7 Best tawk.to Alternatives in 2026 (Free and Paid)

tawk.to gives you live chat, a ticketing inbox and a knowledge base for nothing, with unlimited agents. No paid tool in this list beats that price, and for a small site with a handful of chats a day you may never need to leave.

Teams move on for other reasons. The "Powered by tawk.to" badge costs $29 a month to remove. The AI chatbot, AI Assist, is a separate add-on from $29 a month once you pass the free tier. Reviewers on Capterra and G2 report technical glitches and slow support. And once chat becomes a real support channel, you start wanting reporting, routing, SLAs and a link between what customers ask and what your product team builds.

The best tawk.to alternatives in 2026 are Quackback, Crisp, Chatwoot, Zoho SalesIQ, Tidio, LiveChat and Help Scout. Crisp and Zoho SalesIQ have the most useful free plans. Quackback is the open-source pick if chat needs to feed a help center and product feedback. LiveChat is the most polished paid chat tool.

1. Quackback — Open source. Live chat, email, help center and feedback boards in one, with Quackback AI. Free plan or self-host.
2. Crisp — Flat workspace pricing with a free plan for 2 seats. Paid from $45/mo.
3. Chatwoot — Open-source omnichannel inbox. Free for 2 agents on Cloud.
4. Zoho SalesIQ — Free plan for 3 operators, with visitor tracking and lead scoring.
5. Tidio — Chat plus an AI agent, strong for online stores. Free for 50 conversations a month.
6. LiveChat — Polished, sales-friendly chat. From $19 per user a month billed annually.
7. Help Scout — Email-first help desk with a chat widget. Free for 5 users.

Pricing last verified November 2026. Vendors may change plans and pricing without notice. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest figures.

Why teams look past tawk.to

tawk.to earns its ratings: 4.6 on Capterra and 4.5 on G2. The complaints cluster in a few places.

• The free price has edges. Branding removal is $29 a month. AI Assist has a free plan for low chat volume, then starts at $29 a month.
• Reliability and support. Capterra reviewers name technical glitches as the top drawback, and customer service scores lower than the product overall.
• The AI is basic. G2's most common cons are chatbot issues and limitations.
• Chat stays in chat. tawk.to has ticketing and a knowledge base, but no feedback board, roadmap or changelog. A feature request typed into chat goes nowhere unless someone copies it out.
• You do not own the stack. tawk.to is closed source and hosted only.

1. Quackback

Quackback is open-source (AGPL-3.0) software for customer support and feedback. Live chat runs in Messenger, the widget you install on your site or app, and lands in a shared inbox beside email and GitHub issues. The same widget carries your help center, feedback boards and changelog.

That last part is the gap tawk.to leaves. When a customer asks for a feature in chat, your team turns the conversation into a feedback post or a vote with one click. When you ship it, the changelog emails everyone who voted.

Quackback AI answers chats from your help center and hands over to a person, from the Pro plan. Copilot, which drafts replies and answers your team's questions, is on every plan. Office hours tell customers when a person will be back.

Key features:

• Live chat in Messenger, plus email and GitHub issues, in one inbox with tickets and macros
• Help center with Ask AI, and a status page
• Feedback boards with voting, a public roadmap and a changelog that emails voters
• Quackback AI: an agent for customers from Pro, Copilot for your team on every plan
• Workflows, SLA policies and routing on Business and up

Pricing: A Free Cloud plan with 1 seat, and every signup starts with a 14-day Pro trial. Paid plans are a flat workspace price with seats included: Pro is $29/mo billed annually with 5 seats, Business $59/mo with 20. Self-hosting is free with every feature. See help desk pricing for how that compares.

Pros:

• Chat, help center and product feedback in one tool
• Open source, with every feature when you self-host
• AI included in the plan, with no per-resolution fee

Cons:

• Not free for a team: tawk.to gives unlimited agents for $0, Quackback Free has 1 seat
• No native mobile app, and no WhatsApp, SMS or social channels
• Newer, with a smaller community

Best for: Teams whose chat has become a support channel and who want it tied to a help center and product feedback.

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Try Quackback — every signup starts with a 14-day Pro trial, then keeps a Free plan if you don't upgrade. Or self-host it with every feature. Start free trial | Self-host with Docker | View on GitHub

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2. Crisp

Crisp prices per workspace, not per agent, which makes it the gentlest step up from free. The Free plan covers 2 seats with a chat widget, shared inbox and mobile apps. Mini adds an email inbox and canned replies. Essentials adds the AI chatbot, a knowledge base, WhatsApp and Instagram, and routing.

