Best Live Chat Software For Every Use (15 Options)

The best live chat software in 2026 is the one that answers most conversations before a person reads them, and gives the person full context when it cannot. Live chat software puts a messenger on your website or app so visitors and customers can talk to you in real time. What changed since the first generation of chat widgets is the AI agent behind the chat: at Customerly, Aura answers from your help center, resolves 72% of conversations across all Customerly customers and hands the rest to your team in the same inbox. This guide compares 15 live chat tools for support, sales and e-commerce, with each vendor's pricing as published on its own site.

Last updated: 28 October 2026 · Every vendor's prices read on the vendor's own pricing page on 28 October 2026

Live chat software compared (2026)

What is live chat software?

Live chat software is a tool that lets website visitors and app users message your business in real time, and lets your team answer from a shared inbox. It replaces the contact form and the support email as the first point of contact.

Beyond the chat window, live chat software for support and sales teams usually includes:

• A unified inbox for every conversation
• Routing and assignment rules
• Chatbots and, in 2026, an AI agent that answers on its own
• Chat previews and visitor data
• Multimedia messages and file uploads
• Canned responses
• Proactive chat triggers
• Reports on volume, response time and satisfaction

Customerly's live chat is an example of the full set: the messenger connects to one inbox that also receives email, WhatsApp and Facebook, customer data from the built-in CRM sits next to every conversation, Aura answers first, and the AI Companion helps the agent write when a person takes over. The full feature list is in live chat features.

Benefits of live chat software

Live chat software lowers the effort to ask a question, which raises both satisfaction and conversion. The specific benefits a support or sales team should expect:

Faster answers, higher satisfaction

Customer satisfaction follows response time. Live chat gives an immediate reply where email gives a ticket number. With an AI agent in the chat, the first reply arrives in seconds at any hour.

More conversions

Visitors who chat are more likely to buy. Forrester research cited across the industry puts people who engage in a chat conversation at 2.8 times more likely to convert than those who do not. A chat on the pricing page answers the objection while the visitor is still there.

No repeating themselves

Customers expect the agent to know who they are. Live chat software with a built-in CRM shows the plan, the last pages viewed and the previous conversations next to the chat, so nobody asks for the account email twice.

Proactive outreach

Live chat is not only reactive. Chat triggers start a conversation when a visitor hesitates on checkout, returns to the pricing page, or hits an error, so the team (or the AI) steps in before the visitor leaves.

Data on what customers ask

Chat transcripts are the most honest product feedback you have. Reports on topics, peak hours and resolution rates tell you which help article to write and when to staff.

How to choose live chat software

Choose live chat software on six criteria: who answers first, where the conversations land, what the data looks like, security, integrations and price at your volume.

Who answers first: AI agent or chatbot

The biggest difference between live chat tools in 2026 is the AI behind the widget. A scripted chatbot sends visitors through buttons. An AI agent reads the question, answers from your help center and hands off when it cannot. Ask for the resolution rate and how it is measured, and test it on your own questions. The AI live chat software roundup covers this in depth.

Use case

Define your main use case before you shortlist. Different tools excel at different jobs:

• Customer support
• Sales and lead qualification
• E-commerce order questions
• Technical support
• Feedback collection
• Onboarding and in-app guidance

A B2B sales team wants routing to reps and calendar booking. A SaaS support team wants the AI agent, help center and ticket history in one place.

Security and compliance

Chat carries personal data. Check encryption, data location, GDPR terms and who can export transcripts. Read the vendor's security page, not the sales deck.

Integration and channels

Live chat should not be an island. Choose a tool that connects to your CRM, help desk and other channels, or that includes them. Customerly includes the CRM, help center, email and WhatsApp in the same inbox as the chat, so there is nothing to integrate for support.

Seamless Integrations, Powered by Customerly Aura AI

Combine Aura’s AI precision with Customerly’s live chat and CRM integrations. Empower your team to deliver effortless, real-time support.

Reporting and analytics

Look for reports on chat volume, first response time, resolution time, CSAT and, if there is an AI agent, its resolution and handoff rates. Without the AI reports you cannot tell whether the agent helps or hides problems.

Price at your volume

Live chat software is priced per seat, per workspace, per conversation or a mix. Model your real monthly volume and the number of people who reply. Watch for AI billed separately (per resolution, per outcome, per session) and for conversation caps on the cheaper plans. Our comparisons do this math for Intercom, LiveChat and Tidio.

