The 20 best WordPress live chat plugins of 2024

Are you looking for the best live chat software for your WordPress website? Do you worry about the complexities of live chat implementation on your WordPress platform? If these questions keep occupying your mind, it’s time to stop worrying.

Today, finding the perfect live chat plugin for a website is easy due to the many options available online. We will list the top 20 paid and free chat WordPress plugin options you should know about in 2024 to provide you with enough information so you can determine what’s best for you and your business needs. Let’s delve deeper.

A quick comparison of the top 5 live chat plugins for WordPress

Chat plugin	Capterra rating	Free version	Starting price	Loading time
LiveAgent	4.7/5 (approx. 1557 reviews)	YES	$29 per agent/mo	2.5s
LiveChat	4.6/5 (approx. 1614 reviews)	NO	$20 per agent/mo	5.7s
Tidio	4.8/5 (approx. 420 reviews)	YES	$29 per agent/mo	5.3s
Userlike	4.6/5 (approx. 642 reviews)	YES	$90 per agent/mo	5.3s
Smartsupp	4.6/5 (approx. 340 reviews)	YES	$25.5 per agent/mo	4.4s

What is WordPress live chat?

A WordPress live chat or WP chat plugin is a form of instant messaging for WordPress websites. It empowers business organizations, customer support agents, call center agents, salespeople, and customer-facing professionals to address customer queries in real-time.

Built with WordPress, live chat for WordPress websites provides an effective way to communicate with your target audience and provide instant support to solve their problems. A WordPress live chat plugin integrates natively or via API with top-grade tools in your tech stack, such as automation platforms, chatbots, knowledge bases, CRMs, etc.

An excellent example of a WordPress live chat software is LiveAgent. The LiveAgent WordPress plugin is a customizable widget you install and configure to manage live chat communications on your WP website.

Aside from live chat, the LiveAgent plugin allows you to add knowledge-based articles to your website and develop a ticketing system for streamlining customer inquiries and support interactions.

Why use WordPress live chat plugins?

Every business, big or small, works hard to attract as many visitors as possible to their respective websites. As potential prospects come pouring into your website, they interact with your website’s content.

Naturally, your customers will have questions about things that sparked their interest. Coping with all these interactions may be a bigger challenge than you would know. Enter the WordPress live chat plugin.

It empowers you to provide customer-centric real-time service and support directly on your WP site. Aside from addressing their questions, queries, and so on, you also demonstrate true dedication to building meaningful relationships with your customers and providing real value to the target audience.

WordPress live chat plugins provide unlimited chat functionality you can rely on to address each customer query with a canned response, deliver seamless customer experiences, and improve customer satisfaction, retention, lead generation, and conversion.

According to Invesp research, adding a live chat function to your WordPress e-store increases conversion rates by up to 20%. The same study says 38% of online shoppers will buy a product or service after a successful chat session with a live chat agent.

What we evaluated in our review

We evaluated each live chat widget using the following criteria:

• Ease of use – user-friendliness is the primary aspect of any software solution for business organizations. A live chat plugin you opt for should be easy to use and simple to master for your team to ensure you get the desired results while saving time, effort, and resources.
• Unique live chat features – every business organization has specific needs, so they need a live chat solution with specific features. Our review gives detailed insights into the unique functionalities of each tool on our list to give you a clear picture of how these solutions can help you address your needs and accomplish your objectives.
• Customer support – implementing a new software solution into your tech stack may leave you with numerous questions about its interface, features, integrations, etc. Getting insightful answers might make or break your business. At LiveAgent, we value timely customer service and support above anything else. We believe receiving the proper support regarding software usage is paramount to harnessing its potential in full.
• User interface – since a live chat plugin is something your organization will be using daily, ensure you opt for a solution your team and customers will like using. So, an ideal solution should be easy to navigate and enjoyable to use and look at.
• Pricing plans – we’ve reviewed both freemium and premium solutions to give you insights into the things you get for free and by subscribing to a specific pricing plan. Each plan brings different features and functionalities so you can make an informed decision and get the most value for your money.

Now that you have some knowledge about WordPress live chat plugins and the things they can do, let’s delve deeper into the top 20 live chat software solutions for WordPress to check out in 2024.

The 20 best WordPress live chat plugins in 2024

1. LiveAgent WordPress plugin

LiveAgent is the perfect WordPress live chat solution for business organizations searching for a 360-degree view of their customer interactions. The plugin empowers companies to deliver omnichannel customer service and support experiences to the target audiences.

Powered by artificial intelligence, LiveAgent offers several solutions packed into one intuitive software. You get an omnichannel help desk and free live chat for WordPress for the price of one tool.

In addition to the fastest and most customer-centric WordPress live chat widget, LiveAgent offers over 180 advanced help desk tools, such as inbound/outbound VoIP call center, ticket management, CRM, customer portal, knowledge base, and more.

LiveAgent received numerous awards from the world’s most reputable SaaS and B2B organizations, such as Capterra, SourceForge, Software Advice, and GetApp, for the intuitive and all-encompassing live chat plugin solution for WordPress.

Best live chat features

• Unlimited access to chat history;
• Several contact forms;
• Notifications (desktop, email, Slack);
• 360-degree chat overview with site referrers, geo-locations, visitors in the queue, chatting visitors, the number of online visitors, and other metrics;
• Chat button customizations (CSS, mobile view, Z index, hover effect, animation, position, colors);
• Offline chat buttons;
• Pre-chat forms;
• Chat window docking;
• Offline customer information collection via offline forms;
• Pre-made chat button template galleries with animations;
• Automatic chat distribution;
• Business hours;
• Chat tags;
• Real-time preview of what your website visitors are typing into the live chat window;
• Automatic queue length maximization;
• Centralized omnichannel agent desktop dashboard-based view;
• Proactive chat invitations (trigger-based);
• Chat embedded tracking;
• Top integrations, including PipeDrive, Nicereply, Viber, Whatsapp, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc.;
• Android/iOS mobile app;
• Call center features.

