25 Best Free Live Chat Software in 2024
If you think having a live chat on your website is expensive, the best free live chat software proves the contrary. You can find high-quality applications that allow customers to get in contact with you via chat when they access one of your pages, without you having to pay anything.
Using a free live chat service can help you to test different applications and decide which one suits your company best. You can enjoy the free features, and opt for a paid plan in the future, if necessary. Check out the article to discover more.
What Is a Live Chat Software?
A live chat is software that you can install on your website. It is displayed like a small box on the corner of the pages. The website visitor clicks on it to type their question, and instead of receiving only programmed answers, they can speak in real-time with someone from your team.
It's possible to make a proactive invitation, so the live chat window will pop up when the visitor enters a page. They are invited to interact through live chat. Some of the best live chat platforms available allow you to set up personalized invitations based on where the user is located, the number of times they have visited the website, and the time spent on the site.
The customer support team uses the live chat platform to keep track of all visitor interactions. This enables them to solve customer problems faster and identify sales opportunities.
Features The Best Free Live Chat Software Should Have
The best free live chat software must contain some indispensable features that will enable you and your team to connect with your audience and offer efficient customer support.
Proactive Chat
A proactive chat means you will be able to target specific website visitors based on the information you will get when they access your website, such as location, number of times they visited your website, and time spent on the page.
It allows you to create customized messages to interact via the live chat. For example, if someone has left items on the cart, you can ask them why are they leaving or encourage the purchase with free shipping or a coupon discount,
Intelligent Chat Routing
Intelligent chat routing is essential to enhance productivity and save time. It's the technology responsible for analyzing when a customer sends a message on the live chat and automatically redirects it to the agent best fit to solve the query.
Customization Options
An efficient live chat software must also provide you with multiple customization options. You should be able to personalize not only the messages that will pop up in your website chat window but also the design, so you can align it with your brand's visual identity.
Management Features
Check if the free live chat software of your choice offers tools that facilitate the process of managing customer interactions. An integrated dashboard where you can control messages from multiple channels, assign tasks, and keep track of them is fundamental.
Integration Capabilities
Also, the best free live chat software must allow you to integrate it with other applications, including social media platforms, CRM, and email marketing tools. It's important to keep all the information synchronized, integrating the applications you use helps to avoid mistakes.
What Aspects to Observe When Choosing the Best Free Live Chat Software
Features
When choosing what is the best free live chat software for you, pay attention to the features it provides. Make a list of what you find indispensable and compare it with the options available. It includes, for example, the number of users you can have, and if it offers personalization tools.
Usability
A good free live chat software must be easy to use, so you and your team can quickly learn how to navigate through it and make the most of its tools. Analyze the interface, and make sure the onboarding process will be fast.
Mobile Friendliness
The live chat software of your choice also should have a mobile app. This is important to allow you and your team to keep track of customer interactions directly from your cell phone, so you don't need to have your computer always with you. In case of any problem, you should be able to enter the live chat platform from a mobile device too.
Customer Support
Check if the live chat company provides 24-hour customer support, analyze if they answer customers fast, and deal efficiently when there is an issue. Take a look at the satisfaction rate, and research customer reviews.
Security
Live chats must be secure for you and your customers, this means that your company and the one responsible for the live chat software need to implement security measures to protect data. Analyze what actions are taken to ensure the free live chat software of your choice is safe to use.
Benefits of Installing Free Live Chat Software on Your Website
25 Best Free Live Chat Software in 2024
- JivoChat
Powering the live chat channel for 250,562 businesses (and counting), JivoChat brings to your business a unified inbox that fields every message your users send you. It's an "all-in-one" business messenger.
It allows your users to connect with your business from their favorite communication channels (phone, email, social media messengers like WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram, Instagram, and more). This live chat software offers a mix of features to support lots of sales and service chat use cases.
Key features:
All-in-one business messenger software that works on every major platform - Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, WhatsApp, among many others.
Sales and service chatbots
Canned messages to make your agents more productive
It comes with a one-click call and a callback feature allowing phone support
Event-based chat triggers
Real-time visitor monitoring and chat analytics
Sync omnichannel messaging to your CRM
Beyond enabling customers to interact via messages on your website in real-time, LiveChat integrates multiple communication channels in one platform. You and your team can manage every interaction from one place. You can have as many customized chat widgets as you need on different websites.
Key features:
Chat widget
Chat ratings
Integrate multiple messaging channels
Customization tools
Chat and agent reports
Ecommerce integration
Work scheduler
Encryption
Zendesk allows you to personalize your website's live chat experience and other communication channels. Enjoy AI solutions to solve customer problems faster, and use the agent workspace to access every customer interaction in one place. Another benefit is receiving reports with important metrics to evaluate performance.
Key features:
Personalize conversations across channels
Ticketing system
Modify Zendesk to meet your needs
Data privacy and protection
Agent workspace
Integrations
Workforce management
LiveAgent offers you an all-in-one customer care solution. You can connect with your customers on multiple channels and manage everything from one platform. It provides a fast chat widget that can help you increase your earnings by 48%. Use the ticketing system to organize customer support and save up to 95% time and money.
