# Alternatives to tawk.to

tawk.to is a free live chat application that lets businesses monitor and chat with website visitors in real time through a customizable widget, with a shared inbox, canned responses, a mobile agent app, and a ticketing system.

tawk.to ranks #3 of 11 in Live chat software, with an Alt Score of 89. It is proprietary, free from Free and available on Web, Windows, macOS, iOS and Android. 12 of 12 checklist rows are verified against a public source.

Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/tawk-to/
Category: Live chat software

## Overview

- **Who it's for**: Small businesses, solo founders, and agencies that want a fully-featured live chat, ticketing, and CRM system without a software bill.
- **What you get**: A free website chat widget with unlimited agents, a shared conversation inbox, canned Shortcuts, an AI chatbot (Apollo/AI Assist), visitor monitoring, file sharing, a knowledge base, and mobile agent apps for iOS and Android, plus optional paid add-ons like Remove Branding, Video+Voice+Screenshare, and hired human chat agents.
- **How it works**: You embed a JavaScript widget on your site (or share a hosted Chat Page link), and agents answer incoming chats and tickets from the tawk.to web dashboard, desktop apps (Windows/macOS), or mobile apps; tawk.to hosts everything on its own Google Cloud infrastructure since it does not offer a self-hosted/on-premise option.

## Profile

- **License**: Proprietary (verified 2026-07-13)
- **Pricing model**: Free (verified 2026-07-13)
- **Starts at**: Free (verified 2026-07-13)
- **Platforms**: Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android
- **Status**: active (verified 2026-07-13)

## Ranked alternatives

| # | App | Alt Score | Licence | Platforms |
|---|-----|-----------|---------|-----------|
| 1 | [Lime Connect (formerly Userlike)](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/lime-connect.md) | 93 | Proprietary | Web |
| 2 | [Comm100](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/comm100.md) | 89 | Proprietary | Windows, macOS, iOS, Android |
| 3 | [Zoho SalesIQ](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/zoho-salesiq.md) | 89 | Proprietary | Web, iOS, Android, Windows |
| 4 | [Freshchat](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/freshchat.md) | 85 | Proprietary | Web, iOS, Android |
| 5 | [Smartsupp](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/smartsupp.md) | 85 | Proprietary | Windows, iOS, Android, Web |
| 6 | [LiveAgent](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/liveagent.md) | 78 | ? | Web, iOS, Android |
| 7 | [Olark](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/olark.md) | 74 | Proprietary | Web |
| 8 | [Chatra](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/chatra.md) | 70 | Proprietary | Web, iOS, Android |
| 9 | [JivoChat](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/jivochat.md) | 70 | Proprietary | Web, Windows, macOS, Linux |
| 10 | [SnapEngage](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/snapengage.md) | 48 | ? | Web |

Alt Score = Verified coverage (90%) + Visibility (10%). See https://altcatalog.com/how-alt-score-works/

## Feature comparison

Legend: Yes / No / Partial / ? (not verified).

| Live chat software checklist | tawk.to | Lime Connect (formerly Userlike) | Comm100 | Zoho SalesIQ | Freshchat | Smartsupp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free | Freemium | Subscription | Freemium | Freemium | Freemium |
| Starts at | Free | €105/month | $39/agent/mo | $7/operator/mo | $19/agent/mo | $17/mo |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| Platforms | Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android | Web | Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Web | Web, iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux | Web, iOS, Android | Windows, iOS, Android, Web |
| Website chat widget | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Shared team inbox | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Canned responses | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Chatbots / automation | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Co-browsing / screen share | Partial | Yes | Yes | Partial | No | ? |
| File sharing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Visitor tracking | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile agent app | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| CRM / helpdesk integrations | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | No | No | Partial | No | No | No |
| Multilingual | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |

## Sources

Sources for tawk.to. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.