Pros and cons

Pricing

LiveAgent offers a 30-day free trial and five pricing plans:

• Free – $0 forever and includes one live chat button and an array of live chat-related features;
• Small – $15 per agent per month and includes two live chat buttons and everything in the Free version;
• Medium – $29 per agent per month and includes five live chat buttons and everything in Small;
• Large –$49 per agent per month and includes 50 live chat buttons and everything in Medium;
• Enterprise – $69 per agent per month and includes 100 live chat buttons and everything in Large.

Author’s opinion

We chose LiveAgent’s WordPress live chat integration because it’s one of the best, fastest, and most reliable plugins in the industry. LiveAgent is best for business organizations looking to deliver ultra-fast and context-rich customer service and support to their target audiences across various industries and business niches.

Whether you’re an avid WordPress user or just a beginner, LiveAgent seamlessly integrates with your website and makes your digital business highly adaptable to customer’s needs.

Customer review

“I have been using my LiveAgent subscription for years, mainly for the LiveChat and phone features. The system is stable, the features are well thought out and elaborate. I recommend it to anyone looking for a professional and integrable system.”

David G., Capterra

Best for	Business teams looking for a solution that unifies live chat and omnichannel customer support
Price	Free version available. Plans start from $29 per agent per month
Rating on Capterra	4.7/5 (approx. 1557 reviews) as of June 29, 2023
Loading speed	2.5s
Active installations	700+

2. LiveChat WordPress Plugin

LiveChat offers a powerful combination of helpdesk and live chat features, all conveniently packed into one easily customizable software solution.

This WordPress live chat plugin is perfect for digital businesses looking for the best way to improve lead generation and sales through automated and customer-centric customer support.

The tool is also ideal for providing personalized product recommendations based on customer preferences and shopping habits.

Best live chat features

• 60-day chat history overview;
• Chat window customizations;
• Multilingual chat windows;
• Customizable chat invitations;
• Mobile chat;
• Proactive chats;
• Automated customer greetings;
• Manual/smart chat routing;
• Chat transfers and tracking;
• View customer details (email, name, etc.);
• Direct chat links;
• Canned chat responses;
• Pre-chat and post-chat surveys;
• Offline ticketing;
• Branded chat window customization;
• Targeted messaging;
• Chat boosters;
• Chat tagging;
• Chat takeover;
• Integrations with Beaver Builder, WordPress Page Builder, Divi Builder, Salesforce, Mailchimp, etc.

Pros and cons

Pricing plans

LiveChat offers four pricing plans (billed annually):

• Starter – $20 per agent per month;
• Team – $41 per agent per month;
• Business – $59 per agent per month;
• Enterprise – contact LiveChat to get a quote.

Author’s opinion

We opted for LiveChat because it’s more than just a WordPress live chat plugin. LiveChat is a highly customizable and reliable live chat solution for streamlining customer communication, removing repetition from everyday tasks, and providing customers with 24/7 service and support.

In addition, LiveChat integrates with the leading WordPress site builders, popular third-party apps, and major e-commerce platforms. Because of that, it’s best for e-commerce platforms and high-traffic e-store businesses.

Best for	E-commerce platforms in need of automated customer support processes
Price	No free version. Plans start from $20 per agent per month
Rating on Capterra	4.8/5 (approx. 420 reviews)
Loading speed	5.7s
Active installations	20,000+

3. Tidio WordPress plugin 

Tidio is an extraordinary live chat plugin for WordPress that unifies multi-channel customer interactions, AI-powered chatbots, and live chat features. Tidio is a customer-facing platform for e-commerce businesses that empowers sales teams to convert inactive prospects and passive visitors into loyal consumers.

How?

By taking your customer service and support to the next level. Tidio provides ready-made, pre-built live chat solutions for customer support agents, sales teams, and call center professionals to help companies streamline customer queries, boost sales, and enhance relationships with their target audiences.

With Tidio, you can bring all customer interactions, queries, and conversations under one hub.

Best live chat features

• Up to three chat agents;
• Unlimited active chatbots;
• Chat management for up to 1000 conversations per month;
• Customer information portal;
• Customization options for chatbots and chat boxes;
• Offline email-based notification and messaging system;
• Chatbot templates and visual editor;
• New visitor alerts;
• Viewed pages tracker;
• Live visitors monitoring;
• Android/iOS mobile app;
• Integrations with Google Analytics, Shopify, Zapier, Facebook Messenger, etc.;

Pros and cons

Pricing plans

Tidio offers four standard pricing plans:

• Free – $0 and includes 50 live chat conversations;
• Starter – $29 per user per month and includes 100 live chat conversations;
• Communicator – $25 per user per month and includes unlimited live chat conversations;
• Chatbots – $29 per user per month and includes 50 live chat conversations.

Tidio also offers a personalized pricing plan for clients looking for extra service:

• Tidio+ – $394 per user per month and includes unlimited access to all Tidio features, add-ons, chatbots, and services.

Author’s opinion

We selected Tidio because it’s one of the best WordPress live chat tools for organizations of all sizes and shapes. Aside from allowing your company to take a customer-centric approach, Tidio’s free live chat plan offers an all-encompassing service you won’t find anywhere else.

Tidio is perfect for e-commerce platforms and e-stores in expansion looking for responsive support and cost-effective live chat solutions.

Best for	Online stores looking to increase conversions, boost sales, and improve retention
Price	Free version available. Plans start from $29 per agent per month
Rating on Capterra	4.8/5 (approx. 420 reviews)
Loading speed	5.3s
Active installations	100,000+

4. Userlike WordPress plugin 

Userlike is the leading live chat software company that offers personalized GDPR-compliant WordPress live chat solutions. It can support any business organization, regardless of its size, business niche, or industry. More importantly, Userlike can seamlessly scale with your company.

Thanks to Userlike’s real-time live chat plugin for WordPress, you can connect with your target audience across their preferred communication channels and apps, address customer queries instantly, and provide support to your prospects throughout their entire customer journey.