Key features:
All-in-one customer care solution
Connect with customers on multiple channels
Fast chat widget
Personalized customer service
Call recordings
Ticketing system
Integrations
Proactive chat invitations
ProProfs can be seamlessly integrated into the most popular ecommerce platforms and CMS (content management systems), such as Shopify, Magento, and WordPress. Your customer support and sales team will be able to reach clients instantly, solve their demands faster, and increase the chance of closing more sales.
Instead of waiting for a response via email, which takes time, your customers can interact in real time with your team. The operators can use features such as canned responses, and send self-help articles.
Key features:
Easily transfer chats
Answer faster with canned responses
Anticipate customer questions
Add self-help articles
Set chat invitation pop-up
Set individual operator greetings
Add announcement
Send personalized greetings
With more than 300.000 users, Tidio enables you to talk to customers in real-time and boost customer satisfaction. You can manage all your channels with one tool, speed up replies by creating canned responses, and use the Tidio app on computers or mobile devices. It's also possible to track the pages each customer visited on your website and see what your customers are typing before they hit send.
Key features:
Manage all your channels with one tool
Canned responses
Viewed pages
Live visitor list
Live typing
Pre-chat surveys
Customer database
Olark is a live chat software developed to include people with disabilities, making your website more accessible. It was tested to comply with WCAG (web content accessibility guidelines) 2.1 AA standards. You can enable not only live chat but also a chatbot powered by AI. You will find many automation tools to help you save time and improve customer experience.
Key features:
Accessible live chat
AI-powered chatbot
100+ plugins and integrations
Live chat transcripts
Analytics
Custom chatbox forms
The HubSpot live chat software lets you add a customizable live chat widget to your website and brings all your website conversations to a universal inbox. HubSpot's live chat solution works best when combined with HubSpot's free CRM solution.
Key features:
Customizable chat window
Central inbox automatically saves all web conversations
Chatbot builder
Rich contextual information via HubSpot's CRM
Trusted by more than 65,000 users, Social Intents brings your live chat channel straight to your Slack or MS Teams account. With Social Intents, you can handle incoming chat messages right from inside your favorite daily work apps. All you need to do is set up a live chat channel in your communications app, put up the code for the live chat widget on your website, and set up the integration.
Key features:
Branded chat widget
Supports unlimited agents
Supports proactive chats
Custom chatbots
Respond to chat messages directly from Slack and Microsoft Teams
Trusted by over 30,000 businesses for their live chat channel, Chaport offers a "better way to talk to your customers" with its live chat widget that works 24/7 for you (even when your agents or salespeople are offline). Chaport also comes with custom chatbots and a centralized inbox to power your conversations happening both on your website and over other channels (including social media messaging apps).
Key features:
Multi-channel support
Custom chatbots for sales and support
Doubles up as a knowledge base tool (requires at least the business plan)
Detailed visitor analytics brings context to conversations
A suite of productivity tools to facilitate conversations
Highly customizable chat window
Supports auto-replies (if agents are busy or unavailable)
Unlike the other live chat software options on this list, Podium — a powering service for 100,000+ businesses — focuses exclusively on local providers and offers three key functionalities. In addition to being a live web chat solution that's built exclusively around the needs of single- and multi-location local businesses, Podium supports collecting payments (via multiple gateways) and running SMS campaigns
.
Key features:
Unified inbox to streamline all customer conversations
Online reputation management allows users to collect and respond to reviews
Invoicing functionality
Offers physical card readers to facilitate payments at local outlets
Supports video chats for face-to-face interactions
Lets you create personalized text marketing campaigns at scale
Works as a survey tool for collecting feedback
Comes with autoresponders and smart responses
Heymarket is a "business text messaging" solution that enables your website's SMS text channel. In addition to enabling one-on-one texting with customers, Heymarket also lets you build your contact base and launch personalized text campaigns at scale.
Key features:
Shared inbox to streamline conversations across multiple channels
Targeted SMS/MMS campaigns
Supports texting messaging
Integrations with popular CRM and help desk platforms
Hassle-free message routing, assignment, and collaboration
Shared inbox for Facebook Pages and Google My Business listings
Unlike the other live chat software solutions on this list, Amity Chat isn't a plug-and-play solution. It's a development kit (SDK) that lets you build a robust chat channel for your web app or website. It's essentially the backend of a live chat and you're expected to create the front end (chat window) and set up the required integrations.
Key features:
Robust SDK to build a fully customized 1-1 chat channel
Supports group chatting
Custom branding
Supports event engagement tools such as Facebook live-streaming
Avochato allows you to connect with leads and customers via two channels: web live chat and text. It brings all your conversations to a single dashboard and helps you streamline your sales and service delivery ops. AvoChato also works inside Salesforce.
