Best live chat software for freelancers

tawk.to

tawk.to gives the entire live chat product away: unlimited agent seats, the shared inbox, mobile and desktop apps, and a knowledge base, with no paid tier to graduate into. It funds itself through optional extras, chiefly $29 a month to remove the small "Powered by tawk.to" badge from the widget, an AI assistant from $29 a month, and trained human agents it will staff for you by the hour. For a freelancer that makes it the lowest-commitment way to put chat on a site. The trade-off is the branding: leave it and you pay nothing at all, remove it and you are paying more than several tools here charge for their entry plan.

Tidio

Tidio bundles live chat, ticketing and its Lyro AI agent into one inbox, and bills by conversation volume rather than by seat, so up to ten people can answer chats on the same plan. The free plan covers 50 billable conversations and the paid Starter plan raises that to 100. Only conversations a human actually replies to count against the limit, which suits a freelancer whose chat volume is spiky. The catch is that the meter is the thing to watch: a busy month pushes you up the plan ladder even though your team never grew.

Crisp

Crisp prices per workspace rather than per person, so the bill does not move when you add a collaborator, and it puts no cap on how many conversations you handle. The free plan is pitched explicitly at solopreneurs and includes two seats and the website chat widget; Mini at $45 a month adds a shared email inbox and four seats. That flat shape makes it one of the more predictable options here if you expect volume. It is also the most expensive first paid step in this table, so the free tier has to be enough or the jump is real.

Chatwoot

Chatwoot is an open-source support inbox with a hosted cloud version, and its free cloud tier is genuinely usable for one person: two agents and 500 conversations a month. Paid plans start at $19 per agent per month, and its Captain AI features run on credits included with each paid plan rather than a separate subscription. It is the option here that a technically comfortable freelancer can take in either direction, hosted or run themselves. The free tier's 500-conversation ceiling is the thing to check against your own traffic.

LiveChat

LiveChat is the long-established dedicated chat product of the group, aimed at businesses rather than hobby sites, and its Starter tier is labelled for small business at $19 per person on annual billing. There is no free plan at all: you get a 14-day trial and then you are paying. For a freelancer that means it only makes sense if chat is a real sales channel rather than a nice-to-have, since the cheapest month costs the same whether you take one chat or a hundred.

Olark

Olark sells two quite different things: the classic human-only live chat it has run since 2009 at $29 per agent per month, and a newer AI Website Agent at $400 a month flat that includes unlimited AI conversations and one human seat. A freelancer wants the first one, and Olark keeps it available rather than forcing the AI bundle. It argues against usage-based AI pricing on the grounds that it makes you ration your own success. There is no free plan, and the trial's length is not stated on the pricing page.

Freshchat

Freshchat, part of the Freshworks suite, has the most generous free tier in this table by seat count: $0 for up to ten agents, with the chat widget on web and mobile, a shared inbox and connected email. Paid Growth is $19 per agent per month on annual billing and adds more channels and AI. Its Freddy AI features are priced separately on top, per session or per agent, so the headline price is not the whole bill if you want automation. For a freelancer who may later bring in collaborators, the free plan stretches unusually far.

JivoChat

JivoChat's free plan covers five agents and connects website chat to Telegram, Facebook, Instagram and Viber, with desktop, mobile and browser apps, which is more channel coverage than most free tiers offer. Paid Basic is $28 per agent per month billed annually and adds proactive chat invitations, visitor monitoring and its CRM. Several things a freelancer might assume are included, notably WhatsApp at $27 a month and the AI assistant at $13, are priced as separate modules. Read the add-on list before comparing its headline price with the others here.

Intercom

Intercom's Essential plan is described on its pricing page as customer support for individuals, startups and small businesses, and it was showing a discounted $19 per seat per month against a $29 list price when this table was built. Its Fin AI Agent is billed separately by outcome, from $0.99 each, so automation is a usage cost on top of the seat. There is no free plan, only a 14-day trial. It is the most feature-heavy option here and the one most likely to cost more than a freelancer expects once Fin starts answering.

Zoho SalesIQ

Zoho SalesIQ is the cheapest paid entry in this table at US$7 per operator per month on annual billing, and its free plan includes three operator licences. It leans toward visitor tracking and sales conversations rather than pure support ticketing, which fits a freelancer using chat to catch leads on a portfolio site. Being part of the wider Zoho suite is the main reason to pick it or skip it, depending on whether you already live in those tools.