Best live chat features

• Unlimited website implementations;
• iOs/Android mobile app;
• Customizable website messenger;
• Browser-based audio/video calls;
• AI chatbots;
• Chatbot API;
• Integration with Threema, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and more;
• Smart FAQs and canned messages;
• Smart routing by agent;
• Chat history;
• Chat centralization via Message Center;
• Multilingual chat support;
• Screen sharing;
• Unlimited contacts and conversations;
• Synchronous and asynchronous messaging;
• Chat widget personalization;
• Chat feedback;
• Professional onboarding.

Pros and cons

Pricing plans

Userlike offers four pricing plans:

• Free – $0 and includes one live chat widget;
• Team – $90 per agent per month and includes four live chat widgets;
• Corporate – $290 per agent per month and includes 10 widgets;
• Flex – Contact sales (includes 10+ widgets).

Author’s opinion

We opted for Userlike because it brings live chat, AI automation, and data privacy under one roof. It empowers organizations of all sizes to boost customer support efficiency, increase customer satisfaction, and improve lead generation and conversion rates across multiple digital channels.

Best for	Companies of all sizes and shapes looking for unified solutions for AI automation, mobile messaging, and website chat
Price	Free version available. Plans start from $90 per agent per month
Rating on Capterra	4.6/5 (approx 642 reviews)
Loading speed	5.3s
Active installations	1000+

5. Smartsupp WordPress plugin

Smartsupp offers a centralized customer support platform with live chat, chatbot, AI, lead collection, messaging, and e-shop data features. With Smartsupp, you can convert prospects into loyal customers by engaging with website visitors, maintaining existing relationships, and addressing customer queries the moment you receive them.

Smartsupp is an all-encompassing solution for growing your online business, expanding into new markets, and improving customer engagement through proactive, automated, and customer-centric customer service and support.

Best live chat features

• API-powered chatbox customization;
• Multilingual priority chat support;
• Chatbox on-page positioning;
• Customizable pre-chat forms (online and offline);
• Detailed chat statistics and analytics (Google Analytics integration);
• Facebook Messenger integration;
• Business hours;
• Chat assign to agents;
• Visitor filtering;
• Chat history;
• Canned messages and unlimited chatbots;
• Customer satisfaction rating system;
• Direct links to chat pages;
• Mobile app chatbox embedding (iOS/Android);
• Audio/video notifications;
• Unlimited websites.

Pros and cons

Pricing plans

Smartsupp offers four pricing plans:

• Free – $0 and includes one live chat channel;
• Standard – $19.5 per agent per month and includes three live chat channels;
• PRO – $60 per agent per month and includes three live chat channels and AI chatbots;
• Ultimate – contact sales for a quote (tailor the plan to your needs).

Author’s opinion

Smartsupp is an ideal WordPress live chat plugin for startups, small businesses, medium-sized companies, and large corporations. We opted for it because it provides top-grade customer support features, including AI-powered live chat tools you can use across unlimited websites.

In other words, you get everything you need to attract visitors to your website and turn them into high-paying customers. If you’re a solopreneur looking for an affordable live chat solution, Smartsupp might be right up your alley.

Best for	Companies of all sizes looking to boost online sales and increase lead generation
Price	Free version available. Plans start from $25.50 per agent per month
Rating on Capterra	4.6/5 (approx 340 reviews)
Loading speed	4.4s
Active installations	20,000+

 6. Tawk.to WordPress plugin

Tawk.to empowers startups, small businesses, and solopreneurs operating on a budget to improve customer engagement, lead generation, and conversion through customer-centric service and support.

You get an intuitive customer support platform with a knowledge base, ticketing, live chat, and instant messaging features to stay connected with your target audience, nurture returning customers, and convert new visitors by solving their real-life problems.

Best live chat features

• Compatible with all modern web browsers;
• iOS/Android mobile app;
• Support for all WordPress websites;
• Integration with Weebly, Wix, Joomla 3 and 4, Cloudflare, Cayzu Help Desk, and Drupal 8;
• Real-time monitoring (website + visitors);
• Automated live chat triggering system;
• Canned conversation responses;
• Group messaging and ticketing;
• Customizable widgets;
• Chat tagging;
• Historic chat overview;
• Live chat reporting;
• Chat-based landing pages;
• Multilingual chat support.

Pros and cons

Pricing plans

Tawk.to is a completely free live chat plugin for WordPress. You can automate the Tawk.to live chat (AI Assist) for $29 per month. By opting for this option, you get an AI-powered chatbot for your WordPress site.

Author’s opinion

We selected Tawk.to because it’s free and puts no caps on the number of websites and users you can add live chat plugins to. That makes it the perfect WordPress widget for anyone on a limited budget. On top of that, it’s the world’s most used live chat software with a 98% customer satisfaction score.

Best for	Solopreneurs and startups looking for free live chat plugins for WordPress
Price	Free version available. Plans start from $25.5 per agent per month
Rating on Capterra	4.4.6/5 (approx 319 reviews)
Loading speed	3.5s
Active installations	200,000+

7. Pure Chat WordPress plugin

Pure Chat offers an intuitive open-source WordPress live chat widget supporting unlimited chat sessions. This plugin allows you to tap into visitor tracking, contact monitoring, widget customizations, and real-time website analytics to boost engagement and customer satisfaction.

Though Pure Chat isn’t as versatile, flexible, or scalable as LiveAgent or LiveChat, it empowers you to personalize your live chat box according to your customer preferences and business needs.

Best live chat features

• Real-time live chat;
• Widget customization editor;
• Unlimited chat history transcription;
• Canned responses to FAQs;
• Unlimited chats;
• Chat alerts;
• Pre-chat info form;
• Chat notifications;
• Android/iOS mobile app;
• Integration with Slack, Zendesk, Salesforce, HubSpot, Google Analytics, and more;
• Greeting messages;
• Custom bots;
• Chat routing by department.

Pros and cons

Pricing plans

Pure Chat offers a 30-day free trial and two pricing plans:

• Growth – $39 per agent per month;
• PRO – $79 per agent per month.

