10 best LiveChat alternatives for customer support in 2026

The strongest LiveChat alternatives in October 2026 are Robylon for an AI agent that takes action across chat, email, voice and WhatsApp; Tidio for small businesses that want chat and an AI agent without seat fees; Crisp, tawk.to and Zoho SalesIQ for the lowest prices and free plans; Intercom for SaaS teams that live in a messenger; Zendesk and Freshdesk for full ticketing; HubSpot Service Hub for teams on HubSpot’s CRM; and Help Scout for a simple shared inbox.

New sign-ups at livechat.com now get Text (formerly LiveChat), the successor product from the same company, while existing customers keep their LiveChat plans. Teams evaluating or running Text look elsewhere when every human user needs a paid seat, when AI resolutions beyond the allowance add up, when customers phone as well as chat, or when the AI must answer email too. Every tool below is judged on three things: whether its AI takes the action a ticket needs, whether every channel runs from one setup, and whether it fits the stack you already run.

LiveChat alternatives at a glance

Prices checked October 2026 on each vendor's pricing page. G2 ratings read October 2026, with the review count in brackets.

Robylon publishes this page and ranks itself first; every tool on the list, Robylon included, gets the same “Where it falls short” line.

What LiveChat does

LiveChat is a live chat platform from Text S.A., called LiveChat Software S.A. until September 2023, and new customers now buy it as Text. Text combines a chat widget, a shared inbox with email tickets, and Text AI Agent on every plan, which answers from website pages, help content and files, hands chats to a person, and calls outside systems through up to 10 Custom Skills for order lookups and CRM updates. Text bills per user a month, with an allowance of AI resolutions and extra resolutions in packages of 50. On G2, Text’s own listing has 4.1 from 12 reviews, too few to say much, and the older LiveChat listing has 4.5 from 813.

Why teams look beyond LiveChat

LiveChat now sold as Text

New buyers at livechat.com get Text, the successor product launched in May 2025, and Text’s pricing page says Text features are not part of LiveChat plans, legacy subscriptions included. LiveChat’s own plans stay on a legacy pricing page for existing customers, without the AI Agent. A LiveChat customer who wants the AI Agent moves the account to Text, so a renewal is a choice between a legacy plan and a new product.

A seat for every user

Every person who logs in to Text needs a paid seat: $19 a user a month on Essential billed annually ($25 monthly) and $79 on Growth ($99 monthly). There is no free plan, only a 14-day trial. Downgrades apply only at renewal.

AI resolutions sold in fifties

Essential includes 10 AI resolutions a month and Growth 200, per account; beyond that, Text sells packages of 50 for $49.50 ($0.99 each) that do not carry over. Text’s help centre counts a resolution when the AI Agent directly solves at least one customer question, so a chat the AI answers in part and then hands over may still be billed.

AI Agent unconfirmed on email

Text’s help centre documents the AI Agent replying on chat, WhatsApp and Instagram, but no help article documents it replying to forwarded email tickets as of October 2026, although marketing copy mentions email.

No phone or voice channel

Text’s channels are its chat widget and chat page, forwarded email, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, SMS through your own Twilio account and a Shopify checkout widget. None is a phone line, so callers need a second tool.

HIPAA listed as coming soon

Text lists HIPAA as “Coming soon” on its quote-only Enterprise plan, while legacy LiveChat Enterprise supports HIPAA with a signed BAA.

Three kinds of LiveChat alternatives

Three kinds of product get called LiveChat alternatives, and they solve different problems.

• Live chat tools with an AI agent: a widget, a shared inbox and an AI agent priced for small teams. Tidio, Crisp, tawk.to and Zoho SalesIQ belong here, as Text does. Their AI agents answer from your content, call outside systems mostly for lookups, and run inside their own inbox.
• AI agent platforms: an agent that answers and resolves across channels, standalone or inside a helpdesk. Robylon belongs here; it takes actions in other systems and runs inside the helpdesk a team already uses or with its own inbox.
• Helpdesk suites with their own AI: ticketing, SLAs and reporting for a human team, with an AI agent on top. Intercom, Zendesk, Freshdesk, HubSpot Service Hub and Help Scout belong here. Fin, Zendesk AI agents, Freddy AI Agent and HubSpot’s customer agent take actions through APIs; Help Scout AI Answers only answers.

