Simplifying workflow with automation live chat has been one of the best ideas to accelerate online business. Plus, nothing beats live chat when it comes to cranking the personal approach up a notch.
Though WordPress live chat plugins are no longer a strange term compared to 5 years ago, this keyword still holds a great search volume. This proves that live chat fever has still strongly gripped the WordPress community.
The post today aims to compare the top 5 WordPress live chat plugins. All their outstanding features, pros and cons, and prices will be brought to the table.
Let’s get the ball rolling!
- Top 5 WordPress Live Chat Plugin Key Comparison
- #1. LiveChat
- #2. Tidio
- #3. 3CX Live Chat
- #4. Zendesk Chat for WordPress
- #5. LiveChat for WooCommerce
Key Comparison of the Top 5 WordPress Live Chat Plugins
| LiveChat | Tidio | 3CX Live Chat | Zendesk | LiveChat for WooCommerce | |
Active installations | 30,000+ | 100,000+ | 40,000+ | N/A | N/A |
Best for | Rich messaging | Chatbot lead generation and scenario building | Chat to video or audio call elevation | Sleek, professional-looking chat boxes | Buyers’ cart details amid chats |
Customizable chatbox | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Free conversations per month | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Chat history | 60 days in the Starter plan. Unlimited in upper paid plans | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
Loading speed | 5.7s | 5.3s | 3.2s | 9.3s | 5.7s |
Ratings on WordPress.org | 4.7/5 | 5/5 | 4.7/5 | N/A | N/A |
| Free version | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
#1. LiveChat
Talking about LiveChat, people always think of feature-rich chat and helpdesk software. This WordPress live chat plugin is ideals for customer support, eCommerce sales, and lead generation.
LiveChat caters to both you and your users. The plugin says “hi” to customers with a nice chat box at the bottom of the page. Your visitors can even leave feedback and rate their experience with you after the conversation is ended.
What’s more, LiveChat includes share buttons embedded in the chat box, allowing your customers to give you a shout-out on social media.
As the site owner, you can personalize your messages then send them out using its proactive chat invitations.
Key features
- Come with personalize messages
- Allow multiple chat sessions at the same time
- Send canned responses to Frequently Asked Questions
- Provide a built-in ticketing system
- Offer default pre-chat and post-chat surveys
- Offer default offline messages (ticket form)
- Allow agent rating
- Store 60 days of chat history
- Provide customer details, i.e. name, email, location, currently viewed page, etc.
- Work well with any WordPress site builder, theme, and template
Pros:
- Reporting and analytics
- Ticketing system (email, Facebook, SMS, Apple Business Chat)
- 24/7 x 365 email, chat, and phone support
- AI chatbot and rich messages (Team and Business plans)
Cons:
- No free plans are available
- Only 60 days of chat history are saved in the Starter plan
Price: You can download LiveChat plugin for free as long as you’re a LiveChat customer. The Starter plan costs $19 per agent per month with a free 14-day trial.
#2. Tidio
What is the easiest WordPress live chat plugin to get up and running? Definitely Tidio Live Chat. The plugin has been endorsed by a host of WordPress site owners thanks to its ease of use and intuitive UI.
More than that, what makes Tidio shines through other rivals is its comprehensive feature set. This plugin is jam-packed with live chat, chatbot, messenger, and email integration. This is absolutely cool as you can manage all those things in one place.
Key features:
- Offer unlimited chatbots
- Come with a drag-and-drop editor to build chatbots from scratch
- Show current visitors and what they are viewing
- Manage visitor’s details. i.e contact details, location, tags, custom properties
- Provide a limitless number of chats with 100 unique visitors per month
- Integrate with Facebook Messenger, Zapier, Shopify, Google Analytics
- 100% customizable and mobile-friendly
- Include live typing preview
Pros:
- Provide up to 4 channels for communication (live chat, chatbot, messenger, and email)
- Offer many types of chatbots and allow creating custom bot scenarios at the same time
- Come with a free plan
- Offer live chat widgets that are usable across multiple sites
- Supports 180+ languages
- Provide 24/7 technical support including knowledge base
Cons:
- The Free plan is limited to 100 chats with unique visitors
Price: Free. The paid plan starts at €18/month.
By and large, Tidio fits businesses of all sizes. If you’d like a WordPress live chat plugin with robust features and stellar support, and low cost, Tidio won’t break the bank.