Both pricing plans include unlimited chats.

Author’s opinion

We like Pure Chat because it supports seamless customization of the live chat widget to match the appearance of your WordPress website.

Additionally, Pure Chat comes with robust analytics features that allow you to track your live chat performance, ratings, chat duration, average response time, conversations, and more.

That makes Pure Chat the best live chat solution for companies looking to improve conversations with their website visitors.

Best for	Business organizations looking for a simple live chat plugin for WordPress with SMS notifications
Price	No free version available. Plans start from $39 per agent per month
Rating on Capterra	4.6/5 (approx 319 reviews)
Loading speed	7.4s
Active installations	7,000+

8. Chaport WordPress plugin

Chaport is an excellent WordPress live chat plugin that works great across mobile, desktop, and web-based applications. It comes with various customization options and automatically translates your WordPress website content to match the customer’s browser language setup.

With Chaport, you can interact with the target audience across channels they prefer, be it desktop, mobile, or web, and centralize all customer queries in one place to initiate more engagement and boost your productivity.

Best live chat features

• Multilingual mobile-friendly chat widget;
• Chat history;
• Widget customization options;
• Chat transfer and notifications;
• Chat reporting;
• Pre-chat forms;
• Zapier-based integrations (2000+);
• Group chats;
• Message sneak peek;
• Business hours
• Email-based chat transcription
• Chat auto-invitations;
• 360-degree visitor view (private notes, name, email, phone number, etc.);
• iOS/Android mobile app;
• Integration with Facebook, Telegram, Viber, Joomla!, Zapier, Google Analytics, etc.,

Pros and cons

Pricing plans

Chaport offers three pricing plans:

• Free – $0;
• Pro – $29 per agent per month;
• Unlimited – $99 per agent per month.

All pricing plans include unlimited chat widgets and websites.

Author’s opinion

We love Chaport for its excellent features and incredible personalization levels. The widget automatically detects your visitor’s native language preferences and adjusts to their browser settings to deliver a seamless user experience with every interaction. That makes Chaport perfect for business organizations with a worldwide target audience.

Best for	Startups, SMBs, and enterprises looking for a highly customizable, multi-channel live chat plugin for WordPress with multi-lingual support
Price	Free version available. Plans start from $29 per agent per month
Rating on Capterra	4.8/5 (approx 56 reviews)
Loading speed	N/A
Active installations	2,000+

9. JivoChat WordPress Plugin 

The JivoChat WordPress plugin is an ideal solution for companies looking to centralize all of their communication channels into a single app. It empowers business organizations to encourage on-site customer engagement in real-time to capture fresh leads and improve conversion rates.

You can use JivoChat as a multifunctional business messenger to provide your target audience with multiple support channels such as social media, email, phone, and live chat. In addition, JivoChat allows you to turn your customer-facing services even more customer-centric with top-grade integrations for WordPress, Zoho CRM, PipeDrive, and Slack, among others.

Best live chat features

• Mobile app (iOS/Android);
• Unlimited chats and websites;
• Customizable live chat widget;
• Real-time visitor monitoring with detailed visitor info;
• Business hours;
• Assign chats to agents;
• Message sneak peek;
• Chat task scheduler;
• Chat transfer;
• Multilingual chat support;
• Automatic chat assistant;
• Canned messages and responses;
• Unlimited chat history storage;
• Smart trigger system;
• Proactive chats;
• In-chat contact info collection and pre-chat surveys;
• Chat ratings across multiple departments;
• Location-based chat distribution;
• Pre-chat tools;
• Mobile widget;
• On-site visitor guide.

Pros and cons

Pricing plans

JivoChat offers three pricing plans:

• Basic – $0 and includes three live chat integrations;
• Professional – $19 per agent per month and includes three live chat channels, WhatsApp integration, and chatbots;
• Enterprise – $38 and includes unlimited access to all JivoChat features (for companies with 10 or more team members).

Experts’s opinion

We like JivoChat because its WordPress live chat plugin is an all-in-one customer support solution your organization can use to drive lead generation, conversions, and online customer engagement. Since JivoChat offers multi-channel chat features, you can use it to bring all your customer service and support needs under one roof to streamline help desk and support interactions.

Best for	Companies with multilingual customer base looking for a customizable multi-channel live chat and help desk combo
Price	Free plan available. Plans start from $19 per agent per month
Rating on Capterra	4.6/5 (approx 92 reviews)
Loading speed	5.5s
Active installations	30,000+

10. Crisp WordPress plugin

When you opt for the Crisp WordPress widget, you get a chatbot and live chat all nicely packed into one user-friendly, intuitive, and customer-centric chat software solution. More importantly, you can tap into Crisp’s live chat solutions for free because the provider offers a free WordPress plugin with responsive mobile and desktop apps, chatbots, real-time chat notifications, and live chat.

In addition, adding this widget to your website gives you access to a customizable Crisp Inbox for customer support agents, sales teams, and marketing experts. The free plugin also includes the Crisp Helpdesk tool.

Best live chat features

• iOS/Android mobile app;
• Multiple live chat plugins;
• Enriched chat notification system;
• Integration with SMS, WhatsApp, Telegram, Twitter, Messenger, Slack, and email;
• Real-time customer typing view;
• Automated chatbot;
• Live chat for customer support and sales;
• Marketing tool;
• Smart triggers;
• Proactive chat invitations;
• Chat widget customizations;
• Unlimited chat history;
• Audio/video messaging;
• Real-time co-browsing;
• Chatbot builder;
• Multilingual chat support (100+ languages);
• Chat routing;
• Automated replies.

Pros and cons

Pricing plans

Crisp offers four pricing plans:

• Basic – $0 and includes one chat widget and WordPress integration;
• Pro – $25 per agent per month and includes one chat widget with chat triggers;
• Unlimited – $95 per agent per month and includes one website chat widget and chatbots;
• Enterprise – contact sales for a quote (perfect for large-scale enterprises).