Key features:
Shared inbox brings all your web messages, texts, and call data into one place
Use the SMS channel to connect with your customers and leads
Integrate phone support
Auto responses based on the knowledge base and FAQ content
Survey functionality
Works seamlessly with Microsoft Teams and Salesforce
Used by more than 5 million people, Tawk is an easy-to-use free live chat software that enables you to engage with your customers and keep close track of their interactions. You can monitor their activities in real-time, check what they are searching for, and identify the page they are in. Besides, it enables you to tag and assign conversations to members of your team, which helps to enhance productivity.
Key features:
Live chat
Ticketing
CRM
Chat pages
Knowledge base
Live chat, chat automation, and native in-chat video calls are some of the benefits Re:amaze offers to its users. It enables you to create a complete customized chat to boost customer confidence and increase sales. You can also set up automatic messages to be triggered based on customer actions. Another option it provides is video chat with customers, enter in a video call with them to assist them better.
Key features:
Customizable chat experience
Messages customers automatically
Pre-built and custom chatbots
Native in-chat video calls
Mobile app
Freschchat focuses on providing a seamless customer experience on the channel of their choice. You can manage all communication channels, including live chat, chatbot, and emails, in a single place. Your agents will have access to customer data such as past purchases, previous conversations, and open issues from any channel.
Key features:
Bot-drive support
Unified agent workspace
Proactive chat
Analytics tools
Multilingual support
Integrations
Manage conversations
With more than 100.000 active customers worldwide, Smartsupp allows you to offer human and chatbot support to your customers. You can unify multichannel chats in one dashboard, and integrate emails, social media, and live chats, so your agents will be able to control every customer interaction. Personalize the window chat as you wish, and collect leads by creating a contact form.
Key features:
Customizable widget
Mobile app
Data gathering
Team performance statistics
Chatbot automation
Manage multiple channels in one place
3CX offers not only a free live chat but voice and WhatsApp too. If messaging isn't enough, you can switch to an audio call without any charges. You can also create a WhatsApp business number that will be used by you and your whole team. The software keeps customer records, so you can offer a better service.
Key features:
Zero cost
Audio calls
Free WordPress plugin
WhatsApp for teams
Customer history
With Chatra, you can easily install a live chat on your website and start answering your customers in real-time to improve their experience. Manage all the messages from multiple channels in a single dashboard, and monitor your website visitors.
Key features:
Live chat for business
Chatbot
Monitor website visitors
Multichannel dashboard
Mobile app
ThriveDesk allows you to create a completely customized live chat experience. It's easy to use, and you can quickly access all the information you need about your customer, such as their browsing and conversation history. You can count on AI to automatize repetitive tasks and enable an efficient chatbot.
Key features:
Customizable live chat
Access to customer history
Intuitive agent dashboard
Collaborative live chat
Automation tools
AI-powered
With Crisp, you have a centralized shared inbox where you can control all the messages from your live chat, emails, messenger, Instagram DM, WhatsApp, and phone calls. Used by more than 500,000 brands, Crisp allows you to offer customer support through multiple channels and use bots to automatize the sales pipeline too.
Key features:
All-in-one business messaging platform
Shared inbox
CRM
Co-browsing
Chatbot
Knowledge base
Hiver enables you to be where your customers are and manage all your communication channels from your Gmail inbox. You can unify email, live chat, phone, WhatsApp, and much more. It's also possible to assign customer queries, keep track of who is working on what, and automate routine tasks.
Key features:
Multi-channel customer support
Assign queries
Automate tasks
Analytics
Google workspace
Sendpulse offers you live chat software that can be customized according to your needs. You can change the widget color, format, and size to match your brand's identity. It also allows you to create automated messages that will be triggered based on the customer's actions. Every interaction can be managed in a single dashboard using the SendPulse CRM tool.
Key features:
Customizable live chat
CRM
AI-powered chatbot
Automate tasks
Integration tools
With Userlike, everyone who accesses your website will be able to enjoy an efficient live chat. As you receive their messages, you can answer them immediately or in your own time. Every interaction will be accessible in each customer's history. You can also reach out to customers by automating messages based on triggers.
Key features:
Customizable live chat
Proactive chat
Centralized dashboard
Multimedia messaging
Easy installation
Chatbot
FAQ: Best Free Live Chat Software
- What Is The Difference Between Paid and Free Live Chat Software?
The main difference between paid and free live chat software is the features they offer. Many live chat companies provide a free version with basic features, while the paid ones have more tools.
- How much does live chat software cost?
It depends on the live chat software and plan of your choice. You can count on free plans on some of the best chat software though, such as JivoChat.
- What is the best free live chat software for small businesses?
The best free live chat software for small businesses varies depending on each case. There isn't an answer that fits all since your priorities and needs differ from other companies.
- Is free live chat software secure?
Yes, the best live chat software usually follows privacy and security standards. Before choosing one, it's important to check what measures they take to ensure your company and your customer data are protected.
Choose the Best Free Live Chat Software for You
Now that you have seen some of the best free live chat software available on the internet, enjoy the opportunity to test them. Choose the one that suits you best, and create strategies, with your team, to implement this new communication channel and offer high-quality customer assistance through it.
Sign up and try JivoChat for yourself!