#3. 3CX Live Chat
3CX Live Chat aims to help you increase conversion and customer satisfaction by letting you solve customer queries in real-time.
With the free version, you have access to multichannel communication mediums, such as chat, video, and voice. You have the right to include or exclude chats on any pages that you’d love to.
Whenever a user reaches out to you via live chat, there is a notification showing up in the admin panel. Hit “Accept” and you can start a conversation with them right away.
What’s more, this WordPress live chat plugin stores offline messages and allows you to view missed live chats. This ensures that you don’t miss out on any conversion opportunity and potential customers.
Key features:
- Support unlimited agents
- Boast 100% customizable chat box
- Transfer chats to other agents
- Store offline messages and missed live chats
- Display animation to the chat window
- Show chat history
- Add surveys or polls to your chat box
- Restrict visitors from certain IP Addresses from chatting to you
- Include/exclude the live chat on certain pages
- Choose when to accept chats
Pros:
- No hidden costs, it’s free
- Straightforward user interface
- Unlimited agents
- Caching plugin compatibility
- Enterprise-level chat reports
- Chat to Video or Audio call elevation
- Data triggers (time, scroll, page & page leave triggers).
Cons:
- Time-consuming setup
Price: Free. The phone and video chat features are free for one year. The Premium plans cost $652 yearly for up to 16 simultaneous calls and other advanced features.
#4. Zendesk Chat for WordPress
Don’t need more words to praise Zendesk Chat, as the name itself, as well as its stylish chat boxes, are strongly imprinted in WordPress users’ minds.
Upon activation, Zendesk lets you access its comprehensive dashboard, cramming with all vital metrics you can think of. These metrics give you the power to track chat history, review chat performances, and learn about your visitors in real-time.
Key features:
- Come with proactive chat support
- Track key metrics
- Allow canned responses or predefined answers
- Ban specific visitors from chatting
- Record chat history
- Enable pre-chat and offline forms
- Customize chat widgets
- Allow chat rating
- Support for email, voice, SMS, and live chat
Pros:
- Automatic 40+ languages translation
- 4 communication channels (email, voice, SMS, and live chat)
- Zendesk Support integration
- Beautiful chat themes and layouts
- Rich messages
Cons:
- No free version (the free version on WordPress plugin directory hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress)
Price: To get started with Zendesk chat on your WordPress site, you’ll need a paid Zendesk plan (or a free trial) which starts at $19 per month.
#5. LiveChat for WooCommerce
LiveChat for WooCommerce focuses on the sole purpose – engaging visitors growing sales, and boosting customer satisfaction.
This WordPress live chat plugin is quite simple to use. After adding it to your shop, you just need to wait for your visitors to ask a question. Alternatively, it will trigger chat invitations to approach your customers if it spots users on your site.
What we really like about this plugin is it adds a visual punch to your store, via modern and neat-looking chat windows and buttons. Thanks to its available widgets, you can freely pick your preferred themes, colors, or display your brand logo.
Aside from that, you can enable track settings to view customers’ cart details during a chat. The plugin is such an abandoned cart saver, as it will send time-based invitations to undecided buyers or shoppers reaching a certain cart value.
Key features:
- Send chat invitations
- Come with eye-catching chat windows
- Offer customizable chat widgets
- Send files to customers through the chat widget
- Hide chat widget for guest visitors
- Show canned responses to frequently asked questions
- Set up user tracking
- Tag your chats
- Hold multiple chat sessions at the same time
Pros:
- Free to download
- Lightweight and simple to use
- Suitable for small businesses
- Provide instant chat widget on multiple channels: website, Messenger, Apple Business Chat, and more.
Cons:
- Pretty basic features
Price: Since LiveChat for WooCommerce is developed by the Live Chat team, you can download the WooCommerce live chat module for free. The thing is you need to become a LiveChat client to use it. There is a 14-day free trial available.
Get the Best WordPress Live Chat Plugin for Your Site!
Automating customer support is no longer a trend but a must. Installing live chat plugins to your WordPress site significantly helps ease the customer services burden, increase user engagement, and boost sales.
This article has showcased the top 5 WordPress live chat plugins along with their key features, pros and cons, and prices in detail.
Which is the best WordPress live chat plugin in your opinion? Do you have any questions about any of the plugins listed above?
Don’t hesitate to let us know below!