Author’s opinion

Crisp deserves a place on our list because it provides an all-encompassing live chat solution for sales, lead generation, and marketing automation. That makes Crisp the best live chat option for growing e-commerce platforms with customers worldwide. Did we mention that you can use the Crisp WordPress plugin for free!?

Best for	Support, sales, and marketing teams looking for multilingual chat support and real-time messaging
Price	Free plan available. Plans start from $25 per agent per month
Rating on Capterra	4.5/5 (approx 94 reviews)
Loading speed	5.4s
Active installations	30,000+

11. Support Board WordPress plugin

Support Board is a fantastic WordPress live chat plugin you can add to your website in mere minutes and without any tech-savvy knowledge. The live chat widget is scalable, flexible, and highly customizable, and supports an array of other WordPress features.

Since Support Board provides an AI-bot-powered live chat widget, you can use it to remove repetition from customer support tasks and expedite live chat and chatbot integration. In addition, Support Board is perfect for Slack users as it can operate as a natural Slack extension, allowing your team members to handle customer queries directly from their Slack channels.

Best live chat features

• WooCommerce integration with AI chatbots;
• Top app integration options (Zendesk, social media networks, ticketing software, Active eCommerce, Viber, LINE, Google Business Messages, etc.);
• Access to Google and OpenAI tools;
• Progressive Web App for direct admin access;
• Live chat and messaging with shortcodes and surveys;
• Slack two-way sync;
• Business hours;
• Chat channel auto-archiving;
• Online/offline agent status;
• Slack-like message formatting;
• Chat routing;
• Chatbox customization;
• Timetable for different time zones;
• Progressive web app for iOS and Android.

Pros and cons

Pricing plans

Support Board allows you to purchase its WordPress plugin for $59 (one-time payment). If you need extra features, you can tap into the provider’s additional add-ons and features.

Author’s opinion

Support Board is an ideal WordPress widget for sales teams, marketing agencies, and customer support agents. What other software providers offer for top dollar, Support Board offers for a one-time payment only.

Though the company doesn’t offer a free version or trial, you can tap into their all-encompassing live chat features for just one payment that will last you a lifetime.

Best for	Sales, marketing, and support teams looking for Slack-integrated live chat messaging
Price	No free version available. Pricing is $59 (one-time payment)
Rating on Capterra	4.9/5 (approx 10 reviews)
Loading speed	N/A
Active installations	8,000+

12. Formilla WordPress plugin

If you need a top-grade, highly customizable, and easily scalable live chat solution for customer service, marketing, or sales, Fomilla should be your go-to WordPress plugin.

The provider provides diverse and versatile live chat solutions packed with rich features to equip your business teams with everything they need to handle ever-changing customer demands, pain points, and queries.

Use the Formilla WordPress widget to automate chatbots and provide customer-centric support even when your agents aren’t available.

Best live chat features

• Mobile app (iOS/Android);
• Mobile-ready live chat widget;
• Real-time visitor tracking and monitoring with technical info;
• Robust APIs;
• Chat history;
• Commenting;
• Help Desk;
• Zapier-powered integrations with Zendesk, PipeDrive, Mailchimp, etc.;
• Offline live chat;
• Multi-agent support;
• On-page chat box positioning;
• Email and contact management;
• Top customization options and branding;
• Chat transfer;
• Chat broadcast;
• Desktop chat notifications;
• Canned replies;
• Marketing automation (email and in-app messaging);
• Pro-active chat;
• AI chatbots.

Pros and cons

Pricing plans

Formilla offers four pricing plans:

• Standard – $0 and includes one chat agent and unlimited live chats;
• Premium – $13.99 per agent per month and adds AI chatbots to Standard features;
• Professional – $39.99 per agent per month and includes two chat agents and Premium features;
• Growth – $59.99 per agent per month and includes unlimited access to Formilla live chat features.

Author’s opinion

We like Formilla because it brings you an internal messenger, customer support, high-end integrations, and industry-standard chat boxes in one user-friendly live chat solution. That’s why Formilla is the best WordPress widget for well-established organizations with growing customer service and support needs.

Best for	Established companies looking for integration-rich live chat services with chatbots
Price	Free version available. Plans start from $13.99 per agent per month
Rating on Capterra	4.8/5 (approx 28 reviews)
Loading speed	5.9s
Active installations	4,000+

13. Olark WordPress plugin

If the ever-increasing volumes of customer requests prevent you from growing your business and expanding into new markets, Olark can help you solve that problem for good. Olark is an advanced live chat solution for WordPress websites that you can seamlessly integrate with your website without any coding skills or tech-savvy knowledge.

Whether your goal is to provide your target audience with customer-centric service and support, generate more leads, boost customer support productivity, or increase sales, Olark’s chat widget can help you accomplish all these goals on time.

Best live chat features

• iOS/Android mobile app (still in beta testing);
• Proactive customer chats;
• Customizable customer-triggered agent alerts and responses;
• Real-time customer assistance;
• Live chat automation workflows;
• Greeting messages;
• Chat routing and transferring;
• Automated messaging;
• Chatbox positioning;
• Real-time reporting and analytics;
• Pre-chat surveys;
• Live chatbox editor;
• Chat transcripts with advanced filtering;
• Followup chat tasks;
• Integration with BigCommerce, Salesforce, Mailchimp, HelpScout, Zendesk, Magento, HubSpot, Slack, etc.

Pros and cons

Pricing plans

Olark sticks to a simple pricing structure offering just three pricing plans:

• Free – $0 and includes 20 chats per month;
• Olark Standard – $29 per agent per month and includes a live chat toolkit;
• Olark Pro – contact sales to get a quote (gives you unlimited access to chat features and help center).

Author’s opinion

We gave Olark a chance due to its immense capability to integrate directly into your tech stack and its compatibility with a wide range of popular tools, from analytics and e-commerce to email and CRM. That makes Olark ideal for any company looking to boost revenue and improve conversions.