If the AI only answers questions in a chat widget, the first kind costs least.

How we compared the tools

We read each vendor’s pricing page, help centre or docs, and security or trust page on 7 and 8 October 2026, and each tool’s G2 page the same days. Where prices differ by region, the table uses the US dollar price. We did not run hands-on tests for this page.

We compared them on what the AI agent can resolve, channels covered, where each runs, billing model, setup effort, and how each works for support agents and team leads.

The 10 best LiveChat alternatives

1. Robylon

Best for: teams that need the AI agent to finish tickets by acting in their systems, and to answer voice, WhatsApp and email as well as website chat, from one setup, standalone or inside the helpdesk they keep.

What it is for: Robylon is an AI customer support platform that resolves tickets across email, chat, voice and WhatsApp. It works standalone or alongside an existing helpdesk. Robylon takes the action a ticket needs by acting in the systems the answer lives in, runs every channel from one setup, and fits the stack you already run. For a gaming company, Robylon resolves over 95% of queries automatically.

What the AI does:

• A triage agent routes each conversation to the sub-agent for its topic.
• Agents call tools built from your APIs and from 32 pre-built integrations, Shopify, HubSpot, Salesforce and Google Sheets among them. Custom API integrations are on the Business plan.
• With Shopify connected, an agent looks up an order and cancels it before fulfilment.
• The knowledge base answers from your sources, and the KB gap report lists what it could not answer (Pro plan and above).
• Anything the agent cannot finish goes to a person with the conversation, intent and checks attached.
• Evaluations score conversations against your criteria, and teams pick the AI model per agent from the models Robylon supports.

Channels: a chat widget on websites and apps (widget installation), email, voice, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, SMS through Twilio, YouTube comments and app-store and Google reviews, all on the channels page, in over 40 languages. Robylon runs standalone with its own inbox and optional human seats, or inside Freshdesk, Zendesk, Zoho Desk, Salesforce, Vtiger and Gorgias tickets and inside Intercom, Freshchat, SalesIQ and Zendesk messaging chat; inside Gorgias it covers email and chat. WhatsApp and email start on the Pro plan; voice phone calls and the Freshdesk, Zendesk, Zoho Desk, Intercom, Freshchat and Gorgias integrations start on Business. The human team works in a unified inbox with tickets, SLAs and queues.

Pricing: by AI credits, not per seat or per resolution (Robylon pricing). The Starter plan is free with 300 credits a month (about 40 conversations), paid plans start at $25 a month for 500 credits, Business starts at $180 a month, and yearly billing takes 10% off. Seats for a human team are optional, at $19 (Basic), $49 (Advanced) or $89 (Expert) per seat a month. G2: 5.0 from 42 reviews (G2, October 2026).

Where it falls short: on the worked example below, Zoho SalesIQ ($75 a month, without email), Crisp ($190) and tawk.to ($219.06) cost less than Robylon ($682) at 3,000 conversations a month, and all three have free plans for live chat, while Robylon’s free Starter is chat only. Voice phone calls start on the Business plan at $180 a month, with no published per-minute voice price, and credits per conversation vary with the AI model chosen.

Where Text does better:

• Selling in chat: with Shopify connected, Text AI Agent recommends products, shows the live cart and adds items to it inside the chat, on every plan.
• A fixed AI unit: Text charges $0.99 per AI resolution and nothing when the AI hands over without answering.
• Self-serve buying: Text gives 14 days with no card and plan changes in the app; Robylon’s plan changes go through an account manager.
• Review volume: the LiveChat listing on G2 has 813 reviews, against Robylon’s 42.

Pick it if: you need the AI agent to cancel an order, update an account or book a callback, or want voice, WhatsApp and email answered by the same agents as chat. Choose Text if your store wants a chat agent that sells and your channels stop at chat, messaging apps and SMS.

2. Tidio: best for small businesses

Best for: small businesses and online stores that want live chat and an AI agent in one panel, paid by conversation rather than by seat.

