Drift Alternatives 2026: 5 Free Options
Drift alternatives: Tidio, Chatwoot, tawk.to, Crisp and 1 more. Prices and licenses checked October 22, 2026.
•3 min read•Customer Support & Help Desk
Verdict:Drift no longer publishes pricing, and Salesloft's page for it now says the product has transitioned from Drift to 1mind, which delivers chat agents and sends buyer signals to Salesloft. That means a Drift customer is effectively asking sales what is currently offered. If you are leaving because of that uncertainty or the cost, work out what you used it for. For a plain chat widget on a site, tawk.to is free, and Tidio and Crisp both offer a free tier. If you want chat that creates contacts and deals, HubSpot's free tools are the nearest match, because the conversation lands in a CRM record. If chat is really a support function, Chatwoot is open source and free to self-host. What you lose is Drift's B2B playbooks, such as routing a visitor from a target account straight to the right rep and booking a meeting in chat. Nothing here fully matches that, and we did not test any of these against it. So the sensible approach is to rebuild a simple version with a CRM and a chat widget and see whether your reps miss the rest. Leave if you only use basic chat; stay only if account-based routing is central to your pipeline.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Price | Platforms | Best for | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tidio | Free (50 billable conversations per month); paid from $24.17 per month, billed monthly (Starter) | Web browser | Small sites needing chatbots on a budget | Docs only |
| Chatwoot | Free (Hacker plan: 2 agents, 500 conversations/month, live chat only, 30 days retention); paid from $19 per agent/month, billed monthly (Startups) | Web browser, Self-hosted | Support-led chat on your own server | Docs only |
| tawk.to | Free (Live chat, ticketing and knowledge base free; AI Assist has a free plan for limited chat volume); paid from $29 per month (remove-branding add-on) | Web browser | Free chat on a marketing site | Docs only |
| Crisp | Free (2 seats, 100 customer profiles, no AI credits); paid from $45 per workspace/month, billed monthly (Mini, 4 agents) | Web browser | Startups combining chat and support | Docs only |
| HubSpot Service Hub | Free (free for up to 2 users, HubSpot-branded live chat and email); paid from $7 per seat/month (Starter) | Web browser | Teams who want chat tied to a free CRM | Docs only |
| Intercom | Paid from $29 per seat/month (Essential; the page also shows $19, which appears to be the annual rate; Advanced $85, Expert $132; Fin AI Agent $0.99 per outcome) | Web browser | Customer Support | Docs only |
| LiveChat | Paid from $25 per user/month, billed monthly (Essential; $19 billed annually) | Web browser | Live Chat | Docs only |
Independent comparison. Paid placements are labelled separately; editorial links earn no affiliate commissions. Learn more.
Good fit if
- You need a free chat widget for your site (tawk.to is the pick)
- You want chats saved into a free CRM (HubSpot Service Hub is the pick)
- You treat chat mostly as support (Chatwoot is the pick)
- You run a small shop with chatbots (Tidio is the pick)
- You want chat and a help centre from one vendor (Crisp is the pick)
Not ideal if
- You rely on Drift features or integrations that these tools do not replicate
Drift today: See pricing page (Drift pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Why people look for Drift alternatives
Salesloft's Drift page now says "We've transitioned from Drift to 1mind" and describes 1mind chat agents that send buyer signals into Salesloft, not a standalone Drift product. The page publishes no price or plan list, gives no steps for existing customers, and still carries a Drift login link without saying how long Drift stays available. Teams that want a clear price list, or a chat tool that is not part of the Salesloft platform, have reason to compare options.
Tidio
Compared with Drift: Free plan covers 50 billable conversations a month; Starter is $24.17 monthly. It is aimed at small shops and offers chatbots and live chat, but has none of Drift's account-based routing for B2B sales teams.
Price: Free (50 billable conversations per month); paid from $24.17 per month, billed monthly (Starter) (Tidio pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser. Proprietary SaaS.
Best for: Small sites needing chatbots on a budget.
Worth knowing: Annual option includes two months free.
Chatwoot
Compared with Drift: Open-source (MIT), free to self-host, with a hosted free plan of 2 agents and 500 conversations a month. It is a support inbox first, so it misses Drift's meeting booking and sales playbooks.
Price: Free (Hacker plan: 2 agents, 500 conversations/month, live chat only, 30 days retention); paid from $19 per agent/month, billed monthly (Startups) (Chatwoot pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser, Self-hosted. MIT (repo also contains an enterprise folder) (open source).
Project activity: 38.4k GitHub stars · latest release v4.19.1 (Oct 24, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Support-led chat on your own server.
tawk.to
Compared with Drift: Live chat is free with no seat limits stated; remove the branding for $29 a month. Gives you a widget and inbox, not Drift's pipeline or revenue features.
Price: Free (Live chat, ticketing and knowledge base free; AI Assist has a free plan for limited chat volume); paid from $29 per month (remove-branding add-on) (tawk.to pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser. Proprietary SaaS.
Best for: Free chat on a marketing site.
Worth knowing: Live answering by hired agents is $1 per hour.
Crisp
Compared with Drift: Free plan: 2 seats and 100 customer profiles. Mini is $45 a month per workspace, with $5 of AI credits. Chat plus a knowledge base, with lighter sales routing than Drift.
Price: Free (2 seats, 100 customer profiles, no AI credits); paid from $45 per workspace/month, billed monthly (Mini, 4 agents) (Crisp pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser. Proprietary SaaS.
Best for: Startups combining chat and support.
HubSpot Service Hub
Compared with Drift: Free for 2 users with HubSpot live chat and email; Starter is $7 per seat monthly. Pairs with a free CRM so chats link to contacts, which Drift users often need.
Price: Free (free for up to 2 users, HubSpot-branded live chat and email); paid from $7 per seat/month (Starter) (HubSpot Service Hub pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser. Proprietary SaaS.
Best for: Teams who want chat tied to a free CRM.
Other popular options (paid)
Intercom
Compared with Drift: Essential is $29 per seat per month, with Fin AI Agent at $0.99 per outcome and a 14-day trial. It appears in most Drift roundups as a chat and support alternative.
Price: Paid from $29 per seat/month (Essential; the page also shows $19, which appears to be the annual rate; Advanced $85, Expert $132; Fin AI Agent $0.99 per outcome) (Intercom pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
LiveChat
Compared with Drift: Essential is $25 per user per month billed monthly ($19 annually) and includes 1 AI agent and 10 AI resolutions a month. Roundups call it a simpler human-to-human chat tool than Drift.
Price: Paid from $25 per user/month, billed monthly (Essential; $19 billed annually) (LiveChat pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Which one to pick
Limits of this review
Docs-only for Tidio, Chatwoot, tawk.to, Crisp, HubSpot Service Hub: we did not install or run them, so feature claims come from vendor pages and we did not test import from Drift. Vendor prices and free limits change; confirm on the linked pricing page before you buy or migrate.
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Kevin Fan
Kevin Fan is a SaaS founder. He runs Free Instead Of, which tracks free and open-source alternatives to paid software and checks each price and free-plan limit against the vendor's own pages.
Methodology
Based on official pricing and product pages checked 2026-10-22: Drift, Tidio, Chatwoot, tawk.to, Crisp, HubSpot Service Hub, Intercom, LiveChat. Prices, free limits and licenses are the figures shown on those pages on those dates. No tool on this page was installed or run. No accounts were created.