Live chat pricing in October 2026: what 23 tools charge, and what a team really pays
We read the pricing page of 24 live chat tools on the same day and computed what 1, 3, 5 and 10 people pay on each. Every price has its source and the dataset is downloadable.
The muro team
muro.chat
- Published
- Reading time
- 9 min
On this page
Pricing pages are built to be hard to compare. One tool charges per seat, another per workspace, a third per conversation, and the number in large type is usually the annual price divided by twelve. On 2026-10-10 we opened the pricing page of 24 live chat tools, recorded every plan that includes website chat, and worked out what a team of 1, 3, 5 and 10 would pay each month on the cheapest plan that fits. No review sites, no affiliate tables: only what each vendor prints.
14 of 23
tools price their entry plan per seat
$121
median monthly cost for 5 people, entry plan, monthly billing
$690
highest cost for 10 people (Zendesk); the lowest paid one is $59
20%
median discount for paying annually
What a team pays
For one person the tools sit close together: the median entry plan is $29 a month. The gap opens with headcount. At ten people the median is $240 and the most expensive entry plans are Zendesk ($690), Intercom ($390) and Front ($350). At the other end, Re:amaze ($59), Crisp ($95) and Pure Chat ($99) stay low because they charge a flat price or include several seats.
Monthly cost of the entry plan for 3 and for 10 people
US dollars, monthly billing, list price, cheapest plan that includes website live chat for that team size. Prices listed in euros are converted at the ECB reference rate of 2026-10-09 (1 EUR = 1.1206 USD).
- 3 people
- 10 people
View as table
| 3 people | 10 people | Note | |
|---|---|---|---|
| muro | $19 | $19 | Solo covers 2 sites with unlimited agents; Fleet ($59) covers unlimited sites. No free plan, 14-day trial. |
| Re:amaze | $59 | $59 | Basic is $29 per team member; the flat Starter plan ($59, unlimited team members, 500 responded conversations) is cheaper from 3 people up. |
| Crisp | $45 | $95 | Mini includes 4 seats, Essentials 10. |
| Pure Chat | $49 | $99 | Growth includes 4 operators, PRO 10; extra operators are $15 and $10. |
| HubSpot | $30 | $100 | Starter was shown at a "limited-time" promotional price; the undiscounted price was not printed. |
| Zoho SalesIQ | $34 | $112 | |
| Chaport | $44 | $145 | Pro includes 4 operators; Unlimited has no operator limit. |
| HelpCrunch | $50 | $168 | |
| Chatwoot | $57 | $190 | One price per agent, with no monthly or annual toggle on the page. |
| Freshchat | $69 | $230 | |
| LiveChat (Text) | $75 | $250 | New trials are sold as Text plans; the older LiveChat plans are legacy. |
| JivoChat | $84 | $280 | Only the price "if billed annually" is printed; a monthly price is not listed. |
| Smartsupp | $35 | $287 | Solo is 1 seat, Plus 3, Expert 5; extra Expert seats are listed "from" $34 each. |
| Olark | $87 | $290 | The page prints one price per agent without saying whether it is billed monthly or annually. |
| Help Scout | $90 | $300 | |
| Chatra | $104 | $347 | |
| Front | $105 | $350 | Starter covers live chat only if chat is the single channel type chosen. |
| Intercom | $117 | $390 | A price test was running on the day: some sessions were shown $29 per seat on monthly billing instead of $39. |
| Zendesk | $207 | $690 | The cheaper Support Team plan ($25) does not include live chat. |
Source: Vendor pricing pages, captured 2026-10-10. Tawk.to (free) and tools priced by usage are listed below.
Rounded to the dollar. Each total uses the cheapest listed plan that covers the team size, so a tool can switch plans between columns. Per-vendor rules and caveats are in the dataset.
Per seat is still the default
14 of the 23 tools charge their entry plan per seat: Intercom, Zendesk, LiveChat (Text), HubSpot, Freshchat, Olark, Help Scout, Zoho SalesIQ, HelpCrunch, JivoChat, Chatwoot, Chatra, Front and Re:amaze. With that model the bill is a straight line: ten people cost ten times one. The others either sell tiers that include a number of seats, charge per workspace, or meter something else.
Flat and tiered prices are not automatically cheaper. They move the limit somewhere else: the number of seats included before the next tier, a cap on conversations, or the number of sites. Read the unit before the number.
The tools you cannot compare by headcount
Drift is absent from the dataset: it no longer has a public price. Its pricing address redirects to Salesloft, whose page says the product has "transitioned from Drift to 1mind".
What "billed annually" hides
Most pricing pages lead with the annual price. Across the entry plans where both figures are printed, paying monthly costs more by a median of 20%, from 10% (Re:amaze) to 30% (HubSpot). Everything in this article uses the monthly-billing price, because that is what you pay if you want to be able to leave.
Discount for annual billing on the entry plan
How much lower the per-month price is when billed annually, compared with monthly billing.