Tidio’s self-serve plans include up to 10 seats and bill by conversation packs, one for the human team and one for Lyro, the AI agent, which answers from your FAQs, website and files and recommends products from Shopify and WooCommerce catalogues. The Tidio alternatives guide covers the tools teams weigh against it.

What the AI does: Lyro answers and calls APIs through Actions (3 on Core, up to 10 on Plus), in 48 languages; MCP connections and Lyro for sales are on Plus and Premium, sold through sales.

Channels: live chat widget, email tickets, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp and video calls in the widget; Tidio’s docs list no phone or SMS channel as of October 2026.

Pricing: the Free plan covers 50 Billable conversations a month for up to 10 seats; Starter costs $29 a month for 100. Lyro costs $39 a month for 50 conversations up to $700 for 1,000 (Tidio pricing). G2: 4.6 from 1,962 reviews (G2, October 2026).

Where it falls short: a Lyro conversation is used as soon as Lyro replies, resolved or not, and more than 1,000 Lyro conversations a month needs Plus, from $300 a month plus usage. The Free plan’s 50 Lyro conversations never renew.

Pick it if: a team of up to 10 wants live chat and an AI agent that answers from your FAQs, paid by the conversation.

3. Crisp: best for flat workspace pricing

Best for: small businesses that want chat, a shared inbox and an AI agent for one monthly workspace fee.

Crisp prices per workspace with seats included: 2 on Free, 4 on Mini, 10 on Essentials and 20 on Plus. Its AI agent, Hugo, answers from snippets, a website crawl, files and the knowledge base, and one-click Shopify tools get order details and update a shipping address before fulfilment.

What the AI does: Hugo answers on Mini, Essentials and Plus and acts through MCP tools, which the plan table lists on Essentials and Plus; refunds need a custom MCP server you build.

Channels: website chat widget, contact form and mobile SDKs on every plan; email, Facebook Messenger, Telegram and X DMs from Mini; Instagram, WhatsApp, Line and Viber from Essentials; SMS through Twilio or Aircall and phone through Aircall, Ringover or KrispCall, from Essentials.

Pricing: Free costs $0 for 2 seats with no AI; Mini costs $45 a month per workspace with $5 of AI credits, Essentials $95 with $25 and Plus $295 with $75. Hugo usage beyond the credits is billed by tokens, about $0.05 to $0.10 a conversation (Crisp pricing). G2: 4.5 from 205 reviews (G2, October 2026).

Where it falls short: Crisp publishes no per-token rate, so its Hugo billing article gives only a range, and a conversation Hugo hands over still uses credits. Crisp has no SOC 2 audit and no voice AI.

Pick it if: you want chat, an inbox and an AI agent for a flat workspace fee, and the AI mostly answers and looks up orders.

4. tawk.to: best free live chat

Best for: small businesses that want free live chat for any number of agents and pay only for the AI they use.

tawk.to charges nothing for the platform: unlimited agents, chats and properties, with a widget, inbox, ticketing, knowledge base and CRM carrying “Powered by tawk.to” branding. AI Assist answers from FAQs, website crawls and documents, and on paid tiers calls store lookups, custom OpenAPI integrations and MCP servers. The tawk.to alternatives guide compares the tools teams weigh against it.

What the AI does: AI Assist answers and looks up orders and products; its Shopify operations are read-only, and the free Hobby tier cannot hand over to a person.

Channels: live chat widget, email by forwarding, chat pages, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Telegram; SMS through your own Twilio account; voice and video calls in the widget through a paid add-on. AI voice agents were waitlist only on 8 October 2026.

Pricing: AI Assist Hobby is free with 100 message credits a month; Growth costs $29 a month for 1,000 credits, Business $99 for 5,000 and Enterprise $399 for 20,000, with extra credits at $30 per 1,000 (tawk.to add-ons). G2: 4.5 from 203 reviews (G2, October 2026).

Where it falls short: AI Assist bills per AI message, 1 to 10 or more credits a reply by model, and new agents default to the Auto model at 3 credits a reply, according to tawk.to’s billing article. The security page lists no SOC 2 or ISO 27001.

