Disclosure: TechZapp earns a commission if you sign up for SparrowDesk through links in this article. It costs you nothing extra, and it does not influence our testing or our conclusions. Every free plan below was checked against the vendor’s own pricing page in September 2026.
Free live chat software is no longer a stripped-down demo with a countdown on it. Several vendors now give away a genuinely usable product, and one of them gives away considerably more than the rest.
We compared the free plans of eight live chat and website chatbot tools on the things that decide whether you outgrow them in a month: how many agents you get, how many conversations you are allowed, and whether there is a real support system behind the chat widget or just a bubble in the corner.
The short answer: SparrowDesk has the strongest free plan on the market right now. 500 conversations a month across 3 agents, plus a shared inbox, an email channel, a help center, and reporting — the parts competitors reserve for paid tiers. Below is how it compares, and where each rival still makes sense.
Free live chat software compared
| Tool | Free agents | Free conversations | Shared inbox | Help center | Paid from |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SparrowDesk — best overall | 3 | 500/month | Yes | Yes | $16/agent |
| Tawk.to | Unlimited | Unlimited | Basic | Yes | $29/month |
| HubSpot | Unlimited | Generous | Yes | Paid | $20/month |
| Crisp | 2 | Not capped | Yes | Paid | $45/month |
| Zoho SalesIQ | 3 operators | 100/month | Basic | No | $7/operator |
| Tidio | 10 seats | 50/month | Yes | Paid | $29/month |
| Chatwoot | 2 cloud / unlimited self-hosted | Unlimited self-hosted | Yes | Yes | $19/agent |
| Smartsupp | 1 | ~25/month | No | No | $19/month |
Read the conversation column carefully. It is the limit that ends the free ride, and the gap between tools is enormous — SparrowDesk allows ten times what Tidio does and twenty times what Smartsupp does.
1. SparrowDesk — the best free live chat software in 2026
Most free plans hand you a chat widget and hold everything else back. SparrowDesk hands you the working parts of a help desk.
The free tier includes:
- 3 users and 500 conversations a month — roughly 16 a day, which covers most small businesses without ever reaching the ceiling
- A shared inbox with macros — your whole team works the same queue, with saved replies for the questions that repeat
- Website chat plus an email channel — chat and support email land in one place instead of two
- A public help center — customers answer their own questions, which is the only thing that reduces ticket volume long term
- Prebuilt reports and team performance data — response times and volumes, not just a transcript list
- Two-factor authentication and a mobile app
Why it beats the rest
Two reasons, and they are structural rather than cosmetic.
The conversation limit is realistic. Tidio gives you 50 a month. Zoho gives you 100. Smartsupp gives you about 25. Those numbers are set where a growing business hits them in week two, which is the point — they are lead generation for the paid tier. SparrowDesk’s 500 is set where a small business genuinely lives.
You get the desk, not just the widget. Live chat on its own creates a problem it cannot solve: conversations pile up, nobody knows who answered what, and the same question gets answered fifteen different ways. The shared inbox, macros, and help center are what fix that, and on most competitors they sit behind a paywall.
Where it is limited
No integrations on the free plan. Slack, HubSpot, Linear, and Salesforce connections start on the paid Starter tier at $16 per agent per month — which also removes the conversation cap entirely and adds CSAT surveys, ticket forms, and a custom domain for your help center.
If you need a chat widget wired into your CRM from day one, budget for Starter. If you need a support system that works on its own, the free plan is complete.
Best for: small teams who want real support software rather than a chat bubble. Start free here — no credit card, no expiry date.
2. Tawk.to — unlimited volume, visible branding
Tawk.to is the volume champion: unlimited agents, unlimited conversations, unlimited history, permanently free. Nothing else comes close on raw allowance.
The trade is visibility. Their branding sits under your chat widget and removing it costs $29 a month — at which point you are paying more than SparrowDesk’s entry tier for a narrower product. The tooling behind the chat is also thinner: it is a capable chat app rather than a help desk.
Best for: high chat volume, large teams, and no budget at all.
3. HubSpot — free chat with a free CRM attached
HubSpot’s free tier bundles live chat, ticketing, and its CRM, with unlimited agents. Every conversation becomes a contact record automatically, which is something most free chat tools cannot do at any price.
The catch is the shape of the product. HubSpot is a sales and marketing platform with support attached, and the free tier is deliberately built to pull you toward paid Sales Hub. Costs climb steeply once you cross a threshold.
Best for: teams who want customer records more than they want support tooling.
4. Crisp — strong if customers message you on social
Crisp’s free plan covers 2 seats and pulls email, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and Telegram into one shared inbox alongside website chat. For a business whose customers live on Instagram, that consolidation is worth real money.
