tawk.to Alternatives 2026: 5 Options, 4 Free
tawk.to alternatives: Chatwoot, Crisp, Tidio, FreeScout and 1 more. Prices and licenses checked October 25, 2026.
•3 min read•Customer Support & Help Desk
Verdict:Leave tawk.to when your team grows past what free live chat supports, or when you need a support suite with reporting and per-seat controls. Tawk.to's core chat, ticketing and knowledge base are free, and it charges $29 for removing its branding. For a self-hosted replacement, Chatwoot is open source and its hosted Hacker plan is free with 2 agents and 500 conversations a month. FreeScout is the lighter choice if your support runs mostly on email, since its free self-hosted core handles a shared inbox. For a hosted widget with a polished inbox, Crisp's free plan covers 2 seats and 100 customer profiles, and Mini costs $45 a month per workspace. Tidio's free plan caps conversations at 50 a month, so it works only for a small site with chatbots. LiveChat has no free plan and charges $25 a user a month after a 14-day trial, which only pays off with a large support team. Keep tawk.to while the team is small and the chat is free; move when seats or reporting become the bottleneck.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Price | Platforms | Best for | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | Teams that want self-hosted support chat | 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 | Small teams wanting a polished shared inbox | Docs only |
| Tidio | Free (50 billable conversations per month); paid from $24.17 per month, billed monthly (Starter) | Web browser | Chatbots plus live chat on a small site | Docs only |
| FreeScout | Free (free self-hosted core; you pay for your own server) | Web browser, Self-hosted | Email-based support teams that self-host | Docs only |
| LiveChat | Paid from $25 per user/month, billed monthly (Essential; $19 billed annually) | Web browser | Support teams that need a full helpdesk suite | Docs only |
| Freshchat | Free (Free plan: up to 10 agents, chat widget, shared inbox, email, roles and permissions); paid from $19 per agent/month, billed annually (Growth) | Web | Live Chat | Docs only |
| Olark | Paid from $29 per agent/month (Live Chat, human only) | Web | Live Chat | Docs only |
Independent comparison. Paid placements are labelled separately; editorial links earn no affiliate commissions. Learn more.
Good fit if
- You want self-hosted live chat for your team (Chatwoot is the pick)
- You want a polished shared inbox for two agents (Crisp is the pick)
- You want chatbots alongside a small chat widget (Tidio is the pick)
- Your support runs mostly on email and you self-host (FreeScout is the pick)
- You need a full helpdesk with reporting for many agents (LiveChat is the pick)
Not ideal if
- You rely on tawk.to features or integrations that these tools do not replicate
tawk.to today: 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).
Why people look for tawk.to alternatives
tawk.to's live chat, ticketing and knowledge base are free, but several things people want sit behind paid add-ons. Removing the "Powered by tawk.to" branding costs $29 per month, and the AI Assist chatbot starts at $29 per month with only a limited-volume free plan. Round-the-clock human chat coverage is sold separately at $1 per hour. White-labelled widgets and AI answers therefore mean paying extra on top of the free product.
Chatwoot
Compared with tawk.to: Open-source customer chat you can self-host, and its hosted Hacker plan is free with 2 agents and 500 conversations a month. You gain an inbox you control, but give up tawk.to's no-cost unlimited live chat and must run the server yourself.
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: Teams that want self-hosted support chat.
Crisp
Compared with tawk.to: Free plan covers 2 seats and 100 customer profiles without AI credits. Mini is $45 a month per workspace. You gain a more polished shared inbox, but lose tawk.to's unlimited free live chat for your whole team.
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: Small teams wanting a polished shared inbox.
Tidio
Compared with tawk.to: Free plan includes 50 billable conversations a month, and Starter is $24.17 a month billed monthly. You gain chatbot features, but the free tier caps conversations, which tawk.to's free live chat does not.
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: Chatbots plus live chat on a small site.
Worth knowing: Annual option includes two months free.
FreeScout
Compared with tawk.to: Free self-hosted core helpdesk, and you pay only for your own server. You lose tawk.to's hosted website widget and ready-made live chat, but gain a shared inbox for email tickets with no seat fees.
Price: Free (free self-hosted core; you pay for your own server) (FreeScout pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser, Self-hosted. AGPL-3.0 (open source).
Project activity: 4.6k GitHub stars · latest release 1.8.248 (Oct 17, 2026) · last commit Oct 26, 2026
Best for: Email-based support teams that self-host.
LiveChat
Compared with tawk.to: No free plan, only a 14-day trial with no card needed. Essential is $25 a user a month billed monthly. You get a larger support suite, but pay per seat where tawk.to's core chat is free.
Price: Paid from $25 per user/month, billed monthly (Essential; $19 billed annually) (LiveChat pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web browser. Proprietary SaaS.
Best for: Support teams that need a full helpdesk suite.
Other popular options (paid)
Freshchat
Compared with tawk.to: Free plan allows up to 10 agents with chat widget, shared inbox and email. Growth is $19 per agent monthly on annual billing and adds messengers and the Freddy AI Agent, with the first 500 sessions free.
Price: Free (Free plan: up to 10 agents, chat widget, shared inbox, email, roles and permissions); paid from $19 per agent/month, billed annually (Growth) (Freshchat pricing, checked 2026-10-25).
Olark
Compared with tawk.to: No free plan: Live Chat is $29 per agent a month after a 14-day trial. The Standard AI Website Agent is $400 a month with unlimited AI conversations and no overages, with extra seats at $29.
Price: Paid from $29 per agent/month (Live Chat, human only) (Olark pricing, checked 2026-10-25).
Which one to pick
Limits of this review
Docs-only for Chatwoot, Crisp, Tidio, FreeScout, LiveChat: we did not install or run them, so feature claims come from vendor pages and we did not test import from tawk.to. Vendor prices and free limits change; confirm on the linked pricing page before you buy or migrate.
Related guides
More in Customer Support & Help Desk
All Customer Support & Help Desk alternatives →Sources
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 between 2026-10-22 and 2026-10-25: tawk.to, Chatwoot, Crisp, Tidio, FreeScout, LiveChat, Freshchat, Olark. 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.