Pick it if: you want free live chat for a whole team and a low-cost AI agent that answers and looks up orders.

5. Zoho SalesIQ: best for Zoho teams

Best for: teams on Zoho CRM or Zoho Desk that want chat with visitor tracking at a low price per operator.

Zoho SalesIQ is also the live chat channel inside Zoho Desk. Answer Bot answers from articles, FAQs and crawled pages on Zoho’s built-in Zia or your own LLM key, and Zia Agents, deployed as operators, call tools to create leads in Zoho CRM, tickets in Zoho Desk and actions in Shopify, Stripe and Salesforce.

What the AI does: Answer Bot answers in 34 languages and offers a transfer, on Enterprise only; Zia Agents (1 on Basic, 3 on Professional, 10 on Enterprise) call tools, though the Zia Agents help article says they work mainly on question-and-answer support.

Channels: website chat, mobile SDKs, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, LINE and WeChat from Basic; outbound calls through telephony providers on Enterprise. SalesIQ has no email channel; email comes through Zoho Desk.

Pricing: Free covers 3 operators with no bots or AI; Basic costs $7 per operator a month billed annually ($10 monthly), Professional $12.75 ($17) and Enterprise $20 ($25). Answer Bot on built-in Zia has no published usage fee, and Enterprise includes 200K bot chat sessions a month (Zoho SalesIQ pricing). G2: 4.4 from 256 reviews (G2, October 2026).

Where it falls short: Answer Bot needs Enterprise, there is no email without Zoho Desk, and a third-party LLM key adds that vendor’s token charges.

Pick it if: your sales and support already run on Zoho and you want chat and a knowledge-base bot at the lowest price per operator.

6. Intercom: best for SaaS messengers

Best for: SaaS teams that want a polished messenger and help center, with an AI agent billed per outcome.

Intercom is a helpdesk built around a messenger for websites and apps. Its maker renamed itself Fin on 12 May 2026, and Salesforce completed its acquisition on 10 September 2026; the helpdesk keeps the Intercom name.

What the AI does: Fin AI Agent, on every plan, answers and takes actions through Procedures that call REST APIs and MCP connectors, in more than 45 languages; nothing is billed when the customer asks for a person.

Channels: messenger chat on web, iOS and Android, email, WhatsApp, SMS, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Slack and Discord; Fin Voice for select customers through sales.

Pricing: Fin costs $0.99 per outcome. Advanced seats cost $85 a month billed annually or $99 monthly, and Expert $132 or $139 (Intercom pricing). G2: 4.5 from 3,918 reviews (G2, October 2026).

Where it falls short: every human teammate needs a seat from $85 a month billed annually, there is no free plan, and Fin Voice has no published price.

Pick it if: your product runs on an in-app messenger and you want onboarding and support in one tool.

7. Zendesk: best all-in-one support suite

Best for: support teams that want ticketing, messaging, voice and an AI agent in one suite.

Zendesk Suite puts email, messaging, voice and social channels on one ticketing system with omnichannel routing. Since the May to June 2026 rollout, AI agents on every plan follow natural-language procedures and integrations that read and write data in external systems, and voice AI agents became generally available in September 2026.

What the AI does: AI agents answer and act in external systems, in over 80 languages, each on one channel type; messaging agents need a Suite plan.

Channels: email, web form, messaging and live chat, mobile SDKs, voice through Zendesk Talk, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram Direct, X DMs, LINE, WeChat and Slack; SMS through an add-on.

Pricing: Suite Team costs $55 per agent a month billed annually ($69 monthly) and Suite Professional $115 ($149); AI agent resolutions cost $1.50 committed or $2.00 pay-as-you-go, after 5 included per agent a month on Suite Team (Zendesk pricing). G2: 4.3 from 7,093 reviews (G2, October 2026).

Where it falls short: two AI billing models are live at once, the help centre’s newer resolution allowance has unpublished tier prices, and there is no free plan.

Pick it if: you want one vendor for ticketing, chat, phone and the AI agent, and expect the team to grow.

8. Freshdesk: best ticketing upgrade

Best for: growing teams that want full ticketing with SLAs and an AI agent at a moderate seat price.

