tawk.to is free: its core documents unlimited agents, conversations and chat history, and it earns money from per-property add-ons such as branding removal at $39 a month. Teams rarely leave tawk.to over price. They leave over where data is stored, missing certifications and missing developer tools.
The alternatives below are listed for those documented gaps, drawn from each vendor's own pages. Most of them cost more than tawk.to, and the worked examples further down show by how much for teams of 2, 5 and 10. For head-to-heads, see tawk.to vs Tidio and LiveChat vs tawk.to; for the background, the tawk.to review.
Why teams look beyond tawk.to
- Data is stored in the United States. tawk.to offers a DPA with standard contractual clauses but no EU hosting region.
- No certification of its own. No SOC 2 or ISO 27001 report held by tawk.to itself was found.
- Branding removal is priced per property, and inconsistently. The pricing page says $29 a month; the help centre says $39 billed monthly or $348 a year. Each extra site is another property.
- No customer-facing mobile SDK. tawk.to says one is on its roadmap.
- AI beyond the free tier is paid per property. AI Assist includes 100 message credits a month free; Growth is $29 a month and extra credits cost $30 per 1,000.
The alternatives, ranked
Tidio
Small teams with low, predictable chat volume7.2- Paid plans from
- $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 $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
- $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 $45 a month for 4 seats to Plus at $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 $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
- $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 $19 a month on annual billing. Its Freddy AI Agent is sold in packs of 100 sessions for $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
- $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: $7, $10 and $20 a seat a month.
Chatwoot
Technical teams willing to self-host, or US-based teams5.4- Paid plans from
- $19 per seat per month, billed monthly
- Pricing model
- Per seat
- Free plan
- Yes — Hacker
- EU data hosting
- No
Chatwoot is an open-source customer support inbox from Chatwoot Inc. in San Francisco, sold as a US-hosted cloud service billed per agent and as a free, MIT-licensed Community Edition you run on your own servers. The cloud plans cover website chat, email, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram, SMS, Telegram and, on Business and Enterprise, voice. Its Captain AI is metered in credits, with 1 credit per AI message or action.
The catch: Chatwoot Cloud is hosted only on AWS in the United States, so keeping data in the EU means self-hosting and maintaining the software yourself.
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.
Comparison table
| Product | Score | Pricing model | Paid plans from | Free plan | AI chatbot | EU data hosting | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| tawk.to | 8.5 | Free, with paid add-ons | Free | Yes — Free | AI Assist — billed per credit | No | Budget teams wanting unlimited free agents |
| Tidio | 7.2 | Tiers by conversation volume | $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 | $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 | $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 | $20 per seat per month, billed monthly | Yes — Free tools | Customer agent — billed per resolution | Yes | Two-person teams already on HubSpot CRM |
| Chatwoot | 5.4 | Per seat | $19 per seat per month, billed monthly | Yes — Hacker | Captain AI — billed per credit | No | Technical teams willing to self-host, or US-based teams |
| 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 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| tawk.to | Free (Free) | Free (Free) | Free (Free) |
| Tidio | $29 a month (Starter) | $129 a month (Growth) | $349 a month (Growth) |
| Crisp | Free (Free) | $95 a month (Essentials) | $95 a month (Essentials) |
| Freshchat | Free (Free) if the undocumented conversations limit allows; otherwise $46 a month (Growth) | Free (Free) if the undocumented conversations limit allows; otherwise $115 a month (Growth) | Free (Free) if the undocumented conversations limit allows; otherwise $230 a month (Growth) |
| HubSpot Live Chat | Free (Free tools) | $100 a month (Service Hub Starter) | $200 a month (Service Hub Starter) |
| Chatwoot | Free (Hacker) | $95 a month (Startups) | $190 a month (Startups) |
| Lime Connect | €105 a month (Pro) | No published plan fits | No published plan fits |
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free tawk.to alternative with EU hosting?
Yes. Crisp Free covers 2 agents with EU hosting, and Tidio Free covers 10 seats with data kept in the EEA, though Tidio caps conversations at 50 a month. Chatwoot can be self-hosted in the EU at no license cost. See EU-hosted live chat.
Why would a team pay for live chat when tawk.to is free?