- **License**: Proprietary — <https://www.tawk.to/pricing/> (verified 2026-07-13)
  - Quote: “© Copyright 2026 tawk.to, inc. All Rights Reserved. Various trademarks held by their respective owners”
- **Pricing model**: Free — <https://www.tawk.to/pricing/> (verified 2026-07-13)
  - Quote: “Free. Forever. Not Freemium. Not limited. Just Free.”
- **Starts at**: Free — <https://www.tawk.to/pricing/> (verified 2026-07-13)
  - Note: Core Live Chat/Ticketing/CRM/Knowledge Base suite is $0 with no limits; paid add-ons exist (Remove Branding, Video+Voice+Screenshare, Hire Chat Agents from $1/hr).
  - Quote: “Forever Free. It's that simple.”
- **Platforms**: Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android — <https://www.tawk.to/mobile-apps/> (verified 2026-07-13)
  - Quote: “Get tawk.to Web Browser Windows macOS iOS & Android”
- **Status**: active — <https://www.tawk.to/knowledgebase/integrations/> (verified 2026-07-13)
  - Note: Help center categories show frequent recent updates; site copyright dated 2026.
  - Quote: “Last Update 4 hours ago”
- **Website chat widget**: Yes — <https://www.tawk.to/features/> (verified 2026-07-13)
  - Quote: “Visitors Can initiate a chat from your website or mobile apps tawk.to makes it easy to deliver personalized and real time customer service”
- **Shared team inbox**: Yes — <https://www.tawk.to/home-omnichannel-inbox/> (verified 2026-07-13)
  - Note: Agents can be organized into Departments to route and share conversations across a property (see Creating and managing departments).
  - Quote: “One place to manage every customer conversation.”
- **Canned responses**: Yes — <https://www.tawk.to/knowledgebase/using-the-dashboard/creating-and-managing-shortcuts/> (verified 2026-07-13)
  - Quote: “Shortcuts are pre-written responses to streamline communication, reduce response times, and maintain consistency in customer interactions.”
- **Chatbots / automation**: Yes — <https://www.tawk.to/introducing-ai-assist-v2/> (verified 2026-07-13)
  - Quote: “Apollo AI Bot Accurately and instantly answer customer questions based on your data. Zero setup required!”
- **Co-browsing / screen share**: Partial — <https://www.tawk.to/request-a-free-trial-video-voice-screenshare/> (verified 2026-07-13)
  - Note: Screen sharing ships bundled with the paid Video+Voice+Screensharing add-on (only a 7-day free trial); not part of the free base plan.
  - Quote: “Request your 7-day free trial of the video/voice and screenshare add-on.”
- **File sharing**: Yes — <https://www.tawk.to/features/> (verified 2026-07-13)
  - Quote: “Everything you need to Manage your Messaging Unlimited Agents, Reporting, Integrations, Ticketing, File Transfer..the list goes on.”
- **Visitor tracking**: Yes — <https://www.tawk.to/features/> (verified 2026-07-13)
  - Quote: “Real Time Monitoring ... Monitor traffic on your website and be there when visitors need you most”
- **Mobile agent app**: Yes — <https://www.tawk.to/mobile-apps/> (verified 2026-07-13)
  - Quote: “The mobile tawk.to apps for iOS and Android will help you chat with customers or reply to tickets wherever you are.”
- **CRM / helpdesk integrations**: Yes — <https://www.tawk.to/knowledgebase/integrations/> (verified 2026-07-13)
  - Quote: “Learn now to integrate tawk.to with existing CMS', platforms and third party systems like Wordpress, Zapier and Cloudflare.”
- **Self-hostable**: No — <https://www.tawk.to/pricing/> (verified 2026-07-13)
  - Quote: “tawk.to is a hosted solution. We don’t currently offer an on-premise option.”
- **Multilingual**: Yes — <https://www.tawk.to/pricing/> (verified 2026-07-13)
  - Quote: “45+ Languages”
- **Free tier**: Yes — <https://www.tawk.to/pricing/> (verified 2026-07-13)
  - Quote: “Free. Forever. Not Freemium. Not limited. Just Free.”

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Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/