Freshworks sells two helpdesks: Freshdesk, which is email-first, and Freshdesk Omni, which adds full live chat, WhatsApp and Instagram. Freddy AI Agent has pre-built integrations for Shopify, Stripe, PayPal and Wix.

What the AI does: Freddy answers and runs workflows with API actions, in more than 60 languages for chat; the chat AI agent runs only on Freshdesk Omni.

Channels: email, a customer portal, web chat and Facebook Messenger; Freshdesk Omni adds Instagram and WhatsApp. Phone comes through Freshcaller, a separate Freshworks product.

Pricing: Freshdesk Omni Growth costs $29 per agent a month billed annually ($35 monthly) and Freshdesk Growth $19 ($23); Freddy AI Agent costs $49 per 100 sessions (Freshdesk pricing). G2: 4.4 from 3,777 reviews (G2, October 2026).

Where it falls short: a Freddy session is billed whatever the outcome, handovers included, and there is no free-forever plan, only 2 agents free for 6 months on Freshdesk.

Pick it if: your team has outgrown a chat tool’s inbox and needs SLAs, routing and a customer portal.

9. HubSpot Service Hub: best inside HubSpot

Best for: teams running sales and marketing on HubSpot that want support on the same customer record.

HubSpot Service Hub puts ticketing, a knowledge base and a customer portal on HubSpot’s CRM, and its free tools include branded live chat and rule-based bots for two users. The customer agent moved to $0.50 per resolved conversation on 14 April 2026.

What the AI does: the customer agent answers from the knowledge base, web pages and files, and runs up to 20 configured actions, from updating a CRM object or booking a meeting to custom API requests; voice is a public beta for inbound calls.

Channels: email, live chat, forms, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp (Professional and Enterprise, up to 1,000 messages a month) and calling; SMS in beta through a Twilio add-on.

Pricing: Starter lists at $20 per seat a month ($7 billed annually as a limited-time offer for new customers), Professional $90 billed annually and Enterprise $150; the customer agent uses 50 credits ($0.50) per resolution, with 3,000 credits a month included on Professional (HubSpot Service Hub pricing). G2: 4.4 from 3,018 reviews (G2, October 2026).

Where it falls short: the customer agent needs Professional, which carries an annual commitment even when paid monthly, and included credits are shared with every other HubSpot credit feature.

Pick it if: your company already runs on HubSpot’s CRM.

10. Help Scout: best simple shared inbox

Best for: small and mid-size teams that want a simple shared inbox, a knowledge base and a chat widget.

Help Scout combines a shared inbox, Docs knowledge base sites and the Beacon chat widget, free for up to 5 users, 1 inbox and 100 contacts a month.

What the AI does: AI Answers answers only, in the Beacon widget, in over 50 languages, and charges nothing when the customer asks for more help.

Channels: email, live chat through Beacon on web and in apps, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram and SMS through your own Twilio number; phone through Aircall.

Pricing: Standard costs $25 per user a month billed annually or $30 monthly, Plus $45 or $54, and Pro $75 or $90 with a 10-user minimum; AI Answers adds $0.75 per resolution (Help Scout pricing). G2: 4.4 from 431 reviews (G2, October 2026).

Where it falls short: the AI takes no actions in other systems, Help Scout’s docs list no AI Answers on email as of October 2026, and the Free plan includes no AI tools.

Pick it if: a small team wants a clean shared inbox and help center, and the AI only needs to answer questions.

Alternatives by situation

What to decide before switching

Actions versus answers

Count what share of your chats ask the AI to change something: cancel an order, update an address, issue a refund. If most only need answers, Zoho SalesIQ, Crisp, tawk.to and Help Scout cover them at the lowest cost. If many need actions, shortlist Robylon, Intercom with Fin, Zendesk, Freshdesk Omni and HubSpot Service Hub. That one question separates a chatbot from an AI agent.

Channels your customers use

List every channel customers use today, phone included. Text, Tidio, tawk.to, Crisp and Help Scout have no AI on phone calls. Zendesk sells voice AI agents, HubSpot has customer agent voice in beta, and Intercom sells Fin Voice through sales. Robylon includes voice phone calls from its Business plan, answered by the same agents as chat, email and WhatsApp.