Pricing: Free for 2 seats. Mini $45/mo (4 seats), Essentials $95/mo (10 seats), Plus $295/mo (20 seats).

Pros: Flat pricing. Many channels from Essentials. Mobile apps on the free plan.

Cons: AI conversations are capped by monthly AI credits. The knowledge base and chatbot start at $95 a month. Closed source.

Best for: Small teams who want more channels without per-agent billing.

3. Chatwoot

Chatwoot is an open-source (MIT) inbox for live chat, email, WhatsApp, Instagram and more.

Pricing: Cloud Hacker plan free for 2 agents on live chat. Startups $19 and Business $39 per agent a month. The self-hosted Community edition is free.

Pros: Open source. Wide channel coverage. A large community.

Cons: Per-agent pricing on Cloud. Its Captain AI is not in the free self-hosted edition. No feedback boards or roadmap.

Best for: Teams that want an open-source omnichannel inbox. See Quackback vs Chatwoot.

4. Zoho SalesIQ

Zoho SalesIQ is chat built for sales as much as support. It tracks visitors, scores leads and routes chats by department. The free plan gives 3 operators, 100 chat sessions a month and 10,000 tracked visitors.

Pricing: Free for 3 operators. Paid plans are priced per operator; third-party listings put Basic at about $7 per operator a month billed annually. Check Zoho's pricing page for your currency.

Pros: The most generous free plan here after tawk.to. Deep visitor data. Fits neatly if you already use Zoho CRM.

Cons: 100 chats a month on Free fills fast. The interface is busy. Most value assumes the Zoho suite.

Best for: Sales-led teams already in Zoho.

5. Tidio

Tidio combines chat, an AI agent called Lyro and automation flows. It is built for online stores, with order lookups for Shopify and WooCommerce.

Pricing: Free for 50 conversations a month. Starter $24.17/mo and Growth from $49.17/mo, billed annually. Lyro and Flows scale as separate meters.

Pros: Strong e-commerce integrations. A capable AI agent for order questions.

Cons: Three usage meters make the bill hard to predict. The free plan's 50 conversations is far below tawk.to's unlimited chats.

Best for: Shopify and WooCommerce stores. Read our Tidio alternatives post for the other side.

6. LiveChat

LiveChat is the most polished paid chat tool here. It has fast agent tooling, proactive campaigns, ticketing and an AI agent.

Pricing: Essential $19 and Growth $79 per user a month, billed annually ($25 and $99 monthly). Extra AI resolutions are $49.50 per 50.

Pros: Mature product. Good sales features. Wide integration marketplace.

Cons: Per-user pricing adds up fast. Essential keeps only 60 days of history.

Best for: Sales and e-commerce teams willing to pay per agent for polish.

7. Help Scout

Help Scout is an email-first help desk with a chat widget called Beacon and a knowledge base called Docs.

Pricing: Free for 5 users with 1 inbox and 100 contacts a month. Standard $25 per user a month billed annually. AI Answers are $0.75 per resolution.

Pros: A calm, well-designed inbox. A real free plan.

Cons: The free plan's contact cap is low. Per-user pricing and per-resolution AI.

Best for: Email-heavy teams. See Quackback vs Help Scout.

Comparison table

How to choose

If cost is everything: stay on tawk.to, or try Zoho SalesIQ or Crisp's free plans.

If you want open source: Chatwoot for an omnichannel inbox, Quackback for chat plus a help center and feedback.

If you sell online: Tidio.

If chat is now your main support channel: LiveChat or Help Scout per agent, or Crisp or Quackback per workspace.

Frequently asked questions

Is tawk.to really free?

Yes. tawk.to's live chat, ticketing and knowledge base are free with unlimited agents. It charges for add-ons: $29 a month to remove its branding, AI Assist from $29 a month above a free low-volume tier, and hired chat agents at $1 an hour.

What is the best free alternative to tawk.to?

Zoho SalesIQ has a free plan for 3 operators and 100 chats a month. Crisp is free for 2 seats with mobile apps. Chatwoot is free for 2 agents on Cloud and free to self-host. Quackback has a free plan with 1 seat and is free to self-host with every feature.

Is there an open-source alternative to tawk.to?

Yes. Chatwoot is open source under MIT and covers live chat, email and social channels. Quackback is open source under AGPL-3.0 and pairs live chat with a help center, feedback boards, a roadmap and a changelog. Both can be self-hosted.

Why do people stop using tawk.to?

Reviewers mention technical glitches, slow vendor support and a limited chatbot. Growing teams also want deeper reporting, routing and SLAs, and a way to turn chat requests into product feedback, which tawk.to does not cover.