LiveChat Alternatives With a Free Plan: 3 Top Picks
LiveChat is a solid product. It has been around since 2002, it rarely goes down, and its reporting tools are genuinely good. But there is one problem for a lot of small business owners: there is no free plan. You get a 14-day trial and then you pay. For a shop that is still figuring out how much chat actually helps, that is a hard sell.
So we went looking for tools that do the same basic job but let you start at $0, and we paid attention to the fine print that usually gets buried three scrolls down the pricing page. The limits quoted below come from each vendor's published pricing pages, not from a hands-on trial of every tool.
Three tools stood out: Tidio, Freshchat and Crisp. Below we break down what each one gives you for free, where the free plan runs out, and which type of business each one fits best. There is a short comparison and a FAQ at the end.
Why people leave LiveChat for a free plan
The honest answer is cost of entry. LiveChat starts at $19 per agent per month if you pay yearly, and $25 per agent if you pay monthly. That is fair pricing for a mature product, but it multiplies fast: every person who needs to answer chats needs a paid seat, and you are paying all of them before chat has proven it earns its keep.
There is also the agent maths. Picture a bakery owner who wants her two part-time helpers to cover the lunch-hour rush. On LiveChat that would mean three paid seats for maybe ten conversations a day. Plenty of owners in that position start on a free plan elsewhere and only move to paid seats once chat has clearly paid for itself.
None of this makes LiveChat a bad tool. It makes it a tool you graduate to, not one you start with.
Tidio: the easiest free plan to actually use
Tidio's free plan gives you 50 conversations per month. That sounds thin, and then you count what a small store actually gets in a month: a dozen shipping questions, a few "is this still in stock", and the odd complaint about a late parcel. For the first month or two of testing, it is usually enough.
Setup is the other half of the appeal — the onboarding is built to have a working chat widget live in under ten minutes, no developer involved.
The AI side is where Tidio gets interesting. Lyro AI answers questions pulled from your own FAQ content, and the first 50 AI conversations are free for life. That means an AI bot can handle repetitive questions like "do you ship to Canada" while you focus on the ones that need a human.
- **Free plan:** 50 conversations per month
- **Paid from:** $24.17/mo billed yearly
- **Best for:** Small e-commerce stores
- **Standout feature:** Lyro AI answers from your FAQ
The catch: Lyro credits burn quickly on the cheaper paid tiers, and the deeper analytics sit behind higher plans. If you sell on Shopify, WordPress or WooCommerce, the integrations are excellent and worth the upgrade later.
Freshchat: the most generous free plan for teams
If you have a small team and no budget yet, Freshchat is the one to look at first. Its free plan supports up to 10 agents. Ten. That is not a typo, and it is by far the most generous agent allowance of the three tools here.
Freshchat is part of the Freshworks suite, which matters if you ever plan to add ticketing or a help desk. You can start free on chat and grow into the wider ecosystem without switching vendors. It handles web chat, WhatsApp and Apple Business Messages in one inbox.
- **Free plan:** up to 10 agents
- **Paid from:** $19/agent/mo billed yearly
- **Best for:** Growing support teams
- **Standout feature:** Omnichannel inbox with Freddy AI assistance
Two things to know. The best features need higher tiers, and the Freddy AI Agent is billed per session as a paid add-on. The first 500 sessions are free, then it is $49 per 100 sessions. That is fine for small volume but can surprise you during a busy season.
Crisp: flat pricing that rewards bigger teams
Crisp takes a different approach. Instead of charging per agent, it charges per workspace. That single difference makes it the cheapest option here for any team larger than two or three people.
The free plan gives you 2 seats with no AI credits. You get the shared inbox, the chatbot builder, campaigns and a knowledge base. For a two-person operation that wants chat plus email in one place, that is a lot of tool for nothing.
- **Free plan:** 2 seats, no AI credits
- **Paid from:** €45/workspace/mo
- **Best for:** Budget-conscious startups
- **Standout feature:** Flat per-workspace pricing
Be honest with yourself about the AI gap. Crisp's AI features are lighter than Tidio's or Botpress's, and the free tier includes zero AI credits. If automated answers are the whole point for you, Tidio is the better free starting point.
How the three free plans compare
Here is the short version, based on the published plan limits.
- **Most conversations for free:** Tidio, at 50 per month, plus 50 free lifetime AI conversations.
- **Most agents for free:** Freshchat, up to 10 agents at $0.
- **Best for a two-person shop:** Crisp, with 2 seats and no per-agent maths.
- **Best AI on a free plan:** Tidio, thanks to Lyro.
- **Best path to a full help desk later:** Freshchat, via the Freshworks suite.
One practical tip. Sign up for all three free plans and run them for a week on your real site. You will learn more in seven days of real customer questions than in a month of reading reviews, including this one.
Which one should you pick?
Pick Tidio if you run an online store and want an AI bot answering common questions from day one. The setup speed is the real selling point, and the free plan is enough to prove the concept.
Pick Freshchat if you have a small team that needs to share one inbox. Ten free agents is unmatched, and the upgrade path into Freshdesk is clean.
Pick Crisp if you are two people, you want chat and email together, and you hate per-seat pricing. Just do not expect much AI on the free tier.
And if you outgrow all three, LiveChat is still worth a look. Its reliability and reporting are excellent, and the $19 per agent yearly rate is reasonable once chat is clearly paying for itself.
Frequently asked questions
Does LiveChat have a free plan?
No. LiveChat offers a 14-day free trial but no permanent free plan. Paid plans start at $19 per agent per month billed yearly, or $25 per agent billed monthly. If a free plan is a requirement, Tidio, Freshchat and Crisp are the three we would look at first.
Which LiveChat alternative has the best free plan?
It depends on what you need. Freshchat gives you up to 10 agents at no cost, which is the most generous for teams. Tidio gives you 50 conversations per month plus 50 free lifetime AI conversations, which is best if you want an AI bot. Crisp gives 2 seats with no AI credits, ideal for a two-person shop.
Can I run a real business on a free chat plan?
Yes, for a while. A store doing a handful of chats a day can run on Tidio's 50 monthly conversations or Crisp's 2 free seats without paying anything. The limits bite when volume grows or when you want AI answering questions automatically. Plan to upgrade within a few months if chat is working.
Is Tidio or Crisp better for a small online store?
Tidio is usually the better fit for online stores because of its Shopify, WordPress and WooCommerce integrations and its Lyro AI answering from your FAQ. Crisp wins on price for teams of three or more, since it charges per workspace rather than per agent. For a solo store owner, we would start with Tidio.
Ready to pick one?
Marcus Reed — Marcus Reed is the senior editor at ChatbotRadar. He tracks live chat and AI chatbot tools for small teams, verifying pricing on vendor sites and trialling tools on their free plans. How he tests · Report an error
Disclosure: this article contains affiliate links. If you buy through them we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Pricing and features are re-checked regularly but can change — always confirm on the vendor's site.