Where your team works

Decide where the human team will reply. Chat tools give a light inbox; the helpdesk suites add help centers, SLAs and routing; Robylon gives an inbox with tickets, SLAs and queues, or runs inside the helpdesk the team already uses. Count seats too: Text charges for every user, Tidio includes up to 10, Crisp Plus includes 20, and tawk.to has no limit.

Pricing at your volume

The billing units differ, so compare at one volume. On published prices for 3,000 chat and email conversations a month, 60% resolved by the AI (1,800 resolutions), 3 human agents and monthly billing:

Zoho SalesIQ’s $75.00 is three Enterprise operator seats: Answer Bot is on Enterprise only, runs on Zoho’s built-in Zia with no published usage fee, and Enterprise includes 200K bot chat sessions a month. SalesIQ has no email channel, so email would need Zoho Desk on top. Robylon’s figure is 3,000 conversations at about 7.5 credits each: the Business 10,000-credit tier at $300 plus 13 extra 1,000-credit bundles at $25, and 3 Basic seats at $19. Crisp’s figures use the low end of its $0.05 to $0.10 a conversation, and monthly plans cap paid usage at 3 times the plan price, so Mini may not reach this volume. tawk.to’s figure assumes three AI replies a conversation on a 1-credit model; the default Auto model uses 3 credits a reply. HubSpot’s $100 a seat is paid monthly on an annual commitment. Tidio’s figure extrapolates past its 1,000-conversation packs. On yearly billing, Zoho SalesIQ comes to $60.00, tawk.to $202.56, Robylon $652.00 and Text $1,821.00 on Growth.

When to stay on LiveChat

• You are on legacy LiveChat Enterprise with a signed HIPAA BAA; Text lists HIPAA as coming soon.
• You use Apple Messages for Business, which only legacy LiveChat Business and Enterprise offer.
• Your store wants a chat agent that recommends products and builds the Shopify cart, and your channels stop at chat, messaging apps and SMS.
• Your AI needs fit 10 resolutions a month on Essential or 200 on Growth, with no AI work on email or the phone.
• Price is the deciding test and you would move only to save money: at 3,000 conversations a month, Zoho SalesIQ ($75, without email), Crisp ($190) and tawk.to ($219.06) cost less than both Robylon ($682) and Text ($1,847.10).

Teams usually switch over per-user seats, resolutions bought 50 at a time, a missing phone channel or AI on email; without those, staying on LiveChat or moving to Text is reasonable.

Moving off LiveChat

1. Baseline today’s numbers: chats and tickets a month, AI resolutions and resolution rate, CSAT, seats and total monthly cost.
2. Export the knowledge the AI Agent answers from, plus canned responses, tags, routing rules and any Custom Skills.
3. List every system the new agent must read or act in: your store, order management, billing and CRM.
4. Build the top intents first and test them against real past chats, with bulk knowledge base testing or the new tool’s equivalent.
5. Install the new chat widget on a subset of pages, or move one channel, while LiveChat or Text handles the rest.
6. Reconnect email, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram and SMS, and repoint webhooks.
7. Compare resolution rate, CSAT and cost per resolution against the baseline, then move the rest.
8. Keep the LiveChat or Text account for 30 days in case you need to roll back.

Choosing a LiveChat alternative

LiveChat, now sold as Text, is a capable chat platform for online stores and SaaS teams, with an AI Agent that sells as well as answers at $0.99 per resolution. For a team whose customers chat rather than call, it remains a sensible home.

Move when per-user seats, resolutions bought 50 at a time or the missing phone channel cost more than they save. Zoho SalesIQ, Crisp and tawk.to are the cheapest moves, Tidio suits small teams paying by conversation, Intercom fits SaaS messengers, Zendesk and Freshdesk add full ticketing, HubSpot Service Hub suits HubSpot CRM teams, and Help Scout keeps things simple. Robylon suits teams that want the agent to take the action a ticket needs, run every channel from one setup and fit the stack they already run, and its Starter plan is free to try.