15 best live chat software for every use

Every price below was read on the vendor's own pricing page on 28 October 2026. Prices and plan names change often; check the vendor's page before you sign.

1. Customerly

Customerly is an AI-first customer service platform that combines live chat, an AI agent, a shared inbox for every channel, a help center, a CRM and marketing automation.

The messenger on your website or app connects to one inbox. Aura AI answers first: it is trained on your help center, canned responses and documents, replies in any language, reads screenshots and files, and runs actions through your API. When Aura cannot resolve a conversation, any agent takes over with one click and the full history. Across all Customerly customers, Aura resolves 72% of conversations.

Relevant Features

• Aura AI agent: autonomous answers from your documentation on chat, email, WhatsApp and Facebook from one training, with a clean handoff to the team.
• Unified inbox: every channel in one place, with teams, assignment rules, views, internal notes and canned responses, enriched with CRM data.

• AI Companion: Write a reply for me, Expand a response and Summarise this conversation for agents, plus Create a Help Center article from a closed conversation.

• AI live chat engagement: chat surveys, meeting bookings, self-service help center in the messenger and ready-to-use chat triggers.

• Customization: branding, icons, profile pictures and a multilingual messenger.

• Team and Aura reports: response times, conversation volume, CSAT, and Aura's resolution and handoff rates.

Pricing

The price of Customerly is determined by the number of monthly interactions you have.

You have five options to choose from—Basic (free), Essential($7/mo), Startup($39/mo), Pro ($82/mo), and Enterprise($249/mo). Each plan offers a variety of features and is customizable in terms of interactions, so you’ll always be able to adapt your plans as your business scales.

Current plans, seat prices and AI conversation pricing are on the Customerly pricing page.

Meet Aura: The AI Powering Your Live Chat

From AI-powered automation to proactive chat, Aura transforms interactions. Automate 72% of tickets and scale with Customerly’s all-in-one platform.

2. Drift

Drift is a live chat tool built for B2B sales and conversational marketing. It is now part of Salesloft.

Drift's chat widget qualifies visitors, books meetings and routes conversations to sales reps, with bots that greet and route by audience segment.

Relevant Features

• Conversational marketing bots: greetings, qualification and routing by audience segment.
• Meeting booking from the chat.
• Real-time dashboards of team availability and conversations.

Pricing

Not published. On 28 October 2026 salesloft.com showed no Drift plan or price; Drift is sold through Salesloft sales. See Intercom vs Drift for how it compares on support.

3. Intercom

Intercom is a customer service platform with live chat, an inbox, a help center and Fin, its AI agent.

Relevant Features

• Fin AI Agent on every plan, billed per outcome.
• Inbox that consolidates chat, email and other channels.
• Lite seats: 20 free on Advanced and 50 on Expert for colleagues who do not reply to customers.
• Mobile apps for iOS and Android.

Pricing

On intercom.com/pricing (28 October 2026): Essential $29 per seat/month (shown at $19 for new customers, "save 35%"), Advanced $85 per seat/month, Expert $132 per seat/month, plus $0.99 per Fin outcome. 14-day free trial. Full breakdown in Intercom pricing and Customerly vs Intercom.

4. LiveChat

LiveChat is a chat-first customer service tool with AI agents and reply suggestions built into the inbox.

Relevant Features

• AI agents with included AI resolutions per plan (10 a month on Essential, 200 on Growth).
• Reply suggestions for agents (5 or 50 per user per month by plan).
• Chat widget, tagging and canned responses.

Pricing

On livechat.com/pricing (28 October 2026): Essential $19 per user/month billed annually ($25 monthly), Growth $79 per user/month billed annually ($99 monthly), Enterprise custom. Extra AI resolutions: $49.50 per 50. 14-day free trial. See Customerly vs LiveChat.

5. Zendesk

Zendesk adds messaging and live chat to its ticketing suite, with AI agents billed per automated resolution.

Relevant Features

• Messaging across web, mobile and social, converted into tickets.
• AI agents included on every plan, billed per successful outcome beyond the included resolutions.
• Help center with 40+ languages on Suite Professional.
• Reporting on agent performance and resolution times.

