
Does Intercom offer EU data hosting?
Yes, but only for new Advanced and Expert workspaces on a contract account, according to Intercom's regional hosting documentation. Self-serve Essential workspaces do not get it. See Intercom alternatives.
Is Smartsupp EU-hosted?
Smartsupp's pages contradict each other. The pricing page says all data is stored on servers in the European Union; the GDPR help article says some data is also stored in the US and other countries. Until Smartsupp resolves that, it is not on this list.
Does EU hosting make live chat GDPR compliant?
No. Hosting location is one factor; you also need a data processing agreement, a lawful basis and a privacy notice that covers the chat. See live chat, privacy and the law.
Keep reading
- Best live chat software in 2026best list
- Best free live chat software in 2026best list
- Best live chat software for small businessbest list
- Best live chat software for ecommercebest list
- Best live chat software with an AI chatbotbest list
- 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
Sources
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- The monthly conversations limit — Tidio · 18 September 2026
- The Lyro AI agent limit — Tidio · 18 September 2026
- The monthly flow limit — Tidio · 18 September 2026
- Automatic upgrades — Tidio · 18 September 2026
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- Create and customize a mobile chatflow — HubSpot · 18 September 2026
- Our story — HubSpot · 18 September 2026
- WooCommerce integration — Text · 18 September 2026
- LiveChat pricing — Text · 18 September 2026
- Text pricing (plans with the AI Agent) — Text · 18 September 2026
- ChatBot.com pricing — Text · 18 September 2026
- Pay-per-agent pricing model — Text · 18 September 2026
- LiveChat subscription policy — Text · 18 September 2026
- Data storage policy — Text · 18 September 2026
- Data Processing Addendum — Text · 18 September 2026
- List of sub-processors — Text · 18 September 2026
- How to change the chat widget language — Text · 18 September 2026
- LiveChat Marketplace — Text · 18 September 2026
- LiveChat features — Text · 18 September 2026
- Lime Connect pricing — Lime Technologies · 18 September 2026
- Lime Connect home page — Lime Technologies · 18 September 2026
- Data privacy — Lime Technologies · 18 September 2026
- AI automation — Lime Technologies · 18 September 2026
- Lime Connect integrations — Lime Technologies · 18 September 2026
- Multilingual chat support — Lime Technologies · 18 September 2026
- Userlike is now Lime Connect — Lime Technologies · 18 September 2026
- Userlike becomes Lime Connect — Lime Technologies · 18 September 2026
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- Shopify integration — Fin (Intercom) · 18 September 2026
- WordPress plugin — Fin (Intercom) · 18 September 2026
- Intercom pricing — Fin · 18 September 2026
- Fin pricing — Fin · 18 September 2026
- Fin AI Agent outcomes — Fin · 18 September 2026
- Your workspace settings — Fin · 18 September 2026
- Early Stage program — Fin · 18 September 2026
- Usage-based channels — Fin · 18 September 2026
- Regional data hosting — Fin · 18 September 2026
- How data is hosted and processed in Intercom — Fin · 18 September 2026
- Intercom security — Fin · 18 September 2026
- Localize the Messenger to work with multiple languages — Fin · 18 September 2026
- Use Intercom in your preferred language — Fin · 18 September 2026
- Omnichannel helpdesk — Fin · 18 September 2026
- Intercom live chat — Fin · 18 September 2026
- Installing Intercom — Fin · 18 September 2026
- About Fin — Fin · 18 September 2026
- Today, Intercom becomes Fin — Fin · 18 September 2026
- Salesforce signs definitive agreement to acquire Fin — Salesforce · 18 September 2026
- Salesforce completes acquisition of Fin — Salesforce · 18 September 2026
- Lightspeed customer story — Fin · 18 September 2026
- Intercom on the Vendr marketplace — Vendr · 18 September 2026
- Shopify integration — Zendesk · 18 September 2026
- WordPress plugin — Zendesk · 18 September 2026
- Zendesk pricing — Zendesk · 18 September 2026
- Zendesk free trial — Zendesk · 18 September 2026
- About automated resolutions for AI agents — Zendesk · 18 September 2026
- About automated resolution tiers — Zendesk · 18 September 2026
- Announcing expanded access to AI agent capabilities for all Zendesk customers — Zendesk · 18 September 2026
- About the Data Center Location add-on — Zendesk · 18 September 2026
- Regional Data Hosting Policy — Zendesk · 18 September 2026
- Messaging vs live chat: which is right for you? — Zendesk · 18 September 2026
- About Zendesk Chat plan types (legacy) — Zendesk · 18 September 2026
- Zendesk Trust Center — Zendesk · 18 September 2026
- Zendesk live chat — Zendesk · 18 September 2026
- Zendesk AI agents — Zendesk · 18 September 2026
- Zendesk Copilot — Zendesk · 18 September 2026
- Zendesk for Startups — Zendesk · 18 September 2026
- Hello Sugar customer story — Zendesk · 18 September 2026
- Zendesk completes acquisition of Forethought — Zendesk · 18 September 2026
- Consortium led by Hellman & Friedman and Permira completes acquisition of Zendesk — Permira · 18 September 2026
- Zendesk press — Zendesk · 18 September 2026
- Zendesk on the Vendr marketplace — Vendr · 18 September 2026
This page was researched and drafted with AI assistance from the sources listed on it. We have not installed or tested these products ourselves. Method: How we review