The documented reasons are hosting location, certifications and developer tools. tawk.to stores data in the United States, no SOC 2 or ISO 27001 of its own was found, and it has no customer-facing mobile SDK. If none of those matter, tawk.to's published prices are hard to beat. See the privacy and law guide.
Which alternative removes branding more cheaply than tawk.to?
Only for a single agent. Freshchat Growth ($23 per seat) and HubSpot Service Hub Starter ($20 per seat) both remove branding, and one seat costs less than either tawk.to price; from two agents up, tawk.to's per-property add-on is cheaper. Tidio's No Tidio branding add-on requires a Growth plan from $59, Crisp removes its watermark only on Plus at $295, Chatwoot only on Enterprise, and Smartsupp on no plan. Compare in the free-plan audit.
Related pages
- tawk.to reviewreview
- tawk.to pricing explainedpricing
- Best live chat software in 2026best list
Sources
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- How to add the tawk.to widget to your mobile application — tawk.to · September 18, 2026
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- The Lyro AI agent limit — Tidio · September 18, 2026
- The monthly flow limit — Tidio · September 18, 2026
- Automatic upgrades — Tidio · September 18, 2026
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- Change and add languages in your chat widget — Tidio · September 18, 2026
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- How are security matters handled at Tidio — Tidio · September 18, 2026
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- Crisp pricing — Crisp · September 18, 2026
- Getting started with the Free plan — Crisp · September 18, 2026
- Hugo pricing and billing explained — Crisp · September 18, 2026
- How to increase my limits and quotas — Crisp · September 18, 2026
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- Crisp compliance status with SOC 2 — Crisp · September 18, 2026
- Crisp compliance with ISO 27001 — Crisp · September 18, 2026
- Crisp sub-processors — Crisp · September 18, 2026
- What languages are supported by Crisp — Crisp · September 18, 2026
- Chatbox SDKs — Crisp · September 18, 2026
- About Crisp — Crisp · September 18, 2026
- Crisp live chat — Crisp · September 18, 2026
- Crisp AI Core Update (Hugo launch, AI replies become paid) — Crisp · September 18, 2026
- Summer 2026 Crisp product update — Crisp · September 18, 2026
- Shopify integration — Freshworks · September 18, 2026
- WordPress plugin — Freshworks · September 18, 2026
- Freshchat pricing — Freshworks · September 18, 2026
- Freddy AI Agent and chatbot sessions FAQs — Freshworks · September 18, 2026
- Understanding Freddy AI features and pricing — Freshworks · September 18, 2026
- How can I remove the Freshworks branding from the widget? — Freshworks · September 18, 2026
- Provide multilingual support to your customers — Freshworks · September 18, 2026
- Where are your data servers located? — Freshworks · September 18, 2026
- Freshworks sub-processors — Freshworks · September 18, 2026
- Freshworks Trust Center — Freshworks · September 18, 2026
- What is Freshchat? — Freshworks · September 18, 2026
- Freshchat live chat software — Freshworks · September 18, 2026
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- Freshworks announces winners of the 2026 Global Customer Awards — Freshworks · September 18, 2026
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- WordPress plugin — HubSpot · September 18, 2026
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- HubSpot live chat — HubSpot · September 18, 2026
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- HubSpot cloud infrastructure and data hosting FAQ — HubSpot · September 18, 2026
- HubSpot security — HubSpot · September 18, 2026
- Create and customize a mobile chatflow — HubSpot · September 18, 2026
- Our story — HubSpot · September 18, 2026
- Chatwoot Cloud pricing — Chatwoot · September 18, 2026
- Chatwoot self-hosted plans — Chatwoot · September 18, 2026
- How AI credits work in Captain — Chatwoot · September 18, 2026
- Captain AI credits and billing — Chatwoot · September 18, 2026
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- Lime Connect pricing — Lime Technologies · September 18, 2026
- Lime Connect home page — Lime Technologies · September 18, 2026
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- AI automation — Lime Technologies · September 18, 2026
- Lime Connect integrations — Lime Technologies · September 18, 2026
- Multilingual chat support — Lime Technologies · September 18, 2026
- Userlike is now Lime Connect — Lime Technologies · September 18, 2026
- Userlike becomes Lime Connect — Lime Technologies · September 18, 2026
- Userlike joins Lime Technologies — Lime Technologies · September 18, 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