Pricing

On zendesk.com/pricing (28 October 2026): Support Team $19, Suite Team $55, Suite Professional $115 per agent/month billed annually ($25, $69, $149 monthly); Suite Enterprise through sales. AI agents: 5 to 10 automated resolutions per agent/month included, then $1.50 committed or $2.00 pay-as-you-go. Messaging and live chat start on Suite Team. See Zendesk pricing and Customerly vs Zendesk.

6. Help Scout

Help Scout is an email-first shared inbox with Beacon, its chat and help widget, and Docs, its knowledge base.

Relevant Features

• Shared inbox for email and chat.
• Docs knowledge base sites included (2 on Standard, 3 on Plus, 5 on Pro).
• AI Assist, AI Drafts and AI Summarize, unlimited on paid plans.
• Envoy AI agent at $0.75 per resolution, with a three-month free trial.

Pricing

On helpscout.com/pricing (28 October 2026): Free (up to 5 users, 100 contacts a month), Standard $25, Plus $45, Pro $75 per user/month (monthly billing; annual saves 16%). See Customerly vs Help Scout.

7. Crisp

Crisp is a live chat and chatbot platform priced per workspace rather than per seat.

Relevant Features

• Chatbot builder without code.
• Multi-channel inbox: website, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram and more.
• AI credits included on paid plans for automated conversations.
• Knowledge base articles in the chat.

Pricing

On crisp.chat/en/pricing (28 October 2026): Free (2 agents), Mini $45 per workspace/month (4 agents), Essentials $95 (10 agents), Plus $295 (20+ agents), Enterprise custom; extra agents $10 a month. 14-day free trial of any plan. See Crisp alternatives.

8. Tidio

Tidio combines live chat with Lyro, an AI agent priced by conversation volume, and is aimed at e-commerce stores.

Relevant Features

• Lyro AI Agent sold in conversation quotas from 50 to 1,000 a month on self-serve plans.
• Live chat with billable-conversation limits per plan.
• Shopify and WordPress integrations.

Pricing

On tidio.com/pricing (28 October 2026): Free (50 conversations a month), Starter $24.17/month (100 conversations), Growth from $49.17/month, Plus from $300/month plus usage, Premium on request. Lyro AI Agent from $32.50/month for 50 AI conversations; the first 50 are free. 7-day free trial. See Customerly vs Tidio.

9. Pure Chat

Pure Chat is a simple website live chat tool with visitor analytics and widget customisation.

Relevant Features

• Visitor analytics and contact history.
• Trigger-based chat.
• Widget customisation for desktop and mobile.
• Zapier and native integrations.

Pricing

On purechat.com/pricing (28 October 2026): Growth $39/month billed annually ($49 monthly) plus $13 per extra user ($15 monthly); PRO $79/month billed annually ($99 monthly) plus $8 per extra user ($10 monthly). 30-day free trial.

10. HubSpot

HubSpot offers live chat as part of its CRM and Service Hub.

Relevant Features

• Chat and chatbots connected to the HubSpot CRM.
• Universal inbox for chat and email.
• Breeze AI agents (Customer Agent, Data Agent) billed through HubSpot Credits at $0.010 per credit, with 500 to 5,000 credits included by tier.
• Knowledge base on paid Service Hub tiers.

Pricing

On hubspot.com/pricing/service (28 October 2026): Free tools (up to 2 users); Starter from $20 per seat/month billed monthly; Professional $100 per seat/month billed monthly plus a $1,500 onboarding fee; Enterprise $150 per seat/month on an annual commitment plus a $3,500 onboarding fee. See HubSpot alternatives.

11. Hiver

Hiver turns Gmail into a helpdesk and adds live chat for teams that work from their inbox.

Relevant Features

• Omnichannel in Gmail: email, live chat and self-service in one workspace.
• Assignment and collision alerts inside the inbox.
• Chat templates and shared transcripts.

Pricing

On hiverhq.com/pricing (28 October 2026): Growth $25 per user/month billed annually ($35 monthly), Pro $55 per user/month billed annually ($65 monthly). Free trial available; length not stated on the page.

12. LiveAgent

LiveAgent is a helpdesk with live chat, ticketing and many channels, priced per agent.

Relevant Features

• Live chat on every plan, with 2 to 50 chat buttons by plan (unlimited on Enterprise).
• Ticketing and automation rules.
• Reporting on response time, resolution rate and agent productivity.