View as table
| Discount for annual billing on the entry plan | Note | |
|---|---|---|
| HubSpot | 30% | Starter: 10 a month billed monthly, 7 a month billed annually. |
| Zoho SalesIQ | 30% | Basic (BASIQUE): 10 a month billed monthly, 7 a month billed annually. |
| Smartsupp | 29.2% | Solo: 24 a month billed monthly, 17 a month billed annually. |
| Front | 28.6% | Starter: 35 a month billed monthly, 25 a month billed annually. |
| Intercom | 25.6% | Essential: 39 a month billed monthly, 29 a month billed annually. |
| Chaport | 25.6% | Pro: 39 a month billed monthly, 29 a month billed annually. |
| Zendesk | 24% | Support Team: 25 a month billed monthly, 19 a month billed annually. |
| LiveChat (Text) | 24% | Essential: 25 a month billed monthly, 19 a month billed annually. |
| Pure Chat | 20.4% | Growth: 49 a month billed monthly, 39 a month billed annually. |
| HelpCrunch | 20% | Basic: 15 a month billed monthly, 12 a month billed annually. |
| Chatra | 19.4% | Essential: 31 a month billed monthly, 25 a month billed annually. |
| Freshchat | 17.4% | Growth: 23 a month billed monthly, 19 a month billed annually. |
| Lime Connect (ex Userlike) | 17.1% | Pro: 105 a month billed monthly, 87 a month billed annually. |
| Tidio | 16.7% | Starter: 29 a month billed monthly, 24.17 a month billed annually. |
| Help Scout | 16.7% | Standard: 30 a month billed monthly, 25 a month billed annually. |
| Gorgias | 16.7% | Basic: 60 a month billed monthly, 50 a month billed annually. |
| muro | 16.7% | Solo: 19 a month billed monthly, 15.83 a month billed annually. |
| Brevo | 10.1% | Sales Essentials (add-on package): 29 a month billed monthly, 26.08 a month billed annually. |
| Re:amaze | 10% | Basic: 29 a month billed monthly, 26.1 a month billed annually. |
Source: Vendor pricing pages, captured 2026-10-10. Only plans that print both prices.
Free plans and their limits
14 of the 23 tools list a free plan. "Not stated" means the pricing page does not give the figure.
Three things the capture turned up
- A live price test. On the day, Intercom was showing two different prices for its Essential plan at the same address: $39 per seat on monthly billing in some sessions, $29 in others (9 of 13 fresh sessions got the lower one). The chart uses $39. If you are quoted a price, take a screenshot.
- Products that changed name. LiveChat now sells new trials as "Text" plans, Userlike has become Lime Connect, and Brevo no longer prices its chat separately.
- Prices without a billing period. Olark and Chatwoot print one price per agent and do not say whether it is billed monthly or annually. JivoChat prints only the annual one.
Where muro sits, and why it is in the table
muro is our product, so read this part knowing that. It is in the table because leaving it out of a comparison we publish would be stranger than including it. The Solo plan is $19 a month for up to 2 sites and the Fleet plan $59 for unlimited sites, both with unlimited agents, which is why its line is flat. The limit is the number of sites and a monthly pool of AI credits, not seats. There is no free plan, only a 14-day trial.
Method and limits
- Source. Each vendor's own pricing page, opened on 2026-10-10 from France. Where a price depends on a billing toggle, the page was rendered and the toggle clicked. Every number in the dataset has the sentence it was read from.
- Plan chosen. The cheapest listed paid plan that lets the given number of people answer website live chat. Plans that exclude chat (for example Zendesk Support Team) are skipped.
- Billing. Monthly billing, list price, no promotions except where the page shows only a promotional price (HubSpot Starter).
- Currency. 6 tools showed euro prices (Zoho SalesIQ, HelpCrunch, Lime Connect (ex Userlike), Brevo, Chatra and Chaport); they are converted to dollars at the ECB reference rate of 2026-10-09. Several other vendors show the same number in both currencies.
- What it does not cover. Taxes, AI add-ons billed by usage, negotiated discounts, and whether the entry plan has the features you need. A cheap plan without the one integration you depend on is not cheap.
- Prices change. This is a snapshot. Check the vendor page before you decide.
Sources
- 1Intercom, pricing page (accessed 2026-10-10)
- 2Zendesk, pricing page (accessed 2026-10-10)
- 3Crisp, pricing page (accessed 2026-10-10)
- 4Tidio, pricing page (accessed 2026-10-10)
- 5LiveChat (Text), pricing page (accessed 2026-10-10)
- 6Tawk.to, pricing page (accessed 2026-10-10)
- 7HubSpot, pricing page (accessed 2026-10-10)
- 8Freshchat, pricing page (accessed 2026-10-10)
- 9Olark, pricing page (accessed 2026-10-10)
- 10Help Scout, pricing page (accessed 2026-10-10)
- 11Gorgias, pricing page (accessed 2026-10-10)
- 12Zoho SalesIQ, pricing page (accessed 2026-10-10)
- 13Smartsupp, pricing page (accessed 2026-10-10)
- 14HelpCrunch, pricing page (accessed 2026-10-10)
- 15JivoChat, pricing page (accessed 2026-10-10)
- 16Chatwoot, pricing page (accessed 2026-10-10)
- 17Lime Connect (ex Userlike), pricing page (accessed 2026-10-10)
- 18Brevo, pricing page (accessed 2026-10-10)
- 19Chatra, pricing page (accessed 2026-10-10)
- 20Front, pricing page (accessed 2026-10-10)
- 21Re:amaze, pricing page (accessed 2026-10-10)
- 22Pure Chat, pricing page (accessed 2026-10-10)
- 23Chaport, pricing page (accessed 2026-10-10)
- 24European Central Bank, euro foreign exchange reference rates (accessed 2026-10-09)
