LiveChat
Dedicated live chat solution for customer service
What it does
LiveChat is a dedicated, mature live-chat product for customer service teams, chat widget, chatbots, ticketing, canned responses, and reporting, built specifically around the live-chat use case rather than as a bolted-on feature of a broader helpdesk. It's a long-established, reliable product in this category.
Free tier
No
Starts at
$20/mo
Setup
easy
Key features
Integrates with
Salesforce, HubSpot, Shopify, WhatsApp, Zapier
Who this fits
- E-commerce and SaaS businesses wanting a dedicated, feature-rich live chat tool rather than a basic widget
- Teams needing solid reporting and staffing prediction (Business tier) for chat-heavy support operations
- Businesses already comfortable with per-agent pricing and predictable headcount
Who it does NOT fit
- Fast-growing teams sensitive to per-agent cost scaling, LiveChat moved from a per-seat (shareable) model to a strict per-agent model, meaning agents can no longer share seats, this represented a real cost increase for companies with many agents, and costs compound quickly as headcount grows (Source: pricing model change documentation, via WebSearch summary 2026)
- Anyone assuming AI/chatbot features are bundled, LiveChat's ChatBot product is a completely separate purchase at roughly $52/month, teams expecting AI automation as part of the core plan are surprised to discover they need a second product (Source: pricing analysis via WebSearch summary, 2026)
- Very budget-constrained solo operators, there's no free tier, and the entry price (~$19-20/agent/month annual) adds up fast for a team of any size
Pricing
Real gotchas
- AI chatbot functionality is a SEPARATE paid product (ChatBot, ~$52/month), not included in any core LiveChat tier, quote this as an additional line item if the client wants AI automation, don't let them assume it's bundled (Source: pricing analysis via WebSearch summary, 2026)
- The shift to strict per-agent pricing (no seat-sharing) represented a real cost increase for teams with many agents versus the older model, do the actual per-agent math for the client's team size before quoting
- No free tier at all, factor this into how the client evaluates the product versus free-tier competitors like Crisp
Integrations that matter
Otto’s take on this tool
Recommend LiveChat for e-commerce and SaaS teams wanting a mature, dedicated live-chat product with strong reporting, especially at the Business tier for staffing prediction. Always clarify that AI/chatbot functionality is a separate purchase and quote it explicitly if the client wants automation. Do the per-agent cost math against the client's actual and projected headcount before committing to a recommendation, given the documented pricing-model shift toward stricter per-agent billing.
Affiliate disclosure: if you sign up through the link above, Ottomately may earn a referral commission at no cost to you. We only feature tools we have actually used or vetted through our recommendation engine.Partnership: 22% recurring via Direct.
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