Best for	Companies from all industries, including higher education, looking to capture more leads, improve customer service, and increase sales
Price	Free version available, plans start from $29 per agent per month
Rating on Capterra	4.5/5 (approx 469 reviews)
Loading speed	7.3s
Active installations	3,000+

14. Drift WordPress plugin 

Drift is more than a WordPress live chat widget. It’s an all-in-one AI-driven conversational platform focused on lead generation, qualification, prospecting, and sales conversions. Drift offers a user-friendly live chat plugin for your WordPress website with advanced chat routing features, CRM tools, and AI-powered website monitoring.

With Drift, your sales agents and customer service teams will never miss an important conversation again. Aside from handling your customer support needs, Drift also provides an intuitive platform for improving customer engagement and building meaningful relationships with your customer base.

Best live chat features

• Mobile app (iOS/Android);
• In-built chat calendar;
• Chat automation;
• Lead routing;
• Landing pages;
• Chatbots;
• Proactive chat messages;
• Live chat view;
• Canned responses;
• Real-time live chat;
• IP blocking;
• Welcome messages;
• Integration options for Google Analytics, Calendar, Slack, Marketo, Zendesk, Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.

Pros and cons

Pricing plans

Drift offers three pricing plans. However, the pricing info isn’t available on the official website. Contact sales to get a quote.

Author’s opinion

We like Drift because it empowers business organizations to put their customers first and provide their target audiences with timely service that brings real value to consumers. Because of that, Drift is ideal for every company looking to increase consumer lifetime value without breaking a budget.

Best for	Business organizations looking for live chat solutions for delivering unified customer experiences
Price	Free version available, no information on pricing plans
Rating on Capterra	4.5/5 (approx 188 reviews)
Loading speed	4.8s
Active installations	N/A

15. Intercom WordPress plugin

If you need a revolutionary live chat solution for transforming customer support on your WordPress website, look no further – Intercom is all you need and more. It’s an all-encompassing customer service and support platform that helps modern-day business organizations connect with their target audiences using automation and AI-driven messaging.

With Intercom, your teams can address everyday customer queries more efficiently and deliver top customer experiences across all available communication channels using rich messaging, intuitive inboxes, chatbots, and more.

Best live chat features

• Mobile app (iOS/Android);
• Integration with Zendesk, Marketo, Salesforce, Facebook, HubSpot, Slack, and more;
• Live chat with a team inbox;
• Customizable messenger;
• Business hours;
• Chat tags;
• Chatbot;
• Smart article recommendations;
• Conversation views;
• Canned responses;
• Conversational AI;
• Widget customization;
• Automated chat assignment;
• Priority chat support;
• Chat notifications and push messages.

Pros and cons

Pricing plans

Intercom offers three business plans:

• Starter – $74 per agent per month;
• Pro – contact sales for a quote;
• Premium – contact sales for a quote.

Author’s opinion

We applaud Intercom’s dedication to reshaping how modern businesses communicate with target audiences. Intercom delivers top-grade WordPress widgets to empower companies to upgrade every aspect of customer-facing services, making it a reliable go-to solution for any team, regardless of industry, size, or business niche.

Best for	Large business organizations and e-commerce looking for live chat solutions for enhancing customer relationships at scale
Price	No free version available, plans start from $74 per agent per month
Rating on Capterra	4.5/5 (approx 1017 reviews)
Loading speed	5.5s
Active installations	8,000+

16. HubSpot WordPress plugin

Though HubSpot is primarily a CRM platform, the provider offers top-grade free and premium live chat and chatbot features for WordPress to empower you to turn your website into a money-making, customer-centric powerhouse.

With HubSpot, you can create a personalized, omnipresent customer support and service system that unifies contact management, CRM, live chat, email marketing, automation, and analytics under one software.

Best live chat features

• Pre-chat forms and surveys;
• Real-time live messaging;
• HubSpot mobile app (iOS/Android);
• Slack integration;
• Responsive live chat notification system;
• WordPress email marketing and reporting;
• Visitor tracking;
• 24/7 live chat support;
• Offline chatbot;
• Canned snippets;
• Conversational chatbots;
• Widget customization;
• Chat history and transcription;
• Chatbot builder;
• Chat routing;
• Support knowledge base;
• Integration with WooCommerce, Stripe, Shopify, BigCommerce, Drift, Help Scout, Zendesk, LiveChat, etc;
• Various customer engagement templates (contact us, newsletter, support, event registration, etc.).

Pros and cons

Pricing plans

HubSpot offers a free WordPress live chat widget you can download without spending a dime. You can also use HubSpot’s widget for free if you’re a CRM user. New HubSpot customers can test the CRM Suite Starter for $20 per user per month.

In addition, HubSpot offers two affordable pricing plans for solopreneurs and small teams:

• Free Tools – $0 and includes live chat;
• Starter – $18 and includes live chat and additional marketing contacts.

Author’s opinion

We give the Hubspot WordPress chat plugin a pass because it brings an excellent balance between functionality, cost-effectiveness, and efficiency. Hubspot is best for new and existing Hubspot clients looking for an affordable but effective CRM platform with chatbots and helpdesk and live chat features.

Best for	HubSpot and CRM users looking for advanced live chat widgets
Price	Free version available, plans start from $74 per agent per month
Rating on Capterra	4.7/5 (approx 73 reviews)
Loading speed	N/A
Active installations	300,000+

17. Freshdesk WordPress plugin

Freshdesk is more than just your ordinary WordPress live chat widget. It’s an all-in-one customer service and support platform for providing timely support, collecting customer feedback, capturing leads, increasing conversions, and boosting sales.

Freshdesk provides live chat functionalities, AI chatbots, helpdesk, and auto-assign features for empowering business organizations to support, engage, and attract prospects across all available communication channels.

Best live chat features

• AI Chatbots and analytics;
• Advanced live chat automation;
• Real-time chat overview with metrics (response times, team performance, CSAT, etc.);
• Business hours;
• Live chat auto-assignment;
• CSAT surveys;
• Automatic chat resolution;
• Multilingual chat support;
• Desktop notifications;
• ChatGPT integration;
• Mobile SDK;
• Offline support;
• Canned responses;
• Generative AI;
• Advanced ticketing;
• Unified agent workspace;
• Proactive chat insights;
• Streamlined admin panel.

