How a chat widget works on your website
A live chat widget is a popup chat box embedded on your site where visitors can get assistance from customer support agents or bots (or both!). The chat window replaces email for customer support queries and can also serve as a sales channel.
You don’t have to be tech-savvy to implement one on your site. All you need is good live chat software. It’ll give you a customizable widget that you can install in a few clicks. Below are the must-have features of quality chat widget software.
Features to look for in a good live chat widget
The right live chat tool needs to be user-friendly for your website visitors and feature-rich for you. It may look like a messenger app on the surface, but there’s a lot more to it.
Customization. You should have at least the basic customization options such as the ability to pick your widget’s colors, adjust the place for the chat button, control agent statuses and widget modes, etc.
Automation. Your live chat software should enable you to automate flows, set up canned answers, and implement chatbots to save your team members’ time and improve the user experience.
Hybrid chatbot. A hybrid model is where you can switch between live agents and chatbots. This way, you can enjoy the benefits of 24/7 chat support provided by bots and a positive customer experience only human agents can deliver.
Live chat analytics. It should be easy to get insights into your live chat statistics such as the number of chats, the number of queries resolved, response times, etc.
Integrations. It’s important that your live chat solution integrates with your helpdesk system, CRM solution, automation platform, knowledge base tool, and other systems your sales and customer support teams use.
Easy installation. Most modern live chat tools are no-code solutions that allow users to set up and embed chat widgets in a few clicks.
Mobile optimization. Mobile traffic already surpasses desktop. So user experience on mobile shouldn’t be disrupted by a huge, buggy chat widget. Make sure your software lets you optimize your chat widget for any device and operating system (Android, iOS, etc).
Simple interface. The live chat tool is the place where you manage your customer support and service processes. It should be easy to create tickets, assign conversations to operators, tag and filter chats, etc. inside your system.
Best live chat widget comparison table
Now, we’ll list and compare the best live chat widget tools that have all the above-mentioned features.
| Solution | Best for | Free Plan | Pricing starts at |
| Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) | Small business, startups, SaaS | Yes | $15/month |
| Chatra | Startups, ecommerce | Yes | $17/month |
| Tidio | Small and medium business | Yes | $19/month |
| LiveChat | Mid-sized companies, enterprise | No | $20/month |
| HubSpot Live Chat | Sales teams | Yes | $50/month |
| Zoho desk | Enterprise | No | $40/month |
| Freshdesk | Small and medium business, enterprise | Yes | $15/month |
| Olark | Mid-sized business, startups | No | $29/month |
| LiveAgent | Small business, ecommerce | Yes | $29/month |
| Tawk.to | Small business and startups | Yes | $19/month |
