There is no single best live chat app, because these products do not charge for the same thing. Some bill per agent, some bill per workspace, and some bill per conversation.
For a five-person team the published plans range from $95 to $245 a month for what is broadly the same job. The model, not the sticker, is what makes that difference.
Every roundup on this topic ranks the same six tools and puts a price next to each, as if the prices were comparable. They are not. Below are the four pricing models, what each one does to your bill at a realistic size, and a rule for matching the model to the shape of your team.
The four models
| App | Bills by | Published price | What that includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveChat | Agent | $19 / $49 / $79 per person | Starter, Team, Business on annual billing. Monthly is $25, $59 and $89. |
| Crisp | Workspace | $0 / $45 / $95 / $295 flat | Free has 2 seats and 100 profiles. Mini 4 seats, Essentials 10 seats, Plus 20+. Extra agents $10. |
| Tidio | Conversation | $0 / $24.17 / from $49.17 | Free covers 50 conversations, Starter 100, Growth from 250. Seats are 10 on all three. |
| Olark | Seat | $29 per agent | Live chat only. The AI agent plan is $400 a month billed annually, first seat included. |
| tawk.to | Nothing, then branding | $0, or $19 | Free with tawk.to branding on the widget. $19 a month removes it. |
| Asyntai | Message | $0 / $39 / $139 / $449 | 100, 2,500, 15,000 and 50,000 messages a month. No per-agent charge, because there are no agents. |
Tidio's higher tiers start at $300 a month plus usage, and its top tier is quote only. Crisp bills per workspace rather than per domain, which matters if you run several sites.
We make Asyntai, so read that row as a disclosure. It is here because a fifth model exists and leaving it out would make the comparison less honest, not more. It is also the only row where nobody types the reply, which is a real difference and not only a pricing one.
What a five-agent team pays
Same team, same job, five people who answer chats. Watch the spread.
Crisp wins that particular sum because five agents sit comfortably inside a plan sold by workspace. Add a sixth, seventh and eighth agent and Crisp Essentials does not move at all, while LiveChat adds $49 each time. By ten agents it is $490 against $95.
That looks decisive until you change the other variable.
What conversation volume does
Now hold the team at two people and raise the chat volume instead. This is the shape of a small shop with a busy website.
A per-conversation plan is a bet that your volume stays low. A per-agent plan is a bet that your headcount stays low. Neither is wrong, and the vendor is not hiding anything. You just have to know which bet suits you before you sign.
Few agents and many chats: pay per seat. Many agents and few chats: pay per conversation. Many of both: pay per workspace.
The free tiers, and what they really cost
Four of these apps have a free plan. Each one charges you in a different currency.
- tawk.to is free with no volume limit, and puts its own branding on your widget. Removing it costs $19 a month, which is the actual price of the product.
- Crisp Free gives you 2 seats and 100 customer profiles. The profile cap, not the seats, is what ends it. A site with any traffic passes 100 known contacts quickly.
- Tidio Free covers 50 billable conversations a month and includes 50 one-off Lyro AI conversations. Fine for a quiet site, gone in a week on a busy one.
- Olark has no free plan, only a trial.
None of these is a trap. But a free plan you outgrow in month two is a migration you pay for in month three, so pick the one whose limit you can live inside for a year.
Count the chats that never needed a person
Every plan above is priced for humans typing replies. Asyntai reads the pages and documents you already have and answers from them, at any hour and in any language.
Try it on your websiteFive things to check before you install
- What counts as a billable conversation? On volume-priced plans this defines your bill. Ask whether a returning visitor starts a new one, and whether an unanswered chat still counts.
- Is the price you are reading annual or monthly? LiveChat is $19 annual and $25 monthly for the same plan. That is a 32% difference on the tier most small sites buy.
- Per workspace or per domain? If you run more than one site, this single answer can double or halve your bill.
- What happens at the limit? Some plans stop, some auto-upgrade, some bill overage. Find out which before the busy month, not during it.
- How much does the widget slow the page down? Load your own site with the widget installed and measure it. Chat scripts are among the heaviest third-party tags on a typical site, and the vendors do not publish this.
Picking by the shape of your team
Choose per workspace
- Several people answer chats, including part-timers.
- You want everyone in the inbox without counting seats.
- Crisp at $95 flat covers ten seats.
Choose per conversation
- One or two people, low and predictable volume.
- You would rather pay nothing in a quiet month.
- Tidio free at 50, Starter at 100.
The question underneath all of this
Every app above prices the act of a person typing a reply. So the number that decides your real bill is not the plan. It is how many of last month's chats needed a person at all.
Open your transcripts and mark each chat: was the answer already written somewhere on our website? Where that share is high, an AI first line takes those chats out of the count, and every model above starts from a smaller number. Asyntai plans begin at $39 a month for 2,500 messages, which is roughly 400 conversations at six messages each. Count messages rather than conversations when you compare, because that is what the meter reads.
Where the share is low, buy the seats and buy them in the model that fits your shape. Just do the count first. It takes an hour and it changes which column you should be reading.
Sources
Plan prices and limits were read from livechat.com/pricing, crisp.chat/en/pricing, tidio.com/pricing and olark.com/pricing in September 2026. The tawk.to branding removal price comes from published 2026 comparisons. Annual and monthly rates are distinguished where both are published. Vendors change plans and rename tiers frequently, so confirm any figure before you budget against it.