Pros and cons

Pricing plans

Freshdesk offers four pricing plans:

• Free – $0 for up to 10 users (includes email/social ticketing);
• Growth – $15 per agent per month and includes helpdesk reports;
• Pro – $49 per agent per month and includes chat routing and personalized support;
• Enterprise – $79 per agent per month and includes unlimited access to all available features.

Author’s opinion

Freshdesk is an ideal WordPress widget for companies looking for a unified solution for live chat conversations, ticketing, and chatbots. We love Freshdesk for its customer service and support suite of tools, such as top-grade ticket management, no-code chatbots, and AI-powered live chat conversation threads.

Best for	Large enterprises looking for centralized support solutions with high-end reporting, self-service, and ticketing
Price	Free version available, plans start from $15 per agent per month
Rating on Capterra	4.5/5 (approx 3198 reviews)
Loading speed	2.8s
Active installations	3,000+

18. Brevo WordPress plugin

Formerly known as Sendinblue, the Brevo live chat plugin for WordPress websites is an all-encompassing solution that unifies subscription forms, email marketing, SMTP, and customer support under one roof.

With Brevo, you get marketing automation, plugin support, transactional emails, advanced reporting, marketing campaigns, contact lists, and more for the price of one tool.

In addition, Brevo’s free plan gives you access to GDPR compliance, unlimited contacts, customizable email templates, support for 300 transactional emails per day, WhatsApp and SMS marketing campaigns, and more.

Best live chat features

• Personalized live chat tools;
• Chatbots;
• Automated FAQs;
• Universal inbox;
• WhatsApp/Instagram campaigns;
• Phone support;
• Visitor insights;
• Real-time customer support;
• Automated replies;
• Integration options for sales, marketing, and email platforms.

Pros and cons

Pricing plans

Brevo offers four pricing plans:

• Free – $0 and includes unlimited contacts and email support;
• Starter – $25 per agent per month and includes email support and live chat plugins;
• Business – $65 per agent per month and includes full-suite e-commerce support;
• BrevoPlus – contact sales for a quote (includes unlimited access to all Brevo features).

Author’s opinion

Brevo is an excellent all-around marketing, sales, and communication platform with real-time live chat and chatbot features companies can rely on to handle all their customer service and support needs. We love Brevo for its omnichannel customer-friendly service and support that leads to increased sales, top conversions, and ultimate customer satisfaction.

Best for	Companies of all sizes looking for the best tool for unifying marketing, sales, and customer support
Price	Free version available, plans start from $25 per agent per month
Rating on Capterra	4.5/5 (approx 1825 reviews)
Loading speed	N/A
Active installations	3,000+

19. Zendesk WordPress plugin

Zendesk provides a WordPress live chat widget with native integration with the support suite that includes a knowledge base, help desk, and customer support features.

The Zendesk chat gives you over 85 integration options with popular software solutions, including a freemium WordPress widget for your website. If you’re looking for an ideal live chat solution with integrated omnichannel support, Zendesk is the perfect tool for you.

Best live chat features

• Live chat plugins with tags and ratings;
• Predefined answers and canned responses;
• Automatic multi-lingual chat support;
• Offline forms and pre-chat surveys;
• Chat history overview;
• Mobile app (iOS/Android);
• Visitor list;
• Mobile SDK;
• Chat widget customization;
• Unlimited chat agents;
• Unlimited chat triggers;
• 24/7 live chat support;
• AI chatbots;
• Real-time chat analytics;
• Zendesk Support integration.

Pros and cons

Zendesk provides four pricing plans for WordPress users:

• Free – $0 and includes features specially designed for WordPress users;
• Support Team – $19 per agent per month and includes live chat and ticketing;
• Support Professional – $55 per agent per month and includes live chat, ticketing, CSAT, and more.
• Support Enterprise – $115 per agent per month and includes full access to all Zendesk support features.

Author’s opinion

We chose Zendesk because the company gathers over 100,000 professional clients who rely on Zendesk’s customer support, service, and live chat solutions to deliver top-grade customer experiences. That makes Zendesk the best live chat widget for organizations looking for industry-standard business growth solutions.

Best for	Business organizations looking for live chat solutions that scale with their operations
Price	Free version available, plans start from $19 per agent per month
Rating on Capterra	4.4/5 (approx 3755 reviews)
Loading speed	N/A
Active installations	20,000+

20. 3CX WordPress plugin

Last but not least, we give you 3CX – a completely free WordPress live chat plugin. 3CX comes with a free WordPress widget that includes direct messaging, mobile apps, SMS, Facebook Messenger, free live calls, team collaboration, and cloud hosting all in one.

With 3CX, you can connect with your target audience across all communication channels and manage customer queries from one platform while reducing operational costs, saving time, and ensuring top-grade customer experiences with each interaction.

Best live chat features

• Live chat;
• Inbound SMS, Facebook, and WhatsApp messaging;
• Video conferencing;
• Live calls;
• Auto attendant;
• SIP Trunk;
• Meeting links;
• Mobile app (iOS/Android);
• Team messaging;
• Integrated team collaboration and video and voice call tools;
• Remote workforce management;
• Chat elevation (video/call);
• Contact center tools.

Pros and cons

Pricing plans

3CX offers four pricing plans:

• Free – $0 and includes live chat and customer support features;
• Small Business – $175 per agent per month and includes feature-rich customer support;
• Professional – $145 per agent per month and includes live chat and a CRM integration;
• Enterprise – $180 per agent per month and includes full access to customer support features.

Author’s opinion

Aside from the fact you can get 3XC for free, we love the way 3CX unified omnichannel support with messaging, cloud hosting, and video conferencing tools. You get everything you need to manage unlimited chats without breaking your budget or leaving any customers unintended. That’s why 3CX is perfect for solopreneurs, small businesses, and enterprises of all sizes.

