LiveChat
Customer Support · www.livechat.com
LiveChat is a customer service platform offering a website chat widget, multichannel messaging, AI assistance, reporting and agent management for support and sales teams.
Switching to Crisp, which covers 100% of the compared capabilities.
Find my alternative
Way less money.
Top LiveChat alternatives
We compared 13 products and found 8 cheaper alternatives · vs LiveChat Starter at $25/mo · scenario: single user, monthly billing, USD.
LiveChat costs $25/mo on the Starter plan at single user, monthly billing. We found 8 assessed alternatives that are cheaper in this scenario; 4 of them cover at least 75% of the 9 compared capabilities. The cheapest option that covers everything we compared is Crisp at $0/mo (Free plan), 100% less.
| Product | Match | Price | Annual savings | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Helply Per-ticket pricing plan · missing: Canned responses / macros, Routing & assignment, CSAT surveys helpdesk — adjacent | 67% | $1/mo how? ⓘ | $288 / year 96% cheaper | |
TOP PICK Freshdesk Growth plan · missing: Live chat & messaging, Canned responses / macros, CSAT surveys | 67% | $19/mo how? ⓘ | $72 / year 24% cheaper | |
Zendesk Support Team plan · missing: AI copilot, AI agents, Canned responses / macros, Routing & assignment, Support automations, CSAT surveys | 33% | $19/mo how? ⓘ | $72 / year 24% cheaper | |
Chatwoot Startups plan · missing: Live chat & messaging, AI copilot, AI agents, Knowledge base / help center, Ticketing, Routing & assignment, Support automations | 22% | $19/mo how? ⓘ | $72 / year 24% cheaper | |
Tidio Starter plan · missing: Knowledge base / help center | 89% | $24.17/mo how? ⓘ | $10.00 / year 3% cheaper |
Which LiveChat alternative for which situation
Picked by the numbers in this scenario — same subtype unless stated, assessed products only.
- Best full coverage
- Crisp — $0/mo (Free plan) · covers 100%
- Best free plan
- Crisp — $0/mo (Free plan) · covers 100%
- Best open source or self-hosted
- Chatwoot — $0/mo (Hacker plan) · covers 22%
- Best paid drop-in
- Freshdesk — $19/mo (Growth plan) · covers 67%
- Need live chat & messaging, AI copilot, AI agents, knowledge base / help center, ticketing, canned responses / macros, routing & assignment, support automations or CSAT surveys?
- Crisp — from $0/mo (Free plan)
What you give up
Capabilities LiveChat has that the top alternatives lack.
- Knowledge base / help center — Publish a self-serve help center for customers.Missing from Tidio.
- Canned responses / macros — Reuse saved reply templates for common questions.Missing from Zoho Desk.
Feature comparison
LiveChat vs the top alternatives, on the 9 compared capabilities.
| Capability | LiveChat | Crisp | Help Scout | Tidio | Zoho Desk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Live chat & messaging from Starter | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| AI copilot from Starter | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| AI agents from Starter | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Knowledge base / help center | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Ticketing | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Canned responses / macros from Starter | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Routing & assignment from Starter | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Support automations from Starter | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| CSAT surveys from Starter | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Scenario price cheapest qualifying plan | $25/mo Starter | $0/mo Free | $0/mo Free | $0/mo Free | $0/mo Free |
✓ means the product offers the capability — possibly only on a higher tier than the plan priced below it. The price row shows the cheapest plan that qualifies for our comparison scenario, with its plan name; a $0 free plan may not include every checked capability.
What LiveChat covers
The capability set used for comparison. Grey entries are not available on self-serve plans.
- ✓ Live chat & messaging — from Starter
- ✓ AI copilot — from Starter
- ✓ AI agents — from Starter
- ✓ Knowledge base / help center
- ✓ Ticketing
- ✓ Canned responses / macros — from Starter
- ✓ Routing & assignment — from Starter
- ✓ Support automations — from Starter
- ✓ CSAT surveys — from Starter
Price ladder
Observed prices from the official pricing page.
Sources
Every claim traces to an official source and a check date.
- https://www.livechat.com/pricing/ (official_pricing, checked 2026-08-31)
Frequently asked
How much does LiveChat cost?
LiveChat's Starter plan costs $25/mo in our scenario (single user, monthly billing).
Is there a free LiveChat alternative?
Yes. Crisp has a free plan that covers 100% of the 9 capabilities we compared against LiveChat.
What is the cheapest LiveChat alternative?
In our scenario (single user, monthly billing), Crisp is the cheapest assessed alternative at $0/mo (Free plan).
What is the cheapest LiveChat alternative with Knowledge base / help center?
Crisp covers Knowledge base / help center and costs $0/mo (Free plan) in our scenario.
Does LiveChat have a free plan?
No. LiveChat has no free plan on its official pricing page.
When were these prices checked?
Between 2026-08-31 and 2026-09-07, on the vendors' official pricing pages.