Pricing

On liveagent.com/pricing (28 October 2026): Starter $11 per agent/month billed annually ($15 monthly), Team $22 ($26 monthly), Business $38 ($44 monthly), all limited-time prices valid through 22 November 2026 (regular $15 / $29 / $49 annual); Enterprise $3,199/month flat for 80 agents billed annually. No free plan. 30-day free trial. See LiveAgent alternatives.

13. Chatra

Chatra is a live chat tool for small e-commerce sites with chatbot automation, visitor tracking and file sharing.

Relevant Features

• Chatbot automation for frequent questions.
• Visitor tracking and customer analytics.
• Widget customisation and language localisation.

Pricing

Chatra's pricing page could not be read on 28 October 2026 (chatra.com/pricing returned an error). Check chatra.com for current plans before you compare.

14. Lime Connect (formerly Userlike)

Userlike is now Lime Connect, a messaging and live chat tool from Lime Technologies for European teams that want website chat plus WhatsApp and other messaging channels.

Relevant Features

• Website chat with a customisable widget.
• Messaging channels such as WhatsApp alongside web chat.
• AI automation for repetitive requests.

Pricing

On connect.lime-technologies.com/en/pricing (28 October 2026): Free €0, Pro from €87/month billed annually (from €105 monthly), Enterprise on request; prices exclude VAT. 14-day free trial of Pro features.

15. Smartsupp

Smartsupp is a live chat and AI tool for European e-commerce, with Mira, its AI agent.

Relevant Features

• Mira AI Agent sold in conversation packages from 100 to 5,000 a month.
• Live chat with conversation history limits on the free plan.
• E-commerce integrations: Shopify, WooCommerce, PrestaShop and more.

Pricing

On smartsupp.com/pricing (28 October 2026, USD, billed annually): Free (1 operator, 25 conversations a month), Solo $17/month, Plus $25/month, Expert $83/month, Ultimate from $280/month. Mira AI Agent from $16/month for 100 conversations. 14-day free trial. See Smartsupp alternatives.

Conclusion

The right live chat software in 2026 is the one whose AI resolves most of your conversations and whose inbox gives your team the context for the rest. Price it at your real volume, including the AI usage line, and test the handoff before you commit.

Customerly's live chat comes with Aura, the AI agent that resolves 72% of conversations across all Customerly customers, one inbox for chat, email, WhatsApp and Facebook, a help center that trains the AI, and a migration from Zendesk, Intercom or HubSpot assisted by our team at no cost. See how it compares to Zendesk and Intercom, or go straight to pricing.

Transform Your Support Today

Start your 14-day free trial with Customerly’s live chat and deliver remarkable customer experiences at scale.

What is the best live chat software for a support team?

For a support team with real volume, the best live chat software is the one with an AI agent that resolves most conversations and a shared inbox for the rest.

Customerly combines both: Aura resolves 72% of conversations across all customers and hands off to the team in one inbox. Zendesk, Intercom, LiveChat and Help Scout also ship AI agents, each billed per resolution or outcome on top of seats.

How much does live chat software cost?

Entry plans run from free to about $25 per user per month, and the AI is usually billed separately.

On 28 October 2026: LiveChat Essential $19 per user/month billed annually, Help Scout Standard $25 per user/month, Zendesk Suite Team $55 per agent/month billed annually, Intercom Essential $29 per seat/month plus $0.99 per Fin outcome. Customerly's current prices are on the pricing page.

What is the difference between live chat software and a chatbot?

Live chat software is the channel; a chatbot or AI agent is who answers in it.

Scripted chatbots walk visitors through buttons. An AI agent such as Aura reads the question, answers from your help center in the customer's language and escalates to a person with the full history when needed.

Can live chat software handle email and WhatsApp too?

Yes, if the vendor runs an omnichannel inbox.

Customerly receives live chat, email, WhatsApp and Facebook in one inbox, and the same Aura training answers on every channel. Chat-only tools need a separate helpdesk for email.

How do I migrate from another live chat tool?

Export your help center, contacts and open conversations, then import them into the new tool; most vendors assist.

Customerly's team assists migrations from Zendesk, Intercom, HubSpot and other helpdesks at no cost. See the Zendesk migration guide for the steps.