Best for	All companies looking for affordable enterprise-grade customer support
Price	Free version available, plans start from $145 per agent per month
Rating on Capterra	4.5/5 (approx 386 reviews)
Loading speed	N/A
Active installations	30,000+

How to choose the best WordPress chat plugin in simple steps

Live chat is a solution your target audience will use to get real-time assistance with everyday questions. Because of that, you must tread carefully before investing in a live chat software tool. With that in mind, here are the steps to help you ensure you opt for the best WordPress chat plugin.

Consider the features you need

Determine your expectations to scope on what you need from a live chat software.

Do you need just a live support tool, or you’re looking for an omnipotent solution for improving customer experiences with chat notifications, offline messages, and canned responses?

Are you looking for an ideal tool for increasing conversion rates and driving sales?

All these factors, including compatibility with WordPress secure hosting, should be included in your considerations. Check what features your software solution offers across all available pricing plans to compare them and determine the best solution for your needs.

Ideally, you should look for a feature-packed solution that can meet all your needs without breaking your budget.

Read customer reviews

Customer reviews can reveal everything you need to know about a software’s functionality and effectiveness. You can do your due diligence by visiting trusted customer review websites like Capterra to see what actual users have to say about a tool you plan to invest in.

In addition, customer reviews can help you discover eventual software limitations, inefficiencies, and shortcomings, so that you can shape your expectations around the gathered intel and make an informed decision.

Be mindful of the WordPress plugin compatibility

The WordPress live chat plugin you select should help you streamline your customer service and support needs without slowing down your website, application, etc.

It should give you enough operational power to expedite your customer support and ensure your agents provide timely support in real-time.

Therefore, opt for a live chat widget compatible with your version of WordPress to ensure seamless implementation, maximum uptime, and customer-centric support.

Look for a solution with customizable chat boxes

Customization plays a vital role in shaping your customer support around the specific pain points of your target audience. Your goal here should be to address your customers’ problems promptly and provide real value with each interaction.

Opt for a solution with a wide range of customization options to ensure you transform your customer service into a powerhouse that can exceed your customer’s expectations. Additionally, your chat widget should seamlessly integrate with your website, social media platform, desktop or mobile app, etc.

Visitor intel should be available

A good live chat solution allows you to track and monitor your website visitors, but an enterprise-grade tool goes a step further, and gives you a full report on your website visitation. You get detailed information about each visitor who lands on your website, the pages they visit, the products or services they browse, and their spending habits.

This additional context is critical to improving your customer support approach and providing deeper value to your target audience. Such intelligence helps you entice newcomers to become frequent visitors, as well as reward a loyal customer base with priority support.

What are the features that you need from your WordPress chat plugin?

Feature	Description
Proactive live chat	The live chat feature lets you stay connected with your audience in real-time and across multiple communication channels.
Live typing	Live typing allows your customer support agents to see what customers are typing and address customer queries accordingly.
Translation	Multilingual support helps businesses adjust their website content to the language preferences of their target audiences.
Analytics	A feature that allows companies to track the number of chats their agents handle, track the amount of time spent on each chat, monitor response time, and more.
Email integration	The email integration feature empowers users to manage emails and chats in one application.
CRM integration	A feature that helps business organizations centralize customer relationship management and live chat needs.
Popups	A feature that instructs the target audience on how to connect with their favorite brands and receive assistance with everyday problems.
Support	A live chat service provider should provide technical support to help clients manage their live chat widgets, solve application problems, and improve customer service and support.
Chat routing	Transfer queries automatically to available support agents to reduce waiting time.
Canned responses	Pre-written chat replies help customer support agents address frequently asked questions.
Offline forms	Assist customers outside of business hours.

Tips for growing your business with a WordPress live chat plugin

Here are the best practices for harnessing the power of live chat solutions to help you grow your business.

Address customer concerns the moment you receive them

According to recent research, 81% of online shoppers do thorough research before purchasing. They gather data such as payment policies, product descriptions, warranty info, and more. Addressing the concerns of your target audience should be your number one priority.

A live chat can help you accomplish this goal by sending proactive invitations to your customers to guide them through the process of selecting products and receiving assistance with everyday issues. In return, the growing customer satisfaction attracts more consumers to your website.

Direct traffic and engage new visitors

Greet new visitors the moment they land on your website and capture their attention with an interactive chat window to give them directions and deliver top-grade customer service.

If they have a specific question, provide answers to send them further down the sales funnel and increase customer engagement, promote popular products, promote sales, capture new leads, and more.

Answer FAQs

As your customers browse your website, they will have questions about your products, services, pricing policies, etc.

A chatbot connected to your knowledge base can swiftly fetch answers to frequently asked questions and offer product recommendations and suggestions to handle consumer pain points.

Aside from providing real-time assistance, a live chat also allows you to keep your visitors on your website, thus increasing conversions.

Reduce cart abandonment

Cart abandonment prevention is critical to your business growth efforts.

Why?

Because it helps you guide more customers to the final stage before purchase. A proactive live chat helps your support agents re-engage indecisive customers by sending notifications to recapture interest and improve the chance of completing the transaction.

Collect feedback

A live chat tool can gather customer feedback across multiple communication channels to help you collect enough intel and use it to solve specific issues, create pre-chat surveys to improve customer service, personalize greetings, increase checkout availability, and more.

Conclusion

In a digital business landscape, modern-day consumers have incredibly high expectations. Their demands change rapidly, and they expect modern brands to meet their ever-changing spending habits and buying patterns.

Live chat is irreplaceable when it comes to addressing the ever-growing needs of your target audience. They play a vital role in generating leads, increasing conversions, improving customer retention, handling cart abandonment, and doing everything within your power to deliver unprecedented customer experience at every turn.

We reviewed the top 20 WordPress live chat plugins. Of all the tools on our list, LiveAgent definitely brings you the best, most well-rounded live chat solution. Give LiveAgent a try today by signing up for a free trial.