Two seats is the constraint. A third person means upgrading, and Crisp’s paid tier starts at $45 a month — the steepest jump on this list.
Best for: two-person teams handling messages across several social channels.
5. Zoho SalesIQ — sensible only inside Zoho
Three operators, 100 chat sessions a month, visitor tracking up to 10,000 a month, and 30 days of chat history.
That history window is the detail people miss. After 30 days, older conversations are gone on the free plan. If you ever need to check what a customer was told last quarter, this is not the tool.
Best for: businesses already running Zoho CRM who want everything under one login.
6. Tidio — an ecommerce chatbot for website sales
Tidio’s free plan gives you 50 conversations a month across 10 seats, including a basic chatbot for your website. The product leans toward selling rather than supporting: product cards inside chat, and triggers for visitors about to abandon a cart.
Fifty conversations is a trial in everything but name. Its Lyro AI add-on starts around $32.50 a month, so the real cost arrives quickly.
Best for: small online stores testing whether chat lifts conversion.
7. Chatwoot — open source, if you have someone to run it
Chatwoot is MIT-licensed open source. Its cloud plan is free for 2 agents, and you can self-host for unlimited agents and conversations at no license cost.
Self-hosting is not free, though — you are trading a subscription for server costs and somebody’s time to patch, upgrade, and fix it when it fails on a weekend. With an engineer on staff it is excellent value. Without one it is a liability.
Best for: technical teams with data residency requirements.
8. Smartsupp — solo use only
One operator and roughly 25 conversations a month, the smallest free plan here. Reports vary between 25 and 50, so confirm the current cap before relying on it.
Best for: a solo operator with a handful of inquiries a week.
How to pick in about a minute
Count your likely volume first. Take the support emails and calls you get in a normal week and multiply by four. Under 100 a month, most of these work. Over 100, only SparrowDesk, Tawk.to, HubSpot, and Chatwoot survive.
Then count the people answering. One or two, and Crisp or Smartsupp are viable. Three or more, and you are looking at SparrowDesk, Tawk.to, or HubSpot.
Then decide whether you need records. If knowing what a customer was told six months ago matters — for refunds, disputes, or repeat buyers — you need a help desk with a shared inbox, not a chat widget.
What to check before you commit
Confirm it is a free plan, not a free trial. Look for “free forever” or “no credit card required”. A card requested up front means a trial with a charge at the end.
Find out what happens at the cap. Some tools queue new conversations, some disable chat entirely. You will find out during your busiest week, so find out deliberately instead.
Check whether you can export. Swapping the widget code is easy. Moving a year of conversation history and saved replies usually is not. Confirm an export exists before you accumulate records worth keeping.
Do not launch chat you cannot staff. An unanswered chat widget is worse than none — you have offered help and withheld it. If you cannot respond within a few minutes during business hours, configure it to collect email addresses and say plainly that you will reply later.
Frequently asked questions
How do I add live chat to my website?
Every tool here gives you a short JavaScript snippet to paste before the closing body tag. WordPress, Shopify, Wix, and Squarespace all have plugins or built-in fields that handle it for you. Budget fifteen minutes.
What is the best free chatbot for a website?
For sales-focused bots on a small store, Tidio’s free tier is the most purpose-built. For support, SparrowDesk’s workflows and macros handle repetitive questions without the unpredictability of a bot, and its Zoona AI agent is available as an add-on at $0.49 per resolution when you want genuine automation.
Is free live chat software secure?
The reputable ones, yes. Check for two-factor authentication at minimum — SparrowDesk includes it on the free plan, which is not universal. If you handle health or financial data, confirm the vendor will sign the relevant agreement before you send a single message through it.
Do free plans put ads on my site?
No. They add a small “Powered by” line under the widget. Removing it is a paid feature everywhere.
Can I switch tools later?
Yes. Swap the snippet and you are done. Your history is the part that may not travel, so check export options early.
What happens when I outgrow the free plan?
You pay, and by then you have evidence it works. SparrowDesk’s Starter tier at $16 per agent removes the conversation cap and adds integrations — the cheapest realistic upgrade path among the tools that also have a strong free tier.
The verdict
If you want the most capable free live chat software available in 2026, SparrowDesk is the clear pick. The 500-conversation allowance is the most realistic on the market, and the shared inbox, email channel, and help center make it a working support system rather than a widget with a countdown attached.
Choose Tawk.to instead if your volume is genuinely unlimited and branding does not bother you. Choose HubSpot if the CRM matters more than the support tooling. Choose Chatwoot if your data cannot leave your own infrastructure and you have someone to maintain it.
Whichever you pick, start narrow. Put the widget on your pricing page, answer everything for two weeks, and log the questions. You will learn more about where your site confuses people in those two weeks than from any comparison table, including this one.
